We need to talk about Niecy Nash
Bear with me while I gush about comedic actress Niecy Nash. There are so many reasons she’s a treasure. I’ve been sort of in love with her for most of a decade, since she showed up on “Reno 911” and...
View ArticleNew David Bowie single and video are freaky, brilliant
Anyone betting that David Bowie’s artistic well had run dry is outta luck this week. Bowie — a few weeks away from 69 — dropped “Blackstar” yesterday. It’s the title track to his new album, which is...
View ArticleFall Music Roundup
So much music, so little time. Here are the albums that have been on heavy rotation as the leaves have turned and fallen. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free 8/10 Hat tip to Graham attorney Jeff...
View ArticleBest Albums of 2015
These are my favorite albums of 2015. The older I get, the wider my tastes range. I made this list using my head and my heart. (In ties, heart wins.) Please! Share your finds and favorites in the...
View ArticleColdplay – A Head Full of Dreams
3/10 In a deliberate turn away from the muted heartache of Ghost Stories, Coldplay attempts to throw a party on A Head Full of Dreams. They aim for an epic rager, enlisting Beyonce and Tove Lo to flesh...
View ArticleKula Shaker returns
What you hear above is “Infinite Sun,” reportedly the first track from the new Kula Shaker album. It is sublime psychedelic, bluesy, Hindi-influenced goodness and prime Kula Shaker. They emerged in the...
View ArticleDavid Bowie – Blackstar
The narrative says David Bowie stopped being exciting around 1982. That was after Scary Monsters and just before he went full-tilt into the mainstream and danced with Muppets. So Blackstar, released...
View ArticleGoodbye, Mr. Bowie.
This is difficult to write, difficult even to comprehend, that David Bowie would die two days after releasing a final album, two days after his 69th birthday. I think back over a lifetime of musical...
View ArticleStreaming: “Making a Murderer”
Settle in for 10 hours of infuriation. You’ve probably heard things about Netflix’s documentary series “Making a Murderer.” It begins as Steven Avery is exonerated of a 1985 rape he spent 18 years in...
View ArticlePlaylist: Remembering David Bowie
Like many, I’ve been grieving all week for the loss of David Bowie. Few artists I can think of have had as profound and lasting influence on music, video, art and culture. And it’s not a reach to say...
View ArticleStreaming: “Brick”
Caught a mid-aughts flick I’d missed the first time around, Rian Johnson’s neo-noir “Brick.” The characters, story and plot twists could have been pulled right from the pages of a Dashiell Hammett or...
View ArticleExcited about the “Deadpool” movie? Yes, I am!
It takes a lot to make me want to see a movie in theaters — all those noisy people, so many germs It takes even more to make me want to see a comic book adaptation these days. I make exceptions for...
View ArticleShearwater – Jet Plane and Oxbow
7/10 Shearwater is a band from Austin, Texas, but you’d never know that by listening to Jet Plane and Oxbow. The band’s ninth album is an ode to expansive, cerebral rock of the 1980s. It echoes...
View ArticleReview: “Hail, Caesar!”
6/10 Don’t go into the Coen Brothers’ latest flick “Hail, Caesar!” expecting meaning or overarching themes. Do go into it expecting to laugh, be intermittently dazzled at the sets and spectacles, and...
View ArticleSavages – Adore Life
8/10 Without any sign of a sophomore slump, punk-inflected UK rock band The Savages returns with a moody, nuanced take on the complexities of love. Stifle that yawn if you think you’ve heard it all...
View ArticleLucinda Williams – The Ghosts of Highway 20
8.5/10 Somewhere along the way Lucinda Williams’ voice became gnarled and twisted, incapable of the freewheeling heights she used to imbue “Just Wanted to See You So Bad” with unbridled joy, or turn...
View ArticleWhat does Mark Ruffalo have to do to win an Oscar?
He’s among the best actors working today, with a stellar run of performances dating from 2000’s “You Can Count On Me” to his Oscar-nominated turn in this year’s Best Picture-winner “Spotlight.” But,...
View ArticleThe Daily Play, 3/11/16: Bird edition
There’s a magical morning each late winter/ early spring when you awake to find the birds have returned, chirping their little heads off. That morning was this morning at my house. I love birds and...
View ArticleThe Daily Play, 3/18/16
Here’s a new-music roundup for your Friday. Bat For Lashes – “In God’s House” First up: Bat For Lashes’ brilliant new single and striking video, “In God’s House.” Natasha Khan never disappoints. It...
View ArticleStreaming: Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
Among jokes you already know the punchline to, the familiar warped version of Americana, and Joe Manganiello’s affably goofy-cool persona, Paul Reubens — the man forever known as Pee-wee Herman —...
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