Color Me Obsessed: A Film about The Replacements
The Replacements might be one of the most important American rock and roll bands ever, and Color Me Obsessed is an oral history told by their friends and fans. This film was made with current fans in mind, and they’re likely to love it. I caught a screening at Austin’s own Alamo Drafthouse where director Gorman Bechard was on hand for questions.
“Not wanting to make a VH1/where-are-they-now style documentary, I decided to present the band in a more iconic way,” Bechard explains. “I thought, people believe in God without seeing or hearing him but rather through the passion, faith, and stories of others. After watching Color Me Obsessed, I’m pretty sure music fans will believe in The Replacements in much
—Roy Christopher, 01 May 2012
The Unbookables are a loose band of comedians (emphasis on “loose”) handpicked by Doug Stanhope.This movie documents their 2008 tour of the middle of the country, from my own Austin, Texas through Kansas City, Missouri to Peoria, Illinois. The cast of characters (emphasis on “characters”) includes Brendon Walsh, Sean Rouse, Andy Andrist, Norman Wilkerson, Brett Erickson, Travis Lipski, James Inman, and Kristine Levine. The unfortunate star of the show is James Inman. If nothing else, this film documents how reckless behavior can bring people together as well as single out one of them.
The first gig is at Nasty’s in
—Roy Christopher, 17 April 2012
Timothy Ferriss’ investigative reporting style puts him somewhere between Neil Strauss and Morgan Spurlock, and his auto-ethnographic skills rival those of the O.G. human guinea pig himself, R. Buckminster Fuller. His latest, The 4-Hour Body (Crown/Archetype, 2010), is the result of a decade of experiments, expert interviews, and putting his own body through paces previously unpaced. His guiding research question: For all things physical, what are the tiniest changes that produce the biggest results?
I shifted over to a vegetarian diet about seventeen years ago. The switch was prompted by my girlfriend at the time, but after six months, she went
—Roy Christopher, 09 June 2011
My dude Timothy hath wrought it and brought it again. From the germinal Atoms Fam to the mighty Hangar 18, Tim “Alaska” Baker is an emcee who’s been slept on for too long, so long in fact that he’s pretty well over this rap shit. The Crack Epidemic might be your last chance to give him his well-deserved props.
If Alaska is just a big, cold state you’ve never been to and you don’t have any idea who Tim is, don’t worry. The opening track on The Crack Epidemic’s American Splendor, “Bright Lights,” is a brief history of the man on
—Roy Christopher, 09 June 2011
There are several bands jostling for the heavy, arty interstices between the monoliths of Neurosis and Radiohead, and though healthy hiatuses have left Cave In making less entries than say, Muse, they bring the best together like no other.
Cave In started off as one of the proto-metalcore ensembles of the late 1990s, but after a few germinal genre recordings (the undisputed classics Beyond Hypothermia and Until Your Heart Stops), they switched their vibe from introspection to outer space. A major change as such is not easy: Think Kill Holiday or Corrosion of Conformity, but on Jupiter (2000) and Antenna
—Roy Christopher, 07 June 2011
Hail Mary Mallon is the melding of word-murdering minds Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic and the laser-precise cuts of DJ Big Wiz, all three Def Jux alumni and no strangers to the raps and beats in their own rights. In the interest of full disclosure, these dudes are my friends. To be perfectly honest, if they were wack they wouldn’t be.
These three have been touring and clowning together for years in different guises, and it’s obvious when you hear how well they play together. Are you Going to Eat That? is the dopest record out this year.
Production-wise, “Mailbox Baseball” sounds
—Roy Christopher, 11 May 2011
Rusko at Terminal 5 NYC
Damn, Rusko showed up at Terminal 5 in Hell’s Kitchen last week and tore the roof off the joint. The sold-out venue was literally shaking when I walked in and his set hadn’t even started yet. When he did hit the stage, it was straight to business, as he rinsed one bass-heavy, dubbed-out banger after another. The building felt like it was about to collapse at this point, the crowd was fucking mesmerized and even the venue staff had that look on their faces like, “Woah, who the fuck is this guy?”
Rusko’s set is a physical experience, pushing the affects of bass frequencies on the human body in a way that is truly mind-blowing. Touching on classic dub, drum and
—Omar Almufti, 04 May 2011
Grails at The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY
Portland-based rock outfit Grails hit up the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn last week about halfway into their tour in support of the band’s recent release Deep Politics. As casually as these guys might touch the stage and dig in to their set, beers cracked, seeming as chilling as they would be if the show was in someone’s backyard, the energy of the music they put forth is staggering.
As the set progressed it became pretty clear that these dudes are extremely well-practiced, multi-modal musicians, as instruments and drumsticks change hands and each member is given the space to explore some sounds with the variety of tools available. This was a heavy session, refined instrumentation delivered carefully with a fresh psychedelic interpretation, referencing the library music era from which the recent project takes some of its influence.
—Omar Almufti, 04 May 2011
“I’m such a tease and you’re such a flirt…” The most important band in the world has returned with another cure for the malaise of the age. Pick one: They’ve saved rock and roll, killed rock and roll, and still emerged from the muck of the music industry well ahead of the curve. Everyone in media keeps them under the microscope to see how they will win. Again. Lean in, here’s the secret:
Radiohead makes great records.
And they do it consistently. They’re also quite adept at parsing the patterns on the horizon of the mediascape, but that wouldn’t matter if
—Roy Christopher, 22 February 2011
It’s so unfair to see a band like Deftones lumped in with bands they have next-to-nothing to do with (e.g., Limp Bizkit, Korn, Tool, et al). One listen to their latest, the delayed and embattled Diamond Eyes—the boys have been through a lot since 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist including an entire record shelved and a bass player in a coma—and you’ll hear the pedigree. Diamond Eyes proves as sophisticated as it is loud and as beautiful as it is aggressive, and Deftones as much like the Cure as they are Clutch.
—Roy Christopher, 09 February 2011
older
contents
