The glass bottom boat of the cultural press
Amanda Ghost’;s Ghost Stories is a disc full of finely crafted songs. She has fused interesting lyrics around pleasant tunes but the whole thing is made nearly unlistenable by her voice. She has a kind of a lisp that makes her R’;s sound like W’;s. The result is somewhat akin to Elmer Fudd or the Roman Governor in The Life of Brian (“We shall wewease Wodewick!”). It is really unfortunate that her heartfelt songs conjure more snickers than pathos.
Cheerleader’s Wild Weekend, aka The Great American Girl Robbery, entered the fray in 1979 with its odd mashup of hostage drama, comedic crime caper, and good old fashioned T & A hijinks. Phil Bailey reviews the Blu-ray release.
In this latest installment of his weekly series, Christopher Long discovers and scores a secondhand vinyl copy of one of his all-time favorite LPs: 2XS (To Excess), the splendid 1982 flop from the iconic Scottish powerhouse, Nazareth.
A Murmuration of Capitalist Bees (Expert Work Records, Dipterid Records). Review by Peter Lindblad.
Author and longtime Ink 19 contributor Christopher Long kicks off the 2025 edition of his popular weekly Garage Sale Vinyl series with a bona fide banger: the blues-soaked, whisky-injected, self-titled 1971 debut record from Bonnie Raitt.
Hear My Song: The Collection, 1966 - 1995 (Madfish Music). Review by Bob Pomeroy.
Seijun Suzuki’s 1958 widescreen film noir feature, Underworld Beauty, comes to Blu-ray.
Phil Bailey reviews quirky sexploitation film Facets of Love (1973), a saucy Hong Kong costume drama from director Li Hsang-han of kung fu powerhouse Shaw Brothers, now out on Blu-ray.