Haile Selassie’s Centennial
As the Rastafarian messiah who will lead Africans to freedom, Haile Selassie’s birthday is one of the holiest days of the year.
As the Rastafarian messiah who will lead Africans to freedom, Haile Selassie’s birthday is one of the holiest days of the year.
Native Sons (New West Records). Review by Jeremy Glazier.
A group of desperate 4F’s fake an Andrews Sister Concert for troops heading to war in the Pacific.
The War of the Roses spills out across this stage with gags and battles galore.
A WW2 love story set in rural Kentucky.
Four women enlist for the war, and they survive. Sort of.
Inside Out (Rhyme & Reason Records). Review by Bob Pomeroy.
Just because you’re king doesn’t mean everything you do and say is wise.
This thoughtful and well-documented text explores the history of dark comedy in film through the perspective of Charlie Chaplin’s work and his movies about war.
Travels (Hitchhike Records). Review by James Mann.
4 Nights of 40 Years Live (Provogue). Review by James Mann.
Hunton Downs gives readers new insight into the true events surrounding the death of one of America’s celebrity heroes in The Glenn Miller Conspiracy. This is no pulp fiction, folks.
A group of Iraqi youths learn English from Metallica and Slayer and form a head-banging band in the middle of a war. Carl F Gauze doesn’t need a translator for the universal language of metal.
Hot Tub of Blood (Death by Karaoke). Review by Carl F Gauze.
Graphic journalist Alexsandar Zograf has recently had his strips amalgamated and published as Regards from Serbia. Eric J. Iannelli wonders how it stacks up against existing graphic accounts of the Balkan civil wars of the ’90s.
Wild and Wicked (AIM Records). Review by Carl F Gauze.
Carl F Gauze fears that the authors of the Worst Case Scenario series may have gone to the well one too many times. That doesn’t mean, however, that he didn’t bookmark the section on Wagon Circling. You can never be too careful.
As Saddam Hussein swung from the gallows today, Shelton Hull found that it placed a question mark, and not a period, at the end of the dictator’s grim legacy.
Spider Monkey. Review by Carl F Gauze.
Shelton Hull sees dire consequences resulting from our Administration’s rumblings about war with Iran, both at home and abroad. Here’s the real deal.
Bob Pomeroy gets into four Radio Rarities from producer Zev Feldman for Record Store Day with great jazz recordings from Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Cal Tjader, and Ahmad Jamal.
Bob Pomeroy digs into Un “Sung Stories” (1986, Liberation Hall), Blasters’ frontman Phil Alvin’s American Roots collaboration with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and New Orleans saxman Lee Allen.
Roi J. Tamkin reviews A Darker Shade of Noir, fifteen new stories from women writers completely familiar with the horrors of owning a body in a patriarchal society, edited by Joyce Carol Oates.
Mandatory: The Best of The Blasters (Liberation Hall). Review by Bob Pomeroy.
Feeling funky this week, Christopher Long gets his groove on while discovering a well-cared-for used vinyl copy of one of his all-time R&B faves: Ice Cream Castle, the classic 1984 LP from The Time, for just a couple of bucks.
During AFI Fest 2023, Lily and Generoso interviewed director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, whose impressive debut feature, City of Wind, carefully examines the juxtaposition between the identity of place and tradition against the powers of modernity in contemporary Mongolia.
Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO (American Laundromat Records). Review by Laura Pontillo.
Ever-focused on finding (affordable) vinyl treasures, Christopher Long returns this week with his latest gem — a reasonably well-cared-for LP copy of The Glow, the 1979 studio classic from Bonnie Raitt.