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Guillermo del Toro Turns From Gory Monsters to Gauzy Film Noir with Nightmare Alley: Review
The Pitch: When we first meet Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), he’s burying a body under the floorboards of a country home and setting it aflame, burning his past and his previous life to the ground, presumably to start anew. Eventually, his wanderings lead him to a run-down carnival deep in the sticks, where he quickly ingratiates himself with the freaks and geeks who populate it. It’s not long before he sees the flim-flams underpinning each of their acts — particularly the mentalism of fortune teller Zeena (Toni Collette) and her drunken husband, Pete (David Strathairn), who correctly divines the identity of objects with the help of verbal codes — and wants in on the action. Stars in his eyes, Stan makes his way to the big city with young, virginal carny Molly (Rooney Mara) in tow...
Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen on Servant of the Mind, Tour with Ghost, and Metallica’s Black Album
Danish rockers Volbeat are back with their eighth studio album, Servant of the Mind, just released via Republic Records. Musically, the album hearkens back to the band’s earlier, heavier days, with relentless riffing and punching rhythms, while also representing how far they’ve come as a group. “You can definitely hear a band that sounds very young, but at the same time, a band that has a lot of experience with the style we started so many years ago,” frontman Michael Poulsen tells Heavy Consequence. In addition to releasing the new album, Volbeat are prepping for a highly anticipated co-headlining US arena tour with Swedish metal masters Ghost. The outing kicks off January 25th in Reno, Nevada, and runs through a March 3rd show in Anaheim, California. Tickets are available now via Ticketm...
Billboard’s Top New Country Artist Of 2021 Lainey Wilson on the 10 Years Leading Up to Her First No. 1
In the country music industry, there’s a saying that Nashville is a 10-year town — meaning it usually takes artists a decade to achieve success. Lainey Wilson, Billboard‘s top new country artist of 2021, hit that date almost on the nose. “It’s crazy — when I first got here, everyone was saying, ‘It’s a 10-year town, it’s a 10-year town,’ and I thought, ‘I’m going to do this in less time,’” she says. “But you know what? It’s like 10 years and one month later [that] I get my first No. 1.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Wilson, originally from Baskin, La., scored her first No. 1 when her first charting single, “Things a Man Oughta Know,” rose 2-1 on the Country Airplay list dated Sept. 19. Concurrently, it peaked at No. 3 on the airpl...
Kenny G Is Still Trying as Hard as He Can
Kenny G is frustrated. “I want the sound to be perfect,” the musician says while playing a sweet sax lick from a promotional video on his iPhone. The quality, even over Zoom, is seemingly pristine. Unveiling a longer version of the infomercial-like ad beyond the music portion, the musician born Kenneth Bruce Gorelick, needs me to understand why it’s not up to his standards. If it was just him speaking, he says, it would have been done in five minutes. But add in the sax? It took him hours. “Every time I play a little lick in front of my speech, it’s like my record, it has to be perfect,” he emphasizes. But G’s “frustration” barely elicits a frown. Truthfully, it seems near-impossible to dim his unwavering optimism — his famed curls and toothy grin constantly radiate, creating a halo effect...
Heavy Culture: Alien Weaponry on Māori Ideology, New Album Tangaroa, and Touring with Gojira
Heavy Culture is a monthly column from journalist Liz Ramanand, focusing on artists of different cultural backgrounds in heavy music, as they offer their perspectives on race, society, and more as it intersects with and affects their craft. The latest installment of this column features Lewis and Henry de Jong of Alien Weaponry. New Zealand metal act Alien Weaponry have recently released their latest album, Tangaroa, and they also wrapped up a tour supporting supporting Gojira and Knocked Loose. The band’s music is written and sung in both Māori and English, with themes that center around the ideologies and history of the culture. Heavy Consequence caught up with brothers Lewis de Jong (vocals, guitar) and Henry de Jong (drums) while they were on the road with Gojira. They spoke about tour...
Kenny G and Director Penny Lane on Making a Documentary, Flying in His Seaplane, and Defying the Critics
In her introduction to Listening to Kenny G, the latest in Bill Simmons’ Music Box documentary series for HBO, director Penny Lane sets out her thesis statement thusly: “Kenny G is the best-selling instrumentalist of all time. He is probably the most famous living jazz musician. And I made this film to find out why that makes certain people really angry.” What follows is a fascinating (though decidedly Kenny-sympathetic) portrayal of the legendary saxophonist, who’s long held the title of the highest-selling instrumentalist in the world. But while he’s been a pop culture icon for decades, he’s also been a punchline, with his frizzy hair and his popularizing of “smooth jazz” into the pop-culture consciousness. To resist Kenny is to resist muzak in elevators, or the riff from “Going Home” th...
Even After 15 Seasons, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Keeps Getting Better
The Pitch: Think back to what you were doing in the year 2005. It’s pretty unlikely that your life then was the same as it is now — different friends, different pop culture, different kinds of work keeping you busy. Maybe your then-toddler is now getting ready for college, or maybe you were yourself still basically a child. But since 2005, one thing remains constant: The gang behind It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia have continued to make their FXX show, and do it better than so many of the comedies out there today. The secret behind this pretty wild degree of success can be very easily attributed to the fact that the series has very deliberately, especially in the last five or so years, matured to a degree. Not that the gang running a crappy Philly bar has grown up — though several of the...
The Reissue Section: Fall 2021
Vinyl sales have gone up 94% this year, according to a report by the RIAA. That helps the massive flux of reissues that dotted the fall. But that’s not the good news. What really makes this column hum remains the variety of choice titles that are released on CD, and sales of that sturdy little plastic silver disc went up 44% in the first half of 2021 as well. And with the slew of choice archival titles that dropped like so many acorns across the autumn landscape, both formats will certainly be seeing a significant bump in those numbers as the holiday season closes in. Now let’s get into it. Here are the best reissues of Fall 2021. Violent FemmesWhy Do Birds Sing? Expanded Edition (Craft Recordings) For a lot of kids who came of age in the 1980s, the first real taste of college rock came co...
How Remote Work Makes Financial Insider Threats A Bigger Challenge
Image sourced from Finance Times. Now more than ever, insider threats pose a serious risk to financial institutions, especially those that have transitioned to alternate work environments to ensure business continuity, warns Fortinet. Fortinet’s 2020 Securing Remote Work Survey revealed that the shift to remote work was putting pressure on security teams and increasing the risk of breaches. In South Africa, studies have found that remote and hybrid models are here to stay, meaning organisations must make insider risk a priority, says Doros Hadjizenonos, Regional Sales Manager at Fortinet. With a 47% increase in just two years, insider threats are a significant and growing problem worldwide, exacerbated by the move to remote and hybrid work models. No organisation is immune to the...
Ask Dr. Mike: The Big Lie We Tell Ourselves About Substance Abuse
Supplementing the Going There with Dr. Mike podcast presented by Consequence and Sound Mind Live, the monthly “Ask Dr. Mike” column is here to answer listeners’ questions about their mental health. This past month’s episodes focused on Substance Abuse, and with the holiday season rife with reasons to turn to unhealthy behavior, Dr. Mike is here to help demystify the reasons why we often turn to such bad habits. The holiday season is upon us once again. For many people, this can be a wonderful time in our lives filled with holiday parties, seeing family and friends, and exchanging gifts and gratitude. It’s also the time where we often find ourselves engaging in a range of unhealthy behaviors that are intended to be celebratory in nature. Those behaviors may range from bi...
Get Back – The Creation of the Last Released Beatles Album Revisited
The received wisdom over the last five decades was that the last album released by The Beatles was only produced after much internal strife and acrimony. The original documentary film was prime evidence, especially because the film was pulled from circulation shortly thereafter. Word began to spread a couple of years ago that the seemingly endless hours of film originally shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg were being turned over to Peter Jackson, who would provide another perspective of how Let It Be came together. What we now have is a six-hour opus revealing the creative process of the most influential band in history, as well as a revised look on how The Beatles worked together on the album. The film is catnip to any Beatles fan and is worth the time commitment for anyone interested in the ma...
Courtney Barnett Kicks Off Her North American Tour in the Desert: Photos and Recap
Joshua Tree got a real treat this past Saturday evening (November 27th), as Courtney Barnett kicked off her North American tour at the renowned Pappy and Harriet’s. Consequence was on site to catch all of the action; check out our full gallery of photos below. The Pioneertown, California restaurant and venue was fitting for the energy Barnett brings to her live shows. The show was also outdoors, so the only light shining down on attendees was that of gleaming stars. First, opener Azniv Korkejian — better known by her stage name Bedouine — produced a sound that combined ‘60s folk and ‘70s country, accompanied by her absolutely mesmerizing voice. They gave you the feeling like you were right at home with a hot cup of tea, by the fire, wrapped in a blanket. Advertisement Related Video Then it...
