Reviews
Sparks Kick Off North American Tour at Walt Disney Concert Hall: Recap + Photos
As Edgar Wright’s exhilarating documentary The Sparks Brothers illustrated so well, Ron and Russell Mael, aka Sparks, are “your favorite band’s favorite band” for good reason. The duo have been making delightfully dramatic, experimental yet accessible art rock for over 50 years. Whether they were prancing on Top of The Pops in the ‘70s or blasting from transistor radios on KROQ 106.7 FM in the ‘80s, they never really “fit in” with what was popular at the time. But last night (February 7th) at Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, illuminated by an array of multi-hued stage lights and backed by a solid five-piece band, they were a splendid fit. The Hall is home to the LA Philharmonic, and its grand aesthetic and layout (inside and out), not to mention its unmatched acoustics, make seeing ...
Mitski Blazes Forward on the Enigmatic Laurel Hell
Mitski had made up her mind after finishing her “Be The Cowboy” tour in late 2019: after months of frequent shows, press, and supporting her biggest album to date, she was quitting music for good. “I felt it was shaving away my soul little by little,” said Mitski in a recent profile, describing the anxiety, pressure, and existential dread she was experiencing as simply too much to bear. Of course, endings aren’t always that simple. She began working on Be The Cowboy’s follow-up quickly after, but only because she was contractually obligated to do so; yet, after over two years of writing and recording in the midst of a global pandemic, Mitski arrives this week (February 4th) with her sixth studio album, Laurel Hell. And by all measures, Laurel Hell is yet another phenomenal entry in Mitski’...
On Laurel Hell, Mitski Dashes for the Dance Floor
In March, Mitski Miyawaki will play her first sold-out show at Radio City Music Hall — by far the largest headlining performance of her career, nearly quadruple the size of her last top-billing gig in New York City. Surely the indie noble will be scared shitless; who wouldn’t? That’s 6,000 people you’re supposed to entertain! But during that milestone set, there will be a moment, maybe several, when the full, pounding impact of Laurel Hell, Mitski’s exhilarating sixth LP, envelopes the cavernous theater in synth and the understated artist — who two albums ago was playing tiny clubs to 100 fans — transforms into a bonafide, beaming pop star. OK, maybe that’s assuming too much, but still — the new album, out this Friday, marks the relentlessly acclaimed singer’s first attempt at writing song...
Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood Take The Smile for a Round in 24-Hour, Three-Show Concert Series: Recap
The Smile, the English trio formed by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet’s Tom Skinner, officially became audience-tested as they completed their first run of in-person performances over the weekend (January 29th-30th) with three shows in just over 12 hours. The trio convened at the Greenwich venue Magazine London for three consecutive concerts at 8:00 p.m., 1:00 a.m., and 11:00 a.m. GMT, which were simultaneously broadcast with time zone considerations for virtual audiences watching in Europe and Africa, the Americas, and Asia and Australia, respectively. The venue’s rounded central stage was packed to the edges with an array of gear and sound equipment that promised a more elaborate set than the relatively spare setup for their surprise debut at the Glastonbury Fes...
Maybe It’s a Bad Thing That The Book of Boba Fett’s Fifth Episode Was So Good
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett, “Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian.”] This week’s episode of The Book of Boba Fett delivered a hell of a twist: It wasn’t about Boba Fett. Instead, the Mandalorian spinoff went ahead and became an episode of The Mandalorian, bringing back everyone’s favorite Space Dad (Pedro Pascal) and catching us up with what he’s been up to since surrendering sweet young Baby Yoda Grogu to Luke Skywalker for Jedi training. “Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian” did eventually connect to the events of Boba Fett so far, but it served more value in reintroducing a character who perhaps we didn’t realize we missed so much. The system shock of Din’s return ended up highlighting what’s been missing from the series: An actual emotion...
Eddie Vedder Takes a Look Inside on the Compelling Earthling
“Are you ready for a bit of Echo Victor?” a reverberating Eddie Vedder announces at the top of his third solo album Earthling, invoking the radio alphabet code for “EV.” And all at once, it’s clear this is the Pearl Jam frontman’s 13-song transmission from beyond our world, our time, our lives, and our dimension. He is calling out into the universe with his own Voyager Golden Record to share what it is to be human here on our planet. Or is it nakedly in a dreamlike alternate timeline where the ‘90s are in the future, and everything all is a warm, analog avocado-and-harvest-gold rave-up visited by legends like Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr, and touched by love and loss equally? This is Major Tom beyond ground control, the man who fell from Earth. In the capsule out in the cosmic oc...
Damon Albarn Addresses Taylor Swift Comments at Career-Spanning Intimate L.A. Show
Say this much for Damon Albarn, the guy’s got a sense of humor. As he was winding down his 17-song, 75-minute set at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, he addressed the elephant in the room: his much-discussed comments about Taylor Swift. In case you missed it somehow, Albarn caused quite the stir by knocking Swift’s songwriting that lit social media on fire Monday following Swift’s harsh rebuke. Many of her friends and collaborators came to her defense, leading Albarn to swiftly issue an apology. The day will mostly be remembered for that Before closing with “Song 2,” Albarn addressed the firestorm he created. Joking that “before he cast me into the social media abyss,” Albarn said that Los Angeles Times‘ Mikael Wood asked him if he’d play “Song 2.” That he did, after saying tha...
Sundance Review: Meet Me in the Bathroom Is a Time Capsule of 2000s Indie Rock
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: Pitched between the doomsday-prepping of Y2K and the existential horror of 9/11, 2000s New York was also home to another seismic change in American culture: the burgeoning indie-rock scene, where dingy clubs on the Lower East Side played home to acts like Interpol, The Strokes, The Moldy Peaches, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That’s the hazy, deafening, beer-sticky stage on which Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace (who previously directed the LCD Soundsystem doc Shut Up and Play the Hits) operate for Meet Me in the Bathroom, less an adaptation of Lizzy Goodman’s 2017 oral history of the same name than a living companion piece. Related Video Comprised almost entirely of archival footage stitched together b...
Sundance Review: jeen-yuhs Paints a Humanizing Portrait of Kanye West’s Beginnings
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: Before his marriage to (and subsequent divorce from) Kim Kardashian, before his abortive 2020 presidential campaign, before the wild tweets and outrageous behavior that would define his public persona in the 2020s, there was just Kanye West and the music. From the beginning, the Atlanta-born, Chicago-raised producer turned rapper knew he was going to be one of the greatest musicians of all time; his first album, 2004’s The College Dropout, is studded with lines to that effect (“I was born to be different”). But it took the world a while to catch up with his ambition, and the problems didn’t stop there even after he finally broke through. By his side for the last twenty years was Clarence “Coodie” S...
Sundance Review: Director Amy Poehler Gets to the Heart of Two Entertainment Pioneers with Lucy and Desi
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: I Love Lucy is so inextricably tied to pop culture that many of its trademarks are still recognizable today, over seventy years since the show first aired. The central duo, brought to life by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, has been an object of fascination for almost as long — look at Aaron Sorkin‘s current project, Being the Ricardos, which has the edge in flashiness thanks to the star power of Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. Director Amy Poehler‘s thoughtful documentary on the subject has one extremely important thing Sorkin’s series lacks, though — access to the real thing. Thanks to a treasure trove of audio tapes and home movies shared by the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lucie Arnaz, Luc...
Sundance Review: Ramin Bahrani Tests the Conscience of the American Id in 2nd Chance
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: America is a land of mythmaking: if you’re savvy and lucky (and often, unscrupulous) enough, you can carve out a legend of your own design. That’s what happened to Richard Davis, the oddball inventor of the bulletproof vest, who spun a tall tale about self-defense in a Michigan alleyway into a million-dollar company selling protective body armor to America’s police and military forces. A blustering showman with no small sense of spectacle, Davis hawked his wares with, as one flyer declares in bold letters, “SEX & VIOLENCE”: amateur films that featured everything from comedy skits to bikini-clad women to schlocky fictional shootouts that make Samurai Cop look like Dirty Harry. Oh, and he shot hi...
Sundance Review: You Won’t Be Alone is Staggering, Contemplative Folk Horror
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The Pitch: In 19th-century Macedonia, a young girl is born to a woman in a remote mountain village. But mere days after her birth, the mother is approached by Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca), a mysterious, ancient witch — covered in flame-scarred skin — who lives outside the village and takes the blood of first-born children. Fearing for her child’s life, the mother takes her to a remote mountain cavern free from the witch’s influence, keeping her there for sixteen years without any other human contact. Eventually, the witch comes for her anyway, and soon the girl is transformed into a witch-creature like her, living under yet another stifling parental environment. Before long, she’s left to wander the Macedonia...
