Q&A: Maryliz Bender, Drummer For Twin Limb

  BY JAMES M. DAVIS Twin Limb’s music comes out of some kind of dark ether, haunting and transfixing, with lyrics that encompass interpersonal love as well as celestial bodies. Born and bred in Louisville, Kentucky, Twin Limb’s sound and vision shares common ground with bands like Dark Dark Dark or Bonnie Prince Billy, with an ear for hooks and a healthy amount of gauzy shoe-gaze in the guitar and harmonies. Recently, we had a chance to talk with Maryliz Bender [pictured, above right], drummer for Twin Limb, who are on tour right now serving double duty as both backing […]

HOT DOCUMENT: Open Letter To My Family

  EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a letter my old college roommate sent to the Trump voters in his extended family. Names have been redacted to maintain their privacy. Hello, The minority of people of the United States of America voted for hate, racism, divisiveness, greed, xenophobia, fascism, sexual predation, and misogyny to take the reign of our country’s government beginning January 20, 2017. I am fearful this will take all of us into the abyss from which recovery could take longer than any of us will still be breathing. It happened in Germany. Who’s to say it can’t happen […]

DJ SHADOW: Three Ralphs

DJ Shadow has debuted a mesmerizing video for the song “Three Ralphs,” from his ‘The Mountain Will Fall’ release on Mass Appeal Records. It’s a haunted, strobing animation set to Shadow’s dark, glitchy soundscape of minimalist beats. It was created by the artist Ruffmercy, who has worked with Earl Sweatshirt, Run The Jewels, Danny Brown, Dilla and Nas, and beyond. The album, Shadow’s first in four years, finds the pioneering DJ and producer exploring new realms of composition.

SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Aftermath

  BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Once again our “democracy” proves to be no such thing. Once again in all likelihood a major candidate who did NOT receive a majority of the popular vote will become President of the United States. Make no mistake, folks, the tRUMPster does NOT have a “mandate” to govern! He has nothing of the kind! He will become President because of an obsolete dinosauric leftover relic of elitist (and racist) American governance past. It’s called the Electoral College and it has no rhyme, reason, relevance or right to be ANY part of the American political process. […]

CINEMA: Glitter And Doom

Gimmme Danger (2016, directed by Jim Jarmusch, 108 minutes, USA) BY JONATHAN VALANIA Loud, lewd and anarchic, the Stooges emerged from the dark side of the ’60s like a bad moon rising, and while they were largely misunderstood if not altogether despised back in the day, both their sound (the prototype of both punk and metal) and vision (hearts full of napalm, 10 soldiers and Nixon coming, apocalypse now) would prove prophetic as the Age of Aquarius curdled into the ’70s. James Newell Osterberg — AKA Iggy Pop, the titular frontman for Iggy & The Stooges — single-handedly invented the […]

RIP: Leonard Cohen Is Dead

Leonard Cohen on bended knee, Academy of Music, 5/12/09 by MICHAEL T. REGAN EDITOR’S NOTE: To mark the sad but not unexpected passing of Leonard Cohen we present this reprise edition of our review of his concert at the Academy Of Music on May 13th 2009. Even back then it felt like a eulogy. The Great Man glides onstage in black pinstripes and a fedora like a gangster cantor, double-breasted and tie-less, his crisp creamy blue shirt buttoned-up to the neck David Lynch-style. He seems to walk on air. He was born like that, he had no choice, he was […]

INCOMING: The Birdman Cometh

  Five-time Grammy® Award-winning jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez plays his musical score LIVE alongside the visually stunning film, BiRDMAN, the 2015 Oscar® Award winner for Best Picture in BiRDMAN LIVE, a special event Saturday, November 19 @ 8 PM at Annenberg Center Live. Tickets $25. PREVIOUSLY: Birdman would appear to be the most acclaimed film of the year and it is easy to be swept up as its backstage drama takes flight. This sort of behind-the-curtains look at the world of theater has a long history in the world of small scale art films but director Alejando González Iñárritu (Amores […]

AFTERMATH: A Day That Will Live In Infamy

  NEW YORKER: The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia […]

ENDORSEMENT: Fuck That Noise

  Vote hard. PREVIOUSLY: SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Donald Trump Uber Alles PREVIOUSLY: OPPO: The Hands Of Donald Trump PREVIOUSLY: Lin-Manuel Miranda Slays The Howling Hate Beast Of Trumpism With The Righteous Sword Of Love PREVIOUSLY: Trump Gives The Children Of America Dick Lessons PREVIOUSLY: WORTH REPEATING: Dear White People, It’s Time We Talked Seriously About This Trump Noise PREVIOUSLY: Seth Meyers Calls Bullshit On Trump’s Birther Fuckery And The Flaming Turd Barge It Rode In On PREVIOUSLY: EXPLAINER: Why Chris Christie Never Stood A Snowball’s Chance In Hell Of Being Trump’s Veep PREVIOUSLY: The Ballad Of Donald Trump And […]

CINEMA: Black Lives Shatter

  Moonlight (2016, directed by Barry Jenkins, 110 minutes, U.S.) The Handmaiden (2016, directed by Park Chan-wook, 144 minutes, South Korea) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC A couple years ago, I climbed aboard the critical pile-on for Richard Linklater’s ten-years-in-the-making epic, Boyhood, an intimate coming of age story that grew up alongside its young star. Watching a kid grew over a decade in a fictional film was an intriguing novelty and Linklater has a genial way with actors but through all the film’s pleasures was a gnawing thought that this kid’s life and experiences at their heart were not very […]