This is part 1 of the Relient K retrospective Rating: 2 stars (out of 5) One of the best arguments in favor of nurture over nature, Relient K transformed themselves from completely insignificant to one of pop’s most underrated bands not through luck or by accident, but hard work and steady improvement. Each album’s craft…
Rating: 2 and a half stars (out of five) The Aquabats are known for their live show personas which are, if you’ll excuse the pun, pretty batshit. They pretend they’re a bunch of superheroes with crazy backstories, then stage a bunch of elaborate and choreagraphed fight scenes (*) against costumed foes while playing ska and…
[out of four stars] Toy Story (1995) – 4 stars A Bug’s Life (1998) – 3.5 stars Toy Story 2 (1999) – 4 stars Monsters, Inc. (2001) – 4 stars Finding Nemo (2003) – 4 stars The Incredibles (2004) – 4 stars Cars (2006) – 2.5 stars Ratatouille (2007) – 4 stars WALL•E (2008) –…
There are lots of reasons I love NBC’s sitcom Community. After last night, there’s one more. One of the subplots of the episode was Chevy Chase’s out-of-touch character Pierce trying to coin the term “streets ahead” as a synonym for “cool” (or perhaps “cooler than”). On its own, it was a pretty funny and bizarre…
Rating: 3 and a half stars (out of 4) There are times when I forget why I love movies so much. Reading movies closely can be a chore. An enjoyable chore that I have a passion for, but a chore nonetheless. And then there are times when I walk out of a theater with a…
Rating: 2 stars (out of five) Though it’s not a very good album, Billy Joel’s 1973 pre-major label album (*) is intensely prophetic. It signals, in some way or another, every one of Joel’s strengths and weaknesses. You’ll never revisit more than a few of these tracks, but it provides a meaningful look into the…
Do you know about The Moonlighting Fallacy? It’s an incorrect theory that TV shows can’t resolve conflict or change any of their fundamental dynamics because it will cause the shows to crumble creatively and commercially. It primarily applies to U.S.T. – unresolved sexual tension. The most common victims are sitcoms and/or dramedies. Shows are scared…
American Idiot, 5 years later (4 stars out of 5) I distinctly remember negative emotions towards American Idiot when it first came out. My habitual response is still negative. Why? The same reason any level-headed guy comes to despise a good, popular album he should like: Overexposure. Green Day immediately went from the most underrated…
Here’s the concept. I consider each of The Beatles’ twelve studio albums in their best form (i.e. their British releases) and rank them according to which albums I most want to listen to, end to end, right now. I’m ignoring the Yellow Submarine soundtrack (which most people like to pretend doesn’t exist) but including Help!,…
This is Dan’s half of the Pinkerton point-counterpoint review. Read Grant’s half here. I have this funny image in my head of Rivers Cuomo, the bespectacled frontman and songwriter of Weezer, performing the music of his first album in neatly trimmed suit with a smile. Then, just as the fans start yawning “novelty” and move…