I’ve been struggling to write this, my final post for True/Slant. Writer’s block aside, it’s very difficult to sum up the fantastic experience I’ve had writing for this site and being a part of the True/Slant community. To put it mildly, it’s been an absolute joy writing for True/Slant. I had no idea what to … [Read more…]
Few artists have rendered the art of failure as enjoyable as Claudio Fragasso did with his 1990 film, Troll 2. The combination of stilted acting, awkward dialogue, and a plot that makes any exploitation picture seem drab by comparison helped make Troll 2 a cult phenomenon. Four years ago, Michael Stephenson, who played Troll 2’s … [Read more…]
Germany’s Love Parade, an annual dance music festival, was the scene of a terrible tragedy this weekend [via the L.A. Times]: At least 19 people reportedly died at the Love Parade, a well-known dance event in the German city of Duisburg, and more than 340 were said to be injured as the apparent closure of … [Read more…]
Another day, another e-mail from Universal Music Group Distribution CEO Jim Urie. Last time he urged people to write to Congress to support Music Rights Now, an organization that wants Congress to step in on music pirating. All well and good, except that their thinking is fairly backwards, and the organization’s wish to get Congress … [Read more…]
For the past four years, Baltimore’s Whartscape presented pop music on the edge of the avant-garde: Any hot band worth talking about now and several years from now seemed to play Whartscape at some point. As the festival hits its fifth year, it will also meet its untimely demise, as Dan Deacon told The Baltimore Sun … [Read more…]
“Welcome to the magic kingdom,” said a ticket-taker at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Irony and humor aside, the volunteer’s invocation of the idea of Walt Disney World was quite apt. Music festivals – especially multi-day fests – are often not terribly pleasant experiences. Long days on your feet out in the sun, packed in with … [Read more…]
It’s shocking how many reissues of lost indie-rock acts offer the descriptor “ahead of its time.†Carissa’s Wierd was never ahead of its time. What it was, and still sounds like, is out of place. Though not entirely anachronistic, the disbanded Seattle group’s sound sticks out from its post-grunge, pre-indie-surge milieu, and luckily its new … [Read more…]
B.I.G. news in the hip-hop world: 50 Cent has a beef with someone. So, he took to Twitter to protest the latest, gravest event hurting the hip-hop community with a petition. Diddy’s exploitation of the Notorious B.I.G. [via Rap Radar/The Daily Swarm]: Enough is enough, Biggie’s name should never have become Diddy’s Black Card. Just … [Read more…]
Cinefile‘s Nelson Carvajal read my Newcity piece on bad movies and thought I’d be a good interviewee for a video on cult cinema. Here’s the video: B-Movies & Cult Cinema from Cinefile.com on Vimeo.
Free the Music is a guide to new albums, EPs and songs that are available for free online. Today’s drop is: Childish Gambino – Culdesac. Donald Glover lives a charmed life. At 26, he’s been a YouTube sensation with Derrick Comedy, wrote for the critically-acclaimed comedy “30 Rock,” and stars in another hit NBC comedy, “Community.” Then … [Read more…]