A.A. Bondy-When the Devil's Loose

One man with a guitar and a harmonica singing folk songs about his country and telling stories about his life is not exactly a new idea. However, A.A. Bondy executes this classic style with a modern variation that harkens back to all those who came before him while simultaneously creating political and personal odes to his own time.

Bondy’s newest album, When the Devil’s Loose, is a slow, wallowing, set of songs by a folk singer seemingly born at least 40 years too late. The combination of softly sung, reflective lyrics and simple, but technically accurate guitar work makes Bondy sound like he’s out of money, out of drugs, and wondering what he’s supposed to do next. The end result is the sound of a lost soul wandering across America looking for an alternative to his post-drug-haze melancholy.

Throughout the album Bondy brings listeners wandering along with him on his sad journey. with lyrics made up mostly of nature references, listening to the album in its entirety feels like the long drive back home through the emptiness of middle America after you’ve spent all of your money on the wildest road trip of your life. This is evident in one of the album’s strongest tracks “Wheels of Mercy”, in which Bondy sings, “Into the mercy wheel she is spinning in the twilight/tell me how do you feel after a hard blow in a bar fight/ and it’s a Mississippi night with the heavens wheeling by/ and I don’t hold on so tight.”

Musically Bondy is often accompanied by light and simple drums and occasionally a lead guitarist. While the music is always technically sound it is rarely complex or elaborate. However, in this case the simplicity goes a long way in developing the sound and feel of the album. While the instruments are always pleasant and often catchy they never detract from the true focus, which, is the lyrics.

Another strong point on the album is the final song, “The Coal Hits the Fire.” The song starts with the off-beat sound of dripping water and a low, lightly scratching feedback noise, creating a sad and empty sort of ambiance. The acoustic guitar fades in slowly with a few dawdling single notes. The vocals come in shortly after with Bondy sounding like an old and beaten cowboy singing his final dirge before he hops on the last train heading back east. “ ‘Memory, oh memory, where is it I must go?’/ ‘Away from here, but do not weep/such wonders you will know’/and it’s down to the station where the train has pulled in/see the cars of silver and gold/and the coal hits the fire and wheels start to spin/oh, you’re going around the sun, don’t you know.” After that final verse the guitar sluggishly chugs along and a quiet whistling fades in. One can easily picture a lonely cowboy taking his last look at the wide-open plain before reluctantly stepping on a train never to return.

While this album is not as much a ballad for America as his previous album, American Hearts, it still has an undeniable and well-composed American feel. It is full of sentimental glorification, not for war, family, or patriotism, but for the small things that generally go unnoticed. Bondy beautifully demonstrates his appreciation for things like the small rivers, the open spaces, the road-side flowers, and the people that never get recognition for their dedication to their chosen pursuits, no matter how unsuccessful they may have been.

It’s this American spirit that drives the album both lyrically and musically. Although Bondy is from Alabama the music does not have a specifically southern sound, but rather a sound that hallows the tradition and style of America’s most popular folk artists and has largely gone missing in today’s music. Although Bondy will probably never be an American hero, he sure sounds like one.

Favorite Book-The Old Man and the Sea-Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway’s story about a down on his luck fisherman, Santiago, may not be the most action-packed required high school reading, but the morals behind the story bring more depth and meaning to every one of Santiago’s subtle, struggled actions. After not catching a single fish for eighty-four days Santiago goes out to fish again because his livelihood depends on it and on this day he hooks a gigantic marlin, which drags him out to sea for three days. Within this story lies an interesting look at the ethics of work, one’s relationship with work, as well as how a man deals with the struggles of nature.

Favorite Movie-Exit through the Gift Shop-A Banksy Film
Hoax or not the new Banksy film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, is a showcase of how modern street art came to be, a questioning of art and its market, and a lot of footage featuring a possibly genius, possibly crazy, Frenchman. In short, this is a Banksy Film about a guy trying to make a film about Banksy; sort of. Thierry Guetta is a French man living in L.A. who continuously to films everything. He ends up getting wrapped up in street art through his cousin and the rest takes off from there; however, Banksy, in his typical style, keeps you wondering about the sincerity of it all.

Favorite Album-Who Will Cut our Hair When We’re Gone?-The Unicorns
The Unicorns, a Canadian band formed in 2000, had only a five year run, and in that time produced a limited amount of material. However, they did record “Who Will Cut our Hair When We’re Gone,” which many consider their masterwork. With a variety of lyrical topics ranging from unicorns, to ghosts, to buying matching clothes, The Unicorns present it all with a hint of innocence, a good bit of goofyness, and the smarts to back it up. All of this is mixed to perfection with their not quite muddled guitars, lo-fi electronic sounds, and drumbeats that sound like they’re digital but are actually acoustic.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! Season Cinco

Fortin' with Will-Season Cinco-Episode 2

Re-Fortin; with Will



Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job is insane, stupid, and ridiculous, which is why it’s so hilarious. Tim and Eric is a live-action comedy sketch on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim featuring comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Although the show is only about fifteen minutes long it is fast paced and action packed.

Currently airing is Season Cinco, a play on words referring to the manufacturer of their fictional products advertised on the show. It is, as well, the fifth and supposedly final season of the series. Throughout all five seasons the show has featured guests such as Will Ferrell, Will Forte, John C. Reilly, Weird Al Yankovic, Michael Ian Black, Patrick Duffy, Rainn Wilson, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, and Jeff Goldblum.

Aside from an impressive roster of special guests the show’s main strength is in its editing and comedic timing. Sketches often end in a humorous freeze frame or in the rapid repetition of the final sound. Although the sketches are often awkward due to confrontation between characters ending in such a manner encourages the viewer to laugh and emphasizes the ridiculousness of the sketch. Throughout the series sketches have consisted of a number of goofy, slap-stick scenarios including old people dancing and a middle-aged man teaching kids how to make forts while also dealing with past issues with his own father.

A popular sketch in Season Cinco is “Fortin’ with Will” featuring Will Forte. The sketch opens and presents itself as an average daytime television talk show taking place in the 90s, as many of their sketches do. Will Forte, who plays Will Grello, is sitting on a couch surrounded by children, which he asserts none of them are his own. As he begins to talk about the proper construction of couch forts he begins to scream in what seems to be an involuntary impersonation of his apparently verbally abusive father. As this happens the camera pans over the kids looking awkward and nervous. Finally the camera cuts to Will’s pants as they are becoming wet. To conclude the sketch he says, “Excuse me, when I think about my father, sometimes there is an involuntary release of urine. I wet my pants. I’m gonna need a new pair of pants.”

While this is immature and mindless humor that has been done a thousand times before the strength of this particular version is in the presentation. A consistent theme throughout the five seasons of Tim and Eric seems to be the mockery of television, especially daytime television. Anyone who has watched a bit of daytime T.V. would recognize Tim and Eric’s ads for Cinco products as satirical representations of daytime infomercials.

Throughout the previous four seasons Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job has gone through a number of progressions. However, Season Cinco is an excellent culmination of all the best parts of the previous seasons. Tim and Eric will keep viewers guessing about special guest and sketch style until the very end of their run. With all these surprises in store, it will be the viewers saying, “I’m gonna need a new pair of pants.”

Reaper-Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh’s Reaper is a painting that, through very little realistic representation and a lack of action, evokes little emotion. The painting depicts a man tending to his field of wheat with a house in the background. The subject is simple to an extreme. Although the majority of the painting is made up of the natural environment it doesn’t seem to be glorified to any extent. The farmer too, doesn’t seem to be a man of any importance and is painted as such, in a very simple fashion with outline and limited detail. It is through this non-glorification that the viewer is left almost unable to care or feel anything toward this man or environment.

Also adding to this apathy is the unrealistic color and lighting. With a sky of green and mountains of blue it may be hard for viewers to place themselves in that environment. The absence of shadows, as well any sort of personal or specific features, leaves the painting dispassionate. While the composition is good, leading the viewer’s eye right to the farmer, it leaves your eyes wandering across the rest of the painting in a sort of lethargic indifference. Although the colors are bright, the indefinite style and shapes leave the scene looking almost childish making the painting feel ephemeral and therefore meaningless.

The Calling of Saint Matthew-Caravaggio

With The Calling of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio uses extreme realism to portray an event that in many ways is very surreal. Through realism to an extensive degree the painting becomes more believable and therefore has a deeper affect on the viewer. Caravaggio’s use of light is what propels this from a beautiful painting to a masterpiece. The light appears incredibly realistic and natural with a single source not shown directly upon the subjects but appearing from an unseen side window. The shadows it leaves on the wall add to the overall composition of the painting by breaking it up into parts while also directing your eye toward Saint Matthew. What is even more stunning is that the light not only adds to the painting in a visual sense but also represents the godly act of the calling of Saint Matthew. It is amazing that Caravaggio can represent something that seems so distant and incredible with the use of light that we see throughout the day that seems very commonplace and natural.

The piece is natural in almost every way. Even the facial expressions are not overdone or glorified. The subjects look as though they are in wonder to a believable extent. However, having three separate subjects pointing at Saint Matthew may be slightly overdone. With even one subject pointing, most viewers, especially those who know the story of Saint Matthew, would understand which subject is him. Despite the painting’s obviousness it still remains a powerful image of a sacred event.

Black Dogs by Jason Burhmester

According to rock and roll legend, in 1973, Led Zeppelin was in New York for a set of shows at Madison Square Garden. Before the final show 203,000 dollars went missing from their safe deposit box at the Drake hotel. The thieves were never found. However, in Black Dogs by Jason Buhrmester, we are offered a possible explanation on how the heist may have gone down.

The novel centers around a group of young men from Baltimore. They are a group of street rats and petty thieves stealing car stereos and running scams to get by. We are given a picture of a group of confused teenagers who have recently become adults. We see them working together, partying together, and getting into a lot of messing situations together. Throughout the novel the characters and their broken homes become easy to sympathize with after a string of seemingly endless bad luck leading up to their master plan to steal some cash from Led Zeppelin.

Everything that can go wrong does and every effort to right those wrongs leads to more trouble. These are some hard luck fellas, which, in the end makes them very likable characters. The dynamic of their friendship is interesting and relatable. It’s hard not to like a group of high school buddies trying to accomplish something together, and that is definitely how the book feels. The main protagonists are, in general very average and may be very much like a number of people you know.

One of the great things about this novel, as it relates to music, is how accurately Patrick, the main character’s fandom of music is portrayed. He has a love for Black Sabbath and talks about it often. This also leads to his dislike for Led Zeppelin. The accurate portrayal of music fans and their attitudes toward music they like and dislike is primarily what drives this novel. All characters involved seemed to have attitudes that relate to the music they enjoy.

Another driving force throughout that novel is humor and irony. Antagonist Backwoods Billy runs a violent biker gang, The Holy Ghosts, filled with born-again Christians. He scolds them for using the lord’s name in vain and then orders them to beat the shit out of people. It’s characters like this that keep the story interesting and moves it along.

One of the strongest attributes of the story is how quickly it moves along. Thanks to realism in relation to both the characters and their environment the novel keeps the reader interested with humorous as well as unfortunate anecdotes. It leaves you very able to picture with detail every situation these young guys get themselves into, and throughout most of it, it leaves you glad you’re not one of these guys.

The Crazies

What Jaws did for beaches is the same thing The Crazies would do farms, if farms were places people actually wanted to hang out to begin with. Nonetheless, Breck Eisners remake of George A. Romero’s 1973 film The Crazies makes a barnyard at night an even less appealing place to hang out.

The film takes place in Ogden Marsh, Iowa, a town of about twelve hundred people. A mysterious airplane has crashed in a nearby river and contaminated the town’s water supply. The water seems to be making people go crazy and it’s up to town Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) to try to save the town like a captain standing at the helm of a sinking ship. Dutton’s wife Judy (Radha Mitchell) and his Deputy Russell Clank (Joe Anderson) are his constant companions throughout the film. The three of them fight for survival as entire town turns violent and the government steps and attempts to sort things out with an equal amount of violence and force.

The film, in many ways, is a good remake. It has certainly maintained an old school and retro feel by using exaggerated lighting and limiting the amount of gore. Although gore is present in a couple of situations the violence is often implied and the scene ends before the viewer is exposed to all the blood and guts. Despite this true-to-it-roots style made the film more enjoyable the predictably that goes along with it may have detracted from some of the suspense.

Along with the predictably other factors played a role in ruining a number of scenes in the film. The majority of the acting, while not awful, left something to be desired. This was especially true in the more serious situations when the lackluster dialogue left lines feeling forced and insincere. This was almost always the case when Sheriff Dutton and his wife were onscreen alone.

Although this may have detracted from some parts of the film, it is, after all, still a horror film and the best scenes didn’t any include anyone talking, but rather screaming. A certain scene has the potential to be iconic. The government had set up a quarantine room for those they assumed to be “crazies.” Within the room a number of characters, including Dutton’s wife, are left strapped to beds after the government evacuated the area. As they lay in the darkened room another “crazy” walks down the hallway toward them dragging behind him a bloody pitchfork, which was apparently very sharp. The scene effectively captures a feeling of helplessness and utter fear.

What keeps the film interesting despite some setbacks is the cinematography and the highly accurate portrayal of a small town. A number of opening shots and a few subsequent shots would not look out of place in No Country for Old Men. They feature vast open fields and massive expanses of blue skies that look beautiful and cinematically sit nicely in contrast to the actual events of the film. While The Crazies isn’t a great film it’s a film that you’ll probably think about late at night at your grandpa's farm,and it might freak you out a little bit.

Los Campesinos!- Hold on Now, Youngster

Los Campesinos! is comprised of former students of Whales’ Cardiff University. However, after a short time spent listening to their first album, Hold On Now, Youngster, one might assume they recently finished the eighth grade. The album is built on energetic pop/rock that is so shamelessly “poppy” one may have a hard time calling it rock. The only difference between Los Campesinos! and your average U.K. pop/rock is that other bands generally don’t sing boy/girl duets about everything from Spiderman to puking in shoe boxes.

Although the melodies are catchy and the guitars keep the energy up with peppy and pushing staccato, the overall feel of the album is that you’re listening in on the conversation of middle school students during their lunch break. The worst part is you don’t even feel like you’re at the cool kid’s table. Los Campesinos! is what the kids everyone avoided in school would have sounded like if they had some basic musical ability, a glockenspiel, an older brother to buy them cigarettes, and a steady supply of alcohol from their parents liquor cabinet.

Lyrically the album centers around relationships that sound like they started with the passing of a love note during third period. An entire song is devoted to their desire to read Jane Eyre, and this is not even the only song on the album that’s been dedicated to literature. In “We are all Accelerated Readers” the band plainly states, “Since we became accelerated readers we never leave the house.” Eventually they’ll have to cut back on their reading and muse on something other than their English class adventures.

The Good Life-Album of the Year

Tim Kasher is self admittedly a drunken romantic, and that’s what drives his side project, The Good Life’s, Album of the Year. Kasher and friends have created an album that is essentially a collection of stories that revolve around the search for love, the inevitability of lust, the pain of loss, and the mixture of alcohol with all of the above.

Kasher, also a member of the influential Omaha band Cursive, shies away from the heavier sound of Cursive toward more acoustically driven songs. Although the Curisve sound leaks through on one or two tracks Cursive fans may not recognize Kasher in this form. Album of the Year brings out a softer side of Kasher that generally goes unheard in Cursive albums. The album, as a whole, feels very personal and private especially on tracks like “Lovers Need Lawyers” where Kasher states plainly, “I swear to speak the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, o so help me god I wasn’t cheating on you.”

Other tracks provide what seem like similar honesty but describe in detail Kasher’s escapades with women who are assumedly not his girlfriend. However, in tracks like “Inmates” and the album’s title track Kasher describes entire relationships from start to finish without mention of his extracurricular activity. From his first encounter with a long time girlfriend he sings, “The first time that I met her I was throwing up in a ladie’s room stall,” to his final meeting with her, “The last time that I saw her she was picking through which records were hers.” He does with such honestly and so realistically that it becomes easy to understand his pain and relate to it on some level. However, if you find yourself relating to this album too much you may want to consider drinking less.