My Amazon Reviews: OK Go "Hungry Ghosts"

Appetite For Power Pop
4 Out Of 5 Stars

For better or for worse, OK Go are more known as the band who make videos of themselves on treadmills and inside contraptions made up to look like real life versions of the Mousetrap game. What gets overlooked is that, for four albums now, there's a first rate pop-rock band hidden behind the paint balls. "Hungry Ghosts," four years after "Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky," captures that effortless pop fun that the band has been excelling at since their debut.

Admittedly, the oddly funky and falsetto filled "Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky" was a divisive album for fans, but that can be forgiven here. "Hungry Ghosts" keeps some of "Colour's" quirks while integrating them into the new music. It means the twitchy new wave of the debut is tempered into sonic neatness like the atmospheric "Another Set of Issues." They haven't completely forgone their fascination with Prince by way of The Cars, like the cowbell clanging "Obsession" and the danceable "I Won't Let You Down" shows. Vocalist Damian Kulash gleefully bounds from the straightforward power pop vocals to the funky stuff while making the whole of "Hungry Ghosts" a cohesive album.

While "Oh No" remains OK Go's high-water mark, "Hungry Ghosts" is a crowd pleaser. Fans will be happy to hear OK Go in fine form, and note that the four year wait was well worth it. From the pop magic of "Upside Down and Inside Out" that opens things up to the gentle strains of the final "Lullaby," this is a solid album from beginning to end, proving they can have their say without adorable trained dogs to guide them.

     

Drake Jensen rocks my (country) world

Drake Jensen is a Canadian country singer, who just happens to be gay and out. I've been enjoying his CD "OUTlaw" for a couple of weeks now. Should you think the gent is easy on the eyes, I can also add that he's easy on the ears. He has two terrific videos from the CD,

The first, for "Scars," takes on the very serious topic of bullying, and doesn't mince words. With powerful imagery, I find both the video and the song itself riveting.



Then there's the more fun side of Drake, in the recently released "Fast Enough For Me." Go on, admit it. You've been there.



Like I said, I am really enjoying his music. You can find out more at drakejensen.ca (which is were I copped this photograph).

Bear Rockin' To The Stroke

   

Sophie and the Soda Can

Hurricane Irene

Glee Covers David Bowie

OK Go Meets the Muppets!

International Gay Rodeo Association: It Gets Better

"How many more gay people does God have to create before we ask ourselves whether or not God actually wants them around?" Steve Simon

Keeping America Stupid: Old White People Edition - Sarah Palin Battle Hymn

One More reason for me to love The Foo Fighters

OMG - OK Go goes to the Dogs

Introducing: The I-Pawd

OK Go's New Awesome Video Contraption

This is 57 shades of awesome.

Directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs. Produced by Shirley Moyers. The official video for the recorded version of "This Too Shall Pass" off of the album "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky". The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The "machine" was designed and built by the band, along with members of Syyn Labs ( http://syynlabs.com/ ) over the course of several months.

While I think the new album is a bit duff (review post here), this just knocks my socks off.

My Amazon Movie Reviews: Bronson

Bravura Brutality
4 Out of 5 Stars

Tom Hardy magnetizes the screen with his performance as "Britain's Most Violent" criminal, Charlie Bronson. "Bronson" is a semi-true tale about how a man born Michael Peterson decided he needed money to support his wife and new baby, so the 19 year old robbed a post office..and then began his first jail term. Michael discovers his real calling is violence as mantel to fame. Before long, he has a reputation as brawler, a kind of anarchist inmate done up as circus strongman. In the one period he actually gains freedom, Michael heads off to a whorehouse, hooks up with trannies and prostitutes then becomes a prize fighter who gets christened Charlie Bronson by his roguish hustler/manager.

Soon after, Bronson commits a crime that sends him back, and he becomes the celebrity Charlie. Hardy burns with the violence of a psychotic carny; he spends parts of the movies telling Bronson's story onstage in stylized characters. The guards are terrified of him, yet he takes all comers with an almost celebratory glee until he is left bloodied and - once again - free to expand on his legend. hardy also took on an amazing training regiment for the movie, gaining almost 42 pounds in bulk by doing 2500 push-ups daily to not only get into physical form, but the mental one.

"Bronson" seethes with mentality. From the surrealistic asylum dance scene to the narrow cage Bronson is locked into at the film's end, the film applies its excessive violence without much rationale; Charlie acts violently because he just is. There are more than a few comparisons to A Clockwork Orange here (especially in the cross cutting between Bronson's monologues and his history) but this movie, due mainly to Hardy's stunning performance, packs a wallop that few others in the true crime genre can match.

Not for those with coconut allergies.

How Deadly Funny: How To Create a Newsclip

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