MUSIC REVIEWS: Scrooge tunes and fa la la la la songs
The News Review:
- MUSIC REVIEWS: Scrooge tunes and fa la la la la songs
- Vlae Kershner
- Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts
MUSIC REVIEWS: Scrooge tunes and fa la la la la songs
Modesto Bee – Dec 27, 2007
” Most of us have had holidays where things just don’t feel right when the smiles are forced and the holiday party is the last place in the world you want to be. Joni sums up that vibe on this record. “Christ Illusion” by Slayer (Sony 2006)What better way to wallow in holiday misery than with Slayer the hardest darkest death-metal band of all time? n “Christ Illusion” the original 80′s lineup takes on organized religion with a vengeance blaming it for everything wrong in the world specifically war. These guys are so angry and raw they make Metallica sound like Perry Como. Songs like “Flesh Storm” and “Jihad” remind you that the cradle of the three major world religions remains a hellish cauldron of violence and despair where it’s not just chestnuts roasting and there is no silent night. “i To The World!” by The Vandals (Kung Fu 1996)Believe it or not there are punk-rock Christmas albums and “i To The World!” is one of the best. The range County veterans run the gamut from loud and fast to melodramatic and orchestral… The range County veterans run the gamut from loud and fast to melodramatic and orchestral. Tongue-in-cheek juvenile humor is evident on tracks like “Christmas Time for my P****” and “My First Christmas (as a Woman). ” The tightly-wound music is similar to that of bands like Green Day and the ffspring but with funnier lyrics like Tenacious D. However the Vandals venture away from the punk blueprint on the ballad “Hang Myself From The Tree” and even tackle classical music with a rendition of The Nutcracker’s “verture. ” This album deals with some dark subject matter but never takes itself too seriously. “A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector” by Various Artists (Abkco 1963)”A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector” has some great songs on it by Darlene Love The Ronettes and the Crystals featuring Spector’s Wagnerian “wall of sound” production. Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” was obviously the impetus for the U2 cover in 1986 included on the first “A Very Special Christmas” compilation.
Vlae Kershner
San Francisco Chronicle – Dec 27, 2007
The researcher theorizes that’s because Japan is a male-dominated society where the men don’t really care about their partner’s satisfaction. death rates declining says the Japanese on average… That produced a 20-minute discussion that sounded like a dispute in a weekly staff meeting where everyone was being polite because the boss’s boss was in the room. I was on the freeway and couldn’t take notes but here’s a paraphrase of some of the arguments: Madden: This station lost a lot of its female audience when it started playing Korn and Limp Bizkit a few years ago. Now that we’ve gone back to alternative don’t blow it by playing metal. Morning crew: We’re just giving listeners a mix. Madden: Where do you guys draw the line? What if someone asked for AC-DC? r John Mayer? Morning crew: We don’t want to set a line. (Not stated but implied: We know what gets us good ratings. ) Even though (or maybe because) everyone was acting civilized it made for compelling honest radio such as when a caller offered the opinion that any station that plays the Killers all the time can’t make much of a case for being pure alternative.
Bloomberg.com: Muse Arts
Bloomberg – Dec 27, 2007
In their Met debuts stage director Richard Jones anddesigner John Macfarlane impose a penny-dreadful conceit on theBrothers Grimm tale of a starving brother and sister whoabandoned in the forest by their father and stepmother have anear-death encounter with a witch. Jones sets each of the opera's three acts in increasinglylarger and more threatening rooms: a cramped meager kitchen inHansel and Gretel's home; a banquet hall with anthropomorphictrees and arboreal wallpaper replacing the forest of the middledream act; and a vast gray cinderblock-and-metal factorydominated by an enormous red-glowing oven for the witch'shouse haunted by the spirits of dead children. I found itimpossible not to think of this hellish vision as a crematorium. The acts are divided by scrims decorated with paintedplates and utensils; one featuring a lascivious vulpine tonguewill resonate with Rolling Stones fans. All this is inevitablewhen grown-ups confer their “vision'' on tales meant to be readto children: The imagery is forced on them their imaginationusurped… In their Met debuts stage director Richard Jones anddesigner John Macfarlane impose a penny-dreadful conceit on theBrothers Grimm tale of a starving brother and sister whoabandoned in the forest by their father and stepmother have anear-death encounter with a witch. Jones sets each of the opera's three acts in increasinglylarger and more threatening rooms: a cramped meager kitchen inHansel and Gretel's home; a banquet hall with anthropomorphictrees and arboreal wallpaper replacing the forest of the middledream act; and a vast gray cinderblock-and-metal factorydominated by an enormous red-glowing oven for the witch'shouse haunted by the spirits of dead children. I found itimpossible not to think of this hellish vision as a crematorium. The acts are divided by scrims decorated with paintedplates and utensils; one featuring a lascivious vulpine tonguewill resonate with Rolling Stones fans. All this is inevitablewhen grown-ups confer their “vision'' on tales meant to be readto children: The imagery is forced on them their imaginationusurped. The middle act's 14 angels are replaced by comic-bookgrotesques chefs for example who serve the siblings a fantasybanquet.