Clockhammer S/T First Warning By: Eric Greenwood
Back in the early 1990's, Nashville, Tennessee was home to an exciting and innovative rock trio that assimilated genres in a way that few bands had the balls, much less the chops, to pull off. Clockhammer's music was rooted in heavy metal and punk, but [...]

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Luna Romantica Jetset By: Eric Greenwood
Add a hot bass player to your line-up and suddenly your tunes get happy and you name your album Romantica. Coincidence? Hmm. After the dark departure of the stellar Days Of Our Nights, Luna returns three years later with a new bass player (Britta [...]

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Trans Am Ta Thrill Jockey By: Eric Greenwood
After the giant step backwards that was its fifth album, Red Line, Trans Am tossed aside any pretense of seriousness in favor of a full-on, retro-mock-rock schtick. The band's collective tongue is planted so firmly in its cheek nowadays that the gratuitous bulge is [...]

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Capitol K Island Row Xl By: Eric Greenwood
Island Row is a spastic yet glorious fusion of organic instrumentation and computerized experimentalism and, therefore, an essential addition to your collection. Kristian Craig Robinson A/K/A Capitol K is a human blender of musical ethnicities, ambient soundscapes, glitches, bleeps, and unadulterated pop genius. [...]

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The Get Up Kids On A Wire Vagrant By: Eric Greenwood
Let's put it this way: if you had graciously overlooked The Get Up Kids' sappy word vomit for its pogo in place pop hooks on its first two albums, then you will be sorely disappointed with its third, On A Wire. [...]

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Moby 18 V2 By: Japanese Corespondent- Patrick Doherty
Moby's history of alienating his splintered fan-base is notorious. His 1995 release, Everything Is Wrong, with its orchestral and moody overtones, turned off legions of glow-stick waving fans of "Moby the DJ." Everything Is Wrong fans didn't have to wait long to be [...]

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Star Wars Episode II - Attack Of The Clones Directed By George Lucas Twentieth Century Fox By: Charles Michael Jones- Special Star Wars Correspondent
I just watched a bootleg copy of Episode II – Attack of the Clones. My first instinct is to convey this fact in a playground-taunt tone of voice, but [...]

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Elvis Costello When I Was Cruel Island By: Eric Greenwood
It's been a long time since Elvis Costello has released an album that wasn't kind of a chore to sit through. While I respect the breadth of his musical talents on paper, I'm not always so keen on listening to him croon. [...]

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The Exit New Beat Some By: Eric Greenwood
From the artwork to the font to the snotty pose, it looks as if The Exit were going to be a rough and tumble punk rock outfit from big, bad New York City, but, unfortunately, the band opts for a much more streamlined and safe [...]

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Weezer Maladroit Geffen By: Eric Greenwood
Weezer's speedy follow-up to last year's self-titled "Green" album signals a new found sense of purpose for bandleader, Rivers Cuomo. The dark, five-year period following what still stands as the band's best album, 1996's Pinkerton, is ancient history, as Cuomo has been accepted once again in [...]

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Spider-man Directed By Sam Raimi Columbia By: Eric Greenwood
Despite the lame CGI effects, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man easily tops all of the superhero-themed films of the past two decades with a solid balance of camp, humor, and charisma. Raimi's cast is pitch-perfect. Convincing Sony that Tobey Maguire was the man for [...]

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The Notwist Neon Golden City Slang By: Eric Greenwood
Having undergone inexplicable facelifts over its decade-long, five-album existence, Germany’s The Notwist is barely recognizable as the same band that churned out semi-industrial punk-metal back in the early 1990’s. Somewhere along the way, though, The Notwist, like countless post-punk outfits before it, slowly [...]

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Panic Room Directed By David Fincher Columbia Pictures By: Eric Greenwood
On the surface David Fincher's Panic Room is typical Hollywood fare compared to the noir-ish, ultra-violence of his polemical last film, Fight Club. In almost any other director's hands, Panic Room would be an unwatchable catastrophe, but Fincher's showy directing style, [...]

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Blanket Music Move Hush By: Eric Greenwood
It would be easy not to notice this album if you dropped in at a party, and it just happened to be playing in the background. The music is so laid back and innocuous that it just hangs pleasantly in the air. You probably [...]

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Blur Leisure Food/SBK By: Eric Greenwood
Blur naively stormed the British music scene in 1990 with some false advertising. “There’s No Other Way” seemingly fit right in with the “baggy” Manchester dance pop revival, but it was hardly representative of the band’s versatility. Blur was far too talented to limit itself to any [...]

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This Computer Kills S/T Substandard Records/new Red Archives By: Eric Greenwood
Just as I finish telling somebody that playing hardcore in 2002 is not unlike flogging a long-dead horse, here comes This Computer Kills to serve up a big plate of crow for me to eat. Sadly this Reno, Nevada trio announced [...]

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Stephin Merritt Eban & Charley Soundtrack Merge By: Eric Greenwood
Traditional soundtrack albums are always hit or miss, and Eban & Charley is a little bit of both, as it finds Stephin Merritt just outside his natural element. It's odd that Merritt would choose to use his birth name for the first [...]

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Yuka Honda Memories Are My Only Witness Tzadik By: Eric Greenwood
The musical brains behind Cibo Matto delivers her first solo work for John Zorn's Tzadik label, and it's a diverse collection of electronic instrumentals, skimming across the tops of dance, soul, disco, funk, blues, and rock. Honda's production skills are outstanding. [...]

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Daniel Ash S/t Psychobaby By: Eric Greenwood
Yikes. Bad techno schlock from former guitar genius confirms that Daniel Ash can't make a decent solo album to save his life. This is just terribly embarrassing. Cheesy, decade-old techno beats? What is Ash thinking? He proved he could at least [...]

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Cornelius Point Matador By: Eric Greenwood
Cornelius" follow up to his dizzyingly schizophrenic breakout, Fantasma, is a more cohesive but less spontaneous collection of clean samples, calculated rock, and fusion noise. Cornelius is a meticulous producer. Every single sound is deliberate and precise, and he builds each song into a symphonic [...]

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