Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions CD/DVD Review

Almost 20 years after the original recording were done in The Church of the Holy Trinity, The Cowboy Junkies have returned in November 2006 along with some special guests to do a new recording of the sessions. This was captured on CD and DVD so that you not only get to hear the lovely new versions of the songs, but you get to see the making of the sessions as well.

The Cowboy Junkies brought along a few friends to help them enhance the sessions this time. Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt, Natalie Merchant & Jeff Bird all joined in to the sessions and did well contributing to various songs.

The original sessions were recorded in one day on November 27, 1987 and really were the start of good things to come for The Cowboy Junkies. The original cd was a good interpretation of cover songs done in a country, blues type format. The new revisited versions are even more polished up and in some cases expand on the originals. "Sweet Jane" the Lou Reed cover goes from a 4 minute song to nearly 9 minutes. "Working on a Building" grows as well to be over 6 minutes in length. Natalie Merchant backs a few songs and sings a beautiful version of "To Love is to Bury". Ryan Adams as well contributed through out the sessions, but takes the lead on " 200 More Miles" and does a fantastic job with it. Vic Chesnutt gives a good refreshing change to "Postcard Blues".

It's really great to hear the band go back and fill in the sessions with some of what they may have felt was left incomplete. This really is a fantastic cd and the DVD that captutes interviews, the sessions and more is really nice to watch. Pierre & Francois Lamoureux directed the docutmentary and did a great job. It's easy to find a copy of this in stores for about $17 or get it from http://www.amazon.com/ the price is about the same.

Track List:
1. Mining for Gold
2. Misguided Angel
3. Blue Moon Revisited
4. I Don't Get It
5. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
6. To Love Is to Bury
7. 200 More Miles
8. Dreaming My Dreams
9. Working on a Building
10. Sweet Jane
11. Postcard Blues
12. Walking After Midnight

BSG - Season 4 - April 4th - Are You Ready!

Season 3 arrived last week on DVD, Friday Sci-Fi Channel kicks off the new season with a review of the past to catch people up to get ready for the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica.

I just picked up those season 3 DVDs last week and have been getting my fill of one of the best shows on TV. If you haven't seen Battlestar Galactica I would highly recommend setting the Tivo and going back starting with the Mini-Series and catch up through the first three seasons. I think it's been one of the best written shows and has one of the best casts out there right now.

Without giving anything away to those who have not watched the series, but plan to. Battlestar Galactica in a quick summary is about the Humans building Cylons to help do the dirty work and then one day the Cylons revolt and destroy the 12 colonies and those who survive decide it's time to look for the mythical place called Earth. This is the journey and it's awesome.

You have some amazing people in this series over the years. Edward James Olmos plays Admiral Adama, Mary Mcdonnell is President Roslin, Grace Park is Boomer, Katee Sackhoff is Starbuck and there are many others including the original Lee Adama - Richard Hatch as well as Lucy Lawless and Dean Stockwell. This show has been awesome from one end to the other and has had some good twists and turns in time. You won't regret watching it, you will be hooked.

Tune in April 4th to the Sci-Fi Network to see the start of the final season.

AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem

Now this is one I would wait until it's on cable - not sure it's even worth seeing this one on DVD. There really is no story at all, it's all about the action and killing. That's apparent when they kill a kid off in the first five minutes and then have an alien explode from his chest.

I honestly don't know why I'm even writing a review of this one. It had no story it left room open for us to be tortured by more of these horrible high priced B movies.

I honestly can say that there is nothing in this movie that was even worth the 90 minutes of watching. Aliens invade and Predators destroy, most people die except the few lead roles.

This movie blows.

Rating: 0 out of 4 stars

Once - Movie Review

This movie was recommended by a friend and I finally got around to seeing it. It's an interesting film that deals with one mans messed up situation of living with his father after a break up and never seems to be going anywhere. He sings on the street corner to get his songs out and for a few pounds here and there. Glen Hansard plays the Irish street singer/vacuum repair guy. He meets this woman played by Markéta Irglová who sells flowers on the street and lives at home with her mother. She really likes his music and challenges him a bit to sing and as they build an odd sort of relationship, he gets her to open up and sing as well.

The story really follows the sort of dry progression of getting the two to start playing music and eventually recording a group of songs with a backing band. It gives the Irishman his motivation to go to London to try and make it as a musician. Without telling the whole story we will leave it there.

I enjoyed the film mainly for the music more than anything. It had a sort of Before Sunrise feel to me that the man meets the woman and has a limited time to spend with them. It's slow at parts and awkward, but the music really makes the movie hit the spot. For that I would recommend seeing it.

I don't own the soundtrack, yet, but will probably pick it up as they really sounded great playing in the film.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

Horton Hears A Who! - Movie Review

If you have young kids this is one you want to go see. Horton Hears a Who! is a Dr. Seuss classic brought to the big screen with Jim Carrey as the voice of Horton and Steve Carell as the mayor of Whoville. The annimation in this film is fantastic. The creators of Ice Age were involved and if you have seen that, then you know what you will be seeing.

There are a few parts that might get a 2 year old covering their eyes, but for the most part it's a fun movie and keeps the interest of the kids from the start to the end. I certainly would say it's enjoyable for adults as well.

So this weekend if it's raining, find yourself a good theater to go and see this movie.

The Bridge - Review of a Almost Disturbing Documentary

After watching this documentary, I'm not sure I will ever look at the Golden Gate Bridge the same again. Filmed over the course of one year, 2004, The Bridge tells the story of several of those who decided to end their lives with one giant leap.

The Bridge is directed by Eric Steel. It is a collection of interviews with the families and friends of those who had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge as well as one person who survived the jump. It was pretty apparent from the family and friends who are interviewed through out the documentary that the people who jumped had long thought through the process before doing so. In several cases, it wasn't the first time the person had attempted to kill themselves. In others, there was depression and bi-polar issues for many years.

I think they were trying to capture the why. Why the Golden Gate Bridge of all places? What makes it a place that people want to end their lives. The obvious answer is that it is almost certain death. Not many have survived the fall and not many will.

I found the documentary to be really interesting because of how they were able to locate the families and tell a bit about these people we are about to see jump off the bridge. The one thing that bothered me a bit was that you actually do see these people being talked about standing on the bridge and then eventually as their story unfolds they show them taking the leap. Not all of them, but a couple of them. It was really strange to see this, really morbid.

I think that this one is worth seeing if you have a good open mind, but don't get any ideas of heading to San Fran and having a leap.

Counting Crows - Saturday Night & Sunday Mornings CD Review

Now here we go again with a classic band and a five year break since their last studio recording. The Counting Crows have been a favorite of mine for many years and even though they have continued to tour and play along the way, it's refreshing to hear them put out a new cd.

Saturday Night & Sunday Mornings starts out pretty rocking then settles in a bit and falls in line with most of their other tunes. I think I saw them last about 5 years back at The Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, CA. It was an acoustic show, but fantastic. They sounded great and played some great songs in the time they had on stage.

This cd comes with 14 songs ranging from rockin' to ballad. Adam sounds as great as he did on August and Everything After. I really dig the songs in the middle of the cd, some a little more mellow, but they just bring out the the sweet sound of the band. 1492 starts it off with the rolling drums and guitar coming in, gets you jumping off the chair, a nice tune. Hanging Tree starts off strangely and changes tune a bit, then comes back to a typical Counting Crows beat. What more would you expect than to have a song about California called Los Angeles. Nice guitar work through the song. This works into a pop type tune called Sunday. It's a fun little upbeat tune.

Insignificant brings it all together with a nice some good guitar work and Adam flowing smoothly along into the song. It's a great centerpiece to the cd. There are some really nice tunes in the middle like Washington Square, On Almost Any Sunday Morning and I Dream of Michelangelo. Some good acoustic and harmonica tones in these songs. well harmonica in Sunday at least. On Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago is a nice little piano ballad. Finishing it off with Come Around bringing out a jamming start and flowing back to a nice little tune.

Track Listing:

1492
Hanging Tree
Los Angeles
Sundays
Insignificant
Cowboys
Washington Square
On Almost Any Sunday Morning
When I Dream of Michelangelo
Anyone But You
You Can't Count on Me
Le Ballet Dor
On a Tuessday in Amsterdam Long Ago
Come Around

Overall I'm pretty impressed with this new cd from Counting Crows. They have waited a bit long to put a new one out, but it's a good one for sure. I look forward to seeing them next month at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS it should be a good show in a nice small venue.

R.E.M. - Accelerate CD Review

Well we have a new REM cd for the first time in four years. Seems like they are trying to get a little back to the roots of their old days and play some good old alternative rock. I'm not really a fan of the first two tracks on the cd. I feel like they are trying to be something they shouldn't be. From that point on I really like the track selection. Supernatural Superserious reminds me of the good old days of Document or Lifes Rich Pageant. Following it up with Hollow Man kind of keeps me thinking of those good old REM days and it really follows through in the next few songs as well. Mr. Richards is a little different in style, but I like the style with some good guitar going through as Michael Stipe sings a good constant song.

Over all, I really like the new cd. I lost touch with REM for a bunch of years because after Out of Time I really felt like they lost what I liked about them. So I sort of just walked away and didn't pay much attention to them. When I heard the new cd was coming out I had a listen and really enjoyed it after I got past the first two songs. I really feel like they decided to get back to what made them good.

Track Listing:

1. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
2. Man-Sized Wreath
3. Supernatural Superserious
4. Hollow Man
5. Houston
6. Accelerate
7. Until The Day Is Done
8. Mr. Richards
9. Sing For The Submarine
10. Horse To Water
11. I'm Gonna DJ

The first time I saw REM was on the Document tour back in November of 1987 in Madison, WI. It was a fantastic show and Michael Stipe just blew me away with the intensity of his performance. He had long hair and wore about 6 layers of clothing and slowly made his way down to the final suit. I really wish that they would have recorded a DVD of one of the performances from that tour. I would love to see that tour again and relive the good old days. I have seen them a couple times since, but nothing was ever as good as that tour for me.

I see they have a DVD out from 2003 and it looks like they went back to playing some of the good old classics. I may get that one and report back on that next.

Wilco - 9:30 Club Washington DC - Audio Review

Wilco played a gig live two weeks ago at the Riviera in Chicago which was the 4th night of their homestead series as they are a band from Chiccago. This was broadcast on WXRT and was an amazing show. You can certaily find copies of it floating around like at bt.etree.org the date of that show was 2/19/2008.

Now, just over a week later they played the 9:30 Club in Washington DC and it was broadcast by NPR's All Songs Considered live concert series. You can listen to it for yourself at All Song Considered Live: Wilco.

All Songs Considered has done a number of quite amazing shows over the past couple of years and has now made many of them available as poscasts. When you go to the like and click on podcast you will see many great artists live shows out there like Andrew Bird, Arcade Fire, Neko Case, The New Pornographers, The Decemberists, Art Brut, Nickel Creek, Iron & Wine, Okkervill River and many more, some 60 or so shows currently available. I really hope that this one will make it out to the collection as well.

As there are alread some really nice audience recordings of this show, it would be great to have the one directly from All Songs Considered. Not sure if that will happen as this is actually the 3rd time they have done a live show for NPR according to it's website.

This is a fantastic one to listen to, well over two hours of fantastic songs from all the years they've been together.

Sky Blue Sky is the latest cd to be released by Wilco. It certainly takes them back to more of their original style in music, when they got started. I've been a fan of Wilco for many years and I really like the sound of the new cd.

The setlist for this show was as follows:

Sunken Treasure
Mountain Bed

Company in My Back
You Are My Face
Side with the Seeds
She's a Jar
Shot in the Arm
Nothingsever
Handshake Drugs
Pot Kettle Black
Roses Bloom
Impossible Germany
Simple
Someday Soon
Box Full of Letters
Always in Love
Pieholden

Jesus Etc.
Hate It Here
Walken
I'm the Man
Humming Bird
On and On and On
Via Chicago
California Stars
Casino Queen
I'm a Wheel
Monday

The whole show was a highlight to me. Personally I loved how it started of with Sunken Treasure going into Mountain Bed. Some other greats Handshake Drugs, Impossible Germany, Jesus Etc., Walken and Casino Queen were all great.

The last time I saw them in Kansas City this past October, many of these same songs were played and it was an awesome show to have been at.

If you can't make it to see them live, I would highly recommend listening to some of their live shows like this one on NPR as well as the WXRT show from Chicago. They put out a double live cd Kicking Television a couple years back in 2006 that is certainly worth going out and buying or downloading from iTunes.

Wilco have always been an impressive live band to see and I hope someday, if one doesn't exist, they will do a full show concert DVD with HD Sound Quality. That would be amazing.

Go to the link above and have a listen - give yourself some time as it's a good long show.

Enjoy!

Blue Petal - CD Review

I know I write a lot about another Dallas based band Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians, but in this crazy world of MySpace, you really can discover a jem amongst all the musicians out here.

I first heard Blue Petal because Carter Albrecht posted one of their songs on his MySpace page. Although Carter is gone, he certainly passed along to me a taste of Blue Petal having it as his song. From there I was hooked.

With only three members of the band, Manya Repnikova vocals, guitar - Pete Anderson ketyboard, guitar - Bryan Butler guitar, harmonica they really put together a fantastic sound.
Having put out a 5 song EP so far, I really look forward to hearing more of their music. The Indie realease starts off with an incredible song only lasting 2 minutes, but Move Along is really my favorite. It captures the amazing voice of Manya Repnikova, not only a beautiful person, but a beautiful voice as well.

Turn It Around is the second song on the cd. A nice soulful song with a good acoustic sounds and some great backing vocals, it truly is a wonderful song. Heading into Night Train, we hear the nice folk sound with a slide guitar in the background. It's a great piece of work.
Next up we have Blue Balloon Girl on the cd. Sort of an Alt-Country feeling with the harmonica playing in the background. It's a good song, not sure who plays drums on this one, but it really adds a good touvh to this one.

Host is the last song on the cd and the piano is a nice intro to a great tune. Manya's voice remids me a bit of a mix between The Sundays, Harriet Wheeler and Mazzy Star's, Hope Sandoval. Both have a different style and Manya sort of sits right between the two.
You can sample the cd at either of these two myspace pages Blue Petal's Myspace Page or Manya's MySpace Page. Manya's page also has a great song Good and Faithful Servant which will be appearing on a compilation cd some time this year. I just love it and wish I had a copy on my iPod today.

Check them out for sure. I see them hitting it big in the coming years. There's a lot of talent in Manya and the band.

Go out to iTunes or their MySpace page and pick this one up for sure.

Lenny Kravitz - Love Revolution CD Review

Lenny is back to his old classic self from the days of Let Love Rule. Love Revoltion kicks of a nice vibe that gets you going right from the start. It's down to simple rockin stuff pretty much. Bring It On keeps the simple beat rock going. It's a raw sound but just what I like.

It almost has a bit of a strange Beatles sound to it in some odd way. Good Morning comes in next and is what really reminds me of something out of the Beatles Catalog. Love Love Love comes up next and continues the continuous high energy feeling.

Things slow down a bit at I'll Be Waiting. It almost at the start reminds me of something out of Flight of the Conchords. It's a nice simple, softer song, quit enjoyable. The rest of the cd is really a mix of high energy songs and ballads. A little funk in the rock and here we go.

I really like the sound much more that the last cd Lenny put out. I certainly would go out and pick this one up or download it for sure.

The cd tracks are:

Love Revolution Songs
1. Love Revolution
2. Bring It On
3. Good Morning
4. Love Love Love
5. If You Want It
6. I’ll Be Waiting
7. Will You Marry Me
8. I Love the Rain
9. A Long and Sad Goodbye
10. Dancing Till Dawn
11. This Moment Is All There
12. A New Door
13. Back in Vietnam
14. I Want To Go Home

Lenny is heading off to Europe for a tour in May, not sure if we will see some dates coming up here before. Keep and eye out on his website at www.lennykravitz.com and get updates to what's happening.

Enjoy!

Jack Johnson - Sleep Through The Static - Review

For those of you who are big fans of Jack Johnson you certainly will be happy with the new cd. Jack adds a little of a different feature on this one and adds some electric guitar, but still it hass the same mellow tone as many of his songs from the past.

Having lived in Southern California and being exposed to the waves, sandy beaches and Jack Johnson surf movies this one fits right in. Even though I have recently moved away from my beach shack to a place in the middle of the country, Kansas City, I still miss the sun, waves and warm weather. Listening to a little Jack Johnson, closing my eyes, puts me right back there to my place of comfort.

The new cd was recorded with 100% solar power. I bought a digital copy, so I tried to help do my part a little in the process of helping the environment. It's always good to see artists take a stand and do what they can to influence others.

This cd is filled with some great tunes. They are more on the mellow side, but that's my thing. Starting off with All At Once, you feel that typical JJ beat. It's a wonderful song that sets you in the mood for the rest to come. Sleep Through The Static, the title song is add a little more beat and is a lot like Times Like These from his previous release. Hope keeps the beat up following into a nice little ballad called Angel. Enemy is kind of a day dream song that's how I feel.

If I Had Eyes was the single that was released before the rest of the cd. It's a little more electric, but a wonderful beat and mix of drums, piano and guitar in this one. Much of it it sounds like several other of Jacks songs. I guess I could say that about the whole cd. Really it has a bunch of wonderful songs. Same Girl is a nice acoustic ballad type song, short and sweet.

What You Thought You Need, Adrift, Go On are all great acoutics songs. They Do, They Don't as well as While We Wait, Monsoon and Losing Keys finish off the cd. If you bought the cd on iTunes you get a one minute funny song Goodbye.

I really love it, every song from end to end. I would highly recommend picking this one and if you haven't heard much of Jack's work, you could pick up any one of his cds and be in good shape. Gone are the days of Jack showing up at Lou's and jamming for an hour or playing the small venues. Still, it's well worth your time to get to see him perform live if you get a chance.

Enjoy!

Note from Jack:

My friends and I have just finished recording a new album called Sleep Through the Static. At this point in my life I weigh about 190 lbs and my ear hairs are getting longer. I also have a couple of kids. My wife popped them out, but I helped. Some of the songs on this album are about making babies. Some of the songs are about raising them. Some of the songs are about the world that these children will grow up in; a world of war and love, and hate, and time and space. Some of the songs are about saying goodbye to people I love and will miss.

We recorded the songs onto analog tape machines powered by the sun in Hawaii and Los Angeles. One day, JP Plunier walked into the studio and told us, "It has been 4 to 6 feet and glassy for long enough," and so we gave him a variety of wind and rain as well as sun and so on. And Robert Carranza helped to put it all in the right places.

After inviting Zach Gill to join Adam Topol, Merlo Podlewski, and myself on our last world tour, we decided to make him an official member of our gang. So our gang now has a piano player, which probably makes us much less intimidating, but Merlo, our bass player, is 6'3" so we are still confident.

All of these songs have been on my mind for a while and it is nice to share them. I am continually grateful to my wife who is typing this letter as I dictate it to her. I hope you enjoy this album.

Mahalo for listening,
Jack Johnson

No Country For Old Men - Movie Review

Going back to Drama, the Coen Brothers did a wonderful job of adapting Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. This mondern day western story deals with one man's struggle over taking drug money from a bloodbath scene in the middle of the desert and dealing with the consequences of it. Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss the cowboy out hunting in the back country who comes across the blood mess of a drug deal gone wrong. He comes across a big bag full money and decides to take off with it. Afterwards, he goes back and when he does, he's hunted down and knows that sooner or later he will be found.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Sheriff Bell, who deals with murders and follows the trail of blood as the bad man, Javier Bardem leaves people dead left and right looking to find the money.

It was quite a bloody film, but what else would you expect from a Coen Brothers film. Lots of violence and brutality, but overall still a good story and one that will certainly pick up a couple of awards this year. It certainly keeps you going as you watch this and wonder, will he get away.

I'd certainly catch this one in the theater.

Kurt Cobain: About A Son - Movie Review

Director A.J. Shnack put together a pretty interesting film pulling together scenes from all over Washington relating to the life of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana's front man. The documentary style film takes audio from 25 interviews that Cobain did with Michael Azerrad for his book Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana.

Cobain tells stories of his life all the way back from his childhood, through high school and on to his days with Nirvana and his relationship with Coutney Love. Shnack put together a great flow of images, music and Cobain's stories.

This will be out on DVD February 19th, 2008 you can pick it up at Amazon.com for about $14.00.

The soundtrack really fits well in the film. They play everything from CCR, Iggy Pop, Bad Brains all the way to Arlo Gutherie and David Bowie. It was quite enjoyable and would be worth pick the soundtrack up as well.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when going to see this one, but it was well worth it. It's one of those films that you should sit down, turn off the lights and have a glass of good scotch ready. Put yourself in the right mood.

The Heavy Circles - CD Review

Edie Brickell and Harper Simon team up to create The Heavy Circles. The new CD, self titled will be out on 02/12/2008.

The cd consists of 10 fantastics songs that Edie and Harper teamed up to put together. This cd is a real mix of different styles of music ranging from rock to reggae with a little tast of everything inbetween. From what started out as an invite to jam turned into a great set of songs that are far different than what we have heard from Edie in the past.

Here is the track listing:

Henri 2:48
Better 3:10
Ready to Play 3:45
Confused 3:58
Easier 4:31
Maximo 3:08
Wait & Wait 4:15
Need a Friend 3:06
Dynamite Child 1:46
Oh Darlin 3:52

Henri starts us out with a nice melodic tone, very different from anything else on the cd, has a little bit of a middle eastern tone to it. It's a wonderful song to kick it off. Then we jump into Better which has a nice pace to it and with a more pop like sound makes you want to jump up and down throughout it.

Ready to Play is a good follow to Better. It has a good rockin' beat and takes you right into a dramatic piece Confused. Going to the mellow side we move to Easier and Maximo, both are brilliant pieces of work. Both have a nice feel and a great mix to them. Moving on to Wait & Wait we get a little bit of a still mellow, but more electronic feel.

Need a Friend gets you hopping with some reggae beats jumping you into Dynamite Child which has a great beat and really rocks. The final number Oh Darlin' back to the electronic side is a great way to finish the cd off.

Edie sounds absolutely fantastic and Harper really did a wonderful job of producing this and working with Bryce Goggin to put the cd together. Harper put together an all star line-up of musicians together to help with this cd. Sean Lennon, Money Mark, Martha Wainwright, Yuka Honda to name a few helped with various tracks on the cd. Goggin was used to record Edie Brickell and New Bohemians 2006 cd Stranger Things, which if you don't have is also well worth picking up.

There is one song Hands On that didn't make the final cd, but is available through iTunes. I think it's as good if not better than every song on the new cd and is worth going out and picking up. The guitar work is fantastic and Edie's voice just keeps you hypnotized.

Two other known tracks that didn't make the cd, but have been heard at Eddie's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/brickellephant also at http://www.ediebrickell.com/ are Superpowers and Long Line. Keep an eye out on Edie's site as well as http://www.theheavycircles.com/. Superpowers is unlike anything I've heard Edie do before, it's really rockin'. Long Line is a nice pop like song, upbeat with good lyrics.

You can pick up a download of Henri at muruch's Heavy Circles CD Review if you'd like to hear it before it comes out. I still recommend buying the cd regardless of downloading this fantastic song.

This one is well worth getting off your ass on February 12th and going out to pick up or just sit on your computer and order from somewhere like http://www.amazon.com/. You won't regret getting this one trust me.

Here's a free download of Henri.mp3

Just right click and "save as" Enjoy!

JUNO - Movie & Soundtrack Review

Saw the movie Juno last night. This is the one about the 16 year old girl - Juno who gets pregnantand now has to deal with the reality of either keeping the baby, having an abortion or giving it up for adoption. This film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman is fantastic. They picked a great cast for this film Juno is played by Ellen Page who does a great job playing the role of a 16 year old girl who just got knocked up. She has a lot of great one liners and really does a wonderful job. Her boyfriend/Father of her child Paulie Bleeker is played by Michael Cera, who has been know for his roles in both Superbad and the TV show Arrested Development. Michael does a great job as well playing the dorky boy who really has no clue what all this means and never really comes to grips with it. Juno also has a friend Leah who is pretty funny as well. Leah is played by Olivia Thirlby. Juno's parents played by Allison Janey and JK Simons are your typical disfuntional family that really aren't too suprised at all that's going on. JK Simons really plays a sweet father in this one.

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner play the potential candidates to be the parents of Juno's baby. Garner plays a cautious, but excited potential mother, who won't believe it until the baby is in her hands. Jason Bateman is sort of lost in his role not sure if he wants the responsibility and not sure if he wants to grow up.

Without giving much away, this is a wonderful film about Juno coming to terms with the pregnancy, her relationship with Bleeker, her disfunctional family and life in general. That's a lot for a 16 year old to take. you really will enjoy this film.

Now onto the sountrack. It's really an awesome sountrack with a lot of different artists playing on it including a song sung by Juno & Bleeker. There are a bunch of songs by Kimya Dawson who has a different way of singing, but it's quite refreshing. Cat Power, Buddy Holly, Mott the Hoople & Velvet Underground are just a few of the artists on this sondtrack. It's really awesome and well worth picking up.

Who knows what we will review next, but tune in and find out.

Into The Wild - Movie & Sountrack Review

So I finally had the opportunity to see the long awaited film based on Jon Krakauer's book Into The Wild. Sean Penn has been trying to make the book into a movie for about ten years and finally was given the rights to do so.

The story goes that Jon Krakauer would only allow the story to be made into a movie with the permission of the McCandless family. So After hearing Sean Penn out and holding him off over the years for various reasons, the movie was made.

I read this book back in 1996 or 1997. I was really intrgued by how they were able to trace Chris's footsteps all across the US for two years leading up to his death in the Alaskan wilderness.
This was originally a story written for Outside Magazine and from that article, many people from all over the US who had encountered Chris, came forward with their little stories of of he was a part of their lives. This is what allowed Krakauer to take the magazine article and make it into a book.

Ok there's my little history of what happend over the course of history from the time of the article to the movie. So now let's review the movie and the soundtrack.

The movie starts off with Chris making his way "Into the Wild". From there it will jump back and forth telling the tale of his life and showing his time alone in the wilderness of Alaska. A lot of the the story was able to be told because of the people who surrounded him. As for the time in Alaska, there were several journals found and well as lists through the time and pictures to trace back what his life was like.

I really enjoyed the film and thought that Penn did a great job of putting it all together and keeping you interested in the 2 1/2 hour movie. Part of what really made the movie was the scenary, long shots and the soundtrack. Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam took on composing the sountrack to the film.

The movie is composed of several songs 11 which make up the soundtrack.

Setting Forth
No Ceiling
Far Behind
Rise
Long Nights
Toulumne
Hard Sun
The Wolf
End of the Road
Society
Guarenteed

All songs written and recorded by Eddie Vedder.

It certaily is a change from the rockin' sound of Pearl Jam, but it fits really well into the movie. Eddie obviously had seen the movie and wrote the songs to fit each part. Very mellow, but fantastic to hear Eddie's voice in a nice raw format like this. He really did a great job.

The movie kept it's pace and kept it interesting, the soundtrack was awesome as well. I would highly recommend seeing this one, you will enjoy it.

Cheers!

Has It Been a Year Since My Last Post?

Wow it's been exactly a year since I last posted anything on my Blog. We will just have to do something about that and get it kick started again for 2008.

Plenty to talk about and add from this past year.

So We will get back to it tonight!

Cheers!

Dave P.

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians Belly Up Tavern 10/15/2006

This Review is running a little late, but thought I'd put it out here.

I'll start out by just saying it was an awesome show and an awesome night. I guess other than the clambake this really was the start of the mini-tour they are doing this month. Unfortunately no one taped the show and I didn'thave a mic so the reviews are about all you will end up hearing on this one.

Here's the setlist - now the 12th song someone is going to need to help me with - Kenny - Brandon or any fan who can figure it out from what I wrote down as far as lyrics - It just seemed like babble and I couldn't figure the song out this morning.

10/15/2006 Belly Up Tavern - Solana Beach, Ca (San Diego)

Wear You Down, Oh My Soul, Nothing, Wheel, Drum Jam> Love Like We Do, One Last Time, No Dinero, Lover Take Me, Long Lost Friend, Air Of December, Improv Song, Strings Of Love, Spanish Style Guitar, Shark Attack, What I Am, Circle Encore: Improve>Belly Up Song, Little Miss S, 10,000 Angels, Mainline Cherry

What a great show. Kenny was awesome, had some great solo stuff and just played well. He just looked like he was enjoying himself and having some fun. Brandon and John had a couple of great jams and really seemed to be having a good time back there. Carter was great on keys. Brad was great to a little sax and mostly bass - pulling out the fretless as well. Edie - what can you say, she sang as beautiful as ever and told some great stories about the band. At one point she talked about not having enough material so they would just make it up as they went along - so she started singing this funny shark attack song. Later she did a Belly Up Improv as well. She was really interactive with the audience. After she finished playing Circle - she stopped and asked me what I was writing down and if I was doing a review of the show. I told her it was a set list - she said if you are reviewing it I'd like to review you and say you are a great audience member - it was pretty funny.

So before the show I met Carter outside and was chatting with him a bit - I din't know he was Carter at the time since I hadn't seen picture of the band is quite a while. He was really nice - chatted about football, etc. told me to swing around back after to see about meeting Kenny and Brandon. So after the show I went back and met Carter - he took my cd to have them all sign and then I ran into Brandon, talked a bit about him living in Encinitas when he was young - sleeping in the car, etc (I'll let him tell the story ) Great guy, glad I had a chance to talk to him.

Shortly after Kenny came out to say as well - again glad to have a chance to meet and talk with him. He brought Edie along with him or at least she came out. So we all started chatting, everyone was awesome - down to earth fun people. I hope the rest of you out here who go to a show at least stop by and say Hi to Kenny and Brandon. So Kenny went off as well as Brandon and the next thing I know I'm hanging out talking to Edie. She invited me in the back and ask me if I wanted something to drink - funny would thhik I'd be getting asked that from Edie. She was so sweet - talk mostly about kids and stuff, but just a great coveration. I had said that she should write a kids book and cd - I thought it would be great to play some kids music from her. She said that her and Paul planned to write a childrens album, but her youngest said to her that those were their songs - that they were for them. So she just couldn't do it. Kind of a nice little story.

Anyway - I just want to Thank Kenny, Brandon, Cater and Edie for hanging out and talking. You guys were all great. It was truely an awesome night.

LA Bound Becks

Well it looks like te picture says it all to what Becks has to say to Real Madrid. So he's going to come and play with my LA Galaxy team, which means that my season ticket prices will more than likely go up about $25 per match. If it does, I'll have to rethink the possibility of renewing. The offer is said to be worth something like $250 million in endorsements and $1million a week.

The last time an American soccer league (NASL) did this they went broke and folded. Bringing players like Pele, Beckenbauer, Best, Kruyff and many others over cost the league so much money they couldn't stay afloat. Let's hope this doesn't backfire on LA. I'd have guess that they would be getting rid of Landon Donovan to cut the salary cap back a bit.

Posh is completely behind this. I just hope he doesn't become a creepy scientologist.