It’s that special time of year. The leaves fall of the trees and die, snow peppers the streets and causes automobile accidents, the tree goes up, people spend money they shouldn’t… it’s CHRISTMAS (or whatever other winter holiday you celebrate)!
Of course we all know that when buying a loved one a gift, it’s the thought that counts. But why think at all when you can let us here at Everyview do the thinking for you? Here are a few worthy DVD ideas for the movie fan on your list. Continue reading
The holiday season’s upon us once more, and what better way to decide what to get those you love by checking out Everyview? Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or something completely different, I’ve got the auditory acumen to point you in the right direction for the music lover on your list!
I’ll start off with a list of albums that were released this year. If you don’t see what you had hoped on this list, you can always check out the Everyview Music Archives and discover some other music that might tickle your fancy just a bit more. Continue reading
I loathe Katherine Heigl. No, I don’t know the lady, and she might actually be a pleasant person (which I doubt), but ever since she started talking about how sexist the dialogue was in Knocked Up she lost all credibility. Then, she makes a film like The Ugly Truth, which is actually more crass, more vulgar, and terrible to boot, and I haven’t heard her make a peep about it.
But, I always put personal feelings about celebrities aside, and if they can make good films I give them a pass. After all, my personal opinion about celebrities matters not at all. But make no mistake about it, this movie is awful. Not that I expected anything special, but I thought that maybe I would get a few laughs out of a junky romantic comedy, but there aren’t any to be found in this pile of mess.
The movie’s premise is paper thin to begin with. Heigl plays a Sacramento TV producer who is a control freak and has trouble with men. Big surprise. On the quest for bigger ratings, she sells out after her co-worker Mike (Gerard Butler) begins his segment “The Ugly Truth” on the newscast each night. Of course, Mike brings the much sought after ratings, and Abby slowly begins to accept that Mike is her meal ticket. Continue reading
System: Wii (Also on PS2, PSP, PC)
Developer: Rockstar Toronto/Rockstar London
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Genre: Stealth/Action
I’m a video game elitist. I’m picky about the games I play, and I’m extremely particular about games I enjoy. Oftentimes I feel like games are TOO complicated and complex for me to enjoy. I get lost, and not in the good way, between missions and tasks and side missions and side tasks that I never feel like I’m progressing enough in the game to warrant the amount of time I invest into the game. You fly through the first couple of missions, feeling good, and then all of a sudden you end up between 30% and 60% completed before you really hit the wall, where the game becomes a chore rather than entertaining.
Manhunt 2 centers around Danny Lamb, an escapee from a mental hospital, and his pursuit of the truth. Now, I didn’t play Manhunt so I probably missed a lot of backstory because of that, and perhaps that actually allows me to enjoy the game enough for what it is. I have no expectations from the previous game for the sequel to live up to. Continue reading
An album set to be released next Tuesday (11/17), Them Crooked Vultures self-titled debut album is quite possibly the most impressive debut album in the history of music (I’m serious), and with good reason. It hits the rock genre, grabs it by the balls, and doesn’t let go for the duration. It’s packed with strong, catchy songs, and is without question one of the best albums of the year.
Review:
If you are a fan of music, and you haven’t heard of Them Crooked Vultures yet, you must be living under a rock, underground, or are just downright dillusional. The three-piece band is comprised of three very well known musicians you might have heard of before. On the drums is some guy named Dave Grohl (I’m pretty sure he played drums in some other band before). I know him from his rock band the Foo Fighters, but there he plays guitar and is the singer. I wonder where he learned to play drums like this. Mystery. On guitar we have Josh Fromme, and if the name doesn’t strike you, his other bands name will. He’s the driving force behind criminally unheard of band Queens of the Stone Age. On bass is some guy named John Paul Jones, and at first I was wondering when the voice of CNN started playing bass. Before of after Field of Dreams? And then I realized I had mixed up the names, and that John Paul Jones is actually from some oldies band who hasn’t been relevant in years named after a large blimp or something.
In all seriousness, the band’s line-up is freaking stacked. Supergroups form every so often, taking members of successful bands and seeing if they can create a new, superhuman entity. Sometimes, they work well. A Perfect Circle created some fantastic music. Sometimes, they’re okay, as Audioslave produced some decent songs and a couple pretty good albums. And sometimes they just don’t work. Velvet Revolver was pretty terrible. This supergroup seems to have all their ducks in a row. They’ve been working on this project since 2005, and it really shows that they weren’t rushing into this for a quick payday, only to disappoint fans. They lined everything out, protected themselves by not rushing the creative process, and also by not neglecting or outright abandoning other projects. They took their time, and what they’ve given us is a fantastic example of great rock music.
The album kicks off with a series of strong, aggressive, in your face rock tunes, and they succeed in getting the blood flowing. “No One Loves Me & Neither Do I” is a great opener, and really sets the tone for the rest of the album. A good opening track is so important, and what Them Crooked Vultures do here is get your attention, and as the album progresses, they never relinquish. They blend a classic rock sound with a modern rock quality, and the results are phenomenal. It’s remarkable that on EVERY track, you can hear the influence of each respective musician. And each of them bring something unique to the table. Grohl brings that glue that holds the band together. He brings a quality in music that is criminally underrated, and it’s called being a well-rounded musician. He knows not only how to write good lyrics, but he can compose music to accompany those lyrics, and can play numerous instruments. I’m quite sure that an album of Dave Grohl strumming a chicken wing would be pretty bad ass. Here, he returns behind a drum set, and he has reinvented his style. In Nirvana (yeah, he was) he often times showed very little diversity on the drum set. Granted, the combos and feels he did exhibit were completely appropriate for the genre, but a lot of times, I always wondered if he could really cut loose. Here, I finally get my answer. Absolutely he can. He produces unique feels that never feel contrived or overtly complicated, but they sound crisp and tight. Grohl is on the short list for greatest musician EVER, and I’m not even kidding. The fact that he has produced such phenomenal work with 3 different (highly successful) bands proves that. “New Fang” is what I expected from Grohl here behind the kit, but his work on many of the other tracks proves that he’s more than capable of being a top level rock drummer. Ironically, as probably the most well-known member of this band, the songs themselves don’t “sound” specifically of Foo Fighters or Nirvana (some have more of a QOTSA or Zeppelin feel), and that’s another credit to Grohl’s greatness. He’s a chameleon, one that can maximize the musical output of anyone around him.
Josh Fromme is front and center with Them Crooked Vultures, as he does a lion’s share of the vocals. His voice isn’t, and hasn’t ever really been classically strong, but it’s got an eerie hook imbedded within it. He almost speaks in a chant, and the echoing and ambience effects add a mysterious layer to the songs. Listen to “Gunman”. Not only is his guitar work strong, but his voice is calm, soothing, clear, and evokes a sense of understanding. He’s comfortable within himself, and it shows.
John Paul Jones is from one of the biggest bands of ALL time, and that doesn’t require any exaggeration. His contribution to his newest band is that of the veteran. Jones has undoubtedly been around the block. And he’s getting up there in age, and is presumably financially secure beyond his wildest dreams. What he does is take the old school rock star mentality and apply it within a new rock frame of mind. He shows that not every musician who was in a legendary band wants to branch of and do nothing but subpar solo work. He shows that the creative juices of a great musician never die. Listen to “Elephants” and tell me that couldn’t be a Zeppelin song. I’m a classic rock fan, but my love for the genre has faded in more recent years in favor of bands who I can grow along with. The catalogues of Nirvana or Led Zeppelin aren’t getting any deeper. I’ve heard everything that has been released by those particular bands. But, for reasons specific to each band, they do not, or cannot produce new music that would be of the same quality the achieved in their heydey. Hell, even bands from the 90s like Soundgarden can’t even get their shit together to put out some new music for the fans, when there really isn’t any reason other than ego that they can’t.
Final Words:
What Them Crooked Vultures provide to Classic Rock fans is a wonderfully polished album that sounds like it could have pulled out of 1977. Listening to this album, you would never guess that this is this particular band’s FIRST ever album. Granted, the pieces of the band are seasoned and have all been through seemingly every music business scenario you could imagine. These 3 particular musicians are saavy enough, patient enough, and brilliant enough to know that they’ve got lightning in a bottle, and that the album they’ve given us is timeless, and will find ears to listen to it based on reputation alone. And they don’t disappoint. Even when the expectations are sky high, sometimes talented people can hit the right notes whenever the hell they feel like it.
Score: 7/10 (Good)
Television is as American as Apple Pie. Many of us enjoy nothing more than plopping our lazy asses in front of the TV and basking in the glow of that heavenly little box as it washes over our collective senses. I know I do.
I’m familiar with how the Hollywood machine works. Some shows survive, some shows die quick and sometimes undeserved deaths. They never get a chance to find their audience, and are bounced around various days and timeslots, and the network never gets behind them. The most obvious of these types of shows is the tragically phenomenal Arrested Development, a 3 season TVgasm that the FOX network never seemed to know what they had. They bounced around the show from day to day, time to time, and the audience never got a chance to find it (though the show has really grown a nice audience thanks to DVD). Continue reading
A lot of people have a sour taste in their mouth when it comes to Pop Music. They think it’s all supposed to be sugary lyrics paired together with subpar music and a pretty face, and to a degree that is the case. The music industry gets behind acts of solo artists who are attractive and produce inoffensive music. The problem is, that music is pretty offensive to people with ears, who have to listen to it repeatedly on every freaking radio station within a 2,000 mile radius.
But there are bands/performers on pop music stations that don’t suck. My No. 1 example is always Justin Timberlake. That guy is freaking money. But for every Timberlake we get five Soulja Boy’s and their music pollutes our eardrums. Continue reading
I’m a big fan of Robin Williams. I think that he’s one of the most versatile actors working in Hollywood, and his performances in films like Good Will Hunting, One Hour Photo, and Insomnia prove that although he does a lot of broad family comedies, he’s quite apt at pulling off emotional and much darker roles than what most might be accustomed to seeing,
World’s Greatest Dad is a film that centers on the life of Lance Clayton, a high school poetry teacher who’s struggling in his personal life, as he’s an aspiring yet critically unfulfilled writer. He has a 15-year old son named Kyle, played by Daryl Sabara, and their relationship is rocky to say the least. Kyle is an awkward teen, but one who is very into porn and has auto-erotic tendencies. He only has one friend, Andrew, who he also treats pretty badly, and he is genuinely disliked by everyone in his school. Continue reading
I’m 24. I’ve been to a few Halloween parties in my day. And with each passing year, I notice myself becoming more and more aroused by the types of costumes girls wear at these parties. It’s less about coming up with something funny or eccentric as guys tend to lean towards, it’s more about finding an outfit than will maximize your cleavage to the point that you can treat any male at the party like movie reviewers treat an Uwe Boll film. So, on with the countdown!! Continue reading
Maurice Sendak’s Children’s Book Where The Wild Things Are is a staple of young childhood in the United States, as well as all across the world. A simple book containing fanciful illustrations of an imaginary world created when the main character, Max, gets sent to bed without his dinner. The book very concisely describes the adventure of Max and his imagination.
Since the book is fewer than 20 pages, I was curious to see what the film added to the book to create the cinematic experience. It turns out that not only did they add more material, but they also added a wealth of character development, emotion, and visual sensation to ensure everyone in the audience went home with a smile. Continue reading