Filed under: Published Interviews | Tags: Jim Kerr, Lostboy!, Simple Minds
Jim Kerr – interview for Tommagazine.com
Jim Kerr doesn’t need to make music anymore, after 30 years of worldwide success fronting the enigmatic Simple Minds, he has afforded himself the luxury of being able to sit back and count his stacks. In pop terms the man has literally done it all. He’s sold 40 million albums, he’s divorced a supermodel and a rock goddess, he’s crossed the Atlantic and conquered the US charts; at fifty one years old surely it’s time for this flying Scotsman to wind down. But the man who in 1985 demanded ‘don’t you forget about me’, is staying true to his word and venturing away from his beloved band for his first solo endeavor Lostboy! AKA Jim Kerr. (more…)
Filed under: Published Album Reviews | Tags: eels, knuckles, koool g murder, mark oliver everett, tomorrow morning
Tomorrow Morning (Shock) - review for Tommagazine.com
Tomorrow Morning is about as arrestingly uplifting as Eels may ever get, which for a band renowned for their self-deprecating manner, is a welcome change. Following on from the despairingly pensive End Times, this closing chapter of a self-produced trilogy looks upwards from the murky pool of inspiration that is the mind of Mark Oliver Everett (known by most as E). With the wonderfully named Koool G Murder, and Knuckles on keys and drums, Eels’ seventh studio album is a colourful and disparaging exposition from a band clearly in control of their own sound. (more…)
Filed under: Published Album Reviews | Tags: carlos dengler, interpol, new york, our love to admire, strokes
Interpol (Shock) - review for Tommagazine.com
With a timeless sound, which joins the jagged noise of early post-punk with the Strokes-led indie rollout of the early naughties, Interpol are a band who know who they are and like it that way. After 2007’s disappointing major label outing Our Love to Admire, the New Yorkers have attempted to bounce back to form on this brooding, understated self-titled release. Drowning in reverb, their songs still wallow in enough self-loathing to make you want to pack your shit up and spend a year getting dangerously drunk in the hipper haunts of Brooklyn. However, these songs are definitely the musings of a band in the final throws of notoriety. (more…)
Filed under: Published Interviews | Tags: Amandah Wilkinson, Gloves, Missy Elliot, Operator Please, Ping Pong, Prince, Yes Yes Vindictive
Amandah Wilkinson (vocals / guitar) – interview for Tommagazine.com
What does it take to write the perfect pop song?
Selfishness? Fearlessness? Hard-work? Talent? May be just plain luck? Sit down with Operator Please front-woman, Amandah Wilkinson, and you’ll discover that it takes a little bit of all of these things and a lot more on top. (more…)
Filed under: Published Album Reviews | Tags: Blaine Harrison, Making Dens, Mystery Jets, Serotonin, Too Late to talk about, Twenty One, U2
Serotonin (Rough Trade) - review for Tommagazine.com
The Mystery Jets are everything that is good and pure about pop music. For example, who would ever think the word ‘serotonin’ could be used to form a devastatingly catchy sing-a-long chorus? Clearly Mystery Jets front man Blaine Harrison does…he is after all the same guy who thinks that it’s ok to let his dad play drums on his records and shun indie contentiousness to write lyrics mainly about girls and love. (more…)
Filed under: Published Album Reviews | Tags: bliss & eso, compton, hilltop hoods, running on air, rza, tzu, xzibit
Running on Air (Illusive Sounds) - review for Tommagazine.com
It’s a strange thing to judge this ‘Aussie’ hip-hop. There certainly has been some credible releases since its nineties inception from groups such as Bliss & Eso, as well as TZU and Hilltop Hoods. Still, you wonder how Australian hip-hop could garner any respect in the slums of Staten Island or the mean streets of Compton, where rap music literally means life or death. (more…)
Filed under: Published Movie Reviews | Tags: Australia, AustralianPirates of the Caribbean, Caitlin Stasey), Collateral, neighbours, stuart beattie, tomorrow when the war began
Tomorrow The War Began - review for Tommagazine.com
Imagine you’re eighteen, you’ve just been on a camping trip with you’re mates and you come home to find your dog dead, and your family locked up in a POW camp. This is the dilemma faced by Ellie (Caitlin Stasey) and her fittingly diverse group of Australian friends, who return from the wilderness to discover their peaceful home overrun by ruthless invaders in Tomorrow When The War Began. Many of us are already aware of the fanciful adventure due to the popularity of the original John Marsden teen novel in the nineties. For those who aren’t, basically the kids take a very ‘Home Alone’ attitude to the situation, but instead of making booby traps with marbles and glue, they tend to blow the intruders up with makeshift bombs and destroy bridges with stolen oil tankers. (more…)
Filed under: MX Articles | Tags: 808's and Heartbreak, Dom Pérignon, Drake, Kanye West
Opinion Column for MX Newspaper Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney
The weight of all that Dom Pérignon, sexual debauchery and swimming pools filled with cash seems to be finally catching up with the stars of the showy hip hop world. ‘Emo-Rap’ is the 2010 fad causing hip hoppers to contemplate trading in their SUV’s for Smart Cars and set up worthwhile charities (in their names of course). Canadian rapper / singer Drake, is the latest brave soul to stand up and say, ‘yeah I am a player… but I’ve got feelings too’ on his record, ‘Thank Me Later’. He follows in the footsteps of Kanye West who channelled the emotion of a messy breakup onto the depressingly bleak ‘808’s and Heartbreak’. For Mr West and co squeezing a bit of self-loathing in between trips to Mr Chow and orgies with super models is serving as the perfect inspiration for more success, and of course the misery that follows. (more…)
Filed under: Published Movie Reviews | Tags: Adam Sevani, Rick Malambri, Sharni Vinson, Step Up 3-D
Step Up 3d - review for Tommagazine.com
The wait is finally over dance fans; Step Up 3-D is upon us. The third chapter in a trilogy of break-dance battling, krump-filled dance epics is the first in the series to embrace 3D technology, fully immersing fans in the real sweat and grit of New York’s grimy dance underworld. (more…)
