All ThosePrettyFlowersThe MayFire, TheList EP,Rock WhoresRecord-ingsI wanna be on the list, a taste of a perfect dream.Shiny nights glowing skin, chocolate melting kiss.Damn, I wanna be on the list, too. Singer/guitarist CattyTasso dominates the latest EP from this San Franciscoquartet, and she fills the front woman spot with ease.Neither all-pop nor all-punk, Tasso occupies that strongyet spirited midpoint, like Blondie's Debbie Harry or the Pix-ies' Kim Deal before her. She also evinces the trace of a Ger-man accent, which is ironic, since she hails from Chile.As for the six songs on the May Fire's follow-up to 2006 CDRight and Wrong and 2007 EPs Pl

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Back to the FutureThe American Dollar, A Memory Stream, Yesh Music [8/19/08] Explosions in the Skyproved that instrumen-tal rock could become bothpopular and lucrative.The Texas outfit provided the soundtrack for the foot-ball film Friday Night Lights, then the NBC series, andthey've been selling out mid-sized venues ever since.The American Dollar's John Emanuele and Rich Cupoloply a similar sound, and it's also been co-opted for the smallscreen (see MTV's Battlegrounds). Whether the Queens duo'ssimilarity to EitS is coincidental or intentional, their third CDserves wonderfully well as the score to an imaginary film.Waves on Waves, self-titled, VIP Gr

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State of PlayEvery few months, I check Google to see where my re-views (and oth-er pieces) are ending up. Here are some of the more interesting results.BibliochatAmazon review of Born Into BrothelsBohemian Aesthetic:Amazon review of Sara Bareilles - Little VoiceMininova:Amazon review of David Ford - I SincerelyApologize for All the Trouble I've Caused[I also reviewed his new disc for KEXP; it's pretty similar.]Out and About Vancouver:Amazon review of No Country for Old Men Running Rooster:Amazon review of H.R. Pufnstuf Salt Lake Public Library:Amazon review of State of Play[Soon to be a major mo-tion picture...that will not surpass the miniseries.]Sea

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Critics CritiquedWords tolive byfrom Ron-ald Bergan(click herefor thecompletepost):[I]f objective film criticism, like democracy, is never attain-able, it should not discourage critics from trying to achieve it. Anything that minimises the complex personality of the critic standing between the film—that obscure object of desire—and the prospective viewer, must surely be encouraged.There is no need for the writer to use the first person singu-lar, which is superogatory. At least it should be used spar-ingly. A review is not about the critic but the film."Slow". This is often employed without even the adverbs "too" or "so". When a critic calls a film "s

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Artists of Varied Persuasion, Part IIVarious Artists, No Band Is an Island, Knw-Yr-Own Records [8/5/08] (***1/2) The floor is sticky / the screen is all aglow.Sitting alone / at the motion picture show.-- Calvin Johnson, "Sitting Alone at the Movies"***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****It's foolish to expect to like every song on avarious artists compilation, and I didn't likeevery one on No Band Is an Island, butthe ratio of hits to misses is impressively high.Bryce Panic ("Masterpiece") and Kimya Dawson("We're All Animals") provide my least favorite sel-ections, but I still feel that Dawson's whimsical workenhanced Jason Reitman's Juno; separate

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Artists of Varied PersuasionVarious Artists, New Music from Northern Ireland, Northern Ire-land Music Industry Commission (***)If you had asked me, before I received this compilation, to namea few acts from Northern Ireland, I would've cited Van Mor-rison, the Undertones, and Stiff Little Fingers (I might've even made a case for Undertones spin-off band That Petrol Emotion).According to this two-CD set, Snow Patrol, Ash, and the Divine Comedy [right] also call the North home. (In a recent article forThe Independent, Andy Gill describes Snow Patrol as "the weedi-est of the Coldplay copyists trailing in the band's wake." Ouch.)The only other name that r

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Christmas in JulyThese are the reviews and other assignments I'm working on this month.Amazon DVDs:A Woman of Independent Means (mini-series withSally Field)[two-disc set],Psych - The Complete Second Season [four-disc set],and Grant Gee's acclaimed documentary Joy Division.Amazon Essentials: I'll be creating four lists: African,German, Italian, and Spanish-language cinema (Ousmane Sembène, Werner Herzog, Federico Fellini, Bernardo Ber-tolucci, Víctor Erice, and Guillermo del Toro, here I come!).Also: Indian cinema, Stephen Frears, and James Ivory.Amazon Theatricals: Brideshead Revisited (seebelow), The Wackness (Sir Ben Kingsley rides again),and Hamle

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