AltWeeklies Wire
Snap Sounds: Elephant9's 'Walk the Nile'new
Norwegian power trio Elephant9 lays on the acid-laced, "wildly cavorting in fields of fusion" prog (light on the kraut and pop, more in tune with the jazz) on their second long-player, Walk the Nile.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
02-24-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Elephant9, Walk the Nile
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' Exhaustively Explores the Red Army Factionnew
Uli Edel's sober, clear-eyed view of the youthful and sexy yet arrogant and murderous, gun-toting radicals at the center of Baader-Meinhof's mythology -- a complex construct, indeed -- manages to do justice to the core of their sprawling chronology, while never overstating their narrative's obvious post-9/11 relevance.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
Jarvis Cocker Takes Delight in 'Knowing All This is Crap'new
I could talk to Cocker on a plane, I could talk to him on a train, and I could talk to him about blues music being "used to sell a hell of a lot of cars" in the passenger seat of an Audi tearing back to SF from Point Reyes, via iPhone and earplugs, while tapping on the trusty laptop. He's that good, that much of a closet mensch keeping it as real as a man of style and taste can.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
07-22-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Beyonce: How Much is Enough?new
Entertain a morbid thought: If Knowles were to crash and burn her Thierry Mugler motorcycle breastplate during her current "I Am ... Tour" -- said to out-razzle-dazzle all predecessors with its aerial flips and 70-some costumes -- would she be revered like Michael Jackson?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
07-08-2009 |
Music
Thrills and Chills and Disco Ball Spills — That's What the Horrors Are Made Ofnew
In contrast to the easy-sleazy comic-book corn of today's prominent goth-punk purveyors, Primary Colours boasts driving tunes carved from silvery synth textures and Jesus and Mary Chain-like buzz-saw pop that thumps with creative negativity.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
05-20-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Dexter' is Killing Us Softly with Slaughternew
You know a show has gotten under your skin when it begins to trigger nightmares. That's the case with Showtime's Dexter, now winding up its third season after building, with frustrating slowness, its intertwined partnership narratives revolving around serial killer-turned-crime fighter Dexter Morgan.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
12-04-2008 |
TV
Gus Van Sant Gives Harvey Milk His Close-Upnew
Van Sant's first brush with Milk came in 1978 while he was driving across the country and heard on the radio that the supervisor was shot. Though he later saw the 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, it never occurred to him to make a film about the politician.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
11-19-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Taking Apart Rock Journalism and Loving Country with David Berman of Silver Jewsnew
Berman is a really fun -- gabby, even -- intelligent, well-read, and eminently likable dude, willing to break it down with sincere, self-effacing erudition and venture off on thoughtful tangents.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
09-24-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
How to Act the Steve Coogan Way: An Interview with the 'Hamlet 2' Mannew
As a parody of inspirational teacher flicks, Hamlet 2 is a rousing success -- the type Mr. Holland would toss his opus for. It's almost completely due to Coogan.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
08-21-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'The Wackness' Captures 1994's Halcyon Hustlenew
Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) may not be as brainy and broken as Holden Caulfield or as mortality-fixated and mundane as Andrew Largeman of Garden State, but Peck hits the right notes of cringe-inducing yet pungent realism required to turn this potential cipher into a full-fledged character.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
07-10-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: The Wackness, Jonathan Levine
Tilly and the Wall Enjoy the Ridenew
The wild children of the Midwest are attempting to hold their fans' attention offstage as well with their latest, third full-length, a multitextured affair enigmatically titled O, after the oval frame that will surround the various, limited-edition, handmade prints created by friends.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
07-02-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: O, Tilly and the Wall
Two Queer Legends of Indie Rock and Queercore Look Backnew
Pansy Division's Jon Ginoli and Camper Van Beethoven's Victor Krummenacher got together recently to talk about the way it was, coming out in the repressed 1980s and coming into their own experientially, politically, and musically in 1990s San Francisco -- each, as Krummenacher puts it, a "gay guy suddenly in Candyland."
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
06-25-2008 |
Music
How Green is My Music?new
We won't even get into the acres of paper, publications, and CDs surrounding this red-faced, would-be greenster. I'm downloading as fast as I can, but I wonder whether my hard drive can keep up: hells, even MP3s add to my huge, honking footprint. Must I resign myself to daytime acoustic throw-downs within a walkable radius from my berth? Can I get a hand-crank laptop?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
04-16-2008 |
Music
Has 'Battlestar Galactica' Jumped the Shark?new
Somewhere a shark is whimpering from a severe head wound created by a misfiring motorcycle, and one can only hope BSG's fourth season doesn't injure more sea creatures.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
03-26-2008 |
TV
South by Cynicnew
South by Southwest underwhelmed -- again -- but a few fab moments shined through the product placement.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
03-19-2008 |
Music
