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Destroyer  O The Month May 2009

Cracker:Sunrise In The Land of Milk And Honey

429 Records

Most people remember Cracker for one of two reasons; the first being 'oh yeah' that's the guy from Camper Van Beethoven' or 'those the guys who did Low'. However, after Sunrise they may be remembered as the first Amercian band to properly take The Clash's freneitc energy and marry it to true classic rock (no, I don't mean like Rush). The kind of rock music that creates a soundtrack to whatever's happening right now. Obviously, it's pretty easy to hear that this record takes issue with current situation in Middle East, but it's now snobby love-in hippie protest shit. Cracker is a road ready and weary band that's paid they're collective dues after all. "Yalla Yalla" takes the soldiers view of the battlefield and twists the frustration into rock opus that'll have you singing along by the time the first chorus hits. There are a few lighter moments, like "Friends" in which we see a freind lamenting his intentions with his buddy's ex. It's a TRUE country song about lost loves and barroom brawls, but after the fightin' they're still gonna be buddies after a few cold ones. While the I'm giving up and come join me "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me" features an impressive set of guest musicians like John Doe, Patterson Hood and Adam Duritz. 'Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey" is true-blue slice of Americana and will be remembered as one of the best (if not BEST) albums of Cracker's career and 2009.

 

http://www.429records.com

 

Destroyer O The Month June 2009

The Eels: Hombre Lobo 12 Songs of Desire 

Well, the Vagrant Reocrds crew is on quite a roll on bigangrynate.com. The Hold Steady have taken home Destoyer O The Month and Year crowns. Now, enter lablemate The Eels. Not so much a band as one man army known simply as E. In the mid '90s The Eels had an "alt" radio for Geffen Records as they (Geffen) desperatley tried to find the next Nirvana. It didn't happen but in the rush to find that band Geffen gave us The Eels Mr. E (Mark Oliver Everett) and company dropped 'Novaccaine For The Soul' off of the  "Beautiful Freak" album. It wasn't until "Electro-shock Blues" hit that we saw what this band was really capable of. Now, with the release of "Hombre" we get 12 slickly crafted pop songs that rival anything in The Eels' collective catalog. The soaring, bluesy opener 'Prizefighter' has E putting his qualities into song as he chases the affections of a young lady. E has always had keen ear for knowing when to give the listener just enough in song to make up his/her own interpretations. However, "Hombre" just like "Electro-shock" listens more like a coffesional aimed solely at one person and he's just letting us listen in on the juicy details. This album is clearly wayward or unwanted affections and that comes out in spades on 'In My Dreams'. Yeah, this record is about the longing for a lady, but everyone can relate to missing out on that one big love that might've been. These unabashed love songs are poppy, catchy and just pretty enough to have you cheering for E. He's the hero in this tale and one hopes he achieved his task and if he didn't the next record will be most likely own these pages, too!

http://www.vagrant.com

http://www.EELStheband.com

http://www.myspace.com/eels

 

Destroyer  O The Month January '09

Bruce Springsteen: Workin' On A Dream

The Boss is back with his follow-up to '07's "Magic". "Workin'" is a fan-fucking-tastic blast of The Boss' trademarked working stiff rock n roll. Springsteen weaves tales of hope and hopelessness better than any. "Workin'" takes us on blissful ride that never gets stale and shows us that while the glory days might fade the hope of dreams will always remain. He seems to grasp this better than any artist in history. No he might not see the astronomical sales of "Born In The USA", "Nebraska" or "The River" but his records retain an almost ethereal blue collar quality that never fades. 'My Lucky Day' and 'The Wrestler' echo that sentiment and the title track takes us down a road that shows that we only really get old when we stop dreaming. I don't need to give you his website address, do I?

 

Destroyer O The Month February '09

AC Newman: Get Guilty

Well, well, well the much heralded brains of the New Pornographers proves that he can stand on his own two feet. The Canadian songster might be the best songwriter ever from north of the border. His keen rock and pop sensibilities are only outshined by his clever, but not smarty-pantsed lyrics. Often spiteful 'There Maybe Ten or Twelve' and often playful 'Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer'; "Get Guilty" is a tour de force of awesome sing along rock and up close and personal storytelling. Newman, is a tireless troubadour and thank god for that. He has yet to pen a record, single or otherwise that's just marginal. Nothing seems out of reach or to clever for the listener and rock needs to be accessible if it ever wants to rule the world again.

http://www.acnewman.net

Destroyer O The Month March '09

Mastodon: Crack The Skye

FUCK YEAH!!!! For the past few years Mastodon has carried the flag as the standard bearer for great metal and they always delivered by the shit ton. "Crack The Skye" is no exception. The punishing riffs are accompanied by searing leads and a lock-step rhythm section. "Crack The Skye" starts off with the slow and low 'Oblivion', but really kicks it into gear with 'Divinations' an evil mix of classic Black Sabbath era arena metal and that sort of buzzsaw meets the blacktop guitar that countless other bands have made cliche, yet in the hands of Mastodon seems like it's brand new. With bands like Mastodon and The Sword proudly waving the flag of that classic metal sound. Yet, still moving the sound foward let's hope more bands take notice that it's not about the pose or the fucking make-up, but beer swilling dudes in ripped jeans and ratty t shirts with walls of TUBE driven Marsahll stacks that make metal not guys who double as melancholly Abercrombie & Fitch models.

http://www.mastodonrocks.com/

 

Destroyer O The Month April '09

The Thermals: Now We Can See

Okay, so somehow this band is loosely associated with Death Cab For Cutie. How? I don't know because this Portland based trio comes to the fight with knives-out. "Now We Can See" seems to take on the personal demons of the band while the previous release, "The Body, The Blood, The Machine" clearly took on the demons of the NATION. Frontman and frenitic energy machine Hutch Harris writes some of rock's catchiest hooks and has one of the most unmistakeable voices in rock history. Somehow it's a muscular nasal sound?!?!?! 'I Let It Go' is a crazy, blistering blast of pure rock n roll and is one of the finest songs put to magnetic tape in the past 10 years. Yeah, I said it, it's that fucking good. From telling Hummer no when came to licensing a song to just fighting the good fight; The Thermals prove with each successive release that rock n roll IS NOT dead and the douche nozzles who profess that probably like The Decemberists. Yeah, I SAID IT! LONG LIVE ROCK! & LONG LIVE THE THERMALS!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.thethermals.com

 

 





85% Awseome

 

Register.com's (the host of this site) security issues. Due to hacking and what nots I couldn't log-in for updates on FOUR seperate occasions. So if you frequent this site and have wondered what the hell is Nate doing; I have had a brutal work schedule and coupled with ne'er do wells trying to ruin a legitimate web host I've had more frustration than fun working on bigangrynate.com as of late!!!!......I can't claim to be a huge Michael Jackson fan, but his passing is sad none the less. "Thriller" and "Bad" are two of pop's most significant releases ever and it's sad to think that in the end he was really just a shell of what he used to be.




15 Records In Heavy Rotation

1. Cracker: Sunrise In The Land Of Milk & Honey

2. The Thermals: Now We Can See

3. Mastodon: Crack The Skye

4. AC Newman: Get Guilty

5. Bruce Springsteen: Working On A Dream

6. The Eels: Hombre Lobo

7. Okkervil River: The Stand Ins

8. Pearl Jam: Ten REISSUE

9. Atmosphere: God Loves Ugly REMASTER

10. Belle And Sebastian: The BBC Sessions

11. Son Volt: Trace

12. The Bismarck: Bombs Of The Patriots

13. Silversun Pickups: Swoon

14. Clem Snide: The Ghost Of Fashion

15. Mclusky: The Difference Between You and Me.......

5 Videogames

1. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel XB360

2. Infamous PS3

3. Fallout 3 PS3

4. Red Faction: Guerilla PS3

5. Doom 3 XBOX

 

On The Idiot Box

Well, the 'regular' season of TV shows are wrapping up. However, that means that Twins Baseball is on and the NHL Playoffs are in full swing. It also means that F/X, USA, and A&E are bringing out the summer series. Which means new Rescue Me, It's Always Sunny.., Law & Order: Criminal Intent (which stars bingrynate fave Vincent D'Onfrio), Burn Notice and The Cleaner. Look for the sleeper summer hit to be Fox's Glee. It gets a teaser run for the summer, just to prime us for the fall run. After her hilarious run in "Role Models", Sue Sylvester should be a household name by the end of 2009!

 

 

BLURAY/DVD

Well, Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade Of Cartoon Comedy came out and it's pretty much everything he can't say on network TV without the crutch of The Family Guy. Think of it as cartoon sketch comedy, somewhere between the absurdity of Monty Python's and the bluntness of The Family Guy.....Speaking of which Volume 7 of The Family Guy hit and I am actually disappointed with this one. Hardly ANY commentary from Seth MacFarlane. He really drives this show and while hearing the rest of the cast is cool we really want to hear what he has to say!?!?!?! My Bloody Valentine 3D was a fantastic retelling of cult classic. It was handled quite well and the 3D effects made the movie a hell of a lot of fun.....So Taken was actually enjoyable. One of those movies that made me want to dust off my collection of superfluous 80s action movies.....Valkyrie hits this week, too. And while I was expecting a train wreck, my only real question is 'Why do all those WWII era Germans speak English?'

@ the Theater

Well, summer blockbuster season is here and I can't honestly claim to be too excited as of right now. I wasn't into the X Men movies that much and X3 was an abortion. So, the Wolverine flick will most likely be a rainy/snowy day rental for me....JJ Abrams TV shows have never tickled my fancy, but his movies are grand affairs and as such the reboot of Star Trek is definitely a must-see.....The Robert Downey Jr, and Jamie Foxx reel; The Soloist is bright, sunny, unplifting and gut-wrenching all at the same time. I might have blinders on for this as Mr. Downey Jr. is one of my favorite actors, EVER!

 


 

 





  


 

CLASSICS REVISITED

Red Dead Revolver XBOX

Rockstar Games of GTA fame, saved this one from gaming purgatory. As an original IP from Capcom the Japanese gaming behemoth felt that this game wasn't moving along well enough to see a release. Enter Sam Houser& Rockstar Games, drunk with power and pockets stuffed full of cash from the 2000 lb gorilla named GTA they picked up the pulp western actioner. Rockstar finished the job and gave us one of the most enjoyable western's since Capcom's Gun.Smoke! The quickdraw Quick Time Events were spot-on (still some of the best QTEs EVER) and took clean precision to fall your enemies. Activision's Gun and UbiSoft's Call of Juarez have tried to capture the spaghetti western feel of a Clint Eastwood flick, but Red Dead Revolver even on a defunct system is still a romp to play through and brings The Good, The Bad & The Ugly in spades. Red Dead Revolver IS backwards compatible with your 360, but if you've the black cinder block laying around (like me) dust it off because even a BRAND NEW copy of R.D.R. will be cheaper to buy than rent!!!

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