Saturday, January 24, 2004
Today's review covers a couple of Fallen Angel comics from Italy by Enrico Teodorani and crew.
Speaking of not being American, I'd like to say that any publishers from outside North America are encouraged to send comics in for review. I'd very much like to expand the international coverage and I think it's important that these things are documented in some way as well.
Reviews | News
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Friday, January 23, 2004
Today I review the first issue of Bob Sheairs' Bob zine that explains why, among other things, Britney Spears is a Pepsi Whore.
How do you feel about the new set-up here at Poopsheet? Any suggestions or wishes for the site? Anything you, dear readers, come up with will only make the site that much better. In other words, there's a proper re-design coming as soon as possible. Make your voice heard!
Reviews | News
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Thursday, January 22, 2004
Today Tom Spurgeon reviews Jerkbeast the Movie which is based on the Seattle public access cult favorite.
Reviews | News
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Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Dear readers,
I've decided to restructure Poopsheet just a bit by creating a separate Reviews page and transforming this page into a sort of update hub. From now on the new reviews (which will be linked to from this page once they're posted) will be found here. Reviews posted prior to today still remain where they've always been and may be found in the Archives for this page. The downside to that is that the complete archive of reviews isn't in one place, but the upside is that it won't screw up everybody who's got links to their older reviews on their sites.
So. Aside from that, it's not a big change but I think it'll give Poopsheet a more sensible structure and should do fine until I'm able to find a new, proper home for it (soon). If you should have any questions feel free to e-mail me.
Now, having said all of that, here's what's new: In the Reviews section today Tim O'Neil takes a look at the new CD from French duo Air. And did you catch Alan Rankin's review of the Bus zine yesterday? Don't forget to check out today's News as well.
Please bookmark this page and tell your friends! Thanks for reading.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2004
< zine >
BUS #1
($3.00 or trade from Wry Bread Press / PO Box 146 / Lagunitas, CA / 94938 USA. E-mail)
Review by Alan Rankin
Did you ever see a wildly painted bus heading down the interstate, destination unknown, and think to yourself, "I wonder what their story is?" With a bus like that, you know there have to be adventures, colorful characters, and people you'd enjoy hanging out with. But of course, you're going the opposite direction at 70 MPH, so those questions remain unanswered.
Well, Bus is a pretty good answer. Some California chums, Willow and Rachel, created this little gem. Charming, rambling stories of the road and essays about the romantic life of penguins (and people) are illustrated with collage photos, clip-art and original drawings. The women have a splendid design sense; they've turned the enterprise lengthwise, framing their fables in a vertical 4 x 11.5" format. The production values are especially nice for an inaugural self-published effort, and the whole package is lovingly hand-bound with red thread. Best of all, we finally learn what sort of folks would live in a bus painted like a big red high-heel shoe....
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Monday, January 19, 2004
< recording >
 MOONRAKER
by The Wes Hollywood Show
( theweshollywoodshow.com)
Review by Mark Campos
The first Posies album is a perfect index of pop music strategies. You can name them as they happen: call-and-response verse with harmony vocs on the response – check! Kickdrum and tambourine on the last repeat of the chorus – check! Uptempo middle eight and psychedelic backward guitar solo – check check!
You could play the same game with "#1 Record" or "Drums and Wires" or "Weezer", though, which is one more cool thing about pop music. You can play the same game with "Moonraker", the second album by The Wes Hollywood Show, which partakes of the same jangly sacrament of classic pop.
Wes and his Show (standard pop config: two guitars, bass and drums) play it straight, no irony. Their "Action Sound" is powerpop, fun to hear and catchy as all get-out. Wes wears his Anglophilia on his sleeve, referencing bank holidays and Lady Penelope, dropping the H in the first song, "Oh 'ello" (which, I'm pleased to report, kicks off with a harmony "Ooh-ooh-ooh ooh"). The ballad, "Back Of A Car" (not the Big Star song) isn't maudlin or bready (or Bread-y). Toward the back there's a couple of songs – "(You're My) Chemical", "National Drug" – that cock a snoot at the being-in-a-band thing: in the first Wes relishes rocking the girls in the audience, but the second finds him barely making it through a thin gig.
Such fun music is almost critic-proof, but I have to note that one or two of the songs seem underbaked: the parts of "Louisville Slugger", for example, don't fit together as well as they might. And the production is a little thin on the surprising last song, "Man or Machine", which slides out of the verse with a harp glissando, yearning keys and kettledrum into what should be widescreen Flaming Lips-style bombast, but which seems compressed. If only they could have played the keys part on a mellotron! Still, after first hearing the song I replayed it three times, which designates it in my personal critical system as a keeper.
Moonraker clears the air of melodramatic diva-pop and other malodors with a shimmering blast of Shake Some Action.
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