I have a feeling that the members of The Soulquarians are going to make a hell of a comeback, and very soon. Just like you’ll read in the upcoming release of mathematic-jazz artist Robert Glasper’s new album, the trifecta that is Sa-Ra (or Sa-Ra Creative Partners) is back at it again.

These guys know how to define Neo Soul with the content that they put out every once in a while. This month, the boys had perfect timing in releasing their long-awaited second full length album, Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love. The band says that their type of sound isn’t likely to get MTV play, but it’s unlikely that the members of the Soulquarians get a MTV run anyhow, and I’m sure they don’t really mind (there I go saying they are in the Soulquarians again…).

Comprised of members Om’Mas Keith, Taz Arnold, and Shafiq Husayn, the boys are responsible for some of my favorite neo soul tracks Star Warz, Hey Love, So Special, White!,  and Bitch from both their early EP SetUps and Justifications and full length album The Hollywood Recordings. This album renews my faith that Sa-Ra is on point forevermore.

The two disc album starts out with a windy background with a voice copying the stylings of the Warriors classic line “Warriors, come out and play” to “Sa Ra, come out to space”. It might not be as funny as Dave Chappelle using it to say “breast milk, you make my day” whilst clanking empty glass bottles, but its badass all the same. After breaking into a funky 70’s sounding beat, we are treated to a song verse in Spanish (which I still haven’t deciphered) before trailing off into the rest of the album.

23 tracks is a lot of ground to cover, but I did pick out my favorites among the bunch, starting with the third track, I Swear, which talks about realizing that the love of Sa-Ra is so good that she (Noni Limar) has never felt that way before, she swears. The beat is dirty as hell, with a funky and catchy bass line; my weakness of course.

Gemini’s Rising, the tenth track, features the lovely Rozzi Daime, a vocalist who is not a newcomer to Sa-Ra’s work. The beat has what I THINK is a high pitched guitar, with an overall heavenly feeling to it. Rozzi Daime is perfect for Sa-Ra’s talent, with echoing voice making the perfect addition to the boys chiming in every once in a while on the track. My assumption is that Daime gets more than just Gemini to rise on often occasions.

Track twelve, White Cloud, is amazing, because it reminded me of Michael Jackson’s Captain EO, the badass 3-D experience that used to be at Disneyland (and has since been replaced with the lackluster Honey, I Shrunk the Audience). Rozzi Daime is back on this track to lend her talents with Lil’ Kenny to make me feel like we are out to save the world again.

The third track on the second disc has the raw beat entitled, Double Dutch, which has the first appearance of auto-tune this year that didn’t piss me off right away. I promise I wanted to grab a giant jump rope to do the dutch to this song in a funky manner, while out front with the neighbors.

But by far, the best track on the album is back on the first disc, and is entitled Love Czars. The tempo has the gritty pace that lets you really fill in the gaps with an amazing bass line and funky drums to team up on yo’ ass. “The L’s commin’” looms in the background while the boys get the live instruments and jam out on this nearly 8 minute track. Obviously the bass line is the best part for me; this time because I never knew where it and the guitar were going to go next. This is what neo soul, funk, and hip hop used to be about, and I feel like some artists have lost. Listen for the blissful chorus of “I’m takin’ you way out” while you’re at it.

This album is worth the digging I had to do at Amoeba Music in Hollywood to find it. I will be the first one to claim that Neo Soul is about to explode, and if you want to be in the know, then I recommended going out to space with Sa-Ra and take a look around.

Until next time my friends,

~Flak

The VX-323 is one of those artists that are on the next level. Why? Because the VX-323 isn’t even considered human. As I sit here with the lovely bio on the artist, it’s refreshing to see them take the idea of a robot with soul so seriously. I may seem sarcastic here, but I’m not.

I feel a little bit like I did when I first heard Radiohead’s Paranoid Android for the first time, as this album’s vocals are entirely made up of speech synth. I also like the claim of differentiation of who this album is for; a claim of “funk music for robots, but slick techno pop for humans”. I feel like people (or robots) don’t really take this sort of chance to enjoy the idea BEHIND the music.

For instance, I thought the days of Andre 3000 talking about black rights in space, or Deltron talking about what life will be like in the year 3030 were long gone. But alas, we have another tale from the dark future of mankind through this speech synth robot.

The album, entitled Chansons, has a feel that you expect from a robot. Almost 80’s sounding beats, but then there’s a moment where the lyrics and subject matter make it something else entirely. For instance, the first track Billion Dollar Condo, the robot makes fun of its owner who has it all. He even gives us that “sophisticated” British accent to boot, to remind us of how media portrays that accent as the pompous one.

The third track, Factory Blues tells us about VX-323 being put on standby, armor removed, to then be decommissioned. I had a feeling of something like another industrial revolution. We even have the words of hope by the robo-wife: “Don’t give up, you’re my only robot”.

The fifth track, Laptop, was a rather endearing track. To put simply, it’s a poem about a laptop that loves its owner (I’m sure you mac fiends can relate). I actually started laughing out loud at my desk listening to the laptop tell me about how it wants me to charge it up, and how much it wants me to drag my finger about its track pad, but then again, I guess it’s not the first time I’ve had that request.

The ninth and final track, When You’re Gone, reminds me of something out of I, Robot. The premise is about just that, when all humans are on the planet, what the robots will do. Not that it’s close or anything, but I feel like it’s a legitimate question to ask, if not at least an entertaining one. But to be honest, I hope it’s more like the creations of the upcoming movie 9, than of the piss poor I, Robot.

To sum it up, this is more than just an album; it’s an experience… one that most people are too afraid to make in this day and age. Just because it doesn’t make radio play, doesn’t make someone an amateur at their craft. The man behind the machine VX-323 is actually a seasoned lyricist who’s worked with 80’s New Wave band Things Fall Apart.

VX-323, you may just be on to something here, and I’d run my finger across your laptop pad any day of the week. *pause* Yeah I just said that.

Until next time my friends,

~Flak

Whilst plotting our next big to surprise the Ventura County with something fresh to work with, I conversed with my friend Kevin about a band he’s managing called Loomis and the Lust. Apparently the band has been causing quite a stir lately in these parts.

Their funky pop rock sound has been selected in the coveted (kinda) upcoming beach festival, West Beach Music and Arts Festival. Luckily I will be in attendance, so I can go into detail on their live performances later on.

The band’s debut EP just got released, and is titled Nagasha. For an EP, the album has great production value right out of the gate; a problem that usually knocks points off a new band working its way out of the womb of music. It’s a shame when an artist’s first run is tarnished by not taking the time to produce quality over quantity.

Led by Will Loomis, I was told right away when Kevin handed me the album that the band is very versatile in its sound. I wasn’t sure how true this was going to hold, but at first listen, I got a feeling of pop rock with the first track, Bright Red Chords, which is about a song about going out on the town (and what to wear while doing it, clearly).

Taking on a little bit more blues heavy approach, the second of five songs on the album, Break On Love, tells us about just that. It’s a tough world ladies, and I can’t keep batting you off forever, so this one goes to my list of songs that I can strut too. Furthermore, I feel like this song would be perfect for an episode of Entourage for a montage sequence with Vince and the boys.

Returning to the rock pop work, Sweetness, the third track takes me down memory lane of women who play games and used to actually win them. Every guy has been down the road where his friends try to tell him he’s being an idiot for his choice of love interest. I know how you feel Will, just brush em off your shoulder my friend.

The 4^th track is called Cure For Sale, and takes what I like to call the Coldplay approach. That’s when you whisper to the mic and have a steady drum beat while the other instruments float in the distance. A juxtaposed pairing to the track before it, this song is about those lazy days where you can be with your woman and forgot about your worries for a moment, while you lay in bed till noon cuddling. I can attest to the joys of a good cuddle now and then, watching the failed lives of Jon and Kate.

A perfect way to end this EP is the last track Girl Next Door. Not only do we have an uproar after the track before it, a dance-worthy rock riff emerges with quite the interesting line of lyrics to repeat towards the end. “Give me some sugar, I am your neighbor” rings on, while we think about the hot neighbor you only wish would be so kind as to ask you for it, whilst prancing around in more body language than actual clothing.

Loomis and the Lust is one of those bands that surprise you at first, but once you realize what they can do, you kick yourself for wondering how you missed talent like this for so long. Well played gentleman.

Cop the EP now on iTunes and if you get the chance, catch em at the festival for another feeling of the bands talent.

Until next time my friends,

~Flak

Michael Westen sets out on his first assignment from Strickler, the man that could get him back in the spy business. The job itself is simple, take some pictures of an arms deal going down. This job tears what seems to be a permanent rift between Michael and Fiona.

The real gig, like in all episodes, is about someone completely random. So who is it this week? Barry, Michael’s out there money launderer. Apparently Barry’s new girlfriend conned him and took his little black book. It is where Barry is his ledger with all the names and amounts of the illegal accounts he opened for his connected clients. I guess the network wanted more Barry.

After dealing with the girlfriend Michael and Sam head to a house where the man in charge of the ledger sale is hiding out. Meanwhile Madeline watches the man Strickler wants photos of from a bingo hall. This plot line just fizzles out due to the whole Barry debacle. It was a great chance for Madeline to continue to grow as a character as she has done a lot this season. I guess interrogation is more fun.

Michael and Sam don’t find anything but luckily the mastermind Serbian operative, Milovan, and the Realtor hostage, Natalie,  return home just in time. They are taken to Sam’s vacation villa for interrogation. The weird thing about the whole storyline is that Michael does his, “I’m a spy I need to change my voice to act the part.” Sam does not and it just seems awkward.

They find out that Natalie has a son and Milovan is holding him hostage until the sale is made. Fiona plays best friend to Natalie and gets little out of her. Sam and Mike go find the third member of the team and discover they had it all wrong. Natalie is the one running the show and Milovan has his kids kidnapped. Which made me think that the woman who played Natalie is really good at this complex character.

The boys make it back to Fiona right as Natalie was uncuffed to go to the bathroom. Michael strikes Fiona shockingly to keep up appearances. This no doubt leads to the end of the episode where Fiona leaves Michael for good because of his trust of Strickler. They fake an escape for Natalie and tail her right to the ledger and nab it. Natalie gets away by hiding in a group of kids.

When will you ever learn Barry?

Fiona is the main focus of this episode eventhough she gets little screen time. Her gradual transformation towards this idea of Michael getting back in has come to ahead finally. The writers handled it very well. I think Fiona should have done this a few episodes ago. The poor coverage of Strikler mission was the biggest downside. Michael’s first mission on his way back and they brush it off. I know it was boring and tedious but I feel like they need to get more screen time for these missions.

Next week the season finale!

Next Monday Xbox will be releasing an update to their Xbox 360 Dashboard that will allow users to download most 360 games as well as Xbox original games without having to go to the store. The 360 games won’t be out the same day as they are in stores. All this begs the question, “How is the largest used game buyer and seller going to survive when all the game discs are gone?”

Those little avatars could harm a fly let alone take down the might Game Stop.

As of now you get pretty much cheated on trading your games to Game Stop and EB Games because they need to make a profit. The new updates to the Xbox Dashboard might just be the first step in changing the gaming landscape. If this goes well maybe Sony and Nintendo will expand their online arcades to Microsoft‘s extent. You can’t return purchases made on Xbox Live so if you really want a return on your investment buying the physical game will still be the way to go.

Xbox is making it more attractive however by allowing you to play the game off of their server. You don’t have to have a massive hard drive to store all your games. They will instead be attached to your profile and your console. I for one, am over joyed at the thought of more Xbox original games being made available. Also a warning to Blockbuster. Netfilx users who have Xbox 360s now can browse from their console. Before you had to search for movies on your computer then you could watch it on your console.

Dinosaur? Or safe for now?

But can all this destroy Game Stop? No. At least it won’t destroy Game Stop on Monday. Down the road when everything can be streamed in through the serious of tubes Game Stop will be one of the first to go. For now Game Stop still sells the same titles from the Live Arcade for cheaper and with that trade in possibility. This isn’t a perfect end all be all upgrade. It will make you more lazy and more antisocial. If Microsoft was smart this would be coming out in May at the beginning of the summer instead of at the end.

Game Stop should take head of this development and begin figuring out what Game Fly has already done. Trade ins through the mail. It is a sad state of affairs when people only want to do business in their boxers at home, but that is where the money is.I think that it depends on how quickly Microsoft can get the new titles up on Live. If too much time goes by then retailers will have nothing to worry about. Game Stop  you have been warned.

Death Trance, (2005) directed by Yuji Shimomura, is a crazy over the top story about a coffin and it’s magical powers that it can grant your wildest dreams. I really don’t know how they came up with this but, I thank God they did.

Just give me back my coffin and I won't kill you.

In the alternate reality that is Death Trance, there are bunch of monks protecting a mysterious coffin. They turn away all who come to claim it by turning them into stone figures. The film opens with an unknown warrior (Tak Sakaguchi) attacking the monastery and he kicks some serious monk ass. He destroys all comers and steals the coffin, which is chained up by a thousand chains, without even unsheathing his sword.

A young in experienced monk named, Sid (Kenatro Seagal) must now set out and find this warrior and reclaim the coffin. Why you ask? Well because what everyone believes is that the coffin will grant you any wish your heart desires. In reality, the monks know that the coffin houses the Goddess of Destruction, (Yoko Fujit)who will destroy the world if let loose in the magically forest to the east. Two more contenders enter the mix both trying to capture the coffin for their own gain but our warrior disposes of them. He then opens the coffin and craps his pants when he realizes what he has done. Then the warrior and the Goddess of Destruction have a crazy trippy rose pedal fight in a vacuum. The film ends open ended because the filmmaker knew how badass his movie was.

Is that a rocket launcher? What? When does this take place? Nice hair.

The first thing you notice about this film, besides the crazy action that rivals any kung fu film and the metal music accompanying the fights, is the fact that you don’t know when this takes place. Everyone uses swords and dresses in traditional clothes but there are guns, giant Final Fantasy size swords, and motorcycles. I don’t even think the characters know. Most of the film you will be scratching your head trying to figure out what the subtitles aren’t telling you. The acting is bizarre and at times you can’t read the characters thoughts so well. But if you look past the lack of information given to you it is a great film.

Visually it is stunning. The style and look of the film draws you in because it is so different from the Crouching Tigers of the world. The journey that the audience and the characters go on is something out of a comic book. The craziest moments in the film come from enemies and weapons in the film. There are spider people who are real people who just use rope as their web. The unknown warrior doesn’t have a sword, he has a gun in a sword’s sheath. How cool is that? He also triple wields weapons in one fight, two guns and one sword. If that doesn’t scream awesome I don’t know what does.

Overall the film is solid but only because it is so new and different. There are better films out there in the genre. The hair styles should have won some award. They are out of this world.

Cannibal The Musical is Matt Stone‘s and Trey Parker‘s first film from way back when they were college boys. It started with a trailer then enough people convinced them that making this a real movie was a great idea. I’m glad they did. I noticed that it is on Netflix finally.

Back before Parker and Stone lost to Phil Collins at the Oscars, they were lost in the wild west.

Our story begins like all musicals, in the woods as a cannibal rips his party apart limb from limb. Alfred Packer (Parker) is wrongfully accused of committing those crimes. He tells a court reporter, Polly Pry (Todd Walters), how he got into this predicament.

Packer leads a party of miners across the Colorado Territory to Brekenridge. Along the way Packer looses his best friend and horse to a bunch of trappers. Packer diverts the party south to follow the trappers and win back his horse. They face river crossings, bear traps, lack of supplies, and even a cyclops. All the good stuff from Oregon Trail but with songs. Soon frost bite sets in and the party gets really lost. Packer goes looking for help and when he returns all but one of his party is dead. After an amusing fight with his crazed murderous comrade, Packer makes his way to the nearby town. The sheriff heads out looking for Packer’s missing party and they find the mangled bodies. I won’t ruin the ending but it has a big finish like all musicals.

This is probably the only film that really displays the amazing talent that Trey Parker has at writing music of any style for any situation. You will watch this film over and over again just for the songs. They are really damn catchy like real musicals. The instrumentals sound kind of like they came out of a video game made in 1991. It is weird at first but after a while it really fits in with the whole idea of the movie. The sound in the film is an issue at some points. I blame it on the ultra low budget but it can be distracting when it gets really echoy.

Now that's a DVD cover.

The comedic acting is pretty good for the budget. You really can see where Stone and Parker got a lot of their ideas for their later projects. Matt Stone’s hat and crazy red hair can be directly linked to Kyle’s hair and hat on South Park. Also the main theme of the film is played at the end of every South Park episode. The little tone played along with the Braniff airplane is the song “The Sky is Blue”. It’s really interesting to see the roots of these two comedy giants. The main thing that you think when the film is done is, “why don’t these guys make films more often?” I wish they did they certainly have the talent to make musicals until they die.

South Park fans, Team America fans, Basketball fans, Orgasmo fans, and musical fans will enjoy this movie more than they should. I mean, it is a student film.

Supergroups, an admittedly stupid name, all too often drown in the shadows of the main groups. Case in point: obscure grunge one-off Mad Season’s Above. Members of Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and Screaming Trees (Layne Staley, Mike McCready, and Barrett Martin, respectively), who were all major players in the then burgeoning grunge scene, came together and essentially wove a blues-informed sound into the style.

The album, while yielding a somewhat popular single in River of Deceit, was ultimately doomed to obscurity. Some tracks contained overly long blues jams that turned off some AIC and PJ fans, and many fans of John Baker Saunders’ (the group’s bassist) didn’t care much for the grunge fueled hard rock.

Ooh hang me from the heavens, baby

What makes The Dead Weather probably the best blues influenced side project since Mad Season (and possibly better) is the lack of similarity to the musicians’ original groups. Although the likelihood of anyone hearing about this band without mention of the members’ higher-profile main projects is very low, any such person would not be able to make an immediate connection to any of these bands. While Horehound definitely has thundering, crunching guitar that recalls Queens of the Stone Age and The White Stripes (thanks in no small part to Dean Fertita’s guitar playing) and The Kills‘ sexual charisma (courtesy of Alison Mosshart’s smoky vocals), there is little else to make this sound like, well, a supergroup.

The opening track “60 Feet Tall” sounds like a blues rock jam made accessible, with a build-up and climax that would make John Lee Hooker proud. Immediately after this is the first single, “Hang You from the Heavens,” which is propelled by Jack White‘s extremely sophisticated drumming (apparently White plays guitar in some other band, The White Strippers or something… I’ve never heard of them) and Fertita’s crushing guitar. The intro of these two songs shows right away that these folks have got energy to spare, and more importantly, chemistry. On Heavens, when it seems like the muscular musical backbone is going to dominate the whole album, Mosshart steps in and steals the show. It takes quite a strong singer to front a band this capable, and she fits the bill. And a half. She keeps up with White without issue, and truly takes charge on the aggressive “Treat Me Like Your Mother”. Horehound is closed with the slow-burning, haunting “Will There Be Enough Water?”, which if just a smidge darker in tone would resemble one of Nick Cave’s blues covers from his album Kicking Against the Pricks. Not to mention the record’s cohesiveness; everything flows and each song is nestled into exactly where it needs to be.

Just as Mad Season had done fourteen years earlier, and even better in some regards (being a little less indulgent with the lengthy jams, primarily) The Dead Weather put together an album of blues you can rock out to; unfortunately, also like Mad Season, The Dead Weather lacks the pop sensibility to gain any popularity past the band members’ already-existing fame.

That doesn’t mean it’s not damn good, though.

My latest endeavor in spreading my name brand was diving into make up for men. I thought, who better to hit up than Maybelline? They have those catchy commercials, so they obviously see the need for great marketing. Not so. It’s been a few days, and I haven’t heard back from them – clearly they are willing to lose MILLIONS.

Maybe it's J-Belline?

In any case, my email for your reading displeasure:

Hey there,

I would like to reinvent your marketing campaign. In my opinion, you have a good product that is scratching on the door of greatness, and I’m the guy to swing that door wide open. You have probably heard of me, as my brand holds quite a bit of equity on the internet, but we’ll get to that in a second – hold your horses!

Your campaign Maybe she’s born with it…maybe it’s Maybelline really needs some sprucing up. What I’ve got in mind is both ground-breaking, and borderline illegal. Well, it’s probably legal, but get the lawyers ready regardless!

What I propose is a new brand for men, based around my star power. The Jeff Kudishevich name will bring your product a second wind, in the sales marathon. Just say it with me…

Maybe he’s born with it…maybe it’s J-Belline.

Rolls right off the tongue.

You’ve got the business sense, I’ve got the brand – let’s make billions.

Thoughts?

Jeff Kudishevich aka J-Belline spokesman

I’ll get the article updated, should they wise up and get back to me.

I can still remember when Mr. Dunnington (or Joe LaSecla if you’re nasty) let me borrow a copy of this band called Alexisonfire in late 2004. He didn’t warn me about how hard my face was about to get rocked, but I forgive him, and even thank him for my facial tenderizing.

Not to be confused with the porn website of the same name that I “accidently” traveled to in order to reach the bands website, Alexisonfire has gone platinum in Canada three times already, with a fourth platinum record to be delivered very soon I’m sure, with the release of their latest album, Old Crows/Young Cardinals.

People ask me to describe what the band is like, and the first thing that usually comes to mind, is to imagine if Heaven and Hell were to make a truce for the day and create an album on the state of the world. With the hamfist-in-the-face screaming of George Pettit and axe work/demon-noise of Wade MacNeil, combined with the good vibrations of Chris Steele and Angelic axe/ soul-song of Dallas Green, you have one of the best combinations in Post Hardcore to date. And all the while we have Jordan Hastings bringing us down to Earth with his drumming, ever since his joining of the band in 2005.

I’ve honestly never seen a better pairing of vocalists in a band before. Personally, Dallas Green has been one of my favorite front men in music for quite a long time. He’s known for absolutely killing choruses that he sings on (my people call ‘killing’ a chorus as an endearing term mind you) for years, while also known outside the band for his side project City and Colour. Green tickles the ivory now and again across the bands albums (this time the organ on The Northern and Burial), and maintains his standing this year with a great performance.

But I digress. OC/YC opens powerfully with the track Old Cardinals, but not too quickly. I admire this because it gave us time to really set the tone of the album to a feeling of epic proportion. Its lyrics hint of an evolution of our generation with “we are not the kids we used to be/stop wishing for yesterday”. Perhaps it also hints at the death of old ways, and becoming the young cardinals of tomorrow.

Appropriately so, the second track, Young Cardinals, picks up the pace and changes the subject matter to something much more relevant for a young cardinal to ponder about; the state of our world as we sit and watch it. Perhaps the band is referring to the kids who so far don’t know the dangers and deceit of our world just yet. With lyrics like this, it’s hard not to think so:

Oh Young Cardinals

Nesting in the trees

Oh hear our songs

Reign your innocence on me

This album is so emotionally charged, that it’s hard to keep this a simple review. The overall theme of the album seems that we are the ones who were meant to take on the burden of those before us, in a way that has never been done before; and Born and Raised reminds me of that task ahead, and what we go through in the minds of my generation.

The eighth track, Emerald Street gives me nostalgia of the themes referred to in the bands 2004 album Watch Out!, with the theme being a broken down society, with us barely being able to scrape by in the forgotten neighborhoods and halfway houses.

Above all though, Midnight Regulations gave me the biggest sense of appreciation for this album. Not only because of the incredible changeup in the chorus instrumentals, or Dallas Greens’ spot on method of singing said chorus; but also the subject matter which made me feel like it was describing how I feel about the mentioned ‘common man’ of the song. Not only is it the best song on the album, but one of the best singles of the year; and it will be hard to match the rich content of this one.

From the passing of the easy days with opening song Old Crows, to the set standards we face of Born and Raised, to waving to the girls of Emerald Street, to the world Heading for the Sun, and finally to the sun hiding and leaving us cold with the ending track, Burial, Alexisonfire is at its best.

This is easily on my top ten albums of the year list, with a definite foothold in the top three while I’m at it. The album is already out, and I expect you to get this one, if not for the amazing music composition, then at least to wake up and hear where our lives are headed. Well played boys.

Until next time my friends,

~Flak

Bonus: Check out the video for Young Cardinals below!