REVIEW: Lone [2014]

“Now I become death, destroyer of worlds” Singer/songwriter Chelsea Wolfe is a creator of atmospheric sounds that encompass your very soul if allowed to consume you without the twenty-first century’s love for distraction fighting for attention. She was unfamiliar to me last year when I stumbled upon the album Pain is Beauty and its descriptor “folk metal”. It seemed an intriguing combination of genres, one I had to witness. The songs aren’t for everyone—I myself wondered whether I truly enjoyed the music even as I let it permeate my usually…

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REVIEW: The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook [2006] & Pendarvia [2011]

“Whiskey, weed, and fine cocaine” It wasn’t until the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007 that I finally discovered indie-folk act The Decemberists. Yes, I was very late to the game. Already with three albums under their belt, the newest—The Crane Wife—captivated me completely. It’s sprawling, ambitious progressive folk stylings were right up my alley and I’ve not looked back since. Snagging a solitary balcony ticket to the almost sold out show at the University at Buffalo that March, I watched one of the best live acts around.…

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REVIEW: Scenes From the Suburbs [2011]

“I wonder what happened to the other moments” There is no better praise to heap on a short film than to admit you watched it again right after the initial viewing. Scenes from the Suburbs is just such a piece, not because of the connection to one of my favorite albums of 2010—Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs—nor the fact it’s directed by Spike Jonze, but because it really hits upon the jaded cynicism of our current world. No longer do we live in an environment deemed safe. My childhood of leaving…

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Keith Schofield … Music Videography

Keith Haverbrook, Eric Schoman & Jeff Mayfield make up the directing collective known as Keith Schofield. It’s an award-winning team from Los Angeles, CA that has been crafting very innovative music videos since 2004, almost all of which utilize some sort of camera trick, using the artifice of the medium to lend a unique visual quality. You could say they just take gimmicks such as depth perception illusions, multiple layering where the background is on a loop while the foreground continues forward, or a rigged focal point axis connected to…

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Romain Gavras … Music Videography

French director Romain Gavras could very well be my new favorite visionary. With all the hype surrounding the new M.I.A video—not as violent necessarily as I thought it’d be, but definitely NSFW, (as most of his videos aren’t), and vicious in its authenticity—I had to check his work out. His personal Vimeo page contains five of his music videos, all but one, (The Last Shadow Puppets), the musical creations of dance/electronica/electro hip-hop acts. It’s a pedigree of some international favorites and thankfully they all allowed their director to orchestrate mini-movies,…

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