rakemag

We’ve gotta be completely honest here and tell you that the last movie we hated so much we couldn’t finish watching it was John Waters’ Pecker, which was just plain lazy. But Hairspray aside, a Waters movie can’t be expected to be “good” in any traditional storytelling sense. He’s probably never going back to the … Read more

A major hole in Hitchcock’s representation on DVD is now rectified by this suite of nine films, only one of which—North by Northwest—is already out in that format. There are some real gems in here, too. Strangers on a Train, here in a double-disc special edition, features Robert Walker’s great performance as the effete psychopath … Read more

That saying about how societies elect the presidents they deserve—could it apply as well to pop stars? If so, what did we do to get Britney, Christina, Hilary, et al? The situation of late—in general, not just with pop music—has us looking far and wide for signs of hope, and we found one in Bjork’s … Read more

Forget the doings of Rosie O’Donnell, Melissa Etheridge, and Ellen DeGeneres—two of America’s hottest, hippest lesbians are hooking up for some electric dates this fall. Like the ballyhooed “Vote for Change” tour, Margaret and Ani are campaigning in several swing states to get out the vote. (They didn’t name their mini-tour “Vote, Dammit!” for nothing.) … Read more

He is, as the title of one of his U.K. albums stated it, the Jesus of Cool. He wrote the wedding-dance staple “I Knew the Bride,” as well as the classic howl against injustice “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding,” definitively recorded by his buddy Elvis Costello. So even though Lowe isn’t touring … Read more

The problem with far too much electronica is that it’s so darn electronic—mechanistic, repetitious and soulless. (That’s one of the things that drove us out of the dance clubs before we were thirtysomething with bad knees.) What we love about Mouse on Mars, and especially the German duo’s wonderful new album Radical Connector, is how … Read more

The problem with far too much electronica is that it’s so darn electronic—mechanistic, repetitious and soulless. (That’s one of the things that drove us out of the dance clubs before we were thirtysomething with bad knees.) What we love about Mouse on Mars, and especially the German duo’s wonderful new album Radical Connector, is how … Read more

We’ve been admirers of John Hermanson’s brand of harmonic, smart guitar-pop since 2001, the year his band Alva Star released Alligators in the Lobby, and couldn’t be more pleased that he’s got not one but two lovely new CDs out. Alva Star’s Escalator is a breezy, uplifting set of tunes fronted by Hermanson’s pleasing tenor … Read more

The live album everyone remembers, of course, is Stop Making Sense, thanks to the Jonathan Demme-directed movie and the iconic image of David Byrne in that gigantic suit. But as much as we like Sense, it’s hard to beat this double-disc set, finally out for the first time on CD and with a half-hour of … Read more

Though Albert Kuvezin grew up in the tiny Soviet republic of Tuva and learned the astonishing polytonal singing technique, khoomei, that’s the hallmark of the country, he also found inspiration in underground American acts like Sonic Youth. (We can only imagine how hard it was to get a copy of EVOL in 1980s Communist-era Siberia.) … Read more