New Shit Tuesday

CDs:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81 - One of the best underground bands in indie rock makes a play for a mainstream audience with this fantastic new disc. If you like the Jesus and Mary Chain, you'll like BRMC.

Verdict: Buy it ASAP.


Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond - The reunion disc for legendary 80s indie band Dinosaur Jr. is a fantastic return to form from a great band that's been overlooked.

Verdict: Buy it.


Tori Amos - American Doll Posse - Tori's still pretty reliable, but she's been in a major slump as of late. This disc doesn't pull her out of said slump.

Verdict: Borrow it.


Feist - The Reminder - This Broken Social Scene spin-off is good, but not to my particular tastes.

Verdict: Buy it if you like BSS, otherwise, skip it.


DVDs:

Little Children - Todd Field's follow-up to In The Bedroom is an obscure, but supposedly brilliant look at the dark lives lived in quiet suburbs. I plan to rent it the first chance I get, but it's not quite on my buy list.

Verdict: Rent it ASAP.


Dreamgirls - The movie that Best Picture forgot is an interesting, but middle-of-the-road musical that tracks the history of rock n roll from Motown through disco through the eyes of artists who are absolutely not based on The Supremes and James Brown.

Verdict: Rent it.


Alpha Dog - I haven't seen it, but I've heard that the movie is actually surprisingly good.

Verdict: Rent it.


The Hitcher - At some point Hollywood decided that instead of coming up with new ideas for trashy slasher pics it would be easier to just re-make the slasher pics of last generation and market them as though they'll be interesting now. The original Hitcher was one of the classiest and creepiest suspense movies of the 80s. From what I've heard, the re-make doesn't touch the original in any way, which is typical of this type of film. Is it really that hard to make a slasher film? All you need is a killer with a mask and a bunch of teenagers... Do you really need to steal someone else's ideas to come up with that?

Verdict: Skip it.


All in all, a decent week for new releases. 2 top shelf CD releases and a trio of movies worth renting make for the best week in a good while.