When not reviewing music and film, you can find me lifting weights at a local gym. My personal trainer Garrett is a Cleveland-bred recording artist who just might be the biggest Bright Eyes fan I’ve ever met. During yesterday’s session he introduced me to a Bright Eyes’ cover of Vic Chesnutt’s mortality ballad “I’ve Flirted With You All My Life” and well, the listening experience was otherworldly.
Accentuated by sterling production, wilting steel guitar and a sonic landscape that is whiskey-soaked, weary and well-worn, Connor Oberst sounds as alive and inspired as he ever has. In a little over four minutes he delivers what might arguably be the strongest Bright Eyes song he has released to date. I guess he knew what he was doing when he decided to reunite the band last year.
Our favorite 90s band (and still a perennial favorite in the SITH household) Hootie and the Blowfish will broadcast the final date on their 2019 Group Therapy tour on April 23 at 9 p.m. EST. The streaming event partners Hootie and the Blowfish with Sessions, an initiative co-founded by Pandora founder Tim Westergren.
The Group Therapy tour, which also included another of our 90s faves Barenaked Ladies, was a commercial success and was used as a promotional event for the release of the band’s 2019 album Imperfect Circle, which came out via UMG/Capitol Nashville in November of that year. The Group Therapy tour’s final stop was none other than Colonial Life Arena in the band’s hometown of Columbia, SC and this sold-out date made for a must-watch event. Featuring never-aired-before footage the April 23 event is certain to bring back all the nostalgic feels of mid-90s jangle pop.
Early-bird GA tickets priced at $15 are on sale now at Sessions. GA ticket prices will increase to $20 on April 20 at 9 p.m. ET. VIP ticket packages priced at $250 are also available, which include access to the live stream as well as an autographed tour pass and access to an exclusive virtual afterparty Q&A session with the band. Perhaps most importantly, the event is available to re-watch on demand for 48 hours following initial broadcast.
We know where we’ll be April 23. Will you be joining us?
As we continue gushing about SXSW (trust us, you’ll be hearing about SXSW for weeks from us), we want to shed light on a short film that floored us. Learning Tagalog With Kayla begins exactly as it sounds. Read more…
We’ll just come right out and say it. We’re Focus Features junkies. Ever since the boutique, art-house film group started releasing films in 2002 we’ve done our part to try and see as many Focus Feature films as possible. It started with Far From Heaven and 18 years later we’re still trying to watch whatever they put in front of us. While they’re still prone to mistakes we can say we like at least 75 percent of what they’ve released to date. Read more…
We’re always on the lookout for an artist that is just under the radar. Someone ready to make a big splash. Someone on the precipice of something truly great. Enter New York singer-songwriter Simone. At just 16, she sounds wise beyond her years and precocious enough to take the alt-pop world by storm. Read more…
We’re still trying to process and review all of the films we saw as part of SXSW’s 2021 Film Festival. However as the more time passes the more we’re beginning to realize that might be a tall order. There is one film though we’re quick to review and recommend: Potato Dreams of America. Read more…
UPDATE: Joe Buffalo won the 2021 SXSW Audience Award for Best Documentary Short.
Documentary short films when done well do everything a non-fiction short story might do: they introduce you to a character, reveal said character’s story, detail a battle the protagonist has overcome and in the end leaves you feeling informed, educated and asking more questions. These aren’t questions that leave you trying to dot the I and cross the T. Instead these are questions that make you want to dig deeper into the protagonist’s story more now than ever before. Read more…
We’re still gushing from our first SXSW experience (have you not noticed?). But the one thing we’re most stoked on is the contacts we have made. One such contact is Atlanta’s Jasmin Rhia. To date she is a hip-hop artist, record producer, violinist, DJ and mental health activist. Being that I am married to a violinist and am a mental health activist myself there was lots to engage here. Though hip-hop is a genre that we don’t follow or actively engage with, we’re not one to turn down a chance to expand our horizons. Read more…
After the Murder of Albert Lima, a Crackle Original film which debuted today on the streaming site, is a documentary which straddles the line between true crime documentary and narrative in a way that is compelling and worth the 90 minute investment. Read more…
Well here we are. SXSW is raging on and we are just plumb-tuckered out. We just finished participating in “Dream” (more on that later). For now, the film highlights from Day 1. It was a doc-heavy day. Not many, if any, narrative films to speak of so far. Highlights include: Read more…
