REVIEW: Shut Up and Play the Hits [2012]

“If I can see all my friends tonight” The end of LCD Soundsystem was a seminal moment in rock and roll music history. I’m not even a fan of the band and I know this to be true. Frontman James Murphy created something that spoke to the college crowd with a mix of electronic dance beats and wittily poignant lyrics on his way to becoming a rock God/philosopher. And then he decided to call it quits after a decade. Stopping on his own terms to continue the life he led…

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REVIEW: Control [2007]

“Love will tear us apart, again” Anton Corbijn has finally joined the ranks of his contemporaries Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and Mark Romanek in directing his first full-length feature. No one could have been a better choice than this still photographer and music video director of cutting edge bands like Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen, and, of course, Joy Division themselves with the video for “Atmosphere” (albeit eight years after the death of frontman Ian Curtis). Corbijn has the sensibilities to craft a gorgeous study of a man on…

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