Kirby Krackle's 2010 release* E for Everyone* was, hands down, my favorite rock album of the year. Since its release I've reviewed it, played it on my podcasts, interviewed founding members Kyle Stevens and Jim Demonakos, scrutinized both their live band setup and their team of crack studio musicians and pretty much pimped the group out anytime I was given even a moment to discuss the overarching concept of geek rock.
This, of course, means that I've been anxiously awaiting their follow-up album, with part of me terrified that it wouldn't live up to the band's legacy and the other part just glad to know that more music was on the way. Earlier this month the guys' third studio album *Super Powered Love *was released, and, Galactus be praised, it was every bit as epic as I'd hoped.
"Then Again, Maybe Not" lacks some of the urgency of E for Everyone opener "Vault 101," but it’s a solid up-tempo rocker that's a fine introduction to the new album. It describes the unspoken attraction between a superhero and his arch-nemesis. Although, as the title implies, she seems a bit less than interested. This leads us to "Bite of Another," a Black Crowes-style southern vampire stomper. It's new sonic territory for the guys, and Kyle's vocals sound better than ever.
Three tracks in we strike gold with "Booty Do Math," my new favorite Kirby Krackle song, and, truthfully, another addition to my growing list of all-time favorite genre-benders. Though the hook-laden guest verse by my pal Adam WarRock grabs the listener's attention, Kyle Stevens's R. Kelly-inspired counter-melody vocals across the song's latter bars punctuate things perfectly, as does his Bieber-esque pronunciation of the word "shawty."
"Big Heart" tells the story of a superpowerless superhero – a la Kick-Ass – amid a solid rock 'n' roll shuffle, while "Hunt 'em All Down" channels a vaguely funk-metal groove into a pitch-perfect tale of (what I at least believe to be) the IDW continuity Transformers. Thereafter, what "In Another Castle" loses for its obvious instrumental and structural similarity to Kirby Krackle's debut album stand-out "Zombie Apocalypse" it more than makes up for in ukulele-soaked gamer goodness.
The latter half of the album kicks off with the Tex-Mex lotto-winnin' daydream of "Nerd Money." It's likely Super Powered Love's weakest selection, but on its own merits it's still a rock-solid joint. It's followed by the album'sdebut self-titled single, which is just as endearing, engaging and enjoyable as it was when Kyle leaked it to me all those weeks ago.
"Comic Shop" welcomes back E for Everyone guest rapper GMK The Great on an off-kilter parody of 50 Cent's "Candy Shop," which is worth a listen for the humorous censoring alone. (Spoiler: it's Walking Dead-related.) "Rainbow Bridge" likewise keeps things in that comic book vein with a power ballad dedicated to Marvel's Thor. Because Kirby Krackle is nothing if not nerd-topical.
The album begins its wind-down with "Needing a Miracle," which borrows both a shade of its guitar melody and its theme of human/superhuman romance from "Super Powered Love" (albeit with the gender roles reversed this time around.) That track builds big and then dissolves into "Open up Your Window," which plays like a continuation of the same musical love story.
*Super Powered Love *closes with the glam-punk "I Wanna Live in a World Full of Heroes," a song that, with a couple of obvious exceptions, plays like the album's triumphant mission statement. With the overall project centered firmly on tales from within our favorite fictional worlds, it's a fitting end that again pushes the band in a new musical direction.
While only time will tell how well Super Powered Love stands up against this year's other heavy hitters – both The BossFights and Supercommuter have proven that Kirby Krackle isn't the only band to up its game in 2011 – it easily boasts the single greatest track of the summer. I'd recommend the album as an easy buy simply on the strength of "Booty do Math," but with a dozen other top-shelf cuts* Super Powered Love* is another must-own masterpiece from Seattle's reigning kings of geeky guitar pop.
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With his first sci-fi movie Ex Machina and in his latest Annihilation, starring Natalie Portman, the writer-turned-director Alex Garland has achieved peak wordlessness. There's plenty of scientific exposition and techno-babble in both high-concept films, of course, but Garland really does mood better than anything else—a low-key dread that builds and builds until it's punctured by a shock of violence.
And, it would appear, by the device of dance. [Spoilers ahead, obviously.] But where Oscar Isaac tearing up the f---in' dance floor in Ex Machina went viral because of the meme-ready disco vibes and delightfully twinned choreography with the A.I. fembot Kyoko (played by the model and dancer Sonoya Mizuno), the dancing in Annihilation is way weirder. The sequence arrives at the climax of Portman's journey into the Shimmer, an undulating, atmospheric force field caused by a meteor strike in the American south which has, we learn at the outset of the film, stolen some bodily or spiritual part of Portman's husband (Isaac), who went into the Shimmer and returned completely dilapidated.
In Portman's quest to find answers as to what ails her husband, she encounters an alternate country where everything—plants, animals, humans—is refracted and recombined. In other words, everything can be broken down to its genetic parts and mashed up into something new—or, apparently, copied and cloned, as she finds out when she reaches the core of the Shimmer's strange powers. There, she encounters her own double, who is first born as a faceless, humanoid form in a latex bodysuit. The actress inside the bodysuit is actually Mizuno, who once again perfectly mirrors her costar's movements as they begin to struggle with and fight against one another in a fluid choreography. The double appears to be learning to move like Portman by mimicking her, and Mizuno's evocation of this coming-to-consciousness is basically the story of singularity told as interpretative dance. Choreographed by the Israeli dancer Bobbi Jene Smith (and not, as I at first assumed, by Portman's husband Benjamin Millepied), it's beautiful and strange and, as with the best parts of Garland's movies, says a lot while remaining completely wordless.
ABC announces 100 TV stars in pursuit of athletic glory With Premiere Of 'Battle of the Network Stars' on June 29
In an ode to ABC's "Wide World of Sports," 100 TV stars from 14 different network and cable companies will take their athleticism to a new level as they compete - to feel "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" - in the revival of "Battle of the Network Stars," based on the '70s and '80s television pop-culture classic. The show premieres on Thursday, June 29 (9-10 p.m. EDT) on ABC.
The new "Battle of the Network Stars" will be a nostalgic throwback to the original series, where TV celebrities blended athleticism with hilarious antics while featuring an array of fan favorites from numerous TV series, including "Modern Family," "Pretty Little Liars," "Scandal," "Melrose Place," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "The Goldbergs," "How to Get Away with Murder," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "The Incredible Hulk," "The West Wing," "Dallas," "CHiPs" and "Law & Order."
The original series from ABC Sports began in 1976 and continued for 13 years. The 10-episode summer event will pit teams of current and classic TV stars from multiple eras and different genres against one another in a variety of athletic games. Viewers can look forward to seeing a fresh take at some of the classic show's sporting events - like tug of war, archery, kayak relay, obstacle course and dunk tank - all from the site of the original series, the campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
For this new version, fielding of the teams will be based on the TV characters people love from over the years to the current day - cops vs. TV sitcoms, White House vs. lawyers, TV moms & dads vs. TV kids, etc. In this way, viewers will get to see everyone's favorites from over the years, even if they spanned different networks at the time.
Here are the 20 teams (100 stars), blue and red, competing against each other in separate episodes with athletic contests of physical grace and stamina (* = returning to "Battle of the Network Stars"):