CD Spins: Gaslight Anthem, Twilight Eclipse, Katie Melua, Fools for Rowan

Gaslight Anthem
American Slang
SideOne Dummy

How much real rock'n'roll is out there right now?  Yeah, not much. And then, there’s New Jersey’s The Gaslight Anthem. While the group’s debut Sink or Swim  did have a punkish garage rock ethic about it, the 2008 follow-up The ’59 Sound  was a move forward, and now there’s the band’s third album,  American Slang, confirming the emergence of a great American rock’n’roll band. Singer-guitarist Brian Fallon, guitarist Alex Rosamilia, bassist Alex Levine and drummer Benny Horowitz get even more ambitious, but are never pretentious. Far from it.

Touchstones like brother Bruce (they are from the Garden State, after all), Paul Westerberg and the like can still be found but the band’s truly arrived at its own distinctive sound, also at times recalling the early ‘90s, less polished Goo Goo Dolls.

From opening rush of “Stay Lucky” to the plaintive challenge of “Bring It Out,” to the finger-snap soulful “The Diamond Church Street Choir” and almost baroque “The Queen of Lower Chelsea,” the band smokes, cooks and also knows when to retreat for reflection.  Other highlights include the killer anthem charge of “Orphans” and “Boxer.”

Sure, you can play spot the influence a bit, but it's a good thing.  Think of artists past early on where inspirations have colored their records. With American Slang, The Gaslight Anthem has delivered one of the year’s truest rock’n’roll albums.  And really, we don’t get many of those anymore.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Soundtrack

Chop Shop Atlantic
The movie was the one guys could finally watch and the soundtrack, out for a few months now, is still in rotation in the wife's car and like the first two from the first two films, is a fine cross-section of major label (yet "alternative") and indie artists. You'll find the very Queen-like "Neutron Star Collision" by Muse, not one of the best, but okay, while the stripper pole bump-grind-and slither of The Black Keys' "Chop and Change" is mighty cool. Also of note are "Heavy in Your Arms" by Florence+The Machine, whose nu-soul-rock deserves a breakout before the year's end, and The Dead Weather's (aka Jack White's latest outfit) "Rolling in on a Burning Tire." There are some solid song picks from Sia, Unkle and Band of Horses, too, among others.  Everything's tagged at the end with a taste of the score in Howard Shore's effective "Jacob's Theme," if if you're not on his "team." What really makes it work? It's a soundtrack where it doesn't matter at all if you've seen the film. Also available: The Deluxe Edition and Twilight: Exlipse the Score. 

Katie Melua
The House
Dramatico
The come-hither cooing of Katie Melua, which made her first three blues-colored pop albums (especially 2006's Piece By Piece) so inviting gets a heavy production treatment her from William Orbit.  Still she hasn't gone all dance/electronic here. Yes, there are beat on the rise in "The Flood" and there might be a spinning glittery ball aboce in "Plague of Love," but if anything it's more of a slight shift into Sarah Brightman territory (as when she did Harem) rather than a full-on dance diva move. The best tracks harken back to her prior records, especially the acoustic "I'd Love to Kill You" and torchy waltz, "A Moment of Madness" and pining "The One I Love is Gone." Melua is almost sinister is "Twisted" then pulls back for the ending atmospheric and semi-ethereal title track. 

Fools for Rowan
Twisted, Tied Up Tangled
Lava Lamp Records
Discovered this band popping up on my Jango one day and I clicked the make 'em rather than break 'em. Fronted by singer Erin Mullins, think Paramore a few years ago and you'll get the idea. Fools for Rowan, out of Nashville, pretty much plays straight-ahead rock rather than punky suff, a touch decorous at times, yet honest.  The stand-out tracks are "Burnt Around the Edges," which was a single and the riff-slinging semi-title track "Tangled," along with bouncy  "It's Alright," and racing "Living Dangerously."  Pretty good stuff here, check 'em out.

'Twilight Eclipse' Review: One for Guys, Too

Finally, a Twilight film that won't make husbands and boyfriends squirm in their theater seats. 

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is a monsters-in-action movie first and a romance second. Which is okay. Really, aren't many films and TV shows in the genre dark romances as well? Think Buffy/Angel, Moonight, Dark Shadows and more.


It helps much that this third installment is helmed by David Slade, an actual horror film director(30 Days of Night) who also also gets teen-centered turmoil with tension (Hard Candy).  Previous directors Catherine Hardwicke on Twilight and Chris Weitz on New Moon each had a different style, the former quite indie yet too self-concious and the latter forced to deal with an unfortunately plodding first half of a story. 




Eclipse picks up where New Moon left off. A "newborn" is created and he becomes the vampire big bad until we learn the power behind the power (like it's hard to figure out). The cliffhanger ending of the prior film is resolved early on - or is it? Of course not. High schooler Bella (Kristen Stewart) is torn between eternally teenage vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) werewolf boy Jacob (Taylor Lautner).  While Jacob showed fire (and his abs, to teen and soccer mom screams) in the last movie, the sullen, emo Edward is now much more the dangerous vampire he'd been saying he was all this time. Yes, he still sparkles in the sun and has no fangs, but that's writer Stephenie Meyer's lore, dopey as it is (to some of us, sorry). 

Sinister new vamp Riley (Xavier Samuels) has raised a army and they don't just want human blood. So it's up to hero blood-suckers, the Cullens, to take them on. But they can't do it alone. Meanwhile, the evil Victoria, dressed from the Janis Joplin boutique, is back and wants revenge for the deaths of lover James and fellow vamp Laurent. Along the way, we also get additional back-stories of some Cullens, Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) and Rosalie (Nikki Reed), each tale filled with tragedy, plus there's the origin reveal of how Native American shapeshifters became werewolves. This is loads better than Bella journal confessions in voiceover and time spent with her Nik channel high school pals.  Still, the theme of graduation yields a funny line or two and some typical grad moments.


You can be sure that Twihards who've read all the books know how things will turn out.  And Eclipse appears to be a pretty faithful adaption of what's probably the most solid book in the series. While the love triangle is still at the center of the movie, it's the "good" vamps and werewolf alliance against "bad" vamps that drives the film and makes its watchable for guys.  

So, let's put it this way: Think Marvel Comics team-ups. You've got the X-Men of vampires (the Cullen clan, since each with their own extra "gift") joining forces with adversaries, the shapeshifting wolf pack (okay, they're not Magneto's Evil Brotherhood, but you get the idea).  It's the ol' the enemy of my enemy thing, a truce for their greater good against a greater evil. And it works. The action sequences, especially the big battle have more in common with fantasy films then the first two movies, though the Volturi ruling class of Italian vampires were fascinating and didn't get enough screen time in New Moon and thankfully, play a part here, led by Dakota Fanning, creepy with a nasty streak, too. 


What's obvious and wince-inducing?  The dangers of sex, as funneled through Meyer's Twi-world with restrictive Morman perceptions. There's nothing wrong with sticking to one's values, but It's all delivered in such a heavy-handed fashion. On the other hand, the Edward-Jacob rivalry is snipe-filled, with plenty of verbal and visual barbs for those who are one "team" or the other, leaving the rest of us to just be, well, a bit amused. 


Stewart is far more tolerable than her annoying, no-one-understands-me portrayal in the first two movies (but blame the character rather the actress). Pattinson is still brood boy, but gets to ah, sink his non-fang teeth into the role much more.  Lautner also gets greater range here, wearing all emotions on the outside as Jacob as opposed to internal-until-he-bursts Edward.  


There are several standouts in the rest of the cast, though all are quite settled into their respective roles. Billy Burke is especially good as Bella's local cop dad Charlie, who wants her away from Edwward, though still does not know about the vampires or werewolves (one of the flaws in this series as he is cleary no idiot).  Peter Facinelli plays Carlisle Cullen with continuing paternal grace, wisdom and even warmth for a "cold one" and Ashley Greene's Alice is still darn cute. Bryce Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3) takes over as Victoria from Rachelle Lefevre and does well enough with it, though Lefevre seemed to perhaps have a darker edge in the first film. 



Everything comes to a satisfying conclusion (not quite a happy ending for all, but...) and most plot threads are nicely sewn up. It could all end here as a trilogy but of course, there's one more book, Breaking Dawn and that's being divided into two films (milk that franchise) and could also be titled "The Volturi Confrontation," if you want a "hint" of where things are heading. But again, Twitards already know what's to come. Still, Eclipse is sure to make them happy, heck, giddy and this time, grumbling male companions won't be wishing they were in the theater next door watching something else. 

The X-Men of Sparkly Vampires?

'Twilight Breaking Dawn' Confirmed as Two-Parter

What "Twihards" (or "Twitards") 'round the world already knew has been confirmed by Summit Entertainment.  In an official press release, the studio announced that The Twilight Sage: Breaking Dawn will be released as two films, with the first due in theaters on November 18, 2011.  



"Academy Award-winner Bill Condon will direct both films starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner along with Billy Burke as Charlie Swan as well as returning members of the Cullen Family including Peter Facinelli as Carlisle, Elizabeth Reaser as Esme, Jackson Rathbone as Jasper, Nikki Reed as Rosalie, Ashley Greene as Alice and Kellan Lutz as Emmett," the release said. No date has been named for part-time, but it's likely set for the late spring or early summer of 2012.

The two-parter is based on the fourth novel in author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and is currently being written by Melissa Rosenberg with Wyck Godfrey, Karen Rosenfelt and Stephenie Meyer producing. Production will start this fall.


Meanwhile, the third movie, Eclipse, arrives in theaters soon, on June 30 and the soundtrack was released this week, featuring some of the hottest names in modern rock.  Look for a review here soon on That Writer Guy. 


Some may adore the books and films, some may loathe it all, but there's no denying Twilight in all incarnations has become a multi-media pop culture phenomenon.