Nick Piunti is a maestro when it comes to crafting catchy, hook-laden songs that embrace the aura of classic power pop, while also providing a fresh take on the genre. He and his band, The Complicated Men, delighted and impressed fans with their last two remarkable full-length releases, Downtime and Heart Inside Your Head. Their latest album, Up and Out of It, is yet another exceptional collection of scintillating tunes that you'll without a doubt add to your list of power pop favorites. If you dig melodic, guitar-centric rock and roll, this fabulous record will definitely have you smiling from ear to ear.
Up and Out of It kicks off with the one-two punch of “Seasick" and “Bottle It,” a pair of fantastic tracks which are effervescent expressions of the band’s love for pop-infused rock, which is also evident on songs like “Get The Feeling” and “Rejection Letter.” There are also several excellent tracks on the album which offer a slightly different vibe, including the edgy “Above Water” and the reflective “Long Way Down.” These terrific tunes sound just as compelling as the group’s signature pop/rock tunes. As usual, Piunti composed the lion’s share of the songs on the record, but guitarist Joe Daksiewicz co-wrote the rocking “I’m Ready” and the pop-tastic “Mind Reader,” both of which are highlights of the album.
Piunti's marvelous lead vocals and guitar are complimented by the superb work of The Complicated Men, whose all-star lineup consists of the aforementioned Daksiewicz on lead guitar, Jeff Hupp on bass, Kevin Darnall on keyboards and Ron Vensko on drums. The band obviously loves playing together, and their top-notch talents and undeniable chemistry are fully on display throughout the album. By the time you get to enjoying “Eyelids” and “On The Ropes,” the scintillating tracks which close out the record, you'll absolutely be reaching for that replay button so you can listen to this incredible record again.
The excellent songs on Up and Put of It amply display Piunti's growth as an artist and songwriter. He has found a way to evoke the classic power pop and modern rock sounds of the 80s while also creating earworm-laden tunes that sound fresh and original. These songs will absolutely get stuck in your head, and touch your heart. If you're already a fan, or even if you're new to Piunti and The Complicated Men, you owe it to yourself to check out this brilliant record. Up and Out of It will be released on JEM Records on Friday, October 18. For more info go to: https://jemrecordings.com/ and https://www.nickpiunti.com/. Here are links to "Bottle It" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gahDSxsfEP0 and “Get The Feeling” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PCsM0ih-fE.
John V's Eclectic Avenue
A blog of reviews, thoughts & commentary on movies, music & books.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Piunti's Latest Shines with Power Pop Brilliance
Friday, October 4, 2024
"Alien: Romulus" Explores Familiar Territory
Not many cinematic franchises have taken the kind of wild stylistic swings throughout their existence as the Alien series. Starting with 1979's eponymous original, the films have shifted gears from visceral horror to action-oriented sci-fi and on to cyberpunk, and explored concepts like cloning and genetic experimentation, tossing in a bit of philosophical and religious discourse along the way. Acclaimed directors such as Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet have put their stamp on the series, some more successfully than others. Throughout all of its iterations, those menacing (and very agile) xenomorphs have loomed large in the center of the Alien universe. Alien: Romulus, the latest entry in the saga, takes a deep dive into the body horror and weird science angles of the franchise. The movie also features quite a few homages and callbacks to previous films in the series.
Directed and co-written by Fede Alvarez, Alien: Romulus tells the story of a young woman named Rain, who's stuck in a dead-end job on a mining colony. When the Weyland-Yutani Corporation (remember them?) unfairly extends her work contract, she gets involved with a group of co-workers who have hatched a plan to salvage cryogenic pods from a derelict ship in orbit around their planet. The idea is to use the pods to put themselves in cryo-sleep, and travel to a planet where they have a chance at a better life. Rain brings along her adopted brother Andy, who’s an android the group will need to interface with the ship's computer systems. There are just a couple of obstacles standing (or slithering) in their way. The ship, whose orbit is decaying, turns out to be a space station, and it’s infested with some deadly (and very familiar) creatures. There's also an artificial crew-member aboard the station who clearly doesn't have the group's best interests in mind.
Alvarez proved with his Evil Dead remake and the offbeat thriller Don't Breathe that he knows how to build suspense and amp up the onscreen tension. He and co-writer Rodo Sayaguez have created a story that leans heavily into the body horror aspects of the series, and they do introduce a couple of cool ideas into the mythology. Alien: Romulus features several exciting set pieces, but there's a sense of deja vu to the movie, as some of these sequences echo things we’ve seen in earlier entries in the series. There’s also a CGI recreation of a character from the original film that some viewers may find distracting. On the plus side, the movie is undeniably well-crafted, and the cinematography, production design and the special effects (many of which were achieved in old school practical fashion) are quite impressive.
Cailee Spenny as Rain and David Jonsson as Andy are quite good, but the rest of the cast doesn’t get to make much of an impression in their roles before they’re killed by the aliens. Alien: Romulus is exciting and well-produced, and in addition to the visual callbacks to other films, the score by Benjamin Wallfisch does an excellent job of quoting some of the musical motifs from previous composers such as Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. The movie, which takes place between the first and second films in the series, is worth checking out, though it doesn’t quite propel the saga as far forward into new territory as it could have. The next chapter of the Alien story will be Alien: Earth, a TV show from Noah Hawley, the guiding light of the Fargo TV series. Here’s the trailer for Alien: Romulus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzY2r2JXsDM.
Friday, September 20, 2024
Rule Britannia Blogathon: Moore is "Haunted"
Friday, September 13, 2024
These "Embers" Glow For A Worthy Cause
It's no surprise that musicians are often some of the first ones to step up and offer their assistance in the wake of tragedies which affect people's lives. One of the most recent examples of this is Artists for Maui – Embers of Aloha: A Maui Wildfire Benefit Project, an album which was spearheaded by Lisa Mychols and Eddie Finley. The devastating wildfires that raged in Maui last year caused significant property damage, destroying homes and businesses, leaving many residents homeless. Longtime radio host and local resident Michael McCartney, whose own home was damaged by the fires, started a GoFundMe effort to aid island residents affected by these horrible events, and he kept people informed with updates about the fires and their aftermath.
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Retro TV: Irwin Allen's Land of the Giants
Before he was the producer of disaster epics like The Poseidon Adventure,
Irwin Allen was the pre-eminent purveyor of prime-time TV sci-fi in the
mid to late 1960s, with several shows running throughout the latter
half of the decade. Recently, I've been
celebrating Allen's work here at Eclectic Avenue, and this week, I'm shining the spotlight on an episode of
Land of the Giants. The series was Allen's fourth and final out of this world adventure series of the 1960s. Land of the Giants ran for two seasons, from 1968-70.
The show featured the adventures of the crew and passengers of the
Spindrift, a sub-orbital craft which passed through a strange
spatial disturbance on its way to London. The space warp transports them
to a world where they're mini-sized, and everything else is
well....gigantic. The cast included Gary Conway, Don Matheson,
Deanna Lund, Don Marshall, Stefan Arngrim, Kurt Kaznar and Heather Young.
Saturday, August 31, 2024
A Trio of Investigators Search for True "Evil"
Mike Colter in Evil |
Does true supernatural evil exist in the world, and if it does, what form does it take? What can be done to combat it? These are some of the questions and themes explored in Evil, a thought-provoking, chilling and entertaining series from Robert and Michelle King, who also created The Good Wife. The series stars Mike Colter (aka Marvel's Luke Cage) as David Acosta, a man who's studying to be a priest. David is trying to reconcile his belief in God with some doubts he has about his faith based on his personal experiences. He's been assigned by the Vatican to investigate supernatural occurrences, such as possible cases of demonic possession, to determine if they are real, and can be verified.
Helping David in his task are Ben Shakir, portrayed by Aasif Mandvi, an avowed atheist who's the team's technical and scientific expert, and their newest member, Dr. Kristen Bouchard, a forensic psychologist who's testified as an expert witness at a number of high profile murder trials. David initially asks Kristen to help out with the case of Orson LeRoux, a man who's committed several brutal murders. His wife claims he's possessed by a demon, but the prosecution believes he's a serial killer.
The LeRoux case brings the team into conflict with Dr. Leland Townsend, a clever psychologist who seems to know more about the LeRoux case than he's telling. The sinister Townsend appears to possess otherworldly powers, and definitely has malicious intent. He undermines Kristen's professional standing, and sabotages her testimony. Meanwhile, the team tries to determine if LeRoux actually is possessed, or faking the symptoms as part of an insanity plea. It's just the first of many cases that the team will study together, many of them bringing them into conflict with the manipulative Dr. Townsend.
Evil has a bit of an X-Files vibe, combined with the horror content of films like The Exorcist and The Omen. David is the Mulder-esque believer of the group, while Ben and Kristen are the more skeptical, Scully style members of the trio. What's refreshing about the series is that while there's a lot of eerie content, and some truly terrifying scenes, there are no easy or concrete answers to the mysteries the group investigates. The conclusions about what really happened are often left up to the viewer.
Mike Colter is terrific as the troubled David, and Katja Herbers is fantastic as Kristen, who's propelled into a world she doesn't understand, and haunted by forces that threaten her life, and the safety of her family. Aasif Mandvi is wonderful as Ben, imbuing the tech expert with a sly wit that belies the character's own doubts regarding the veracity of the team's odd experiences. Michael Emerson is superb as the diabolical Dr. Townsend, who just might be something more than just a wicked human being. The talented supporting cast includes Christine Lahti, Boris Ingster and Peter Scolari, as well as many other familiar faces.
Monday, August 19, 2024
Spelling Blogathon: Satan's School For Girls
Pamela Franklin and Kate Jackson |
If you were a television viewer from the mid 1960s and on through into the1970s, 1980s and 1990s, chances are you watched weekly series such as The Mod Squad, The Rookies, Starsky & Hutch and The Love Boat, or checked out made for TV movies like The Ballad of Andy Crocker, Murder on Flight 502 and The Boy In The Plastic Bubble. All of these projects (and many, many more) were produced by the one and only Aaron Spelling, who had a long, prolific, and much celebrated career in the entertainment business.
Spelling produced series and films that sprawled across many genres, including comedies, romance, action-adventure tales, thrillers, detective stories, and science-fiction and horror. One of his most fondly remembered telefilms is the 1973 terror tale Satan’s School For Girls, which first aired on ABC in 1973. When her sister Martha’s mysterious death is ruled a suicide, Elizabeth Sayers enrolls in the exclusive Salem Academy For Women, where Martha was a student. She’s determined to find out what really happened to her sibling. Elizabeth is befriended by several of the students, but as she settles into her surroundings, it becomes crystal clear there are a lot of odd things going on at this very private school.
As Elizabeth’s investigation continues, eerie occurrences and further deaths occur. Who’s behind it all? Is it Mrs. Williams, the quirky and ineffectual headmistress? Perhaps it’s the acerbic Professor Delacroix, who verbally torments the students in his classes? Surely it can’t be the handsome Dr. Joseph Campbell, the well-liked teacher who regularly holds all the students in his class spellbound? Well, this is of course, the Salem Academy For Women, so it’s just possible that that some of the students and the staff know a lot more more than they’re telling. When Elizabeth discovers the frightening truth lurking behind the doors of the school, it all leads to a hellish finale.
Satan’s School For Girls features a superb cast, filled to the brim with faces that are quite familiar to fans of classic television and film. Horror veteran Pamela Franklin (The Legend of Hell House) is excellent as Elizabeth and Roy Thinnes (best known as David Vincent on The Invaders) is fantastic as Dr. Campbell. Lloyd Bochner (who was often cast as a villain on 1960s and 70s TV series) is delightfully over the top as the ill-fated Delacroix. The cast also includes Kate Jackson (The Rookies) and Cheryl Stopplemoor (aka Cheryl Ladd) who would later team up on Aaron Spelling’s hit series, Charlie’s Angels.
The atmospheric direction by David Lowell Rich, the enjoyably creepy script by Arthur Ross, and the top notch cast explain why Satan’s School For Girls is fondly remembered by many of us who saw it on its first run, or subsequent rebroadcasts during afternoon and late movie showcases later in the decade. Lowell Rich was also behind the camera for another classic small screen tale of of the supernatural, The Horror at 37,000 Feet, which featured William Shatner, Tammy Grimes and Salem Academy's favorite teacher, Roy Thinnes.
Satan’s School for Girls was remade (also as a TV movie) in 2000. This version of the story starred Shannon Doherty in the central role and featured Kate Jackson in the role of the headmistress, played by Jo Van Fleet in the 1973 version. The cast also includes Taraji P. Henson and Julie Benz. Executive produced by Spelling, the remake lacks some of the retro charm and old school fun of the original, but is still worth a look for fans of the macabre. You might might be a fan of his glitzy series like Dynasty and Melrose Place, but when Aaron Spelling set out to scare us, he did a really good job. Other spooky tales of Spelling-branded television terror include The House That Would Not Die, Crowhaven Farm and Home For The Holidays.
This post is part of the (Aaron) Spellingverse Blogathon, hosted by Gil over at his blog, Reelweegiemidget reviews. I’d like to thank him inviting me to participate! Follow this link for more info: https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/blogathons/blogathons-2024/news-whos-doing-what-in-aaron-spellingverse-blogathon-2024/.