Music & More

Photo: Huffington Post Recently, I revisited two excellent films about Watergate, the realistic (based on true events) All The President's Men and the comedic fantasy Dick. I wanted to show Dick to someone who wasn't born yet at the time of Watergate, therefore the situation called for a refresher in the form of a screening of All The President's Men. All the President's Men (1976), directed by Alan J. Pakula The Watergate era ended on August 9, 1974 when Richard Nixon resigned the presidency and left the White House in disgrace. Before the year was out, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein published a book about how they investigated and broke the story of the Watergate scandal and cover-up. Two years later, the book became a major motion picture with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman starring as Woodward and Bernstein. The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Jason Robards won the Oscar for...

Photos courtesy of Myzica It's well known that Nashville is called Music City because it is the home of country music. What may not be so well known is the fact that Nashville is a hotbed of all kinds of music, not just country. A prime example of Nashville's musical diversity is Myzica, a pure pop duo that has just released their debut album Love & Desire on Peptalk Records. Myzica is composed of Micah Tawlks who writes, produces, and plays most of the instruments, and Isaaca Byrd who handles the vocals. Myzica came together in 2014 when they recorded their first single, “Ready Or Not.” According to their press release, this is how it happened. The roots of MYZICA can be traced back to spring 2014 in the hollows of Tawlks’ basement. After a few weeks of tinkering with the bones of some new tracks, he finished what would become the band’s first song, “Ready Or Not,” during a co-writing session with singer-songwriter Matthew Perryman Jones. He immediately turned to h...

Photos courtesy of Lydia Loveless One of the best things about writing a music blog is that when you hear a really great piece of music you can tell people about it, play some tracks, and show some video. This was precisely the thought I had when I first listened to Lydia Loveless' new album Real. It was a Friday, I was reading the list of new releases, as I like to do, sampling the ones that seem interesting. The Lydia Loveless was one of the records I marked for a complete listen that weekend. It turned out to be, in my opinion, the best new release of the week. It only took a minute or two to realize that I was hearing something special. The drums jumped out at me first. This is the guy you want drumming for your band, really solid, powerful drumming that locks in with the bass to propel the song. Then I noticed the guitars; they sounded so good together, the chunky rhythm guitar and the fiery lead guitar. Finally the vocals, so direct, so clear, so "real" if y...