Blogcritics Author: Kate C. Harding

Why Aren't You Watching Friday Night Lights?

Kate C. Harding — Sat, 6 Oct 2007 12:43:33 EDT

Friday Night Lights has moved to Friday. Why are more of you not watching this show? Not a fan of high school dramas or football? Not reason enough.
Shame on you, NBC, for moving the critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights to your Friday night 9pm slot. Perhaps it is more fitting, what with the name of the show, but I worry that the move will send this fantastic program into primetime oblivion, losing even the rabid core of fans that stuck with it through all of last season.Now to you, dear...

DVD Review: Bosom Buddies - The Second Season

Kate C. Harding — Thu, 4 Oct 2007 20:45:50 EDT

Tom Hanks can play anything, even play a man dressing as a woman. Wait... he did do that. And it was fantastic.
I am pretty much convinced that Tom Hanks can play any character and make it convincing. He has made movies that I did not particularly like, but I loved him in them. I think he could even play a man dressing as a woman to get a cheap apartment in an all women’s building. Wait... he did do that. And it was fantastic.Bosom Buddies was a sitcom...

Concert Review: Yellowcard At The House Of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC

Kate C. Harding — Wed, 3 Oct 2007 03:17:32 EDT

Jacksonville, Florida's Yellowcard are some of the finest live musicians out there. Give them a shot. You won�t regret it.
I recently wrote a glowing review of the new album from pop-punkers Yellowcard, Paper Walls. It features some of their strongest music to date and a renewed energy that eclipses line-up changes, rumors of band dissention, and slow album sales.It was with that in mind that I descended upon the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach recently, to take in a...

Get Involved with ThinkMTV: Youth-Oriented Social Activism Goes Online

Kate C. Harding — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:56:07 EDT

In a gound-breaking step, MTV launches a website aimed at helping our young adults to get involved and change the world.
Just imagine sitting in Las Vegas and watching the popular starlet of the day bomb during a half-hearted, lip-synched performance at the VMAs (that’s Video Music Awards for those of you who have been living under a rock the past two weeks). Then imagine watching it in person. It could happen to you, and all for doing just a little bit of...

Music Review: New Found Glory - From the Screen to Your Stereo Part 2

Kate C. Harding — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:04:13 EDT

New Found Glory drops one of the best albums of their career today with 11 covers of songs you know and love from movies you adore.
I’m not a big cover song lover. Unless it’s Florida based New Found Glory doing the covering. Now entering their tenth year together as a band, this five piece pop-punk powerhouse are often considered some of the forefathers of the genre. Their infectious energy, accessibility, and dedicated touring garnered them a rabid following in...

The Starting Line and The Almost Hit the Road

Kate C. Harding — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:09:43 EDT

Featuring pop-punk and rock up-and-comers Paramore, The Starting Line, and The Almost, this is one fall tour you don't want to miss.
Armed with a new hit single (“Island”) making the rounds on MTV and MTV2, and a new album, Direction, receiving more critical praise than their previous efforts, Philadelphia pop-punkers The Starting Line are hitting the road for a much anticipated tour.Formed when lead singer/lyricist Kenny Vasoli was just 15-years-old, The Starting...

Music Review: The Pietasters - All Day

Kate C. Harding — Wed, 5 Sep 2007 07:42:24 EDT

After 17 years together, several albums, and 14 past members, The Pietasters are back with a new studio album.
With a name meaning “fat guys” in British slang, there is no telling what you might get from the currently eight piece Pietasters. Loosely formed in 1990 as a punk cover band, it wasn’t long before they found there was more fun to be had in covering tunes from the likes of ska biggies The Specials and Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Ska,...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Music Review: The Starting Line - Direction

Kate C. Harding — Thu, 9 Aug 2007 01:24:13 EDT

Pop-punk took the world by storm with the arrival of New Found Glory and their high energy video for “Hit or Miss.” It got great rotation on MTV2 when MTV2 used to be for music you couldn’t see on MTV. You remember. Back when it was not all rap videos. Sorry…I’m a little bitter.NFG paved the way for many bands to come, most notably the current superstars Fall Out Boy. But before FOB there were a bevy of bands, formerly on Drive-Thru Records just like New Found Glory, who finally got some recognition after several years of constant touring. Enter The Starting Line. Their debut full-length album, Say It Like You Mean It, featured their undeniably infectious style of catchy pop-rock. “The Best of Me” was one of those anthems that had teenage girls swooning, 20-something guys bouncing around at shows, and record moguls steepling their fingers in scary interpretations of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. On the back of “The Best of Me,” that album sold over 300,000 copies. Not a bad deal for a young group of guys on an indie label. Following friends NFG, The Starting Line made the huge, and possibly much too early, leap to Geffen Records. They hit, what we like to cutely call, a major sophomore slump. Dropped in 2005, Based On a True Story, was an interesting album, but a bit confusing to long-time fans expecting the hook-laden pop feel of SILYMI. What they got was a much darker, much harder sound. And more importantly, the album was just downright depressing. It is not that it wasn’t a good album. The songs were such lyrical 180’s from the previous album that it felt like listening to a different band entirely. What did not help was that Geffen, whether just acting the negligent label or concerned about the new sound, did not give Based On a True Story any support. Sales were extremely disappointing.The band, still boasting its original four members, begged to be released from their contract and immediately signed with Virgin Records. What we have gotten as a result, is Direction.Direction, for me, is a perfect mix of SILYMI and BOATS (that’s a terrible acronym, isn’t it?). The hooks are memorable enough that you will find yourself humming them the minute you turn off the stereo. It is power pop that will certainly translate live and that will keep your head bopping in tune. Conversely it is also more mature subject matter. No longer stories of a boy missing a girl. Now we get a direct look into what has been going on in lead singer and bassist Kenny Vasoli’s head during the wild journey his band has taken.The main lyricist for the band, Vasoli is to be commended for his honest approach to this album. He seems to have found his writing stride, settling into an aesthetic that works for him and works for the kind of music that The Starting Line is best at writing. The title track is clearly about the backlash, on both the music and the personal lives of the band, that followed the release of Based on a True Story. When he writes “Breakdown/I’ve been breaking sweats in the night time/I was growing my hair/and I could not care,” his frustration is laid bare and it is beautiful.Even better, his conviction shows in his singing. It has been a pleasure to listen to Vasoli grow up. His voice is more powerful than it has been on any of the band’s albums to date, particularly on the title track, which is a fast-paced rock romp that recalls their pop roots but shows an interest in going to a whole new plane.The first single off the album, “Island,” is definitely more on the pop side of things with a catchy refrain that I didn’t love at first but which has grown on me. The bridge has some inspired percussion that really will take you to the tropics. This would not have been my first choice of a single, but it might just be the bridge that will draw older fans that were lost during the BOATS era back to this new album.There are a few problems through the middle of the album. I love The Starting Line acoustic because it well suited to their sound and Vasoli’s voice is still what can only be described as pure. “Something Left to Give” starts out beautiful, but near the end a chorus of “la, la, la’s” is distracting and really takes away from the track.Perhaps one of TSL’s best tracks to date, though, is “Way With Words.” It is a song that could slide easily onto radio of today and it is a perfect snapshot of what The Starting Line is all about – those self-aware lyrics mixed with sing-a-longability. To make a long review…well, long…Direction has brought us a new The Starting Line. They’ve grown up and they are damn proud of it. Look no further than the lyrics of “Somebody’s Gonna Miss Us.” “If SILYMI still is all you want/then I’m not sure/how much in common we’ve got.” Look out world. The Starting Line is letting their sound evolve and they don’t care if you like it or not.

Kate Harding's brain contains an abnormal amount of entertainment (read: useless) knowledge. It is the reason that she did not do better in school and why she often can't remember why she walked into a room. Kate can be found managing a non-profit art gallery and talking endlessly about music.

DVD Review: Full House - The Complete Seventh Season

Kate C. Harding — Mon, 6 Aug 2007 10:00:49 EDT

I am not ashamed to admit it. In the late '80s I was a fan of Full House. It began its eight season run in 1987 when I was just seven years old. While slow to get rolling in the ratings, this little girl was instantly drawn in by the happy family of three daughters, a widower father, and two uncles all living under one San Franciscan roof. Let us not kid ourselves. It is treacly, over the top, and often downright sappy. But really, isn’t that what kids, especially young girls, love? Maybe things have changed, but the world of television was still a pretty pure place in the twilight years of ABC’s "TGI Friday" block of viewing. It was fun to watch DJ (Candace Cameron) tackle her kissing problems, or Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin of more recent Pants Off, Dance Off fame) struggle with school. And more importantly, it was downright dreamy to watch one of my earliest crushes, John Stamos, parade around with his perfect Uncle Jesse hair.About a third of the way through its successful run, Full House made it into the Nielsen Top 30 and stayed there pretty consistently. I stopped watching when I entered middle school, and despite its complete accessibility thanks to syndication, have not watched it since. I could sing you the theme song in a heartbeat, though.So it was with great nostalgia that I sat down to watch the seventh season of Full House, out this week on Warner Brothers Entertainment. Twenty-four squeaky clean episodes featuring the original cast of characters, plus a few more. It runs a lengthy 572 minutes of comedy that really is, especially in comparison to sitcoms today, completely family friendly.Season seven is thought by many to be the last good season of the show. Season eight was plagued by budget cuts, talk of the show moving to the upstart WB, and an abrupt cancellation. It finds the Tanners facing new challenges (DJ’s boyfriend has his own apartment!), Uncle Jesse and his wife Becky raising their twin sons (and have to learn to tell them no!), and the dating troubles of family patriarch Danny and Uncle Joey.The thing I was most struck by in watching this show again, now as a 27-year-old, was how well Bob Saget plays the mega-straight-laced Danny Tanner. He should be laughable, but is actually quite endearing. He is believable both as a concerned and over-protective father, but also as a datable man. Probably not an easy combination to nail when you’re also playing an obsessive compulsive neat freak.To be honest, though, it was as I expected. The show is so bigger than life with all of its jokes that it makes the whole thing hard to take as an adult. I could do completely without the character of Joey Gladstone, as he is the biggest offender when it comes to predictable but unfunny jokes and painful-to-watch physical gags.Season seven is one of the seasons that features the most storylines revolving around youngest Tanner daughter Michelle, famously played by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. While the plots are cute (Michelle scores on the wrong goal during her first soccer game or Michelle steals a pet bunny from summer camp), I was a little surprised by the Olsens' forced acting and relative un-cuteness. I remember them being adorable. But in this season, they are hugely upstaged by the lovable Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit, who play Nicky and Alex Katsopolis.It is clear as season seven draws to a close that the producers and writers were struggling to come up with fresh ideas. Many of the same morals seem to be replayed and the episode entitled “To Little Richard Too Late” is totally unwatchable as Michelle’s school art program gets cut and Joey runs for PTA president. Please, Dave Coulier, “cut … it … out.” Sorry, couldn’t resist.All in all, though, if you are a diehard fan of this show, you might enjoy the DVD. Be aware, there are no special features to be had, which is a bit of a disappointment. I think the whole thing would have benefited from a few cast interviews or behind the scenes footage. And if you aren’t up for two dozen episodes, I recommend keeping an eye out for the ones titled “Tough Love” and “Love on the Rocks.” They are by far some of the best of the series.

Concert Review: Van's Warped Tour - Charlotte, NC

Kate C. Harding — Wed, 1 Aug 2007 08:38:20 EDT

July 23rd in Charlotte, North Carolina was my fourth time attending the Van’s Warped Tour. It has always been one of my favorite summer events. It is a spectacular chance to see dozens of live rock and alternative bands all in one place. This year’s line-up in Charlotte (it is slightly different at each venue and region of the country) boasted such varied acts as Circa Survive, Underoath, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Vincent Black Shadow, and heavy punk rockers Bad Religion.Every time that I attend I am endlessly impressed with the planning and precision that must take place. Hundreds of vans and trucks roll into town and a flurry of set up ensues (think 6+ stages and various booths of every incarnation). The show runs like clockwork with a band hitting each stage alternately for a thirty minute set. As soon as one band finishes, another band starts on the next stage over. By the time they are done playing, the first stage is set up for a new group and on they play from 11am until 9pm. It is all a bit mind boggling, completely well run, and what it means for the music lover is that at any given moment in that 10 hour period, you can find a band playing live on one of the many stages. Whew. I am exhausted just thinking about it.This year I got the chance to see Warped Tour through new eyes. I took my 12-year-old niece and 15-year-old nephew along for the ride and they were, needless to say, a bit overwhelmed by the availability and variety of music to be had. There is hardcore, metal-core, emo, ska, punk, pop-punk, reggae, and… oh, forget it. There is a ton of music, okay? What they loved the most, though, is what I have always said is the greatest draw of the Warped Tour. It gives you the opportunity to experience music you have never heard before… in completely tolerable doses. If you love a band, great. Go buy their album and a t-shirt. If you don’t, they are done playing in thirty minutes. If you get to your local venue on time and catch a band every thirty minutes or so, figure in some bathroom breaks and a chance to eat, you could see 25+ bands. Not bad for the $22 admission cost.The first band that I caught in Charlotte was Bless the Fall. They are a fairly young group and while I like their Saosin-esqe upbeat rock, they did not seem suited to such an open venue. They seemed lost amidst such a large stage, swarming crowd, and open-air acoustics. They would be much better suited to a smaller venue.Next on my schedule for the day was Big D and the Kids Table. There have not been a lot of ska bands out in the past few years, save Catch 22, who I really love, but this is a band with some serious ska chops. Their live show did not disappoint. Their horn section is incredibly true live, their lead singer dynamic, and the crowd absolutely loved them. And then, sigh, New Found Glory. I have been a long time fan of this band and they have never disappointed live. This set was no exception with little talk and a whole lot of high energy pop-punk from a band who set the rules for the genre. I would have loved more tracks off of their eponymous album, but the best treat was a teaser from their upcoming From the Screen to Your Stereo Part 2, a cover of the pop hit “Kiss Me.” The only complaint here is that they played so early in the day. They will forever be headliners in my heart. Buffalo, NY rockers Cute is What We Aim For have steadily been amassing a cult following and their fans were out in force. Their 1:30pm set was packed and they played a steady stream of their snarky, tongue-in-cheek fun pop hits. Lead singer Shaant Hacikyan is completely engaging live. One of the bands I was most looking forward to seeing live for the first time was the power-pop band All Time Low. I think their song “Coffeeshop Soundtrack” is a pop-rock masterpiece and their album is so full of energy I find is addictive. Live, though, I was quite disappointed. The energy from the album is lost and, as such, this particular fan lost interest in the live show after just a few songs. Two of the highlights for me were The Starting Line and Paramore. These are two bands I have long been a fan of. The Starting Line is back with a new album and, seemingly, some new-found confidence. They owned the stage, despite a lackluster crowd, and the first single, “Island,” from their new album was made to be played live. Paramore, the Tennesse based quartet of pop-rock goodness, has the good fortune to be fronted by one of the most powerful female singers of the 20-something generation. Hayley Williams is teeny-tiny but has a mega-large voice. I was blown away to hear that her voice sounds equally as amazing live as it does on the band’s most recent album, Riot! She is a force to be reckoned with and I highly recommend seeing this band live at any chance you get.The award for the most surprising band of the day, though, goes to regee/punk fusion hipsters Pepper from that beautiful state of Hawaii. I had never heard of them before and was drawn to their show from a merchandise booth simply by the power of their sound. It is cool, mellow, and very island inspired. Don’t be fooled though. These boys can rock their jams with blistering guitar riffs and some killer drum solos. Definitely one of the most unique acts of the tour this year.On the downside, Charlotte’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheater dropped the ball, as usual. By 3 pm they had run out of all food except popcorn and nachos and had sold all of their cold water and were left only with hot bottles that had been in a storeroom somewhere. Considering the heat coming off of the asphalt was over 95 degrees, not a good situation. All said, though, this was one of the best Van’s Warped Tours I have been too. I highly recommend checking out any of the upcoming dates that might be in your area. The tour is currently making its way through the Northeast, up into Canada, back down through Kansas and Idaho, and then they round things out with several dates in California. And while you are there, don’t forget to help out your favorite band by buying some merchandise. Most of the artists will reward you by hanging out in their booth all day to say “hey” and sign whatever your little heart desires. Visit the Vans Warped Tour website for more information.