RARWRITER PUBLISHING GROUP PRESENTS

CREATIVE CULTURE JOURNAL

at www.RARWRITER.com      

--------------------"The best source on the web for what's real in arts and entertainment" ---------------------------

Volume 1-2016

MUSIC    BOOKS    FINE ARTS   FILM   THE WORLD

ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

                                 

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Use this link to add your email address to the RARWRITER Publishing Group mailing list for updates on activities associated with the Creative Culture and Revolution Culture journals, and other RARWRITER Publishing Group interests.

 

ABOUT RAR: For those of you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites. Use this link to visit the RAR music page, which features original music compositions and other.

Use this link to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which features excerpts from novels and other.

RARADIO

(Click here)

Currently on RARadio:

"On to the Next One" by Jacqueline Van Bierk

"I See You Tiger" by Via Tania

"Lost the Plot" by Amoureux"

Bright Eyes, Black Soul" by The Lovers Key

"Cool Thing" by Sassparilla

"These Halls I Dwell" by Michael Butler

"St. Francis"by Tom Russell & Gretchen Peters, performance by Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh; 

"Who Do You Love?"by Elizabeth Kay; 

"Rebirth"by Caterpillars; 

"Monica's Frock" by Signel-Z; 

"Natural Disasters" by Corey Landis; 

"1,000 Leather Tassels" by The Blank Tapes; 

"We Are All Stone" and "Those Machines" by Outer Minds; 

"Another Dream" by MMOSS; "Susannah" by Woolen Kits; 

Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities / news by A SECRET PARTY;

"I Miss the Day" by My Secret Island,  

"Carriers of Light" by Brendan James;

"The Last Time" by Model Stranger;

"Last Call" by Jay;

"Darkness" by Leonard Cohen; 

"Sweetbread" by Simian Mobile Disco and "Keep You" fromActress off the Chronicle movie soundtrack; 

"Goodbye to Love" from October Dawn; 

Trouble in Mind 2011 label sampler; 

Black Box Revelation Live on Minnesota Public Radio;

Apteka "Striking Violet"; 

Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get Along";

Dana deChaby's progressive rock

 

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Rick Alan Rice (RAR) Literature Page

ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM AMAZON.COM. Use this link.

CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects the building of America in a trilogy of novels collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores the development of the American West through the lens of public policy, land planning, municipal development, and governance as it played out in one of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious and cultural traditions that imbued the American Midwest with a special character that continues to have a profound effect on American politics to this day. Book One creates an understanding about America's cultural foundations that is further explored in books two and three that further trace the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as an icon in the development of a certain brand of American character. That's the serious stuff viewed from high altitude. The story itself gets down and dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the monumental to the sublime. The book features the epic poem "The Toiler" as well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard Padilla.

Elmore Leonard Meets Larry McMurtry

Western Crime Novel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am offering another novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado, 1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.

It is a ripping good yarn, filled with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950, when the story is set. Richard Padilla has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns. Use this link.

 

EXPLORE THE KINDLE BOOK LIBRARY

If you have not explored the books available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You will find classic literature there, as well as tons of privately published books of every kind. A lot of it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published books are awful, but some are truly classics. You can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works for two bucks.

You do not need to buy a Kindle to take advantage of this low-cost library. Use this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you can download for free a Kindle App for your computer, tablet, or phone.

Amazon is the largest, but far from the only digital publisher. You can find similar treasure troves atNOOK Press (the Barnes & Noble site), Lulu, and others.


 

 

 

Music Reviews

 

Georgia Rockers CUSSES Offer New EP in June

Angel Bond, Brian Lackey, and Bryan Harder formed CUSSES in the summer of 2009 and played their first show in February 2010. The band’s debut self-titled album hit #12 on the sub-modern charts in 2012. Hundreds of shows later and a bit of a break to make the best rock record they could, CUSSES announce the release of their first new recordings since.

On June 2, the Savannah, GA based trio will release a four-song EP Here Comes The Rat on their own label HA! RECORDS. The appropriately named album is a hint of what is to come with the band’s new full-length, Golden Rat.

CUSSES aren’t easy to define. However, their guitar driven, fuzzed-out brand of music may remind you of the era of hairspray, leather jackets, spandex, riot grrrl, and arenas full of smoke. It’s impossible to come away with any other conclusion than this: CUSSES are bringing real, effortless, speaker-blasting rock & roll. But at the same time, you can sense they are taking a bit of a jab at what stereotypical rock looks and sounds like.

This effort is the band’s second recording helmed by Billy Hume (producer for Ying Yang Twins) and Dan Hannon (producer for Manchester Orchestra). With these two gentlemen working with the band, the outcome is a gritty yet slick, loud-sounding machine.

Here Comes the Rat

 

The CCJ scores Here Comes the Rat with 2.5 musical rats out of a possible 4.

Track 1 - "Golden Rat" - The whole band is cooking on this first track, which is high energy, old-school, pop-punk. Lackey and Harder are playing their brains out, and Angel Bond performs the vocal powerfully and with a distinctive style, albeit it one we've heard before. CUSSES comes across as something like an homage to long-ago poppers like Josie Cotton, from the cocaine '80s. A lot of energy here.

Track 2 - "Sally and Her Tassels" - If "Golden Rat" was Josie Cotton, "Sally and Her Tassels" must be Missing Persons. Bond seems to love the Dale Bozio squeak style, which she does pretty well. This song probably plays great in the club. It starts with more promise than it finishes with. Where maybe one suspected they were going to get a nuanced melody, it all becomes a repeated chorus that doesn't seem to mean anything or have any purpose. This band is good, though. They may be about one move away from having breakout material, if there is any remaining market for '80s-era pop punk.

Track 3 - "I'm Gonna Get You" - Pretty much hair metal with a sassy vocal. Angel Bond is quite a powerful singer, with some vocal tricks in her bag. She cuts through the sound effectively with a vocal tool that demonstrates some surgical precision. This song gets musically more ambitious as it goes, and if you like big distorted guitar sounds you would probably be good with "I'm Gonna Get You."

Track 4 - "Teenage Monster" - This is right out of the same box as "Golden Rat", but it may be the best track on the EP. It speaks directly to some 19-year old who has a haunting in his or her future. "What does your life mean?" challenges Bond. That is sort of the question, isn't it? That has haunted more than a few head-banging 19-year olds. If this EP had three other tunes with the clarity and focus of "Teenage Monster" the CCJ would have given it more musical rats, possibly 3.5 out of 4. This is not a bad piece of work overall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Issue of Music Reviews

 

Music Review Archives - Use this Link

 

   

 

 

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