Record Rewind 2.0

  Many people know The Fold as that band who did the theme song for “LEGO Ninjago,” but that barely scratches the surface. Not only did they write multiple songs for the series, but they’ve also been putting out original material since the early 2000s. To me, their third studio album, “Dear Future, Come Get Me,” is their most intriguing because it provides a snapshot of the band right before they hit it big with “The Weekend Whip.” “Dear Future, Come Get Me” was released on Oct. 6, 2009 as The Fold’s first independent release after leaving Tooth & Nail Records. The Chicago quartet worked with Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount, who previously mixed their previous album “Secrets Keep You Sick.”  Interestingly, the album seems to bridge the gap between two different band lineups. While Dan Castady, Aaron Green, Mike Emmons and Keith Mochel played on the recordings – with Mochel even co-producing –  by the time the album was released, the band consisted of Castady, his brother ...

One year ago, Apple’s romantic dramedy “Fly Me to the Moon” took the motto of “fake it til you make it” to its logical extreme. The film’s premise pokes fun at conspiracy theories that posit the moon landing in 1969 was staged by centering around a NASA team tasked with fixing NASA’s public image leading up to the Apollo 11 mission, later staging a backup moon landing, in case the real one fails. The project, codenamed Project Artemis, is led by marketing specialist Kelly Jones, played by Scarlett Johansson, who clashes with Apollo 11’s launch director Cole Davis, played by Channing Tatum, until they fall in love. When it comes to romantic movies, no matter how interesting the premise is, a main couple without romantic chemistry can bring the whole thing down. Luckily, Johansson and Tatum have great chemistry and play off each other very well. This is especially evident from their witty banter and more intimate interactions. Their individual characters are engaging on their own as w...

  For over 20 years, Avril Lavigne has toed the line between pop and rock across seven studio albums. But “Goodbye Lullaby,” her often-overlooked fourth album, toes that line the most of any in her discography. In recent years, however, the album’s singles have seen a surge in popularity among younger listeners discovering her for the first time. Does the album as a whole deserve a reappraisal? Lavigne debuted in 2002 with her pop punk-rooted “Let Go,” achieving mainstream success with the sound years before Fall Out Boy, Paramore and other bands would blow the lid off the genre. But by the time they had circa 2007, she had already begun turning her musical dial more toward pop with “The Best Damn Thing,” which divided critics but spawned her only No. 1 single so far, “Girlfriend.” Lavigne began work on her next album in November 2008. The focus this time around was to present a stripped-down approach to her sound, starting out with minimal instruments and adding more later. The in...