Rick Springfield’s Beginnings: Younger Than Tomorrow, Wise As Yesterday

By Cait Brennan

I can’t prove this, but I suspect Rick Springfield‘s career began with the discovery of a magic lamp. A magic lamp with a particularly devious Jinn contained therein. Since he was a teenager, Springfield has been on the receiving end of some of the luckiest breaks a young rocker could’ve wished for in his wildest dreams. Yet too many of them went inexplicably off the rails despite his formidable talents. Such was his major-label debut, the indispensable, shoulda-been-a-smash Beginnings, released in 1972 on Capitol and recently reissued by a great new label called Real Gone Music. It’s one of 1972′s best albums, and one of the best you’ll hear in 2012, too.
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Assemblog: Less Lee Moore, April 20, 2012

Dick Clark: 1929 – 2012

Today I’m introducing a new feature on Popshifter, the Assemblog: a collection of what has captured my attention this week, pop-culturally speaking.

New on Popshifter this week: a spoiler-free review of Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s remarkable The Cabin in the Woods and praise for Who Cooks For You?, the latest release from Johnny Headband. (more…)

Johnny Headband, Who Cooks For You?

By Less Lee Moore

Who Cooks For You? is the latest release from Detroit’s Johnny Headband, featuring brothers Chad and Keith Thompson (the latter of Electric Six), plus Gerald Roesser and and Robbie Saunders. Like the music itself, Who Cooks For You? poses an unanswered (or unanswerable) question: Who (or what) is Johnny Headband? Who Cooks For You? seems familiar yet it’s not beholden to current “indie” music trends; it refuses to be pigeonholed but all the same, it is one ridiculously enjoyable album. Who Cooks For You? crams a lot of flavor into its 35 minutes.
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Letters To Kurt by Eric Erlandson

By Emily Carney

Whether you liked Nirvana or not, if you grew up in the 1990s, your cultural map was dotted with the band’s landmark accomplishments. I vividly remember the debut of Nevermind in 1991, the Sassy magazine with Kurtney on the cover (Kurt Cobain had pink hair and he and Courtney Love both looked like elegant street urchins), the band’s MTV Unplugged, Kurt’s first horrifying suicide attempt in Rome (my best friend told me about it the morning it happened at the bus stop—we had just turned 16), and the world premiere of Hole’s “Miss World” video about a week later.

Then April 8, 1994 swung by. Along with it, the awful news of Kurt Cobain’s suicide by gun. My best friend again called my house after school and told me authorities thought they’d found Kurt’s body in his house. Of course, that nomenclature is never good. Even though I was not a super-fan, I was genuinely saddened by the awful manner of Kurt’s demise. The grief was only exacerbated two months later by the overdose death of Hole’s bassist, the beautiful, gifted Kristen Pfaff. It felt, genuinely, like all of my era’s talents were being plucked off, one by one.
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Dinosaur Jr., BUG Live at 9:30 Club: In the Hands of the Fans

By J Howell

The bulk of BUG Live at 9:30 Club was shot by six fans who won an online contest to interview Dinosaur Jr. and film them performing their third album, 1988′s Bug, in its entirety at the legendary DC club in June of last year. The subtitle of “in the hands of the fans” isn’t just appropriate considering the film’s production, though. In the hands of fans from way back is the best place for the DVD.
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The Red Bird Girls: very first time in true Stereo 1964-1966 (Various Artists)

By Melissa B.

There are few moments that can’t be improved upon by a good song from a girl group. Happiness is magnified, heartbreak is more monumental, a pretty summer day shines with sweet harmonies, “yeah yeahs,” and fantastic hairdos. I’m pretty sure that’s a scientific fact.
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Carole King, Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King

By Emily Carney

Some context on Carole King: This singer songwriter, who is rather unfairly relegated to oldies radio stations in the US, had serious credibility within the world of girl-groups in the 1960s. At age 18, she co-wrote “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” with her then-husband Gerry Goffin, which was performed by the Shirelles. This song was covered beautifully in recent years by the late Amy Winehouse.
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Paul Weller, Sonik Kicks

By Jemiah Jefferson

This is Paul Weller’s eleventh solo album and “The Modfather” shows no signs of becoming complacent, stymied, or anything less than a phenomenal songwriter and musician. Sonik Kicks contains almost too much variety in style and approach, and while it doesn’t necessarily smoothly flow from track to track, there is excellence aplenty to admire.
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Frank Sinatra, The Concert Sinatra

By Melissa B.

I believe that there are Dean Martin people, there are Frank Sinatra people, and that they are rarely the same sort of people. I love Dean Martin for the thread of good humor that runs through his music, but I’ve always thought of Frank Sinatra as immensely talented, yet a bit dour. The Concert Sinatra changed my mind.
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The Melismatics, Mania!

By Danny R. Phillips

There are many things in life that I find perplexing, things that occur or don’t despite what the world thinks or needs. Why did MTV give Pauly D. from The Jersey Shore his own show while still ignoring videos? How can someone listen to Skrillex for more than two minutes without committing ritual suicide? How in the world is Keith Richards still alive? Why aren’t the Minneapolis, Minnesota band The Melismatics famous yet?
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