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After ten years in existence, it’s time to say goodbye to Popshifter. We will continue to publish articles until December 31 of this year. After that, Popshifter will remain online as an archive-only website. Popshifter will continue to exist on both Facebook and Twitter.
La Jetée, 1962
Don’t worry; the current crew of Popshifter writers will still be publishing our work, albeit at a variety of different locations. Before I get into those details, though, here is some history.
I started Popshifter in 2007 as a way to push back against what I saw as the snarky, cynical tone that represented the bulk of the online discourse on pop culture.
It was also an opportunity for me to challenge myself: Could I develop an online publication with a specific manifesto? Would other people want to participate?
The answer to both questions turned out to be yes. Although Popshifter began by producing bi-monthly issues, we incorporated a blog onto the site in 2009.
In 2012, after 27 issues, Popshifter made the switch to blog-only, and that’s how it’s been ever since.
Over the last ten years, I’ve worked with close to 100 writers. I am grateful to all of them for taking part in this eclectic experiment, especially since Popshifter was a non-paying gig. We have never accepted advertising and no one has ever gotten paid, including me.
Some of those writers write for the site only occasionally or they have moved on to other projects, but they should all be thanked individually, as they were “early adopters” and dedicated writers who helped the site find its voice, and Popshifter would not exist without their contributions:
Lisa Anderson, Cait Brennan, Emily Carney, Paul Casey, Julie Finley, Hanna, Brad Henderson, J. Howell, Jemiah Jefferson, Matt Keeley, John Lane, Christian Lipski, Maureen, Megashaun, Michelle Patterson, Danny R. Phillips, Jesse Roth, Noreen Sobczyk, and Chelsea Spear.
Over the last few years, Popshifter downsized to a core team of devoted writers and I owe them all an enormous debt for their hard work, creativity, and an unflagging determination to keep things running smoothly:
Melissa Bratcher, Hanna, E.A. Henson, Sachin Hingoo, Tyler Hodg, Jeffery X Martin, Tim Murr, and Laury Scarbro.
I’d also like to thank all of the PR folks who have supported Popshifter over the years. The list is far too long to name all of you, but special thanks go to:
Cary Baker (Conqueroo), Matt Ingham (Cherry Red), Jessica Linker and Jacob Daneman (Pitch Perfect PR), Clint Weiler (Arrow/MVD), Valerie Burnatowski (Environics PR), Brian Carmody (Orange Media Relations), Sadari Cunningham (Fetch Publicity), Trevor DeBrauw (Biz3), Jim Flammia (All Eyes Media), Daniel Gill (Force Field PR), Chris Hansell (Sacred Bones/Dais Records/Blackest Ever Black), Billy James (Glass Onyon PR), Bob Lugowe (Relapse Records), Krista Mettler (Skye Media), Rey Roldan (Reybee), Mike Turner (Crashing Through Publicity), Ryan Werner (Cinetic Media), Leah Visser and Chris Allicock (of the now defunct Amberlight), and everyone at Clutch PR, Girlie Action Media, Image Entertainment, Scream Factory/Shout Factory, Wild Eye Releasing, and Vinegar Syndrome. If there is anyone I have forgotten, please know that it was not done on purpose!
One of the outcomes of running Popshifter was that I was able to write for other sites, including Bramptonist, Biff Bam Pop, Diabolique Magazine, Dirge Magazine, Everything Is Scary, Modern Horrors, Rue Morgue, The Cultural Gutter, The ScreamCast, The Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness and Vanguard Blogs (RIP), and Vague Visages.
I have had my work appear in print in Rue Morgue magazine as well as Rue Morgue Library #10: Women With Guts. I’ve also had a chapter published in Spectacular Optical’s second book Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia of the 1980s, with another chapter to be published in December in their Yuletide Terror book.
I’ll still be contributing to several of these fine publications, and will continue to welcome press releases in order to write about music, movies, TV, books, and much more.
As one of the editors at the excellent Biff Bam Pop, I have extended an invitation to the current team of Popshifter writers to come and join us there. I am hopeful that musicians, filmmakers, and other artists will still be interested in contributing to Popshifter’s annual Best Of Lists (eight years and counting!), which will find a new home over at Biff Bam Pop.
Last but not least, thank you to all of the Popshifter fans for reading, commenting, sharing, and supporting independent media!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Leslie Hatton, a.k.a. Less Lee Moore
By Hanna
This year would have marked Duncan Browne’s 70th birthday, had he not died in 1993. It also marks the 40th anniversary of the Metro album. Extensive re-releases of Duncan Browne’s work are rare, and anyone looking for his music will be happy with this reissue containing all his late 1970s work for Logo/Transatlantic: his two solo albums The Wild Places and Streets of Fire but also the entire Metro album.
Continue reading ‘Music Review: Duncan Browne, Planet Earth: The Transatlantic/Logo Years 1976-1979’
By Tim Murr
This July marks the 40th anniversary of Wes Craven’s landmark horror classic The Hills Have Eyes. It’s a story about an east coast American family taking a trip through the desert when they are besieged by a family of cannibals. The cannibals are loosely based on the real life Sawney Bean clan from the UK, known for attacking and eating travelers. Eventually, the Bean family was arrested and brutally put to death.
Continue reading ‘Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes Turns 40’
By E.A. Henson
With these review pieces I normally try and tackle something new and worthy of your attention. For this piece in particular I’ll be taking a look at something that’s not terribly new but still is something of note, Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples.
Continue reading ‘Comics Review: Saga’
By Tim Murr
Alice Cooper, 69 years young, has reunited with three members of the original Alice Cooper Band and hit the road to support their new album, Paranormal. This will be the first new Alice album in six years and the first with Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith since 1973’s Muscle Of Love. On the official Alice website you can find videos of the reunited group playing in Nashville recently(with a current member of Alice’s touring band standing in for the departed Glen Buxton). They sound fantastic.
Alice himself still looks good, but who knows how many more years anyone has, so if Alice comes to your town, try not to miss it! I saw him on the Theater of Death Tour a few years ago and then a year or so later playing with Iron Maiden and the shows were phenomenal.
So in honor of a new Alice album I thought I’d make you an imaginary mix tape of the top 20 best deep tracks from across Alice’s storied career!
Continue reading ‘Top 20 Alice Cooper Deep Cuts’
By Tim Murr
I have three literary moms, three women writers who had a profound impact on the way I think and write: Lydia Lunch, Kathy Acker, and Flannery O’Connor. I was introduced to all three within about a year of the other and afterwards I was never the same.
Continue reading ‘The Makers of ‘Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer’ Are Adapting Flannery O’Connor’
Modern Mal is the meeting of a pair of Northern Michigan songwriters, Rachel Brooks and Brooks Robbins. It’s a little psychedelic, a little surfy, a bit garagey, sometimes folky, and it can all be covered by the umbrella of Americana, but perhaps a more Gothic strain.
Continue reading ‘Music Review: Modern Mal, The Misanthrope Family Album’
In this episode of TV or GTFO, Sachin and Gary explore the dystopian-future sci-fi series about women being driven underground and forced to battle an all-seeing male overlord. Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale? No, it’s… Wait, this can’t be right, Sam Raimi’s Cleopatra 2525?
Continue reading ‘Podcast: TV or GTFO Episode 15, “Cleopatra 2525”’
By Tim Murr
This week marked the series finale of A&E’s Bates Motel, a show that many people, myself included, was suspicious of as soon as the series was announced. However, I was won over within the first couple of episodes. I enjoyed the numerous subplots that ran through the five seasons, none of which related back to the original film or book, namely the marijuana and sex slave trades. I also liked the change of setting to Oregon (remember, Hitchcock changed the setting from the novel as well), and nearly all the characters invented for the show and the changes made to the original characters. Yes, at times it was hard to reconcile the show with the film and novel, but when I was able to let go and just enjoy the show as its own thing, that’s when watching Bates Motel became one of the most engrossing and rewarding shows on TV, something it had no reason to be.
Continue reading ‘Farewell and Thank You to the Makers of “Bates Motel” (Expect Spoilers)’