// Category Archive for: DVD

Los Lobos, Kiko 20th Anniversary Edition: featuring Kiko Live, Kiko Live DVD/Blu-Ray

By J Howell

Los Lobos, photo &copy Drew Reynolds

It’s funny how time flies, and frankly a bit unnerving to think that Los Lobos‘ masterpiece, Kiko, is almost old enough to drink legally. In celebration of the benchmark album’s twentieth anniversary, Shout! Factory has a whole lot of Kiko for Lobos fans new and old to enjoy.

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Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers

By Lisa Anderson

I have a confession to make: Until the movie Thor came out last summer, I didn’t know that Marvel comics had characters based (somewhat loosely) on Norse mythology. Like many people, I enjoyed Chris Hemsworth’s endearing portrayal of Thor, god of thunder, and Tom Hiddleston’s mesmerizing take on Thor’s brother Loki, the god of mischief. Their painful family history also added a layer of complexity to this summer’s Avengers, even if Loki was far less sympathetic the second time around.

Recently, I had the opportunity to see another interpretation of these characters. I watched Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers, a four-episode motion comic from Marvel Knights Animation. (For those who may not know, a motion comic is a slightly different style of animation, where the background is more static and the movements are less fluid.) It’s based on a 2004 storyline with no connection to the Marvel films.

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The Entity

By Less Lee Moore

As The Entity begins, we watch a single mother named Carla Moran waiting for her shift as a receptionist to end. Then, she rushes off to night school and enters her typing class after it has already begun. Frustrated, she makes a few errors on the machine. Much later, she comes home to her modest house in the suburbs, where the lights are out. There are dirty dishes on the table, which she proceeds to wash. Her younger daughters are already asleep, but she argues with her teenaged son about the mess. Soon she is getting ready for bed. A mundane start to a horror movie? Perhaps, until we soon realize that we are not the only ones watching Carla Moran.

The unseen voyeur makes itself known with a slap to Carla’s face. Stunned by the blood and the pain, she is soon shoved onto her bed, pillow over her face, and sexually violated by this malevolent, invisible being.

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Assemblog: July 27, 2012

Jack and Diane, 2012

New this week on Popshifter: Jemiah explains why Laetitia Sadier’s Silencio is worth your time; I take critics to task on The Dark Knight Rises (again!); Chelsea chats with Glenn di Benedetto of Boston’s Parlour Bells; and Paul recommends The Very Best of Wes Montgomery. (more…)

Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story

By Chelsea Spear

Photo © Mark Ostow

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Mark Sandman cut a wide swath through the Boston music scene. His first band, Treat Her Right, scored a local radio hit with the deadpan, eerie single “I Think She Likes Me.” The various bands with whom Sandman played—most notably Supergroup, Candybar, and Morphine—played two sets a night at the shoebox-shaped bar Plough and Stars. Even as Morphine ascended to a renowned trio with a devoted following, Sandman could be found playing at the annual Central Square World’s Fair, talking with elementary school classes about his handmade musical instruments, converting his loft apartment into a recording studio, or just hanging out in the back booth at the Middle East nightclub. His sudden, tragic death in Italy in 1999 left a huge hole, both in the music world where he made his mark, and within the Boston arts community. (more…)

Kovacs for Beginners: Ernie Kovacs, The ABC Specials

By John Lane

For a background history of the genius of Ernie Kovacs and his influence, I refer readers to my previous article concerning the grand, pioneering master.

One can say it is an embarrassment of riches when one holds anything product-wise in your hands having to do with Ernie Kovacs. But that having been said, I feel like the release of Ernie Kovacs: The ABC Specials is a slight misstep on the part of Shout! Factory. (more…)

John Lee Hooker, Cook With The Hook: Live 1974 DVD

By Jemiah Jefferson

One of the rare live video recordings of blues legend John Lee Hooker was filmed with three cameras at a festival in Massachusetts called “Down in the Dumps,” the second in a hoped-for series of concerts on the site of a city landfill area, and shown on local access television in 1974. Thank heavens that this footage didn’t suffer the fate of so much video tape of the era, and survived to the 21st century to released on a bare-bones DVD called Cook With The Hook: Live 1974. Additional material might have been nice, but we must assume there isn’t any, besides what’s on the explanatory, single-sheet disk insert.
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Assemblog: June 8, 2012

Screencap from Miami Vice Fashion

New this week on Popshifter: a SpaceX celebration mix; reviews of The dB’s Falling Off The Sky, Jherek Bishoff’s Composed; John Singer Sergeant from John Dufilho; and a new band to watch: Sad Baby Wolf.

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Assemblog: May 11, 2012

Livide

New on Popshifter this week: Reviews of Turing Machine’s latest release What is the Meaning of What, the remastered reissue of Hey Little Richard, and You and I in Heaven, the new EP from Tyburn Saints.

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Assemblog: April 27, 2012

Velvet Goldmine, 1998

New on Popshifter this week: reviews of the recently reissued Beginnings, Rick Springfield’s 1972 US debut album; Theresa Andersson’s latest album Street Parade; Beatles documentary Strange Fruit; The Apples in stereo’s Chris McDuffie’s solo release as Whitejacket, titled Hollows and Rounds; and The Ian Hunter Band’s Rockaplast concert on DVD.

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