// Category Archive for: Music

David Markey: Best Of 2010

The Runaways

Underwhelmed by most things in film this year, but here’s a few things I enjoyed.

Movies:
The Runaways (Floria Sigismondi)
The Social Network (David Fincher)
Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Edgar Wright)
8: The Mormon Proposition (Reed Cowan)

Still waiting to see:
I Love You Phillip Morris (Glenn Ficarra & John Requa)
Casino Jack (George Hickenlooper – RIP)

Waiting for the DVD:
Machete (Robert Rodriguez)
Piranha 3-D (Alexandre Aja)
The Kids Are Alright (Lisa Cholodenko)

TV:
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
Dexter

The only CD I bought all year:
Kill City (reissue) Iggy Pop & James Williamson

David Markey is a musician and filmmaker, who has most recently directed The Reinactors.

Communications With Aliens: Q&A With Dr. Richard Doyle, Penn State

By Emily Carney

The original Voyager Golden Record

Recently, Popshifter reviewed the release Scrambles of Earth from Seeland Records. This recording consists of sounds from The Voyager Golden Record (sent into space on Voyager I and II in 1977 as sort of a message to extraterrestrials and as a space “time capsule”) allegedly remixed by some sort of extraterrestrial beings. The original record consisted of songs from all over the Earth, greetings from various then-contemporary world leaders, greetings in assorted foreign languages, and 116 images of Earth life.

I recently conducted a brief Q&A with Dr. Richard Doyle, English faculty member of Penn State University, about the various transmissions which comprise this audio recording. Dr. Doyle has been described as a “Rhetorician of Alien Communication,” so I had no doubt that his answers would be enigmatic and curiosity-arousing at best. Dr. Doyle did not fail to surprise me with his answers from our brief interview.
(more…)

Billy Joel, Glass Houses

By Less Lee Moore

My first “grown up” album was Barry Manilow Live, which I received as a Christmas present when I was five. My sister Summer’s interest in rock and roll started at an earlier age; she was so obsessed with Billy Joel’s Glass Houses album that she received it for a present when she was two.

I read a lot of music magazines when I was a kid, and though I can’t recall the specific ones that criticized Glass Houses, I recall that it was a bit of a deal-breaker for Billy Joel’s fans. One of the most vocal critics was my then-stepfather Larry, who thought Joel spent too much time trying to sound like other musicians on the album and not enough time just being himself.
(more…)

Pylon, Gyrate

By Jimmy Ether

Rock punditry tends to beg for “who’s better” comparisons between bands. Either because they were rivals, peers, or part of the same scene. Beatles or the Stones? Nirvana or Pearl Jam? The Brian Jonestown Massacre or The Dandy Warhols? But if asked who from the 1980s Athens, Georgia music scene should battle it out for that trophy, you’re more likely to be asked “REM or The B-52s?” than you are to ever hear mention of the band Pylon.
(more…)

INXS, S/T

By Less Lee Moore

INXS was one of the bands that my peers actually made fun of me for liking, mispronouncing their name as “Ink-siss” and turning up their noses at my insistence that they were really good. I saw them open for Adam Ant in 1983 and became a fan of their video for “The One Thing” (including Michael Hutchence’s smoldering presence) which was aired frequently on MTV. During the Christmas season of 1984, I became obsessed with their most recent release The Swing, which placed them in an entirely new category of awesome (and should be written about at length at some point in the near future).

Soon after, when trolling the record stores, I chanced upon some of the band’s earlier albums, 1981’s Underneath The Colours and their self-titled debut from 1980. The sound they established and perfected with Shabooh Shoobah and The Swing was only hinted at on the somewhat-underwhelming Underneath The Colours album; their debut was something else entirely.
(more…)

Bauhaus, In The Flat Field

By Less Lee Moore

I first heard Bauhaus through a friend of a friend, but I first heard OF the band thanks to my frequent trips to Lakeside Mall as a teenager.

There was a cool-looking Chinese punk dude who also went to the mall frequently. He had spiky hair and wore a leather motorcycle jacket and a black T-shirt that said BAVHAVS. (I was soon to discover that he was a total lameass poseur, but that’s a story for another time and place.) In my ignorance, I thought that the band was actually called Bav-Haves until the aforementioned friend of a friend (or someone who took pity on me) set me straight.

Ah, those halcyon pre-Internet days.
(more…)

Three Bittersweet Songs to Walk Down the Aisle To

By Jesse Roth

Having hit that stage of my life where just about everyone I know is getting married, I have been somewhat forced to think about the details of my own wedding. From considering possible locations and times of the year, to who does (or does not) get an invite, I have a certain degree of confidence that I know what I want for my “big day” and possibly how to go about it.

This is all despite two very significant facts: (1) I don’t have any semblance of a significant other at the moment and (2) I’m not even sure I want a wedding when I do actually get married. Nevertheless, I am fully prepared when the time comes to plan a cost-effective, fun, reflective-of-me-and-spouse mini-spectacular . . . or just haul ass to the courthouse.

Though the jury is still out for me about about whether or not I want to dance at my wedding, I do know that walking down an aisle is almost unavoidable in most ceremonies, and usually involves some level of melodic noise. Over time, I have come across a few songs that were both beautiful as well as meaningful enough in my own life to warrant usage in a possible aisle journey. Being one of many who soundtrack their significant life moments to particular songs, I have also looked to my treasure trove of music to aid me in this fantastical pursuit. In several cases, however, I stumbled upon some aspect of the song’s history (or the story told in the lyrics) that caused me to wonder if such a sad tale ran counter to the image most of us are trying to project in a wedding environment. Presented are three such songs that I may find myself conveniently misinterpreting on my journey down the aisle:
(more…)

The Sacred Triangle: Bowie, Iggy & Lou, 1971 – 1973

By Christian Lipski

In 1971, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed had careers that were in various states of stagnancy: Bowie’s a one-hit nonentity, Iggy’s a flaming wreck, and Lou’s a fading flower. Using testimony from eyewitnesses as well as music journalists, The Sacred Triangle aims to illustrate the bonds that tied together three of the most interesting entertainers the 1970s had to offer.
(more…)

Duran Duran, Three To Get Ready

By Jemiah Jefferson

“No obscure cheeses.”
—John Taylor, giving directions of what the band wants on its tour rider

The film opens on a very dry, very droll Nick Rhodes rejecting most of a series of recent photos of the band. We see that he’s joined with Simon Le Bon, just as dubious about most of the pictures, but he does helpfully supply, “I like the shape in the middle.” The empty space might have once been occupied by their departed band mates, Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor. Without even meaning to, this signals a new Duran Duran than expected by the legions of loyal global fans seduced by their mixture of surrealism, style, and raw sensuality, but accustomed to the five faces and iconic mops of expertly teased hair.

This is Three to Get Ready, the 1986 documentary depicting a band all too aware of their market share, refusing to be fractured, and yet straining towards expressing the creativity embodied in the core members of Le Bon, Rhodes, and the remaining Taylor: John, a former art student, lover of punk rock and disco, and at this time, in the grips of raging cocaine and hashish addiction yet no less tenderly gorgeous as he manifested in the earliest days of Duran Duran (and was barely out of his teens).
(more…)

Pop Music: The Balkans

By Jim R. Clark

There has been quite a bit of interest in Balkan music lately due to the popularity of such bands as Gogol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box. If you’re one of those music nuts who’s heard everything, then hopefully this article can introduce you to something new. Here is a taste of some of the great musical offerings popular in the Balkans today. Maybe you will get hooked and want to start your own Manele band!
(more…)