// Category Archive for: Music

Top Five Most Inadvertently Hilarious Rock Books

By Emily Carney

5. Kraftwerk: I Was A Robot, by Wolfgang Flür (2000)

Wolfgang Flür is best known as being Kraftwerk’s drummer from 1974 to 1991, during their “golden years” when they turned out seminal albums such as Radioactivity (1975) and Trans-Europe Express (1977). This memoir by Flür details his various escapades within the workings of the “Düsseldorf Beatles.”

Flür’s liquored-up memories encompass shameless groupie-guzzling, getting surreally and seriously ill while on tour, and being sexually attacked by an aging alcoholic male German film actor. They climax when Flür is unceremoniously ousted from the band, who have become increasingly obsessed with cycling (to Flür’s utter dismay). Who would have believed the inner workings of Kraftwerk could be so scandalous and sex-soaked? The book was greeted with anger from Kraftwerk’s remaining members, who sued Flür; apparently Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider were not amused by photographs depicting the Kraftwerk robots in various homosexual activities.
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Popshifter‘s Best Of Lists

Pete Best

Most publications give you their “Best Of” and “Top Ten” lists in their December issues. But what about giving props to of all the great things you embraced in the penultimate month of the year?

That’s why Popshifter has decided to provide you with our favorites now, so that you can add them to your list of “Things To Check Out In 2009.”

In addition to the lists our staff compiled, we’ve also posted the lists from some very special guest contributors.

Enjoy!
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The Shortwave Set, Replica Sun Machine

By Chelsea Spear

If you like lush melodies, boy/girl harmonies, blackly clever lyrics, handclaps, obsolete musical technology, analog synths, or references to great pop songs of the past, I have great news for you: The Shortwave Set has released their second album.
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1 Top Class Manager—The Notebooks of Rob Gretton: Q & A With Lesley Gretton

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Licorice Pizza: My History With Vinyl

By Jesse Roth

It was an otherwise forgettable commercial for some product or service that was of no use to a middle school kid like me. Airing several times during evening broadcasts in the mid-1990s, it featured several scenes of children around my age with a voiceover expounding on the values and traits of this new generation—the one later to be known by the rather uninspired label “Generation Y.” One scene in particular showed a young girl leaning against the window on a school bus listening to a Walkman. The image was rather innocent but was coupled with the following line:

“They’ve never owned a record”
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Adam Ant, Strip

By Less Lee Moore

In 1983, having just experienced Adam Ant performing live to support Friend Or Foe (my very first concert!), I was a certified fan. I loved the videos for “Strip” and “Puss’n Boots” and was psyched for the upcoming Strip album.
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Jay Reatard, Matador Singles ’08

By Less Lee Moore

After seeing Jay Reatard’s name pop up all over The Big Takeover blog last year I grew curious. Then I saw he was also profiled in Spin a few times and I became suspicious. Was this more of the typical music press hype and hysteria?
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Ten Songs That Made Your Parents Want To Kill Themselves

By Jim R. Clark

The title here is pretty self-explanatory. Maybe you just broke up with the love of your life and you just want to while away a few minutes wallowing in self-pity? Well, why should your parents have all the fun, eh? Let’s take this depressing journey into musical history together. Join me. If you dare.
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The Bicycles, Oh No, It’s Love

By Less Lee Moore

The Bicycles are a Toronto-based band, but one for whom the word “band” seems terribly limiting. Their live shows traditionally feature not only the four core members—Matt Beckett, Andrew Scott, Drew Smith, and Dana Snell—but also members of several other local bands and musicians such as Henri Fabergé and the Adorables, Laura Barrett, and many others.

Oh No, It’s Love, reflects the collaborations of this collective of musicians but also retains the signature sound the band established on their first album The Good, The Bad, and The Cuddly: captivating pop with ironic lyrics.

Yet Oh No, It’s Love is far more ambitious and fully-fledged than the band’s first album, and not just because it features more than twenty contributors (in addition to the four “official” band members) and a vast array of instruments, from harp and harmonica to kalimba and pedal steel. Although there are many current bands who also use less traditionally rock & roll instruments, many of them are utterly boring and passionless. The Bicycles are the complete opposite.
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Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., Catnip Dynamite

By Less Lee Moore

It’s difficult to be objective in an album review when your gut feeling tells you that the musician in question is an all-around righteous guy. Fortunately, Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.’s latest album, Catnip Dynamite, is so amazing that I won’t have to compromise my principles; this review will be completely guilt-free.
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