// Category Archive for: Music

Music Review: Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music

By Melissa Bratcher

You can always rely on Numero Group to unearth incredible, forgotten music. You know that music: the kind of stuff you pick up in a flea market because it costs a quarter and has a cover with a lady sporting huge hair and a necklace made of spoons. The kind of albums that were perhaps self-released or on the tiniest label. Hidden gems, for sure.

Numero’s newest compilation, Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music is a trip through the cut-out bins. Here are tracks that, despite not being breakthroughs for the artists, still have merit. It’s Americana, and it’s indie as anything. Maybe the artists weren’t signed to a big label. Maybe they made the record in one of those booths at a fair. Maybe they had a song that they really needed to record for serious reasons.

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Today In Pop Culture: Como Goes Gold, But What Does That Mean?

By Jeffery X Martin

“Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket/Never let it fade away…”

Scientifically and astronomically, this is a terrible idea. Not only will you get burned, but that thing could be radioactive. While these instructions are no way to treat a meteorite, they are enough to get you a gold record. “Catch A Falling Star” by Perry Como was the first single ever to be awarded the RIAA status of gold record, and it happened on this date in 1958.

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In Case You Missed It: March 6 – 12, 2016–Divorced Dad & Deadly Whales

By Less Lee Moore

Iggy Pop has a new album out March 18, along with Northless, Lust For Youth, and Soft Fangs. There’s also the Wayfaring Strangers compilation and a reissue of Haircut 100’s Pelican West.

It’s time to spring forward with pop culture news.

Tyler Hodg has finished watching all 13 episodes of Fuller House on Netflix and we’ve got the reviews to prove it. What’s the verdict? Is the show good, bad, or somewhere in between? You’ll have to read to find out.

Sean S. Baker’s film Tangerine, filmed on an iPhone and focusing on the life and struggles of a transgender sex worker, is currently on Netflix, but you should also check out his short film Snowbird.

Divorced Dad may not be on Netflix (yet), but it’s something you should see. Here’s the problem: it’s not available yet! The new webseries from the Astron-6 collective (Manborg, Father’s Day, The Editor) is still seeking funding to finish the series, but for now, here’s a teaser trailer. (P.S. I’ve seen the rough cuts of a couple of episodes and I laughed until I thought I was going to throw up. It’s that weird and funny.)

At Popshifter, we watch TV so that we can talk about it, then you can read about it, and you can then feel better about all those thoughts you’re having and feelings you’re feeling. This week, we’ve got two episodes of Broad City, and while “Rat Pack” may not be as tight as “Game Over,” the show continues to be one of the funniest on TV. Outsiders finally gives us the character development we’ve been waiting for, while The Walking Dead gives us welding, crying, but still no sign of Negan.

New music reviews this week include the deep freeze of Northless’s Cold Migration EP, the emotionally raw yet gorgeous Let A Lover Drown You from Penny & Sparrow, a preview of Soft Fangs’ The Light (out on March 18), and one you might have missed: Voivod’s Post Society EP.

There were lots of movies to think about this week. Ron Howard’s tribute to Jaws and Moby Dick, In The Heart Of The Sea, hit home video this week and while Jeffery thought it was a beautiful waste of time, I had more positive thoughts on the film. Arrow Video’s American Horror Project Volume One, however, left no doubts in Tim’s mind: it’s a must-see, must-own box set.

We all have that one friend who hasn’t seen those iconic classic films that everyone else has already seen. At Unicorn Booty, that person is Matt Baume. Witness his reaction to his first viewing of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. You might also enjoy his liveblog of the first time he watched Hackers.

It’s OK to admit that you are a fan of Archie Comics. If you haven’t been keeping up with the students at Riverdale High out of a lack of time or fear of public shaming, there has been some news. Did you know that Jughead came out? He’s not gay, but… well, you should read about the full details for yourself. Also on the Archie news front is this fascinating podcast called Radio Free Riverdale hosted by Torontonians Lucy Cappiello and Evan Munday. This week’s episode features the podcast’s first ever special guest, comedian Adam Wilson.

In other comics news, Marvel seems to be making greater strides towards gender inclusion. Here’s our own Laury Scarbro with some thoughts on what this might mean for the future of comics.

What happened this week on Today In Pop Culture? Frankenstein, The Incredible Hulk, Barbie movies, The Fillmore, and songs about telephones.

Music Review: Soft Fangs, The Light

By Brian Baker

When an artist uses “fangs” in its name, you expect a body of work with teeth. For Soft Fangs, a nom-de-plume for Brooklyn, N.Y. denizen John Lutkevich, his debut full-length album, The Light, is lacking that necessary bite.

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Album Review: Northless, Cold Migration

By Tim Murr

What better album to crank up and get lost in on a cold, snowy day than the new three-song EP, Cold Migration, from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin band, Northless? It clocks in at less than 25 minutes, but feels as meaty, strong, and satisfying as a full-length LP. Northless evokes the desolation and loneliness of an endless winter’s journey.

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Today In Pop Culture: The Fillmore East Opens

By Jeffery X Martin

Bill Graham was a rock and roll man, a promoter with a feel for the underground. He knew which bands were going to be hot and how to get their music out to their fans. He opened the famous nightclub, the Fillmore, in San Francisco. That venue, along with Graham’s promotion skills, were instrumental in the success of the Grateful Dead.

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Music Review: Voivod, Post Society EP

By Tim Murr

Formed in Quebec in 1983, the prog-metal masters Voivod have shifted and mutated, thrilling fans across 13 studio albums. Their 1984 debut album, War and Pain, was a paint-peeling thrash classic. It was to metal what The Road Warrior was to cinema; a line in the sand for others to dash across. With each album up to Angel Rat, when the band started to splinter, Voivod progressed and evolved their sci-fi Rush-meets-Motorhead approach.

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Music Review: Penny & Sparrow, Let A Lover Drown You

By Melissa Bratcher

Penny & Sparrow’s Let A Lover Drown You is the kind of album that feels like you shouldn’t be hearing it. It’s remarkably intimate and naked. It’s emotionally raw, but produced so beautifully that raw isn’t quite the right word. Bare. Honest. Personal. It made me feel like a voyeur listening to it, in the way that sometimes Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam’s songs do. These are quietly organic moments, snapshots of lives, that happen to be gorgeous songs.

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Today In Pop Culture: Hanging On The Telephone

By Jeffery X Martin

The telephone is 140 years old today, and nobody alive today can remember a world without one. We’ve always been able to reach out and touch someone. Something so remarkable, being able to push a few buttons and talk to another person around the corner or around the world, is something we take for granted.

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Music Review: Marc Stone, Poison & Medicine

By Melissa Bratcher

Though he was born in New York, Marc Stone’s adopted home of New Orleans is an undeniable presence in his album, Poison & Medicine. It’s there in the swampy groove of the opener, “I Tried.” It’s there in the killer horns of “When You’re Bad.” It’s there in Stone’s wondrous slide guitar work. It certainly doesn’t hurt that for the past two decades, Marc Stone has been backing a who’s who of seminal NOLA artists like Ernie K-Doe, Marcia Ball, Rockin’ Dopsie, and Terrance Simien, as well as hosting WWOZ’s “Soul Serenade” (incidentally, you can listen to WWOZ streaming on the Internet, and you should. All the time. And send them money at pledge drive time).

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