// Category Archive for: Music

Music Review: La Sera, Music For Listening To Music To

By Melissa Bratcher

La Sera is back and things have changed. Their newest, Music For Listening To Music To, is a kinder, gentler album than their last effort, 2014’s wonderful Hour Of The Dawn. It lacks the bite of Hour Of The Dawn, but perhaps that’s the result of front woman Katy Goodman being newly married (to guitarist/cowriter/band mate Todd Wisenbaker) and in lurve and all of that. The songs are less challenging and not as confrontational. That’s unfortunate.

(more…)

The Official Popshifter Podcast, Episode #09: Cults

Welcome to Episode #09 of The Official Popshifter Podcast, “Cults! or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Manson Family.”

The reemergence of cults into popular culture leads hosts Less Lee Moore and Jeffery X Martin into a conversation encompassing The Veil, Lana Del Rey, Charles Manson, matriarchal societies, and more.

Today in Pop Culture: Last Dance With Lawrence Welk

By Jeffery X Martin

Let’s call it synergy. A television show comes along that loves and understands its core audiences so well will inspire a kind of devotion that borders on obsession. We’ve seen it happen with sci-fi shows like Firefly, Star Trek, and The Twilight Zone. Do you think today’s audiences would feel the same kind of adoration and allegiance to a show that regularly featured polka music?

(more…)

Music Review: Bill Carter, Innocent Victims & Evil Companions

By Melissa Bratcher

Texas-based Bill Carter may be best known for co-writing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s biggest hit, “Crossfire.” You may also know him from “Anything Made of Paper,” written for the West Memphis Three’s Damien Echols, and featured in the documentary West Of Memphis. Or you might know him as a member of the band P, a collaboration with Butthole Surfers’ Gibby Haynes, Johnny Depp, and Sal Jenco. With his newest album, Innocent Victims & Evil Companions, you’ll know him as a songwriter with poetic lyrics, a singer with a fabulous ragged tenor, and the master of fine tunes.

(more…)

Music Review: Wolfmother, Victorious

By Tyler Hodg

Since taking the rock world by storm in 2005 with their debut self-titled album, Wolfmother has been subject to some major changes, including a plethora of band members coming in and out of the lineup. One aspect that has remained intact over the last decade is the general sound of the band, and the latest release from the Australian group, Victorious, is yet another addition to their cohesive catalogue.

(more…)

Music Review: Golden Daze, Golden Daze

By Tim Murr

Shoegaze or Dream Pop was a genre I always liked in theory, but was never really able to embrace back in the early 1990s. So I don’t have a terribly wide frame of reference for reviewing Golden Daze’s self-titled debut, but leaving the album on hours-long loops has been a very enjoyable experience. Does this mean I like shoegaze and dream pop now? I guess so!

(more…)

In Case You Missed It: February 14 – 20, 2016

By Less Lee Moore

We are thrilled to publish a Retro Review of The Zombies’ classic Odessey and Oracle album from none other than esteemed musician, Lenny Kaye!

The Witch, which has received an overwhelming number of positive reviews, opened on February 19. Far be it from me to tell you how to live your life, but I think you should go see it. Here’s why.

There’s been yet another death in the music world this week: Vanity, who most will remember as a Prince protégé and the singer for Vanity 6, but who also delighted movie and TV audiences in Action Jackson and Miami Vice, respectively. Unicorn Booty has the scoop on this, the return of Orphan Black, Kendrick Lamar’s secret stash, and much more.

It’s February, and that means it’s Women in Horror month. Maybe Angela Lansbury’s role on Murder, She Wrote wasn’t straight-up horror, but it’s still iconic. Did you know that she’s going strong at 90 years old? It’s true. Just last year, she reprised her role as Madame Arcati in the play Blithe Spirit, which toured North America. Here’s a great list of nine of the best Murder, She Wrote episodes.

There’s been a lot of talk about Silence of the Lambs recently, as the 25th year of its release approaches. While it’s still criticized for its depiction of trans and gay people, the character of Buffalo Bill was a composite of several real-life serial killers, including Ed Gein. Although most crimes are still committed by straight folks, as this article points out, freaky sex crimes and murders are equal opportunity. Here’s a list of ten scary but true gay psychopaths.

We’ve got TV recaps on Popshifter, y’all! The new episode of The X-Files (which is probably my fave yet in this tenth season), Outsiders (where you’ll learn about a “pitfight”), and Lucha Underground (spoiler alert: it involves baby oil).

What happened this week on Today In Pop Culture? Turntables, flying cows, Modern Art outrage, King Tut, and cats.

Music Review: Emitt Rhodes, Rainbow Ends

By Melissa Bratcher

Where do we begin with Emitt Rhodes? He began gaining notoriety as the leader of 1960s band the Merry Go Round, who had the hits “Live” and “You’re A Very Lovely Woman.” In 1971, he released his critically acclaimed eponymous debut and the reputation as a “one-man Beatles,” so pure were his power pop hooks (and the fact that he wrote, produced, and recorded his album in his studio). He released Farewell To Paradise in 1973 and then… radio silence. Bad deals, shady contracts, it’s not a new story.

(more…)

Today In Pop Culture: The Birth, Fall, And Rise Of The American Turntable

By Jeffery X Martin

This could be one of the most important days in pop culture history. Maybe, you should sit down and get something to drink. It is that monumental.

On this date in 1878, Thomas Edison, long may his name spoken before the gods, patented the phonograph. The world was never the same. That’s not hyberbole. That is a fact.

(more…)

Music Review: Santigold, 99¢

By Melissa Bratcher

Santigold’s follow up to 2012s dark Master Of My Make-Believe, is 99¢, a brighter, single-packed outing. She’s joined by a passel of new collaborators, including Rostam Batmanglij, Zeds Dead, Haze Banga, and Sam Dew. Her new tracks are inventive and fresh, exploring the current commercial nature of our culture. “We have no illusion that we don’t live in this world where everything is packaged. People’s lives, persona, everything, is deliberate, and mediated. It can be dark and haunting and tricky, and freak us out, but it can be also be silly and fun and we can learn to play with it,” she says.

(more…)