// Category Archive for: Music

Today In Pop Culture: What is “Ooga-Chaka?”

By Jeffery X Martin

If you had an AM radio in the Sixties or Seventies, odds are that’s all you had because it was the Sixties or Seventies. Thank the gods for real technology, right? AM radio, with its predilection for programming soft rock and one hit wonders, was the place to hear American singer BJ Thomas. The guy had hit after hit. Thomas was the performer of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1970.*

[Do you know which movie “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” was featured in? The answer is at the end of this article!]

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David Bowie: 1947 – 2016

By Jeffery X Martin

When I went to sleep, David Bowie was alive. When I awoke, he was not. Strange, the way things slip.

Knock on the walls. Flick your coffee cup with your fingernail. Stomp on the floor. Do you hear it? Something’s missing. There is a hollowness to the world now, with Bowie gone.

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Music Review: JD Souther, John David Souther

By Melissa Bratcher

It’s strange to hear a reissue of an album from 1972 that sounds as current as Omnivore’s reissue of JD Souther’s John David Souther. It’s not a difficult argument to make that Souther’s cult-classic albums were precursors to present day Americana. It’s all here: thoughtful lyrics and a high lonesome voice (on occasion); momentary fiddles and bottleneck guitar. JD Souther is a songwriter’s songwriter, known for writing for the Eagles (all of their good songs? Souther had a hand in those, like “New Kid In Town” and “Heartache Tonight”), and his songs have been covered by artists from Glen Campbell to India Irie to Linda Ronstadt.

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Today in Pop Culture: David Bowie’s Blackstar Birthday

By Jeffery X Martin

Today is David Bowie’s birthday and I don’t understand why anyone is at work or school. Why aren’t government offices closed? Why is this not a Federal holiday? We should all be in public parks, wearing body paint and having Aladdin Sane lookalike contests. We should put on our red shoes and dance the blues. We should be burning space capsules in effigy in the name of Major Tom.

David Bowie is 69 years old and is still cooler than everyone reading this article, combined.

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Best Of 2015: JG Thirlwell

2015 was jam-packed with life events and huge amounts of work, but I barely left NYC.

Here is my bloated 2015 cultural year-in-review list.
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Today in Pop Culture: Sing Along with History, Volume One

By Jeffery X Martin

Some days just bring songs to mind. The historical events create their own playlist and allow us the opportunity to be educated and entertained. I call these phenomena “educationerments.” Let’s begin, shall we?

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DVD Review: Deathgasm

By Tim Murr

Many movies have attempted to capture the coming of age journey, of misfits finding their path and rising to their true potential or becoming the hero they were always meant to be. Deathgasm proves that most of these movies are utter bullshit.

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Today In Pop Culture: The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde

By Jeffery X Martin

When one is living a life of crime, some days don’t seem as bad as others. This is subjective, of course, because when a good day consists of only killing one human being, it might be time to reevaluate one’s priorities. So if the murder of Deputy Sheriff Malcolm Davis comes across as a minor event, it is only in comparison to the other deeds of the man who killed him: Clyde Barrow.

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Best Of 2015: Less Lee Moore

For more discussion about the items on my list, check out the Popshifter Best Of 2015 Podcast!

Many thanks to the following: All the writers at Popshifter but especially Melissa Bratcher, Brad Henderson, Tyler Hodg, Jeffery X Martin, and Tim Murr for being so generous with their time and talent; all the fantastic PR folks that help make everything possible (too many to list!); Kier-La Janisse and Paul Corupe at Spectacular Optical for graciously publishing my essay on Ricky Kasso in their Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s anthology; the kind people of Rue Morgue for publishing my music reviews in the magazine as well as my Frightful Flashback column on the blog; the good folks at all of the websites who invited me to write for them this year: Everything Is Scary, Nerdy Stuff, Modern Horrors, Dirge Magazine, and Biff Bam Pop; Colin Geddes and Carol Borden for being terrific and for letting me write for the TIFF Vanguard and Midnight Madness blogs again; and last but certainly NOT least, Shaun Hatton for being a generally awesome person.

And now, for the lists!
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The Official Popshifter Podcast, Episode #07, Best Of 2015 Edition

Welcome to Episode #07 of The Official Popshifter Podcast, Best Of 2015 Edition.

Let’s send 2015 out with a bang, not a whimper! Your hosts, Managing Editor Less Lee Moore and Featured Contributor Jeffery X Martin, welcome special guest, Featured Contributor Tim Murr, as we round up the favorite things of the entire Popshifter staff. Happy New Year from all of us in the penthouse corner office of the Popshifter International Headquarters!