// Category Archive for: Music

Music Review: The Vagaband, Medicine For The Soul

By Melissa Bratcher

It’s difficult to describe the sound of the UK’s The Vagaband. They’re a little folky, with a dash of vaudeville, a generous dollop of rock, and a not fleeting resemblance to Pink Floyd. They traffic in pastoral sounds with interesting instrumentation. Their second album, Medicine For The Soul, is a pleasant surprise; it’s chock full of banjos and horns, jaw harps and fiddle, and charming, ear-wormy tunes, as well as a smart cover of a Ween song.

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Music Review: Psychic TV, “Alien Be-In” Remix EP

By Ben Van D

For many, Acid House is inextricably linked to a place and time—the dim, sometimes garish, and impossibly vibrant rave culture of the early ’90s. It harkens back to an intoxicated era of manic excess, quasi-spiritual tribe mentality, and devastatingly harsh comedowns. If you missed it, imagine Cirque de Soliel performing in 1960s revival costumes in an underground parking lot at twice the BPM through a set of broken speakers.

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Music Review: Dan Mangan + Blacksmith, Club Meds

By Tyler Hodg

Thanks to Dan Mangan + Blacksmith’s new album Club Meds, the year 2015 has gotten off to an impressive start musically.

But before you listen to it, first thing’s first: grab your headphones, find an isolated area, and make sure to turn off all of the lights. Some albums deserve proper atmosphere for an optimal listening experience, and Club Meds is a prime example.

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Music Review: Tony Lucca, Tony Lucca

By Melissa Bratcher

I liked Tony Lucca’s self-titled album better when I wasn’t paying full attention to it. Full of chunky guitar and “whoo”-ing backup singers, it’s decent, if pedestrian. The songwriting reflects nights out in California and frisky women, and Lucca’s voice is pretty swell; husky in the right places, soulful where it needs to be. The problem is listening to it closely. His voice deserves better than these songs. He can sing, and sing well, but the material isn’t strong enough.

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Best Of 2014: Less Lee Moore

Peaky Blinders

When there are horrible things happening in the world (and there always are), it might seem frivolous to discuss popular culture. But that’s what we do here at Popshifter, albeit with eyes, ears, and minds attuned to how that pop culture has a symbiotic relationship with those very horrible things. Rather that list all the ways in which those who create, consume, and critique pop culture contributed to that horribleness, I’d like to champion the aspects of pop culture that made my life worth living this year.

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Best Of 2014: JG Thirlwell

Photo by Robert Kenney

Music

Here is some popular music I have been absorbing this year. Some on this list came out this year and some didn’t.

Cloud Becomes Your Hand, Rocks Or Cakes (Northern Spy)
Swans, To Be Kind (Young God)
Lana Del Rey, Ultraviolence (Polydor)
Pye Corner Audio, Black Mill Tapes Vols 1-4 (Type Recordings)
Mica Levi, Under The Skin OST (Milan / Rough Trade)
Tredici Bacci, The Thirteen Kisses EP / Vai! Vai !Vai! (Bandcamp)
Ákos Rózmann, Twelve Stations six-CD box set (Mego)
Arca, Xen (Mute)
Kavinsky, Outrun (Universal)
Klara Lewis, Ett (Mego)
Ben Frost, Aurora (Bedroom Community)
Winged Victory For The Sullen, Atomos (Kranky)
The Advisory Circle, From Out Here (Ghostbox)
Gesaffelstein, Aleph (Vinyl Factory)
Anna Calvi, One Breath (Domino)
Lawrence English, Wilderness of Mirrors (room 40)
Athanor, Vos Cites Sont des Tombeurs (Le Chene Creux)
Katie Gately, Pipes (Blue Tapes)
Elysian Fields, For House Cats and Sea Fans (Ojet)
Child Abuse, Trouble In Paradise (Skin Graft)
Stars in Battledress, In Droplet Form (Believers Roast)
David Bowie, “Sue (or in a season of crime)” (Columbia)
Coh, To Beat (Mego)
Mario Diaz de Leon, Hypnos (Shinkoyo)
Ghost Of A Sabre Tooth Tiger, Midnight Sun (Chimera)
Bryce Dessner, St. Caroline By The Sea (Deutsche Grammophon)
Goat, Commune (SubPop)

Concerts and Events

I went to dozens of concerts and events in 2014. Here are some of the most notable. All in NYC except where noted.

Jan 30: Tatsuya Nakatani Gong Orchestra @ Jack
Feb 7: Bee Mask @ Issue Project Room
Mar 22: Colin Stetson @ Ecstatic Music Festival, Merkin Hall
Apr 1: Kraftwerk @ United Palace
Apr 4: Demdike Stare / Phill Niblock @ First Unitarian Church
Jun 2: Jana Winderen Installation @ Park Avenue Tunnel
Jun 4: Francisco Lopez @ Issue Project Room
Jun 14: SURVIVE @ NMASS Festival, Austin
Jun 21: Meshuggah @ Best Buy Theater
Jun 27: Ashcan Orchestra @ Issue Project Room
Jul 5: Cloud Become Your Hand @ Knockdown Center
Jul 13: King Buzzo @ Santos
Jul 18; OOIOO @ Rough Trade
Jul 25: John Luther Adams @ Lincoln Center Plaza
Jul 26: Mahmoud Ahmed @ Pioneer Works
Aug 30: Hal Wilner @ The Stone
Sep 10 & 11: Phillip Glass and Steve Reich @ BAM
Sep 19: Andy Stott / Demdike Stare @ The Bunker, Output
Sep 21: King Crimson @ Best Buy Theater
Oct 16: Xylouris White @ Union Pool
Oct 25: De Player @ Fylkingen, Stockholm
Oct 30: Liturgy / Child Abuse @ Death By Audio
Oct 31: Silent Servant DJ set @ Bunker, Trans Pecos
Nov 2: Todd Rundgren @ BB Kings
Nov 2: Deerhoof @ Death By Audio
Nov 7: Yarn Wire / Marcus Schmickler @ Issue Project Room
Nov 11: Raul De Nieves The Fool Opera @ Issue Project Room
Nov 13: Dan Deacon @ Death By Audio
Nov 21: Battle Trance @ Issue Project Room
Nov 25: Maja S.K. Ratkje with Mivos Quartet @ The Stone
Nov 29: John Zorn’s Cobra @ Roulette
Dec 2: George Lewis / Pamplemousse @ Columbia
Dec 5: Carl Michael Von Hausswolff, Swedish Energies Festival @ Issue Project Room
Dec 12: Swans / Liturgy @ Warsaw
Dec 19: Sparks with Heritage Orchestra @ The Barbican, London

Film

Films I dug:

Under The Skin
Borgman
Nymphomaniac, parts 1 and 2
Abuse Of Weakness
Locke
Paradise: Hope
Dawn of the Planet Of The Apes

I also keep a Tumblr blog where I talk about events I check out and other cultural obsessions.

For more on JG Thirlwell, please visit Foetus.org.

Music Review: The Blancos, Heartless Romantic EP

By Tyler Hodg

A regrettable fact of music fandom is that it’s easy to come across inauthentic, materialistic garbage. Thankfully, the first offering from New York duo The Blancos—an EP titled Heartless Romantic—may be the most genuine collection of songs you will have the privilege of hearing. While their hip-hop/indie fusion sound includes familiar elements you may have heard before, Heartless Romantic is organically progressive and in a league of its own.

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Concert Review: Chris Isaak At The Kent Stage

By Julie Finley

December 16, 2014
Kent, OH

I was quite pleased when I learned that Chris Isaak would be doing a live gig and not too far from my home. He has played the area before, but every time one of many life’s obstacles has gotten in the way (usually work, illness, bad weather, lack of money, or a combo of the bunch). I remember reading that he would be playing The Kent Stage around Christmas of last year, but I was immobile, recovering from back surgery, AND there was a massive snowstorm, so I wasn’t going anywhere! I was bummed, because the venue is just so close (and not in some hell hole.).

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Music Review: Various Artists, Popcorn Girls

By Melissa Bratcher

The songs on Croydon Municipal’s Popcorn Girls defy simple description. They range from R&B burners, to country tinged numbers, to Shangri-La’s-like teen tragedies. Their commonality? In the 1970s Belgian club scene, they were guaranteed floor fillers. There was a certain type of dance endemic of the time, a “slow swing” with a rather specific tempo. As a result, Popcorn Girls is a moody, stone-cold, slow groove from beginning to end.

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Best Of 2014: The Muffs

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