// Category Archive for: Reviews

TV Review: The Walking Dead S6 E16, “Last Day On Earth”

By Less Lee Moore

Even if you don’t watch The Walking Dead, the outrage over this season’s finale was impossible to avoid. Flouncing threats of rage-quitting the show, complaints that the show is merely stringing fans along in order to infuriate and insult them, and angry cries that yet another cliffhanger was going to have to tide people over until Season 7 were par for the course throughout social media and pop culture punditry.

But this is Popshifter, and we don’t play those games.

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Music Review: Graves At Sea, The Curse That Is

By Tim Murr

There was a photo that accompanied the press release of Graves At Sea’s debut full-length album, The Curse That Is, and I love it. The picture of the four members (Nathan Misterek on vocals, Nick Phit on guitar, Bryan Sours on drums, and Sketchy Jeff on bass) shows a group of guys who won’t be having any of your shit. Not now, not later. These are some tough-looking, sick-of-it-all dudes and their faces match the music perfectly.

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TV Review: Trailer Park Boys S10 E03, “A Three Tiered Sh*t Dyke”

By Tyler Hodg

The Sunnyvale crew binds together for not one, but two jobs to help raise enough money for legal fees to save the park in an episode titled “A Three Tiered Sh*t Dyke.”

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Music Review: Shark Toys, Outsider Sect

By Brian Baker

I don’t know who you are, but I know I can cruise with your surfer punk rhythms like Johnny Fain carving the California coast, Shark Toys. (more…)

TV Review: Trailer Park Boys S10 E02, “You Want the Lot Fees, Suck Them Out of the Tip of My C**k”

By Tyler Hodg

With a mediocre premiere behind it, Trailer Park Boys brings back absent faces, and develops more of what appears to be a season long arch in an episode titled “You Want the Lot Fees, Suck Them Out of the Tip of My C**k.”

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TV Review: Broad City S3 E07, “B&B-NYC”

By Sachin Hingoo

“In da klerb, we all fam!”
“What?”
“In. Da. Klerb. We. All. Fam”
“I..I don’t…”
“In the club, we’re all family. What, are you racist?”

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TV Review: Lucha Underground S3 E09, “Aztec Warfare II”

By Sachin Hingoo

I often say that each week in Lucha Underground is bigger than the last, and this week’s episode, featuring the second chaotic Aztec Warfare match, is no exception. On top of the match itself, we will see the Lucha Underground debut of one of the world’s most famous (if not the most famous) luchadors, Rey Mysterio Jr., as well as his protege Dragon Azteca Jr. As if that weren’t enough, the frightening Matanza is on his way back to the Temple with his brother Dario Cueto and Black Lotus in tow.

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Movie Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

By Tim Murr

One week after its release and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is still creating controversy and dividing fans. It’s also doing something I don’t recall ever seeing before: the critics have made themselves and their personal experiences the story, rather than the movie. For a film that is so successful at the box office, there’s a high level of blind vitriol being leveled at it by so many critics from the blog-o-sphere to mainstream outlets. And yet fans are loving it and it made $500 million its opening weekend. BvS is rated at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.3/10 on IMDB. How can there be that wide of a disparity? And how can fans and critics be so divided?

WARNING: SPOILERS

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In Case You Missed It: March 20 – April 2, 2016–The Site That Wouldn’t Die

By Less Lee Moore

You can’t kill us; we’re already undead.

At Popshifter, sometimes shit happens. And when it does, we soldier on.

We’re sad to lose one of our favorite writers, Laury Scarbro, this week. She’s just got too much going on in her non-Internet life and must take a hiatus.

We’re also sad to see another one of our fave writers take a hiatus: Jeffery X Martin has a new writing job (Yay! Congratulations!) that’s taking up most of his time these days and so he won’t be around as much as he used to.

These two departures mean that some of our content will be disappearing: the daily Today In Pop Culture column and our weekly recaps of Outsiders. I thought it best to let you know what was going on in case you wondered why they suddenly disappeared.

That said, if anyone would like to pick up the mantle of Today In Pop Culture or finish the rest of the season of Outsiders (four more episodes), I would gladly welcome your contributions.

And now, to the news!

Brad Henderson went to SXSW and all he got was a case of food poisoning. OK, he also saw some good movies, too, one of them being the Hicksploitation throwback My Father, Die. Not so good was recent home video release Intruders, which was a missed opportunity that I wish I had missed. You can always go back to 1977 and watch Count Dracula, the BBC production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula starring Louis Jourdan, though, which I revisted in this month’s Frightful Flashback on Rue Morgue. You can also read my examination of the nature of evil as told through three different interpretations of witches on Everything Is Scary, those being Penny Dreadful, The Witch, and The Devils. By the way, happy one-year anniversary to Everything Is Scary where we do the responsible thing and contemplate the void every week.

The small screen is exploding these days! Besides new episodes of The Walking Dead, Broad City, and WGN’s Outsiders, Netflix has just premiered the second season of Daredevil, which Tim gives high marks, and Trailer Park Boys’ tenth season, which Tyler will be covering over the next week or so.

Whenever someone complains that there isn’t any good music these days, you just send them over to Popshifter, OK?

Besides the latest (and hopefully not the last) Iggy Pop album Post Pop Depression (which is awesome); there’s also Robbie Fulks’s Upland Stories, which Melissa describes as “exquisite;” West Of Here, the sophomore release from The Currys; and a trio of excellent—and very different—albums from women-fronted bands: Davina and the Vagabonds, Margo Price, and Bleached.

HHBTM has been putting out some quality music lately, including the punky Versus album from Eureka California and the retro yet timeless Crystal Café from Witching Waves. But if you enjoy “kick-ass, groove-heavy, instrumental synth-rock unit inspired by 1970s and ’80s horror movie soundtracks,” you might enjoy Wolfmen of Mars’ latest, DANGER! PERIL! THREAT!

Tim takes a look back at Sepultura’s Roots album, while I take a look forward at a couple of new videos: “Phantom Freighter” from the sci-fi, industrial-influenced Pop. 1280 and “Hey Girl (I Wanna Be Your Man)” from shoegazers Dirty Sidewalks.

Finally, Brian Baker chatted with actress Karen Allen at the recent Toronto ComiCon and she had some things to say about that upcoming Indiana Jones movie.

Until next week, Popshifter fans!

Music Review: Iggy Pop, Post Pop Depression

By Less Lee Moore

I followed my shadow and it led me here
What is the problem if I disappear?
—Iggy Pop, “In The Lobby”

There’s Iggy Pop and then, there are The Stooges. Or at least, there were, since Iggy himself is the last surviving original member. And while Iggy’s solo work has always been distinctly different from his work with The Stooges, a look at his discography reveals a history of playing well with others: David Bowie, Steve Jones, Ivan Kral, Whitey Kirst, Glen Matlock, James Williamson, and others. Post Pop Depression is the latest in a long line of Iggy Pop collaborative albums, this one with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Dean Fertita, as well as Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders.

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