New Atoms For Peace single/video: “Judge Jury and Executioner”
Published on January 14th, 2013 in: Music, New Single, New Video, Video |By J Howell
The new Atoms For Peace single, “Judge Jury and Executioner” isn’t a radical departure for Thom Yorke—think three-quarters of the way between the mostly-electronica of The Eraser and the partial electronica of recent-vintage Radiohead. Recognizable as the work of Yorke and longtime producer Nigel Godrich within seconds, “Judge Jury and Executioner” is hypnotic, somewhat cold and compelling. The track may not surprise longtime fans, but it is likely to please. Yorke’s voice, layered and reverberated as a background instrument itself throughout, is simultaneously familiar and slightly unsettling.
“Judge Jury and Executioner” is available for download now at the Atoms For Peace website and iTunes, and a 12” single with the non-album B-side “S.A.D.” is available for pre-order as well, to be released March 19. Atoms For Peace’s debut album, Amok, is available February 26.
Willing and Able: Prince Hints At Giving a Shit
Published on January 10th, 2013 in: Music, Video |By Paul Casey
Prince last released an album in 2010 called 20Ten. It was possibly the best thing he has released in the last decade. Super tight, and containing at least three possible hits—“Sticky Like Glue,” “Future Soul Song,” “Laydown”—20Ten was given away free with newspapers in Europe and did not see any kind of release in America. For such a quality album this remains a great shame and is unfortunately indicative of the way Prince has treated his best material after leaving the mainstream in the mid 1990s.
A few days ago, through a typically obtuse delivery method, Prince released some new music. Four videos were uploaded by a YouTube user called 3rdEyeGirl, including one previously unheard track called “Same Page, Different Book.” An extended version of the brilliant “Laydown” was also included, as well as another remix of “Rock and Roll Love Affair.” More importantly, though, a live rehearsal of the 1979 deviant rocker “Bambi” made an appearance, a song that is generally considered to be a remnant of the old Prince.
All four tracks have now been taken down from YouTube, replete with the obligatory copyright claim. Given that Prince proxy Dr. Funkenberry publicized these tracks, as well as the problems inherent in one inside of Prince’s organization surreptitiously releasing this material, it seems that this is the kind of multiple persona game that pleases the Purple One.
This is fairly close to how Prince was operating in the mid 1990s, before he left Warner Brothers Records. One of his first ideas to get around the restrictions placed on him by WB—which limited the amount of new material they would tolerate—was to play new material live and inform those in attendance to record it. This may be a similar attempt to create excitement by limiting the time this music is available. It also seems like a gentle mea culpa to those fans who suffered his increasingly disproportionate reactions to his likeness appearing on fan sites and of course, the use of his music in any context.
As for the content of the tracks, “Bambi” stands as the most exciting, but that is to be expected. A return of the transgressive Prince holds far more promise than anything else. The new song has a laid back funk charm to it, and hopefully along with the excellent “Rock and Roll Love Affair” is further evidence that 2013 is going to bring us a new Prince album. Hopefully this time he will fully commit to giving the music its due by giving it a worldwide release, not just the ones where papers will give him mon mons.
A Man Lost In Time: Bowie Returns With New Single, Album
Published on January 8th, 2013 in: Music, New Music Tuesday, New Single, New Video, Video |By Cait Brennan
It came like a bolt of lightning in the dead of night: news of a new David Bowie album, his first in a decade, announced with no advance notice in the wee hours of his 66th birthday. The Next Day, Bowie’s 30th studio album, produced by Tony Visconti (!), will be released March 8 in Australia, March 11 in most of the rest of the world and March 12th in the US, with a new single, “Where Are We Now?” available on iTunes now.
Watch the full video on Vimeo.
After health issues sidelined Bowie in 2004, fans have been hoping against hope that the singular rock and roll icon would one day return to music, but there was scant evidence it would ever happen. His suitably theatrical return sent social media into a frenzy, putting him atop Twitter’s trending topics within minutes. Radio stations around the world scrambled to play the track first, with BBC 6Music earning honors as the World Premiere play, edging BBC Radio 2 by a few short minutes.
“Where Are We Now?” is a meditative ballad of “a man lost in time, walking the dead,” recalling in both lyrical geography and atmosphere his Berlin trilogy, coupled with a sound reminiscent of his most recent albums Reality and Heathen. The track is accompanied by a hearteningly weird video filled with expressionist imagery and the Thin White Duke himself transformed into a tiny malformed creature with two heads, one of which is a girl.
Henceforth, Christmas is officially moved to January 8.
The album is available for pre-order via iTunes in both standard and deluxe editions (the latter featuring three bonus tracks). Visit davidbowie.com/the-next-day for the latest.
New Video: Big Dipper, “Robert Pollard”
Published on December 6th, 2012 in: Music, Video |There’s no one way to age gracefully while simultaneously rocking out. Just ask Big Dipper.
The perennially underrated purveyors of jangly pop returned to the limelight with Big Dipper Crashes on the Platinum Planet, an album of richly melodic and wryly funny pop songs. How do they balance their lives as rock stars with maintaining desk jobs, parental duties, and other attendant responsibilities of middle age?
In the video for “Robert Pollard,” Bill, Gary, Jeff, and Tom show you how they find their happy medium.
Assemblog: August 3, 2012
Published on August 3rd, 2012 in: Assemblog, Media, Music, The Internets, Video |
Jonah Lehrer
Photo © Peter J. Thompson/National Post files
New this week on Popshifter: Paul calls The Very Best Of Sonny Rollins a “lovingly assembled” collection; J Howell thinks Jimbo Mathus’s new Blue Light EP would “benefit greatly from some sweat and whiskey”; Emily assesses the recently reissued albums of party pop princess Samantha Fox; I praise Anchor Bay’s recent reissue of superlative horror film The Entity on DVD and Blu-Ray; and Paul discusses violence and censorship in light of The Killer Inside Me.
Assemblog: June 8, 2012
Published on June 8th, 2012 in: Assemblog, Comedy, Copyright/Piracy, DVD, Horror, Movies, Music, Science Fiction, The Internets, Trailers, TV, Video |
Screencap from Miami Vice Fashion
New this week on Popshifter: a SpaceX celebration mix; reviews of The dB’s Falling Off The Sky, Jherek Bishoff’s Composed; John Singer Sergeant from John Dufilho; and a new band to watch: Sad Baby Wolf.
Assemblog: May 11, 2012
Published on May 11th, 2012 in: Assemblog, Copyright/Piracy, DVD, Horror, Movies, Music, The Internets, Trailers, TV, Video |
Livide
New on Popshifter this week: Reviews of Turing Machine’s latest release What is the Meaning of What, the remastered reissue of Hey Little Richard, and You and I in Heaven, the new EP from Tyburn Saints.
Hungry For Love, Part Four: More Awesomely Bad Music Videos From Around The Globe
Published on April 30th, 2012 in: Music, Retrovirus, Video |By Jim R. Clark
This is Part Three in our series on bizarre videos you may have forgotten about or never seen. Don’t forget to check out Parts One, Two, and Three.
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Assemblog: April 20, 2012
Published on April 20th, 2012 in: Assemblog, Blu-Ray, Books, Copyright/Piracy, Movies, Music, Trailers, Video |
Dick Clark: 1929 – 2012
Today I’m introducing a new feature on Popshifter, the Assemblog: a collection of what has captured my attention this week, pop-culturally speaking.
New on Popshifter this week: a spoiler-free review of Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s remarkable The Cabin in the Woods and praise for Who Cooks For You?, the latest release from Johnny Headband.
New Video: Cake, “Mustache Man (Wasted)”
Published on January 24th, 2012 in: Music, Video |By Jemiah Jefferson
If only all videos by beloved indie-rock stalwarts could be directed by Portland, OR-based Alicia J. Rose, MTV would never have stopped showing videos.
Reminiscent of the good old days of hilarious mini-movies like “Hot for Teacher,” “Christmas in Hollis,” “Jeopardy,” and any “Weird Al” video ever, Cake’s new track “Mustache Man (Wasted)” features the story of a heavyweight schlub with no luck with the ladies going up against a mysterious stranger with a sex van, bell-bottoms, aviator sunglasses, and luxurious pornstache who effortlessly pulls all the girls (even the ladyboys shopping at Portland mainstay Wig Land). The war escalates to a lighted-floor disco dance-off for the ages.
Chock full of Portland landmarks, amazing Portland women, and vintage fashion, and accompanying a song custom-made for ironically-funky party dancing, “Mustache Man (Wasted)” is a must-see, must-hear.
“Mustache Man (Wasted)” is the latest from Cake’s most recent album, Showroom of Compassion, which is available on iTunes and Amazon.