DVD Review: The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh

By Less Lee Moore

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is the feature film debut of Rodrigo Gudiño, founder of Rue Morgue magazine. It hearkens back to the Gothic thrillers of the 1960s but it isn’t a period piece. It’s more of a slow burn than most slow burning films, but once it catches flame it becomes genuinely sinister.

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Movie Review: Berberian Sound Studio

By Less Lee Moore

Berberian Sound Studio is a wonderfully self-reflexive film. It is as much about the effects of cinema as it is about the special effects that go into creating it. These ideas converge in Gilderoy, a British sound engineer who moves to Italy in the 1970s to work on The Equestrian Vortex, a giallo concerning black magic rituals.

Gilderoy, imbued with fragile realism by Toby Jones, is a fish so far out of the water that he’s gasping for air on the first day of his employment, ostracized by language and cultural barriers that he’s too polite and timid to overcome. His discomfort is so palpable as to be excruciating. He’s also uncomfortable with the subject matter of the film, which involves drowning, stabbing, hair pulling, and hot pokers shoved inside of women. Director Peter Strickland never shows us the harrowing scenes that trouble Gilderoy’s psyche; we see their impact on his face and eventually his entire persona, as he becomes completely unraveled both physically and mentally.

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DVD Review: Kiss Of The Damned

By Less Lee Moore

If anything could be more thrilling and sexy than Kiss of the Damned, it would be the fact that this is writer and director Xan Cassevetes’s first film. The daughter of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands, her pedigree is as assured as her talent.

Kiss of the Damned is the vampire movie that we’ve all been waiting for, engorged with atmosphere, sex, betrayal, and blood. It’s indebted to films like Daughters of Darkness, The Hunger, and the oeuvres of Jean Rollin and Jess Franco. Yet it feels fresh and invigorating and not like a retread at all.

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Bill Doss: The Man Who Defined A Transparent Dream

By John Lane

Detail of cover art for Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One by William Cullen Hart

It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since the death of Bill Doss, the co-captain of the late-’90s band, The Olivia Tremor Control. He died at age 43 (terribly young), and if you believe the rumor, with a guitar in his hand. Cause of death was not revealed to the public, which was probably for the best as The Olivia Tremor Control (and their cohorts in The Elephant 6 Collective, Athens’ own musical and larger equivalent of the Algonquin Round Table) possessed a certain absurdist magic that would be too sad to spoil with grim reality.

I discovered The Olivia Tremor Control in the late ’90s, when a fellow Beach Boys enthusiast wholeheartedly recommended them to me—the usual drill: “If you like harmonies and . . . ” then you’ll love OTC. Their two albums (which included the then-just-released Black Foliage) accompanied me on a long journey from the center of Iowa to Minneapolis, and it can be safely said that these two albums were game changers in every sense of the word for me.

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Waxing Nostalgic Cover Albums: Replicants, Replicants

By Jeffery X Martin

Take the guys from space-rock band Failure, Tool’s first bassist, and a kick-ass keyboardist and set them to deconstructing and rebuilding some of the finest rock songs of the 1970s and 1980s. The result is the band (and their eponymous 1995 release), Replicants.

It’s, well, a little weird. Therefore, I love it.

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Random Rant: No, Being Average Isn’t Worse Than Being Bad

By Paul Casey

If you have been reading music publications for any length of time, you will be familiar with the following:

“Much like the worst direction you can go in is no direction, so is inoffensiveness worse than taking a stand, and thus the boring album is in a way worse than even a terrible album. An album that is full-on awful will always get minimal scores, but an album that is accomplished but boring is going to attract the dreaded three-star review—so often the calling card of the most inessential music of all (if your album is best described as “pleasant” then you’re in serious trouble). A one-star album can’t be boring, because even if the music is godawful, it’s WHY it’s awful that is itself entertaining—a one-star review is inherently entertainment, which is why you’ll always read one when you’re skimming the reviews column. But who the hell wants to read the three-star reviews, particularly as they’re all identical (“IT’S NOT TERRIBLE, BUT IT’S LACKING. IT FALLS SHORT, BUT IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION”). And boring as fuck.

The opposite of enjoyment is not disgust; it’s tedium, because in a life so cruelly short, there’s nothing worse than being forgettable. The most disgusting pizza I’ve ever had was the one that accidentally had dish soap in it (SECRET FAMILY RECIPE), yet of all the ones I’ve eaten, it alone has survived the years as an amusing anecdote. It’s the middling three-star stuff you won’t remember. The albums from artists you respect that you’ve had forever but played once (REM are like your parents—you know they’re good, but you never listen to them). A reworking of ratings systems might help, but if we’ve gone this far without rating entertainment based on how entertaining it is, then why start now? The accepted method of rating albums isn’t terrible, of course, it’s just lacking. It falls short, but it’s a step in the right direction. I’d give it . . . 3 stars out of 5, let’s say.”
—”The 5 Worst Kinds of Album Every Music Fan Has Bought,” Cracked

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Music Review: The Garden, The Life And Times Of A Paperclip

By Less Lee Moore

My introduction to The Garden was the video for “I Am A Woman.” I was immediately taken with the band’s sound and the low budget, nonsensical video that featured one member wearing women’s clothes and makeup. Music that sounds like Killing Joke and The Minutemen? Guys in drag? Sign me up.

The Life And Times Of A Paperclip is the Burger Records debut of the duo known as The Garden, 19-year-old identical twins named Wyatt (vocals, bass) and Fletcher (drums, drag) Shears, who started making music a couple of years ago. Although the album has 16 tracks, it’s only 19 minutes long, but the songs are so good, you’ll be happy to listen to it on repeat for a couple of hours at a time.

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Blu-Ray Review: Trance

By Less Lee Moore

Trance is a very odd film. Director Danny Boyle has crafted a good career out of odd films, mostly because he refuses—admirably—to hew to one specific genre. Trance is particularly Boylean then, veering from genre to genre at a discombobulating pace.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Burning (Collector’s Edition)

By Brad Henderson

There are a plethora of slashers from the ’80s, and a few stand out for numerous reasons. Some of these films have an iconic killer or a bizarre story line; some may have pretty sweet kills, or they may be so silly it’s funny. The Burning has none of these attributes, but it’s still awesome.

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Ticket Giveaway: Los Amigos Invisibles, Xenia Rubinos To Play Summer Splash Concert In New York, August 8

By Chelsea Spear

Do you like rock en español and boats? If so, we have just the show for you. Summer Splash Concert Cruise Series recently announced a show featuring a pair of Latin alternative artists with serious skill, vision, and creativity. Popshifter will be giving away a pair of tickets to a lucky New York reader. Keep reading for more details!

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