TV Shows: Archive Crawls and Checking In

By Lisa Anderson

Recently, I started watching The Big Bang Theory. With regular programs in summer reruns, I’ve tuned into syndicated episodes of the show, which many of my friends enjoy but which I’d never thought to watch before. Not having started from the beginning, I’ve been left to piece together many details about the character and their storylines. None of this would be remarkable except for the ways in which television viewing has changed over the past few years. Continue reading ‘TV Shows: Archive Crawls and Checking In’

All You Got To Do Is Swing: Joe Jackson’s The Duke

By Cait Brennan

From the very beginning of his professional career, Joe Jackson has been one of the most driven, creative, and eclectic artists in popular music. His debut album, Look Sharp, was one of the New Wave’s first smash hits, and over his first three albums Jackson and his band ruled the airwaves with catchy, intelligent pop with strong punk, reggae and pub-rock influences. Continue reading ‘All You Got To Do Is Swing: Joe Jackson’s The Duke‘

Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story

By Chelsea Spear

Photo © Mark Ostow

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Mark Sandman cut a wide swath through the Boston music scene. His first band, Treat Her Right, scored a local radio hit with the deadpan, eerie single “I Think She Likes Me.” The various bands with whom Sandman played—most notably Supergroup, Candybar, and Morphine—played two sets a night at the shoebox-shaped bar Plough and Stars. Even as Morphine ascended to a renowned trio with a devoted following, Sandman could be found playing at the annual Central Square World’s Fair, talking with elementary school classes about his handmade musical instruments, converting his loft apartment into a recording studio, or just hanging out in the back booth at the Middle East nightclub. His sudden, tragic death in Italy in 1999 left a huge hole, both in the music world where he made his mark, and within the Boston arts community. Continue reading ‘Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story‘

Thoughts On: The Band, STAGE FRIGHT

By Paul Casey

Part three in a continuing series on THE BAND’s discography.

To read the whole series, go here.

“Now deep in the heart of a lonely kid
Who suffered so much for what he did
Gave this plough boy his fortune and fame
And since that day he ain’t been the same.

See the man with the stage fright
Just standing up there to give it all his might
And he got caught in the spotlight
But when it gets to the end
He wants to start all over again.”
—From “Stage Fright”

Continue reading ‘Thoughts On: The Band, STAGE FRIGHT’

Assemblog: July 13, 2012

Red Lights, 2012

New this week on Popshifter: a follow up on Twilight and modern horror; reviews of Lex Hives, Keep The Beat: The Very Best of The English Beat, and the Looking Back box set; plus why Brave is great and a review of the new movie Red Lights.

Continue reading ‘Assemblog: July 13, 2012’

Movie Review: Red Lights

By Less Lee Moore

This review also appears on The CillianSite.com.

At its most basic level, Red Lights is about two paranormal investigators who debunk cases of alleged psychic phenomena. Yet what the movie is really about is something more: Faith, and whether or not that faith can be shaken.

Sigourney Weaver plays Dr. Margaret Matheson, a psychologist who’s built her career on not just shaking, but also shattering, the faith of those who believe in the paranormal or supernatural. Cillian Murphy is her assistant, Tom Buckley, a physicist who in Matheson’s view is brilliant enough to be doing something more with his life than helping her. Early on in the film, Matheson asks Buckley why he stays with her. He doesn’t answer. Finding out the answer is part of what makes Red Lights so engaging.

Continue reading ‘Movie Review: Red Lights‘

Great Scot (regardless of the critics): Why I’m Into Brave

By Maureen

Brave silkscreen print from Dark Ink
Comic-Con 2012 Exclusive

Here’s what I know: I saw Brave on its opening night and enjoyed the hell out of it. My boyfriend and I were in a theater full to the max with a good mix of children and their parents and groups of people both our age (27 and 29, respectively) and teenagers. We had a great time. Everyone was a-buzz leaving the theater, both about the film and about other Disney/Pixar endeavors.

Here’s what I don’t know: why everyone on the Internet suddenly seems to have issues with this adorable film. Continue reading ‘Great Scot (regardless of the critics): Why I’m Into Brave‘

Looking Back: 80 Mod, Freakbeat & Swinging London Nuggets—Various Artists

By Noreen Sobczyk

This eighty-track British compilation (save for a scant few Australian tracks), includes many songs making their first appearance on CD. Also included are a handful of previously unissued tunes (that were lingering about on reel to reel), from groups such as A Wild Uncertainty, Tony Rivers & The Castaways, The Thoughts, The Trekkas, and The Knave. The Looking Back compilation also boasts appearances by future rock stars such as Yes’s Steve Howe when he was in The In Crowd; AC/DC’s Bon Scott as member of The Valentines; and even Motorhead’s Lemmy (Kilmister) in his early combo The Rockin’ Vickers.

The discs serve as a good option for lovers of sixties British music unwilling to pay collector 7″ vinyl prices. Sure, there are Mod purists who will only spin these songs in clubs on vinyl, but for those of us content just to have the music, or to put on a CD at a party and let it roll without the fuss of compiling the tracks—this is a gem. There are only a few few songs that might prompt one to skip forward to the next offering, but none go so far as to risk clearing the dance floor.

If you’re a casual listener looking for an introduction to Mod music, this may not be your bag, but in researching a larger and earlier box set from Universal Music Archives titled The In Crowd, I found it selling at over $100 for used copies. That said, the tracks included herein may not boast names recognizable to the casual listener, but it doesn’t take an archivist to recognize this little set is worth the price of admission.

Looking Back: 80 Mod, Freakbeat & Swinging London Nuggets was released by Cherry Red on November 21, 2011 and is available to order from their website.

Keep The Beat: The Very Best of The English Beat

By Danny R. Phillips

Shout! Factory announced recently that they would be re-issuing the entire catalog of material record by English ska/toasting masters The English Beat. Included in this is every album (that’s three studio albums and two of bonus materials) and a CD/DVD of the band playing the US Festival in May of 1983.

That much material could be a lot to swallow by anyone other then the most fanatical and hardcore of English Beat devotees. Well, for those in the world who do not want to dish out $34 for the box set (that is still a killer deal), Shout! Factory will be releasing a concise greatest hits package, Keep the Beat: The Very Best of The English Beat, as a complement to the five-disc wonder. Continue reading ‘Keep The Beat: The Very Best of The English Beat‘

The Hives, Lex Hives

By Julie Finley

What can be said about The Hives that hasn’t already been said? If you are reading this, this is probably not the first time you’ve ever heard of them—and it won’t be the last! If you like them at all, you pretty much know what you’re in for, and what you’re in for is FUN! The word “fun” describes The Hives very accurately (much more so than that lame band actually known as Fun). They aren’t a band that you listen to for technical or lyrical prowess (and I’m not discrediting their musicianship or lyrics by saying that, either). The Hives are a band that you like because they achieve the goal of making the listener happy! The Hives aren’t a band you sit around listening to whilst brooding, because if you are brooding whilst listening to The Hives, you need many MANY years of therapy!

With that said, how does The Hives latest release, Lex Hives, measure up? I would have to say extremely well, and on par with what you’ve come to expect from them. Keeping up their formula without succumbing to industry pressure to change is challenging, but the only thing they’ve changed is their attire.
Continue reading ‘The Hives, Lex Hives‘