Twilight and The Problem With Modern Horror

By Paul Casey

When I saw Takashi Miike’s Audition, I did not know that the sub-genre of “torture porn” existed in horror. As such I did not approach it as an exercise in sadomasochism. (It is not, anyway). As I became aware of creators like Eli Roth, and a rather embarrassing discussion on how he had GONE TOO FAR (!!!! etc.), it was clear that there was still a burgeoning market for transgressive horror pictures. The Last House on the Left, I Spit On Your Grave, The Hitcher, the work of Lucio Fulci all caused similar bother upon their release. Some of the above were innovative, exciting examples of the independent creative spirit existent in 1970s American cinema. Others were not.

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Assemblog: July 6, 2012

Citadel still from Bloody Disgusting

New on Popshifter this week: Part two of our continuing series on THE BAND’s discography (The Band); and a review of Ernie Kovacs: The ABC Specials on DVD.

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Kovacs for Beginners: Ernie Kovacs, The ABC Specials

By John Lane

For a background history of the genius of Ernie Kovacs and his influence, I refer readers to my previous article concerning the grand, pioneering master.

One can say it is an embarrassment of riches when one holds anything product-wise in your hands having to do with Ernie Kovacs. But that having been said, I feel like the release of Ernie Kovacs: The ABC Specials is a slight misstep on the part of Shout! Factory. Continue reading ‘Kovacs for Beginners: Ernie Kovacs, The ABC Specials‘

Thoughts On: The Band, THE BAND

By Paul Casey

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

To read the whole series, go here.

Photo © Elliott Landy, 1969

Recorded primarily in a Los Angeles house that once belonged to Sammy Davis Jr., THE BAND’s second, self-titled LP, is considered to be their masterpiece. It is the album on which the legend of THE BAND was built. Unlike Music From Big Pink, Robbie Robertson gets a writing credit on every song, collaborating with Richard Manuel on three tracks, and Levon Helm on one. It does not have the diversity of their debut, but instead comes their most cohesive work.

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Assemblog: June 29, 2012

Image from The Art Of The Title

New this week on Popshifter: an attempt to answer the question regarding sex, violence, and horror in movies: Are we short-charging the teens?; reviews of new releases by Jesca Hoop, DIIV, Ty Segall Band, and Neneh Cherry & The Thing; in praise of singer/songwriter Gillian Welch; and a look at a 1974 John Lee Hooker concert now on DVD.

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John Lee Hooker, Cook With The Hook: Live 1974 DVD

By Jemiah Jefferson

One of the rare live video recordings of blues legend John Lee Hooker was filmed with three cameras at a festival in Massachusetts called “Down in the Dumps,” the second in a hoped-for series of concerts on the site of a city landfill area, and shown on local access television in 1974. Thank heavens that this footage didn’t suffer the fate of so much video tape of the era, and survived to the 21st century to released on a bare-bones DVD called Cook With The Hook: Live 1974. Additional material might have been nice, but we must assume there isn’t any, besides what’s on the explanatory, single-sheet disk insert.
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Neneh Cherry & The Thing, The Cherry Thing

By Kai Shuart

Neneh Cherry debuts her collaboration with new band The Thing on the album The Cherry Thing. It is a testament to the adage that no matter what the genre, good music is good music.
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Gillian Welch: Dark Turn Of Mind

By Paul Casey

Out of hospital a few days. Nighttime seizures cause strange dreams. Out of place. A rare, complete family notion: Let’s rent a movie. A dividing line between a childish reality and a childish regression.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000

The Coen Brothers did it. O Brother, Where Art Thou? Sympathy for the American story. Great Plains or Skyscrapers; didn’t matter. If you had a touch for music in the 20th Century, pretensions of nonplussed rural plods struck as backwards affect. America was serious business. Real things happened there.

The soundtrack, produced by T-Bone Burnett—a sort who has been responsible for a whole lotta good “produced by” outings, and not too many originals—collected the Alan Lomax perspective with covers by those living. Gillian Welch was the one who took me at two moments. First, flight over fields in prison wear, with Alison Krauss. The Kossoy Sisters were used in the picture, but the soundtrack version stuck as definition.

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Ty Segall Band, Slaughterhouse

By Less Lee Moore

If you haven’t yet heard of Ty Segall that will probably change very soon. The twentysomething California native has been exceptionally busy for the last seven years, recording and playing with a slew of bands like Epsilons, Party Fowl, The Traditional Fools, and The Perverts, not to mention stuff released under his own name as well as with White Fence. This prolific output, along with his age, garage-rock influences, and connection to Goner Records might remind you of another overachieving young musician.

When asked about being “the next Jay Reatard” in interviews, Segall admits he considers it a huge compliment. However, Slaughterhouse, the debut recording of Segall and his touring band, should firmly establish him as a musical force in his own right.

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DIIV, Oshin

By Less Lee Moore

Iona: “Why can’t we start old and get younger? I envy you. I really envy you!”
Andie: “Iona, you’re gonna OD on nostalgia.”
—Pretty In Pink, 1986

“Shoegaze” is an overused buzzword these days, with a number of press releases touting bands as such, and in the process revealing that they don’t seem to understand what the word actually means. Although I haven’t yet seen the word applied to DIIV, the newest musical incarnation of Beach Fossils guitarist Zachary Cole Smith, it’s beyond appropriate.

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