Assemblog: May 31, 2013 – Critiquing The Role Of Women in Hollywood

Lynn Ramsay on the set of We Need To Talk About Kevin

New this week on Popshifter: Jeff presents the last days of Metal Mayhem with Iron Maiden and Spinal Tap; Chelsea describes the “smart, talented trio” known as Hot Club of Cowtown in her review of their new Rendezvous in Rhythm album; Lisa praises Elementary as “the abomination that wasn’t”; I share 15 hilarious minutes with Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick of The Venture Bros., have a dance party with King Tuff’s reissued Was Dead album, and fall in love with Charles Bradley: Soul of America.

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Movie Review: Charles Bradley: Soul Of America

By Less Lee Moore

To Charles Bradley, the American dream felt particularly elusive. “I’ve been struggling for 42 years to make it in the [music] industry,” he states at the beginning of the new documentary bearing his name. It’s difficult to believe that someone could keep the faith for so long without becoming bitter or angry, or just giving up. Yet as Soul of America reveals, this is exactly what has happened to Charles Bradley.

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Music Review: King Tuff, Was Dead

By Less Lee Moore

Burger Records is synonymous with fun. The last two releases from the label I reviewed were incredibly fun and their reissue of King Tuff’s Was Dead is no exception.

Originally released in 2008 on Tee Pee Records as a limited edition on vinyl only, Was Dead was out of print for several years before this reissue. Fans who missed out will be overjoyed while those who haven’t yet dipped their toes into King Tuff’s pool party are in for a treat.

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Fifteen Minutes With: Doc Hammer & Jackson Publick of The Venture Bros.

Interviewed by Less Lee Moore

When you’re a Venture Bros. fan, you see things through Venture-colored glasses and everything looks so much better. There is nothing not to love about this show: incredible characters, an overabundance of wit, numerous pop culture references, clever visuals, and a narrative arc that puts most live action TV shows to shame. In anticipation of the show’s Season 5 premiere on June 2, I chatted with Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, the show’s creators, writers, voice actors, and just about everything else. We started discussing how they work and what drives them and eventually got into the important stuff: Kajagoogoo concerts, whether or not Trent Reznor is a poseur, and Gary Numan. When I got on the phone, Doc and Jackson were already there, chatting with each other.

Jackson: Yesterday there was fake harpsichord hold music.
Doc: I think it was fake guitar.
Jackson: I think it was trying to be fake harspsichord.
Doc: Really?!

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Assemblog: May 24, 2013 – On The Purpose Of Art

Velvet Goldmine, 1998
Screencap from Screenmusings

New this week on Popshifter: Jeff explains what Billy Squier and Ratt have in common in this week’s installments of Metal Mayhem; Melissa describes the “strange mix” on the reissued The Legend/Come Back To Me disc from Marty Robbins and is brought to tears by Davell Crawford’s My Gift To You; I review the “dark, disquieting” film Comforting Skin, now out on DVD and the anything-but-boring Ready To Die from Iggy and the Stooges, and attempt to unpack David Bowie’s new video for “The Next Day.”

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New Video: David Bowie, “The Next Day”

By Less Lee Moore

I have no idea how this didn’t make it onto my radar until last week. The second single from David Bowie‘s fine new album The Next Day—and the third video—is the title track.

With lines like “they whip him through the streets and alleys” and “they know God exists for the Devil told them so,” it’s not a stretch to imagine that said video might feature some religious iconography and controversy. With Bowie the boundary pusher, you’re guaranteed excesses of both.

Not having seen videos like “Boys Keep Swinging” and “D.J.” until the early ’80s on MTV, I can’t say firsthand what kind of stir they caused in the late ’70s, but they certainly caused a stirring within me.

Floria Sigismondi, who directed “The Stars (Come Out Tonight),” also helmed “The Next Day” video and it’s not dissimilar to a Caravaggio painting come to life, with a bit of Ken Russell for good measure.

I’d also argue that Sigismondi got more than a little inspiration from the 1970 Czech film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, which I’ve not been lucky enough to see, but which I’ve certainly enjoyed through numerous images online.

In “The Next Day” we have Gary Oldman as a lusty priest with a ducktail haircut and Marion Cotillard as a quasi-Mary Magdalene character in a bustier. One might consider Bowie and his linen smock and glittery scarf to be Jesus. From Pontius Pilate to Jesus: what a career!

The nightclub in which this takes place is The Decameron, either a reference to Boccaccio’s medieval allegory, the 1971 Pasolini film based on the allegory, or both. St. Lucy makes an appearance and so does Joan of Arc.

It’s gory, gorgeous, and decidedly not safe for work. Enjoy.

Music Review: Iggy and The Stooges, Ready To Die

By Less Lee Moore

Every time I write a review of something Iggy Pop or Stooges-related, I feel obligated to provide some sort of context, to explain why these old dudes are still important to me and why they should be important to everyone else. With Ready To Die, the latest from Iggy and The Stooges, I’m not sure that context is needed. It’s just that good of an album. Besides, if you haven’t liked Iggy’s or The Stooges’ music over the last four decades, there’s probably no hope for you, anyway.

Although Iggy himself is fairly prolific, actual Stooges albums are scarce, which makes their legendary status all the more impressive. This particular incarnation of the band includes Iggy, Scott Asheton on drums, James Williamson on guitar, Steve Mackay on sax, and Mike Watt on bass. (Frequent Stooges auxiliary member Scott Thurston also appears on a track.) With the untimely, much-lamented death of Scott’s brother Ron in 2009, this is as close to a bona fide reunion as we’re going to get now.

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DVD Review: Comforting Skin

By Less Lee Moore

Sometimes the best horror films aren’t the ones that deal in the supernatural or killers who won’t die. Treading the line between reality and insanity can frequently be horrifying enough. Comforting Skin is that rare, unclassifiable movie that blurs the lines between genres and defies categorization.

Ostensibly, Comforting Skin is about a young woman named Koffie (Victoria Bidewell) who gets a tattoo on her shoulder blade and is thrilled with the results, until it starts talking to her. Yet, the film is about so much more.

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Music Review: Dead Ghosts, Can’t Get No

By Less Lee Moore

If you think Dead Ghosts sounds like a Goth band name, you’d be right, but you’d be dead wrong about their sound. This is old school, straight-up party music. The only thing better than listening to this album at a party (nighttime, outside, backyard, torches to ward off mosquitoes) would be having the band actually play live at your party.

In other words, you have to dance to this music. There is no other way.

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Music Review: Burnt Ones, You’ll Never Walk Alone

By Less Lee Moore

You’ll Never Walk Alone opens with the wonderfully titled, warped shimmy of “Glitter Death” and the clever lyric: tell all of your friends that this is the end/of all these stupid trends.

The first six tracks on the album weave in and out of each other so slyly they all seem like one glorious, extended song. A song that’s a three-dimensional rainbow tapestry of sonic bliss.

Burnt Ones recalls the psychedelia of both early Pink Floyd and T. Rex with more than a dusting of the latter’s primo glam rawk stomp, and lyrics to match (sample: Just like a sweater how you’re so together). At first those lyrics won’t make a whole lot of sense, but once you get into their groove, the crazy visuals they describe—”hypnotized and fried, licking glass perfumes”–will nag at you until you start to feel like you understand on some subterranean, emotional level.

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