Assemblog: August 23, 2013

Published on August 23rd, 2013 in: Assemblog |

The Assemblog is on hiatus this week as I’m busy with this year’s FanExpo. But you can still check out all the new stuff on Popshifter this week:

Paul has written a touching article on why “Morphine” is Michael Jackson’s most personal song; I fall in love with the new White Lies album Big TV, describe No One Lives as “bloody good fun,” give my Top Ten picks for this year’s FanExpo Canada; and LabSplice has some advice for M. Night Shyamalan and Neill Blomkamp.

—Less Lee Moore, Managing Editor

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Assemblog: August 16, 2013

Published on August 16th, 2013 in: Assemblog, Cartoons, Conventions/Expos, Horror, Movies, Trailers, TV, Upcoming Events |

How I Live Now

New this week on Popshifter: Lisa calls The Conjuring one of the best movies of the year; Brad takes a look at Antiviral, My Amityville Horror, Swamp Thing, and The Incredible Melting Man, all out now on home video; Ricky wants to go to a strip club in Hell if they’re going to play Demon Queen’s Exorcise Tape; Jemiah is impressed with Into The White with Rupert Grint; Chelsea hopes The Hot Flashes does better on home video than it did in theaters and suggests Los Nuggetz for garage rock fans who are looking for something they haven’t yet heard; Melissa calls Intoxicated Man 1958 – 1962 a tantalizing glimpse into the early work of Serge Gainsbourg; and I am touched by the music documentary A Band Called Death and amused by the new video from Big Black Delta, “Money Rain Down.”

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Assemblog: August 9, 2013

Published on August 9th, 2013 in: Assemblog, Feminism, Movies, Trailers |

Michael Fassbender in The Counselor

New this week on Popshifter: Stuart likes the way Scared To Get Happy: A Story of Indie-Pop 1980 – 1989 tells a story with music; Melissa thinks that the debut of The Fun Boy Three still sounds immediate after all these years; Paul compiles a listener’s guide for R&B in this new millennium; I throw chum into the water in the form of a blog post about Frenzy, an illustrated novel with a Kickstarter campaign; and recommend the sweet and the bitter in Minks’ new album Tides End.

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Assemblog: August 2, 2013

Published on August 2nd, 2013 in: Assemblog, Conventions/Expos, Critics/Criticism, Feminism, Film Festivals, Horror, Movies, The Internets, TV |

Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori in Pacific Rim

New this week on Popshifter: Brad reviews yet another Scream Factory reissue, this time it’s The Burning; Jeff finishes up this month’s Waxing Nostalgic Cover Albums series with Replicants’ eponymous album; Paul informs critics that being average is not worse than being bad; John pays tribute to The Olivia Tremor Control’s Bill Doss; I embrace the post-punk transvestite stylings of The Garden on their new album The Life And Times Of A Paperclip; and enjoy a lot of good movies new on home video and in theaters: Trance, Kiss of the Damned, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, and Berberian Sound Studio.

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Assemblog: July 19, 2013

Published on July 19th, 2013 in: Assemblog, Feminism, Horror, Legal Issues, Movies, Trailers, TV |

Frankenstein’s Army

New this week on Popshifter: I urge everyone to see Pacific Rim as soon as possible; Melissa is surprised and delighted by the new Blow Monkeys album Feels Like A New Morning and thinks that Boyce & Hart’s I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite is filled with the “finest pop gems”; Jeff equates Powerman 5000’s Copies, Clones & Replicants album with being trapped in Hell; and Brad is ecstatic for Scream Factory’s upcoming release of The Fog on Blu-Ray.

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Assemblog: July 12, 2013

Published on July 12th, 2013 in: Assemblog, Feminism, Film Festivals, Horror, Movies, Music, Over the Gadfly's Nest, Trailers, Video |

The Heat

New this week on Popshifter: Paul has some surprising but apt suggestions in his two-part series on Horror Movies For Kids; Melissa loves bands with tuba players and as a result, raves about That’s It! from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band; Jeff will crack you up with his review of the probably unnecessary Thank You from Duran Duran; Chelsea enjoyed the “irresistible prose” and vast wealth of stories in Curtis Harrington’s memoir Nice Guys Don’t Work In Hollywood; I strongly recommend Desperation, the latest album from the Oblivians and share my thoughts (and a couple of photos) from last week’s IO Echo/CSS show at The Mod Club.

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Assemblog: June 28, 2013

Published on June 28th, 2013 in: Assemblog, Conventions/Expos, Film Festivals, Horror, Movies, Music, Science Fiction, Trailers, Upcoming Events |

Among The Living (image from Twitch)

New this week on Popshifter: Chelsea reviews new albums from Dessa and Bosnian Rainbows; Julie puts the music of Dream Affair into a musical context; Paul explains why Christy Moore’s “Delirium Tremens” has multiple meanings; Jeff lifts up his lighter for Styx’s Big Bang Theory; Cait reminisces on Big Star and their soundtrack for the movie Nothing Can Hurt Me; and I try to describe the somewhat indescribable film The Rambler.

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Assemblog: June 21, 2013

Published on June 21st, 2013 in: Assemblog, Conventions/Expos, Movies, Upcoming Events |

Elysium

New this week on Popshifter: Melissa remarks on the good and bad in The Cary Grant Film Collection on DVD; Chelsea loves El Valiente, the new album from Piñata Protest; Jeff finds little to love in Ozzy’s covers album, so cleverly titled Under Cover; Paul remembers some of the great roles from James Gandolfini; I have great things to say about iLL Manors, the debut film from Ben Drew; discuss the horror bona fides of Donna Davies’s documentary Nightmare Factory; and am impressed by The ABCs of Death, now on home video.

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Assemblog: June 14, 2013

Published on June 14th, 2013 in: Assemblog, Canadian Content, Copyright/Piracy, Legal Issues, Movies, Music, Science Fiction, Trailers, TV, Upcoming Events |

Xanadu, 1980

New this week on Popshifter: Emily reviews Dark, the latest from the British Electric Foundation; Chelsea appreciates the “exuberant energy” of CSS’s Planta; Melissa thinks Gap Band VII has “moments of brilliance” and enjoys the “invariably perfect” Volume 4 of Music from True Blood; Jeff introduces us to his next Waxing Nostalgic series on cover albums; and I review the new film Peaches Does Herself from the inimitable Peaches and the “remarkably original” John Dies At The End, now on DVD.

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Assemblog: June 7, 2013

Published on June 7th, 2013 in: Comedy, Horror, Movies, Science Fiction, Trailers, TV |

Insidious Chapter 2

New this week on Popshifter: Melissa B. calls the expanded edition of Doris’s Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby “mind blowing and brilliant” and thinks Pokey LaFarge’s self-titled debut is “excruciatingly fine”; Cait wants to remind everyone of Dudley Moore’s musical talents in her review of From Beyond The Fringe; I chat with Jen and Sylvia Soska, directors of American Mary; Chelsea explores the “eclectic style” of Young & Wild; Lisa hopes that After Earth will “represent a step back toward redemption for M. Night Shyamalan”; and Jeff gives his first impressions of “Came Back Haunted,” the new Nine Inch Nails single.

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shifting the tone of pop culture criticism