By John Lane
Say what you will about Robert Wyatt, but he has never done anything for the fast buck.
What’s more, in an age where the music industry is in an odd state of flux, Robert Wyatt seems to be among the rare legacy laborers who remain somehow protected. Or maybe he’s just kept his head down and tried to stay inconspicuous.
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By Adam McIntyre
It doesn’t matter whether or not you’ve heard The Greenhornes before before; a recent hiatus for the Cincinnati trio has only helped their legend grow.
The rhythm section of Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler, once great and intimidating, has only become more effective during their time with other bands (The Raconteurs, Dead Weather, and Loretta Lynn, to name a few). Front man Craig Fox, meanwhile, has created such a lean and well-written catalog of garage, pop, psychedelic, and soul numbers over the last few years that “★★★★” sounds much like a brilliant career retrospective. It’s suspiciously good.
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By Emily Carney
In 1977, two separate US spacecraft, Voyager I and Voyager II, were sent into space to explore the solar system and, ostensibly, any worlds that perhaps existed beyond the one with which we are most familiar.
By Less Lee Moore
Wilco fans have known about The Autumn Defense, a side project featuring Patrick Sansone and John Stirratt, for years. For the rest of us, their latest album Once Around is both a surprise and a pleasure.
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By Christian Lipski
The Rocky Horror Picture Show played in theaters in 1975, and was finally released on VHS here in the US around 20 years ago. The movie had been around for 15 years before there was ever a legitimate copy available. People had been dressing up as the characters and mimicking the movie for FIFTEEN YEARS without a way to practice at home (there were bootleg copies around, but oh so rare).
When the VHS tape came out, it was honestly a kind of letdown. Now anyone could practice their part wherever there was a VCR, without waiting seven days to stand in line and pay your money to watch the bug screen for some nuance you forgot. But the old-old-timers eventually dropped their gripe, just as the guys riding buggies stopped yelling at the guys in cars. Time marches on, and so, too does obsession.
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By J Howell
Click for larger image
Photo © 2010 David Haggard
Folly Theater, Kansas City MO
October 8, 2010
I wasn’t quite sure exactly what to expect when Los Lobos made a stop in Kansas City, at the beautiful and ancient Folly Theater, other than a vague confidence that whatever was in store would be good.
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By Less Lee Moore
You may have thought that Weep was just a one hit wonder.
You were wrong.
Worn Thin is the new album from the band and it’s wonderful.
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By Less Lee Moore
If you didn’t know better, you might think that Trouble In Mind, the new EP from British folk band Erland & The Carnival, was recorded sometime in the mid-to-late-sixties and just unearthed last week.
Interestingly, the title track is the most modern-sounding song on the EP, with its gentle, yet catchy, vocals and harpsichord.
After the opening of “My Name Is Carnival,” which recalls the intro to Cream’s “White Room,” the rolling drumbeat, tremolo guitars, spacey keyboards, and striking harmonies conspire to transport the listener into the past, perhaps a concert scene from a documentary about British folk rock or Haight-Ashbury.
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By Lisa Anderson
As the leaves turn and the air grows colder, a few extra horror movies always make their way into theaters. This year, one of the most anticipated new releases is Let Me In, a remake of the 2008 Swedish vampire film, Let The Right One In. Transplanted from 1980s Stockholm, Sweden to 1980s Los Alamos, New Mexico, this version is helmed by Cloverfield director Matt Reeves.
The basic storyline is the same: a bullied 12-year-old boy in a dreary, snowbound apartment complex befriends a mysterious new neighbor his age. At first, their relationship appears to be typical preteen love, albeit between two strange children. It turns out though, that she is a vampire, and the adult human who lives with her has been committing murder to obtain blood for her. Before the story is over, vampire, boy, and man all see their lives change permanently.
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By Hanna and Matt Keeley
Kristian Hoffman is perhaps best known for working with the brilliant Klaus Nomi; he was Nomi’s musical director and the wordsmith behind Nomi’s original songs. If you’ve sat down with the records, you know how good those songs were and still are, both in performance (there’s a reason Nomi’s one of Rush Limbaugh’s favorites) and in songwriting. Nomi should have conquered the world; instead, he died too early.
Hoffman, on the other hand, didn’t sleep, and has been working with loads of cool people, including James White and the Contortions, Rufus Wainwright, Sparks, Lydia Lunch and. . . look, this’ll just be a laundry list of who’s who in good music, so just rest assured: if they’re talented, he’s probably worked with ’em. He’s also done solo records, of which Fop is the newest. It’s such an event that Popshifter enlisted TWO, count ’em TWO, reviewers to cover it.
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