Ho Ho Humbug: Christmas Music For Miscreants

By Less Lee Moore

If you have to leave the house at any point between November 1 and Christmas Eve, chances are good that you’re going to have to hear the same, tired, annoying, and cloying holiday songs over and over again.

Don’t worry; I’m not going to tell you to cheer up or anything. I do, however, have some musical suggestions for you to put on your iPod so that you don’t have to endure the billionth repeat of “Wonderful Christmastime,” but which will still allow you to maintain that air of cool, annoyed resignation that is the only way to get through the holiday season.

(more…)

Music Review Belle Ghoul, Rabbit’s Moon & Doomsday

By Less Lee Moore

The delightfully named Belle Ghoul, featuring Christopher Tait (Electric Six) and Jesse Paris Smith (daughter of Patti and Fred), have a new EP called Rabbit’s Moon & Doomsday that is a must-hear.

Rabbit’s Moon & Doomsday opens with the spooky, retro psychedelia of “Lakes of Fire—complete with Hammond organ and a shouted chorus—which evokes the abandoned amusement park in Carnival of Souls. The Alice in Wonderland allusions in “Timepieces,” along with a moody, thoughtful melody, continue the gently somber tone of the EP. Tait and Smith’s harmonies are lovely, a combination of grit and gloss.

The instrumental “Momentum” sounds like an overture, with a piano motif and muted horns promising something around the corner. That something turns out to be “Winter’s Gone,” an anticipatory tune about the coming spring, complete with accordion and echoing vocals. “Around For The Weekend” is next, with two different, yet incredibly catchy melodies (one on piano and one on synth). It’s the kind of joyous song that was made for Thursday night plans. The last track, “Mystery To Me,” is solemn yet hopeful, with lonesome piano and gorgeous orchestral accompaniment. Tait’s gravelly voice reaches its lowest register and Smith provides ghostly harmonies as a counterpoint.

The six songs on Rabbit’s Moon & Doomsday are the perfect accompaniment for the chilly fall weather, and should keep you warm throughout the winter.

Rabbit’s Moon & Doomsday will be released by Elefant Records on November 10. The “Around For The Weekend” single, released on October 27, includes a remix of “Lakes of Fire” and another wonderful instrumental track called “Devoir (Imaginary Theme).”

Concert Review: Electric Six at Musica

By Julie Finley

October 4, 2014
Akron, OH

Northeast Ohio has been devoid of some good shows for a while now, and Akron rarely has any concerts whatsoever. The venue Musica (located in downtown Akron) is a small one, but has been slowly gaining some momentum, and some have have taken notice. Thankfully, Electric Six did, and performed there in early October.

This show really couldn’t have come at a better time (for me at least), as I was having a really awful week, and I truly needed to get out and do something that was fun. I have seen Electric 6 at least four times in Cleveland, so I pretty much knew what to expect, but that’s just it: I know I am going to be entertained, no matter how shitty the week has been! Electric Six are consistently amusing, and this show was no exception (in fact, I probably had even more fun at this show than previous ones!)

(more…)

Music Review: Electric Six, Human Zoo

By Less Lee Moore

The first Electric Six album I heard was I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master. As if that title wasn’t strange and unwieldy enough, I literally could not process what I was hearing. What the fuck was I listening to exactly?

After seven years and several albums, I’ve figured out more about Electric Six. But it doesn’t mean that every new album from the band doesn’t make me ask that same question again. Human Zoo, their tenth (!!), is perhaps weirder than most E6 albums, but is also possibly their most cohesive since Heartbeats and Brainwaves, which was itself a bit of an anomaly in the canon.

(more…)

Music Review: Electric Six, Mustang

By Less Lee Moore

Are you imagined or real?
Or somewhere in between?
—Electric Six, “Show Me What Your Lights Mean”

How do you solve an enigma like Electric Six? The unflattering, often condescending reviews of their albums seem to indicate that music critics only listen to them once or twice before discounting them altogether. I hate to bring up the song that rhymes with “Ray Jar,” but not because it’s a bad song. After all, it does bring legions of fans to their shows (though they frequently are, admittedly, drunken and annoying bros who don’t seem to grasp that the band traffics in irony just as well as it does in impossibly addictive music). Yet it illustrates what most people think of when they think of Electric Six. It’s sort of like describing James Spader as “that guy who was in Pretty In Pink.”

Keep in mind this next statement comes from a diehard, committed fan: Electric Six albums are almost always immediately off-putting and it’s only after listening to them several times that their insidious brilliance wraps itself around you like a mental illness. Mustang is no different, but it’s not Fire, Part 9 by any means.

(more…)

Best Of 2012: Megashaun

These days it’s not uncommon to hear the reply “busy” when asking someone you’ve not seen for a while, “how are you?” Having attended numerous events throughout the year, I’ve come to realize just how universal and vague a reply this is, and have therefore stopped using it. While it is nice to relax every now and then, being occupied with work and various other projects keeps the mind healthy and the creativity flowing. Best of all it completely destroys boredom—and looking back at 2012 I can honestly say this has been the most exciting year I’ve experienced.

Given my “day job” as a host and reporter for EP Daily, I’m in a position to experience more than most people, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunities this job has afforded me. These include meeting and interviewing people behind some of my favorite games, TV shows, and movies. Some of my interview highlights this year include Mark Ruffalo and Cobie Smulders for The Avengers, Brad Bird for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the incomparable Radioman, and super stylish game designer Suda51. I have a personal rule to not “fan out” over people I meet but I disregarded this entirely while interviewing Suda51 and even went so far as to ask for a photo (which turned out amazing as you can see).

(more…)

Best Of 2012: Less Lee Moore

Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

2012 was the year of the woman. Women dominated the best of music, film, and TV.

The most significant figure for me in 2012 was Lisbeth Salander, the Steig Larsson-created character of the Millennium trilogy of novels, who also appears in the original Swedish film series and David Fincher’s newest film incarnation. Critics and fans may fight over who was better, Noomi Rapace or Rooney Mara, but both were outstanding at portraying my personal favorite female character of the last couple of decades. (Ms. Rapace had the added distinction of playing the more than worthy successor to Ellen Ripley when she inhabited the role of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Ridley Scott’s misunderstood but brilliant Prometheus.)

(more…)

Top Ten: More Holiday Tunes That Won’t Make You Sick

By Less Lee Moore

We all hate the played out holiday tunes that we’re forced to hear every year in malls, grocery stores, offices, and restaurants beginning at the end of November (or for those of us in Canada, the beginning of November). I can’t say I unequivocally hate Christmas music, just the Christmas music I hate. Here are ten songs that might change your mind about holiday tuneage.

(more…)

Assemblog: June 1, 2012

Holy Motors, 2012

New on Popshifter this week: a review of Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life and the highly anticipated Prometheus. There are also fifteen (!) new articles from our May/June issue, True Patriot Love.

(more…)

Johnny Headband, Who Cooks For You?

By Less Lee Moore

Who Cooks For You? is the latest release from Detroit’s Johnny Headband, featuring brothers Chad and Keith Thompson (the latter of Electric Six), plus Gerald Roesser and and Robbie Saunders. Like the music itself, Who Cooks For You? poses an unanswered (or unanswerable) question: Who (or what) is Johnny Headband? Who Cooks For You? seems familiar yet it’s not beholden to current “indie” music trends; it refuses to be pigeonholed but all the same, it is one ridiculously enjoyable album. Who Cooks For You? crams a lot of flavor into its 35 minutes.

(more…)