Major American studios have proven they have no desire to make decent horror movies anymore. It’s all superheroes around here, buddy, and if you haven’t jumped on that bandwagon, then it’s Pixels for you.
Welcome to The Official Popshifter Podcast, Episode #01, “Styx and Stones May Break My Bones, But Save Hannibal”
Featuring Managing Editor Less Lee Moore and Featured Contributor Jeffery X Martin! Enjoy and thanks for listening.
Ted Nugent, Free-For-All (Expanded Edition)
Goblin Rebirth, Goblin Rebirth
Pit Stop Blu-Ray
Veruca Salt at Lee’s Palace, Toronto ON
Satanic Panic: Pop Cultural Paranoia In the 1980s
The Black Room Manuscripts (all proceeds go to Blue Cross UK)
We—and by “we,” I mean no one but me—call it “State Fair Syndrome.” Creative differences between members split up a band. The musicians don’t like each other, but they like the money the band brings in. Sometimes,one band member, a smart one, will trademark the band name so no one else can use it. That way they still have the prestige and brand recognition of that famous name while ditching the rest of the band members for session musicians or road dogs who don’t charge as much. This is how you can have different iterations of the same band, with slightly different names, touring at the same time. These bands, with a splintered draw, end up playing smaller venues or, as previously stated, the state fair circuit, right next to the Tilt-A-Whirl along with Night Ranger without Tommy Shaw, who is currently fronting Styx without Dennis DeYoung.
Kickstarter has become the great bazaar for creators, all of them camped out under their virtual canopies, hands open, hoping visitors will stop and just look at their wares. Yet like any bazaar, the buyer should beware. It can be a strange and dangerous marketplace, and one doesn’t want to toss their money about blithely. If you can find an amazing concept, with some great people behind the scenes, odds are you’ve made a fine Kickstarter decision.
Please allow me to make a strong suggestion.
Pssst. Hey, kid. C’mere for a second.
Here’s the short version: Failure’s The Heart is a Monster is a strong contender for Album of the Year. The space-rock pioneers have come back with an incredibly strong, seamlessly cohesive record that shoots almost everything else released so far this year right out of the airlock.
If we Americans have learned anything over the last 20 years, it’s that Australia is hell on earth. Spiders bigger than your face, jellyfish that can kill you from ten miles away, sharks, Yahoo Serious. . . it’s the kind of place we should really nuke from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
At its dark little heart, the 1978 Australian film Long Weekend is about hell, and the different ways that concept can manifest itself into reality.
“If you don’t have an ego and you don’t have a goal, you ain’t worth a damn.”
—Dusty Rhodes
Dusty Rhodes had an ego the size of Pangaea and when people called him The American Dream, it wasn’t just some wrestling hyperbole nickname. The man lived the American Dream. He embodied it. And while it’s cute and ever so arch to talk about his passing as “the death of the American Dream,” in a lot of ways that’s absolutely accurate.
Since Michael Gira’s band, Swans, has come back onto the scene, they’ve garnered more critical acclaim than ever, and new fans are running alongside the bandwagon, flailing arms up in the air, and hoping to swing aboard. Now that Swans debut album Filth has been remastered and re-released as a special three-disc set, this is a perfect opportunity for new fans to climb on up and get acquainted with the old stuff.
Luca Bluefire is the mastermind behind the dreampop project Himmel. Their debut album, A Long Cold Winter, is a fascinating mixture of New Wave nostalgia and modern psychedelia and even when it becomes overly derivative, it’s still worth a listen.