New this week on Popshifter: My review of the “gently sobering” film California Solo; an exclusive first look at the second semester of Toronto’s lecture series, The Black Museum, and a retro new video from Purling Hiss; Chelsea admires new releases from Helado Negro and Bajofondo; J thinks that Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Push The Sky Away is a “beautiful record;” Emily recommends the new compilation of Otis Redding soul music, Lonely & Blue as “essential listening” for music fans; and Elizabeth gives five reasons why you really should ditch your cable TV subscription in the latest installment of “TV Is Dead, Long Live TV.”
Check out this meta-retro video from Purling Hiss, from their upcoming album Water On Mars (out on March 19 from Drag City). It manages to reference the ’90s referencing MTV Classic referencing actual videos from the 1970s.
For more of Purling Hiss (without the green-screened background) check them out on their upcoming tour.
Tour Dates:
4/4/13 – 285 Kent; Brooklyn, NY w/ Spacin’, AXIS:SOVA
4/5/13 – Johnny Brenda’s Philadelphia, PA w/ Spacin’, AXIS:SOVA
4/6/13 – Metro Gallery; Baltimore, MD w/ Spacin’, AXIS:SOVA
4/7/13 – Maxwell’s; Hoboken, NJ w/ AXIS:SOVA
4/9/13 – O’Briens Pub; Allston, MA w/ AXIS:SOVA
4/10/13 – BAR Nightclub; New Haven, CT
4/12/13 – Brillobox; Pittsburgh, PA w/ AXIS:SOVA
4/14/13 – The Garden Bowl; Detroit, MI w/ AXIS:SOVA
4/15/13 – Empty Bottle; Chicago, IL w/ Tee Pee, AXIS:SOVA
4/16/13 – 7th Street Entry; Minneapolis, MN
4/18/13 – Linnemans Riverwest Inn; Milwaukee, WI
4/19/13 – University of Wisconsin Madison; Madison, WI
4/20/13 – Mike N’ Molly’s; Champaign, IL
5/5/13 – Fluc; Vienna, Austria
5/6/13 – Culture Factory Club; Zagreb, Croatia
5/9/13 – Nuits Sonores Festival, Le Sonic; Lyon, France
5/11/13 – El Perro Club; Madrid, Spain
5/12/13 – Taina Fest; Porto, Portugal
5/13/13 – Bukowski; Donostia, Spain
5/15/13 – Nouveau Casino; Paris, France w/ Mikal Cronin
5/16/13 – Tufnell Park Dome; London, United Kingdom w/ White Fence, Mikal Cronin
5/20/13 – Undertone; Cardiff, United Kingdom
5/21/13 – The Green Door Store; Brighton, United Kingdom
5/22/13 – Madame Moustache Brussels, Belgium
5/23/13 – De Effenar; Eindhoven, Netherlands
5/24/13 – Muk; Giessen, Germany
5/25/13 – Die Friese; Bremen, Germany
5/26/13 – KB18; Copenhagen, Denmark
5/27/13 – Kuudes Linja; Helsinki, Finland
5/28/13 – Debaser Slussen; Stockholm, Sweden
5/30/13 – Marie-Antoinette; Berlin, Germany
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For hardcore genre fans in the Toronto area, last year’s The Black Museum was a dream come true: an interactive lecture series on horror and cult films that didn’t require waking up early or writing papers.
Luckily, curators Paul Corupe and Andrea Subissati are presenting another season of The Black Museum, and this time, it’s personal! (Not really, but I couldn’t resist that joke.) Season Two will feature five more lectures on genre themes that will be both fun and educational.
New this week on Popshifter: John is in love with the Paul Williams: Still Alive documentary now on DVD; Chelsea explains how the reissued 1972 solo album from Emily Bindiger “transcends its time period” and delights in the “unexpected rewards” of Las Acevedo; I share new remixes and videos from Parenthetical Girls and David Bowie and recommend the new Skyfall Blu-Ray as “a huge leap forward as well as a return to Bond’s roots.”
Oh, James Bond fans. For everyone who was electrified by Daniel Craig’s debut in Casino Royale, there were at least two who loathed the follow up, Quantum of Solace. For all Bond fans, Skyfall should be a revelation. It fulfills the promise that Casino Royale made: that Craig’s Bond is one of (if not) the best, and that the character has finally arrived in the new millennium.
As if working on a new album for two years in secret wasn’t enough of a coup, now David Bowie has a new video for the song “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” featuring Tilda Swinton and models Andrej Pejic and Saskia de Brauw.
For fans of both Bowie and Swinton, this is fairly amazing, as their remarkably similar, androgynous looks have been the subject of endless Internet memes as well as the Tumblr blog Tilda Stardust, which seeks to prove that the two are the same person.
For those who follow fashion, the appearance of both Pejic and de Brauw is nearly as fascinating as the two are perhaps the biggest Bowie androgynes after Swinton herself.
Although Bowie has been declining various public appearances over the years (The Victoria & Albert Museum retrospective, the London Olympics Closing Ceremony), he’s clearly not been ignoring pop culture in his “increasingly reclusive” life. Not only does he include Swinton, Pejic, and de Brauw in the video, it’s directed by Floria Sigismondi, who is responsible for the decidedly Bowie- and Velvet Goldmine-influenced film The Runaways. (It’s all so meta!)
Intriguingly, Swinton doesn’t play Bowie in the video (that would be too easy), but Bowie’s wife. As they go grocery shopping together, she praises their “nice life” after he remarks that the people on the cover of a tabloid are “more exciting than anything we’ve got around here.” (For more self-referential material, check out the photo in the upper right corner of the fake tabloid.) The song’s commentary on celebrity, stars, and transformation is made manifest visually through some brilliant editing and costumes.
One can even imagine Bowie laughing at that Daily Mail article from last fall and that this video is his response. Clearly he’s pulled off the biggest transformation of his career and bested us all, yet again.
The Next Day comes out on March 12.
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It’s been just a week since the release of Parenthetical Girls‘ Privilege* album (review), but we want more! Luckily, there are two remixes and a video performance to help the greedy ones.
Los Campesinos! have transformed “Sympathy For Spastics” by adding a sprightly synth beat while amplifying and repeating the song’s original, already haunting piano track.
“Young Throats” has been tackled by YACHT, who have replaced the opening wave of keyboards—and most of the vocals and other instruments—with a sparse, robotic drumbeat and synths, while keeping the spine of the track intact.
The band also recorded a live performance of “Curtains” in this video on a decrepit, long-retired riverboat in the first of a four-part documentary video series.
Parenthetical Girls will begin their North American tour on March 6 at Holocene in Portland, OR. For more visit the new Privilege Abridgedwebsite or the Parenthetical Girls website.
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In 2011, French Horn Rebellion released The Infinite Music of French Horn Rebellion. The 14-song album was a schizophrenic mixture of EDM, disco, synthpop, guitar solos, smooth jams, stark piano pieces, feedback, radio interference, and I’m pretty sure I heard some humpback whales in there. For an album described as “an intergalactic narrative that tracks the physical and emotional journey of an unknown French horn player” this seems completely logical.
Yet French Horn Rebellion aren’t zany for the sake of it, as there are some beautiful moments on The Infinite Music, particularly the vocals of the hilariously named “Mawson’s Peak” (reminiscent of Martin Gore’s Depeche Mode songs) and the sweet, wistful ’80s pop of “Last Summer.”
French Horn Rebellion’s latest single, “Love Is Dangerous,” features The Knocks’ Jpatt, and is an unrelentingly hook-heavy disco stomper. The song—along with two remixes from Chrome Canyon and FHRekles—appears on the EP of the same name.
Love Is Dangerous includes another awesome track, “Cold Enough,” with the vocals of none other than Jody Watley. It’s got a more mellow groove, but is still a siren song to get asses on the dance floor.
Love Is Dangerous was released on December 12, 2012 and can be ordered from the French Horn Rebellion website.
Upcoming Shows:
March 21: Treefort Music Fest 2013 in Boise, ID
Thu Apr 18: Red Room, Cafe 939, Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA\
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When we last heard from Iceage in 2011, they were causing quite a stir with their debut album New Brigade (review). Encapsulating yet confounding the parameters of post-punk and hardcore in this new millennium, critics and music fans took notice. Now Iceage has returned with You’re Nothing, which does all it can to beautifully obliterate New Brigade, while still retaining the spirit that made that album so good.
