Assemblog: June 7, 2013

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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Music Review: Pokey LaFarge, Pokey LaFarge

By Melissa Bratcher

Pokey LaFarge is a great addition to Jack White’s Third Man Records roster. His debut album for the label, Pokey LaFarge, is a rootsy, charming collection of tidy songs (only one is over four minutes long) that is terrifically listenable.

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Music Review: Doris, Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby (Expanded Edition)

By Melissa Bratcher

Issued only in Sweden in 1970, Doris’s second album Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby is an overlooked gem. It’s a mix of jazz, pop, country, and psychedelia, all percolated together and topped with a singer who has great range and charm. I had put this album on my iPod when it arrived, and when a song would pop up on random play, I’d think, “Oooh, this is interesting,” but it has to be listened to as a whole. Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby is mind-blowing and brilliant. It was intended to introduce Doris to English speaking audiences, but it tanked, which is a terrible shame. Newly remastered here, it is absolutely worth listening to.

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Music Review: Davell Crawford, My Gift To You

By Melissa Bratcher

I don’t know that I’ve ever been brought to tears by a piano piece. Davell Crawford has changed that. On his intensely personal album My Gift To You, the “Piano Prince of New Orleans” lives up to his nickname, and his performance of “Southern Nights/Many Rivers To Cross,” the marriage of an Allen Toussaint song to a Jimmy Cliff song, is transcendent. I cried. It felt like a gift to hear it.

Davell Crawford hadn’t released an album in 13 years. It must have been time well spent, because My Gift To You is simply extraordinary. He changes effortlessly between styles; jazz, funk, Louisiana low country music, and does it all so well. He surrounds himself with a who’s who of contemporary New Orleans musicians. The liner notes alone are worth the price of the record—they are witty and interesting, and give even more insight into the clever Mr. Crawford.

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Music Review: Marty Robbins: The Legend/Come Back To Me (Reissue)

By Melissa Bratcher

You’ve got to love a guy who explains the title of his album The Legend this way: “What I wanted was Super Legend, but they didn’t go along with it, so it’s just The Legend.” Released for the first time on CD, Marty Robbins’s 1981 album of that modest title has been paired with his 1982 record, Come Back To Me.

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Assemblog: May 17, 2013

James Spader, from NBC’s The Blacklist

New this week on Popshifter: Chelsea thinks Xenia Rubinos’s Magic Trix is a “thrilling listen”; Metal Mayhem continues with Jeff’s take on Dangerous Toys and Judas Priest; Jeff also says that Big Country’s The Journey is the best new album he’s heard this year; Melissa B. parties traditional style with the new album from Kermit Ruffins and gets transported to the past with the reissue of Marty Robbins’s El Paso City and Adios Amigo; I recommend both the glam psychedelia of Burnt Ones’ You’ll Never Walk Alone and the party music of Dead Ghosts’ Can’t Get No, and revisit 2002’s excellent, unsettling One Hour Photo, recently released on Blu-Ray.

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Music Review: Marty Robbins, El Paso City/Adios Amigo (Reissue)

By Melissa Bratcher

I’m a nostalgist. What I love about reissues is hearing a song I’ve forgotten entirely about. In a beat, I’m transported to the back-backseat of my parents’ station wagon, listening to KTTS on the radio. The reissue of Marty Robbins’s El Paso City/Adios Amigo took me right back to that station wagon.

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Music Review: Kermit Ruffins, We Partyin’ Traditional Style

By Melissa Bratcher

Kermit Ruffins co-founded The Rebirth Brass Band in high school. The Rebirth Brass Band revitalized the brass band community in New Orleans, and their success rejuvenated New Orleans’s Second Line culture. Kermit Ruffins is a great ambassador for that aspect of New Orleans. His extraordinarily distinctive, raspy voice paired with his virtuoso trumpet playing gives the casual listener a glimpse into the broad spectrum of New Orleans music.

His newest record We Partyin’ Traditional Style is like a time capsule, taking 20th-century classics and skewing them his own personal way and in the process, making an incredibly fun record. Partyin’ in the title? Not a coincidence.

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Assemblog: May 3, 2013 – The Future Of Streaming And Television?

New this week on Popshifter: Jeff praises The Armoury Show’s “gorgeously slick cathedral Goth with strangely danceable grooves” in the Cherry Red reissue of Waiting For The Floods; Danny calls the new Meat Puppets album, Rat Farm, “the band’s most playful and diverse offering since 1985”; Melissa B. laments the passing of George Jones in her review of the CD reissues of George Jones Country and You’ve Still Got A Place In My Heart; I describe the “geographic grandeur” of the full-length, self-titled debut from Big Black Delta; describe how no-budget, sci-fi flick Manborg “comes from the heart”; explain the “nuanced, complicated” joys of A Royal Affair; congratulate Melvins on their excellent album of covers, Everybody Loves Sausages; and get excited and photo-happy about the upcoming Vicki Berndt art show in Los Angeles.

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Music Review: George Jones, Jones Country/You’ve Still Got A Place In My Heart (Reissue)

By Melissa Bratcher

George Jones was called “the greatest voice in country music.” This is not hyperbole. He could make you feel so much with a crack of his voice, the swell or pull back on a phrase. He was masterful.

The liner notes for Jones Country/You’ve Still Got A Place In My Heart mention the miracle that he was alive and well in 2013 and planning a farewell show. I received this disc the day before he died. Irony is a wicked mistress.

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