By Matt Keeley
Look, you’re busy, I know that. If you don’t feel like reading this whole thing, just read the next sentence, and you’ll know the truth:
McLemore Avenue by Booker T & The MGs is a fucking amazing album.
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By Less Lee Moore
Although the name Floating Action is derived from a vintage Gretsch drum pedal, it’s perfect metaphor for multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Seth Kauffman’s latest release. Desert Etiquette‘s ten twangy, trebly tunes are like sugar crystals floating on a stream of golden honey, dewdrops sparkling in the sunrise of a chilly spring morning, or the embers flaring from a campfire in the clearing of the dark, snowy forest. Everything is as natural and comfortable as being outdoors.
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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
Sometimes it’s more difficult to write reviews for material that is sent from the publisher than it is to simply review material that you encounter by chance. The difference is that material from the publisher comes with Marketing Literature attached, to help the recipient understand just how amazing the owners feel the product they’re selling truly is. This assistance can be beneficial to reviewers who are looking for pull quotes or just more information about their decision to like the product.
On the other hand, sometimes the PR machine can try too hard and overshoot its product, making it seem like a comparative failure. In the case of Richard Barone’s fourth solo album Glow, it’s the latter, but not solely due to the press release. Barone himself seems to have either fallen for marketing’s high opinion or encouraged it in the first place. Taken on its own, Glow is a pleasant group of pop songs; a little light, but nice. When sampled after absorbing all the surrounding hype, though, it’s a pretentious pile that falls very short of its self-described ability.
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By Christian Lipski
I took a class on Ancient Roman history once, and slogged my way through the textbook and its dry recounting of the emperors’ lives. Later I discovered Robert Graves’ historical fiction I, Claudius and suddenly the facts came to life. The personalization of the information made it more real to me, and I actually learned more through that book than my class. Presentation can mean a lot, even when the material is lifeless. This is what director Joel Gilbert puts into effect with his film Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison, which gives a living voice to the “Paul is dead” phenomenon.
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By John Lane
In the interest of full disclosure, right off the bat, Mister Fusty (a.k.a. Rob Gibson) is a musical comrade-in-arms who collaborated on a track from my recent album. That out of the way, I was a fan of Mister Fusty long before I mustered up the nerve to ask him if he would work with me.
I discovered him somewhere between his first album Honest Blundering (November 2006) and the follow-up Sparkle Darkly (August 2007). These two instrumental-only albums knocked me off my feet and made me reconsider the whole idea of what it means to write a melody line.
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By Less Lee Moore
The lovely and talented Mandy Mullins, who has been an integral part of so many of our Popcasts here on Popshifter, was recently featured on the Underground Girls blog where fellow groovy girl Kelly Fever describes her as “one of the grooviest girls in the pop music scene” and I couldn’t agree more.
Read their Q&A with Mandy to find out more as she discusses her influences, her idols, her guitar, plus Stryper, Sassy Magazine, The Beatles, The Osmonds, and Bubblegum!
By John Lane
The problem with the release of The Beatles’ Anthology video in the late ’90s is that it has spoiled Beatles fans the world over. Add to that the ever-flowing river that is YouTube, which has made curiosity-seekers even more complacent. Want to see a Beatles 1966 press conference? Bingo, with the click of a button you have your pick.
Perhaps it is the veritable abundance of organized material available to the average and dedicated fans that makes the DVD release of John Lennon: Rare and Unseen all the more disappointing and confusing. If I was in the eighth grade and had not yet seen the release of the Anthology or the birth of YouTube, then I might consider this DVD to be a kick. As it stands, maybe I’m just too jaded.
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Sound Academy, Toronto ON
February 4, 2010
I don’t care what Lester Bangs said: Cheap Trick was, is, and will always be the best rock and roll band of all time.
They more than proved this (again) at Thursday’s Sound Academy show in Toronto.
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By Christian Lipski
Anyone who has spent any time listening to the radio or watching movies will know that we have entered the Era of the Cover. Bands are starting out by covering old popular songs—no songwriting effort needed. Hollywood has run out of ideas and is pillaging concepts from old movies, TV, toys, video games, theme park rides, etc. The thing is, this has been happening for a long time, though not at the incredible rate it is now. A lot of the songs you love were originally recorded by other artists! Now it can be told!!
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