By Sean Murphy
For a lot of the critics with whom this work never registered, Bitches Brew signified the first time a butterfly turned back into a caterpillar. In actuality, the moves Miles made as the ‘70s began seem, with the benefit of hindsight, like magnetic fields pulling him into the future -- and taking music with him. [3.Sep.10]
By Thomas Britt
Underworld, The Last Command, and The Docks of New York are masterpieces of visual storytelling -- human dramas expressed with cinematographic innovation, impeccably realized set design, and an unparalleled grasp of the “bigger picture” of the motion picture. [3.Sep.10]
Is Medicine Show a blueprint for all that was wrong with bands signing to major labels 25 years ago or is it a truly great, overlooked gem of an album? Well, the answer is somewhere in the middle. [3.Sep.10]
By Dylan Nelson
The international success of 'Police and Thieves' made it ubiquitous for fans of reggae and punk alike, but the album's roots are particular to the inner workings of vital, very-much-Jamaican studios like the Black Ark. [3.Sep.10]
Are fairy tales too frightening for our kids? Do they need sanitizing? Or should we just skip them altogether? [3.Sep.10]
Today's Articles
3.Sep.10
Ryan Bingham pairs with T-Bone Burnett on the lovely, somber third record from a rising roots-rock star.
On their debut, already a hit in their native France, the chamber pop trio run the gamut, from the White Album to "Kokomo".
The band’s range compresses and the panoramic visions of its earlier albums reduce to a window on a garden, a nice view for a few minutes, but not as satisfying as a bracing expedition up peaks and down canyons that their other records took you through.
To say that Little Big Town’s sound is based on the interplay of their four voices would be a serious understatement.
The last recording by the late composer and keyboardist, and one that adds a rich acoustic ensemble to his latter-day world music sound.
Where's the real, true soul music in 2010? Look no further than Darryl Moore.
For a lot of the critics with whom this work never registered, Bitches Brew signified the first time a butterfly turned back into a caterpillar. In actuality, the moves Miles made as the ‘70s began seem, with the benefit of hindsight, like magnetic fields pulling him into the future -- and taking music with him.
Two and a half hours of catchy and curious tracks from Fruko y Sus Tesos, Wganda Kenya, and others involved in the golden period of Afro-influenced, funked-up tropical music recorded by the legendary Discos Fuentes label.
Is Medicine Show a blueprint for all that was wrong with bands signing to major labels 25 years ago or is it a truly great, overlooked gem of an album? Well, the answer is somewhere in the middle.
The international success of 'Police and Thieves' made it ubiquitous for fans of reggae and punk alike, but the album's roots are particular to the inner workings of vital, very-much-Jamaican studios like the Black Ark.
Drew Barrymore and Christina Applegate are tremendously appealing: it's not long before you're wishing Going the Distance was about them.
When you add in the ample violence...and the over the top action scenes, Machete makes its case as major escapist entertainment.
Viewers know going in that as Machete escapes one ambush after another, there will be blood, lots of it, splattered on walls, people, animals, vegetables, hell, even minerals.
Underworld, The Last Command, and The Docks of New York are masterpieces of visual storytelling -- human dramas expressed with cinematographic innovation, impeccably realized set design, and an unparalleled grasp of the “bigger picture” of the motion picture.
Aside from exposing natural gas companies' corruption, Gasland makes another important point: individual experiences are made collective -- visible, galvanizing, political -- on TV.
This will make you feel less guilty about your guilty pleasures while opening your eyes to a whole world of lurid kitsch that became the engine and the inspiration for countless aspects of 20th century pop culture.
This book points out many compelling things - with erudition and puns -- about an appendage we take for granted
Are fairy tales too frightening for our kids? Do they need sanitizing? Or should we just skip them altogether?
At the time, the early-season showrunning transition from Mike Scully to Al Jean seemed more important than it does in retrospect.
What other film has both found its way onto many best-of lists and also inspired a drinking game?
For a brief sequence, Final Fantasy XIII uses its battle system as a means of character development, not just tactical fun
Rhythm Zone's primary selling point is that the music is yours.
St. Vincent aka Annie Clark has always been an artist who marches to her own beat.
Recent Articles
Thursday, 2 September 2010
This is it... the last push towards end-of-year accolades, with Darren Aronofsky, David O. Russell, Julian Schnabel and the Coen Brothers all looking for that elusive critic's choice seal of approval.
Tales of secrecy, discrimination, discovery, bonding, and isolation and loneliness are common, not surprising considering the social and political climate for the LGBT community in the '70s.
Rasputina's newest CD, Sister Kinderhook, came out in June. Rasputina's founder, Melora Creager, tells PopMatters 20 Questions about the lure of living in an era past, when what was essential could be made by hand -- and giants walked among us.
“SWA is a festival of talent born in dissatisfaction, anger and desperation. But, hopefully, over the years to come it will continue to generate opportunity, confidence, realisation of potential and a cleansing of the soul.”
Starring none other than the Android logo, this intriguing game points to good things for the future of gaming on that platform.
Their pitch-perfect retro sound might be what gets them noticed at first, but Magic Kids come into their own before you know it on Memphis.
An unflinching human look at the struggle of Jews, Arab Muslims, and Arab Christians to live together in at least a fragile manner.
The first thing you need to know: this book is hilarious. That might be the last thing you need to know, too. Oh, there's one more thing: his experiences as a "human guinea pig" offer serious food for thought, as well.
Though Marty Stuart is arguably a country artist’s country musician—virtuosic and omnipresent yet unknown to mainstream listeners—he still cuts a commanding figure.
The Austin band finally lives up to their potential on their third album.
McMurtry's memoir is filled with glittering names, engaging anecdotes — how, for example, Swifty Lazar's bad agenting cost him millions and how intimidating it is to be Barbra Streisand's doubles partner at tennis — and shrewd observation.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Things slow down considerably in the rush to Turkey Day, including the latest from Danny Boyle, the House of Mouse, and the always formidable Harry Potter.
Just as his former band, Panic! at the Disco, was reaching their highest peaks of emo girl adoration and chart success, Jon Walker and co-writer/guitarist Ryan Ross split the band striking out on their own as The Young Veins
FX's Louie finds comedy in the absurdity of sadness and invites viewers to laugh along with the struggle to find balance between happiness and defeat.
Despite featuring a side quest that consists of completing a pornography collection, Mafia II is surprisingly prudish when it comes to featuring nudity in its more serious scenes.
When I saw Eclipse, a gaggle of teenage girls behind me giggled, gasped and squealed their way through most of the film. Each time their hysteria erupted, it happened during a romantic scene.
The American feels too experimental, too outside the norm to draw in the casual or the just curious.
Women are necessary in The American, like the Italian landscapes and winding stone stairways.
Eels offer up their most optimistic record to date, but it hasn't all been doom and gloom before now.
"Just as nothing we do has the direct potential to cause nearly as much animal suffering as eating meat, no daily choice that we make has a greater impact on the environment."
That Molly Berg or her counterpart, Molly, are not as revered or celebrated as Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, and other stars of television’s early days is astonishing.
In order to get the most out of this final episode, you’ll have to go back and play the last two seasons, not just the last four episodes.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
By the look of the calendar -- and this list of titles - it looks like Hollywood is out to investigate the horrors of vampires, demon children, alien invasion, and the most evil entity of all -- Facebook!
The '60s were the most surreal decade on TV, and this show has scenes as bizarre as any sitcom, even without castaways or martians or robots or talking animals or reincarnated automobiles.
If 20th century philosopher Theodor Adorno was right in calling for "no poetry after Auschwitz", then the problem lies with poetry before Auschwitz. Boom! Studios' CBGB celebrates that same aggressive spirit that allowed punk to decimate Nazi ideology by embracing its iconography.
Inasmuch as Pilgrim explores the "save the princess" archetype and questions romance as an abstracted end point arrived at through violence, the story then summarily rejects deeper characterization by asking us to forget all that and cheer for the death of the final boss anyway -- simply because he's a bigger jerk than Scott is.
Our choices for the Top Five Best/Worst films of the flawed 2010 summer movie season.
Can Quantum Leap return without a massive overhaul? Would such an overhaul destroy the original concept? In many ways the original was a groundbreaking series about civil rights, gender equality, animal rights, and the belief than anyone can make a positive difference in the world.
For as often as I died while playing N+, maybe the best compliment that I can pay it is that I didn’t mind a single time.
The Guilt of Those of Us Who Ran Away: Grant Morrison’s classic X-Men run’s focus on the deeper, darker aspects of human nature--guilt, shame and rejection, among others--stands out like a sore thumb or a broken heart.
Showalter is always pushing the envelope: trying the patience of many and constantly questioning "What is funny?"
Though Little Big Men emphasizes the seeming "pure innocence" of Little League baseball in 1982, it goes on to show how all that changed after the kids from Kirkland, Washington won the championship.
This is one of the most convincing guitar albums of the year. Long live rock.
Monday, 30 August 2010
Why do comics readers care about the movies made from their favorite books?
With its open-ended ability to be interpreted and dissected, Lost, viewed as a whole, becomes cinematic in nature, literary in style and deeper meaning.
Godard’s inaugural masterpiece, in spite of its canonical status, is still as vibrant on the screen today as it was fifty years ago
Why did punk implode so rapidly? Why did its bands flare up and fade out? And how did this movement resist yet revamp the hippies they rushed to replace?
Korean artist Byun Byung-Jun's poetic manhwa collection Mijeong features seven stories linked by existential wonder, melancholy and magic.
Wo ai ni mommy (I Love You Mommy) shows how hard it is to connect and also to disconnect, across cultures, generations, classes, and expectations.
The female body has been historically exaggerated in video games and questions arise about whether femininity is authentically represented at all in characters that very often appear to be reskinned versions of men.
With over 23 films to choose from, September is a smorgasbord of possibilities -- from intelligent thrillers to unusual chiller, creative kid flicks and the standard Tinseltown tripe.
After 40-plus years, one question remains: Is Richard Thompson just too good?
Throughout the lovely weekend, Newport proved folk music is still strong, and a more varied than ever before.
Indie director Mo Perkins makes an auspicious debut with A Quiet Little Marriage.
Mixed Media
Best Actress Rewind: 1947 [Fri, 2:00 pm]
More Body Horror: On Takashi Miike [Fri, 1:00 pm]
Mount Kimbie - "Would Know" (video) [Fri, 12:00 pm]
Summertime in All of Its Glory [Fri, 10:59 am]
Are Gin Blossoms Actually Gin Blossoms? [Fri, 10:00 am]
30 Shows in 30 Days with NYC's Julius C [Fri, 8:59 am]
Early Fall New Music Playlist (stream) [Fri, 8:00 am]
Best Actress Rewind: 1966 [Thu, 3:00 pm]
Bitchin’ Brew... Beer and Miles Davis [Thu, 1:40 pm]
Manic Street Preachers - “(It's Not War) Just the End of Love” (Behind the Scenes Video) [Thu, 12:20 pm]
Okay, Real Good, Then: The Coen Brothers as Leading Men [Thu, 11:10 am]
Paul McCartney's "Goodbye" [Thu, 10:15 am]
Cee Lo Green Has Some Choice Words for His Ex (video) [Thu, 8:59 am]
The Most Beautiful Sound in the World [Thu, 7:30 am]
Best Actress Rewind: 1979 [Wed, 2:35 pm]
The Raveonettes Cover the Stone Roses (video) [Wed, 12:54 pm]
Moving Citations
PopMatters Highlights
Best Actress Rewind: 1947 (Mixed Media) [Fri, 2:00 pm]
More Body Horror: On Takashi Miike (Mixed Media) [Fri, 1:00 pm]
Mount Kimbie - "Would Know" (video) (Mixed Media) [Fri, 12:00 pm]
Summertime in All of Its Glory (Mixed Media) [Fri, 10:59 am]
Trader Aldi's (Marginal Utility) [Fri, 10:22 am]
Are Gin Blossoms Actually Gin Blossoms? (Mixed Media) [Fri, 10:00 am]
Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Golden Age of Roots: 'Police and Thieves' (Sound Affects) [Fri, 9:01 am]
Underworld: iTunes Festival: London 2010 (Capsule Reviews) [Fri, 9:00 am]
30 Shows in 30 Days with NYC's Julius C (Mixed Media) [Fri, 8:59 am]
Interview with St. Vincent @ Pitchfork 2010 (Notes from the Road) [Fri, 8:25 am]
Early Fall New Music Playlist (stream) (Mixed Media) [Fri, 8:00 am]
'Gasland': Natural Gas Drilling Detective (Reviews) [Fri, 7:51 am]
'Machete': Ugly Beauty (Reviews) [Fri, 7:50 am]
'Going the Distance': Why Is Drew Barrymore in This Movie? (Reviews) [Fri, 7:09 am]
Combat Mechanics as Character Development in 'Final Fantasy XIII' (Moving Pixels) [Fri, 7:00 am]
Prude Nudes: Prison Rape, Playboy, and 'Mafia II' (Moving Pixels)
Perfecting Loss in 'N+' (Moving Pixels)
Stevie Ray Vaughan: 20 Years After "The Day Music Died" Again (Sound Affects)
Doggamn! (Columns)
Part One: September 2010 (Features)
Part Two: October 2010 (Features)
Part Three: November 2010 (Features)
Part Four: December 2010 (Features)
Ra Ra Riot: The Orchard (Reviews)
Raze It to the Ground: Arcade Fire’s Urban Bias (Sound Affects)
Beyond the Pale: Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" (Sound Affects)
CONTEST: ELVIS 75th Anniversary Prize Pack (Mixed Media)
Heroes in the Age of None: The Clash Rock Out with "Tommy Gun" (Sound Affects)
Disturbed: Asylum (Reviews)
Announcements
From The Blogs