While Broadway gets Motown and Daft Punk gets lucky, more than 25 artists and producers explore why Diana Ross and Nile Rodgers still turn us "inside out". Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of the chapters in this story. [21.May.13]
New York University art historian Alexander Nagel talks with PopMatters about how art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is tied to modern and contemporary art in more ways than we might think. [21.May.13]
By C.E. McAuley
Who will defend the future from J.J. Abrams... and his fans? [21.May.13]
By John Grassi
Every once in a great while, an ad will rise above the white noise and actually transcend the fetid swamp of commercial television. [21.May.13]
Maybe a game doesn’t have to explore every facet of interpersonal relationships but it should not uniformly trust the player’s engagement with the world, and it should certainly hold the player accountable for being an asshole. There should be more to relating to a game’s NPCs than sitting down and nodding. [21.May.13]
Today's Articles
21.May.13
The National keeps on growing older gracefully with the impeccably executed Trouble Will Find Me, but it might just be that the venerable group has reached the point of no-longer-increasing returns.
Access All Arenas, a vivid and vivacious capture of Justice's 2012 Arena of Nîmes show, proves once and for all that the progression that occurred between Cross and Audio, Video, Disco hadn't changed them as a band. It, in fact, made them better.
This vinyl and digital only “album” feels more like a DJ's tool than a pure record, but it works best when the experimental nature of the music is unfurled and the artist just lets loose.
Patron saints of doom bid farewell to their stony parishioners with their riff heavy swan song.
Odonis Odonis' Better EP is louder, darker, and uglier than its predecessor, the noisy, surf-minded Hollandaze. But the hooks are still there, buried mile-deep in feedback and sludge.
I don't hear Young Dreams in any of these songs, I hear their favorite bands, and I find that kind of frustrating.
The incomparable New Orleans trumpeter and BBQ master, Kermit Ruffins, returns next week with a brand new album perfectly entitled 'We Partyin' Traditional Style'.
This week's new releases available for streaming are highlighted by the National, Beth Hart, Townes Van Zandt and more.
There are moments when we imagine that a character might actually meet the true death, leaving Sookie without a vampire lover to come to her rescue, for once.
This much maligned film captures enough of the spirit of Captain America that Marvel fans will probably want to own this odd piece of ephemera from before the age when Marvel movies became a juggernaut.
When the kitchen sink starts calling you names, it's time to grab the baby and move out.
George Plimpton was a blue-blooded aesthete who chronicled his many failures and never cared about being called a dilettante.
Who will defend the future from J.J. Abrams... and his fans?
PopMatters is excited to offer a new venue for film scholars, historians, critics, and social theorists of any stripe to reexamine the legacy of one of the American cinema's most iconic but divisive masters, Orson Welles.
Raised on a lifelong media diet of “good” and “bad” foods, some Americans tend to approach the dinner table in a state of panic.
As with many marketing books, Contagious verges on pop psychology.
New York University art historian Alexander Nagel talks with PopMatters about how art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is tied to modern and contemporary art in more ways than we might think.
Organized around an art exhibit the band curated, Small Black performed an intimate show to preview their new album Limits of Desire. Around the corner, the Bottleneck Gallery had an opening night reception as well.
In the midst of a craft beer revolution, a number of top-notch events have popped up in the hopes of educating consumers on the many facets of taste. But none have taken it quite as far as the prestigious SAVOR, which takes place in New York City on June 14 and 15.
Can we escape our fate? And is doing so only a question of substantiation? The substantiation by means of a certain weight of money, or maybe the transubstantiation of piety in a hyper-noir landscape…
Every once in a great while, an ad will rise above the white noise and actually transcend the fetid swamp of commercial television.
Culture
While Broadway gets Motown and Daft Punk gets lucky, more than 25 artists and producers explore why Diana Ross and Nile Rodgers still turn us "inside out". Stay tuned tomorrow for the rest of the chapters in this story.
Maybe a game doesn’t have to explore every facet of interpersonal relationships but it should not uniformly trust the player’s engagement with the world, and it should certainly hold the player accountable for being an asshole. There should be more to relating to a game’s NPCs than sitting down and nodding.
Recent Articles
Monday, 20 May 2013
While Broadway gets Motown and Daft Punk gets lucky, more than 25 artists and producers explore why Diana Ross and Nile Rodgers still turn us "inside out". Stay tuned tomorrow and Wednesday for the rest of the chapters in this story.
In a Kickstarter world where consumers can basically will anything they want into existence, and everything is interactive, it makes sense that we should want to control our concerts, too
PopMatters presents the North American premiere of Vs. Head Vs. Heart, the debut album by fast-rising Australian songwriter Emma Louise.
Daft Punk unleash their inner disco auteurs and release a colossal, self-indulgent mess as their comeback album. And make it work.
Few artists can navigate jazz, disco, glam funk, and Broadway with equal aplomb, but Sarah Dash proved to be a remarkable exception at 54 Below.
Monaco is a stylish heist game that’ll make you wonder why there are so few heist games.
Doc Martin's social ineptitude and crankiness could tire easily, but Portwenn and its residents offer a balance that works well.
A pretty good food book from a guy who doesn't enjoy cooking, will eat almost anything, is cheap, and doesn't much care for food books.
On MCII, Mikal Cronin isn't so much spearheading the current garage-rock revival, but rather redefining what the genre means altogether.
There's nothing remotely reminiscent of Elizabeth Taylor in Lindsay Lohan, even in full make-up.
Friday, 17 May 2013
Black metal's compass may be spinning in many different directions in 2013, but at its best, the genre remains neither safe nor accommodating.
How did Red Bull come to support and invest in long-form journalism at a time when this style of writing seemed as doomed as the typewriter, record stores and other art industry phenoms that have been wiped out by the Internet?
The 129th most acclaimed album of all time comes to you on a summer breeze, keeps you warm in your love, and then softly leaves. Call it the night fever, but the Bee Gees et al are the subject of this week's Counterbalance.
In a career that took him from the cotton fields of East Texas to the concert stage at Carnegie Hall and beyond, Lightnin’ Hopkins became one of America’s greatest bluesmen.
Why would Neil Gaiman return to the proverbial scene of the crime, the scene of his greatest, grandest, longest-running comics success, the Sandman? Perhaps the answer lies in the work itself…
In this spoiler heavy overview of the new Star Trek film, we discuss how the fanboy nation is gnashing its teeth over what J.J. Abrams and company have wrought.
Papo & Yo is an exorcism of sorts, a way for a survivor of childhood abuse to deal with his demons. This is a game as therapy.
The moral outrage felt by the Foreign Service whistleblowers in John le Carré's 23rd novel isn't matched by their corrupted superiors.
The Los Angeles imagined by this delightfully dark movie is one where the repo man picks up the Reaganite economy’s table scraps—and in the process self-corrects for capitalism’s shortcomings.
The Breeders' Last Splash turns 20 and gets the deluxe edition treatment. Is it worth it? It comes down to how much of a fan you are.
Orci, Johnson and Messina get the fan base prepped with plenty of action and enough open questions to drive a starship through them.
Thursday, 16 May 2013
I half-believed that if I went mod with enough gusto, a Lambretta would one day parachute itself onto my driveway. That was in 6th grade. I tried it again, as an adult, still hoping for that Lambretta.
Matthew Cooper of Eluvium talks to PopMatters about the creative process, taking the leap into the world of the double album, and following up the most daring album of his career.
While the Cold War might be over, for the creative teams behind Winter Soldier and Suicide Squad, the Cold War itself becomes a powerful metaphor.
I don't know what's in the cube, but I do know that what's outside of it offers valuable insight into the current state of video games.
Benedict Cumberbatch's John Harrison is at once the most compelling and least predictable figure amid a dauntingly predictable ensemble.
There's a creative tension between wanting to capture a documentary sense of reality and the expressionist visuals used to capture the characters’ psychological reality.
James Salter has waited several years to publish his most recent novel. The result is unusually intelligent and graceful storytelling.
The San Francisco International Film Festival celebrated Latin American cinema this year with a selection of diverse, engaging films. PopMatters takes a look at six of the best selections from the festival this year.
For Talib Kweli, protest songs, love songs, dance tracks, bragging and boasting and rhyming for rhyming’s sake are all part of the same action, an emotional engagement with the world through music.
Welcome to our weekly field guide to 1950s horror and sci-fi movies and the creatures that inhabit them. This week: a one-woman invasion force strikes Scotland in Devil Girl From Mars.
With its grotesque caricatures, genre-kidding plot turns, and frequent violations of physics, Crimewave is the kind of goof that repulses mainstream audiences and delights movie-crazy geeks.
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Ahead of the start of the 'European South by Southwest' this Thursday, PopMatters keeps you ahead of the game with ten British acts to watch in 2013.
Kathryn Schulz’s failure to appreciate F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterwork, as professed on Vulture.com, is a contemporary case study for how not to assess literature.
David Sanborn may be the most imitated man in instrumental music. His ripe rasp on alto saxophone has been aped a thousand times over. Yet he's gotten little respect in true jazz circles.
While one would hope that humanity would aspire to a cleaner, post-apocalyptic condition, for the sake of art I guess I have to settle for dirty toilets and filth encrusted walls.
From child actress, to award-winning director, Sarah Polley has had one of the most fascinating careers paths in recent history.
The saving grace of many dysfunctional family films is finding the universality in the truly insular.
Looking back on the lies now, the lies that saved lives, this film presents them in the fragments they must remain, appreciates gaps between them, frames images as they allude to losses.
As an issue that comes just prior to the culmination of the current arc, and on laced with artist Symon Kudranski's beautifully neonoir chiaroscuro, Batman: the Dark Knight #19, "the Pool of Tears," comes with the highest praise…
Wimsey’s world, of posh city clubs and grand country houses, is a pleasant place to escape to for a few hours, without any need to worry too much about whether it bears more than a passing resemblance to any historical reality.
War is not just fought between armies, as the characters on Sal Mal Lane choose to believe, but it's fought in the home, at school, and at work. In fact, every character here is at war with himself or herself in some way.
Eador's design is functional, but flawed, and the troubling subtext can feel alienating. However, there aren’t many games that fill its niche, so it’s worth a look at the very least.
Mixed Media
Run the Jewels (El-P and Killer Mike) - "Get It" (stream) [Tue, 1:00 pm]
Suffering Mind - "Kompleks Przemyslowo-Militarny" (stream) [Tue, 9:30 am]
Shy Boys - "Something" (stream) [Mon, 2:00 pm]
Tree - "The King" (MP3/stream) [Mon, 8:45 am]
'Arrested Development' Season 4 Trailer & Banana Stand Pics [Fri, 1:00 pm]
CONTEST: Win Tickets to the Postal Service in NYC June 15th! [Fri, 11:00 am]
Natalie Maines - "Without You" (video) [Fri, 8:32 am]
Tal National - "Wongharey" (MP3) (PopMatters Premiere) [Thu, 10:38 am]
"Storied: Abby Head On": Soccer Star Abby Wambach [Thu, 9:10 am]
CONTEST: Win Tickets to Ariel Pink at Irving Plaza June 6th! [Thu, 8:15 am]
Vampire Weekend Live at Roseland (video) [Wed, 11:27 am]
A$AP Ferg ft. A$AP Rocky, French Montana, Trinidad James and SchoolBoy Q - "Work REMIX" (video) [Wed, 11:17 am]
Pistol Annies - "Hush Hush" (video) [Wed, 8:28 am]
Ben Watt - "North Marine Drive" (1983) [Tue, 12:00 pm]
'Follow the Leader': Politics For Beginners [Tue, 8:55 am]
A Lego Take on Casino Royale's Opening Scene [Mon, 10:27 am]
PopMatters Highlights
Kermit Ruffins - "When the Saints Go Marching In" (stream) (PopMatters Premiere) (Mixed Media) [Tue, 3:08 pm]
SAVOR NYC 2013: A Preview (Notes from the Road) [Tue, 2:00 pm]
Run the Jewels (El-P and Killer Mike) - "Get It" (stream) (Mixed Media) [Tue, 1:00 pm]
Signs & Wonders: Television Ads As Pop Art (Channel Surfing) [Tue, 10:00 am]
Suffering Mind - "Kompleks Przemyslowo-Militarny" (stream) (Mixed Media) [Tue, 9:30 am]
Small Black's 'Limits of Desire' + Bottleneck 'I Love You Man' Exhibits (Notes from the Road) [Tue, 9:00 am]
Looking for the Perfect Moment of Abject Failure: 'Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself' (Reviews) [Tue, 8:35 am]
Listen to This Week's New Music Releases Now (Features) [Tue, 8:10 am]
Call for Papers: Director Spotlight: Orson Welles (Announcements) [Tue, 8:04 am]
In Defense of... Star Trek (Features) [Tue, 8:00 am]
How Much?: "Ten Grand #1" (Reviews) [Tue, 7:30 am]
'True Blood: Season Five' Runs a Little Dry (Reviews) [Tue, 7:10 am]
The Power of Friendship While Being an Asshole, or the Doormat NPC (Moving Pixels) [Tue, 7:00 am]
'Captain America': It's Not That Bad (Reviews) [Tue, 5:10 am]
The Shock of the Old: Art Historian Alexander Nagel on His New Book, 'Medieval Modern' (Columns) [Tue, 2:30 am]
Pink Floyd: The Prog Rock Archetype (Columns)
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (Reviews)
'Star Trek Into Darkness' and the Wrath of Fanboys Being Khaned (Short Ends and Leader)
How Do Film Adaptations of Books, Such As 'The Great Gatsby', Affect an Author's Literary Status? (Columns)
Democracy of Sound: Music Piracy and the Remaking of American Copyright in the Twentieth Century (Features)
PR, Paramount, and the 'Star Trek' Disaster (Short Ends and Leader)
Dead Island: Riptide (Reviews)
R.E.M.: Green (25th Anniversary Edition) (Reviews)
The 10 Best Early Billy Bragg Songs (Sound Affects)
Rod Stewart: Time (Reviews)
From The Blogs
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