Popular Voices, Cultural Matters 2008-07-25T20:08:13Z Copyright (c) 2008, PopMatters.com ExpressionEngine tag:popmatters.com,2008:07:25 tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/marginal-utility/9.61402 2008-07-25T22:54:30Z 2008-07-25T22:54:30Z Rob Horning tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/sound-affects/34.61391 2008-07-25T17:03:46Z 2008-07-25T17:03:46Z Terry Sawyer tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61376 2008-07-25T14:15:07Z 2008-07-25T14:15:07Z Cynthia Fuchs In The X-Files: I Want to Believe, ooky canted shots of trundling agents in "FBI"-emblazoned jackets seem like refreshing counterprogramming amid the rumble of the season's action movies. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61383 2008-07-25T14:00:31Z 2008-07-25T14:00:31Z Cynthia Fuchs The new Brideshead Revisited doesn't grapple much with Charles' disconcerting mix of nostalgia and odium regarding British aristocracy. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/crazed-by-the-music/10.61382 2008-07-25T13:44:03Z 2008-07-25T13:44:03Z Jason Gross tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61375 2008-07-25T11:29:45Z 2008-07-25T11:29:45Z Cynthia Fuchs In Step Brothers, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) is the ideal audience, the girl who can't fathom the anti-nuances of masculine ritual. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.61361 2008-07-25T07:00:52Z 2008-07-25T07:00:52Z Bill Gibron After last week's Bat-mania, it's time for Hollywood to trek on, unveiling yet another array of tent pole titles. For 25 July, here are the films in focus: X-Files: I Want to Believe... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61033 2008-07-25T07:00:01Z 2008-07-25T07:00:01Z Chris Robé Morgan Spurlock has been treated as a kinder, gentler version of Michael Moore: thinner, younger, and better tailored for prime-time. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/column/19.61245 2008-07-25T07:00:01Z 2008-07-25T07:00:01Z Rob Horning Companies would like product placements in our personal narratives, and marketers are eager to show them how it can be done. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60506 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z John Bergstrom Less-than-irie dub tribute. From Germany, no less. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60599 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Tom Useted Billy Joel's long-admired and often-purchased career peak has been given a 30th-anniversary deluxe treatment. Is it worth it? Mostly. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60688 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Steve Horowitz The son of folk-rock notables Richard and Linda Thompson urbanely sings and writes about suicide, dissipation, alcoholism, drugs, and even love and happiness with verve and wit. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60722 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Zeth Lundy Bowie's first live U.S. radio broadcast, a show in Santa Monica, California with the Spiders from Mars, is officially released 36 years after the fact. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60731 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Michael Buening Did Fellini dream more extravagantly, with better art direction and more fluid crane shots than you or I? ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60813 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Dan Raper The latest electro wunderkind follows in the forgettable footsteps of Calvin Harris. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61001 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Andrew Gilstrap Doucet remembers that guitars can sound mean and even nasty, to good effect. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61287 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Kirby Fields Just like the Beatles belong to Liverpool, Nirvana to Seattle, and N.W.A. to Compton, Sonic Youth belongs to New York… ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/feature/21.60960 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Jason Gross Forget about easy answers, and don't think that the latest hip tech craze will save: PopMatters' Jason Gross offers advice for how long-running print publications can adapt to this brave new Net-driven world. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/notes-from-the-road/27.61320 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z 2008-07-25T07:00:00Z Thomas Hauner tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/feature/21.58063 2008-07-25T06:59:02Z 2008-07-25T06:59:02Z Evan Sawdey Know it or not, odds are you've heard Joe Purdy's music on television -- but there's nothing commercial about this artist. Eschewing the lures and traps of the music industry, Purdy is blazing his own path simply for the love of song. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.59834 2008-07-25T06:59:00Z 2008-07-25T06:59:00Z Deanne Sole The Confiscation is short but strong, a debut album that seems to promise a solid future career. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60582 2008-07-25T06:59:00Z 2008-07-25T06:59:00Z Erik Hinton Story after story is what you want and expect, jovially straddling the line between the devils of the formulaic and the angels of dependable consistency. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61026 2008-07-25T06:59:00Z 2008-07-25T06:59:00Z Chad Berndston Musically, this works. I'd suggest watching this video with your eyes closed. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60837 2008-07-25T06:58:00Z 2008-07-25T06:58:00Z Filmore Mescalito Holmes The longtime Chicago house deejay delivers a level mix of adequate background joy with his Fabric debut. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61079 2008-07-25T06:57:00Z 2008-07-25T06:57:00Z Timothy Gabriele A ten year birthday party with old friends and new intimate timeless grooves. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61143 2008-07-25T06:56:00Z 2008-07-25T06:56:00Z Matthew Fiander Nothing in his records would make you think Jandek could be a passable live performer, let alone a solid one that can even arrest you at times. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60282 2008-07-25T06:55:00Z 2008-07-25T06:55:00Z Jason MacNeil British singer Joel Nicholson is Butcher the Bar. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.61360 2008-07-25T06:50:58Z 2008-07-25T06:50:58Z Bill Gibron Embarrassing as it may seem, we've all been there - laughing when the fat man splits his pants, fighting off hysterics after an old lady farts. Even the most erudite among us can't deny that, on... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.61359 2008-07-25T06:45:10Z 2008-07-25T06:45:10Z Bill Gibron While some may consider it blasphemous, The X-Files was really nothing more than somber serious science fiction in an era overrun by otherwise slapdash space operatics. It channeled V,... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61115 2008-07-25T06:00:01Z 2008-07-25T06:00:01Z L.B. Jeffries L.B. Jeffries offers his experiences with eight weeks of Wii Fit training. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/moving-pixels/35.61324 2008-07-24T13:30:00Z 2008-07-24T13:30:00Z Mike Schiller tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/marginal-utility/9.61327 2008-07-24T13:18:18Z 2008-07-24T13:18:18Z Rob Horning Theory of Literary Production several times now, and I still don't think I understand what he's talking about. Either that, or I can't grasp why it matters. But... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/reprint/33.61319 2008-07-24T10:01:40Z 2008-07-24T10:01:40Z David Pullar The Book Group, but we did meet every month or two to discuss a book we’d all planned to read. The key difference with... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61312 2008-07-24T10:00:00Z 2008-07-24T10:00:00Z Cynthia Fuchs Disfigured's focus on the friendship between Lydia (Deidra Edwards) and Darcy (Staci Lawrence) reveals they are not your average movie opposites who attract. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60822 2008-07-24T07:00:01Z 2008-07-24T07:00:01Z Chris Baynes ¡Forward, Russia! should be commended for asking questions of themselves when they could have sat pretty and cemented their position as dance-punk heroes. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61129 2008-07-24T07:00:01Z 2008-07-24T07:00:01Z William Gatevackes Krutcher and the world where everyone can fly returns; more of the same, and that's both a good and a bad thing. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61201 2008-07-24T07:00:01Z 2008-07-24T07:00:01Z Chris Conaton The second annual edition of Less Than Jake's Shout it Loud summer tour recently rolled through the Detroit area, bringing Goldfinger, Big D and the Kids Table, and Suburban Legends along for the ride. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/feature/21.58540 2008-07-24T07:00:01Z 2008-07-24T07:00:01Z Karen Shimizu The famed font aspires to eerie emptiness of meaning. Now, has it persuaded us to do the same? ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60628 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z Heather West A child's murder becomes symbolic of phenomenon specific to the era: the darkness in the bosom of the Victorian family and the thrills and dangers of a new art -- detection. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60783 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z John Bergstrom Don't let that title fool you. Ben Watt knows exactly what he's doing with his très cool deep house label, as evidenced by this three-disc set. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60814 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z Aarik Danielsen Not only is Arizona Motel an album full of beauty and a postscript worthy of the man who helped create it, it is one of the best country albums of the year. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60825 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z Chris Conaton A shamelessly, nay proudly, derivative band that worships at the altar of 60's rock and psychedelia. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60908 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z Claudrena N. Harold Exploring the many shades of blue, Ndidi Onukwulu's Contradictor sparkles with wicked humor, intelligence, and an uncompromising emotional depth. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60994 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z Colin McGuire Mayer’s career-spanning evening leaves us all to wonder what’s next. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61019 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z Matt Mazur Mann scatters fragments of Shakespeare’s King Lear into the mix along with the familial clinches of Eugene O’Neill’s dour compositions ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/column/19.61205 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z Andrew Gilstrap Maybe it's because current methods of listening aren't cutting it that I've started buying more vinyl. Not because it sounds better or evokes nostalgia, but because listening to vinyl is a more structured and formal experience. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/sound-affects/34.61124 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z 2008-07-24T07:00:00Z Christel Loar The Hoosiers, The Black Keys and Manu Chao... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60580 2008-07-24T06:59:00Z 2008-07-24T06:59:00Z Erik Hinton Philosophy has often foregone its search for truth in favor of trumpeting a perceived tectonic ontological crisis: “Hark! The Internet, reality TV, Disney World, America! The sky is falling!” ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61021 2008-07-24T06:59:00Z 2008-07-24T06:59:00Z Tiffany White When it comes to depicting angst-ridden anti-heros like Theo, this film takes an approach most don't have the courage to try. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61144 2008-07-24T06:59:00Z 2008-07-24T06:59:00Z Matthew Fiander The full-band numbers here are so much better than the slow more lonesome work, one wonders why Faun Fables don't just commit to their fuller sound. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/feature/21.60804 2008-07-24T06:59:00Z 2008-07-24T06:59:00Z Vijith Assar and Mehan Jayasuriya When PopMatters sent two writers to cover Radiohead’s show in Virginia, we didn’t expect such divergent results. Mentally exhausting in a myriad of different ways, they report from the battle lines via text messages. Some things, apparently, shouldn’t be saved for a rainy day. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61148 2008-07-24T06:58:01Z 2008-07-24T06:58:01Z Evan Sawdey Tickle Me Pink's tired clichés ultimately knock down any hope of the band creating any sort of identity out of the usual Warped Tour mindset. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60942 2008-07-24T06:57:00Z 2008-07-24T06:57:00Z Filmore Mescalito Holmes Let us celebrate the newest Warp signing with the adding of abstract electronics and Australian post-rock. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.59593 2008-07-24T06:56:00Z 2008-07-24T06:56:00Z Andrew Gilstrap Amelia combines Americana with touches of some vague European sensibility. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.59848 2008-07-24T06:55:00Z 2008-07-24T06:55:00Z Jason MacNeil Canadian singer-songwriter sound like a somewhat more polished Paul Westerberg. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.61300 2008-07-24T06:45:08Z 2008-07-24T06:45:08Z Bill Gibron How do you like your comedy - serious (meaning witty without being wanton) or scatological (bring on the feces and the farts!)? Do you prefer your laughter driven by sparkling dialogue, insightful... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/marginal-utility/9.61270 2008-07-23T21:23:58Z 2008-07-23T21:23:58Z Rob Horning tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/media-center/15.61299 2008-07-23T20:45:16Z 2008-07-23T20:45:16Z PopMatters Staff Theresa Andersson Na Na Na (Empty Heart) [MP3]       Birds Fly Away [MP3]       Na Na Na (Empty Heart) [Video] Lykke Li I'm Good... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/reprint/33.61284 2008-07-23T12:34:40Z 2008-07-23T12:34:40Z Nikki Tranter New York Times: Lyall Watson, a maverick scientific polymath and explorer who wrote the best-selling book “Supernature” and introduced the “hundredth monkey”... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61278 2008-07-23T10:20:57Z 2008-07-23T10:20:57Z Cynthia Fuchs Boy A, based on Jonathan Trigell’s novel, lays out an intricate map of how social expectations and limits shape individual horizons. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60617 2008-07-23T07:00:01Z 2008-07-23T07:00:01Z Deanne Sole Listening to the Rough Guide to Arabic Café, I realised that this is not the same as the music you would expect to hear if you were sitting in a Western coffee shop. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60900 2008-07-23T07:00:01Z 2008-07-23T07:00:01Z Dan Raper PAS/CAL, an unlikely experimental pop group from Detroit, has made a pretty astounding debut album ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.59751 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z Filmore Mescalito Holmes The industry boned another one when it forced Bubble Puppy to become Demian to become a footnote in classic Texas hard rock. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60181 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z Jenny Carlson Close moonlighted as a fire-eating carnival performer, an LSD test subject for the US military, a film cameo artist and a producer of psychedelic light shows. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60782 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z Spencer Tricker Avant-industrialists Einstürzende Neubauten reprogram with an album of experimental miniatures. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60799 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z James Greene, Jr. Veteran SoCal punks supplement their last release with acoustic EP, concert DVD, and some nifty posters. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60980 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z Maura Walz Reckless Kelly might not yet be reckless enough to knock down the walls of their country-rock roadhouse, but their raw devotion to the ruffian lifestyle makes for music that’s satisfyingly rough around the edges. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60989 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z Jesse Hassenger In a few devastating gestures, Heathers makes Sex and Death 101 look like a wannabe -- a script in search of a director and a star to complete the clique. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61150 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z Chad Berndtson For all the doom and gloom and visions of burning worlds and people done wrong and other snatches of terror, the Black Angels revel in their own interplay and are in love with how corrosive noise can be controlled (if never crisply shaped) to maximize dramatic effect ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/column/19.61238 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z Michael Abernethy Not only does the GLBT community view itself as one movement, society has mandated that the groups are linked -- if not intentionally, then through selective exclusion. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/feature/21.58503 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z 2008-07-23T07:00:00Z Rev. Doug Gebhard Whether intentionally spiritual or not, popular culture and its products serve many of the same drives of religion: making meaning and forging the bonds of community. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60577 2008-07-23T06:59:00Z 2008-07-23T06:59:00Z Will Layman Blue Gene -- a mullet-sporting, tattoo-covered, monster truck-loving, "Love It Or Leave It" spouting man of the people -- is selling off his childhood action figures at a flea market at the age of 27. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60878 2008-07-23T06:59:00Z 2008-07-23T06:59:00Z Matthew Fiander Jaguar Love EP is terribly brief, and imperfect, but two good songs out of three ain't bad. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60991 2008-07-23T06:59:00Z 2008-07-23T06:59:00Z Amaya Rivera An acid-tongued humor, playing towards a number of stuffy British stereotypes. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61074 2008-07-23T06:58:00Z 2008-07-23T06:58:00Z Aarik Danielsen The Classic Crime is not your older brother's emo band. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60840 2008-07-23T06:57:00Z 2008-07-23T06:57:00Z Filmore Mescalito Holmes Dave Huismans makes it easy to see why dubstep is all the rage in '08 with his debut full-length. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60548 2008-07-23T06:56:00Z 2008-07-23T06:56:00Z Dan MacIntosh The Smithereens are a great power-pop bar band. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.59852 2008-07-23T06:55:00Z 2008-07-23T06:55:00Z Jason MacNeil Sacramento couple takes you on a ride that is peaceful, thoughtful and above all brimming with quality. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.61239 2008-07-23T06:45:28Z 2008-07-23T06:45:28Z Bill Gibron It’s time to get out the black wreaths and the ceremonial armbands, especially if, like this critic, you grew up on a steady diet of Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, and their exemplary movie review... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.61112 2008-07-23T06:00:00Z 2008-07-23T06:00:00Z Jason Cook Opoona fails as a character because he's a weird little bulbous alien with a pom-pom on his head named Opoona. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/moving-pixels/35.61274 2008-07-23T06:00:00Z 2008-07-23T06:00:00Z Mike Schiller Guitar Hero franchise who are also inclined to visit this here site have already seen Ryan Smith's review of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which as far as my experience... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/peripatetic-postcards/16.61241 2008-07-23T01:19:06Z 2008-07-23T01:19:06Z tjmHolden tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/sound-affects/34.61265 2008-07-22T20:54:19Z 2008-07-22T20:54:19Z Terry Sawyer tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/crazed-by-the-music/10.61240 2008-07-22T16:51:50Z 2008-07-22T16:51:50Z Jason Gross tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/marginal-utility/9.61236 2008-07-22T14:42:28Z 2008-07-22T14:42:28Z Rob Horning tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/sound-affects/34.61234 2008-07-22T14:29:47Z 2008-07-22T14:29:47Z Andrew Gilstrap tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/moving-pixels/35.61167 2008-07-22T11:00:00Z 2008-07-22T11:00:00Z L.B. Jeffries tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60982 2008-07-22T07:00:01Z 2008-07-22T07:00:01Z Zeth Lundy Tony Palmer's compelling yet frustrating 15-hour television series on the history of popular music, originally broadcast in the 1970s, finally sees a DVD release. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60046 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z Matthew Fiander This is outside music, music to be set on a porch and blasted into the expanse of land around it, music that cannot be contained. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60158 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z Timothy Gabriele Inevitably, Electroma will eternally be defined in music and film history by what it lacks. Calling the film one-dimensional would be understandable, but it would be simplifying a complex moebius strip whose surface, if lethargic, at least engages the screen for 70 minutes. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60164 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z Spencer Tricker A career retrospective anthology and 1982 live concert convince us that "diva" can most definitely be one of the good four-letter words. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60384 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z Nils Jacobson High drama, stoked by tension and channeled through unpredictable shifts in course, is ultimately what makes this music most compelling. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60527 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z Chris Conaton Another band out of Austin, this one more country than most, The Band of Heathens offer a solid studio debut. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.60574 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z 2008-07-22T07:00:00Z Matthew Fiander Little details disturb the normality of these stories: chairs have three legs; a homeless man becomes guardian over an entire forest. ]]>