Wednesday, May 2 2007
Iron Man at the Doom or Be Doomed Festival
Cataloging the highlights of Baltimore’s Doom or Be Doomed Festival would be a book-length project, so what say we start with the most mind-bending reunion of them all...
Monday, April 30 2007
Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid
Best known as Four Tet, Kieran Hebden is a man with the Midas touch: everything he gets his hands on turns to gold. But what happens when he meets his musical match?
Friday, April 27 2007
Heaven and Hell
While the band morphed so many times that it's tough to call anything a true Sabbath reunion, everyone and their stud-jacket granny is calling it that. Ozzy who?
Wednesday, April 25 2007
Tyrone Wells + Ernie Halter + Leigh Nash
A pair of pearly whites may look good on camera, but in the world of non-Idol pop and rock, the best back charisma and cuteness with something a little bigger.
Monday, April 23 2007
DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation
It's important to reexamine America's racist past, but is it enough to simply recontextualize the same old images? For better or worse, DJ Spooky throws down the gauntlet, remixing and recasting DW Griffith’s Birth of a Nation.
Friday, April 20 2007
V Festival feat. Pixies, Beck, Nouvelle Vague, Gnarls Barkley, Jarvis Cocker, and Phoenix
PopMatters' Nick Gunn takes on the crowds and craziness, to find out what happens when Virgin's V Festival pops up down under.
Wednesday, April 18 2007
Erase Errata
There are two kinds of bands in this world, those that shamelessly ride the gravy train and those that strive to make their own tiny permutative mark in music history. Which one will Erase Errata become?
Monday, April 16 2007
Pixies
The world needs another positive Pixies review about as much as it needs a new airborne super-virus, so what say we focus on sentiment instead of sound?
Friday, April 13 2007
120 Days
Though they're national-award winners in Norway, and presumably professionals, 120 Days seemed surprised/insulted by Philly's inattention. What did they expect, us awaiting their arrival with bated breath?
Wednesday, April 11 2007
Sebadoh
“Who cares if you have to go to work tomorrow,” taunts Eric Gaffney halfway through Sebadoh’s 30-song set. “We haven’t played together in 14 years.”
Monday, April 9 2007
Holy Fuck
Clinic is headlining, and a rep is handing out faux-surgical face masks at the entrance. I don't take one. I am a critical thinker. I've come for one reason alone: to see Holy Fuck’s fresh! new! one-of-a-kind! 35-mm film synchronizer.
Friday, April 6 2007
Red Hot Chili Peppers
As John Frusciante belligerently chastised the crowd -- Peppers fans through and through -- for having little understanding of music outside of what’s played on MTV, one couldn't help but wonder: what the heck's happening here?
Wednesday, April 4 2007
COUNTERPOINT: Of Montreal
Care-free stuff or kiddy fluff? Longtime Of Montreal fan Kevin Peterson takes the band to task on some of the points that our first reviewer, Lyra Pappin, raised with reverie.
Monday, April 2 2007
Of Montreal
A friend of mine complains that his students draw dark, depressing images. I suggested they start listening to Of Montreal...
Friday, March 30 2007
Nightingales + The Victoria Lucas
Not everyone has heard of Nightingales, but the people who have tend to be fans... rabid fans.
Thursday, March 29 2007
Wednesday, March 28 2007
Tuesday, March 27 2007
New York Comic Con 2007
When fans come back after the mess that was last year's convention and find that the story given by the people working the floor doesn't match what the organizers sent to them in writing, it would be hard for them to give the convention a third chance.
Monday, March 26 2007
SXSW: Classic Collabs
PopMatters dives back into SXSW, reviewing a series of classic collabs between artists like Pete Townshend, Willy Mason, Martha Wainwright, Gift of Gab, Lyrics Born, and Galactic.
Friday, March 23 2007
In Memoriam: James Brown
It’s a mistake to compare James Brown (or anyone else, for that matter) as a showman at 70 to what he was like at 40, 30, and 25. But, until the last, Soul Brother #1 still brought the funk.
