Browse archives by month...
< back to September 2006 | forward to November 2006 > Browse archives by year...
2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999

FILM — FEATURE The Boob Tube: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and Movie Macabre By Bill Gibron [31.Oct.06] :. If you dismiss the wit, remove all the occasionally lame lampoons and off-target takes, what you end up with is a gal and her glands giving hormonally hopped up teenagers a permanent underwear wedgie.

MUSIC — FEATURE Beyond Black: Rethinking Goth By Adam Besenyodi [31.Oct.06] :. The question of "What is goth?" and the contents of this set will put the spotlight not on the song selection, but on the ridiculousness of genre labels.

MUSIC — FEATURE Anti-Divas By Christian John Wikane [30.Oct.06] :. Where's the black female presence in rock music? Cast aside music industry preconceptions and you'll find it.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul By Patrick Schabe [27.Oct.06] :. Having worked for years in a hinterland between obscurity and popularity, Andy Partridge has finally hit the fulcrum as he's gained his artistic freedom, and recognition of his band XTC's influence on pop history has suddenly blossomed. This fall's completion of his odds-and-sods Fuzzy Warbles solo series offers a chance to reflect back on a tumultuous career and give a master craftsman of pop his due.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW Radio Birdman Does the Pop Again: An Interview By Jennifer Kelly [26.Oct.06] :. After 20 years of hiatus and 10 of Australia-only dates, the legendary Radio Birdman is finally touring the US. PopMatters talks to Deniz Tek and Rob Younger about the early days at Sydney's Fun House, their frustrated first run at a US audience, their 1996 reunion, and the confluence of factors that resulted in a new album and a full-scale trek through America.

TELEVISION — FEATURE If Your Life Was a TV Show By Doug Schrashun [25.Oct.06] :. Why Degrassi is realer than reality TV.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW Cathartic Nights and Sunny Days: An Interview with Jeremy Enigk By Brian Bartels [25.Oct.06] :. For Enigk, the singer-songwriter behind Sunny Day Real Estate and the Fire Theft, creative inspiration strikes when most others are asleep.

SPORTS — FEATURE The Thin (White) Line between Ballers and Brawlers By Tobias Peterson [24.Oct.06] :. Critics of the Miami-FIU fight are condemning the same kind of antagonism, machismo, and mayhem that is regularly reinforced as integral to football as a sport.

MUSIC — FEATURE Celtic Soul Rebel: Talking to the Dentist About Poetry By Roger Holland [23.Oct.06] :. Shane MacGowan recorded five albums with the Pogues. As the reformed band sets out on its most ambitious tour since 1991, and Rhino Records releases expanded and remastered versions of all five, we take the opportunity to review the rise and fall of the Pogues.

FILM — FEATURE Lore of the Worlds: The 44th New York Film Festival - Part 2 By Michael Buening [23.Oct.06] :. Unlike the British and American selections, which steered towards art house dramas, the program's global films covered monster movies, action, gangster, melodrama, and surreal comedies.

BOOKS — FEATURE The Rural Hipster: Why We Need Chuck Klosterman By Josiah M. Hesse [20.Oct.06] :. "Chuck Klosterman's denial of his own iconography merely lumps him in with the dozens of media effigies he's constructed over the years, which says a great deal about the cycles of fame and success." Josiah M. Hesse lets us in on why essayist Klosterman is 100% necessary.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW His Vinyl Weighs a Ton: An Interview with Cut Chemist By Cosmo Lee [20.Oct.06] :. Owner of over 30,000 records, staunch defender of Star Wars, and composer of a new solo album, Cut Chemist brings the fun(k).

MUSIC — FEATURE Bad Riddance to Good Rubbish: A Sort-of Tribute to CBGB's By Andrew Phillips [19.Oct.06] :. New York's punk club doors are wrenched closed to the sound of metal scraping on concrete. Phillips gives a hurt-so-good account of one of its final shows with Bad Brains.

MUSIC — FEATURE NOW HEAR THIS P-1's Box of Surprises By Christian John Wikane [18.Oct.06] :. Chicago/NYC's P-1 would rather let their songs define them than any one style, which is probably necessary considering the cross-pollination of influences and sound incorporated in their mix.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW Ready for Primetime: An Interview With Go Set Go's Mike TV By Jodie Janella Horn [18.Oct.06] :. "The kind of people that seem to gravitate towards our music kind of get the humor and get the fact that, while it's humorous, it's also kind of deadly serious."

MUSIC — FEATURE "My Tastes Don't Evolve; They Broaden": An Interview with Robert Christgau By Steve Horowitz [17.Oct.06] :. At a transitional moment in his career, one of pop music's best-known and most-respected critics talks about the changes in culture, academia, and journalism.

MUSIC — FEATURE The Triumph of Musical Tourists By Stu Sherman [16.Oct.06] :. Under the name Beirut, Zach Condon released an album of Balkan-style songs he recorded in his bedroom and became an Internet-driven sensation. Though his music gestures nostalgically toward a gypsy old world, Condon's casual appropriations suggest something much grimmer for the future.

FILM — FEATURE The Privileged Few: The 44th New York Film Festival - Part One By Michael Buening [16.Oct.06] :. The New York Film Festival is a shamelessly elitist institution. But in an increasingly overstuffed festival schedule, it's nice to have a line-up devoted to high artistic standards.

MUSIC — FEATURE The Cut-Out Bin By Rob Horning, Nick Blakey, and Justin Cober-Lake [13.Oct.06] :. This month, mid-1970s sounds of convalescence from Iggy Pop and Brian Wilson, and guitar-pop perfection from Boston-area band the Gravel Pit.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW Just Making Records: An Interview with Portastatic By Jon Langmead [13.Oct.06] :. Mac McCaughan creates string charts and listens to tropicalia while running Merge Records, and he doesn't mind if you haven't listened to Superchunk.

MUSIC — FEATURE Waylon Jennings, Jukebox Hero By Dave Heaton [12.Oct.06] :. The Waylon Jennings boxset Nashville Rebel gives reason to consider Jennings as not just a country-music outlaw, but a Wurlitzer Prize winner, whose voice from a jukebox can erase all the pain in the world just by giving voice to it.

MULTIMEDIA — FEATURE MY FAVORITE THINGS Street Fighter II: The World Warrior By Ryan Smith [12.Oct.06] :. In the twilight days of the old video arcades, a coin-op game emerged that changed everything about the way fighting games were played and created a minor renaissance. Ryan Smith reflects back on the heady youth of global warriors, quarter match challengers, and "shoryuken!" with the original Street Fighter II.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW Perpetual Motion: An Interview with Akron/Family By Jennifer Kelly [11.Oct.06] :. With its third album in two years Akron/Family takes another snapshot of its continuously evolving musical journey. Meek Warrior's free jazz freak outs may surprise some fans, but bass player Miles Seaton shrugs it off, saying, 'We just want to keep capturing wherever we are along the way.'

FILM — FEATURE Kids DVDS - October 2006 By Roger Holland [11.Oct.06] :. The debut DVD release for Disney's 1990's TV series, TaleSpin, is a joyous hybrid of widespread source material that includes three ever-loveable characters from The Jungle Book -- Baloo, King Louie, and Shere Khan.

TELEVISION — FEATURE All the Girls Were in 'The Closet' with Ellen DeGeneres By Karen Zarker [10.Oct.06] :. The true story about Ellen's fourth season, which includes the famous coming out "The Puppy Episode (Parts 1 and 2) is that it's really not about gay people at all: it's really about straight society USA, circa 1997.

SPORTS — FEATURE Kansas City Monarch By David Swerdlick [10.Oct.06] :. Negro League great Buck O'Neil (1911-2006) was one of baseball's finest ambassadors.

FILM — FEATURE Beautiful Freaks By Michael Buening [10.Oct.06] :. Frequently presenting people living cruel and impossible lives, Lech Kowalski's films observe in detail how they navigate their existence, successfully or not.

CULTURE — FEATURE My Own Private Enron By Ryan Smith [9.Oct.06] :. How many more corporate scandals are out there? A former employee at film-ratings firm Veritasiti tells of the day he and his co-workers were let go without warning, amid reports of SEC investigations and bouncing paychecks.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW The Disappearing Designer: An Interview with Joan of Arc By Sarah Feldman [9.Oct.06] :. Tim Kinsella, the musician/filmmaker/performance poet/burlesque dancer behind Joan of Arc, claims an irony-free zone while explaining his process of unintentional creation. PopMatters giggles nervously.

POLITICS — FEATURE Here's My Autograph... Now How 'Bout Your Vote? On Confusing Celebrity for Credibility By Kevin Fullam [6.Oct.06] :. No matter one's ideological leanings, it seems US voters are most interested in supporting those candidates who will ultimately provide them with the most entertainment for their political dollar. It's quite telling that our country's most viable celebrity politicians have come primarily from one of two categories: action-film heroes and sports stars.

MUSIC — FEATURE NOW HEAR THIS!: Atomic Swindlers: Intergalactic Lesbian Love Songs By Dave Brecheisen [6.Oct.06] :. Glam rock laced with obscure super hero references and sapphic celebration, anyone? Yes, please. But don't get too hung up on the sci-fi sex trappings. At the radioactive core of Atomic Swindlers is a solid rock band that doesn't require gimmicks.

THEATRE — FEATURE Bombay Dreaming and the Class Configurations of Home: A Review and Interview By Rahul Gairola [5.Oct.06] :. The first South Asian musical to be produced in English -- a musical project that germinated from an idea shared between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Shekhar Kapur -- Bombay Dreams offers a vibrant and energetic panorama of the Indian popular cinema world, as well as an important critique of corporate capitalism.

MULTIMEDIA — FEATURE The Royal Wii? By Ryan Smith [5.Oct.06] :. Nintendo may not have said it outright during their big announcement about the price and release date of the Wii, but the video game console war taking center stage this holiday season has as much to do with philosophy as it does Mario and the Master Chief.

SPORTS — FEATURE What We Think We Know About Athletes By Geoffrey Schmidt [4.Oct.06] :. In the world of sports fans, athletes are talismans.

MUSIC — INTERVIEW In for the Long Haul: An Interview with The Long Winters' John Roderick By Sarah Feldman [4.Oct.06] :. The singer-songwriter discusses fame, failure, and frequent flier miles, and explains why he's glad it took him this long to get this far.

MUSIC — FEATURE When Monkeying Around Becomes Serious Business By Tim O'Neil [3.Oct.06] :. More of the Monkees lingered at number one on the Billboard chart for 18 weeks in 1967, later confirmed as the third best-selling LP of the '60s (a higher ranking than any Beatles album), and by some measures the 12th best-selling of all time.

FILM — FEATURE Fight the Power? By Bill Gibron [2.Oct.06] :. If the right to vote is so important, why aren't more people angry at the admitted flaws in the 2000 and 2004 elections? Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and documentarian Ian Inaba have some very disturbing answers.

MUSIC — FEATURE Sugar Hill Records: 25 Years and Going Strong By Steve Horowitz [2.Oct.06] :. Sugar Hill's early recordings possessed an aural purity that met people's hunger for authenticity and also seemed fresh and new. There was something honest about the sounds of the banjo, dobro, fiddle, and mandolin, and the way they mixed together.

Browse archives by month...
< back to September 2006 | forward to November 2006 > Browse archives by year...
2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999