[Fri, 27.Jan.06]

[Fri, 27.Jan.06]
Medeski Martin & Wood
15.Jan.06: Boulder, CO
Weed-chaser or straight-lacer, these boys remain a group that Phish-heads and hardcore jazz fans agree on -- a crew as crowd-pleasing as they are experimental.

[Wed, 25.Jan.06]
We Are Scientists
13.Jan.06: Buffalo, NY
Enough with the dum-dums. We want Scientists.

[Tues, 24.Jan.06]
Hexes and Ohs + Code Pie
7.Jan.06: Montreal
Sounds from the Montreal Underground: Another wave of Canadians is coming for your throne...

[Fri, 20.Jan.06]
LeBron James 21st Birthday Party
28.Dec.05: Cleveland
It sounds crazy: throwing a birthday party with no announced entertainment and charging admission. Of course, when you're LeBron James, you can do anything...

[Thur, 19.Jan.06]
Wilderness
12.Jan.06: New York
My Post-cigarette Band: A Tale of Rockological Overload.

MORE CONCERTS
:. recent articles
:. full archive

[Fri, 27.Jan.06]
:. The Village Orchestra, Et in Arcadia Ego (Highpoint Lowlife)
:. Golden Birds, Carrier (Paranoid)
:. Alice Despard, Vessel (Wampus)
:. Tiny Amps, Trill & Swagger (Redder)

[Thur, 26.Jan.06]
:. Darren Hayman, Table for One (Track and Field)
:. Henning Pauly, Credit Where Credit Is Due (Prog Rock)
:. Steep Canyon Rangers, One Dime at a Time (Rebel)
:. The Maybelines, A La Carte (Best Friends)

[Tues, 24.Jan.06]
:. Honeybrowne, Something to Believe In (Compadre)
:. Veronica Lipgloss and the Evil Eyes, The Witch's Dagger (Gold Standard Labs)
:. Maquiladora, A House All on Fire (Darla)
:. The Bosch, Buy One Get One (How's Annie Music)

[Mon, 23.Jan.06]
:. Sander Kleinenberg, This Is Everybody! on Tour CD 1 (Ultra)
:. Space Mtn, A Drawing of a Memory of a Photograph of You (Aeronaut)
:. Boulevard, Vice and Daring (Boulevard Rock)
:. ...Nous Non Plus, ...Nous Non Plus (Aeronaut)

— shorttakes archive —

Eyes Like Knives
By Cosmo Lee
[26.Jan.06] :. Call it ambition, passion, or what you will. In an age of taut, chapbook-like albums, Eyes Like Knives aren't afraid to make feedback-drenched opuses.

The Living Blue
By Zack Adcock
[30.Nov.05] :. The Living Blue are not your typical musical adventure using the punk attitude of garage rock as a jumping-off point. Really!

Future 86
By Adam Williams
[23.Nov.05] :. After winning the attention of a crowded and revitalized New York scene, Future 86 stands poised to take the party out of town.

K'naan
By Liam Colle
[3.Nov.05] :. This is K'naan. A rebel calling for change, a rapper battling international injustices. This is for real.

The Pathways
By Tyler Wilcox
[27.Oct.05] :. Taking the slow route to being the hot new thing has only worked in the Pathways' favor -- and now it's time for them to work in yours.

Rahim
By Aaron Leitko
[20.Oct.05] :. Connecting the dots between the post-punk past and the contemporary underground, Rahim manages to capture an older aesthetic while sounding firmly up to date.

Gritty Soul Men: Remembering Lou Rawls and Wilson Pickett
By Mark Anthony Neal
[27.Jan.06] :. Grit was not just about the "sound" of soul, but also the grittier social and political realities that soul music offered transcendence from. The recent deaths of Lou Rawls and Wilson Pickett mark the passing of two of the grittiest Soul Men to walk the earth.

Less Smooch, More Dance: An Interview with The Clientele
By Matt Gonzales
[27.Jan.06] :. The Clientele's Alasdair Maclean tells us everything we need to know, from A to K.

BLOOD AND THUNDER: Sweet Relief
By Adrien Begrand
[27.Jan.06] :. What if you could have the majestic intensity of metal music without the overblown male bravado? One Dutch band's frontwoman sheds some light on goth-tinged rock and single-handedly alters the dimensions of doom.

PARIS NOIR: Public Figure Him Figurehead
By Miles Marshall Lewis
[26.Jan.06] :. A visual hiphop artist, Basquiat rolled hiphop style by liberally sampling African-American icons, comic book superheroes, and cultural totems at will.

IN THE BLOGS:
Rob Horning: HSAs and you [26.Jan]
Jason Gross: Deaf Forever [26.Jan]

— recent columns / archive —

[Fri, 27.Jan.06]
:. Bookmarks: Brief reviews of new and overlooked books
This week: The Singing Fish by Peter Markus; The Travel Mom's Ultimate Book of Family Travel by Emily Kaufman; The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman.

[Wed, 25.Jan.06]
:. Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s by Michael W. Flamm
Flamm eventually pieces together an all-too familiar scenario in which scheming conservatives (barely) triumph over befuddled Dems via mantra-like repetition of easily digestible sound-bites.

[Mon, 23.Jan.06]
:. Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue by Spalding Gray, Francine Prose
It just sounds like the way Spalding Gray would die. His would not be a life finished by old age, or the standard natural causes. No, Gray's existence was fated to end like most of his monologues.

[Thur, 12.Jan.06]
:. The Tent by Margaret Atwood
Would it be out of line to call Margaret Atwood a cranky old broad?

MORE BOOKS
:. recent articles
:. full archive

COMICS
[Fri, 27.Jan.06]
:. The Quitter
This is the main crux of Pekar, at least as he depicts himself -- he's pissed because people don't recognize his talents, but he doesn't seem to believe he's that talented at anything.

[Wed, 25.Jan.06]
:. Living in Infamy #1
For a comic mystery to work, you need a skilled writer and skilled artist working together on the top of their game.
:. Failure, Incompetence: Aborted Jokes and Abandoned Stories - 1995-2005
Failure... assumes an air of smug, detached irony, as a lot indie comics are wont to do.

MORE COMICS
:. recent articles
:. full archive

MULTIMEDIA
[Thur, 26.Jan.06]
:. Shadow of the Colossus
The Colossi confrontations are suitably epic.

[Tues, 24.Jan.06]
:. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
Playing DDS2 without having endured the first one is a bit like watching Kill Bill: Vol. 2 without having seen Vol. 1.

MORE MULTIMEDIA
:. recent articles
:. full archive

FILM
[Fri, 27.Jan.06]
:. Bubble
Less experimental than contrary, Steven Soderbergh's Bubble offers up a series of sacrificial objects, with remarkably little sympathy for any of them.
:. Annapolis
Annapolis is straight-up male melodrama.
:. The Spirit of the Beehive
Víctor Erice 1973 film is about a child overcoming wonder.
:. Why We Fight
Eugene Jarecki's new documentary poses its title as a question.

MORE FILM
:. recent articles
:. full archive

TELEVISION
[Thur, 26.Jan.06]
:. Monk
Now entering its fourth season, Monk finds itself in a precarious position.

[Wed, 25.Jan.06]
:. American Idol 5
American Idol is an entertainment industry shark, a brutally efficient money-making machine.
:. South Beach
Despite the seeming scandal and sensationalism, the series is bland and unmemorable.

[Tues, 24.Jan.06]
:. Love Monkey
A hip, sophisticated look at the music business and the love lives of four 30-something New York guys is not what you expect from CBS.
:. The Shield
The betrayals work in all directions at once.

MORE TV
:. recent articles
:. full archive

[Fri, 27.Jan.05]
:. Flightplan
The contrast between Kyle's multiple layers of loss and the flurry of life that goes on without her is briefly compelling.

[Thur, 26.Jan.05]
:. Viva La Bam: Seasons 4 and 5
Of everything to come out of the Jackass realm of reality programming, the Margeras were the sole masterpiece.
:. Ludacris: The Red Light District
As one might expect, a DVD devoted to Ludacris' real-life exploits comes a bit short of winning the endorsment of the Christian Coalition.

[Tues, 24.Jan.05]
:. Buzzcocks, Live at Shepherds Bush Empire 2003
Shelley and Diggle themselves prove this point, portraying themselves as regular blokes who enjoy a night at the pub while making some of the finest music around.

[Mon, 23.Jan.05]
:. The Shield: Season 4
Most of the brilliant fourth season is focused on the interplay of Vic with the two single-season "heavyweights", Glenn Close as Captain Monica Rawling and Anthony Anderson as local kingpin Antwon Mitchell.
:. The Execution of Wanda Jean
The film may not change minds regarding the death penalty, but does demonstrate its flaws on personal and structural levels.

MORE DVDs
:. recent articles
:. full archive

Bring on the Major Leagues
By Ryan Gillespie
[26.Jan.06] :. When major labels promote indie bands, sucking up the air that truly independent music needs to breathe, will the music stop developing altogether? Will we be stuck with Strokes and Rilo Kiley retreads forever?

MY FAVORITE THING
Orphans of All Worlds: Escape to and Return from Witch Mountain
By Michael Ward
[25.Jan.06] :. From childhood experience to childhood memory, Ward unravels the tangled knots of an oddly affecting story to reveal the connective tissue of a mainstream cult classic.

Breathing Jazz
By William Glasspiegel
[25.Jan.06] :. Trumpeter Maurice Brown on surviving Hurricane Katrina.

Giving It Back to the Kids: An Interview with Broken Social Scene
By Eddie Ciminelli
[24.Jan.06] :. Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew takes a bubbly approach to making an album under the microscope.

The Last Temptation of the Completist
By Zeth Lundy
[23.Jan.06] :. As record companies empty their vaults and bring forth an unending supply of alternates, remixes and studio-session outtakes, even the most definitive pop masterpieces can seem provisional. But as our curiosity about these works gets sated, is our pleasure in their greatness diminished?

Folk Explosion: An Interview with Rick Moody
By Anne K. Yoder
[20.Jan.06] :. "I'm tired of double kick-drumming and death-metal guitar tunings and guys yelling about how much trouble they're having with their girlfriends." Rick Moody talks to PopMatters about his musical life.

The Chameleon's Journey: An Interview with Neil Jordan
By Hannah Eaves
[19.Jan.06] :. Playwright, author and filmmaker, Neil Jordan talks cross dressing, terrorism, and the brilliance of Cillian Murphy.

Your Hair, Your Bassist, and Your Sense of Humor: An Interview with the Darkness
By Dan MacIntosh
[19.Jan.06] :. Dan Hawkins of the Darkness describes how he's got to keep one of those three on his hellish creative path.

Write On! Musings on Music Journalism
By Adam Williams
[18.Jan.06] :. Think you have the skills to be a music journalist? Take this test and judge for yourself.

It's Gotta Be the Dad: Blaming Black Fathers in the World of Sports
By David Leonard
[18.Jan.06] :. Black fatherhood in the media is seen as a national problem or an issue that young black males have to overcome, or both.

Slightly Bigger: Interview with James Blunt
By Nikki Tranter
[17.Jan.06] :. "Most humans are quite similar and we're just trying to get through the world together." James Blunt talks about touring America, writing songs, and his new life as one of music's most successful newcomers.

Ritual Improvisation: An Interview with No-Neck Blues Band
By Jennifer Kelly
[16.Jan.06] :. A member of the No-Neck Blues Band makes a rare foray into public conversation.

PopMatters Picks: Slipped Discs
Edited by Justin Cober-Lake
[13.Jan.06] :. Rather than pulling out their hair over our year-end list, our writers make sure those overlooked albums from 2005 get their due.

Kids' DVDS: January 2006
By Roger Holland
[13.Jan.06] :. Dark, complex, and intelligent, Gargoyles is an animated series from the mid-'90s that's become something of a cult favorite, and deservedly so.

PopMatters Picks: The Best Film, TV and DVDs of 2005
Edited by Bill Gibron and
Cynthia Fuchs
[12.Jan.06] :. Today: Cynthia Fuchs on the violent themes driving many of the year's best films AND David Swerdlick on the year's best music video, Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends".

Living the Martian Dream
By Nicole Schuman
[12.Jan.06] :. Tomo Milicevic of 30 Seconds to Mars tells you how to go from nameless fan to unpretty rock star in a few easy steps.

Rainbow and Flower Talk: An Interview with Morcheeba
By Stephen Stirling
[11.Jan.06] :. Morcheeba's Ross Godfrey travels the world, gets the band back together, and speeds through singers.

Next Phase, New Wave, or Still Rock 'n' Roll?: An Interview with Nouvelle Vague
By Nick Gunn
[10.Jan.06] :. Nouvelle Vague combines periods and geography in its album of covers.

Of Anger and Twitching: An Interview with John Cale
By Andrew Phillips
[9.Jan.06] :. John Cale talks about his driving impulses, experimental art, and catchy songs. One gets the sense that he's searching (and has long searched) for the place where rock and the avant-garde meet in perfect harmony.

Things Living: Interview with Don McLean
By Nikki Tranter
[6.Jan.06] :. "We don't need to have our art be ugly. But it is; a lot of it... Basically, you're making it worse and number one, the artist's job is to elevate people and to lift people up and to give them a place to go, something to hold on to." Don McLean speaks to PopMatters about art, love, and Britney Spears.

Bookmarks For Everyone: The Best Books of 2005
Edited by Nikki Tranter
[3-4.Jan.06] :. Fiction or non-fiction, censored, scorned or adored, we were captivated and seduced by 2005's offerings, from a surprise death in the new Harry Potter to the "truth" of the afterlife in Mary Roach's Spook. In a list comprising the best graphic novels, short story collections, memoirs, and rants, here are the best of 2005, PopMatters-style.

PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2005
Edited by Sarah Zupko and Zeth Lundy
[19-23.Dec.05] :. PopMatters' lists, celebrating the year's top albums, reissues, as well as some select genre highlights, are an example of communal wisdom. We sifted through the good and bad, the remarkable and decidedly less so, and present our definitive findings to the equally curious and hungry.

XXX — Born to Lose, Live to Win
By Roger Holland
[23.Dec.05] :. Ugly as sin and utterly uncompromising for 30 years, now, Motörhead remains the squarest of pegs in an industry obsessed by round holes.

Getting Something Out
By David Sanjek
[22.Dec.05] :. Claude Chabrol is not only one of the most prolific of the New Wave filmmakers (over 50 films in nearly 50 years), but also committed to genre-based narrative.

TO BE SEEN: Art and Artifice
By Simon Wood
[25.Jan.06] :. Trends, fads and formulas — the stuff of modern cinema. This month's To Be Seen looks back at how Hollywood came to this place, and reflects on a time when a 'movie' and a 'film' were not two different artistic ideals.

LETTERS FROM A BROAD: Spies Like Us, or, Not Just Anyone Can Be a Dick
By Kimberly Gadette
[25.Jan.06] :. From one master of disguise and snooping about to another; only I can detect the ploy behind your clever techniques! But no worries — your secrets are safe with me.

— PopMatters Sponsor —

REDOTPOP: A Change in Seasons (Greetings)
By tjm Holden
[24.Jan.06] :. He wants to stay in your good graces, so Holden and his family (yes! the whole family, for including close relations in this complicated, frenzied relations ritual are important!) send their nenga jou to you. All the way from the land of ReDotPop.

DREAD RECKONING: A New Kind of Magic: Part I: The Power of Prestidigitation
By Marco Lanzagorta
[24.Jan.06] :. In the first of a three-part look at the symbiotic relationship between the horror film and special effects, our Dread specialist argues for magician George Melies' place as the father of all F/X-based fright flicks.

FROM THE CHEAP SEATS: Where Have You Gone, J.D.?: Pro Sports Fans in a Pomo Flux
By Tobias Peterson
[23.Jan.06] :. The marquee names of a franchise are no longer written in lights, as in the time of Joe (J.D.) DiMaggio, but rather in sand, as in the time of Johnny (J.D.) Damon.

STALE POPCORN: Ladies' Plight
By Amos Posner
[23.Jan.06] :. What's most notable about superstars in the last decade is not that there are so few of them. It's that none of them have been female. Of Hollywood's elite women, several have found success largely in the shadows of men.

MIND OVER MATTERS: Meta-Bullshit: The Trouble with Sarah Silverman and the Fawning Cult of Meta-Bigotry
By Terry Sawyer
[20.Jan.06] :. In the guise of smarts, there's woeful lack of intellect. Silverman tears-up the historical significance of the words she uses only to quilt them back together in meticulously parsed clashes of shock.

FOREIGN DEVIL: Post (Modern) Punk
By Jon Campbell
[20.Jan.06] :. Gimme gimme mock treatment! A Shanghai folk band go suddenly and self-consciously punk in front of an in-on-the-joke Beijing audience.

POPSHOTS: SupraDeluxe Interactive Reader Edition
By Glenn McDonald
[19.Jan.06] :. Our intrepid correspondent answers his fan mail. That which is publishable, anyway.

MIXTAPE CONFESSIONS: Roots of Creation
By Ben Rubenstein
[18.Jan.06] :. Whether in car commercials or hip-hop samples, songs are routinely imported into entirely new contexts. Purists may cry foul, but Rubenstein explains how to keep the love for both Jimmy Smith and the Beastie Boys alive.

THE BOX OFFICE BELLETRIST: Love Is Risky Business
By Jennifer Makowsky
[17.Jan.06] :. With all the Oscar buzz swirling around Ang Lee's taboo-busting drama, our literary liaison wants us to not forget the stellar short story it's based upon.

PEOPLE PERSON: A Pack of Pandas
By Matt Thomson
[17.Jan.06] :. Zoo-kept pandas inspire musings on civilization-kept humans' sexual behavior.

TECHKNOW: The Year in Review
By Yusuf Osman & Kimberly Springer
[16.Jan.06] :. Gadgets & Technological Moments of 2005 You Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda Noticed.

ALTERNATIVE ROCK CULTURES: Chuck Berry: A-Merry-Can Rebel
By Iain Ellis
[13.Jan.06] :. Hail! Hail! One of rock 'n' roll's most innovative mavericks whose dissenting rebellion was fueled by subversive humor.

ARABESQUE: Cairo in Capetown
By Ursula Lindsey
[12.Jan.06] :. Away on holiday Lindsey finds that thoughts of Cairo have followed her to Capetown, and representations of Egypt are seen nearly everywhere in South Africa. If only she could bring back hopeful traces of Capetown for Cairo...

VARIATIONS ON A THEME: Songs Without Words, or So They Say: A Meditation on Titles
By Chadwick Jenkins
[11.Jan.06] :. Exactly how should the title of a wordless piece of music influence our experience of the music itself? Jenkins muses on how titles interact with the instrumental pieces they represent and, furthermore, on musical selections with no titles at all.

THE OUTRÉ OEUVRE: Trailer Fabulous
By Bill Gibron
[11.Jan.06] :. Call them examples of alcoholism as the avant-garde, or experimentalism accented with several cans of Spam, but actor/filmmaker Giuseppe Andrews is onto something with his masterful trailer park epics.

MARGINAL UTILITY: Information Whirlwind
By Rob Horning
[10.Jan.06] :. The prestige of sharing an extensive downloaded music library is wearing so thin that it's becomming almost as transparent as that ever-blowing cyber wind.

THE LUMIERENARY: Black (and Blue) and White and Red All Over
By Dante A. Ciampaglia
[10.Jan.06] :. In his debut column on classic films, Ciampaglia digs deep into Alexander MacKendrick's oft-forgotten Sweet Smell of Success, a 1957 cinematic treat (like a cookie full of arsenic).

NEGRITUDE 2.0: In the Time of B.K. (Before Kobe)
By Mark Reynolds
[9.Jan.06] :. They didn't command big bucks and they'd never know the level of celebrity of today's counterparts, but the early black players transcended the sport and were vital to creating this legendary black cultural institution; otherwise known as basketball.

SHH... IT'S STARTING: Ain't 'IT' a Shame
By Violet Glaze
[6.Jan.06] :. In her debut column, Classic Film Columnist Glaze argues for one forgotten actress's place in the pantheon of legendary leading ladies.

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