July Talk open their latest record with the lyrics, “I want to be changed / I want to be rearranged” over a fuzzy and haunting electronic buzz. The sound is far different than the more primitive rock and roll for… Read More
10. Bugsy Malone (1976) This unusual project is pure Parker, no question about it. The filmmaker wanted to make a movie that would appeal to children, and his son suggested making something with an entire cast of same. Before you… Read More
If Adam Silvestri channeled elements of Springsteen as Radiator King when he first graced PopMatters with “So Long (Charlie)”, now the NYC Americana artist is looking to 1970s pop-rock this side of Elton John. Centered on a wistful piano progression,… Read More
In the past, both Danielle Ponder and Karate Boogaloo alike have been celebrated for their own individual efforts. The former is a commanding soul singer and activist who transcends genre conventions to convey powerful messages; the latter band hails from… Read More
It seems that now more than ever, the role of distance defines so many of our relationships. As COVID-19 outbreaks spread across the globe, we are encouraged (and in many regions government-mandated) to socially distance. We are called to limit… Read More
Klinger: Now here’s a real puzzler of a record for our Counterbalance purposes. Most everything we’ve covered so far has either been an immediate game-changer or has had an impact that’s reached far beyond its initial standing. Television’s 1977 album… Read More
It’s not a comeback album. It’s certainly not a reinvention album. Gaslighter, by the Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks), is an album capturing a breaking point. After listening to the Black Lives Matter movement, the group dropped ‘Dixie’ from their… Read More
Joshua Redman’s story is well-known—the son of saxophone legend Dewey Redman graduated summa cum laude from Harvard. He was headed to law school when he entered the 1991 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Saxophone Competition, taking first place just… Read More
If a filmmaker can winch the bindings tight enough, sometimes the rest doesn’t matter. If all there was to Dave Franco’s The Rental, an economical and somewhat depopulated horror movie, was the slow-then-fast accretion of jumps and jolts in an… Read More
Protomartyr’s Ultimate Success Today is a true post-punk record, in that it doesn’t so much have an imitative relationship to other post-punk bands (in the manner of, say, Interpol/Joy Division) as use the tools of punk rock to create something… Read More