One of the most astounding things about art, and especially music, is the way a self-centered thought or experience contained in a medium can ignite a chain reaction of independent…
Will Harris
2 Min Read
You remember these guys, right? Okay, maybe you don’t. But I sure do. Not that they’re not a great band, but the reason that it’d be easy enough to forget…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
You’d think that slogging through the detritus of the 1960s would be a more delicate maneuver than slinging the shite of the ’50s. You’d be mistaken. The Sixties were the…
Will Harris
1 Min Read
Yeah, yeah, we know what you’re thinking: “The Hooters? Are they even still together?” Well, actually, if you’d asked that question between 1995 and 2001, the answer would’ve been a…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Zapp & Roger – Slow and Easy (1993) We’ve owed Roger Troutman some props since the Chartburn post in which half the panel confessed total ignorance of his work. A…
Robert Cass
6 Min Read
Last Sunday I said I would find time to write about Al Jarreau in the coming week, but a few days ago Jeff Giles told me to put my ode…
Dw. Dunphy
1 Min Read
I remember it pretty clearly. I came home to find the red light on the answering machine ominously blinking away, and checked to see how many messages there were for…
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Scott Malchus
4 Min Read
Try as I may, I’m not feeling the love that so many other critics have for Breaking Bad, AMC’s latest original dramatic series. In it, Bryan Cranston portrays Walter White,…
David Medsker
1 Min Read
There was one movie that my movie critic peers and I were looking forward to seeing in these dog days of winter, and it was Be Kind Rewind, Michel Gondry’s…
Molly Marinik
1 Min Read
BOTTOM LINE: An avant-garde new musical for artists, by artists. It’s quite inventive and touching, but maybe too “out there” for non-artists. Passing Strange is a new rock musical about…
Scott Malchus
1 Min Read
So here we are, the end of the month and thus, sadly, the end of this year’s TCM 31 Days of Oscar festival. Here are some final suggestions for the…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Paul Heaton – If from Fat Chance (2001) Jurassic 5 – One Of Them from Power in Numbers (2002) Michael McDonald – Where Would I Be Now (live) from Live…
David Medsker
1 Min Read
There is just no other way to say it: 1990 was an awful, awful year for music. The first #1 single of the year belonged to a certain no-talent ass…
Scraps
1 Min Read
Hey everybody. Welcome to the seventh week of Name That Tune at Popdose. Let’s get the rules out of the way first: The Rules (subject to modification in future games):…
David Medsker
1 Min Read
You have to give the makers of Vantage Point credit for one thing: what the movie lacks in plausibility, it makes up for with raw enthusiasm. They think their movie…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The man attackin’ this week’s chart needs no introduction. He’s the Grand Poobah of Popdose, the man who makes it all happen (and gets very little sleep while doing so)….
Jason Zingale
1 Min Read
We critics like to make a big fuss over films that have had their release dates pushed back — usually because it’s a sign of a studio’s lack of confidence…
Jason Zingale
1 Min Read
Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges is an interesting little film. It’s one part action-comedy, one-part Shakespearean tragedy, and no matter how fucked up that may sound, it completely works. Arranged like…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Looking back on a year that many critics hail as one of Hollywood’s best ever, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that many of this season’s Oscar-nominated films bear political…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
Sometimes a huge single with a overly familiar sample can be both a blessing and a curse. Look at P.M. Dawn or this week’s example, U.K. trio Soho, fronted by…
Mojo Flucke
1 Min Read
Rock really is three chords. Everything else is window dressing or some arranger getting cute. Or Steely Dan — which some people argue is, actually, far from rock. In the…
Scott Malchus
1 Min Read
Growing up in a house filled with the sounds of John Philip Sousa and Henry Fillmore, melody and rhythm came first. As I got older and delved deeper into modern…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Oran “Juice” Jones – To Be Immortal (1989) purchase this album (Amazon) For the first time since starting this series, I’m not sure if “cutout” is sufficient to describe the…
J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
February 20, 1980, is a Wednesday. At 12:01AM Eastern time, a deadline passes for the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan, which they had invaded the previous December. They do not….
Zack Dennis
1 Min Read
Most people are familiar with the concept of the alpha male. Aggressive and dominating, he exists in our society as a result of our evolution as primates, when relatively small…
John C. Hughes
1 Min Read
The Danse Society began in 1981 as goths with more than a touch of new romanticism, but after two albums and a fair to middling single (a cover of the…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
I love rooting for the underdog. In almost any scenario, whether it’s sports or politics or just plain real life, I root for the little guy. This means I’m frequently…
Will Harris
1 Min Read
Stop laughing, you bastards! A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with David Medsker — my comrade in arms both here and over at Bullz-Eye.com — about Kylie…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
In sixth grade, I was very good friends with a guy named Gabe. He came into our private school rather late in the game — most of us had been…