PopMatters

Vampires and the Ecstasy of Consumer Submission Vampires once symbolized aristocratic tyranny, but now mirror decadent late-capitalist enthrallment. Our ecstasy of submission offers relief from the heavy burden of artistic and intellectual autonomy. – @jrcarney52 READ: tinyurl.com/VampiresEcstsy

Pop Past | From the Archives (2022): Horror Film ‘The Empty Man’ Unmasks Internet Age Nihilism David Prior’s 2020 horror film The Empty Man taps into a form of nihilism that might be taking over the world via social media. – Danny Anderson READ: tinyurl.com/EmptyNihlsm

Pop Past | From the Archives (2016): Our Insatiable Techno Zombie Love The popularity of zombies indicates that powerful techno-social forces have ramped up our fear of joining or being surrounded by a mindless zombie herd. – Douglas Mann READ: tinyurl.com/TechZombLuv

Pop Past | From the Archives (2004): The Myth of the Rebel Consumer Consumerism is the driving social force that seeks to ensure that each of our playpens remains isolated from the others; it is the wet nurse that comes when we cry, hungry for real experience, only to feed us more formula. - Rob Horning READ: tinyurl.com/RebelBuyer

Kevin Morby's 'Little Wide Open' is a masterpiece of simple and, at times, epic proportions that will linger deep within one’s soul. @kevinmorby's 'Little Wide Open' is out tomorrow via @DeadOceans. #PMPick [9/10] REVIEW: tinyurl.com/KMorby26

The Terrible Force of Kim Nguyen’s SAIGON STORY Kim Nguyen’s 'Saigon Story' revisits Eddie Adams’ iconic execution photograph and follows the families still living with what the Vietnam War (aka the American War) – and that image – exposed. – Guilherme Quireza READ: tinyurl.com/SaigonStory

RT @PopSarah: Krzysztof Piesiewwicz was giant in Polish filmmaking, penning the scripts for 17 of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s brilliant films. R…

Twenty 1990s Songs That Time Forgot Here's a salute to the 1990s songs that stopped "mattering" once the calendar flipped to 2000, and some that were forgotten much, much sooner. tinyurl.com/1990sSongs

Staging Cultural Erasure in Ukraine’s Borderland Journalist James Verini resurfaces the stories of those who sheltered from Putin’s war in the iconic Ukrainian theater, peeling back layers on a microcosm of the country’s struggle for cultural survival. – @MarielFerragamo READ: tinyurl.com/UkraineVerini

Modern Woman's operatic 'Johnny's Dreamworld' offers a range of sounds, from post-punk to art rock to chamber pop. tinyurl.com/ModWoman26

Unwed Sailor mine a sense of adventure from their relatively uncomplicated sound. One can get beautifully, blissfully lost in this music. @unwedsailor's 'High Remembrance' is out now. REVIEW: tinyurl.com/UnwedSail

That Cocanha can conjure sound paintings with little more than their mouths and a minority language shows they are in complete command of their journey. 'Flame Folclòre' is a #PMPick [9/10] tinyurl.com/Cocanha26

Broken Social Scene's 'Remember the Humans' takes time to develop, but celebrates their wonderful convergence of sounds. #PMPick out now via @artsandcrafts. tinyurl.com/BSSlp2026

Laibach's 'Musick' has its moments, but ultimately it’s a reminder that there is plenty of good pop music that skewers itself without being so belaboured about it. 'Musick' is out now via @MuteUK. REVIEW: tinyurl.com/Laibach2026

Seattle's Telehealth create angular grooves and twitchy rhythms and look askance at our modern-day neoliberal nightmare as we doomscroll ourselves to oblivion. 'Green World Image' is a #PMPick out tomorrow via @subpop. REVIEW: tinyurl.com/GreenWorld26

"[A]pplause may indeed be ephemeral, but Spaltro’s biography stokes the flame to keep her legacy alive." @PopMatters evaluates ETHEL BARRYMORE: SHY EMPRESS OF THE FOOTLIGHTS, exploring how the actress's acceptance of her familial fate came at great cost: bit.ly/4ttR3Q7

10 YEARS AGO: Radiohead released their gorgeous and moving 'A Moon Shaped Pool' "Radiohead operate in an entirely different dimension than anybody else in music. They don’t bother with arbitrary boundaries or definitions about what rock should be." tinyurl.com/Radiohead16