Overrated/Underrated: An imagined scandal sinks the band Yacht, and ‘Valley Uprising’ reaches for new heights

There’s a lot of pop culture to sort through week after week. Times staff writer Chris Barton offers his take on what’s up and what’s down in music, movies, television and just about anything else out there that is worth considering.

UNDERRATED

‘Valley Uprising’ (2014): A terrific new entry in the rewarding documentary field of “watching crazy people do crazy things,” this film looks at the community of outcasts and adrenaline junkies who first somehow decided it would be a good idea to try scaling the many daunting rock faces of California’s beautiful Yosemite National Park. The movie offers a fascinating glimpse of the eclectic counterculture that arose around the park’s storied Camp 4 as rock climbing took off in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but also points to a next generation of obsessives who, even as usage of the park has evolved, still madly scramble to obscene heights without ropes or tools.

William Tyler’s ‘Modern Country’: Instrumental acoustic guitar records may be most remembered as relics from the gatefold heyday of Leo Kottke, John Fahey and Robbie Basho, but this artist has been updating and expanding on their legacy beautifully with recordings for the revered indie Merge Records. His previous record, “Impossible Truth,” was a widescreen valentine to the Golden State, but this album offers more intimately drawn rustic pleasures with expansive, summer road-trip ready songs built on a latticework of elegantly burnished guitar ventures (plugged-in and otherwise) and backed by a nimble band that includes Wilco’s drummer Glenn Kotche.

Overrated/Underrated: Pop culture’s best and worst >>

OVERRATED

Yacht: With a fake story about a stolen sex tape and a resulting attempt to sell it themselves to take control of the situation, this synth-pop duo made a point about how difficult it is for a club-level indie band to make a ripple in the washing machine of internet content based on their music. But after garnering sympathy among fans and a far larger number of unfamiliar readers, an otherwise decent band that deserved attention for its art and ideas is now forever associated with this stunt, and may have lost more than it gained for a publicity grab that ultimately made light of being a real-life victim of revenge-porn.

Impressions: This is neither a reference to Curtis Mayfield’s original group or the 1963 John Coltrane album, but rather the act if bending your face, voice and mannerisms into a riff on someone more famous and, presto, landing you into the cold open on “Saturday Night Live.” While the occasional and suitably twisted impression -- Will Ferrell, we’re thinking of you -- can offer laughs, an entire game show based on their practice, like the Dana Carvey co-hosted “First Impressions” on USA, sounds like the seventh circle of comedy hell presided over by Rich Little as Johnny Carson in a set of novelty horns.