BY EVA LIAO AND MAVIS LINNEMANN MANCHESTER, TENN. — We got a late start yesterday, spent the morning recovering. Some asshole started blaring Jay Z from his car at 7:30 in the morning. We all moaned and grumbled. 6 p.m. Ben Harper opened with a killer jam to “With My Own Two Hands.” Harper showed the audience a side they don’t usually hear on his albums. Known for his impassioned guitar skills, though not always evident in his recordings, his work on the slide guitar really highlighted his raw ability. John Paul Jones made a special appearance for a balls-to-the-wall, […]
LIVE & DIRECT: Bonnaroo Day 2
[Click image for slideshow] EDITOR’S NOTE: Phawker has two of its best correspondents on the ground at Bonnaroo. All weekend long, assistant editor EVA LIAO and her trusty sidekick, book critic MAVIS LINNEMANN, will be hanging out with guys named Dude and That Other Dude, consuming unknown substances and blogging photos and scene reports straight from the primeval muck of Bonnaroo to your mind’s eye. Hope you appreciate that these chicks are sweating their tits off in Vietnam-like conditions so you don’t have to. I sure do. BY EVA LIAO AND MAVIS LINNEMANN MANCHESTER, TENN. — Friday went like this… […]
THE EARLY WORD: The Valerie Project
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Next week Philly will reprazent at the Jarvis Cocker-curated Meltdown Festival, to be held in London’s prestigious Southbank Centre. After a week featuring resurrected rock acts Roky Erickson, The Stooges and Devo plus Beth Orton singing Disney tunes with Pete Doherty & Shane McGowan (for sake of their health please keep those two apart) the week will climax with with the Philadelphia conglomeration known as The Valerie Project sharing the bill with the former Pulp frontman’s closing set. Originally formed for a screening at UPenn’s I-House last year, The Valerie Project will tune up for […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
THE WORLD CAFE World Cafe host David Dye is joined by Wilco for music and conversation drawn from their new album, Sky Blue Sky. This release features Cafe favorites “Impossible Germany” and “What Light,” and is an early candidate for album of the year. The record is rooted in acoustic based material that harkens back to the band’s alt-country roots.
TODAY I SAW…
[Photo by RACHAEL SHIRLEY] BY JEFF DEENEY “Today I saw…” is a series of nonfiction shorts based on my experiences as a caseworker serving formerly homeless families now living in North and West Philadelphia. I decided not long after starting the job that I was seeing so many fascinating and disturbing things in the city’s poorest neighborhoods that I needed to start cataloging them. I hope this bi-weekly column serves as a record of a side of the city that many Philadelphians don’t come in contact with on a daily basis. I want to capture moments not frequently covered by […]
“There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes/Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose.”
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Funny how the more wars change, the more they stay the same. In 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, John Prine, quintessential Americana songwriter, then fresh out of the Army and well-acquainted with the FUBAR Catch 22s of a soldier’s life, wrote “Sam Stone.” You may not recognize it from the title, but you have heard this song. Detailing the post-traumatic stress of a Vietnam vet all but abandoned by the country he nobly served, the lyric goes: “There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes / Jesus Christ […]
EVA SAYS: LIVE & DIRECT FROM BONNAROO
EDITOR’S NOTE: This weekend Phawker has not just one, but two, of its best correspondents on the ground at Bonnaroo. All weekend, assistant editor EVA LIAO and her trusty sidekick, book critic MAVIS LINNEMANN, will be blogging photos and scene reports straight from the primeval muck of Bonnaroo to your mind’s eye. Hope you appreciate that these chicks are living in a stifling tent and sweating their tits off so you don’t have to. I sure do. EVA SAYS: Here we are in Manchester, Tennessee, roasting in 95 degree weather under our makeshift tent (we didn’t exactly know how to […]
INFANTICIDE: Abortion By Commode
Sometime overnight, a 20-year-old woman squatted over a toilet, gave birth to a girl and left the infant submerged in the commode for an undetermined duration, said Lt. Philip Riehl of the homicide unit. “She gave birth to the child while seated on the toilet, but she did not immediately remove the child” from the toilet, Riehl said. The woman’s grandmother called 911 shortly after 7 a.m., and the baby was declared dead at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania at 7:20 a.m. The mother remained in stable condition there yesterday. DAILY NEWS: It’s Gonna Take A LOT Of […]
RECORD REVIEW: Slaves To The Grind
BY ED KING ROCK CONNOISSEUR I’ve spent a lot of time with two would-be badass albums over the last month: Grinderman, the boys’ night out Stooge-fest by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the Heartless Bastards’ sophomore album, All This Time. Both come out of the gates looking for a rumble, which is fine by me in these days of 8-piece grad-school folkie orchestras and glossy-but-anemic 80s dance-punk replicants. “Gray” kicks off the Heartless Bastards album, throwing down a two-chord gauntlet and making full use of the throaty, 4 Non Blondes chick-like lead vocals of dynamo Erika Wennerstrom. The […]
THE ANTI-WAR SONG MTV WON’T PLAY…
Because The Donuts gave it to us first! Take that Martha Quinn! Eat our New Media dust Viacom! Anyway, it’s called “Justice In The Desert” and the ‘Nuts insist this is the catchiest song about Haditha you will ever hear. We sure hope so. Catch ’em tonight at the Underground.
JUSTICE: Raping Rohypnotist To Face Extradition?
Marsalis, a former Sun Valley Co. employee, is accused in Blaine County of drugging and raping a co-worker at his Atelier condominium in Sun Valley in October 2005. Blaine County authorities plan to try to extradite Marsalis to face a rape charge here at the conclusion of court proceedings against him in Philadelphia. IDAHO MOUNTAIN EXPRESS: It’s Almost Like There Is A Pattern Here, What With The Drugging And The Raping And The Lying Over And Over And Over Again
THE EARLY WORD: Shock Of The Mew
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Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?
Sorry CP. This just ain’t your week, kid. WINNER: PW