ANTI RECORDS: Legendary musician Roky Erickson triumphantly returns on April 20th with the Anti Records release True Love Cast Out All Evil his first new album in fourteen years. Produced by Will Sheff and featuring his band Okkervil River backing Erickson, the record is comprised largely of unreleased songs that Austin, Texas native Erickson wrote throughout his decades-long career — detailing with heart-breaking candor a harrowing life that has included shock treatment, imprisonment, mental illness, and irreversible loss. With a wisdom that can only be marshaled by someone who has been through all of the this, Erickson also interjects the […]
New Jersey Medical Marijuana Looks Like A Done Deal
INQUIRER: New Jersey is set become the 14th state in the nation to allow medical use of marijuana, under a bill approved yesterday by legislators. Gov. Corzine is expected to sign the bill during his last week in office. The law, which advocates have worked for years to get passed, would go into effect six months later. Last February, the state Senate approved a medical-marijuana bill with bipartisan support. But after critics raised concerns that the bill could allow marijuana to become too readily available, sponsors tightened restrictions. The Assembly voted in favor of the bill by 48-14, while the […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Julian Casablancas At The Troc
BY JAMIE DAVIS Julian Casablancas must be feeling good considering all the end-of-decade praise his band The Strokes are getting for their debut album, the generation-defining Is This It. He certainly looked like he felt good on Saturday night at the Trocadero, giving us the good old rockstar poses he perfected years ago. And really, this is part of what makes him unique, that he is willing to act like a genuine rockstar, throwing his drinks at the lights with nothing more than a sarcastic “oops.” For the last song before the encore he even climbed up on the stack […]
ARTIE LANGE: Hurt
PREVIOUSLY: God Save Artie Lange, Please
HEAR YE: Vampire Weekend Contra
Out today on XL Recordings. Now playing on Phawker Radio! SIMON REYNOLDS: Already I hear the naysayers bleating, “Something New?! But they’re so derivative!” (This, from Deerhunter fans.) No new instruments have been invented, it’s true, and here and there on Vampire Weekend, you’ll pick up a faint scent of things you might have heard before: a bounce of Beat in “A-Punk,” Orange Juice’s just-brushed sheen, Monochrome Set’s suave wit. The most common reference point (apart from Graceland, which seemingly crops up because it’s the sole example of African-influenced rock most people know) is early Talking Heads. And that’s a […]
$300 YouTube Video Snares Unknown Director 5 Million Views And $30 Million Hollywood Deal
BBC: A producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube in November 2009 has been offered a $30m (£18.6m) contract to make a Hollywood film. The movie will be sponsored by director Sam Raimi, whose credits include the Spiderman and Evil Dead films. Fede Alvarez’s short film “Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack!) featured giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. It is 4 mins 48 seconds long and was made on a budget of $300 (£186). So far it has had more than 5 million views on YouTube. “I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday […]
SPORTO: Iggles Post-Mortem
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Overmatched. Outschemed. Outmuscled. Outcoached. Outplayed. Outclassed. It seemed like the Eagles never had a chance. They did have a chance, early on, if they could have moved the ball. But apparently this offense, which set a team record for points scored, was only built to run up big numbers against crappy teams. Against the Cowboys, Donovan had no time. He was frequently able to buy time, but when he did, he would invariably let loose with an off-balance bullet that failed to hit the target. The Cowboys were carving up the Eagles’ defense, but sacks […]
CINEMA: The 12 Best Films Of A Dreadful Decade
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC My friends shake their heads a bit when I admit my geeky love for the format of the laserdisc. The laserdisc, with its 12” LP-sized discs, was in production between 1978 (Jaws was the first title) and the year 2000 (when Sleepy Hollow and Bringing Out the Dead being the format’s final releases), giving consumers their first chance to see movies at home digitally. The format has been discontinued for a decade now but its death coincides with the a major downturn in U.S. film that has gone unnoticed in all this “Best of the […]
TONITE: Get Violated
R5 Presents: Kurt Vile Strapping Fieldhands, Home Blitz Johnny Brenda’s Fri, January 8, 2010 Doors: 8:00 PM / Show: 9:00 PM $10.00 Sold Out
DOPE: Pot Shops Outnumber Starbucks In Denver
PORTFOLIO: If you want more proof that selling legal pot is a booming business, consider this statistic: Denver has more medical-marijuana shops than Starbucks Corp. locations. Denver’s City Treasurer Steve Ellington tells ABC New affiliate Channel 7 that at least 390 pot dispensaries applied for a sales-tax license recently. That compares to 208 Starbucks in the entire state of Colorado, the station reports. Denver’s city council took a step toward regulating the marijuana stores last night, and the businesses are filing their tax applications. The Denver statistic sheds light on a business that is becoming more institutionalized as local governments […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Writer-director Robert Siegel wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed 2008 film The Wrestler; Patton Oswalt, the stand-up comic and actor, starred in CBS’s The King of Queens and provided the voice for Remy, the main character in Pixar’s food romance Ratatouille. Now the two have collaborated on a new film — a drama, not a comedy — called Big Fan, about an obsessive 35-year-old New York Giants fan. Oswalt’s character, Paul, works as a parking-garage attendant, lives with his mom, and finds an outlet for his passion — and a minor kind of celebrity — as a frequent […]
EARLY WORD: Requiem For A Kensington Bluesman
[Click to enlarge] PREVIOUSLY: Jack Rose, Kensington Bluesman, Dead At 38 *
GOD SAVE ARTIE LANGE: Howard Stern Sidekick Survives Nine Self-Inflicted Knife Wounds
NEW YORK POST: Troubled comic Artie Lange landed in the hospital after stabbing himself nine times in an apparent suicide attempt, sources told The Post. Lange’s frantic mom called 911 Saturday morning after she entered his Hoboken apartment and found the bloodied funnyman, a law-enforcement source said. Lange sustained six “hesitation wounds” and three deep plunges. A source close to Lange’s management team confirmed that the Howard Stern sidekick stabbed himself, adding that his mother had come to visit him that day to drop off food. Surgeons managed to save Lange despite heavy bleeding. MORE WIKIPEDIA: Since Lange joined the […]