Acony Records is excited to announce the second leg of tour dates for Gillian Welch. Welch and David Rawlings will tour through the fall, making stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New York City, culminating at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. This will be the second leg of her North American tour supporting the long-awaited release of her new album, The Harrow & The Harvest, which debuted at #20 on Billboard. Rolling Stone hailed, “Welch sounds as haunting and beautiful as ever.” The full itinerary is listed below. The response to The Harrow & The Harvest has […]
EARLY WORD: Return Of The Fujiyama Mama
[Illustration by KING MERINUK/CLICK TO ENLARGE] Upon first listen to The Party Ain’t Over, the Jack White-produced comeback/victory lap by feral-rockabilly-kitten-turned-Born-Again-gospel-pensioner Wanda Jackson, it is tempting to agree with the prevailing CW that White made a fatal strategic error when he opted not to follow the Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash paradigm of less-is-more when it comes to polishing the legacies of Medicare-aged hellraisers. The Third Man Band — which includes White and various Dead Weather/Raconteurs alums — that backs Jackson on Party, is loud and hammy and takes up most of the oxygen on the record. The song choices range from […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Desert Of The Real
SAM HARRIS: I should say, however, that there are psychedelic experiences that I have not had, which appear to deliver a different message. Rather than being states in which the boundaries of the self are dissolved, some people have experiences in which the self (in some form) appears to be transported elsewhere. This phenomenon is very common with the drug DMT, and it can lead its initiates to some very startling conclusions about the nature of reality. More than anyone else, Terence McKenna was influential in bringing the phenomenology of DMT into prominence. DMT is unique among psychedelics for a […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood and Invented Modern Horror, New York Times Theater Critic Jason Zinoman recounts how directors like Bogdanovich, Wes Craven, George Romero, Roman Polanski and Brian De Palma started to redefine the horror genre in the aftermath of the Vietnam War — and influenced the genre for the next several decades. That new school of horror, says Zinoman, was based on real life: realistic, mundane events that could leave the audience wondering where evil could lurk (everywhere) and who could be evil (everyone). Serial killers replaced monsters […]
MUST SEE TV: Enter Sand Man
WASHINGTON POST: A dust storm pushed across Phoenix on Tuesday, blanketing the city in darkness and leaving thousands without power. The 50 to 60 mile wide dust wall, known as a haboob, was pushed by 60 mph winds across the Phoenix area, catching some residents off guard. “The sandstorm … was produced by the downdrafts of a collapsing thunderstorm complex generated by the Southwest monsoon,” the Post’s Jason Somenow explained. “When the downdrafts — made up of rapidly descending air — smashed down on the desert ground, they stirred up large amounts of sand and dust subsequently carried forth by […]
MUST SEE TV: Web Redemption For Taser Boy
Tosh.0 Tuesdays 10pm / 9c Web Redemption – Phillies Taser Kid tosh.comedycentral.com Tosh.0 Videos Daniel Tosh Web Redemption DAVE ON DEMAND: Steve Consalvi, the Montco teen who was tasered for running on the field during a Phillies’ game, got his revenge last night. Comedically at least. Consalvi was the subject of a “Web Redemption” segment on Tuesday night’s Tosh.O. Comedian and show host Daniel Tosh will bring on someone who has gained widespread notoriety in an internet clip. Then he goofs on their dubious viral exploits. In Consalvi’s case, Tosh framed it as a sketch in which he is in […]
MY AWESOME GEEZER CONCERT ADVENTURE: How I Learned To Stop Worrying About Styx & Love Yes
BY MIKE WOLVERTON Styx became my first favorite band around the time of 1980’s Paradise Theatre album, when I was all of 11. Well, the Beatles were my first favorite band, but Styx was my first favorite active band. I’ve never caught them live, because by the time I started going to concerts my tastes had, um, evolved. It had crossed my mind to catch them as they’ve toured these last few years, but they always seemed to be playing with REO Speedwagon (I will admit I was tempted when they shared a bill with The Fixx). When I saw […]
WORTH REPEATING: ‘Some Will Call Me A Torturer’
WIRED: Admitting that “some will call me a torturer” is a surefire way to cut yourself off from anyone’s sympathy. But Glenn Carle, a former CIA operative, isn’t sure whether he’s the hero or the villain of his own story. Distilled, that story, told in Carle’s new memoir The Interrogator, is this: In the months after 9/11, the CIA kidnaps a suspected senior member of al-Qaida and takes him to a Mideast country for interrogation. It assigns Carle — like nearly all his colleagues then, an inexperienced interrogator — to pry information out of him. Uneasy with the CIA’s new, […]
Congressman Who Refuses To Negotiate Raising The Debt Ceiling Is Invested In A Hedge Fund Betting Against Congress Raising The Debt Ceiling
SALON: Last year the Wall Street Journal reported that Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, had between $1,000 and $15,000 invested in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT. The fund aggressively “shorts” long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, meaning that it performs well when U.S. debt is undesirable. (A short is when the trader hopes to profit from the decline in the value of an asset.) According to his latest financial disclosure statement, which covers the year 2010 and has been publicly available since this spring, Cantor still has up to $15,000 in the same fund. Contacted by Salon […]
BEWITCHED HANDS: Work
The Bewitched Hands, “Work” from Tato Maizza on Vimeo. Kinda like Air meets Apples In Stereo. We likey. JIM DEROGATIS: The reference points are numerous: The anthemic choruses can recall the Arcade Fire; the rollicking rhythms are resonant of the Feelies on “The Good Earth”; the indelible hooks bring to mind the New Pornographers at their most exuberant, and the layered, repetitive, and sometimes wordless vocals are pure Stereolab. All of this name-dropping would mean nothing, however, if the songwriting wasn’t so strong. MORE
HOT DOC: Obama Justice Dept. Directs Federal Prosecutors To Go After Medical Marijuana Providers
NORML: On Wednesday the Obama administration for the second time in two years issued a Department of Justice memorandum regarding the state-sanctioned use and production of medical cannabis. However, unlike the release of the 2009 ‘Ogden memo,’ which the administration promoted with great fanfare, the issuance of this week’s ‘Cole memorandum’ is strategically being downplayed by the Justice Department. As for the content of the memo, which you can read in full here, it’s hardly surprising — particularly in light of the administration’s recent, and highly public threats to lawmakers in states wishing to enact medical marijuana laws or expand […]
BLOTTO: Drinking Yourself Gay
BY LANCE DOILY It was Thursday and I had already had my fill of Murph’s for the week, so I ended up at another one of my usual haunts, Slunt Huskers off Rt. 23 in Little Falls. I could drink heavily here due to the fact that the bartenders would rarely charge me, and there was a trough underneath the bar that allowed us all to relieve ourselves to our heart’s content without having to fuck around with the complexities of a urinal. Everyone at the Husker knows me as a Schaefer man. Born and bred that way, it’s been […]
MITTS COME OFF: Romney Blames Obama For Plant Closure In Allentown; Plant Owner Says Otherwise
MORNING CALL: When Barack Obama visited the struggling Allentown Metal Works in December 2009, the factory’s industrial landscape and its rugged workers made a perfect backdrop for the president to talk about his efforts to jump-start the economy. On Thursday afternoon, its workers gone, its windows boarded up and its lot overgrown with weeds, the century-old building again made a perfect political backdrop. This time it offered Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney a place to tear into the incumbent Democrat’s record on the economy. “This president came here and called this a symbol of hope,” Romney said, standing before a […]