[Photo by WAYNE COYNE] “Society is my friend: he makes me lie down in a cool bloodbath” — KURT VILE BY TONY ABRAHAM Listening to Fishtown indie hero Kurt Vile’s new So Outta Reach EP is like walking through the Smithsonian Institute of American Music For People Who Wear Classic Pumas. Vile has alchemized the wizardly fretboard musings of John Fahey and the quasi-whispered lethargy of Townes Van Zandt and the whole thing is shot through with a lull-inducing slow train energy that is is positively mesmerizing. Having gradually abandoned the thin-skinned lo-fi textures that were the hallmarks of his […]

Phawker got a chance to speak with Beirut bassist Paul Collins [pictured, below right] while the band is on tour promoting their third studio album, The Rip Tide. The new record marks a transition in Beirut’s music from Eastern European and World Music musings towards a sound more reminiscent of Western pop. Paul talks to us about the strange instruments that show up on Beirut records, the band’s history, the new album, and even Grover Norquist. The band will be playing at the Electric Factory on November 13th. PHAWKER: Forgive me if you’ve been asked this a million times, but […]

“The board of trustees got it wrong. They should have consulted the victims before making a decision on Mr. Paterno. Ben Andreozzi said. “They should have considered these victims watch TV and are aware of the students’ reaction and may not want to be associated with the downfall of Mr. Paterno. The school instead elected to do what it felt was in its own best interest at the time. Isn’t that what put the school in this position in the first place? The way the Board reached its decision raises more concerns than the decision itself.  There is no indication […]

NEWSWORKS: It’s no secret that drilling natural gas in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale is controversial. Now, several Pennsylvania gas drilling executives say their companies use military tactics to counter drilling opponents. Speaking at an industry conference in Houston, Texas, the men encouraged their colleagues to look to counter-insurgency techniques. An environmental activist attending the conference captured the talks on a hand-held recorder, and released the tape to the media. On tape, Anadarko Petroleum executive Matt Carmichael gave this advice: “Download the U.S. Army Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, because we are dealing with an insurgency here. There’s a lot of good lessons in there and coming from a military background I found the insight in that […]

FRESH AIR Over the past two decades, Grammy Award-winning producer Joe Henry has worked with some of the biggest artists in rock, folk, jazz, soul and alt-country. He’s collaborated with Meshell Ndegeocello, Lisa Hannigan, Madonna, Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint, Mavis Staples, Ornette Coleman, Solomon Burke and Hugh Laurie, just to name a few. Henry is also a songwriter and solo artist. His 12th album, Reverie, features all-acoustic performances from a three-day jam session in his basement. The result is a collection of eclectic tracks, including the opening number, “Heaven’s Escape,” which, in Henry’s words, “feels orchestral, and then comes off […]

Hello, I’m Mindy Myers, Elizabeth Warren’s Campaign Manager — and I’m writing you with an urgent update tonight. A few minutes ago, we learned that Crossroads GPS, the group of right-wing billionaires fronted by Karl Rove, is about to launch a wave of attack ads in Massachusetts as soon as tomorrow. They just bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of TV time, and you know they’ll have the money to stay on the air. We will not — and cannot — allow attacks from Scott Brown and his allies to go unanswered. We need your help to fight back. Help […]

THE NATION: I agree with the Washington Post’s Mike Wise, who wrote, “They would all be party to a worse crime than any crooked, pay-for-play booster at Miami, Ohio State or even SMU ever committed: guilty of protecting a program before a child.” But at the same time I would argue that the connective tissue between benign booster scandals and this monstrous state of affairs are more substantial than people want to admit. It’s connected to the Bowl Championship Series, “conference realignment” and all the ways in which college football has morphed over the last generation into a multibillion-dollar big […]

RELATED: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the onetime Republican front-runner who had hoped to regain traction in a candidates’ debate Wednesday, instead suffered what may have been the worst memory meltdown in the history of presidential debates. “I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education, and — what’s the third one there? Let’s see,” Perry said, struggling to remember the third federal department he repeatedly has promised on the stump to eliminate. Texas Rep. Ron Paul suggested the Environmental Protection Agency as an option. Pressed by moderator John Harwood to […]

[Artwork by JAY BEVENOUR] ASSOCIATED PRESS: Penn State trustees fired football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier amid the growing furor over how the school handled sex abuse allegations against an assistant coach. The massive shakeup Wednesday night came hours after Paterno announced that he planned to retire at the end of his 46th season. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: Penn State Coach Joe Paterno announced Wednesday that he plans to retire at the end of the football season, though it remains unclear if the university will allow him to coach that long in the wake of a sexual […]

FRESH AIR The first birth control clinic in the United States opened in 1916. It was operated by Margaret Sanger, who started the clinic after becoming outraged that she couldn’t give her patients — poor women in the tenements on New York City’s Lower East Side — information about contraceptive options. “Sanger [went] to these squalid, crowded homes of these young women bearing many children who are begging her — while giving birth — for information about contraception,” says historian Jill Lepore. “And it [was] illegal for her to give them any information.” Lepore’s latest New Yorker piece chronicles the […]