Photo by PETE TROSHAK Minimalist Brit post-punk legends Wire brought their Dadaist art-punk to a joyous, head bobbing crowd at the Union Transfer last night. Wire has only played Philly once in the last decade, and the joint was packed with fans both old and young to catch this rare performance. Early on the crowd buzzed about the setlist, wondering if the band, which has always taken pride in defying expectations, would eschew their classics for a singular focus on the new Change Becomes Us. Those fears were put to rest when Wire delivered a spastic, barking “Drill,” from 1987’s […]
CINEMA: Summer Of The Blockbummer
PACIFIC RIM (2013, directed by Guillermo del Toro, 132 minutes, U.S.) THE LONE RANGER (2013, directed by Gore Verbinski, 149 minutes, U.S.) MAN OF STEEL (2013, directed by Zack Snyder, 143 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC There is a cultural belief that often goes unexamined that says the quality of the arts in this country is a constant: bad songs were always on the radio, TV has always been stupid and Hollywood has always made big budget fluff. It’s a naive viewpoint, history shows that art thrives and wilts according to all sorts of economic and cultural pressures. […]
SIDEWALKING: Towering Infernal
Comcast Tower, sunrise, by JEFF FUSCO
Win Tix To See Savages @ Union Transfer Sunday!
Photo by RICHARD DUMAS “[Savages] makes us dream of what it must have been like to have been around to hear, in real time, the debut releases by Public Image Ltd, Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division, to feel, as those incredible records hit the shops, that unearthly power and sense of a transmission from a satellite reality.” –THE GUARDIAN We have a pair of tix to see England’s massively-hyped Savages (better than the Second Coming we are told) at Union Transfer on Sunday. To qualify, all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list […]
BLOODBATH & BEYOND: Police Brass Expecting Harsh DOJ Review Of Philly Cop Violence
PHILLY.COM: Preparing for a federal review of police use of deadly force, the Philadelphia police department’s command staff met this week with Department of Justice officials in Washington D.C. The meeting came a day after a similar DOJ review in Miami found a “pattern or practice” of excessive force that led to a high number of shootings by police. As a result of the two year investigation, a federal judge was appointed this week to enforce sweeping institutional changes within the Miami police department. In an interview Thursday, Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey provided some insight about the breadth of the […]
PHILADELPHIA EXCEPTIONALISM: At 28%, City Has Highest Urban Poverty Rate In The Nation
INQUIRER: In an unusually frank document, the city has laid out stark statistical descriptions of poverty in Philadelphia, accompanied by a plan to try to deal with the problem. The Shared Prosperity Philadelphia plan, presented Thursday at the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, states that at a “staggering 28 percent,” the poverty rate here is the highest among the nation’s 10 largest cities. More than 430,000 of the city’s 1,547,600 residents live below the federal poverty line, the report points out. The poverty line ranges from $11,490 for a single person to $23,550 for a family […]
Win Tix To See Wire @ Union Transfer
In contrast with many of their punk peers, Wire were enigmatic and cerebral, always keeping a distance from the crowd. Although Pink Flag appeared before the end of 1977, it was already a meta-commentary on the punk scene and was far more revolutionary musically than the rest of the competition. Few punk bands moved beyond pared-down rock ‘n’ roll and garage rock, football-terrace sing-alongs or shambolic pub rock and, if we’re honest, only a handful of punk records hold up today as anything other than increasingly quaint period pieces. While the majority of their peers flogged one idea to […]
TEXAS DEMOCRACY: American Taliban
SALON: Sarah Slamen was one of many reproductive rights advocates to testify against Texas’ proposed abortion restrictions at the Senate Health and Human Services committee hearing this week, but her powerful delivery and general badassery made her statement stand out — and got her forcibly ejected from the Senate chamber by state troopers. MORE RELATED: A Republican proposal that would ban most abortions in Texas after 20 weeks of pregnancy moved toward a possible final vote in the state Senate Friday, and Democrats fiercely opposed to the measure conceded they will not be able to stop it. MORE RELATED: A […]
BEING THERE: The Boy With The Arab Strap
Stu Murdoch, Belle & Sebastian, Skyline Stage @ The Mann last night by DEREK BRAD
OPEN LETTER: Dear Philadelphia Parking Authority
Earlier today I saw one of your parking Nazis give a green-lettered Federal Express truck on N. 3rd & New a $76 ticket during a two minute delivery. Green-letter Fed Ex trucks are driven by private contractors, they have to pay their own tickets — welcome to late period capitalism. The driver told me your parking Nazi knows this and this was the second ticket she gave him since this morning. He told me he makes $120 dollars a day. So not only did he make NOTHING today for humping packages in the summer swelter for eight hours, it […]
Win Tix For Bosnian Rainbows @UndergroundArts
Attention all fans of Mars Volta and/or Le Butcherettes and, in general, those about to rock: We have a pair of tix to see Bosnian Rainbows at Underground Arts this Saturday night to give away to some lucky Phawker reader. For those not keeping score at home, Bosnian Rainbows is an American alternative rock band from El Paso, Texas, formed in 2012. The band consists of former The Mars Volta members, Omar Rodríguez-López (guitar, backing vocals) and Deantoni Parks (drums, keyboards), alongside Le Butcherettes vocalist Teri Gender Bender and Nicci Kasper (keyboards). Check out this groovy video compiled from […]
QUINNIPIAC POLL: Majority Of Americans Say Snowden Is A Whistleblower, Not A Traitor
QUINNIPIAC POLL: American voters say 55 – 34 percent that Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower, rather than a traitor, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. In a massive shift in attitudes, voters say 45 – 40 percent the government’s anti-terrorism efforts go too far restricting civil liberties, a reversal from a January 14, 2010, survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University when voters said 63 – 25 percent that such activities didn’t go far enough to adequately protect the country. Almost every party, gender, income, education, age and income group regards Snowden as a whistle-blower rather […]
BEING THERE: She & Him @ The Mann
Photo by PETE TROSHAK Unlikely retro folk duo She & Him worked their Mickey & Sylvia-like magic on an enthusiastic crowd in the sweltering heat on Tuesday night. On paper the union of dark-and-serious artist M. Ward and sunny anime-girl-eyed actress Zooey Deschanel shouldn’t work, but live their talents mesh to create something special. Ward was the grounded half of the duo, dressed to the nines in a sharp grey suit delivering bristling bursts of notes with both his Gibson guitar and gravelly voice. Deschanel provided the wings for the pair with a bouncy energy and a powerful voice that […]