BY JONATHAN VALANIA Garage-punk savant, drone-rock wizard, acid-dazed psychonaut, human ouija board, holy fool of the Internet — Brother JT is a man of many hats. He’s been a puppet, a poet, a pirate, a pawn and king. He’s been up and down and over and out — and he still really likes the LSD thing. (SEE Trippin’ Balls With Brother JT, his lysergic talk show on Scrapple TV) He’s come to tell us all that the emperor has no clothes, the sky is falling, God is great, we’re already dead, and yet despite all that life is beautiful. He’s […]
SIDEWALKING: Hot Town Summer In The City
1900 block of Morris Street, 6:06PM, June 22nd by NEAL SANTOS* *Excerpted with permission from this photo story (with words by SAMANTHA MELAMED) in this week’s issue of the City Paper
EXCERPT: In Bob We Trust
SCALPING THE GURU In the time it takes you to read this Robert Pollard will have written and recorded three brilliant albums and disbanded Guided By Voices again. MAGNET stages a Beer Summit to find out how and why. BY JONATHAN VALANIA No light or air or hope gets past the front door of Desmond’s Tavern, a grungy windowless taproom in midtown Manhattan that looks like a VFW hall crashed into a sports bar and smells like a frat house at low tide, and the afternoon crowd seems to like it that way. They like to do their drinking […]
The Low Anthem To (Gently) Rock 2nd Street Fest
THIS JUST IN: The founders of the 2nd Street Festival today announced the return of the musical bash and block party to Northern Liberties on Sunday, August 4th. The event is a FREE, all-day celebration of the community and culture on 2nd Street, with restaurants and beer gardens, four stages, crafts, kids programs, workshops, green initiatives, and a critically-acclaimed musical lineup: The Low Anthem — Denison Witmer – Bailey Hounds – Brad Hinton Band – Angela Shiek – On the Water – Kala Jojo – Laser Background – Sierra Hurtt – Ensemble Novo – Banned Books – Blayer Pointdujour […]
WORTH REPEATING: About A Boy
NEW YORK TIMES: I asked if he ever talked about it. Jason shook his head no. Did they find out anyway? “Always.” The first time was at Fort Benning in 1994, in the middle of the hell of basic training. The ex-cop recruits in boot camp with him said that prisoners had more freedom than they did. There were guys who faked suicide attempts to get out of basic. But Everman never had any doubts. “I was 100 percent,” he told me. “If I wasn’t, there was no way I’d get through it.” He had three drill sergeants, two […]
Open Letter To Edward Snowden From His Father
Artwork by ANDREW WICKLANDER July 2, 2013 Edward Joseph Snowden Moscow Dear Edward: I, Bruce Fein, am writing this letter in collaboration with your father in response to the statement you issued yesterday in Moscow. Thomas Paine, the voice of the American Revolution, trumpeted that a patriot saves his country from his government. What you have done and are doing has awakened congressional oversight of the intelligence community from deep slumber; and, has already provoked the introduction of remedial legislation in Congress to curtail spying abuses under section 215 of the Patriot Act and section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence […]
BREAKING: Win Tix To See Belle & Sebastian!
It’s official: The Mann’s Skyline Stage is now the go-to concert venue when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars and you and 5,000 of your closest friends want to see/hear widescreen, state-of-the-art indie-rock on the grass, under the stars, with yummy food trucks and ice-cold craft beers and a panoramic view of the emerald city skyline over your shoulder. That Belle & Sebastian should break the seal on the second season for this newly-minted venue is kinda like a teenage boy losing his virginity to a super model. Because sometimes — not often, […]
KOCH BLOCK: How Koch Brother Blood Money Is Ensuring The End Of The World As We Know It
THE NEW YORKER: In its multi-part report, “The Koch Club,” written by Lewis, Eric Holmberg, Alexia Campbell, and Lydia Beyoud, the Workshop found that between 2007 and 2011 the Kochs donated $41.2 million to ninety tax-exempt organizations promoting the ultra-libertarian policies that the brothers favor—policies that are often highly advantageous to their corporate interests. In addition, during this same period they gave $30.5 million to two hundred and twenty-one colleges and universities, often to fund academic programs advocating their worldview. Among the positions embraced by the Kochs are fewer government regulations on business, lower taxes, and skepticism about the […]
BECK: I Won’t Be Long
Lucky fans attending Beck’s July 2nd performance at the Cite De La Musique in Paris received stickers featuring an image by acclaimed Swedish artist Mamma Andersson. While there was no text on the sticker, a cryptic QR code on the peelaway card led to a YouTube clip featuring Beck’s latest release, “I Won’t Be Long.” A limited edition 12″ vinyl is now available for pre-order (July 8 release) exclusively via beckiwontbelong.com and features the original track with a special 14:49 extended mix.
REMINDER: 50 Reasons Why Rush Limbaugh Is A Cancerous Polyp On The Rectum Of American Life
Rush Limbaugh, aka “Jeff Christie,” circa 1972 with his crippled person puppet, a surefire laugh-getter at parties. via LIBERALS UNITE He asked why no one was referring to convicted molester, Jerry Sandusky, as a “gay guy.” (!) Source He believes in the “sanctity” and “tradition” of marriage. He knows – he’s been married four times. Source He called children on assisted lunches “wanton little waifs and serfs.” Source He called Chris Christie/Obama’s healthy bipartisanship a “Master-Servant” relationship. Source He called global warning a “hoax.” Source He called Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute” when she advocated for birth control. Source […]
BEING THERE: Seven Score and Ten Years Ago
Public domain/Library Of Congress THE GUARDIAN: July 1-3 marks the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg, the battle that many historians cite as a key turning point in the US civil war, which left 50,000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead on Pennsylvania farmland. In 1913, on the 50th anniversary of the battle, the same fields played host to the largest ever gathering of civil war veterans, where former soldiers from both sides – many in their 70s – returned to commemorate the war. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: It took no more than a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg for the […]
LANGLEY SCHOOL MUSIC PROJECT: Desperado
KEY OF Z: The Langley Schools Music Project is a 60-voice chorus of rural school children from western Canada, untrained but captivated by melodic magic, singing tunes by the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, The Bay City Rollers, and others. The students accompany themselves with the shimmering gamelan chimes of Orff percussion, and elemental rock trimmings arranged by their itinerant music teacher, Hans.Fenger. These 1976-77 recordings, captured on a 2-track tape deck in a school gymnasium, weren’t staged to achieve money or fame, to sell albums or land a record contract. These kids played music because they loved it. […]
WORTH REPEATING: On The Surveillance State
Artwork by SHEPARD FAIREY “‘Objectivity’ in media culture means, essentially, reporting accurately what’s happening “within the beltway” – that is, within the bounds of the state-corporate system of approved thought and perspectives. Challenging conventional doctrine and permissible evidence is dismissed as “biased,” “emotional,” or some other term of abuse. The cases you mention illustrate that. It’s possible to go beyond these bounds, for example, by investigating and reporting how power systems quite generally seek to use available technology to control and subdue the populations within their reach. Elsewhere I’ve brought up in this connection historian Alfred McCoy’s study of the […]