To advance of his show at Union Transfer on Friday, we got soul survivor Lee Fields on the horn. DISCUSSED: Soul power, the Dirty South, Sharon Jones, Daptone, Desco, hanging out with James Brown and how to survive 40 years in the business that is show. Look for it tomorrow on a Phawker near you!

  NEW YORK TIMES: She wakes to the sound of breathing. The smaller children lie tangled beside her, their chests rising and falling under winter coats and wool blankets. A few feet away, their mother and father sleep near the mop bucket they use as a toilet. Two other children share a mattress by the rotting wall where the mice live, opposite the baby, whose crib is warmed by a hair dryer perched on a milk crate. Slipping out from her covers, the oldest girl sits at the window. On mornings like this, she can see all the way across […]

They play the Trocadero on March 3rd.

  INGENIOUS is the incredible true story of the 2008 Automotive X Prize, a competition offering $10 million to anyone who could design the next big thing in automobiles: a safe, mass-producible car that gets 100 miles to the gallon. The prize attracted competitors worldwide, including hundreds of amateur entrants. Author Jason Fagone follows four teams as they navigate building a car, face financial and emotional turmoil, and make their way through the elimination rounds. You may be familiar with one of the teams: A group of students at West Philadelphia High School Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering inspired […]

  The truly heroic do not take up arms and kill for king and country. The truly heroic forswear violence and set their people free. Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jesus Christ, Nelson Mandela. These are men with more guts than a thousand John Waynes. They came in the name of love — a love that made them more powerful than you can possibly imagine — and vanquished the tyranny of evil men. Tell your children. NEW YORK TIMES: Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president and an enduring icon of the struggle against racial oppression, died on Thursday, the government […]

  FRESH AIR If you are of a certain age and lived on the weird television shows that Nickelodeon aired in the ’90s, the to The Adventures of Pete & Pete gets you smiling strange. Mark Mulcahy was told to “write a theme song for the show, but don’t say anything about the show.” Turns out the former Miracle Legion singer already had “Hey Sandy” in his back pocket, and thus the show’s Polaris house band was born. Mulcahy has had a creatively fruitful solo music career since, but in 2008, his wife died, leaving him with twin 3-year-old daughters. […]

WARNING: Explicit DAZED DIGITAL: Last night, Lana Del Rey premiered her new short film Tropico at Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, a 30-minute visual directed by Anthony Mandler (“National Anthem”, “Ride”) and starring model Shaun Ross. Featuring her tracks “Body Electric”, “Gods and Monsters” and “Bel Air”, it’s a lurid tangle of Americana and an extension of her aesthetic, with themes of innocence lost, good vs. evil, and trading your body for money. As she puts it in the iconic words of Allen Ginsberg: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.” Lana Del Rey exclusively premieres these […]

  THE KEY: For the longest while, there was a definite refrain you’d hear about heavy roots crew Levee Drivers. “Oh man, that band is awesome, you’ve gotta hear their song ‘Tennessee Girl.’” The Philly via Bucks County group’s signature tune from its 2008 self-titled debut is, make no mistake, a rager. It’s a blistering, burning railroad anthem chugging along like Johnny Cash through a distortion pedal. But for the longest time, that EP was the only recorded music the band had, and the Levees were being defined by a five-year-old song – even though catching any of their raucous […]

From the wonderfully-titled Wig Out At Jagbags, due out January 7th. They play The TLA March 1st. Tix go on sale Friday. RELATED: Malkmus sez: “Wig Out At Jagbags is inspired by Cologne, Germany, Mark Von Schlegell, Rosemarie Trockel, Von Spar and Jan Lankisch, Can and Gas; Stephen-Malkmus-imagined Weezer/Chili Peppers, Sic Alps, UVA in the late 80’s, NYRB, Aroma Charlottenburg, inactivity, Jamming, Indie guys trying to sound Memphis, Flipper, Pete Townshend, Pavement, The Joggers, The NBA and home life in the 2010’s …” MORE PREVIOUSLY: Being Stephen Malkmus, Again

Artwork by SCHANGO PHILLY MAG: In case you haven’t been paying attention, Anchorman 2 is coming out soon, and Will Ferrell has been making the (early) publicity rounds, including by anchoring a real live newscast as Ron Burgundy, his ridiculous character in the movies. The New York Times recently interviewed Ferrell about the origins of Ron Burgundy and Anchorman, and Ferrell pointed to Jessica Savitch’s co-anchor in Philadelphia, Mort Crim: The inspiration for the original “Anchorman” came one evening more than a decade ago when Mr. Ferrell was watching a television documentary about Jessica Savitch, one of the first women […]