Photo by PETE TROSHAK British trio Daughter packed the house at the Union Transfer Friday night, impressing an overflowing crowd with their moody swirling tales of lost love. The show was originally slated for the tiny First Unitarian Church but overwhelming demand for tickets resulted in it being relocated to a larger venue. Not bad for a band that reminisced on stage about their first U.S. show being in Philly and playing to just a handful of people a few years ago. Playing in black and red shadows and darkness, they kicked off their set with the long fragile album […]
OUT ON ASSIGNMENT: In Bob We Trust
Gonna be out of the office today so posting will be light. Gotta go up to NYC and drink beer and talk about records with this guy. I know, I know. It’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it. Check our Twitter stream in the coming hours if you are curious. In the meantime, enjoy this snazzy essay on GBV’s SUITCASE: Failed Experiments & Trashed Aircraft from 2000. If that’s a little too inside baseball for you, try this heart-tugging Bob Pollard/Kim Deal duet on “Love Hurts,” which is, depending on the day, either my favorite thing either […]
SIDEWALKING: First We Take Manhattan
Times Square, NYC, 8:01 am BY JEFF FUSCO
CONTEST: Win Tix To See The Presets @ UT Sun.
Though we’ve already filed these guys under THOSE WHO DID NOT LIVE THRU THE ’80S ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT THEM AND HAVING LIVED THRU THEM WE WOULD NOT WISH THEM ON ANYBODY but be that as it may, the kids have spoken. Two million views on YouTube can’t be wrong, right?And besides, we do like this dude’s taste in headwear. Anybody who wears a hat like that can’t be all bad. As such, we have a pair of tix to give away Presets & Dragonette, who have similarly dubious taste in decades, at Union Transfer on Sunday. To qualify […]
Is Alex Jones A False Flag Planted By The Gummint To Discredit Paranoid Gun Nuts? ‘Cuz It’s Working!
DAILY BANTER: Let’s take a ride down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, shall we? Shortly after the Boston Marathon bombings when an InfoWars stooge crashed several law enforcement press conferences, I was speaking with The Daily Banter founder Ben Cohen about Alex Jones. We were joking about circulating a rumor that Jones was actually a government covert operative manufactured and trained to infiltrate the fringe conspiracy theory groups on the far-right. Ben and I speculated that perhaps the government had instructed “Special Agent Jones” to invent a roster of crazy over-the-top theories meant to deliberately distract conspiracy theorists from real-life […]
THE BOY WITH THE KALEIDOSCOPE MIND: Q&A with Writer-Director-Provocateur Harmony Korine
BY JONATHAN VALANIA To mark the 20th anniversary of A Crack Up At The Race Riots, his deliriously Dada attempt at writing, as he once put it, “the great American Choose Your Own Adventure novel,” we got the aging enfant terrible of American cinema on the horn. Discussed: Drugs, Tupac, apocalyptic Manson-ian race wars, why the Pamela Anderson sex tape is the greatest movie ever made, drugs, what band he wishes he could have been a member of, getting banned from Letterman for rifling through Meryl Streep’s purse in the Green Room, drugs, making a batshit insane video for […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: Dark Side Of The Pink Moon
SOUND OPINIONS: For the most part we think that rock ‘n’ roll artistry and commercials don’t mix, but in the case of Nick Drake, it worked out. A 1999 TV commercial featuring his 1972 track “Pink Moon,” made the English singer/songwriter a household name. It was success Drake couldn’t enjoy in his lifetime. He died at age 26 of an overdose on anti-depressants after only releasing three albums. But the small catalog lives large today, with Drake’s work influencing R.E.M., Elliot Smith, Beth Orton and many more. He’s remembered on the new tribute album Way to Blue, produced by the […]
VIDEO: Incredible Footage Of 747 Cargo Plane Crashing After Takeoff, Killing Seven On Board
NEW YORK TIMES: Seven people were killed on Monday when a civilian cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from Bagram Air Base, northeast of Kabul, according to an international military spokesman. The police chief of the surrounding area, Ezmarai Nasiri, said the plane “crashed soon after it took off and its tail caught on fire.” There was no information late on Monday about whether the plane was carrying cargo or its intended destination. It belonged to National Air Cargo, a military contractor based in Orchard Park, N.Y., outside Buffalo. Military officials said that the cause of the crash was […]
NMH: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Days like today, I often think of these words: And one day we will die And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea But for now we are young Let us lay in the sun And count every beautiful thing we can see NEW YORK TIMES: Neutral Milk Hotel, the 1990s indie-rock band known for its experimental sound, obscure lyrics and cult following, is reuniting for the first time in over a decade for a series of shows next fall, the band announced on its Web site. The band went into hibernation after releasing “In the Aeroplane […]
JOBS, LIES & URINE CAKE: Governor Tom Corbett And The Pee Pee Testing Industrial Complex
THINK PROGRESS: [Pennsylvania’s] unemployment rate has dropped to 7.9 percent, but the “number of people working in Pennsylvania tumbled by about 14,000 in March, following a drop of 6,000 in February.” Private employment has remained flat for 13 months, “growing by a mere 1,000 jobs” and landing the state “49th in the nation for job creation during March.” During an appearance on a local radio show this week, Corbett sought to explain away Pennsylvania’s less than stellar performance, arguing that the state gained 111,000 private sector jobs since he took office and is “doing better than other states.” But […]
TRIPPIN’ BALLS: With Slo-Mo & Brother JT
Some LSD required. Let the buyer be weird.
Air Force Building Drone Strike Mission Control In Horsham To Rain Down Death From The Suburbs
PHILLY BURBS: The U.S. Air Force recently announced its selection of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 111th Fighter Wing to begin a new mission Oct. 1 remotely piloting drone aircraft. About 75 full-time and 175 part-time positions are expected to be added to the base. Local officials have praised the decision, saying it will bring jobs and economic development to the area. Saturday’s protesters, however, said the drone program raises ethical issues and questioned the accuracy and effectiveness of the unmanned aircraft. Many also worried about drones being used domestically to spy on U.S. citizens. Some expressed concerns about […]