Or maybe he’s the William Carlos Williams of SEPTA. Or the Carl Sandburg of SEPTA. Either way, his name is Mark Fuller and he gives mass transit rhyme and reason. From Scrapple TV, our partners in new media crime.
INCOMING: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Standby for a meaty excerpt from the oral history of Weezer I assembled for this month’s cover story. In the mean time, I’ll just leave this snippet from the cutting room floor for your consideration: ME: Rivers it’s unfortunate that I am getting you at this point in your career when you feel you’ve been burned by the press and are so guarded about what you say, because I really like your music and I like you, it would be great if you could just open up and really engage these questions, because I have come to praise you […]
Jack White’s Third Man Records Announces The Final Chapter Of The Paramount Records Story
On Nov 18th, Jack White’s Third Man Records, in partnership with John Fahey’s Revenant Records, will unlock the second and final chapter chronicling the curious tale of America’s most important record label with ‘The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 2 (1928-1932).’ A stunning omnibus of words, music, art and design, ‘Volume 2’ picks up where the “spectacular” (New York Times) and “unprecedented” (Rolling Stone) ‘Volume 1’ left off. It documents the label’s final 5 year period between 1928-32, a stunning second act in which Paramount birthed the entire genre of Mississippi Delta blues and issued some of […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR Lena Dunham‘s character on the HBO series Girls would be envious of Dunham. On the show, about a group of friends in their 20s, Hannah is a writer who got and lost two book deals. One of her ambitions is to “lock eyes with The New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani.” Dunham, who created and stars in Girls, not only has a new collection of personal essays called Not That Kind of Girl, she also received a great review from Kakutani, who described the book as “smart” and “funny.” “By simply telling her own story in […]
KURT VILE: Gold Tone (Live)
VOLCOM: Take a journey through the unparalleled mental space imagined by some of Volcom’s most creative visionaries. In Chapter 2 of Volcom’s True To This, we explore the magical state of mind that lures us in and keeps us crawling back for more. This video transcendence features an exclusive live performance of Kurt Vile’s “Gold Tone” and takes a deep dive into his higher consciousness. It’s here that we also explore the meditative states of artists Travis Millard and Gemma O’Brien and careen into the minds of Volcom riders Dane Burmen, Bryan Iguchi and Ryan Burch as they explore the […]
The Edward Snowden Of Wall Street Has Arrived, Bringing With Her Goldman Sachs’ Ray Rice Tape
THE SECRET RECORDINGS OF CARMEN SEGARRA THIS AMERICAN LIFE: An unprecedented look inside one of the most powerful, secretive institutions in the country. The NY Federal Reserve is supposed to monitor big banks. But when Carmen Segarra was hired, what she witnessed inside the Fed was so alarming that she got a tiny recorder and started secretly taping. MORE PRO PUBLICA: In the spring of 2012, a senior examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York determined that Goldman Sachs had a problem. Under a Fed mandate, the investment banking behemoth was expected to have a company-wide policy to […]
BEING THERE: Broken Bells @ The Electric Factory
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Broken Bells took the stage last night at the Electric Factory on a set up that that looked less like the gear of an acclaimed indie all-star analog pop band and more like the control center of a space ship. The centerpiece of it all, of course, was the silver orb, around which two great names in the music biz would stand—James Mercer, of The Shins and Danger Mouse, famed producer. It was great for anyone in the crowd who was halfway to a parallel universe and already having really deep thoughts about space. Besides […]
NOBLE SAVAGE: Q&A w/ Man Man’s Honus Honus
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally published on October 30, 2013 BY JONATHAN VALANIA It’s not easy being the Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart/Bonzo Dog Band/Butthole Surfers of your generation. Just ask Man Man mainman Ryan Kattner, aka Honus Honus. Five albums into an accidental career as the ringmaster of the weird beard three ring psychosexual psychedelic circus that is Man Man, he sounded a little down-in-the-mouth when he called last week from the back of a stinky rental van parked behind the club Man Man played later that night in glamorous and exotic Buffalo. “It smells like sweat socks and rotting food […]
Win Tix To See Broken Bells @ The Electric Factory
When it comes to music, Danger Mouse (AKA Brian Burton) has been the Zelig at the dawn of the 21st Century, an everywhere man with an uncanny knack for being at the ground zero of the decade’s important pop moments. The Grey Album, wherein the Beatles’ White Album peanut butter got mixed up with Jay-Z’s Black Album chocolate? Check. The Gorillaz sophomore slump-defying second album? Check. Gnarls Barkley’s breakout hit “Crazy”? Check. The Black Keys’ break out hit “Tighten Up”? Been there, done that. The new U2 album? Move over Brian Eno and tell Steve Lillywhite the news. Danger […]
BEING THERE: J. Mascis @ World Cafe Live
Photo by DAN LONG It was a cool, clear and serene early autumn Thursday in Philadelphia when J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. fame played an uncharacteristically intimate, largely acoustic set downstairs at World Cafe Live in support of his new album, Tied To A Star. And yet, despite this being a picture-perfect setting for an awesome concert by a legendary alt-rock figure, it was probably the most awkward show I’ve ever been to in my life. Seemingly everyone in the 200-plus person crowd was aged north of 35. Everyone except me. So, I wondered if it was just me and […]
CINEMA: No, Not That Notebook
THE NOTEBOOK (1913, directed by János Szász, 109 minutes, Hungary) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC When I first saw the title The Notebook on the new release roster I thought, “Oh boy, a ten year anniversary re-release of the Ryan Gosling weeper?” Nope. This Hungarian import, the country’s submission for last year’s “Best Foreign Film” Oscar, couldn’t be further away from that romantic crowd-pleaser. Set in the Hungary at the end of WW II, the slow-building thriller is a pitch black tale of twin boys learning of life’s dark side as the madness of war sweeps through the countryside. […]
FRIEND OF P: Q&A w/ Matt Sharp Of The Rentals
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Rentals play Union Transfer tonight in support of their fuggin’ excellent new album, Lost In Alphaville. The Rentals are for all intents and purposes the creative vehicle for ex-Weezer bassist Matt Sharp and a revolving cast of supporting players. This time out that cast includes Patrick Carney from the Black Keys on drums and the lovely ladies from Lucius laying down betwitching backing vocals. A couple weeks ago we got Matt Sharp on the phone to talk about the band and the new album. We wound up talking at length about Bangkok, where he was born, […]
GEEK SQUAD: Holy Horny Teen Boy Bait, Batman!
BY STEPHANIE SHAMP GEEKS SPACE CORRESPONDENT Have you ever realized that you’ve been looking at something for years but have never really seen it? I’m talking about those hidden messages we always glance over but never really notice until someone points it out, like the Starbucks cup hidden in every frame of Fight Club or the arrow pointing from A to Z in the Amazon logo. For as long as I have been a fan of comics there has always been this look-but-don’t-see mentality towards the scantily-clad sexism of comic books starring women, specifically the cover art. If you […]