A man who needs no last name, Willie is to country & western what Neil is to dad-rock: the Buddha, bestowing laid-back grace on all those who bask in his benevolent THC-tinged glow. Born April 30, 1933, in Abbott, Texas, Nelson begins writing songs at age seven. After serving briefly in the Air Force during the Korean War and studying agriculture at Baylor University, Nelson moves through a series of luckless, low-paying career changes–disc jockey; door-to-door vacuum and encyclopedia salesman. By 1958, in dire financial straits and married with children, Nelson is forced to sell his songs for cheap […]
LISTEN: tUnE-yArDs Live @ The 9:30 Club
“Life needs joy like this,” proclaims Entertainment Weekly of Tune-Yards’ new album ‘Nikki Nack’ (4AD). On June 13, the band will spread the joy with an NPR live video webcast from the first of their two SOLD OUT shows at the 9:30 Club with opener Sylvan Esso. Tune in at http://NPR.org/music. They play a WAY SOLD OUT show at Union Transfer on Sunday. Tune-Yards has also confirmed a string of Canadian dates opening for the Arcade Fire in August. The band will wrap the first leg of their world tour with 2 SOLD OUT shows at NYC’s Webster Hall […]
INCOMING: David Bowie Live At The Tower 1974
September 23 sees the release of another very special limited David Bowie 7″ picture disc release, the 40th anniversary edition of KNOCK ON WOOD (LIVE) / ROCK ‘N’ ROLL WITH ME (LIVE). Originally released in autumn 1974 and taken from David Live, these two 2005 mixes by Tony Visconti are making their vinyl debut. The original David Live single mix of “Knock On Wood” was a UK top 10, however the US went with “Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me,” also from David Live, in response to Donovan’s recent cover version there. DAVID BOWIE KNOCK ON WOOD (LIVE) / ROCK […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
Hillary Clinton stops by Fresh Air to discuss her new book Hard Choices and remind us why she lost in 2008: condescending, disingenuous, still fighting the last war.
‘SO SHINES A GOOD DEED IN A WEARY WORLD’
R5 PRODUCTIONS: Hello – We wanted to thank everyone who came out to the Punk Rock Flea Market this past weekend! As the flea market continues to grow in popularity we recently decided to add a charitable contribution to it. Thankfully several thousand of you came out on Saturday and Sunday and we are very happy to let you know that we are able to donate $10,000 to the rehabilitation of Ralph Brooks Park in the Point Breeze section of South Philadelphia (via the Make The World Better Foundation – please read more about it below). On July 12, […]
MISSION CREEP: In Philadelphia, Everyone Is Now Guilty Until Proven Innocent, For Up To A Year
BY DUSTIN M. SLAUGHTER The Philadelphia Police Department is using Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR), which enable patrol car mounted and stationary pole cameras to collect images of over 1,800 license plates per minute over a 24/7 period. This information is then stored on servers located inside Philadelphia’s Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) and Philadelphia’s fusion center, the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center (DVIC). The department had 10 license plate readers in deployment as of 2011, according to police commissioner Charles Ramsey, although with new rounds of Homeland Security grant funding through the Urban Area Security Initiative, the number of units […]
OFFICIAL TRAILER: Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
Looks like Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Powers Booth and Jessica Alba are back, plus Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Josh Brolin, who replaces Clive Owen. Pity that. Out August 22nd.
MAXIMUM Q&A: F*cking With Fuck Buttons
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Fuck Buttons is an electronic music duo from Bristol England that make mesmerizing, prismatic soundscapes out of children’s toys and low-rent thrift store electronics. Since 2008 they have released three critically acclaimed albums. They play Underground Arts on Saturday June 14th in support of last year’s Slow Focus. Recently we got Benjamin Power and Andrew Hungon the horn to find out what the hell they are on, how they get the sounds they get, and how you explain to your family around the table over Christmas dinner that you’ve decided to devote your life to something […]
THE PERMA-WAR COMES HOME: America Turns The Machinery Of War Against Its Own People
NEW YORK TIMES: As President Obama ushers in the end of what he called America’s “long season of war,” the former tools of combat — M-16 rifles, grenade launchers, silencers and more — are ending up in local police departments, often with little public notice. During the Obama administration, according to Pentagon data, police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft. The equipment has been added to the armories of police departments that already look and act […]
SPOON: Rent I Pay
From the new Spoon album, They Want My Soul, out August 5th.
What Obama SHOULD Have Said At West Point
TOM DISPATCH: 1. American-style war doesn’t work. Just ask yourself: Are there fewer terrorists or more in our world almost 13 years after the 9/11 attacks? Are al-Qaeda-like groups more or less common? Are they more or less well organized? Do they have more or fewer members? The answers to those questions are obvious: more, more, more, and more. In fact, according to a new RAND report, between 2010 and 2013 alone, jihadist groups grew by 58%, their fighters doubled, and their attacks nearly tripled. On September 12, 2001, al-Qaeda was a relatively small organization with a few camps […]
WE ARE FAMILY: Meet The Tweedies
BPM RECORDS: Jeff Tweedy, best known as the founder of the pioneering Chicago rock band Wilco, will release a new album Sept. 16 through his own dBpm Records. The album, Sukierae (sue-key-ray), is not quite a solo effort. It is the debut release by the aptly-monikered duo, Tweedy, which features 20 new Jeff Tweedy-written songs, performed by Jeff in a musical collaboration with his 18-year-old son and drummer Spencer Tweedy. “When I set out to make this record, I imagined it being a solo thing, but not in the sense of one guy strumming an acoustic guitar and singing,” […]
INCOMING: Justin Townes Earle @ AMH 9/11
AMH stands for Ardmore Music Hall, by the way. It’s a new thing we’re starting. And yes, it will be on the test. New album, Single Mothers, out September 9th.