1. We are called Birds of Maya because we thought that was a good name. 2. No, that is not a stupid name for a band and it is what? of you to say that. 3. We are a band because we’re 3 dudes who like hanging out and playing music. 4. If we were not a band, we would be 3 dudes who like hanging out. 5. People say we sound like Stoner Rock. 6. But really we sound like 9th graders covering ZZ Top songs. 7. If the cops searched our van, they would find… we don’t have […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
WHERE R U GOING, CRAZY? Dr. Dog, Popped! Fest, Starlight Ballroom, Friday [FLICKR] BY AMY Z. QUINN If the question at hand during the Popped! Festival’s headlining night was, “Where are you going crazy, in your mind or in every inch of your body?” the answer was YES. Here’s the kind of scene it was at the Starlight Ballroom on Friday night: By the time I arrived at the show, during the second act of the four-band bill, all but one of the stalls in the women’s bathroom were already clogged and the bass was heavy enough to make your […]
ALOHA: Don Ho To Headline Big Luau In The Sky
Sad news: Don Ho, the Velvet Foghorn of Tiki Culture, dead at 76. Here he is performing Peter Gabriel’s “Shock The Monkey.”
COMIC: The Secret History Of The American Revolution
[Courtesy of Married To The Sea]
POPPED! FEST BAND LIBS: KMASS, PONY PANTS
[Photo by Paul Castoral] Kmass * 1. We are called Kenneth Masters & Cramske (The Premium Underground) because we’re under the radar, make niche music for no one in particular, and don’t really take ourselves as serious as those statements imply. 2. No, that is not a stupid name for a band and it is generously awesome, slightly rad, although a little presumptuous of you to say that. 3. We are a band because we had “gasoline dreams” and delusions of making music, getting rich, and wasting our days as we saw fit. But reality sank in and we just […]
LEONARD COHEN: Suzanne
Isle of Wight, 1970
Cover Wars: Who Bum Rushed The Show?
As you may have noticed, Cover Wars have been on hiatus for the last coupla weeks. We have been waiting for the other shoe to drop in the PW Sale story because, hey, we feel that people fearing for their jobs don’t need our shit-talking, unless their name is Imus. But that’s just us. While we are waiting to see where PW owner Anthony Clifton’s gold-plated loafer will drop, we’d like to take a minute here to ponder what all this means: First and foremost, the golden age of the alternative weekly is OVER, and the industry is moving from […]
FILM FEST PICKS & PANS: Dante’s Inferno; Wicked Flowers; Book Of The Dead; Severance
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Heading into its last weekend, the 2007 Philadelphia Film Festival unleashes the big celebrity guns, giving us this year’s American Independent Award winner, Dermot Mulroney. I spent a few minutes this week trying to stoke a friend’s memory on exactly who the very recognizable Mulroney is, and finally had to give up. His specialty in nearly 20 years of film acting has been in supporting roles, often playing ingratiating nice guys who are romance-bait for the female lead. He’s worked with Altman on Kansas City, with Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding and most […]
FILMFEST SPOTLIGHT: Meet Elizabeth Fiend
At no time in recorded history have we possessed so much knowledge about health and nutrition, nor have we ever had such vast and effective machinery for disseminating that knowledge — and yet we live in hi-tech Dark Age with the vast majority of the global population essentially ignorant or confused about the basic facts of their own biology. How did this happen? Well, that’s whole six-part mini-series in and of itself, but the short answer is that the bottom line of many a multi-national corporation is dependent on that ignorance, and vast sums of money are expended to maintain […]
POP IN TAPE: Open A Can Of ‘Shh’ & Keep It On The DL
BY MICHAEL FICHMAN Props to the Popped Festival — a massive undertaking that has gone reasonably well thus far. To see the back-porch house show cats making moves and slinging in-kind donated energy drink, it makes you feel proud. We’ve crawled from the mud-caked basements and now we are basking in the light for all to see in our hirsute, road biking glory. Shit, even though there’s a one-to-one musician/promoter/DJ/photographer/blogger to fan ratio, it still feels like a bona-fide event rather than a rearrangement of furniture. But in an ironic twist, as the Popped Festival protrudes its proud, puffed-out chest and […]
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
DROOLING BANJOS: Fan Of Friends, Popped! Fest Night 4, The Parlor, [FLICKR] BY SIMONE SECCI FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT I really appreciate when there are initiatives that help promote the local artists. I think that must be the interest of every city and as a foreigner it’s nice to see that in Philadelphia, at least some people care about it. Especially when like last night they were really good expressions of that already underlined local scene. Unfortunately I have to report that especially the first part of the show with Fursaxa on stage didn’t see the participation of as many people as […]