NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Lee was 35 when his breakthrough film, Terence Fisher’s British horror movie “The Curse of Frankenstein,” was released in 1957. He played the creature. But it was a year later, when he played the title role in Mr. Fisher’s “Dracula,” that his cinematic identity became forever associated with Bram Stoker’s noble, ravenous vampire, who in Mr. Lee’s characterization exuded a certain lascivious sex appeal. When the film was reissued in 2007, Jeremy Dyson of The Guardian wrote, “Lee’s count is piercingly rapt, a fierce carnal evil burning behind his flashing eyes.” Even in his 70s […]
THE BEATLES: I’ll Follow The Sun
ROLLING STONE: Beatles bootleg buffs tend to be pretty particular in what they go for and return to, generally orbiting around a brace of accepted classics. These include the material that first came out on the Ultra Rare Trax and Unsurpassed Masters collections, as well as what may be the finest bootleg trove ever put out, the various editions of the endlessly edifying BBC material. Choice concerts, too, have their day – who doesn’t like the full Hollywood Bowl, package? But then there’s the stuff that most aficionados hear once and never consider again, despite the revelations that might be gleaned […]
MAXIMUM R&B: Q&A With Marc E. Bassey
BY DYLAN LONG Last weekend, I had the pleasure of sitting down with bay-area rapper Marc E. Bassy (as in, slapadabass, Bassy) at the 8th annual Roots Picnic. Bassy is currently out on the road promoting his new East Hollywood EP. After sitting down and letting him known this was my first real and legit interview as I’m only 17, he smiles and replies, “You’re only 17 man? Want some of my beer?” How could I refuse? PHAWKER: You worked with people such as 2 Chainz, Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa… MARC E. BASSEY: Just to set the record […]
REVIEW: Major Lazer’s Peace Is The Mission
Thomas Wesley Pentz, AKA major DJ/Producer Diplo and his moombahton dancehall mega project Major Lazer dropped Peace Is The Mission, their third album just before embarking on their massive Mad Decent Block Party tour taking place this summer. Featuring names such as DJ Snake, 2 Chainz, Mø, Ariana Grande, Chronixx and Ellie Goulding, Major Lazer successfully put together an intricate and progressive slew of tracks that range from your typical four-on-the-floor EDM to very detailed, traditionally written songs that journey through quirky yet smooth melodies and breakdowns. While tracks like “Roll The Bass” and “Blaze Up The Fire (ft. […]
DRAMA: Hello Sadness, My Old Friend
The dog days of summer are upon us and all that entails: the heat, the humidity, the melanoma, those horrible Roman Gladiator sandals that way too many ladies continue to insist on wearing even though their name is not Spartacus and never will be. We know what you’re thinking: If only somebody would write and perform a one-woman show/dark comedy that traverses the themes of feminism and madness, featuring Joan of Arc, Emily Dickinson, The FBI, The Black Panther Party, New Wave star Jean Seberg, saints, sex workers—and a dog named Blanco. Well, the gods have heard your prayers […]
RUSSELL BRAND WATCH: The Daily Mail Says The Emperor’s New Clothes Were Made In A Sweatshop
In case you haven’t heard, Russell Brand stepped in it again. According to a typically snarky, Brand-bashing article in the Daily Mail –– which functions like an elite team of media assassins in the service of the British Establishment, always ready, willing and able to tar and feather any perceived threat to the status quo — some of the products bearing Brand’s “Trews” logo (sweatshirts, etc) are produced in Bangladesh sweatshops, where workers reportedly earn roughly 25 cents a day working long hours under inhumane conditions. Shit. This comes directly on the heels of Brand’s most recent public embarrassment: […]
WORTH REPEATING: Stereogum Declares Philadelphia The Capital City Of The State Of Rock
STEREOGUM: When [the War On Drugs Adam] Granduciel wasn’t obsessively recording, he and War On Drugs bassist/founding member David Hartley were working at a Philadelphia company called University City Housing, cleaning up college apartments and helping run open houses. “In hindsight it was really hilarious because we were both just really scraggly, skinny musician-y dudes who had no business occupying any sort of professional atmosphere,” says Hartley, “and we were sort of the two linchpins of this pretty huge operation. Eventually we got fired, but that was a fun time because there were a lot of other musicians working […]
CINEMA: The Alpha Skaters
RELATED: Skaterdater, a 1965 American short film, was the first film on skateboarding. The film tells a story with no dialogue. The group of boy skaters are suddenly at a point when one of the boys sees a young girl, and becomes interested in her. This causes a rift with the other boys, who challenges him to a skating duel that goes down a hilly street. The young boy loses; however, he gets the girl, and shortly, a few other girls are seen and become interested in the boys, too. The surf rock-esque soundtrack was composed by Mike Curb […]
BEING THERE: SBTRKT @ The TLA
Photo by DYLAN LONG Let’s face it, playing the TLA requires a slight recalibration of expectations if you played the Governor’s Ball in NYC the night before, but apparently nobody told the man behind the mask known as SBTRKT because he brought the house down on South Street last night. SBTRKT, a masked multi-skilled musician hailing from Britain, wasted no time behind his (count ‘em) three unique synthesizer pads, kicking off a beautiful and experimental set backed by drums, piano and his collaborative vocalist Sampha, whose high octave, soulful voice perfectly matched up with the tropical and electronic grooves being […]
BEING THERE: How I Went To Mumford & Sons To Meet Wayne Coyne & All I Got Was A Free Banana And This Acid Flashback You Are About To Read
Photo by PENNY LANE BY PENNY LANE Sitting passenger side headed towards the Jersey Shore for 60-plus miles gave me hours to contemplate the following pressing issues A) I am supposed to interview Wayne Coyne, frontman of the Flaming Lips, but I have no idea where or when. B) I have never actually interviewed someone before. C) Roughly thirty minutes ago I swallowed 300 mics of Purple Sunshine, and it’s coming on strong. You see, a few days prior, the boss asked me if I wanted to cover the Seaside Heights stopover of Gentlemen of The Road, the Mumford & […]
BEING THERE: The Woman Who Knew Too Much
Laura Poitras, 2015 Investigative Reporters & Editors Conference, Marriott, 10:54 AM by JONATHAN VALANIA PHAWKER: What do you make of the so-called NSA reform legislation currently making the rounds of Congress? LAURA POITRAS: It’s good that we are actually having this debate. Obviously, in a democracy we shouldn’t have secret laws and secret interpretations of laws that violate the Constitution, but [the reform legislation currently before Congress] doesn’t go far enough. PHAWKER: What do you say to people who insist that we would have been right where we are right now, having this debate about the overbroad powers of the […]
CINEMA: The Gym Class
RESULTS (2015, directed by Andrew Bujalski, 105 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Without name actors and with just the slenderest threads of plot, writer/director Andrew Bujalski has made four of the most smart and perceptive American comedies of our era. While his last, the 80s period piece Computer Chess, was his most ambitious, his latest, a small scale romantic comedy called Results, brings name actors into the mix for the first time. Just having Guy Pearce (unashamedly sporting an Australian accent) and Cobie Smulders from How I Met Your Mother starring in the film makes Results Bujalski’s most […]