BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER If Calexico were a movie instead of a band, it would be Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil – a taut, arty thriller set in a Southwestern border town, full of long shadows and obtuse angles, where evil wears a badge, good men die like dogs, and everyone gets what’s coming to him or her in the end. For going on 16 years, Calexico has been trafficking a brand of indie rock aptly described as desert noir – a distinctive blend of spicy mariachi flourishes, campfire cowboy folk, midcentury modern jazz, and panoramic […]

Simple but elegant, like their music. They play a way sold-out show at the Electric Factory October 29th. But stay tuned if you are dying to go but didn’t buy tix in time.

  EDITOR’S NOTE: In June 1972, Elvis-mania took over the Big Apple when the King sold out a four-night run at Madison Square Gardens that would prove to be his first and final performances in New York city.  A rave New York Times review, excerpted below, said he played “like a prince from another planet” (you can read it in full HERE). The headline of that Times concert review is now the title of a new box set out 11/13 on Sony, featuring 2 CDs and a DVD of never-before-seen concert footage captured by a fan’s camera. You can see […]

Artwork via GOP CLOWN COLLEGE NEW YORK TIMES: The ugly truth is that the same people who are accusing the administration of not providing sufficient security for the American consulate in Benghazi have voted to cut the State Department budget, which includes financing for diplomatic security. The most self-righteous critics don’t seem to get the hypocrisy, or maybe they do and figure that if they hurl enough doubts and complaints at the administration, they will deflect attention from their own poor judgments on the State Department’s needs. At a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last […]

ABC NEWS: Daredevil Felix Baumgartner shattered the speed of sound and broke three records today after he took a leap from 24 miles above the Earth on the edge of space. At one point during his freefall, the 43-year-old Austrian was traveling at 833 mph or Mach 1.24, a feat that normally could only be accomplished by a supersonic jet, or perhaps the space shuttle. Aside from being the only man to achieve a supersonic skydive, the extreme athlete also broke two other records, including the highest exit from a platform at 128,000 feet and the highest free-fall without a […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK In Paradise Lost Milton wrote “Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.” If good ol’ Uncle Milty were alive today, he undoubtedly would’ve been rocking a Swans T-shirt at the Union Transfer on Saturday night. Playing to a packed house of believers who hung on every note, Swans shepherded a fearless crowd through a nearly two and a half hour journey up from the underworld and into the light  – only their version of paradise isn’t scored with the gentle sound of harps and the flutter of angel wings, […]

  Swans have always straddled the chasm between the immanent and the transcendent. Love, life, sex, death, and decay are inevitably very physical realities, but their thematic representation in the Swans’ oevure invariably evokes the otherworldly. The sonic delivery vehicle for these invocations is a relentless, elemental repetition evoking an expansive state of being. Swans prime mover Michael Gira is a fiercely uncompromising artist whose vocal delivery unleashes a bestial but yearning soul howling fearlessly into the void. In contrast to the exultant hymns of Gira’s previous work, the brand new and highly acclaimed The Seer plumbs mournful depths, evolving […]

Artwork by BANKSY Dear Taliban, I’ve have never had much patience for charlatans, sociopaths and fascists — or any combination thereof — that hide their perversions of justice behind the skirts of organized religion and false pieties. But you guys have raised the bar of that kind of douchebaggery to a whole new level. No kite flying, no music, no movies, no television, no computers, no satellite dishes, no chess boards, no dancing or clapping during sports events, no artistic representations of living things — no paintings, drawings, photographs, stuffed animals, or dolls. Basically no anything invented after the eighth […]

OFF! – Wrong with Jack Black from OFF! Starring Jack Black. Hi-larious. They play First Unitarian next Friday. RELATED: Off! was formed in Los Angeles, California in late 2009 by Circle Jerks/Black Flag singer Keith Morris, Burning Brides frontman Dimitri Coats, Redd Kross bassist Steven Shane McDonald, and Rocket From The Crypt/Hot Snakes drummer Mario Rubalcaba. The idea to form the band came after Coats had worked as producer on a Circle Jerks album which fell apart. During that time, Coats and Morris had written several songs together which they used to start OFF!. MORE