STEVE VOLK: I could tell you about the surreal sleeplessness. We are lucky, right now, to get two-and-a-half hours of sleep in any 24-hour cycle. If that rest came in one restorative stretch, we might be doing all right. But for the most part we are grabbing sleep in 30- and 45-minute increments throughout the day. As a result, our emotions are close to the surface. I’ve burst into tears in front of pretty much all my co-workers, several cab drivers and a couple of cashiers by now, among other intimates. And being reduced like this, so quickly, has […]

  Hard to remember now but there was a time when the Jesus & Mary Chain, who play Union Transfer on September 8th, divided the population of planet Earth into two camps: Those who were sure they were the Second Coming and those who thought they were the end of Western Civilization. Fresh Air/Entertainment Weekly music critic Ken Tucker used to write for the Inquirer back in the day and we recently happened upon his two-thumbs-down review of the JAMC’s 1986 show at the Trocadero in support of their polarizing debut Psychocandy, which has since been judged a seminal and […]

TOM WAITS: Matt Mahurin has created an apocalyptic war dream to accompany the song HELL BROKE LUCE. Kathleen and I envisioned it as an enlightened drill sergeant yelling the hard truths of war to a brand new batch of recruits. The video grew from the gnawing image of a soldier pulling his home, through a battlefield, at the end of a rope. I think you will agree, it’s uplifting and fun.” PREVIOUSLY: Tom Waits has become the secret handshake of cool — either you know it or you don’t, and after 20 albums, if you still have to ask you’ll […]

  WIKIPEDIA: Redd Kross, a rock band from Hawthorne, California, had their roots in 1978 in a band called The Tourists begun by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald while they were still in middle school. With the addition of friends Greg Hetson and Dave Keller on guitar and John Stielow on drums, the band’s first gig was opening for Black Flag. At the time of their first self-titled EP, in 1980, the band changed their name to Red Cross, which was allegedly inspired by the masturbation scene in the film, The Exorcist. Ron Reyes became the drummer. Eventually, Hetson left […]

  On my way up to NYC to have a word with these guys for an upcoming Magnet cover story and check out their formerly super-secret show at Snug Harbor, so we shant be updating much today. In mean time, check out this unofficial video for first single from the forthcoming Coexist, set for release on September 11th on XL Recordings. ROLLING STONE: Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and drummer/keyboardist Jamie Smith performed in front of a giant translucent “X” filled with smoke. All dressed in black and playing black instruments, they often looked as if they were trying to […]

Surface of Mars, 1:31 AM by CURIOSITY RELATED: The landing, involving a seemingly impossible sequence of complex maneuvers, proceeded like clockwork: the capsule containing Curiosity entered the Martian atmosphere, the parachute deployed, the rocket engines fired, the rover was lowered and, finally, the Curiosity was on the ground. Over the first week, Curiosity is to deploy its main antenna, raise a mast containing cameras, a rock-vaporizing laser and other instruments, and take its first panoramic shot of its surroundings. NASA will spend the first month checking out Curiosity. The first drive could occur early next month. The rover would not […]

  THE GUARDIAN: By the end of the first week of Pussy Riot‘s trial, everyone in the shabby Moscow courthouse was tired. Guards, armed with submachine guns, grabbed journalists and threw them out of the room at will. The judge, perched in front of a shabby Russian flag, refused to look at the defence. And the police dog – a 100lb black Rottweiler – no longer sat in the corner she had occupied since the start of Russia‘s trial of the year, but barked and foamed at the mouth as if she were in search of blood. The trial of […]

  CNN: “I made most of my money from buying and selling a dozen or so companies with other people’s money; mostly uninteresting mid-sized companies that nobody particularly wanted; and I got to keep 20% of the difference between the purchase and sale price plus any cash I could take out while I owned them. “And I now recognize that this short-term buying and selling made me about as knowledgeable about business as George Steinbrenner was about playing baseball. I was an expert at telling business people how to do what I’d never done myself. And to tell you the […]

You can RSVP here.

  Brawny Beantown ska staples The Mighty Mighty Bosstones have been skanking in and out of style  since  1983. Absent a two year hiatus back in the middle of the aughts, that’s 29 freakin’ years of wearing plaid and pork pie hats while running in place! So enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think. They play The Troc on Saturday and of course you wanna go, because everybody remembers their first pair of Converse. And pork pie hats will never be uncool. Seventh reader to sign of up for our mailing list wins a pair of tickets. Goodluck and godspeed, […]

  LOS ANGELES TIMES: The chicken sandwich became a political statement for a day as supporters of the Chick-fil-A president’s stance against gay marriage caused traffic jams at the fast-food chain’s restaurants nationwide. Baking in the Southern California summer heat, lines of Chick-fil-A fans snaked around the eateries and down streets Wednesday as patrons ignored gay rights advocates armed with “Cluck Off” signs and vuvuzelas urging them to eat elsewhere. Crammed drive-throughs caused traffic jams on nearby streets, often requiring attendants to direct cars. At several locations in Orange County and Long Beach, lunchtime crowds swelled to more than 100 […]