BY DAVID R. STAMPONE Red was the color predominant in the nightly onslaught of the top-tier, cinematically fiendish prog rock visited upon Philadelphia last week. Starting on Halloween, two veteran headlining bands, respectively, over successive evenings, brought oft-fiery displays of lurid eclecticism to town. Haunting arpeggios and scary time signatures abounded. Each group was distinct but all were inter-related (both fundamentally and via some notable, near-spooky instances of coincidence). Yeah, they burned, with head-spinning, credibly deal-made-w-the-Devil levels of musical mastery (if you insist on such Mephistophelean metaphor): Italian maestro of horror film soundtracks Fabio Frizzi with his Frizzi 2 […]
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: Just Do it
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NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can
FRESH AIR: Growing up an only child in Massachusetts, humorist John Hodgman longed to be considered interesting. In high school, he grew his hair out, wore a fedora and carried a briefcase in an effort to look like Doctor Who. Hodgman says his look was modeled on “the fourth Doctor Who … which was an emotionally terrified weirdo who is tricking people into thinking he was interesting by wearing funny clothes.” Now that Hodgman is 46, being interesting has taken on a different, more reflective meaning. His new book, Vacationland, is a collection of humorous essays and personal stories […]
CINEMA: A Tale Of Two Cities
WONDERSTRUCK (Directed by Todd Haynes, 116 minutes, USA, 2017) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC Ah, New York City. The Big Apple. The City of Dreams. The ultimate actualization of the American Dream, the place you go when you have a dream of making it — where any kid can grow up to be a star. A home to probably eight hundred languages spread across more than eight million people. A city of strangers minding their own business. A city where you could live a parallel life to someone and never know it. There have been hundreds of movies, books, songs […]
VIC BERGER: Lock HIM Up
NBC NEWS: Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and his son as part of the probe into Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. Michael T. Flynn, who was fired after just 24 days on the job, was one of the first Trump associates to come under scrutiny in the federal probe now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Mueller is applying renewed pressure on Flynn following his indictment of […]
CINEMA: The Deerhunter
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (2017, dir. by Yorgos Lanthimos, 121 min.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The world of computer generated effects has allowed filmmakers a seemingly inexhaustible ability to to create the most audacious worlds imaginable. This week’s release of the latest Thor movie is an example of a colorful multi-hued universe conjured with a level of detail unimaginable in the days when Jack Kirby was first drawing such things in the pages of Marvel comics. Yet despite these tools, the CGI universes created for the big screen are disappointingly similar, showing visions of the future […]
Win Tix To See Flying Lotus @ The Electric Factory
Photo by TIM SACCENTI Steven Ellison, aka Flying Lotus, is a two-time Grammy nominated multi-genre music producer, electronic musician, DJ, filmmaker, rapper, curator, label boss and TV star from Los Angeles, California. Flying Lotus has released five studio albums?—?1983 (2006), Los Angeles (2008), Cosmogramma (2010), Until the Quiet Comes (2012) and You’re Dead! (2014)?—?to critical acclaim. He has produced music for Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Thundercat, Wiz Khalifa, Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu as well as much of the bumper music on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. He has curated and hosted a radio station in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V. […]
GEEK SQUAD: For Those About 2 Thor, We Salute U
SPOILER ALERT: Most of the following… BY RICHARD SUPLEE GEEK SPACE CORRESPONDENT All good Marvel Cinematic Universe fans agree that the god of thunder’s solo films — Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013) — rank near at the bottom of the Marvel franchise. So I am happy to report that Thor: Ragnarok (2017)’s is one of Marvel’s best to date. Director Taika Waititi finally utilizes the franchise’s talented cast who, in previous outings, were largely treated as glorified greenscreen placeholders for the CGI. Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is handsome, hirsute and hilariously cocky, as per usual. Tim Hiddleston’s […]
CINEMA: Suffer The Children
THE GUARDIAN: When the documentary An Open Secret tried to lift the lid on child abuse in Hollywood, it billed itself as “the film Hollywood doesn’t want you to see”. The marketing tagline did not exaggerate. The film died upon release in 2015. There was no theatrical release to speak of, no television deal, no video-on-demand distribution. “We got zero Hollywood offers to distribute the film. Not even one. Literally no offers for any price whatsoever,” said Gabe Hoffman, a Florida-based hedge fund manager who financed the film. It did not seem to matter that it was directed by […]
DEPT. OF PROGLAND SEC: Q&A W/ Trey Gunn
BY JAMIE KNERR PROG-ROCK CORRESPONDENT The Security Project began performing together in 2012, in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the release of the seminal album Security by Peter Gabriel. The group explores Gabriel’s early progressive repertoire, taking much of its inspiration and material from his first four albums then expanding, deconstructing and reinterpreting it. The lineup includes drummer Jerry Marotta (who played on those first four albums and toured with Gabriel for 10 years), virtuoso touch-guitarist Trey Gunn (former member of King Crimson) keyboardist David Jameson and guitarist Michael Cozzi (former member of Shriekback). In October 2016 they […]
INCOMING: Tim Heidecker Goes MAGAGAGAGAGA
FROM THE DESK OF TIM HEIDECKER: “Well here it is. About one year in the making, all my Trump songs in one place. Most of these songs were written and recorded quickly, with the blood still boiling from whatever indignity or absurdity had popped up on my newsfeed that day. Certainly, ‘Trump Tower’ was written in the rotten dawn, days after Trump’s win. Let’s hope I don’t write any more of these, but I probably will. Thanks to Davin Wood for playing piano on ‘Trump Tower,’ and thanks to Jonathan Rado, who produced and played on a good number […]
BOOKSHOP CASANOVAS: A Q&A W/ The Clientele
Photo by ANDY WILSH Generally speaking, and for good reason, it is considered poor form to simply cut and paste a band’s press kit bio onto your Q&A and call it an intro, but this time we’ll make an exception, for the following will likely be the closest we ever get to a definitive explanation of the hushed grandeur of The Clientele: The Clientele formed a long time ago in the backwoods of suburban Hampshire, playing together as kids at school, rehearsing in a thatched cottage remote from any kind of music scene, but hypnotized by the magical strangeness of […]
WAVVES + CULTURE ABUSE: Up And Down
Wavves and Culture Abuse play Union Transfer with Joyce Manor on November 7th.