EDITOR’S NOTE: In advance of Tame Impala’s sold out show at the Mann on Friday, I’m re-posting this 2013 dispatch from Australia where I spent a week interviewing TI mainman Kevin Parker for a MAGNET cover story. I will post that story in full tomorrow. BY JONATHAN VALANIA As I mentioned previously, I have been in Australia for the past week profiling Tame Impala for the cover of the September issue of MAGNET MAGAZINE. I promised to blog some local color on a daily basis, but a hectic schedule, unreliable WiFi and soul-sapping jet lag put the kibosh on those […]
KIM GORDON: Sketch Artist
This is easily the best thing Kim Gordon’s ever done. And I’m old enough to remember when buying Bad Moon Rising on vinyl wasn’t just a hip format choice, it was your only option. “Sketch Artist” is the lead-off track from her just-announced/first-ever solo album, No Home Record, to be released October 11th on Matador Records. No Home Record follows the recent opening of Gordon’s solo exhibition “She Bites Her Tender Mind” at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) in Dublin and “Lo-Fi Glamour” at Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. The video for “Sketch Artist” was directed by Berlin-based artist and […]
DRAMA: So Shines A Good Deed In A Weary World
Hamilton The Musical will be making 40 $10 tickets available via lottery for each Philly performance at the Forrest Theater (Aug. 27th-Nov. 17). Sign up HERE.
REST IN POWER: Kurt Wunder 1966-2019
PENNSYLVANIA BURIAL COMPANY: Upon realizing that his medications would never involve tequila, Kurt William Wunder acquiesced and peacefully surrendered his battle with glioblastoma and leptomeningeal disease on August 10th, 2019. He was the loving son of Dolores and the late William, youngest brother to Robert and William. Kurt was the devoted husband of Margo and adoring father to Georgia and Spencer. He is also survived by his faithful pets Shiloh and Parumpapumpum, as well as a hefty collection of sinks. Captain and founder of the Hatboro Horsham High School ice hockey team, Kurt imparted his great passion for the sport to […]
RIP: Gar Joseph, Legendary Daily News Editor
THE INQUIRER: The first few times Gar Joseph applied for a reporting job at the Philadelphia Daily News, the editors turned him down. On paper, he was a solid candidate, a whip-smart 30-something assistant metro editor at the Wilmington News Journal. But there was some disagreement over whether he was too buttoned-up for the tabloid, which proudly wore its irreverent heart on its sleeve. What was clear to the paper’s editors was that Mr. Joseph didn’t give up easily, even if the odds weren’t in his favor. He kept on telling them he belonged at the Daily News, as simple […]
THE CROZ: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man
Photo by MICHAEL OCHS via TUMBLR BY JONATHAN VALANIA In advance of his headlining appearance at the 2019 Philadelphia Folk Festival next week, and upon the release of Cameron Crowe’s acclaimed documentary, David Crosby: Remember My Name (now playing @ Ritz 5), we got Mr. Crosby (The Byrds, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young) on the horn. DISCUSSED: Choice chapeaus, kool capes, walrus mustaches, marijuana, Cameron Crowe, Monterey Pop, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, that badass hat he’s wearing in the “Eight Miles High” video, The Wrecking Crew, Terry Melcher, seeing John Coltrane blow mad horn in a men’s in Chicago while […]
THE DEVIL’S BIZNESS: Q&A With Philadelphia Lawyer & Rock N’ Roll Evolutionist James A. Cosby
BY JONATHAN VALANIA By day he’s a mild-mannered Philadelphia lawyer, but by night James A. Cosby is a rock philosopher-cum-theoretician mapping out grand unifying theories about the origin mythos of rock n’ roll. Turns out it’s a lot more complicated than ‘the blues had a baby and they called it rock n’ roll’ and there is far more nuance in the grey zone between heaven and hell than is dreamt of in your Birth Of Rock Spotify playlist, Virginia. His 2016 book Devil’s Music, Holy Rollers And Hillbillies: How America Gave Birth To Rock N’ Roll ties together the […]
How Jefferson University’s Chance To Be A World Leader In Marijuana Research Went Up In Smoke
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: When Charles Pollack created a marijuana research center in 2016 at Thomas Jefferson University, his idea was considered visionary. It was a chance to fashion Philadelphia into a global hub for marijuana education and innovation, and would help drive Pennsylvania’s ambitions to become the “Silicon Valley” of cannabis research. Three years later, the center is in shambles. Pollack, the founder, was forced to resign in April after he self-reported that he had sexually harassed a female subordinate. He had sent her amorous emails and slipped notes under her door, overwhelming her with unwanted attention, according to documents reviewed […]
BEING THERE: The Rolling Stones @ The Linc
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Getting old is not for pussies. But let us not kid ourselves, there is no shame in living a long life, especially if you are a man of wealth and taste. By design, you don’t realize this until you get there but growing old is the best revenge. It gives you the license to finally admit to yourself just how silly and absurd you have been lo these many years. And that, my friends, is freedom. The Rolling Stones are as old as the devil — maybe older. They’ve been around for a long long year […]
BEING THERE: Mountain Goats @ Union Transfer
by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Woe betide the naysaying snickerer that mistakes indie legends The Mountain Goats for folky meanderers. Live, John Darnielle and co. invest their goat music with a visceral immediacy and all-in emotionalism that, even in its moments of accidental grace and pin-drop quietude, utterly commands the collective attention of the room, which was pretty packed Friday night at Union Transfer for the first of a two-night stand. Touring the new album In League With Dragons (2019), Darnielle curated a set list that featured new songs, a solo section with deep cuts from Nothing For Juice (1996), and crowd […]
BUTTHOLE SURFERS WEEK: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Motherf*cking Butthole Surfers But Weren’t Sure It Was Even Legal To Ask
EDITOR’S NOTE: To mark the auspicious occasion of infamous Butthole Surfers frontman Gibby Haynes performing choice selections from the Surfers skidmarked back catalog with the kids from The Paul Green Rock Academy at Connie’s Ric Rac on Friday and Saturday (July 19th and 20th), we are officially declaring this Butthole Surfers Week here at Phawker industries. We will be re-posting choice nuggets of Butthole Surfers jetsam and effluvia that has run on the site over the years, culminating with our brand spanking new no-holes-barred Q&A with Gibby on Thursday. Look for it on a Phawker near you. In the […]
INCOMING: Destroy Your Safe And Happy Lives!
Legendary British punk/country/folk/post-whatever vets The Mekons, in the midst of a rare full-band tour, play Johnny Brenda’s on Thursday July 18th in support of their fresh-from-the-oven new album, Deserted. Mekons mainman/cult leader/lovable madman (and visionary painter) Jon Langford said of the album’s inspirations: “The idea was to go to a brand new studio our bassist the Baron had set up just outside the Joshua Tree national park in Yucca Valley CA and see what happened – we were in the middle of a hectic tour and had been attempting to write material first by email and then in the van… […]
TONITE: Orchestral Manuevers In The Dark
EDITOR’S NOTE: I wrote this after seeing ELO at the Wells Fargo Center last summer. They return to the Wells Fargo Center tonight, with George Harrison’s son Dhani in tow. The year is 1977. Eleven-year-old me is sitting on my best friend’s bunk bed listening to his older brother’s copy of Electric Light Orchestra’s Out Of The Blue on the Hi-Fi, staring at the neon starburst-colored spaceship on the gatefold sleeve which, he informed me, was used to clean your weed on. Being 11 I had no earthly idea why somebody would collect weeds nor why they would want to […]