BY DAVE ALLEN John Vanderslice has earned a reputation for producing clean, well-mannered recordings with smart, cerebral lyrics that stack up favorably against the best American short stories of the last ten years. The I’s of his songs are so richly drawn and engaged in such diverse, age-of-terrorism pursuits — patrolling the corridors at Gitmo, for example, or denouncing 9/11 as a hoax to a reporter — as to evoke modern literature in verse-chorus form. Live, though, he dispenses with tidiness. Rather than attempt to replicate every note, crackle and bit of fuzz of his studio work, Vanderslice has assembled […]
SEPTA GIRL: Tales Of Ordinary Madness
BY PHILLY GRRL Life as a SEPTA rider can be strange and unpredictable. One moment everything is quiet. And then some guy starts talking to the girl next to him and before you know it – everyone’s gabbing like old friends. And all of a sudden, it’s not so quiet anymore. I kinda like those frenetic, frantic days. For instance, last Wednesday…. It’s 3 in the afternoon. I’m riding the northbound Broad Street Line to the Olney Transportation Center. An elderly Asian man walks down the aisle. He is carrying a plastic pink umbrella and a pink backpack. He is […]
ALWAYS RUMMY IN PHILADELPHIA: Danny DeVito
Gettin’ fresh on Fox. Live, no less. Note the can of beer and the fact that it’s 8 AM when this went down. When we grow up, we wanna be Danny DeVito!
DRUG TEST: Frisking The Inky’s NJ Medical Marijuana Story For The Straight Dope On The War On Drugs
As you may have heard, the great state of New Jersey appears poised to become the 14th state in union to legalize and regulate the dispensation of medical marijuana to chronically ill patients. Still, old drug warrior habits die hard. The day before lawmakers in Trenton approved medical marijuana legislation, the New Jersey State Police, in conjunction with the National Guard, were conducting training flights with a Black Hawk Helicopter on how to locate and bust marijuana growers. COST OF A BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER: $6 Million Dollars [SOURCE: Global Security] NUMBER OF MARIJUANA PLANTS ERADICATED IN NEW JERSEY IN 2008: […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
PEARL JAM: Elderly Woman Behind The Counter
Eddie Vedder performs solo tonight and tomorrow night at the Tower. Don’t give us that hipper-than-thou look, we know there’s a part of you, buried under gallons of Kenzinger and back issues of Vice, that still thinks Ten is rad.
CAPTURING THE FRIEDBERGERS: Or, 13 Snappy Answers To 13 Silly Questions For The Fiery Furnaces
FIERY FURNACES 1979: Matthew Friedberger and his sister Darth Vader Eleanor PHAWKER: Have you ever been arrested? If so please explain. MATTHEW FREIDBERG: Well rested, mostly. A-rested, rarely. Explain what? PHAWKER: Never mind. Have you ever knowingly killed anyone? If so please explain. MF: I read in an email very much like this one that we were just killin’ it every night cross Europe. Maybe you can explain that. Knowingly? PHAWKER: What was the last book you read? MF: Too personal. PHAWKER: Wow, that must have been some book! Okay, last album purchased? Was it worth it? MF: Dizzy Gillespie […]
KILLADELPHIA: Three Dead Since U Went 2 Bed
INQUIRER: Homicide detectives were investigating three killings in Philadelphia that occurred late Monday and early yesterday. Rasheed Rose, 36, was shot multiple times at 10:14 p.m. Monday in the 1400 block of South 21st Street in the city’s Point Breeze neighborhood. He was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and pronounced dead at 10:33 p.m. A 17-year-old youth was fatally shot in the 1900 block of South 56th Street in Southwest Philadelphia at 1:11 a.m. yesterday. He was pronounced dead at 1:51 a.m. at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. At 2:34 a.m., police responded to a shooting in […]
BACHELORETTE: Her Rotating Head
“Quietly psychedelic, the quavery vocal harmonies, wheezy synthesisers and attic-salvaged stringed instruments are layered with a shy urgency, a breathtaking tangle of dreaminess and directness… slow oscillations between intimacy and abstraction…. Having understood the implications of technology – electricity having made us all angels, etcetera – Bachelorette fractured herself into a girl-group of one, clouds of ah-ah-ahs and shoo-wop shoo-wops both underscoring and distracting from her tales of gravitational and hormonal pull.”– Author Unknown Bachelorette plays Kung Fu Necktie June 17th.
City Council Committee Approves Ban On Plastic Bags
PHILLY CLOUT: City Council’s Committee on the Environment just unanimously approved the legislation banning the type of plastic bags typically used at supermarkets and pharmacies in the city. Those bags will have to be replaced after July 1, 2011 with recyclable paper bags, compostable plastic bags or reusable bags. An amendment also calls for education programs in consultation with retailers and environmental advocacy groups to explain the measure to consumer before it is enforced. DiCicco is aiming for a final vote by the full Council next week, before the start of a three-month recess. MORE RELATED: Magic Flying Bag Scene […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Jenny Lewis At The Troc
BY DIANCA POTTS After selling my extra tickets to Monday night’s show to a stranger from Craigslist, it dawned on me. I’ve been listening to the shit for almost a decade. But I’m a creature of habit and a shameless JLew fan, so despite my bummed out mood from overdosing on Eggers short stories earlier that afternoon, I shuffled over to the Troc, AA skirt and all. Torn between catching Farmer Dave’s set and stuffing my face, I went with my gut instinct and headed to Mixx where an anime-esque waiter denied my BFF tempura and served us lukewarm Miso […]
FOR NOTHING: Thanks Philly Parking Authority!
INQUIRER: The cause of the latest migraine for city tourism officials: Parking Wars, the gritty A&E series that traces the not-so-glamorous workday lives of Philadelphia Parking Authority employees as they boot, tow, and ticket their way through the day. “My family and I were going to visit Philadelphia, but after watching ‘Parking Wars,’ we have decided not to because of fear for losing our car!!!!” “After watching the series, I would NEVER visit your city. Beyond the obscene parking laws, the people in your city come off as rude, hard, cynical and unfriendly.” “I am thrilled to say I have […]
I Went 2 The Roots Picnic & All I Got Was A Good Time
[Performer photos by TIFFANY YOON/Crowd shots by AMY SALIT] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR ROLLING STONE When it comes to The Roots — currently in-residence as the house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and arguably the greatest live act on the planet — you must always expect the unexpected. So it should come as no surprise that Saturday’s second annual Roots Picnic at the Festival Pier in Philadelphia was a 12-hour all-you-can-eat-and-then-some feast of wonderful WTF-ness. What other band would kick off their own multi-genre lollapalooza — featuring the likes of Public Enemy, TV On The Radio, The Black […]