800 block of North 4th St. Philadelphia. Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA “May 10th. Thank God for the rain which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks. I’m workin’ long hours now, six in the afternoon to six in the morning. Sometimes even eight in the morning, six days a week. Sometimes seven days a week. It’s a long hustle but it keeps me real busy. I can take in three, three fifty a week. Sometimes even more when I do it off the meter. All the animals come out at night – whores, skunk pussies, buggers, […]
‘If the Grateful Dead came to town, I’d beat my way in with a fucking tire iron if necessary.’ — Hunter S. Thompson
Bob Weir is one of the founding members of the legendary Grateful Dead. They were an American band. Since establishing the Dead in 1965, Weir has become one of rock’s finest and most distinctive rhythm guitarists. He is currently a member of Dead & Company which features Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann along with GRAMMY-winner John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti. Weir is embarking on a Fall 2018 North American tour with Bob Weir and The Wolf Bros, a new trio featuring Weir, Don Was (on upright bass!) and Jay Lane performing songs of Grateful Dead […]
BEING THERE: Deerhunter @ Union Transfer
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Over the course of eight studio albums since their inception in 2001, Deerhunter have grown to be a canonical act in the realm of psychedelic indie-rock. Fronted by multi-instrumentalist and founder Bradford Cox, the band have undergone a series of lineup changes marked by tragedy: two bassists, Justin Bosworth and Josh Fauver died while they were in Deerhunter, the former from a skateboarding head-injury and the latter from unannounced causes. Deerhunter’s self-described “ambient punk” has steadily morphed from wild, psychedelic garage-punk to poppy indie-rock. The band are on the road once again following the release of […]
BEYOND THE BARS: Q&A W/ Comedian Ali Siddiq
BY SEAN HECK Ali Siddiq is not your traditional stand-up comic. This Houston-bred funny man, writer, actor, and activist spent six years of a fifteen-year sentence for drug trafficking behind bars in the Texas state penitentiary system. For his 2018 Comedy Central special Ali Siddiq: It’s Bigger Than These Bars, Siddiq returned to prison to perform stand-up and interview inmates and prison personnel at Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas. In addition to being a well-received comedian with stand-up appearances at Just For Laughs, The Tom Joyner Foundation Cruise, BET’s One Mic Stand, Bill Bellamy’s Ladies Night Out Tour on […]
PORCUPINE: Lifetime
Minneapolis fuzz-popsters Porcupine (featuring Husker Du’s Greg Norton) play Johnny Brenda’s on Friday March 15th with death-rock progenitors The Flesh Eaters (featuring John Doe and DJ Bonebrake from X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman from The Blasters, and Steve Berlin from Los Lobos).
BEING THERE: Anderson .Paak @ The Fillmore
Photo by DYLAN LONG When I found out that Anderson .Paak (pronounced pak) used to go by the name Breezy Lovejoy, I couldn’t help but smile. After seeing his live show at the Fillmore last night alongside a couple thousand fans who crammed themselves as far up front as they could, I learned firsthand that the name suits him all too well. The acclaimed funkster’s stop at the Fillmore was part of his Andy’s Beach Club world tour, aptly named given that his entire discography takes wing on a perpetual summer breeze. Surrounded by his partners in crime, the R&B […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Gang Of Four & More!
You lucky ducks! We have a pair of Underground Arts weekend passes to see agit-punk legends Gang Of Four on Friday, punky Brit-popsters You Me At Six on Saturday and Aquarium (think Detroit House blasting out of the windows of Tokyo hi-rise) + West Philly’s Maaly Raw on Sunday. To qualify to win, all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list (see right, below the masthead). Trust us, this is something you want to do. In addition to breaking news alerts and Phawker updates, you also get advanced warning about groovy concert ticket giveaways and […]
STUDY: Curbing Cash Bail Has Had No Significant Negative Impact On The Crime Rate In Philadelphia
Artwork via THE NATION BY SEAN HECK One year after the implementation of their cash bail reduction plan for low-level offenses, Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner and Mayor Jim Kenney announced the success of their groundbreaking new policy at a press conference yesterday at City Hall. “We changed our low-level bail policy because it was the right, and fair, thing to do for the poor, for people of color, and everyone in Philadelphia’s criminal justice system. What we had a year ago wasn’t fair, but after a year of use and a supportive third party review, I’m happy that we’ve made […]
BEING THERE: Metric @ Union Transfer
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Halfway through their Fillmore set on Thursday night, Metric singer Emily Haines nodded openly at her band’s evolution. “You get this pair of pants, and you wear them all the time, and then you don’t know where those pants are anymore!” Consider that fair warning, Metric fans: by “those pants” she meant the first half of their 20-year catalog, because the Toronto synth-rockers shined the hot strobe lights almost exclusively on their latest record for the duration of their set, saving just a couple of their best-beloved hits for last with no apology and no further […]
THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE: Meet The Man Who Sued Led Zep Over “Stairway To Heaven” & Lived To Tell
Photo by BRYAN SHEFFIELD via PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: The fact that Philadelphia barrister Francis Alexander Malofiy, Esquire, is suing Led Zeppelin over the authorship of “Stairway to Heaven” is, by any objective measure, only the fourth most interesting thing about him. Unfortunately for the reader, and the purposes of this story, the first, second and third most interesting things about Malofiy are bound and gagged in nondisclosure agreements, those legalistic dungeons where the First Amendment goes to die. So let’s start with number four and work our way backward. At the risk of stating the obvious, ladies and gentlemen […]
BEING THERE: Cherry Glazerr @ First Unitarian
Photo by ALEX PATERSON-JAMES The narrow collection of artists in my playlists that I have relied upon to get me through the last few months has grown so stale and tired that I almost want to walk in headphone-less silence on my way to work every morning. Almost. But then I remembered my sister’s mention to me last month of a band she told me “was weird as fuck, but your kind of thing.” The group in question was Cherry Glazerr. So after seeing the name pop up on the web after the band’s release of their third studio album […]
BEING THERE: Sharon Van Etten @ Union Transfer
Photo by ALEX PATERSON-JONES Recently, I’ve felt haunted. Maybe it’s the Benadryl dreams, or my deepening fascination with astrology, or my long-overdue first reading of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, but the ghosts of my past, and even of my present, have started to creep into my subconscious. And while these kind of prolonged meditations on the phantoms of the past can help bring to light the parts of ourselves we often prefer to keep in the dark, the benefits of these reveries can grow toxic when left unchecked. There is a power in learning to simply let go, and that kind […]
BEING THERE: The 2019 Philadelphia Auto Show
At the 2019 Philadelphia Auto Show, there were many different types of cars that can get you from point A to point B. These cars boasted a range of gee-whiz capabilities, and there were a lot of new cars that employ two different sources of fuel: gasoline and electricity. This year, there were more brands that offered EV’s (Electric powered Vehicles). Chevrolet and Nissan pioneered the first mass produced electric cars, but this year there were electric cars in the Mercedes, BMW, and Audi lines, and Ford had a wider range of EV versions of their most popular models […]