Photo by FARRAH SHEIKY “Can you cut the drum mic,” Lindsey Jordan, the 18 year old frontwoman of Snail Mail, asked Saturday night at PhilaMOCA. Her voice is raspy and nonchalant. I don’t think ever uttered a sentence that cool when I was 18. Snail Mail is her first band. (Once again, much cooler than my first experiences with music in high school, which involved a lot of West Side Story.) Their debut EP, Habit, was released in July 2016. Since then, Jordan has toured with the likes of Beach Fossils, Priests, Waxahatchee, and Girlpool. The PhilaMOCA show may not […]
INJUSTICE: The Inky’s Dirty War On Larry Krasner
IN JUSTICE TODAY: It didn’t take too much deliberation for the Philadelphia Inquirer to render its guilty verdict against District Attorney Larry Krasner after he took office on January 2: “the first days of Krasner’s administration,” the editorial board intoned nine days later, “seem more about imprudence than jurisprudence” Zing. A rhyme. But what does it all mean? Well, Krasner swiftly ousted 31 prosecutors who packed up their desks along with others who had resigned on their own accord before he took office. Last year, Krasner, a career civil rights and defense attorney, rode a surge of grassroots organizing to […]
BEING THERE: Dog Day Afternoon
The Linc, 8:04 PM Saturday
THE KING OF COMEDY: Q&A With Judd Apatow
EDITOR’S NOTE: This week we will be re-posting choice Q&As from the past year. Today we present this reprise edition of this in-depth interview with Judd Apatow, which originally posted on February 17th, 2017. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA By this point, everyone knows who Judd Apatow is, or at least everyone who’s had even a glancing interface with a cineplex marquee or has a non-delinquent cable account and a functioning funny bone. With writing, producing, directing or acting credits in nearly 40 films and 24 television shows, Mr. Apatow has become the Starbucks of comedy — dark-roasted, fairly-traded, consistently reliable, […]
Win Tix To See An Advanced Screening Of I, Tonya
The 2017 Oscar season continues with I, Tonya, an unlikely prestige film about a felonious but not entirely unsympathetic Olympian’s fall from grace, or something close to it, starring Margot Robbie as the notorious Tonya Harding and directed by Craig Gillespie. This much-buzzed-about black comedy is constructed like a mockumentary, in the style of The Big Short, where on camera interviews with actors in character — based on “irony free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews” with the people portrayed in the film — are supplemented by reenactments with those same actors often breaking the fourth wall. Check out the […]
BEING THERE: Converge @ Union Transfer
Photo by MARK LIKOSKY As a Boston kid having come from the same early 90’s punk/hardcore scene that spawned Converge, it’s awe-inspiring to bear witness to a few suburban kids who made a demo back in 1991 slowly evolve into legends. Back then, having a demo, or better yet a split 7-inch, was a huge deal and hearing about local bands that got multi-album deals was not only unheard of but usually meant they would inevitably sell out and/or fail. This was also a time when the straight edge movement was resurgent and dark, metallic hardcore — Converge’s forte — […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To A VIP Advanced Screening Of Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape Of Water
Easily the strangest film this prestige season is Guillermo del Toro’s eccentric romantic masterpiece The Shape of Water. The film opens in Philadelphia at the Ritz Five Friday, December 14th and is a rather unique love story involving a mute woman named Elisa and a mysterious creature trapped in a top-secret government lab. Heavily influenced by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Amélie), the film has del Toro returning to his roots to give us a darkly fantastic fairy tale that has Elisa falling in love with the monster who feels like a hybrid of Abe Sapien from […]
BEING THERE: LCD Soundsystem @ The Fillmore
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER At 9:00 PM on Tuesday night, the players of LCD Soundsystem scrambled through a crowded, labyrinthine metropolis of instrumentation and stage gear to take their places. The last of them — singer and producer James Murphy — emerged to the roar of a Philly Fillmore at max capacity, heightened to a fever pitch of anticipation over six years of waiting since his 2011 “retirement.” Murphy is arguably one of the unlikeliest late-middle-aged heroes of a rock-n-roll myth. At 47 now, the frontman’s affect and aesthetic is derived from the unique interface between “don’t care” and “doin’ […]
BEING THERE: The National @ The Kimmel Center
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER I’m gonna get a little gonzo here. I didn’t go to the Kimmel Center last night because I was a huge fan of The National, I went because fans tend to talk up their live show, because I love live music, and because in best-case scenarios, seeing a band that you like live can make them a band you love. Four or five songs into their set, though, I was wondering why I wasn’t loving The National. Was it the venue, would I be enjoying this same show much more at a smaller club? Maybe. Music […]
BOOKS: ‘I Believe Anita Hill’
[Illustrations by ALEX FINE] EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally published on December 7th, 2011. We are re-posting it now, for obvious reasons. BY JONATHAN VALANIA In advance of her reading at the Free Library tonight to promote her new book Reimagining Equality: Stories Of Race, Gender And Finding A Home, we present a conversation with Anita Hill, professor of social policy, law, and women’s studies at Brandeis University. Discussed: The fantasia of a Post-Racial America; the mendacity, narcissism and hypocrisy of Clarence Thomas and Herman Cain; the right wing’s racializing the blame for the 2008 financial crisis; how she passed […]
Q&A: Journey To The Center Of Mike Birbiglia
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally published back in 2014. On the occasion of comedian Mike Birbiglia’s two night stand at Merriam Theater on Friday and Saturday, we present this encore edition. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Welcome to another round of Stupid Answers To Stupid Questions. Actually, that’s only half true. Comedian Mike Birbiglia, of Sleepwalk With Me fame, provided pretty smart answers to our stupid questions. DISCUSSED: Getting bladder cancer at 19; what he and Terry Gross talk about when they are not robbing banks; the strangest place he ever rubbed one out; whether the rumors are true that while […]
BEING THERE: RL Grime @ The Electric Factory
Photo by DYLAN LONG Last night, Henry Steinway, AKA RL Grime, dropped in at the Electric Factory to spin a set of dark, high-energy bangers, dreamy interludes and catchy sing-a-longs galore. Joining him were Blood Company’s Graves and Fool’s Gold label mate Kittens, the former who is known across the EDM spectrum for his groundbreaking Diplo & Friends mix from earlier this year. The Nova Tour comes as RL is fresh off of his sixth annual Halloween Mixtape, an annual mix produced by RL consisting of the most sinister and spooky tracks that the community has offered up that year. […]