Here’s a chance to re-live your gloriously misspent goth youth. Ministry, decadent avatars of the Skinny Puppy/NIN/Front Line Assembly school of bummer EDM for bad people, play the TLA tomorrow night with Laibach and we have a coupla pair of tix to giveaway to some lucky recovering goth/Phawker reader. To win, all you have to do is send us an email at FEED@PHAWKER.COM and share some mildly embarrassing personal factoid (Example: “I actually liked the first Ministry album, back when they still sounded like pussies”) or anecdote (“The jocks at school used to call me ‘Flock Of Seagulls’ and […]
SUMMER FICTION: Perfume Paper
Lead off single from, Himalaya, the splendid sophomore LP from Philly-homeboy-turned-Brooklandian Bill Richinni’s Summer Fiction, due out June 16. This is how God intended the electric guitar to sound. They play the Boot N’ Saddle on June 20th. PREVIOUSLY: Summer Fiction is the new nom-de-rock for South Philly bedroom pop autuer Bill Ricchini who has recently returned from a five year hermitage of domesticity, home-improvement and crock pottery with a self-titled debut full of rumors and sighs and fallen lovers outlined in lipstick traces. Breezy, bright and eminently tuneful, Summer Fiction picks up where Ricchini’s previous releases — 2002’s Ordinary […]
BEING THERE: Hiatus Kaiyote @ Underground Arts
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Underground Arts, which more closely resembles a long-ago closed subway stop than a concert venue, was a fitting setting to catch the subterranean rumblings of genre-defying Aussie group Hiatus Kaiyote. The band’s go-to sound is a dizzying combination of jazz, hip-hop, electronic, soul, rock and pretty much everything in between. The true disciples of Hiatus Kaiyote were a similarly diverse lot. However, they managed to pack the floor space as early and tightly as possible in order to fully experience the impending eruption of sound. For me, perpetually lagging behind on long-winding-road-suburban-girl time, this meant […]
MATS WEEK: All For Nothing & Nothing For All
BY MIKE WALSH If, like me, the new Replacements EP, Songs for Slim, doesn’t quite satisfy your hankering for a Replacements fix, you have a few other options. 1. The most obvious choice to listen to the expanded, remastered versions of the Mats eight records released by Rhino/Rykodisc in 2008. All of these disks contain lots of extra tracks, mostly alternate takes, demos, and live covers. For example, the expanded version of Sorry Ma… has 13 extra tracks. These releases sound great too, but that’s an expensive option. 2. Listen to the two songs Paul and Tommy recorded for Don’t […]
MATS WEEK: The Last Temptation Of Bob Stinson
EDITOR’S NOTE: In honor of the re-activated Replacements playing the Festival Pier on Saturday, we’re re-running Mats Week. Look for Replacements lore and legend all week on a Phawker near you! BY JONATHAN VALANIA The Replacements were made to be broken, and it’s a minor miracle they lasted eight albums, spread out over the course of a lost decade. In the end, the dream got too tired to come true, but for a brief and shining moment, it seemed like anything was possible. “For a while there, Paul had no idea how good a songwriter he was,” says Jesperson. “I […]
THE BEST JUSTICE MONEY CAN’T BUY: Q&A w/ William Ciancaglini Esq., Candidate For Judge
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Attorney William Ciancaglini, aka Billy C., thinks the pay-to-play method of electing judges in this city stinks on ice. He should know, he’s an underdog candidate for Common Pleas judge. The source of that stink, he says, is the funny money you have to pay into the Dem Machine to become a judge in this city. That’s right, seats on the bench don’t go to the most qualified, they go to the highest bidder. Just to get into the game will cost you $35K, money Ciancaglini doesn’t have. Even though he’s a trial lawyer, Ciancaglini considers […]
Win Tix To See Swede-Pop Queen Tove Styrke
It all comes down to this: You want tix to see Swedish electro-pop queen Tove Styrke — think Madonna circa “Borderline” but with a slight Viking aftertaste — at Underground Arts on May 5th and we got ’em. 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 other free swag opportunities like this one! After signing up, send […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See They Might Be Giants
SLATE: They Might Be Giants had cut their teeth in New York’s early-’80s No Wave scene, playing the overly exuberant kid brother to “serious” acts like Sonic Youth and Swans. Armed with samplers, puppets, and yardstick-tall hats, they earned a reputation as thrillingly bizarro showmen. Every journalist who reviewed the duo exhausted his thesaurus in search of synonyms for quirky. But with modern ears, we can hear something in They Might Be Giants’ music more profound and specific than what Roget might call eccentric, madcap, or zany.” MORE PHAWKER: We have a coupla pair of tix to see They […]
Q&A: With Tara Murtha, Bobbie Gentry Expert
BY COLE NOWLIN Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit “Ode to Billie Joe” — an eerie, genre-transcendent ballad of suicide and forbidden love– is the quintessential riddle wrapped in an enigma. The enduring mysteries of the song have befuddled listeners and sparked debate ever since it’s release. What was thrown over the bridge? Why did Billie Joe kill himself? Even more mysterious and intriguing than the song was the musician behind it, Bobbie Gentry. Gentry enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom, enjoying roughly a decade in the limelight, before she gradually retreated from the public eye, eventually disappearing altogether. Where is […]
BEING THERE: Decibel Mag Tour @ Union Transfer
Photo by DYLAN LONG The Decibel Magazine Tour made its Philadelphia stop this past Saturday at a packed-to-the-brim Union Transfer, as hardcore and metal fans flocked from far and wide to experience the likes of Vallenfyre, Pallbearer, Converge, and At The Gates. Each band brought a unique sound to the table, all while sharing the communal staples of headbang-inducing riffs and sympathy for the devil. Salem, Mass. hardcore heads Converge exploded onto the stage as openers for At The Gates, but it’s fair game to say that these guys stole the show. Vocalist Jacob Bannon spent the set in a […]
Win Tix To See The Legendary Sonics @ The TLA!
Artwork by AKIKO KATO The Sonics were just four teens from the Pacific Northwest at the dawn of the ‘60s making some of the most primitive and primal rock n’ roll ever committed to wax, and in the process almost singlehandedly invented garage, punk, grunge and metal. Everyone from the Cramps, Dead Boys and Bruce fucking Springsteen to the White Stripes, Nirvana and Mudhoney have acknowledged their sonic debt to the Sonics. After five decades of silence, the Sonics are back with This Is The Sonics, their first proper album since 1967. Though they are old enough to be your […]
BEING THERE: Electric Wizard @ Union Transfer
Photo by DAN LONG I don’t have many vices anymore, but catching the first night of a highly anticipated tour is an addiction — especially this night. Dorset, England’s Electric Wizard is the epitome of doom. It’s not just the satanic guitar licks and the subterranean rumble of the bass, it’s also the dreadful lyrics, wherein the band revels in the occult, horror, drugs and death — all appealing things to a sick girl like me. To see this band live is a fuckin’ treat to say the very least. Their stateside live appearances are highly infrequent, which makes it […]
BEING THERE: The War On Drugs @ The Tower
Photo by DYLAN LONG Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs cast a spell over the capacity crowd at the Tower Theater Friday night with their celebrated brand of ethereal guitar rock. Their first song of the night, the gloriously woozy “Under Pressure,” is also the lead-off track of their highly-acclaimed 2014 LP Lost In A Dream, which was fitting considering that the runaway success of that album was the reason they were playing the Tower instead of Johnny Brenda’s. Granduciel’s Dylanesque vocals and wobbling tremolo-ed guitar echoed off the walls and the tall, broad ceiling of the Tower, creating a lush […]