American Psycho with Huey Lewis and Weird Al from Huey Lewis RELATED: Huey Lewis and the News joined that rarefied strata 30 years ago with SPORTS, the group’s third album — a 10-times-platinum, chart-topping smash that spawned five Top 20 singles, four of which (“Heart and Soul,” “I Want a New Drug,” “The Heart of Rock & Roll,” “If This Is It”) went Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The slyly humorous SPORTS videos were MTV staples. It was a phenomenon that took the San Francisco Bay Area group, which just the year before was defiantly “Workin’ For a […]
Win Tix 2C Thurston Moore’s Chelsea Light Moving!
Time waits for no man, not even Thurston Moore, the Dorian Gray of indie-rock. After 32 years, Sonic Youth is over. So, too, is his marriage to SY bassist/alt-rock gadlfy Kim Gordon. Daughter Cocoa is coming up on 19. What to do? Start a new band, of course. What to call it? Something very New York-y and stoner-friendly. How about Chelsea Light Moving? Done. What’s it gonnna sound like? A less noisy, more rockist SY, minus Kim Gordon’s kitten-in-a-dryer caterwauling? Pretty much. Chelsea Light Moving’s self-titled debut dropped early last month. What now? Tour, of course. All of which is […]
THE MINUS 5: Michael Nesmith
An epic ode to the Monkee Most Likely To Wear A Ski Cap. From the new forthcoming Minus 5 album, possibly called Forthcoming. Michael Nesmith plays World Cafe Live on April 15th. PREVIOUSLY: MONKEE BIZNESS: Q&A w/ Peter Tork BY JONATHAN VALANIA There are two kinds of people in this world: people who love The Monkees and sanctimonious assholes who fancy themselves the arbiters of authenticity. Whatever that is. Never trust anyone who tells you they don’t like the Monkees has always been my motto and it’s served me well. As just about everyone of a certain age knows, from […]
BEING THERE: Pretty In Pink
Sky Ferreria, Johnny Brenda’s Saturday night, by ERIC ASLEIGH RELATED: Pitchfork Festival announces complete line-up… March 26, 2013 For Immediate Release THE 2013 PITCHFORK MUSIC FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FULL LINEUP: WIRE, YO LA TENGO, M.I.A., LOW, SOLANGE, LIL B, SAVAGES, TORO Y MOI, PHOSPHORESCENT, METZ, AUTRE NE VEUT, MIKAL CRONIN, PARQUET COURTS, MERCHANDISE, WOODS, JULIA HOLTER, GLASS CANDY, ANDY STOTT, PISSED JEANS, FRANKIE ROSE, RYAN HEMSWORTH, WAXAHATCHEE, BLOOD ORANGE, DAUGHN GIBSON, EVIAN CHRIST, KEN MODE, WHITE LUNG and DJ RASHAD JOINING HEADLINERS R. KELLY, BJÖRK, and BELLE & SEBASTIAN and PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED ACTS: JOANNA NEWSOM, THE BREEDERS play Last Splash, […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See The Feelies At UT
Seminal avant-pop savants The Feelies play Union Transfer tomorrow night in support of Here Before, their first album in 18 years. We have two pairs of tickets to give away to lucky Phawker readers. To qualify, just sign up for our mailing list [SEE RIGHT, below the masthead] then email us at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the correct answer to the following Feelies trivia question: What is the name of the 1986 Jonathan Demme film the Feelies appear in? While we are all waiting to see how this turns out, enjoy this interview with Feelies mainman Glenn Mercer that originally ran on […]
BEING THERE: Nick Cave @ The Keswick
Photo by ERIC ASHLEIGH If you heard a distant rumble or saw a flash of light on the Northwest horizon last night around 9 p.m., that was Nick Cave, like a bat out of hell, smiting Glenside to a crisp as per his satanic majesty’s request. And it was good. Very good. How could it not be? Everyone knows Heaven has better weather but Hell has all the best bands. Cave looked and sounded in peak form (good hair, great suit, whipped himself about the stage like an electrocuted Elvis), and his voice contained multitudes. Deep, dulcet, and strong like […]
BEING THERE: Low @ Main Street Music
Photo by PETE TROSHAK Slowcore avatars Low arrived in Philly on Monday night to play an hour long free show to a packed store at Main Street Music in Manayunk. The event was a celebration of the eve of the release of their The Invisible Way album, produced by Wilco mastermind Jeff Tweedy. Tweedy let the band do what they do best while infusing their spare, dreamy sound with a dash of country influence resulting in one of their best albums yet. The band played almost all new songs but dipped into their back catalog to play “Dinosaur Act” at […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Devil And Old Saint Nick
Illustration by JAY BEVENOUR EDITOR’S NOTE: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds play the sold out Keswick Theater tonight. Let There Be Light By Jonathan Valania [via MAGNET, circa September 2001] He was born like this, he had no choice. Nick Cave was born with the gift of a golden voice. He asked Leonard Cohen, “How lonely does it get?” Leonard Cohen hasn’t answered yet. But Nick Cave hears him coughing all night long, a couple floors above him in the Tower Of Song. In the beginning, there was the Birthday Party. And it was good. Rock ‘n’ roll as […]
HOT DOC: Mayor Sends Letter To Human Relations Commission Asking Them To Rebuke Philadelphia Magazine For ‘Being White In Philly’ Article
PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: Being White In Philly DEENEY: Let Me Tell You About Being White In Philly
GUNCRAZY: How The NRA Bought The 2nd Amendment
WASHINGTON POST: For more than three decades, the NRA has sponsored legal seminars, funded legal research and encouraged law review articles that advocate an individual’s right to possess guns, according to the organization’s reports. The result has been a profound shift in legal thinking on the Second Amendment. And the issue of individual gun-possession rights, once almost entirely ignored, has moved into the center of constitutional debate and study. For proponents of stricter gun control, the NRA’s encouragement of favorable legal scholarship has been a mark of its strategic, patient advocacy. “I think this was one of the most […]
EARL SWEATSHIRT: WHOA
The prodigal son of the Odd Future clan, back from mom-enforced exile and better than ever. The best rap video since Tyler The Creator’s “Yonkers.” Very NSFW. That’s how you know it’s good. PREVIOUSLY: Where’s Earl?
Mayor Condemns Philly Mag’s ‘Being White In Philly’
TECHBOOK ONLINE: Standing before the National Coalition of 100 Black Women today, Mayor Michael Nutter exclaimed “Someone has written something in a magazine in Philadelphia and made some pretty disgusting comments about African-Americans — women in particular. Growing increasingly passionate, Mayor Nutter states: “Everyone should be offended that someone would have the audacity that let out of their mind, and into print — such disgusting comments about our people,” adding “When ignorance is out in the marketplace, it affects us all. As a Black man for West Philadelphia, I will not allow anyone to run us down.” MORE PHILLY’S BLACK […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Devotchka @ The Troc
DeVotchKa is a four-piece multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble that specializes in widescreen sepia-toned orchestral maneuvers in the dark. They take their name from the Russian word devochka (???????), meaning “girl”. Based in Denver, Colorado, the quartet is made up of Nick Urata, who sings and plays theremin, guitar, bouzouki, piano, and trumpet; Tom Hagerman, who plays violin, accordion, and piano; Jeanie Schroder, who sings and plays sousaphone, double bass, and flute; and Shawn King, who plays percussion and trumpet. Originally a backing band for burlesque shows, in their early years DeVotchKa also toured with burlesque performer and model Dita […]