RYAN ADAMS BRINGS TOUR TO PHILADELPHIA FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2 ACADEMY OF MUSIC WITH SPECIAL GUEST JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD TICKETS GO ON SALE THIS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 AT 10AM! NEW ALBUM ASHES & FIRE OUT OCTOBER 11 NPR FIRST LISTEN LIVE HERE With his forthcoming Ashes & Fire (out October 11 on PAX-AM/Capitol) already generating arguably the best critical notices of his career to date, Ryan Adams has confirmed another leg of North American dates including a stop in Philadelphia on Friday, December 2 at the Academy of Music. Tickets go on sale this Friday, […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Deerhoof At WCL
For going on two decades, these artful dodgers have been getting their shit together somewhere in the outer limits of the noise-rock fringe, with conceptual song cycles about desperate milkmen pied-pipering children into pastures of cellophane flowers and marmalade skies, or cuddly pandas wandering through the valley of the shadow of death. The personnel have shifted over the course of 11 albums, but these days Deerhoof are anchored by drummer/singer Greg Saunier’s deep kick and light voice, the twin-guitar abstract expressionism of John Deiterich and Ed Rodriguez, and the naif anime vocals of bassist Satomi Matsuzaki, whose helium-pitched pipes have […]
RIP: Fear & Loathing At Cheesesteak Junction
BY MIKE WALSH I never met Joey Vento, but in 1986 I purchased a home about a block-and-a-half from Geno’s and the infamous cheesesteak junction (Wharton, S. 9th, and E. Passyunk). Back then, the intersection was popular, but it wasn’t the loud, crowded, 24-hour-per-day hotspot it is today. A large, stone church occupied one corner, and the other restaurants and shops you see today at the intersection had not moved in yet. The neighborhood was not in good shape in the mid-80s. Many homeowners had abandoned the neighborhood, and hundreds of single family homes had been converted to apartments. […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Lupe Fiasco At The Mann
We’ve loved Lupe since 2006’s Food And Liquor and even if we are feelin’ a little let down by the new Lasers we could not be more psyched to see him at the Mann on Saturday. We have two pairs of tickets to give away. The first two Phawker readers to tell us the name of the song he recorded with Jill Scott wins ’em. Email us at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with ‘Lupe’ in the subject line and include a cell phone number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed. PREVIOUSLY: Top 5 Reasons Why LUPE FIASCO Was Better Than Whatever Hip-Hop Show […]
CONTEST:Win Tix To See The Sex Pistols Glen Matlock
[Photo by RAY STEVENSON/REX USA] Glen Matlock & The Philistines play the North Star Bar tonight (yes, they’re doing Pistols material). Look for our Q&A with Mr. Matlock later today on a Phawker near you. In the mean time have a pair of tickets to give away to the first reader to email us at feed@phawker.com with the name of the one-off supergroup he formed with Sid Vicious. ***
Q&A With Scott McCaughey Of The Baseball Project
BY JONATHAN VALANIA The knock on rock music since, well, time immemorial is that there’s nothing new under The Big Rock Sun, that it’s all been done before and everything after is just a distant echo of the big bang that ended on or about 1969. The Baseball Project puts the lie to all that. I submit to you that they are doing something that’s never before: An indie rock supergroup that writes catchy songs about the lore and the legends of America’s pastime. If there is an ur-text for the Baseball Project, it’s “Take Me Out To The Ball […]
Q&A With Philly Homeboy Schoolly D, The Original OG
[Photo by Jonene Taddei] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Deep inside Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik’s 1,400 page ‘manifesto’, “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” in between all the raging Islamophobia, pathological nativism, and bomb-making instructions, the man who killed 77 innocent, unarmed people in cold blood, warns readers of the negative effect that gangsta rap lyrics have on society. In section 2.67 of the PDF version, Breivik includes a slightly bastardized version of John P McWhorter’s 2003 anti-rap diatribe How Hip-Hop Holds Blacks Back, which singles out a few of the most sensational lines from West Philly native Schooly D’s proto-gangsta […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See TVOTR At The Mann
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] Raise your hand if you want to go see TV On The Radio and Broken Social Scene at The Mann next Friday? OK, put ’em down, we can’t see you, that’s not how this blog thingee works — not yet anyway. Presumaby there were millions of you raising your hands a moment ago, and now feeling a little stupid for doing so, as you should, but cheer up because we can help at least four of you. That’s right we have two pairs of tickets for TVOTR at The Mann Music Center on Friday September 9th […]
SPECIAL REPORT: The Top 10 Drug Corners 2011
[Illustration by JAY BEVENOUR] EDITOR’S NOTE: The following report — the product of a partnership between Phawker and PW and funded by a grant from J-Lab and the William Penn Foundation — ranks the city’s 10 worst drug corners the way Philly Mag ranks pizza or bars or bikini wax salons. Sarcasm aside, the story is no joke, rather it is the product of six months of old fashioned shoe leather reporting, arrest statistics crunching, and and dozens of interviews with the police,academics, neighbors, drug dealers and drug buyers. The hope is that we can spark a new conversation about […]
CONCERT REVIEW: My Morning Jacket At The Mann
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Opening for a band that draws seven or eight times as many people as you do seems like a no-brainer. After all, if you win over just a quarter of the crowd, you’ve more than doubled your draw in this particular market. The downside is that nobody shows up for the opening act at The Big Rock Show. Never have, never will. Tuesday night at the Mann Center was no exception. Neko Case opened for My Morning Jacket and delivered a game but faintly glum set to mostly empty seats […]
RIP: Vaya Con Dios Jose Vento
From our partners in media crime over at Scrapple TV.
CONTEST: Win Tix To See MMJ & Neko Case Tonight!
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] We have a pair of tickets to give away for My Morning Jacket and Neko Case at the Mann tonight! Why? Because we love you, you idiot. Time is short, so we’re gonna make this super easy: Name the large, furry creature on the cover of 2003’s It Still Moves. And, no, Jim James is NOT the answer. First reader to send us the correct answer at FEED@PHAWKER.COM wins the tix. Include a cell phone number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed!
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Bob Dylan
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY MIKE WALSH Let me make this clear up front: I’m not a Dylan-head, Dylan-ite, Dylan-phile, Dylan-ologist, or any other kind of extreme Dylan fan. In fact, I never bought a Dylan record or CD until just a few years ago. I never saw the need. Growing up in the ’60s, Dylan was on the radio all the time —“Blowing in the Wind,“ “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,“ “The Times They Are a Changin’,“ “All I Really Want to Do,“ “It Ain’t Me Babe, “Mr. Tambourine Man,“ etc., etc. Plus, many other bands had hits […]