DAILY BEAST: The rusting, blue steel frame of the El, the elevated portion of Philadelphia’s subway, looms over dilapidated Kensington Avenue like a giant centipede’s decaying exoskeleton. Known as “the stroll,” Kensington Avenue is the hub of Philly’s street prostitution scene, where young, drug-addicted women turn tricks for dope money—and where lately, a serial killer stalks them in the sickly orange glow of the streetlamps under the El. […] The two murdered women are alleged by the prostitutes on the stroll who knew them to have met the same fate in similar ways, by having gone on what the girls […]
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
CONTEST: Win Tix For Ariel Pink/Os Mutantes
We have a pair of tix to give away for Ariel Pink and Os Mutantes at the Troc on Friday. First reader to email us at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the phrase “Bat Macumba” in the subject line wins. Please include a cellphone number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed! ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: Os Mutantes: The year is high in the mid-’60s. The place: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a country chafing under a brutal dictatorship. The setting: a swingin’ ’60s nightclub au-go-go straight out of Austin Powers. Lights flash and the music throbs as the camera zooms in and out to the […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
Roger Waters’ THE WALL, Wells Fargo Center, Last Night by SCOTT COLAN BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Thirty years after its release, The Wall still looms large on the cultural horizon, a forbidding totem marking the zenith of rock’s commercial and artistic ascendancy: never before (and probably never again) would a double album of such dark and potent ideas — the brutal profiteering of war, the magnetic allure of suicide, emotional fascism of celebrity — become a mega-selling pop music blockbuster. That it happened once still beggars belief, and yet the album has gone on to sell 11.5 million […]
TONIGHT: I Walked With A Zombie
ROCK SNOB ENCYCLOPEDIA: ERICKSON, ROKY: ’60s psych/garage-rock pioneer, demon-crazed ’70s solo artist, acid casualty, drug-war martyr, patron saint of alt-rock’s fringe dwellers. In 1968, Erickson, then singer for Texas’ psychedelic avatars the 13th Floor Elevators, was busted for possession of a small quantity of marijuana and offered a choice: 10 years in prison or a stretch at Rusk State Psychiatric Hospital. He opted for the padded cell. Already half-fried from Herculean doses of psychedelics, Erickson was subjected to a cruel regimen of “experimental” drugs and electro-shock therapy and was released three years later a diagnosed schizophrenic. Telegraphing the horror within, […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Restrepo At The NCC
The National Constitution Center and National Geographic Channel will host a screening of the feature-length documentary Restrepo on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 6:30 p.m., in conjunction with our Art of the American Soldier exhibition. Following the screening, filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington will participate in a discussion about the film. winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, chronicles a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, considered one of the most dangerous outposts in the U.S. military. The film will make its world television premiere on the National Geographic Channel on November 29. Prior to […]
SPORTO: Bring On The ‘Skins 2
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY It was the Running Into the Kicker penalty early in the 3rd quarter that was the last straw. Before that, a couple of borderline calls had gotten the referees on the crowd’s bad side, but when the zebras bought Colts punter Pat McAfee’s kick-and-flop, the crowd had had enough. A big early lead gone, still bitter about the Phillies, this was the Philadelphia Sports Collective’s first chance to vent after two weeks stewing about the Eagles collapse against the Titans and the Phillies flameout. Oh, and the Sixers poor start (just kidding!). Now the crowd […]
TONITE: We Don’t Need No Education
Pink Floyd the Wall by NOT a FIRE exit Roger Waters’s performance of The Wall kicks off a three night stand at The Wells Fargo Center tonight, with repeat performances on Tuesday and Thursday. Tickets are available for all three nights. INQUIRER: One show at the [Spectrum], which is slated for destruction, sticks out in Waters’ mind. As a result, he says, the song “Comfortably Numb” “resides in the Spectrum.” “I was getting ready to do a gig there, and I had some stomach bug. Terrible, terrible stomach cramps. We had a doctor come into the hotel and say, ‘Well, […]
RAWK TAWK: Life According To Brother JT
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Garage-punk savant, drone-rock wizard, acid-dazed psychonaut, human ouija board, holy fool of the Internet — Brother JT is a man of many hats. He’s been a puppet, a poet, a pirate, a pawn and king. He’s been up and down and over and out — and he still really likes the LSD thing. He’s come to tell us all that the emperor has no clothes, the sky is falling, God is great, we’re already dead, and yet despite all that life is beautiful. He’s also leading the protest movement against the war going on in this country […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Guided By Voices @ The Troc
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Funny how Gen X used to mercilessly mock its predecessors for endlessly revisiting the Woodstockian ecstasies of its youth, as though nostalgia were a generational affliction instead of a universal symptom of aging. Now that the gray-bearding of Gen X has commenced, its members have proved no less immune to the impulse to revisit the pleasures of their gloriously misspent youth. Exhibit A is Guided by Voices’ sold-out “Hallway Of Shatterproof Glass Tour,” which reunites the so-called classic lineup of the Dayton, Ohio, indie darlings for one more beery, fist-pumping, scissors-kicking sing-along of their […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Bassnectar & Beats Antiques
BY PELLE GUNTHER Walking into the Electric Factory, the glow stick littered pavement told tales of many an enthusiastic raver’s shattered dreams as security confiscated everything they could find a reason to take. Watching the vibrantly dressed fans enter the venue, as glow sticks were pulled from shoes, out of sleeves, from hats, pants and god knows where else, the security’s failure at the art of security became painfully clear. Once inside the venue the amount of successfully-smuggled contraband-rave materials on display was astounding. But these fans brought their rave A-game for a reason: This frigid 5th of November (my love […]
ALBUM REVIEW: Black Mountain Wilderness Heart
The words “psychedelic rock” can be an easy turnoff for some, especially those who have no truck with hair-wagging peddle-hopping stoner-rock. However this is something entirely different. The heavy-riffing Canadian psychedelic outfit known as Black Mountain has been causing quite a stir with their latest release Wilderness Heart, which feels like listening to an immaculately-preserved mix tape of late 60s/early 70s psychedelic rock you found in your hippie uncle’s basement. The album starts it off strong with the Zep-tastic “Hair Song.” Its very Americana chord progression makes me want to sip Coca-Cola on the sidewalk outside a corner store while […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Wolf Parade @ The Troc
[Illustration by KAGAN McLEOD] BY PELLE GUNTHER Wolf Parade has long been known for heavy indie rock dirges covered in wild synth leads and a live show does not disappoint. On top of that Spencer Krug’s wailing vibrato is just as bizarre and captivating in person, all pining and heartbreak mixed with a strange sense of hope. Unfortunately, when Krug took a break from screaming his vocals, Dan Boeckner filled in with his much less distinctive voice, which didn’t carry the same emotional pull that Krug had captivated me with. The band focused much of their set on new music […]