With St. Vincent at the Electric Factory October 25th. Sometime in 1977 — A four-year-old Andrew Bird picks up his first violin at the age of 4. Actually, it is a Cracker Jack box with a ruler taped to it, as the first of his many Suzuki music lessons involve simply bowing to the teacher and going home. So begins a formative period soaking up classical repertoire completely by ear followed by a teenage expansion into Hungarian Gypsy music, early jazz, country blues, South Indian music and more, as well as the discovery of an uncanny whistling ability. MORE CONCERT […]
EARLY WORD: Calling All Copyright Criminals
[[ [Copyright Criminals Trailer] Next Tuesday, October 20, head on down to The Rotunda at 40th and Walnut for a free screening of the documentary COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS. Presented by ITVS’s Community Cinema program, COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and money. The film includes interviews with many of hip-hop music’s founding figures like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground, and the world’s most funky drummer Clyde Stubblefield — while also featuring emerging hip-hop artists from record labels Definitive Jux, Rhymesayers, Ninja Tune, and more. […]
DUH: Masked Lout Steals Phillies World Series Rings, Leaves Behind His Name And Home Address
[Photo by ELIZABETH ROBERTSON] INQUIRER: After three World Series rings where stolen yesterday from a Phillies office, police arrested a mask-wearing fan who was kicked out of the game earlier for being rowdy. Matthew Mervine, 22, of Berlin Borough made detectives’ work easy, because, not only was he videotaped stealing the rings, he had just left his real name, address and phone numbers on a job application, police said. Apparently, Mervine, who wore a rubber skull mask to yesterday’s game against the Rockies, found his way to the Phillies offices after being kicked out of the game with other fans […]
LISTEN LIKE THIEVES: “South Philly (Drug Days)”
ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC: “South Philadelphia (Drug Days)” is featured on Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah frontman Alec Ounsworth’s forthcoming solo-album, Mo Beauty (ANTI- Records) which was recorded in New Orleans and produced by Philadelphia native, Steve Berlin, of the band Los Lobos. The album is scheduled for release on Tuesday, October 20. Download it HERE.
RAWK TAWK: Q&A With Rock Critic Jim Derogatis
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Jim Derogatis is the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, co-host of public radio’s rock talk show Sound Opinions, the definitive Lester Bangs biographer and author of five books, including the just-published and altogether beautiful The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History of a Walk on the Wild Side. Derogatis got his start in the rock crit biz back in 1982 when Lester Bangs agreed to sit for an interview to satisfy Derogatis’ high school journalism class assignment requiring him to interview one of his heroes. Two weeks later, Bangs was dead at the ripe old age […]
FRINGE PREVIEW: Q&A With Dean Wareham
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Back in the 60s, Andy Warhol’s Factory, his studio-cum-playpen situated in a brick-walled walk-up on 47st street in Manhattan, was the epicenter of all things edgy, artsy and, ultimately, profoundly influential. Dylan, Edie Sedgwick, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Nico, and The Velvet Underground all came and went, and most sat for one of Warhol’s screen tests — a three-minute black and white stare-down between the camera and subject. There are some 500 of them in the Warhol archives. Recently the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh commissioned ex-Galaxie 500/Luna mainman Dean Wareham — whose cred as a modern […]
10 YEARS AFTER: Pavement Announces Reunion
After years of speculation, the most important American band of the Nineties is returning to the stage with the lineup of Mark Ibold, Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West reuniting for dates around the world in 2010. Please be advised this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion. Described in their own Wikipedia entry as having experienced “moderate commercial success,” Pavement’s catalog for the Matador, Domino, Drag City and Treble Kicker imprints has come to define in the eyes of many the blueprint for independent rock over the past generation. […]
RIP: Folk Singer Mary Travers Dead At 72
LOS ANGELES TIMES: It wasn’t all free love and hallucinogens in the ’60s. Hundreds of thousands marched for civil rights and peace, and folk music was the galvanizing voice of freedom and change. Peter, Paul and Mary, the legendary trio who helped promulgate that spirit of activism, could be considered relics of a decade of chaos and transmutation, but for the fact that they’ve kept the faith for more than 30 years. Together and separately, Peter Yarrow, Noel (Paul) Stookey and Mary Travers have raised their voices for peace, for a nuclear-free America, to support the homeless and to protest […]
OFF THE RECORD: Obama Calls Kanye A ‘Jackass’
During an off-the-record portion of an interview with CNBC, ABC reporter Terry Moran overheard the president call Kanye West a ‘Jackass’ — for storming stage and grabbing the mic from Taylor Swift in the middle of the country star’s acceptance speech — and immediately Twittered it, along with the snarky zinger “now THAT’s presidential”. ABC quickly pulled the tweet and apologized, but the damage was already done — ABC’s Twitterstream has a million-plus followers and Obama’s remark was immediately screencapped, retweeted ad nauseum and then picked up by the MSM, becoming the latest much ado about nothing to burn up […]
I, GAMER: ‘Rape’ Me?
BY ADAM BONANNI It’s certainly been a busy couple weeks for the music game genre. After Beatles: Rock Band dropped on 9/9/09, gamers are anticipating what could be a renewed interest in the genre, partially due to lack of new titles in the Rock Band or Guitar Hero franchises and, what this journalist can only imagine as the issue of plastic guitars and drum sets outnumbering bad ties in peoples’ closets. Almost overshadowed by the hype that can only be described as modern Beatle-mania, was the launch of Guitar Hero 5. Overshadowed, but not totally forgotten, it would seem Last […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Edward M. Kennedy, who died Aug. 25, 2009 after serving 46 years in the U.S. Senate, kept careful notes and journals about his life for nearly 50 years. Now, in his posthumously published memoir True Compass, Kennedy reflects on the controversies, successes and tragedies of his famous family. The book, which was co-authored by Ron Powers, is published by Twelve Books. Jonathan Karp, editor-in-chief and publisher of Twelve, speaks with Terry Gross about his experiences working with the late senator in the final year of Kennedy’s life. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 According to the most recent Department of […]
PASS THE HENNESSY: Kanye Joe Wilsons The VMAs
[Photo courtesy of JUST JARED] MTV: The rapper stormed the stage just after the first award, for Best Female Video, was presented to Taylor Swift. He cut the teen singer off, grabbing the mic and protesting in support of Beyonce. “I’m sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time,” he proclaimed as B looked on from the crowd, stunned. His protest against Swift, however, was not well received. West stood briefly on the stage after his comments as the crowd was silent. Audience members then began to clap in support of Swift after West left the […]
RIP: Basketball Diaries Author Jim Carroll Dead At 59
NEW YORK TIMES: Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker in the outlaw tradition of Rimbaud and Burroughs who chronicled his wild youth in “The Basketball Diaries,” died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60. The cause was a heart attack, said Rosemary Carroll, his former wife. As a teenage basketball star in the 1960s at Trinity, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Carroll led a chaotic life that combined sports, drugs and poetry. This highly unusual combination lent a lurid appeal to “The Basketball Diaries,” the journal he kept during […]