Les Paul & Mary Ford Show: World Is Waiting For The Sunrise NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Paul was a remarkable musician as well as a tireless tinkerer. He played guitar with leading prewar jazz and pop musicians from Louis Armstrong to Bing Crosby. In the 1930s he began experimenting with guitar amplification, and by 1941 he had built what was probably the first solid-body electric guitar, although there are other claimants. With his electric guitar and the vocals of his wife, Mary Ford, he used overdubbing, multitrack recording and new electronic effects to create a string of hits in the […]
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES: Brand New Nick Cave Novel Set For Publication This Fall
The Death of Bunny Munro is Nick Cave‘s first novel since his critically acclaimed debut, “And the Ass Saw the Angel,” which was first published in 1989. Penguin is releasing a new edition this September to tie in with his new novel. The Death of Bunny Munro will be published in hardcover by Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, on September 8, 2009 (ISBN: 978-0-86547-910-4; $25.00). Bunny Munro sells beauty products and the dream of hope to the lonely housewives of the south coast of England. Set adrift by his wife’s suicide and struggling to […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Asher Roth & Kid Cudi
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Asher Roth is nothing but a good time, although the haters, and they are legion, would deny him even that. Of course, none of them was in attendance Thursday night at the Electric Factory, where the sandy-haired Morrisville native and West Chester alum wrapped up his 20-date Great Hangover Tour with a sweaty throw-down before an adoring, largely under-21 audience. Minus the naysayers, it was a night of guilty pleasure — which is, in a nutshell, what Asher Roth is all about. Rolling onstage behind the wheel of a tot-size Cadillac SUV and armed […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Cursive At FUC
BY DIANCA POTTS After nearly an hour of traveling South on 309, I agonized over the perfect parking spot, finally settling on 22nd and Market. Standing at the crosswalk while facing First Unitarian, the long line of Cursive fans wrapped around the block and down the alley way. Comprised of half suburban and urban dwellers, I sensed a dichotomy of 20-somethings and fresh faced teens, making me feel slightly old at barely 22. En route towards the end of the line, I was stopped by a red-headed emo with a simple, “Hey cutie.” Confused, I paused while she accusingly declared, […]
PIECE OF THE ROCK: Concert Venue Pie Chart
Pie chart illustrating the approximated market shares of the city’s live music venues based on current bookings. [via PHILLY CONCERT HUB]
TONITE: Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi – New Music – More Music Videos DAILY SWARM: If you boil it down, Kid Cudi’s nascent hit “Make Her Say” is about gettin’ good head, plain and simple. Yeah, it’s got an elegant sample of Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface,” and if you get swept up in her vox—or the nifty throwback beat—you’d almost think that the Kid was trying to make another “Hard Knock Life”—a tough pop hit that deftly deploys cuteness. (The classy video, meanwhile, is a total bait-and-switch.) But “Make Her Say” ain’t cute at all; Gaga’s melody gets served up as a convenient double entendre, […]
ON THE DOWNLOAD: New Raveonettes
First finished track from new album set to drop this fall on Vice Records. Have at it. DOWNLOAD: The Raveonettes “Suicide” [mp3] *** Alela Diane – “Lady Divine” (DUMBO West Session) WIKIPEDIA: Alela Diane Menig (b. April 20, 1983, Nevada City, California, USA) is an American singer and songwriter, who is associated with the psych folk and New Weird America musical genres.She grew up singing with her musician parents and performing in the school choir. She taught herself guitar, and began writing songs which blend tense, trance-like arpeggios with warm vocals and meditative lyrics about family and nature. Alela Diane […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: All Points West Day Three
BY KYLEE MESSNER The last day of All Points West was sure to be full of surprises. As we arrived, we were informed no bands would be playing for quite some time, given the storm that had just hit. We wondered if the show would be canceled. “Of course not, millions of dollars have been raised from this festival,” a staff worker told us. How reassuring, I thought. It wasn’t until four o’clock that a sea of people began to form lines, many leaving, others remaining, all clueless as to when they would be let into the festival. “How unorganized,” […]
EELS: Force Of Nature
OfficialEels: video for “In My Dreams” from the HOMBRE LOBO album
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR With the record business decimated by illegal downloading, the live concert represents the ailing music industry’s biggest source of revenue. But as journalist John Seabrook reports in The New Yorker, the live concert business has yet to reconcile two competing sides of its identity. For the world’s leading concert promoter and ticket seller — LiveNation and Ticketmaster, respectively — a concert is a moneymaking venture. For diehard fans of top-grossing touring artists like Bruce Springsteen and U2, it’s a unique experience of “instant cousinship” with other fans (as one pioneering promoter puts it). Meanwhile, Internet scalping on sites […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: All Points West Day 2
EDITOR’S NOTE: Phawker concert reviewer dynamic duo Kylee Messner and Dianca Potts will be sending in live first person dispatches from APW all weekend. DAY TWO KYLEE: It was our second day at All Points West, and it seemed like the festival, much like the weather, had a much sunnier disposition. Festival goers still seemed to be enjoying the previous night’s mud, sinking into the ground like quicksand. Kool Keith’s “Girl Let Me Touch You” could be heard from the main stage, much to the delight of fans sporting as little clothing as possible. “We can’t stop, can’t stop yet,” […]
LIVE AND DIRECT: All Points West
EDITOR’S NOTE: Phawker concert reviewer dynamic duo Kylee Messner and Dianca Potts will be sending in live first person dispatches from APW all weekend. DAY ONE Kylee: The alarm went off, it was 4am Friday morning. “Damn,” I said to myself, groaning all the way to the bathroom. After weeks of planning, stressing, and arranging, the day had finally come for All Points West. Dianca had me in a panic as usual, driving from the burbs to Philadelphia to take my ass to Jersey City. We had two hours ahead of us on the open road, three days of music […]
ABOUT LAST NIGHT: Top 5 Things You Should Know About Fleet Foxes At The Electric Factory Last Night
WEIRD BEARD: Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes, Electric Factory, Last Night [Photo by TIFFANY YOON] 1. On a late July night in Philly, the Great Unwashed takes on a whole new meaning in the sticky, crowded Electric Factory. As the metal ceiling fans squeak futilely overhead, I’m hemmed in by Cousin-It-with-a-perm and a fresh-faced young fellow, no more than 17, who seems blissfully unaware that his T-shirt logo is imagery from the Third Reich. 2. Blue Öyster Cult had more than one album; more than one song, for that matter. When opening act Espers—Philly’s sleepy freak-folk celebs of choice—announce that they’re […]