Dear friends, family, and fans of men’s close harmony vocal ensembles, Hello and happy holiday season to you! We hope this suddenly very chilly autumn is finding you well. The Silver Ages have been hard at work of late, sequestered in an authentic reproduction of Mory’s Temple Bar set up in a row home just south of Fitler Square. We’ve been singing round-the-clock, honing our craft in preparation for this busiest time of year (for those unfamiliar, close harmony vocal ensemble season runs from Beaujolais Day in November to the moment of the Vernal Equinox in March). Things are sounding better […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Philip Seymour Hoffman stars opposite Meryl Streep in Doubt, a new film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play. His character, a young and charismatic priest, provokes a nun’s suspicion for his special attention to their Bronx-based school’s only black student. Hoffman, a popular and versatile character actor, most recently starred in Synecdoche, New York. His other films include Capote, for which he received an Oscar for Best Actor, and the Coen brothers cult-classic The Big Lebowski. ALSO, In 1977, historian James Reston Jr. helped prepare journalist David Frost for a series of interviews with Richard Nixon that resulted […]
TONITE: What Would Tyler Durden Do?
Tonite at The Barbary.
THE EARLY WORD: These Are People Who Died
THE WAR ON DRUGS: Needle In Your Eye
WEEKEND UPDATE: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #3 Folks, here’s the third installment of The Good News Flower Hour, wherein I provide the voice for a flower that reads the news. The debut is HERE and the last one is HERE. We are still tweaking the concept and streamlining the production schedule on these — it takes a LONG-ass time to make these little three-minute suckers — but we hope to make this a weekly feature in the very near future. Enjoy.
All Of This Happened While You Were Sleeping
FOUR DUDES & A GRITTY URBAN BACKDROP: local free jazzers Shot x Shot [Photo by MARTIN BROWN] BY DAVE ALLEN First thoughts upon entering the charmingly fusty Powel House Museum in Society Hill: “They play jazz here?” I would soon find out that the museum is one of jazz and avant-garde presenter Bowerbird’s regular sites in the “Bowerbird @ Landmarks” series. In addition to old paintings and ornate woodwork, the upstairs room where Philly free-jazz collective Shot x Shot played also held a harp of, presumably, Revolutionary War-era vintage. If one of the guys in the band gets a hold […]
HEAR YE: Like A Fox Where Is My Golden Arm?
Now playing on Phawker Radio! BIO: Songwriter Jay Laughlin and engineer Dave Grubb spent the 1990s developing their vision in the critically acclaimed Philadelphia/New Jersey area noise-pop band Lenola, releasing numerous full lengths and amassing an international word-of-mouth following for their unique sound that proved Pop music could be seriously damaged, yet retain its infectious hooks & charms. Following Lenolas demise in late 2002, Laughlin soon began work on new compositions that pushed harder into some of the Electronic-meets-Rock directions that latter period Lenola had only hinted at. A full ensemble was put together in 2004 to perform these songs […]
ARTSY: Why Album Covers Used To Matter
MVD Entertainment Group (MVD) has created two posters for recent Devo and Ween releases. For a limited time, fans can purchase these limited-edition silkscreened posters of the cover art bundled with their respective release. The Ween posters are signed by the band. DEVO – Watch Us Work It LP + Silkscreened Poster This package comes “Watch Us Work It” vinyl plus a 5-color, handmade, silkscreened poster of the cover art. The record contains four versions of the song “Watch Us Work It”: Teddy Bears Version, Original Devo Demo Version, Karaoke Version, and “Still Workin’” Version. It was recorded at Mutato […]
NEWS CLUES: Painfully Ordinary Local Edition
BREAKING: Local Man Gets Dog West Philly’s Ben Morgan, who books bands at the Mill Creek Tavern (42nd & Chester), didn’t want a dog, but his live-in girlfriend, Allison Paul, did. In March, Morgan, who also plays in the Rare Birds and occasionally performs as a German rapper, MC Digga, told Paul they could get a dog when “Chinese Democracy” came out. Morgan assumed the long-awaited Guns N’ Roses record, 17 years in the making, would never come out. He was wrong. The record, which can be listened to here, was released Nov. 23, days after he agreed to take […]
TONITE: South To Rise Again
Southern rock-and-roll may have started with Skynyrd, but thankfully it didn’t end there, and some bands with down-home roots have got enough passion and polish to make “Sweet Home Alabama” sound downright sour. Tennessee’s Kings of Leon are the current, well, kings of the region’s rock, with a couple albums’ worth of delightfully scuzzy boogie topped with an aching drawl. At the other end of the spectrum of what Dixie can dish out is the arty, inscrutable jangle of Athens, Georgia’s REM, who add space to their riffs where other acts add swagger. Fresh out of Atlanta, The Modern Society […]
WE SHALL OVERCOME: Folk Icon Odetta Dead At 77
NEW YORK TIMES: Odetta, the singer whose deep voice wove together the strongest songs of American folk music and the civil rights movement, died on Tuesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She was 77. The cause was heart disease, said her manager, Doug Yeager. He added that she had been hoping to sing at Barack Obama’s inauguration. Odetta sang at coffeehouses and at Carnegie Hall, made highly influential recordings of blues and ballads, and became one of the most widely known folk-music artists of the 1950s and ’60s. She was a formative influence on dozens of artists, including Bob […]
PHOTON BAND: Where Did The Love Go?
[Dir. by SCOTT COLAN]
THE NEW DEAL: Obama Announces Nat. Sec. Team
NY FISHBOWL: Barry Blitt, the cartoonist responsible for the New Yorker‘s controversial terrorist fist-jabbing cover, among others, returns this week to “vet” Barack Obama. Of course this time around “Vetting” refers to the all important decision of picking a “first” puppy — thus far we know they want a mutt, but that it needs to be hypoallergenic and won’t be a girly dog. MORE LOS ANGELES TIMES: Reporting from Chicago — President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his national security team today, including formally announcing his intention to nominate his onetime rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, […]