DAILY NEWS: LIKE SO MANY occasions that turn out to be momentous in hindsight, the recording of Miles Davis’ landmark “Kind of Blue” album carried no special aura, no hint of the iconic future in store. “I just figured it was another good Miles Davis record,” shrugged drummer Jimmy Cobb. “Just one that I happened to be on.” It hardly needs to be said that Cobb’s impression is a vast understatement. In the 50 years since its release, “Kind of Blue” has come to be regarded as a landmark, the pinnacle not only of Davis’ output but perhaps of jazz […]
THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT: Q&A with Palmyra Delran
BY TIFFANY YOON LIVING ARTS EDITOR Every scene is forever trapped in a cyclical process of being loved, hated after going mainstream, and then, with the passage of time, finding its niche again amongst the ever-stubborn contrarians of the new age. These trends are inevitable, what is cool now will be deemed uncool given enough time and will eventually resurface again amongst a new generation to be heralded as cooler than ever. Garage rock, coupled with ’60s pop and surf have been going in and out of style since, well, the ’60s. The Friggs, who ruled the local garage-rock roost […]
HEAR YE: Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy
INSTA-REVIEW: The title track is now up at Imeem, and the verdict is still: THIS took 15 years and $13 million to make? More HERE. CHRIS LARKIN: Wow. What a shot in the arm for the irrelevance industry.
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Nobel laureate Paul Krugman believes that increased public spending — akin to the efforts of the New Deal during the Great Depression — is the best way to escape the financial crisis and regain American global leadership. In his Oct. 16 column in The New York Times, Krugman writes, “It’s politically fashionable to rant against government spending and demand fiscal responsibility. But right now, increased government spending is just what the doctor ordered, and concerns about the budget deficit should be put on hold.” Paul Krugman is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, and the […]
Q&A: The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY JONATHAN VALANIA If there’s anything missing from Stephin Merritt’s encyclopedic oeuvre — a kitchen-sink catchall that includes everything from wry country twang and sincere synth pop to tortured torch songs and prancing show tunes — it’s Stephin Merritt. A remarkably dexterous stylistic quick-change artist — for my next trick, ladies and gentlemen, I’ll pull the Human League out of Cole Porter’s top hat — he’s a master illustrator of character sketches, meticulously cross-hatching two-minute melodramas out of the delicacies and detritus of 20th-century popular song. But for all their rapier-like wit and chameleonic genre-hopping, Merritt’s […]
EARLY WORD: Let’s All Go To The Lobby, The Lobby
And get ourselves some snacks!
HOT DOCUMENT: The Revolution Will Be Digitized
RADIOHEAD: IN RAINBOWS SALES DATA REVEALED Little more than a year since Radiohead’s October 10, 2007 pay-what-you-like self-release of its seventh album, In Rainbows, some conclusive statistics were made available at the recent “You Are In Control” conference in Reykjavik, Iceland.For those who missed coverage of the conference while engrossed in something as trivial as the Presidential Debates or the world economic collapse, the following is a summation of key answers to FAQs:* In Rainbows has sold three million copies thus far, a figure that includes downloads from Radiohead.com, physical CDs, a deluxe 2-CD/vinyl box set, as well as […]
SITAR HERO: Phawker Tawks With Anoushka Shankar
WIKIPEDIA: Anoushka Shankar (Hindi: ??????? ????), b. June 9, 1981, is a sitar player and composer in the United Kingdom. She is the daughter of Ravi Shankar, Indian sitar player, and Sukanya Shankar. Through her father, she is the half-sister of Grammy Award winner Norah Jones. Anoushka was born in London. When she was eight years old, her father began training her in the sitar. She gave a public performance at the age of thirteen; since then she has become a world famous sitar artist. The Indian Television Academy, Asmi, and India Times chose her as one of four Women […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
BY DAVE ALLEN A two-night stand is a rare thing, and a preview yesterday of this mini-Warped Tour lineup, with left-wing ragers Rise Against headlining, wouldn’t have done any good — Night One was sold out. So here’s the top five reasons to check out Night Two tonight at the E-Factory. 1) Any moment iron-throated Rise Against singer Tim McIlrath roams the stage without a guitar. It’s been said that mics are for singing, not for swinging, but McIlrath makes a strong case for their non-vocal use. With him stationed behind the mike stand with a guitar, they’re just another […]
HEAR YE: The Spinto Band Moonwink
Now playing on Phawker Radio! The Spinto Band play First Unitarian Tonite!
THE EARLY WORD: Boyd Rice Is A Very Bad Boy
EXCLUSIVE EAST COAST BOOK SIGNING SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 7PM GERM BOOKS BOYD RICE STANDING IN TWO CIRCLES THE COLLECTED WORKS OF BOYD RICE STANDING IN TWO CIRCLES is the first definitive and comprehensive compendium of the works of BOYD RICE, one of the most provocative and controversial underground figures of the post-punk era. A pioneering noise musician and countercultural maven, from the late 1970s to the present Rice has worked in an array of capacities, playing the roles of: musician, performer, artist, photographer, essayist, interviewer, editor, occult researcher, filmmaker, actor, orator, deejay, gallery curator and tiki bar designer, among others. […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR The New Yorker‘s chief political correspondent, Ryan Lizza, explains Joe Biden’s relationship with Barack Obama — and why taking on less often means doing more as vice president. Lizza’s article “Biden’s Brief,” about the Democratic vice presidential candidate, appears in the Oct. 16 issue of The New Yorker. ALSO, Emmy-winning director and producer Larry Charles has a penchant for the ridiculous — witness his credits, which include Borat, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Now, Charles wants to turn his latest film, Religulous, into an HBO series. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 Analysis of last night’s third and final presidential […]
CELEBS: Madonna Back On The Market, Silverman Off
CNN: Pop star Madonna and her film director husband Guy Ritchie are to divorce, Madonna’s UK spokeswoman, Moira Bellas, confirmed to CNN. A statement e-mailed to The Associated Press from Madonna spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg says the couple has agreed to divorce, and asks the media to respect their privacy. The statement, co-signed by Ritchie’s representative, says the couple had not agreed to a settlement. Ritchie, 40, and Madonna married seven years ago at a lavish ceremony in Scotland, but rumors have been circulating in the press recently that their relationship was increasingly under strain. Earlier this year, the singer denied […]