We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

WHAT’S NEW, PUSSYCAT: Tom Jones, Resorts, Atlantic City, Last Night [SLIDE SHOW] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Last night, I took my mom to see Tom Jones in Atlantic City for her 67th birthday — cue up an image of a horned-up blue-haired old lady, and then multiply it by a thousand and you start to get an idea of that scene Sunday night at Resorts’ Superstar Theater. Can’t honestly say that mom turned me onto a LOT of music when I was a kid, but two faves — The Mamas & The Papas and Tom Jones — inhabit a special place […]

We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

NO SLEEP ‘TIL BROOKLYN: Beastie Boys, Festival Pier, Last Night [SLIDE SHOW] BY JONATHAN VALANIA So as promised, here’s a rough transcript of the Q&A at the Beasties press conference. The assembled press included Dan DeLuca from the Inquirer, Christian Hoard from Rolling Stone, some dude and dudette from Wonkavision, and dude from Gloucester County Times. (Note: We all sat around waiting about an hour for a.d. amorosi to show up — and when he finally did, he sat down for two minutes, checked his cell phone messages and then he left before the press conference even started! Now that […]

THE BREAKDOWN: Let Us Praise The Common Man

BY M. EMANUEL It’s been a wet-firecracker of a summer for hip-hop. Gone are the days when summer was the season to expect a heavy rotation of full-lengths from your favorite MCs — things have changed. Record sales are in the toilet, digital downloads are either destroying or saving the industry (depends on who you ask and what day you ask them) and cautious record labels are releasing albums at a snail’s pace, and only after they are assured that there is enough radio-friendly material to justify the six-figure palm-greasing required to make them hits. In the midst of this […]

We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

BLUES EXPLOSION: White Stripes, The Grand Opera House, Wilmington, Friday BY JONATHAN VALANIA Mississippi said to Michigan: What did Delaware? If you ask this question – a variation on the old school bus singalong “Delaware” — to a sold out crowd at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware, and pause dramatically and then answer your own question with “Alaska!” and (this part can’t be underestimated) your name is Jack White — well, people go positively apeshit. As Hello Clevelands go, it’s pure Jack: old-timey, slightly bawdy, just this side of corny, and, in the right hands, showbiz gold, Jerry. […]

We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

WAGON TRAIN: Porter Wagoner, opening for the White Stripes, Madison Square Garden, Last Night BY AMY Z. QUINN For the life of me, I couldn’t remember the name of the dude with the Siegfried & Roy hair playing playing twang-tastic guitar behind Porter Wagoner. I got to my seat just after they came on, as he was singing Wagoner to the stage: “The Wagonmaster’s comin’, the Wagonmaster’s comin’ . . .” and, tragically bereft of an Internet-ready device with which to google, the solution finally came to me. Time to call Mom. She’s a country fan from way back when […]

We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

THE WIZARD OF MOZZ: Morrissey, The Mann, Last Night BY A.D. AMOROSI FOR THE INQUIRER As Brit-pop’s patron saint of things smartly smarmy, sexually obsessive and shyly sensitive, Morrissey — regarded as divine since he fronted the Smiths from 1982 to 1987 — has become more iconic with each solo effort. It’s odd, then, that an idol so untouchable has grown more willing than ever to engage his feverish fans. Take his show on Monday at the Mann Center. With a graying, spiky pompadour and a thicker middle than in his waifish youth, Morrissey, 48, may appear more pope than […]

THE BREAKDOWN: Platinum Until Proven Guilty

BY M. EMANUEL True or false: You can still be one of the biggest pop stars on the planet even if you (allegedly) urinated on and then fornicated with an underage girl, videotaped it, and then that tape was leaked to the world and the authorities brought 21 counts of child pornography charges against you. As much as we would all like to think the answer is false, we all know that’s not true. However, knowing and caring are two different things and while we know the charges are still hanging out there, a better question is do we even […]

Wilco Has Dr. Dog’s Baby In The New York Times

JEFF TWEEDY, 39, is the lyricist, lead singer and guitarist of the Chicago rock band Wilco. In the last decade, as it has shifted from alt-country to rock, Wilco has built a devoted fan base. This spring its sixth studio album, “Sky Blue Sky” (Nonesuch), had a strong debut, ranking No. 4 on the Billboard charts the week of its release. Mr. Tweedy recently took a brief break from touring Europe, the West Coast and the Midwest to talk to Winter Miller. “I’m probably the only person that wanted to be a rock critic and failed at it and started […]

NOW PLAYING: Elliott Smith New Moon

[Illustration by KATIE SKELLY] BY JONATHAN VALANIA Near the end of The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson’s storybook cinematic fable of wasted potential, the character of Richie, a disgraced world-class tennis player with a dark secret, looks soulfully into the bathroom mirror. It’s impossible to say what he’s thinking–he looks scared, confused, angry, on the verge. A tensely strummed acoustic guitar spirals in the background, accompanying a hushed, faintly ominous vocal. It’s Elliott Smith’s “Needle in the Hay.” Richie picks up a scissors and methodically, if crudely, crops his shoulder-length tresses down to the scalp. He lathers up his lumberjack beard […]

We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

THINK LOCALLY, FUCK GLOBALLY: Gogol Bordello, Trocadero, Last Night BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER Despite all the negative chatter the issue of immigration generates, the fact is Americas love the trial-and-error tragicomic saga of fresh-off-the-boat immigrants trying to fit their square peg into America’s round hole — the latest proof of such is the runaway success of the movie Borat. Before there was Borat, there was Taxi‘s Latka Gravas, Andy Kaufman’s lovable mechanic of mysterious Eastern European descent. And in between there was, and for that matter is, Gogol Bordello, led by human cannonball frontman Eugene Hutz, perhaps best […]

REVIEW: Young Jeezy, Nas & Ghostface Killah

Note: The following video is not recommended to be played at work, in an airport, in church, in the presence of children, and possibly in the privacy of your own home. It is presented here to allow you to hear the music of Young Jeezy, one of three hip-hop artists KingEd has become acquainted with over the past months.   BY ED KING UNAPOLOGETIC ROCKIST A couple of months ago The Editor dropped three then-recent hip-hop releases on me: Young Jeezy‘s The Inspiration, Nas‘ Hip Hop Is Dead, and Ghostface Killah‘s More Fish. “I’d like to get your take on […]