NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO: New Feist

BY DAN DELUCA INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC On a recent shopping Saturday, I found myself in a suburban Banana Republic, a Pine Street photo gallery, and a chichi Center City cafe. I bring this up not merely to establish my credentials as an effete poser, but because Feist was playing in all three places. That’s Leslie Feist, the Canadian indie-pop singer who goes by her last name when making her own music. (She’s also a sometime member of the Toronto collective Broken Social Scene, and used to perform along with electro-rapper Peaches under the name Bitch Lap Lap and sing with […]

I AM JADED FUCKIN’ INDIE GUY: The New Modest Mouse Is Hard To Love, But Even Harder To Hate

BY ED KING ROCK CRITIC Whew! My head hurts from all the time I’ve spent with the latest Modest Mouse album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. This thing’s hard work. When did the world get so smart that they all get it and I’m not sure I do? This band is moving units, right, and you can’t attribute their appeal to hot looks and sweet hooks. In an act of brutal self-analysis, I persevered. And yes, I’m a better man for having done so. For the first few spins, all I could think of was why I […]

PROMOPHILIA: ‘What Kind Of Fuckery Is This?’* You Made Me Miss THE ARCADE FIRE Gig!

The Amy Winehouse show has been moved from the TLA to the Elecrtic Factory and moved up a day — to the same day as Arcade Fire at the Tower. This is like being handed a scalpel and having to decide which half of the siamese twins lives and which half dies. Damn you, Gods of the Guest List! WHY? WHY DO YOU MOCK ME SO? *From “Me And Mister Jones” by Amy Winehouse, now playing on Phawker Radio (along with Arcade Fire and new Wilco)

LIVE: Jon Stewart Makes A ‘Stand’ At The Tower

BY AMY Z. QUINN Somewhere, Kevin Spacey is smiling. And I need to do someone a big favor — stat. See, while Team Phawker waited in the will-call line at the Tower Theater to pick up our tickets for the Jon Stewart show Friday night, a friendly couple approached — desperate to give away an extra pair of tix. A quick glance at the freebies showed they were probably pretty good, so we took them with the couple’s admonishment to “Pay it forward.” As it turned out, the seats were front row — several rows closer, even, than where the […]

POP IN TAPE: Stop Snitchin’ Is A Slogan, Not A Solution

BY MICHAEL FICHMAN Last Sunday, when Cam’ron appeared on “60 Minutes” (videos here) and tried to explain how his credibility as an artist was subject to his obedience to the Code of the Streets, he neglected to acknowledge the consequences of an imperfect code. Furthermore, he didn’t rhyme the same word over and over again, nor did he suggest that he and Anderson Cooper should tip Cristal and run trains until Gawker or Bossip find out. But I digress. The “Stop Snitchin” credo is rooted in the distrust borne of centuries of systemic racism — much of it at the hands […]