BY ED KING There’s no need to lecture me on the deceptively breezy charms of the music of this month’s wondergirl, sassy British upstart Lily Allen. As any gimmick-hungry yob who’s ever hoped to dig gold from rock ‘n roll will tell you, writing and selling a catchy little pop song is a bitch. I’d been hearing so much about this Lily Allen, seemingly out of the blue, for the last month that I feared I’d fallen a few more steps out of touch with Today’s Happening People. It wasn’t as bad as I’d feared: last week I learned from […]
ROCKIST FROM THE CRYPT: JOHN REIS On Da Iggles, R.O.C.K. In The 215 And Killing HOT SNAKES Dead
BY DAVID R. STAMPONE WEST COAST CORRESPONDENT Many folks here in the 215 have closely followed the career of one John Reis, even if said guy is as essentially San Diegan as voted-in-Tuesday Baseball Hall of Famer Tony “Mr. Padre” Gwynn. His groups have always been well-received in the Delaware Valley (as is his weekly free-form radio show “The Swami Sound System,” heard online at www.fm949sd.com starting 1 am every Sunday). And, actually, two of his biggest bands each had a Philadelphia story. NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO! Hot Snakes began as an SD/Philly two-dudes-in-two-cities project, with Reis rocking guitar/bass […]
TO ROCOCO ROT: Telema
ON PHAWKER RADIO: Staubgold, amazing German electronica comp.
LOCAL GIRL MAKES GOOD: Former Fixture Of Area Poetry Slams Voted Into Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame
BY AMY Z. QUINN She’s hardly the most famous performer to ever come out of Jersey — The Boss and The Chairman Of The Board still hold those titles — but without a doubt, Patti Smith, the High Poetess of Punk, remains the greatest communicator of the kind of nameless electric angst that drives Kids In Search Of Something to head north on the Jersey Turnpike and never look back. When Patti beat it out of Gloucester County, fleeing a factory job and a year short of her degree at then-Glassboro State Teacher’s College, she was armed with a book […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER On her debut, the deftly titled Knives Don’t Have Your Back, Emily Haines sets her husky alto whisper against melancholy piano chords and waltzing rhythm beds, coloring her reveries with mournful strings, funereal brass and swooning Moog atmospherics. Performing Sunday night in the cathedral of the sold-out First Unitarian Church, Haines was backed by Sparklehorse drummer Scott Minor and ex-Mercury Rev bassist Paul Dillon – neither man a stranger to the notion of a light touch making the silences in between the notes positively deafening – and Moog operator-projectionist Todor Kobakov. A comely blonde […]
YMA SUMAC: Tumpa
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EARLY WORD: Holy Soul Jelly Roll
Ars Nova Workshop and Kelly Writers House welcomes writer John Szwed and pianist Dave Burrell in a public discussion that hopes to shed more light on the significance of pianist/composer Jelly Roll Morton and the stride continuum that paved the way for the jazz avant-garde. Thursday, January 11 | 6pm FROM JELLY ROLL MORTON TO THE JAZZ AVANT-GARDE with JOHN SZWED & DAVE BURRELL Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania | 3805 Locust Walk Free Admission
NOW PLAYING: NEW SHINS ON PHAWKER RADIO
BY ED KING, ROCK SNOB My first serious exposure to the music of The Shins was through that godawful Zach Braff film, Garden State. In a film that aspired to be The Graduate but was minus the talents of Mike Nichols and Dustin Hoffman, The Shins provided the Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack minus the song-smithery and understated cool of Paul Simon. I didn’t want to kill the band based on their association with Braff’s first step toward the pantheon of TV actors done in by good fortune and hubris (see McLean Stevenson through Rob Morrow), so I kept an ear […]
This Is Why We Stopped Watching Television
It’s nothing but Leo Sayer abuse, and we simply won’t have it. Because when you need love, you just close your eyes and guess what? You feel love.