KING BRITT REMEMBERS: Tower Records totally changed my whole life. I worked there in ’88, for four years. In high school I was a music nerd, so naturally I desperately wanted to work at Tower. I started as bag check dude, but moved up to 12″ singles buyer and New Age buyer in a matter of six months. Everyone who worked there were masters at their craft, and their passion for music was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the “team work” vibe. We all went on to do great things. Renny Harris, a major choreographer and dancer; James Bond, who owns […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
DUTCH COURAGE: The Ex, First Unitarian Church, December 14 SIMONE SECCI, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, REPORTS: Before talking about the show, I just would like to say how was weird and different for me as a European, going to a show here in Philly expecially an all ages show, where pretty much nobody was drinking and smoking weed, which is what the majority of the people do in Europe at shows. Cultural shock! Anyway first to be on the stage is this folk rock singer which I’m not exactly sure about the name, but I think was Billy Petersen, whose songs the […]
THE MONEY $HOT: Mazel Hop
SHADRACH THE MIC: Matisyahu, TLA, December 14, 2006 [FLICKR]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
MY DRUG BUDDY: Evan Dando, North Star Bar, December 14, 2006 [FLICKR] FOR THE INQUIRER BY JONATHAN VALANIA Hard to say exactly which bad sign indicated that the woozy Evan Dando train wreck was still hitting the wall of sober expectations. Maybe it was the marked thinning of the sold-out crowd by mid-show. Maybe it was Dando’s spontaneously electing to cover Suzanne Vega’s “Luka,” when clearly neither he nor his bandmates knew the chords or lyrics. Maybe it was his lying on his back to sing another song while a roadie held the mike above him, only to abort the […]
CSS: Alala
Ah, the prom. Good…times.
HOLLA: J-Kenn, Straight Outta The 610, Lord Help Us
THE WOOK SPEAKS: You gotta at least give Jamie Kennedy a shout on this front — he’s easily the second best performer ever to emerge from the 19082 — a few paces behind Tina Fey and a good mile ahead of the dead heat that is the chick from the “Blair Witch Project” and the corpse of Jim Croce. Which is to say that when “Scream” was the shizzy back in ’96, J-Kenn was assuredly Upper Darby’s Great White Hope.Which explains why 10 years on, he’s put out a rap album. Actually, the tense on that should be past, as […]
On Phawker Radio: LOS CUBANOS POSTIZOS
To mark the timely death of Augusto Pinochet (could not have happened to a nicer guy) and the impending depature from this mortal coil of one Fidel Castro, we bring you this wonderful 1998 collection of ersatz bueno vista social clubbing by Marc Ribot & Los Cubanos Postizos.
MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING or How The TOWER Of Song Got Its Lean On
RICHARD KAUFMAN REMEMBERS: Tower Records, so many bittersweet memories. In those crazy go-go days of the early ’90s, there was so much optimism for the future. Papa Bush was imploding faster than a smart bomb, Fast Eddie was mayor, the Eagles had a mobile QB that would finally lead us to the promised land, and flannel-wearing rockers were starting to turn the rock world on its head. The word around the water cooler was that Tower was going public, and all of us smelly, underpaid buyers and clerks would get in on the ground floor. The Tower model seemed to […]
ROCKSNOB: Clap Yer Hands And Say ‘Meh’
ED KING REPORTS: Hey, I came across two tracks from the upcoming Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album, Some Loud Thunder! Check ’em out at their website! You kids still trying to squeeze into your Garanimals may want to free up space on your iPod when this bad boy hits the streets on January 30! If hearing these previews leaves you too thunderstruck to comment, let me do so for you! There’s a track called “Love Song No. 7” (a title construction that rarely bodes well) that is 4:31 of “Lick My Love Pump”-style piano chords, a bit of Syd […]
We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: They Might Be Giants, World Cafe Live, December 9, 2006 MA PHAWKER REPORTS: For a minute there toward the end, during “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” when the shorties were tired out and the gin and tonics were kickin’ in, it almost felt like we grownups had gotten one over on the kids we had squired to the show.See, one of the many chapters missing from the parenting books is the one discussing the wretched entertainment you’re doomed to sit through — the animated movies that don’t make any sense, the cheesy kid-friendly musicians, the unconvincing birthday […]