Artwork via SHAPERSOFTHE80S.COM EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally published in January of 2016, three days after David Bowie passed off this mortal coil. We are re-posting it because it’s Philly Loves Bowie Week, duh. Holy Holy kicks off a UK tour in February, click HERE for tour dates. BY JONATHAN VALANIA The DJ Murray The K — the Geator With The Heater of his day — was known as the proverbial ‘Fifth Beatle’ for his tireless Fab Four boosterism during the initial waves of Beatlemania. Legendary producer Tony Visconti is the Fifth Bowie. There are others who, it could be […]
JAZZIN’ FOR BLUE JEAN: Q&A W/ Donny McCaslin
BY STEVE VOLK One spring night in 2014, an aging British gentleman walked into Bar 55, a tiny Greenwich Village jazz club, where he listened to a band that honked and squalled in the most beautiful array of colors. The old man was so good at maintaining a low profile that he blended right into the tables and the crowd, and it was only later that people both inside and outside the bar were made aware of this show. David Bowie’s Blackstar, his final album, released just two days before he died in January 2016 was born, many years earlier, […]
Fleet Foxes Tease Demo Excerpts From New Album
View this post on Instagram Forward ! (Very very demos happy new year) A post shared by Robin Noel Pecknold (@robinpecknold) on Dec 31, 2018 at 6:28pm PST KEXP: Robin Pecknold kicked off the new year by sharing a series of Fleet Foxes demos on his Instagram account. The snippets likely come from the band’s forthcoming fourth album, which was promised to drop “within 24 months of LP3 according to contract.” LP3, Crack Up, was released in June of 2017 so if everything remains on schedule, the new record should drop this summer. MORE
THIS IS OUR MUSIC: Our Favorite Albums Of 2018
Artwork by JOHN PATRICK BYRNE Upon returning to England in the spring of 1968 after a disillusioning pilgrimage to India to study Transcendental Meditation at the feet of the guru, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Beatles set about working on music for their follow-up to Magical Mystery Tour, a slapped-together compendium of psychedelic odds and ends and orphaned singles like “Strawberry Fields” and “All You Need Is Love,” released in November of 1967, and Sgt Pepper, the landmark, kaleidoscopic ur-text of the Summer of Love, released the previous May. Having forsaken druggy fantasia in favor of meditation in the wake […]
BEING THERE: Kurt Vile @ The Met Philadelphia
Photo by MATT SHAVER My friend Virginia insists that the only downside of marijuana is that it makes Kurt Vile songs go on too long. That’s simply not true. It also makes you cough and it’s very expensive. Now don’t get me wrong, I like Kurt Vile as much as the next stoner beardo of a certain age. And there’s a lot to like about him: wizardly finger picker, gorgeous Jag tone, droll Kensington hillbilly drawl, Joey Ramones’ legs, and, as of this writing, best hair in rock n’ roll. He has proven adept at mounting Burrito Brother jingle and […]
BEING THERE: Margo Price @ World Cafe Live
Photo by JUSTIN PATRICK OAKES It must suck being a roadie for Margo Price. I mean, isn’t it humiliating enough to hump one drum set? But there they were: two full kits upon the World Cafe Live stage at Margo Price’s sold-out show on Friday night. What could this be? Were Mickey and Bill in the house? (Price has shared a stage with Phil Lesh in the past). Allman Bros. boogie-woogie to come? But I’ll be damned if little ole Margo — resplendent in full length dress, shit kickers, and one on the way — didn’t hop behind the second […]
THE FLAMING LIPS: Little Drummer Boy
Also, Steven Drozd has created a podcast that covers their 35 year recorded career. This multi-part series will illustrate their inimitable and out there creative process covering their aural oeuvre in their own dulcet tones. Episode Four: The Sorcerer’s Orphan: A song By Song History of The Flaming Lips audio podcast is available now on iTunes. Click HERE for details. PREVIOUSLY: Last night the Flaming Lips unveiled the more-awesome-than-you-could-possibly-imagine reboot of their stage show, which replaces the happy-happy-joy-joy bliss rallies they’ve been staging for the past decade. Gone are the balloons and blood and bubble-walking and the dancing Santa Clauses and […]
BEING THERE: Weezer @ The Met Philly
Photos by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Twenty-five years ago, a band that deliberately named itself Weezer helped rescue self-indulgent no-fucks-given arena rock from the grungy abyss of dejected disaffection that devoured the early ‘90s. In an era where Ed Vedder’s yarling angst and Kurt Cobain’s anthems for the apathetic were the prevailing aesthetic markers, Weezer again reminded us music didn’t always need a movement, and that the message didn’t need to be heavy for the guitars to be. If Soundgarden and Mudhoney reclaimed the hair from hair metal, and Beck made it cool to be a loser — Rivers Cuomo was there […]
CINEMA: Can’t We All Get Along
GREEN BOOK (Directed by Peter Farelly, 140 minutes, USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC ‘Based on a true story’ Green Book borrows its title from the Negro Motorist Green Book, informally called the “Green Book”. This mid-20th century guidebook was meant for African-American travelers, to let them know which hotels would be willing to host them in the Deep South. The film, which takes place in the mid-1960s stars as Viggo Mortensen as Tony “Lip” Vallelonga, a cardboard cutout of an Italian American stereotype who was a bouncer for the local night club. When the club closes for renovations, […]
BEING THERE: Manchester Orchestra @ Fillmore
Photo by MATT SHAVER Sitting in the lobby bar of the Fillmore, we can hear the first strains of Manchester Orchestra seeping through the showroom doors. “All of their songs are so slow,” Hannah is complaining. I don’t feel like arguing with her, so I just nod. Last year’s A Black Mile to the Surface feels cinematic and elaborately arranged, without being overbearing. It doesn’t feel like they’re trying to prove anything, scaling back after the noisy overproduction of their last projects. Singer-guitarist Andy Hull’s songwriting is his strongest attribute, his lyrics arresting in their vivid intensity. “I Know How […]
BEING THERE: Ghost @ The Tower Theater
Photo by MATT SHAVER I don’t think anyone in the history of time has received quite the bad rap that Satan has. Dude offers out a helping hand to two individuals thrust in to a new plane of existence, extensively written about by some folks who never even met him, and that one book has cast a shadow over his intentions for a couple of millennia now. Thankfully, the Swedish metal/satanic PR firm known as Ghost has descended upon the US to spread cheer and merriment this holiday season. Fronted by the elusive (and until 2017, anonymous) Tobias Forge (playing […]
UNDONE: The Complete Oral History Of Weezer
Artwork by Fuzzysocks102. EDITOR’S NOTE: A vastly shorter version of the following oral history of Weezer appeared in MAGNET MAGAZINE in 2014. In advance of Weezer’s performance at The Met tomorrow night, we are publishing the complete and unabridged version. Enjoy. “The best history of Weezer I have ever read.” — PAT WILSON, DRUMMER BY JONATHAN VALANIA This year the Blue Album turns 20, and Pinkerton is old enough to vote. Two decades-plus of being Weezer hasn’t all been Buddy Holly glasses and hash pipes for The Last Band Standing, Alt-Rock Class of ‘94. At various points along the way […]
BEING THERE: Soccer Mommy @ First Unitarian
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Wearing oversized wire-frame aviators and high pigtails supported by a small army of shiny barrettes, Sophie Allison serenaded a sold-out crowd of Philadelphia fans at the First Unitarian Church last night with her band, Soccer Mommy. Soccer Mommy’s early bedroom pop work evolved into the highly praised Clean, a 2018 record that deals with love, loss, and the overall existential struggles of most every young adult. It’s music that makes you crave the warmth of another while simultaneously feeling the pain of punching through the walls that Allison described in “Henry,” the opening song of the […]