Artwork by CHUCK SPERRY The Drive-By Truckers have a well-earned rep for consistently delivering grungy Southern rock operas set in places where red meets neck, where life is hard and folks die soft and squishy and often emphysemic, dirty deeds get done dirt cheap, and everyone goes to church but nobody really goes to heaven. Where dubious characters — jaded pole workers, homicidal preachers’ wives, and modern drunkards — lead self-inflicted lives of quiet desperation in high-def whiskey-hued vérité. Everyone’s on something – booze, pills, God, or all the above – and before all is said and done, they’re gonna […]
BEING THERE: Eagles Of Death Metal @ Underground Arts
Photo by TOM BECK What I love about The Eagles of Death Metal is that they’re one of those token cartoonish bands who refuse to take themselves seriously, but still somehow manage to find a way to come together and make kick-ass rock and roll. It’s a style pioneered by The Damned, and difficult to accomplish without coming across as a cheesy, Weird Al wannabe. Few other bands have achieved such a feat, among them The Darkness, Tenacious D, Weezer, Ween, and probably most famously, Nirvana. Some people might put Kiss in this category, but they don’t count. Kiss was […]
BEING THERE: Micachu & The Shapes @ The Boot and Saddle
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ I found Micachu and the Shapes’ arrival fitting for the seasonal transition out of annoyingly happy summer music festival season. I wanted so badly for them to drag all of us at Boot and Saddle last night by the hair into an atypically breezy autumn night and to rock us into early onset seasonal depression. I waited with the crowd on our collective tippy toes, our ears ready to be embraced by the bittersweet sound of Mica Levi [PICTURED, ABOVE] shredding on some old guitar— it would possibly be something handmade. We knew she would […]
BEING THERE: Wovenhand @ Underground Arts
Photo by DAN LONG The rainy late summer evening cast a suitably gloomy pall over last night’s proceedings, but the damp masses in Philly’s Underground Arts created a sorta human humidity that sapped the luster of yours truly. I was there to bear witness to another performance by the tragically but not surprisingly unheralded Denver-based gothic Americana outfit Wovenhand. For the uninitiated please allow me to smarten ya up some: David Eugene Edwards, the wunderkind/visonary behind Wovenhand, has been making haunting, beguiling music in one aggregation or another since 2001. Before Wovenhand, Edwards helmed the awesome mule-kicking combo 16 Horsepower. […]
Win Tix To See The L7 Reunion @ The Trocadero
Let us set the Wayback Machine to planet 1992. Where the women wore the combat boots and the men wore the mascara and fishnets — well, at least Kurt Cobain did. Girls rioted. The glass ceiling on the moshpit was shattered (in hindsight, glass was probably a poor choice for a mosh pit ceiling). And the Lolla first Palooza-ed. LA-based all-girl alt-rockers L7 led the charge of girl-positive rockers like Hole, Babes In Toyland and The Breeders who kicked down the door of the old boys club that was rock n’ roll. Things would never be the same. Fast […]
INCOMING: Win Tix To Making Time’s RAD-B-Q
On Sunday Making Time is hosting their annual Making Time Rad-B-Q thingee at “the magical tiki oasis that is Bamboo Bar” at The Roxxy. We have a pair of tickets to give away to some lucky reader, all you have to do is A) follow us on Twitter B) send us an email at FEED@PHAWKER.COM telling us you have done so as well as the answer to this trivia question C) Name the song and the band who wrote and recorded it that gave Making Time it’s name. Include your full name and a mobile number for confirmation. Put […]
DEAD WEATHER: I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)
New album, DODGE & BURN, drops September 25th. PREVIOUSLY: Jack White has a new band! And he’s the drummer! That’s right, he is now recording with THREE different groups, not to mention putting out a solo single, managing a record label, and being in a movie this year. You would think the man would be stretched thin by now between all his commitments, but apparently he thrives on having to do a lot of stuff, judging from the non-existent drop in quality. This album is much darker than anything he has done before, lyrically and musically, with songs like “So […]
Q&A With Benjamin Booker, Blooze Hammerer
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally posted on October 20th 2014 BY JONATHAN VALANIA It’s been quite a year for Benjamin Booker, hand-picked opener for the Jack White’s Lazaretto tour, going electric at Norfolk, going crazy on Letterman — not bad for a 25-year-old community gardener from New Orleans. Booker broke onto the scene earlier this year with his righteous, trance-inducing blooze hammering self-titled debut, shot thru with dizzyingly ecstatic Delta blues demolition and the most shiver-inducing lupine howl heard since the day Tom Waits gargled broken glass and washed it down with gasoline when he was, like, nine. Sounds like […]
Win Tix To See Killers Frontman Brandon Flowers
We have a coupla pair of tix to see The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers perform at the Electric Factory tomorrow night in support of his just-released sophomore solo album, The Desired Effect. To qualify to win, all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list (see right, below the masthead). Trust us, this is something you want to do. In addition to breaking news alerts and Phawker updates, you also get advanced warning about groovy concert ticket giveaways and other free swag opportunities like this one! After signing up, send us an email at FEED@PHAWKER.COM telling […]
Win Tix To See Jason Isbell @ Electric Factory Wed.
We are very honored and excited to announce that we have a pair of tickets to give away to some lucky Phawker reader to see Jason Isbell — whose new album Something More Than Free just debuted the Billboard country charts at NUMBER ONE– perform at the Electric Factory tomorrow night, Wednesday July 29th! (NOTE: The show was moved from the Mann’s Skyline Stage to the Electric Factory.) What’s that you say? ‘Who is Jason Tinkerbell?’ We’re gonna forget you said that and meet you on the other side of this New York Times profile from 2013: He found […]
BEING THERE: Saturday @ XPoNential Fest
St. Vincent, Susquehanna Bank Center last night by PETE TROSHAK WXPN’s XPoNential Festival is one of the yearly highlights of the Philly summer concert calendar, and the 2015 edition was no exception. The festival draws over 25,000 fans, spans three days and this year included over 30 performances. If you were only going to make it to one day of the festival this year Saturday was the one to choose with a stellar lineup of fiercely talented lesser known musicians on outdoor stages during the day and the dynamic one-two punch of St. Vincent and My Morning Jacket closing the […]
THE OHIO PLAYER: A Q&A With Kelley Deal
Photo by CHRIS GLASS BY JONATHAN VALANIA A word of warning: This intro is gonna be one of those pieces where I go on and on about my little monkey shines with famous alt-rock personalities. Millions of people love it when I do that, but others seem to get very, very angry about it, stomp their feet and write mean letters that hurt my feelings. If that sounds like you, stop reading right now. I’m serious. I don’t want to even see you in the second paragraph. The year is 1994. The Breeders had just broken huge, and somebody had […]
FREE WILCO: Let Wild Dad-Rock Rumpus Begin!
A.V. CLUB: Demonstrating that just because it was around in the ’90s doesn’t mean it doesn’t understand the internet, Wilco just became the latest band to release a free surprise album on its website. Called Star Wars and adorned with a painting of a cat—because, again, Wilco knows what the people like—the album consists of 11 original songs and is available as a free download on the Wilco website. Just enter your email, follow the link, download the .zip file, and boom. New Wilco album. MORE