EDITOR’S NOTE: In honor of the re-activated Replacements playing the Festival Pier on Saturday, we’re re-running Mats Week. Look for Replacements lore and legend all week on a Phawker near you! BY JONATHAN VALANIA The Replacements were made to be broken, and it’s a minor miracle they lasted eight albums, spread out over the course of a lost decade. In the end, the dream got too tired to come true, but for a brief and shining moment, it seemed like anything was possible. “For a while there, Paul had no idea how good a songwriter he was,” says Jesperson. “I […]
Win Tix To See Swede-Pop Queen Tove Styrke
It all comes down to this: You want tix to see Swedish electro-pop queen Tove Styrke — think Madonna circa “Borderline” but with a slight Viking aftertaste — at Underground Arts on May 5th and we got ’em. 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 […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See They Might Be Giants
SLATE: They Might Be Giants had cut their teeth in New York’s early-’80s No Wave scene, playing the overly exuberant kid brother to “serious” acts like Sonic Youth and Swans. Armed with samplers, puppets, and yardstick-tall hats, they earned a reputation as thrillingly bizarro showmen. Every journalist who reviewed the duo exhausted his thesaurus in search of synonyms for quirky. But with modern ears, we can hear something in They Might Be Giants’ music more profound and specific than what Roget might call eccentric, madcap, or zany.” MORE PHAWKER: We have a coupla pair of tix to see They […]
WHAT A DRAG IT IS GETTING OLD: Iggy Turns 68
VOGUE: “I stare at myself in the mirror and I think, Wow, I’m really great-looking . . . I think I’m the greatest, anyway,” the great-looking musician, occasional actor, and undisputed style icon Iggy Pop once said. Pop was born James Newell Osterberg, Jr., in Muskegon, Michigan, on April 21, 1947, which means he is 68 today! Unlike so many of his angry punk brothers and sisters, he has nothing but lovely things to say about his upbringing—his parents even gave up their master bedroom in the trailer where they lived so that Jimmy would have a place big […]
EXCLUSIVE: Q&A With Neutral Milk’s Jeff Mangum
BY JONATHAN VALANIA In 1998, Neutral Milk Hotel released an album of hallucinatory folk-rock called In The Aeroplane Over The Sea that is, it can be said without fear of exaggeration, nothing short of a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Like Pet Sounds or My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless or Love’s Forever Changes, it is lightning caught in a bottle, one of those rare perfect albums that come along maybe once a decade. Or once a lifetime. In 1999, Jeff Mangum — Neutral Milk’s singer, songwriter and primary guitarist — disappeared from public life without explanation, declining all entreaties to […]
BEING THERE: Decibel Mag Tour @ Union Transfer
Photo by DYLAN LONG The Decibel Magazine Tour made its Philadelphia stop this past Saturday at a packed-to-the-brim Union Transfer, as hardcore and metal fans flocked from far and wide to experience the likes of Vallenfyre, Pallbearer, Converge, and At The Gates. Each band brought a unique sound to the table, all while sharing the communal staples of headbang-inducing riffs and sympathy for the devil. Salem, Mass. hardcore heads Converge exploded onto the stage as openers for At The Gates, but it’s fair game to say that these guys stole the show. Vocalist Jacob Bannon spent the set in a […]
Win Tix To See The Legendary Sonics @ The TLA!
Artwork by AKIKO KATO The Sonics were just four teens from the Pacific Northwest at the dawn of the ‘60s making some of the most primitive and primal rock n’ roll ever committed to wax, and in the process almost singlehandedly invented garage, punk, grunge and metal. Everyone from the Cramps, Dead Boys and Bruce fucking Springsteen to the White Stripes, Nirvana and Mudhoney have acknowledged their sonic debt to the Sonics. After five decades of silence, the Sonics are back with This Is The Sonics, their first proper album since 1967. Though they are old enough to be your […]
BEING THERE: Electric Wizard @ Union Transfer
Photo by DAN LONG I don’t have many vices anymore, but catching the first night of a highly anticipated tour is an addiction — especially this night. Dorset, England’s Electric Wizard is the epitome of doom. It’s not just the satanic guitar licks and the subterranean rumble of the bass, it’s also the dreadful lyrics, wherein the band revels in the occult, horror, drugs and death — all appealing things to a sick girl like me. To see this band live is a fuckin’ treat to say the very least. Their stateside live appearances are highly infrequent, which makes it […]
ENDORSEMENT: Just Sayin’
I am willing to sign a sworn affidavit declaring that I do not know this person, nor does he owe me money. RELATED: Isaac Brock Is Tired Of Being A Myth
BEING THERE: The War On Drugs @ The Tower
Photo by DYLAN LONG Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs cast a spell over the capacity crowd at the Tower Theater Friday night with their celebrated brand of ethereal guitar rock. Their first song of the night, the gloriously woozy “Under Pressure,” is also the lead-off track of their highly-acclaimed 2014 LP Lost In A Dream, which was fitting considering that the runaway success of that album was the reason they were playing the Tower instead of Johnny Brenda’s. Granduciel’s Dylanesque vocals and wobbling tremolo-ed guitar echoed off the walls and the tall, broad ceiling of the Tower, creating a lush […]
BEING THERE: Meek Mill @ Wells Fargo Center
Photo by DYLAN LONG Last night, Meek Mill, one of the most opulent and admired self-made rappers to emerge from the 215, brought the roof down at Wells Fargo Center. To be fair, he had some help: namely the likes of French Montana, Rick Ross and P Diddy. From the second Mill’s rise-to-fame introductory video played across a massive LED backdrop, his intense presence and persona threw the sold-out arena into a trapped out frenzy. His massive Philadelphia fan base came out in full force, rapping along at the top of their lungs to every single track he played out. […]
Win Tix To See Blackberry Smoke @ The E-Factory
If you’re one of those people who yells “Freebird!” ironically right before the encore at every friggin’ show you go to — you know who you are — you really need to A) stop it, that joke hasn’t been funny since, like, 1997 and B) get your shit-kickin’ Southern Rawk card punched. And punched hard. We can help. We have a pair of tix to see Blackberry Smoke — neo-redneck-hippie rockers from Georgia who work that sweet spot where Lynyrd meets Skynyrd, where Allman meets Brothers, where .38 meets Special and Jack Daniels meets Mary Jane — at the […]
BEING THERE: Hozier @ The Electric Factory
Photo by DYLAN LONG To say that last night’s sold out performance at the Electric Factory by Irish pop sensation Andrew Hozier-Byrne — known simply as Hozier — was “highly anticipated” by most, if not all, babysitter-aged young ladies in the Tri-State area is an understatement on par with “invading Iraq might have been a bad idea” or “Dallas Cowboys fans are assholes.” Last night, Hozier’s tight brogue and loose man-bun had teenage girls in the front row squealing and swooning as he effortlessly cruised through his set like it was a 90-minute victory lap, taking time between nearly every […]