If armies run on their stomachs, blogs run on their big fucking mouths. We’re no exception. But we’d like to think that, on a good day, we put all that hot air to good use when interrogating visiting dignitaries in advance of their triumphant arrival into the City Of Brotherly Love. We’ve never pretended to have all the answers but we do know all the right questions. And we’ve never settled for easy answers to hard questions. Sometimes feelings get hurt and sometimes new connections are made. Sometimes painful truths emerge and sometimes we actually learn something. And sometimes we […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Television @ The TLA
Television are/were legendary ’70s art-punk avatars who staged dead French symboliste poets society seances at CBGBs and scored the metaphysical proceedings with blazing epics of six-string sorcery. As one half of the Television’s incandescent guitar duality, Tom Verlaine wielded his Fender Jazzmaster like a sculptor’s carving tool, chiseling Venus de Milos of sound out of thin air. Second guitarist Richard Lloyd would then knock the arms off. Together they constructed ringing spires of guitar incandescence, erecting a chiming cathedral of sound in the church of the clustered overtone. And they called it Marquee Moon. Unto to the world a […]
NICK LOWE: Christmas At The Airport
FRESH AIR: When Nick Lowe was approached by his label to make a holiday album, he says he was “slightly appalled, really — we think it’s all a bit vulgar, you know, cashing in on Christmas.” Ultimately, Lowe says he took it as a challenge: Quality Street came out of that effort. It includes some traditional songs, such as “Silent Night,” as well as British Christmas favorites and some originals, such as “Christmas At The Airport.” Lowe recently visited the Fresh Air studio to talk with Terry Gross and perform songs from the album. MORE
BEING THERE: Modern Baseball @ The TLA
Photo by DYLAN LONG The TLA was jam packed last night for Philly’s very own Modern Baseball, homegrown pop-punksters known for their melodic leanings and turn-on-a-dime breakdowns. Opening up the sold-out show was a well-stacked lineup of buzzy bands, including Chicago pop-punkers Knuckle Puck and Beantown grinders Somos. Security had a busy night scooping up crowd surfers left and right while blaring, buzzsawing guitars had fists pumping skyward as the crowd’s energy continued to build. Brendan Lukens, Modern Baseball Jonah Hill-esque frontman, walked on stage a bit past 10, and cut to the quick: “Let’s just get started, we’re gonna […]
PAINT IT BLACK: Q&A With Paul Trynka, Author of “BRIAN JONES: The Making Of The Rolling Stones”
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A candid conversation with former MOJO editor Paul Trynka [pictured, below right] — author of IGGY POP: Open Up And Bleed and DAVID BOWIE: Star Man — about his new bio, BRIAN JONES: The Making Of The Rolling Stones. (The British version has a much edgier, and dare I say it Stonsier title, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL: The Birth Of The Rolling Stones & The Death Of Brian Jones. Guess Random House thinks the devil doesn’t get his due in America. We’re inclined to disagree, but that’s a conversation for another time.) DISCUSSED: Blowjobs, pills, genius, […]
INCOMING: Authorized John Coltrane Documentary
COLTRANEFILM: Set against the social, political and cultural landscape of his times, the film will reveal the passions and demons that shaped Coltrane’s life, and explore why his music transcends the barriers of race, religion and age as it continues to inspire listeners around the world decades after his death. Utilizing never-before-seen Coltrane family home movies and audio recordings along with rare film and television appearances, Coltrane’s incredible story will be told by the people who know him best: his family, the musicians that worked with him, and the cultural icons who continue to draw inspiration from his fearless […]
BEING THERE: Strand Of Oaks @ Union Transfer
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Arriving at Union Transfer to see Strand of Oaks play a homecoming show felt a lot like walking into a gathering of old friends, without knowing anyone. As a self-proclaimed lone wolf, it’s a territory I have explored many times before. I’m used to tapping through my phone for non-existent text messages and notifications while being surrounded by overly affectionate couples and groups of friends who are, like, “Oh my God, so glad you came.” Still, I knew I was in for a good, interesting time. The most important thing I’d recently learned about frontman […]
BEING THERE: The 1975 @ The Tower Theater
Photo by DYLAN LONG Last night in Upper Darbyland, 69th Street was crawling with fans anticipating one of the U.K.’s edgiest up-an-coming indie rock bands, The 1975. With just one studio album under their belt — anchored by raw, electrifying singles such as “Robbers”, “Chocolate” and “Sex” — the group is in the midst of a lengthy North American tour that brought them to the Tower last night. The electricity of the crowd was evident from the moment the doors of the Tower Theater opened ’til the last of the fans trickled out onto 69th & Ludlow. Young Rising Sons […]
Win Tix To See Skinny Puppy @ The Trocadero
Here’s a chance to re-live your gloriously misspent goth youth. Skinny Puppy, Canuck-ian avatars of the Ministry/NIN/Front Line Assembly school of bummer EDM for bad people, play the Troc tomorrow night, along with Front Line Assembly, and we have a pair of tix to giveaway to some lucky recovering goth/Phawker reader. To win, all you have to do is send us an email at FEED@PHAWKER.COM and share some mildly embarrassing personal factoid (Example: “I actually liked the first Ministry album, back when they still sounded like pussies”) or anecdote (“The jocks at school used to call me ‘Flock Of […]
BEING THERE: Slayer @ The Tower Theater
Photo by DAN LONG Nothing says ‘father/son outing’ like a Slayer concert, am I right? The ear-raping wall of guitar thrash, the blood red stage lights, the chest-thumping double-kick drum pummeling, the demonic, blood-curdling vocals. These are the building blocks of male bonding, at least in my household. So this show was on my bucket list – I wanted my 17-year-old son to see Slayer before any more of them die. I’ve been bringing him to shows since he was nine, so he’s no stranger to the scene, but this was Slayer. Scratch that, this was motherfucking Slayer! He was […]
BEING THERE: Dylan @ The Academy Of Music
Artist’s rendering The Academy of Music opera house in Philadelphia opened in 1857, which, if memory serves, is where and when Bob Dylan first went electric — much to the consternation of the stovepipe-hatted folkies in attendance, who felt he was selling out the purity of old-timey steam-powered protest anthems. It is said that Stephen A. Douglas was so incensed he attempted to chop the cable supplying power to the Academy stage with an axe and had to be wrestled to the ground by none other than Abraham Lincoln, who “licked him,” as Huckleberry Finn used to say. Historic records […]
BEING THERE: The New Pornographers @ UT
Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Ten minutes before arriving at Union Transfer to see the New Pornographers, I was dumped. Denied. Kicked to the curb. Or whatever you want to call it. Not to worry, “we can still be friends” I was told. Great. That’s just great. Having taken a crash course in the New Pornographers greatest hits and misses shortly before my arrival, I knew the show was going to feel like getting slapped upside the head with a happy stick. Great. That’s just great. But enough of me feeling sorry for myself, there were more important things to […]
How I Learned To Stop Worrying & Love Bob Dylan
Artwork by JOSHUA BUDICH BY MIKE WALSH Let me make this clear up front: I’m not a Dylan-head, Dylan-ite, Dylan-phile, Dylan-ologist, or any other kind of extreme Dylan fan. In fact, I never bought a Dylan record or CD until just a few years ago. I never saw the need. Growing up in the ’60s, Dylan was on the radio all the time —“Blowing in the Wind,“ “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,“ “The Times They Are a Changin’,“ “All I Really Want to Do,“ “It Ain’t Me Babe, “Mr. Tambourine Man,“ etc., etc. Plus, many other bands had hits […]