Photo by NOAH SILVESTRY I have seen Cheers Elephant do their thing on stage twice now, and I can say for sure that these Philly natives bring more fun and light to a roomful of people than any other band I’ve seen in my 17 years on Earth. Their relocation to L.A. was nothing short of a tragedy to their Philly fan base. It was with a heavy heart that I wrote the following about their “Farewell For Now, Philadelphia” show back in November of 2013: Between [frontman Derek] Kryzwicki bouncing around and doing the running-man and drummer Robert Kingsly, […]
EXCERPT: Where The Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are From Dave Matthews Band-loving-anarcho-hippie-feminista-puppeteer to indie rock’s warpaint-smeared world-beating It Girl in just 10 years, tUnE-yArDs wonder woman Merrill Garbus has been chasing The Real Thing from the mythical savannas of Africa to the humid ruins of Haiti, from the leafy Birkenstocked redoubts of New England to the sun-kissed liberal paradise of the Bay Area. MAGNET goes Left Coast to find out why she still hasn’t found what she’s looking for. By Jonathan Valania Merrill Garbus has this weird obsession with eating babies. It comes up a lot, and she doesn’t even try to […]
BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY: Live From Wizard World
We duly deputized the gang from Panic Hour as our Geek Space Correspondents and sent them to Wizard World to ask the really hard questions nobody has the guts to ask anymore. No geeks were hurt in the making of this video. Special thanks to Scrapple TV/Woodshop Films, our partners in new media crime.
BOOKS: Q&A With Joel Selvin, Author Of HERE COMES THE NIGHT: The Dark Soul Of Bert Berns & The Dirty Business Of Rhythm & Blues
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Bert Berns, the greatest songwriter/producer you never heard of, was not long for this world. Born with a congenital heart defect, he was told he would not live to see 21, and though he defied prevailing medical opinion, he was dead before he turned 39. Berns [PICTURED, ABOVE RIGHT didn’t start working in the music business until he was 30, but over the course of the next eight years he wrote and/or produced some of the greatest singles of all time: The Isley Brothers’ “Twist And Shout,” The Drifters’ “Under The Boardwalk,” Solomon Burke [PICTURED, ABOVE […]
Win Tix To See The English Beat @ The Prince
To paraphrase Lester Bangs, we will never agree on anything like we agree on The English Beat. At least that was the deal back in 1982. “Save It For Later” was the “Waterloo Sunset” of the 80s. Everyone we know loves “Waterloo Sunset” and we don’t wanna know anybody who don’t. Sorry to be a hard-ass about that, but that’s just the way it is. All of which is a long way of saying we just happen to have a pair of tickets to see The English Beat at The Prince on Sunday to giveaway to some lucky Phawker […]
TONIGHT: Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die
A man who needs no last name, Willie is to country & western what Neil is to dad-rock: the Buddha, bestowing laid-back grace on all those who bask in his benevolent THC-tinged glow. Born April 30, 1933, in Abbott, Texas, Nelson begins writing songs at age seven. After serving briefly in the Air Force during the Korean War and studying agriculture at Baylor University, Nelson moves through a series of luckless, low-paying career changes–disc jockey; door-to-door vacuum and encyclopedia salesman. By 1958, in dire financial straits and married with children, Nelson is forced to sell his songs for cheap […]
INCOMING: David Bowie Live At The Tower 1974
September 23 sees the release of another very special limited David Bowie 7″ picture disc release, the 40th anniversary edition of KNOCK ON WOOD (LIVE) / ROCK ‘N’ ROLL WITH ME (LIVE). Originally released in autumn 1974 and taken from David Live, these two 2005 mixes by Tony Visconti are making their vinyl debut. The original David Live single mix of “Knock On Wood” was a UK top 10, however the US went with “Rock ‘n’ Roll With Me,” also from David Live, in response to Donovan’s recent cover version there. DAVID BOWIE KNOCK ON WOOD (LIVE) / ROCK […]
MAXIMUM Q&A: F*cking With Fuck Buttons
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Fuck Buttons is an electronic music duo from Bristol England that make mesmerizing, prismatic soundscapes out of children’s toys and low-rent thrift store electronics. Since 2008 they have released three critically acclaimed albums. They play Underground Arts on Saturday June 14th in support of last year’s Slow Focus. Recently we got Benjamin Power and Andrew Hungon the horn to find out what the hell they are on, how they get the sounds they get, and how you explain to your family around the table over Christmas dinner that you’ve decided to devote your life to something […]
WE ARE FAMILY: Meet The Tweedies
BPM RECORDS: Jeff Tweedy, best known as the founder of the pioneering Chicago rock band Wilco, will release a new album Sept. 16 through his own dBpm Records. The album, Sukierae (sue-key-ray), is not quite a solo effort. It is the debut release by the aptly-monikered duo, Tweedy, which features 20 new Jeff Tweedy-written songs, performed by Jeff in a musical collaboration with his 18-year-old son and drummer Spencer Tweedy. “When I set out to make this record, I imagined it being a solo thing, but not in the sense of one guy strumming an acoustic guitar and singing,” […]
Win Tix To See Psychedelic Soul Garage Stompers King Khan & The Shrines @ The TLA Tonight!
Never heard of King Khan & The Shrines? Loser. OK, OK, that was hurtful and unnecessary. But you are in serious danger of falling behind, so listen up. There’s only two things you need to know about King Khan. First, every song sounds like some awesome, party-down mash-up of James Brown & The Famous Flames’ “Get On Up” and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels’ “Devil With A Blue Dress On.” Let’s toss it over to Wikipedia for the second thing you need to know: Antics and appearance King Khan is noted across garage rock revival circles […]
BEING THERE: Roots Picnic 2014
Photos by PETE TROSHAK The Roots hosted their 7th annual picnic at Festival Pier on Saturday and, like the band itself, The Roots Picnic brand has aged like fine wine, with this year’s edition maybe being the best ever. The 2014 edition featured a series of incredible performances including a star-making turn by one rookie rapper and a must-see collaboration between hosts The Roots and one of the most successful and iconic singers in hip-hop’s illustrious history, Snoop Dogg. Early arrivers were treated to a fun performance by Roman Gianarthur, who delivered a Prince-like set of funk, some amazing guitar […]
Talking Guided By Voices w/ Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary, United States Of America
Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally ran September 12th 2012. We present this encore edition to mark the news that Carney has just resigned his White House Press Sec. post, with a lengthy, never-before published exchange about 9/11 wherein Carney speaks at length about being on Air Force One as a reporter for TIME Magazine on that day. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Back in the spring, MAGNET’s collective jaw dropped when we learned that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declared, in the middle of a briefing with the Washington press corps, that Guided By Voices was “the […]
NOVOCAINE FOR THE SOUL: Q&A w/ Eels
BY JONATHAN VALANIA It’s hard to believe there’s been 10 albums since 1996’s Beautiful Freak and the song “Novocaine For The Soul” — a three minute and eight second fever dream for the ears — that started it all. (Key line: “Life is white and I am black/Jesus and his lawyer are coming back”) And yet here we are. For the uninitiated, Eels is essentially Mark Everett’s one-man band of joy. Comfort and joy. And Beefheart-ian electro-shock pop. Think of it as mental dance music for the heavily medicated and Mark Everett is the white-suited John Travolta of the […]