EDITOR’S NOTE: An excerpt of this story first posted July 26th 2013. To mark the occasion of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros frontman Alex Ebert winning a Golden Globe just a few moments ago, here is the complete story. Twenty-First Century ambassadors of peace and magic or dopey Christian hippie cult on wheels? MAGNET goes to Bonnaroo to find the answer and bears witness to the third coming of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. BY JONATHAN VALANIA It’s a few clicks before zero dark thirty backstage at Bonnaroo’s Which Stage where Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes are […]
THIS IS OUR MUSIC: Our Favorite Albums Of 2013
In the immortal words of the Chairman Of The Board, it was a very good year. So was last year, and the one before that and the one before that and so on. Why? Mostly, we can thank the disruptive, game-eating power of the Internet. The best thing that ever happened to music was the web-abetted collapse of the music industry’s one-size-fit-most paradigm and the death of radio as the prime determinant of what people like. Now people find music everywhere, it literally rains out of everything with an electric pulse, which has triggered a radical re-calibration of the […]
Q&A w/ David Johansen, Gutter Punk, Glam Queen, Lounge Lizard, Protean Bluesman, Living Legend
Illustration by DANIEL ZEPPO David Johansen was cool before your grandparents even thought about making your parents — and 40-plus years later he shows no signs of becoming uncool any time soon. He prefigured glam and punk with the cross-dressing garage-squawk of The New York Dolls in the ’70s. He prefigured the age of kitsch and retro-chic with pompadoured lounge lizard Buster Poindexter in the ’80s. And he prefigured the enduring fascination with the fossilized forms of music that prefigured rock n’ roll — what Greil Marcus famously dubbed “the old, weird America” — with the Harry Smiths at the […]
MEDIA: The Least Trusted Name In News
Psyched to see our former colleague and Scrapple News anchorman AP Ticker, aka Frank Baker, on the cover of PW this week. AP Ticker is, among other things, The Second Most Interesting Man In The World (after the Dos Equis guy). PW: Sounds like Ticker is quite the unsung pioneer of television news. “He actually coined the phrase, ‘We’ll be right back,’” continues Baker. “Until then, it had been very awkward for anchormen. Because they would say, ‘We’re going to be here, but we’re going to a commercial now, but we’re not actually going to leave.’ It was very long. […]
BEING THERE: Washed Out @ The Electric Factory
Photo by NOAH SILVESTRY Some say chillwave is the new shoegaze. Others say shoegaze is the old chillwave. I say who cares about nomenclature if the music feels right? Making good-feeling music has become a mission statement for Ernest Greene, the auteur behind Subpop’s resident chillwave/shoegazers Washed Out. Greene eschews complex rhythms and intricate vocal arrangements in favor of lush sonics and velveteen song structures that feel good when they rub up against your cochlea. In the studio Washed Out is a one man band, but last night at the Electric Factory Greene brought with him an entire backing band […]
BEING THERE: Goblin @ The Trocadero
Photo by PETE TROSHAK Legendary Italian soundtrack instrumentalists Goblin arrived in Philly Thursday night delivering a crowd pleasing two hour set to a fan-base that had waited forty years to see them. The band is in the middle of the their first U.S. tour ever featuring four-fifths of the seminal original line-up of the band — drummer Agostino Marangolo, guitarist Massimo Morante, keyboard player Maurizio Guarini and bassist Fabio Pignatelli. The band built their legend composing scores for Giallo movie maestro Dario Argento, Italy’s answer to Alfred Hitchcock. Their most famous work was the soundtrack to Argento’s film Suspiria – […]
Win Tix To See Heyward Howkins @ JB’s
If there was a more beautiful, idiosyncratic and intelligently-designed debut released last year than Heyward Howkins’ Hale & Hearty, then I didn’t hear it. Heyward Howkins is basically a one-man band of joy helmed by Mr. John Heyward Howkins, a recovering geologist/e-book editor come indie-rock savant. Imagine, if you will, M. Ward and Antony naked and slathered in milk and honey, sealed in a giant clamshell to baste for a thousand years. A millennium from now, long after the oceans have evaporated and the insects once again rule the earth, when the shell opens music-box style, there will be […]
BEING THERE: Cults @ The TLA
Photo by PETE TROSHAK Trippy NYC duo Cults brought their dreamy hybrid of 60s girl groups and psychedelic pop to the Theatre of Living Arts last night. Guitarist Brian Oblivion and singer Madeline Follin record as a duo but onstage they are augmented by a bass player, a drummer and a guitar/keyboard/xylophone player. Live the music has more teeth – clanging guitars, gut-rumbling bass and some primal drumming give the music more punch and aggression than their recordings would lead you to expect. Follin hung on the mic all night, giving the crowd intense smoldering stares as her powerful baby […]
The Walkmen To Go Dark After Philly Rail Park Benefit Concert, Become Stylish Stay-At-Home Dads
PITCHFORK: In an interview with The Washington Post, Peter Bauer said that after some shows next week, the Walkmen have no plans to continue. Though they note that they aren’t “officially breaking up,” Bauer said, “We have no future plans whatsoever. I’d call it a pretty extreme hiatus.” Later, he added, “It’s been almost 14 years now. I think that’s enough, you know?” Their final two shows for the foreseeable future are tomorrow at Union Market in Washington, DC and December 4 at Philadelphia’s Union Transfer. The future of the band, both as a recording and touring entity, is uncertain: “We really just have no […]
MOGWAI: The Lord Is Out Of Control
Possibly the greatest song title ever made. Filmed on location in Hawaii by Antony Crook. From the Rave Tapes box set, out January 21st on Sub Pop. Mogwai plays Union Transfer on May 8th. You have been warned.
Win Tix To See Amos Lee @ The Tower On Wed.
It’s always heartening to see a young, talented and hard-working artist climb his/her way up the food chain from coffee shop to the big top. It’s even better when it’s somebody local. His gentle, homegrown folk/soul/blues amalgam is perched somewhere between John Prine and Norah Jones — think what if Bill Withers grew up in South Philly — earned him an elite slot on the Blue Note roster and touring invites from everyone from the likes of Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, Merle Haggard, Van Morrison, John Prine, Dave Matthews Band, Adele. Last month he released his fifth […]
BEING THERE: Minor Alps @ World Cafe Live
Photo by PETE TROSHAK Juliana Hatfield and Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws brought their collaborative acoustic project, Minor Alps, to Philly for an eminently entertaining show at World Café Live Friday night. The duo is touring in support of their excellent and critically well-received debut album Get There, which successfully blends ’90s alt-rock with Everly Brothers style harmonies. They took the stage armed with just their acoustic guitars and a small mellotron-style keyboard that Hatfield occasionally jammed on. This duo doesn’t need extra equipment, their magic is in how perfectly Caws and Hatfield’s voices mesh. Live and on record, Caws’ strong […]
BEING THERE: Mazzy Star @ Union Transfer
Photo by LUZ GALLARDO Not sure how Mazzy Star wound up being one of those band’s that releases a new album with the regularity of a Haley’s Comet flyover, but as a long time fan of all things Mazzy Star-connected (Rain Parade, Dream Syndicate, Clay Allison, Opal) I’ll not look a gift horse in the mouth. It’s kind of like you’re cool stoner older brother who went to Paris to become a painter and disappeared into the sweet oblivion of heroin for 17 years suddenly showing up for Thanksgiving unannounced. Nobody asks too many questions, we’re just glad he’s here. […]