Artwork by EDGEART If Jonathan Richman didn’t already exist, we would have never thought to invent him, which is a testament to both his originality and the shortcomings of our collective imagination. For going on a half century, Richman has been a tireless advocate of hopeful romanticism, rugged individualism and unyielding optimism, traveling the world like some post-modern Jimmy Stewart, armed with nothing more than a stripey shirt and a beat up acoustic guitar, telling anyone that would listen that, despite all the hard-bitten cynicism that surrounds him, it’s still a wonderful life. He is, in short, the immaculate heart […]
I HEAR A DARKNESS: Q&A With Will Oldham
[Photo by JEFF RUTHERFORD] EDITOR’S NOTE: Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy shares the bill with Jonathan Richman Sunday night for a sold out show at Union Transfer. Oldham is touring in support of last year’s I Made A Place, his first LP of new songs since 2011. To mark this auspicious occasion, we are re-posting our 2010 Q&A w/ the irascible Mr. Oldham. Enjoy. NEW YORKER: Oldham remains an elusive figure, but the show is a gentle reminder of why he is often cited as one of the finest singer-songwriters in contemporary American music. Oldham was a student of […]
THE DREAM SYNDICATE: Regulator
LA indie rock forbearers The Dream Syndicate are announcing their third ANTI- Records release today. Titled The Universe Inside, the mind-bending new album will be released on April 10. First single “The Regulator” kicks in instantly; at twenty minutes long, immerse yourself in the song. Directed by David Daglish, the video is a psychedelic journey through New York City, equal parts panoramic, psychedelic, somnambulistic and political in all the best ways. George Harrison once said, “arrive without traveling.” This is your ticket to The Universe Inside. Reminiscent of 70s Miles Davis and his chaotic brilliance, the track starts all fired […]
BEING THERE: Black Lips @ First Unitarian
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER I have to admit that when I first checked out the Black Lips about a decade ago, it had nothing to do with their music. I’d never heard it. Rather, I was drawn in by their already legendary antics such as whipping their junk out, vomiting, and kissing one another. That last stunt allegedly got them kicked out of India. This stuff may seem pedestrian to you, my faithful old-school punk reader, but for a dyed-in-the-wool folkie like me it sounded super-cool. I mean, in the folk world, the worst we get up to is, say, […]
BEING THERE: The Black Crowes @ The Foundry
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER After breaking up three years prior, The Black Crowes reunited in 2005 and began work on a record that would shift away from the rollicking radio-ready electric blues boogie of Shake Your Money Maker and the space-kissed psychedelia of 2001’s Lions. The resulting LP, 2008’s Warpaint, featured a balanced narrative of contemplative ballads on America’s southern mountain life: bittersweet odes to sunsets, backwoods swamp-stomp evangelism and a subtle, irreverent iconoclasm reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor. All of which revealed Chris’ and Rich Robinson’s deep roots in the lore of early-20th-century Appalachian folk music that framed up new […]
GIRL UNINTERRUPTED: Q&A w/ Amy Rigby
BY SOPHIE BURKHOLDER A Catholic-raised Pittsburgh girl, Amy Rigby fled her steel mill hometown for New York, then in its mid-70s punk prime to attend Parsons School of Design. Soon shrouding her eyes in black liner, she quickly became a fixture at CBGB and fell into a crowd of downtown punk scenesters. Her love of music grew into a passion for making her own, first with bands like Last Roundup and The Shams, and later on her own. Her first solo album, 1996’s Diary of a Mod Housewife, received widespread critical acclaim in the press a few short years […]
EXCLUSIVE: Nick Cave @ The Mann Presale Code
PRESALE Thursday, February 20 from 10am to 10pm EST PASSWORD = HOLLYWOOD PUBLIC ON SALE Friday, February 21 at 10am EST https://www1.ticketmaster.com/nick-cave-the-bad-seeds/event/02005838D413C1E9
NEIL NATHAN: Promised Land
? Since his folky cover of ELO’s “Do Ya,” produced by Mike ‘Slo-Mo’ Brenner, which earned the praise of its legendary composer, Jeff Lynne, and was included on the Showtime hit “Californication” — the multi-faceted artist Neil Nathan (neilnathan.com) has made an art form of joyfully genre bending record making, jumping seamlessly between glam rock, garage, americana, power pop, alt country, and folk, while recording in Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Texas, and Brooklyn. But for the past three years, Neil’s been primarily holed up at Studio1935 in South Philadelphia, collaborating with Producer Mike ‘Slo-Mo’ Brenner and Engineer/Co-producer Pete Rydberg, on a […]
FROM THE VAULT: Bring The Noise
Artwork by DAUBER EDITOR’S NOTE: The following originally published in the Philadelphia Weekly back in 2006. We are reprising it here today in response to the news of Rage Against The Machine reuniting for a world tour. DISCUSSED: IRISH GIRLFRIENDS; THE IRA; RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE; MUMIA; PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN; THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF DEMOCRACY BY JONATHAN VALANIA Five years and three girlfriends ago, Rage Against the Machine was on the FOP shitlist for staging a Free Mumia concert at the Meadowlands. Mumia, as you may have heard, was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. None […]
How I Learned To Stop Hating On Taylor Swift
BY RACHEL TESON I’ve never been a big fan of Taylor Swift. Sure, I grew up singing “Teardrops On My Guitar” and “Should’ve Said No” among her other early country songs. As I got older, and became more familiar with social media, I began to actively dislike the star, but if you had asked me, I would not have been able to give you a reason why. After watching her documentary Miss Americana, now streaming on Netflix, I discovered what that reason was — the Celebrity Industrial Complex. I thought that T.S. wrote the same generic love songs because she […]
BOB MARLEY: Redemption Song
ROLLING STONE: The Marley family, Universal Music and Island Records have teamed up to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Bob Marley & the Wailers’ “Redemption Song” with an inspirational video. Created by French artists Octave Marsal and Theo De Gueltzl, the clip features nearly 3,000 original drawings that represent the song’s message of emancipation. Jamaican imagery fills the screen as a powerful lion wears a crown, eventually growing wings and flying away from a kingdom. Marley can be seen strumming an acoustic guitar filled with flowers. MORE
BEING THERE: Kiss @ The PP&L Center
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Could have been the fact that I was recently promoted to Theater Critic at Phawker and have a background in Kabuki. Or the fact that both my wife (who, concerned for my personal safety in Trump territory, forbade me from donning my Lizzie Warren kit) and my editor (who blew out of there like some sort of psyclone ranger during the Reagan era) are from Allentown and this, therefore, would practically be a family affair. Or maybe it was just my desire for an alternate State of the Union. No matter. On Tuesday night I laid […]
LISTEN: The Cars Circa ’77 Live Tape Surfaces
DANGEROUS MINDS: A pre-fame live tape of a show by new wave heroes the Cars recently surfaced online. The 1977 recording documents the Boston band less than a year on from their concert debut, and just when they were starting to gain some notoriety. The tape contains songs that are now classics, as well as those that are only known to diehard fans, including a few that have never been released. The gig took place at the Paradise Theater, a small Boston venue, on October 1st, 1977. At the time, the Cars hadn’t been together all that long, but […]