Sigur Rós announce the ultimate U.S. leg of their globe-spanning tour, which will consist of a final, 20-show including their return to the Mann in Philadelphia on Friday, September 20th. The tour began at the Mann almost exactly one year ago trailing the release of the band’s sixth studio album Valtari, and will continue following next week’s release of its hard-rocking successor, Kveikur (out June 18th). Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 AM! NEW YORK TIMES: The concert lasted two hours. It introduced some strong new material from the band’s album “Kveikur,” to be released on XL Recordings […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See The National @ The Mann
If Joy Division had a horn section and grew up in Ohio instead of Manchester, they would have been called The National and Ian Curtis would still be dead. Speaking of which, we have a pair of tix to see The National perform in support of the just released Trouble Will Find Me tomorrow night at The Mann Music Center! To qualify, you need to sign up for our mailing list (see right, below the masthead), trust us you want to do this. You get first dibs on concert ticket giveaways, breaking news alerts and other assorted be-the-first-on-your-block type […]
BEING THERE: This Machine Kills Fascists
Gary Clark Jr., Festival Pier, Roots Picnic, Saturday 7:07 pm by JEFF FUSCO PREVIOUSLY: Pete Troshak’s photos and review The Roots Picnic 2013
BEING THERE: The Roots Picnic 2013
Photos by PETE TROSHAK For going on six years, The Roots Picnic has been kicking off summer in the city with a diverse eleven hour bonanza of music in blazing 90 degree heat. This year was no different. Hot as hell? Check. Diverse? As with previous years, the line up was all over the place and everywhere at once. Which is to say, double-check. The mainstage crowd was warmed up by Jennah Bell’s rootsy rock and Sonnymoon’s carnal electronic music. Philly’s own Lushlife jumpstarted the second stage tent with an intense, sweaty one-man-and-a-laptop psychedelic hip-hop throwdown. The Robert Glaser Experiment […]
WORTH REPEATING: Misty Mountain Hop
Misty Mountain Hop If Father John Misty’s life was a Hollywood movie, it would be a metaphysical jail-break thriller about a wrongly convicted man escaping the prison of belief thanks to the liberating power of rock ‘n’ roll and psychedelic drugs. MAGNET goes to the mountain to help write the script. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Father John Misty lives in a red-clay adobe pueblo on top of a low mountain in Echo Park. Good luck trying to find it without GPS and a helicopter. Down below the cloud line, the hazy glittering grid of Greater Los Angeles recedes into the […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See The Dandy Warhols
The fascinating 2004 documentary Dig! chronicles the roller coaster existence of two indie bands who who go from friends to rivals – The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre – as they try to survive and thrive in a messed up, backwards-assed music world. The Dandy Warhols look like proper rock stars should, but they come across as relatively normal, and seem poised to achieve stardom via their chameleonic music – a catchy, ersatz re-write of whatever is trending at the moment — and frontman Courtney Taylor’s elegant cheekbones. In contrast, The Brian Jonestown Massacre are darker and […]
THE END: Doors Organist Ray Manzarek Dead At 74
Artwork by MDSigno NEW YORK TIMES: Mr. Manzarek founded the Doors in 1965 with the singer and lyricist Jim Morrison, whom he would describe decades later as “the personification of the Dionysian impulse each of us has inside.” They would go on to recruit the drummer John Densmore and the guitarist Robby Krieger. Mr. Manzarek played a crucial role in creating music that was hugely popular and widely imitated, selling tens of millions of albums. It was a lean, transparent sound that could be swinging, haunted, meditative, suspenseful or circuslike. The Doors’ songs were generally credited to the entire group. […]
BEING THERE: Kurt Vile @ Union Transfer
Photo by MEREDITH KLEIBER Back home in Philly for their last U.S. date before embarking on their European tour, Kurt Vile and The Violators were greeted by a loving, sold-out crowd at Union Transfer Saturday night. After a double-opener featuring the folk-rocky stylings of Steve Gunn and the haunting lilt of Angel Olsen, Vile—face shrouded by his trademark brown mane—emerged onto the stage and opened the set with a stirring version of “Wakin on a Pretty Day,” which also serves as the opener on the Violators’ new album, Wakin on a Pretty Daze. “It’s good to be back home,” an all-white-clad […]
BEING THERE: Tom Jones @ The TLA
Photo by RORY MCGLASSON Less than hours 24 hours after wowing fans at the WXPN-hosted Non-Commvention at World Cafe Live on Thursday night, Sir Tom Jones was at back behind the mic for a sold out “Evening With Tom Jones” show at the TLA. The 72-year-old legend, with the one-of-a-king baritone voice, treated Philadelphians to an intimate set of deep-cut covers — John Lee Hooker, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis — from his last two records: 2010’s Praise And Blame and the just-released Spirit In The Room. The new album is a Johnny Cash/Rick Rubin-style cover album collaboration with Kings of […]
BEING THERE: Josh Ritter @ The Troc
Photo by RORY MCGLASSON The light turned from red to a deep blue when Josh Ritter took the stage and walked up to the mic. Supple, genuine and totally alone, he almost stuttered his first words to Philadelphians: “We’re gonna’ leave it all here.” Philadelphia was not Josh Ritter& the Royal City Band’s last tour city, but it was the city where Ritter’s parents fell in love. Undoubtedly, the talented singer/songwriter is looking back in admiration on his parents’ marriage, which represents a longer-lasting union the one he and his ex-wife, singer/songwriter Dawn Landes, shared. That was just two years […]
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Q&A With Foxygen, The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic
Photo by PETE TROSHAK Let’s not kid ourselves, Foxygen‘s irresistible We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace And Magic — think The Royal Tenenbaums as a twee, technicolor indie-rock album — is hands down the catchiest album of 2013 thus far. No one else need apply. In fact, nobody needs to release another album this year. Not even kidding. When I listen to it, I feel like one of the Magi following the star that will lead us all to the manger. Go tell it on the mountain. Bring frankincense and myrrh. They play at World Cafe Live tonight […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Josh Ritter @ The Troc
We have a pair of tix to see Josh Ritter, aka Americana’s James Taylor/Paul Simon, and his Royal City Band at the Troc on Thursday to some lucky Phawker reader. Why? Because we’re trippin’ balls right now and just realized that Bill Hicks was totally right when he said “all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.” So why pay for Josh Ritter tickets if you don’t have to? […]
BEING THERE: Bela Lugosi Is Still Dead
Photo by PETE TROSHAK The scary monsters and super creeps were out in full force at the Trocadero Thursday night to see former Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy perform his old band’s gravest hits. The leather-clad godfather of goth had slithered into town to celebrate 35 years of Bauhaus, a band formed in 1978 concurrent with the rise of the roiling U.K. punk scene but never quite of it. Bauhaus trafficked in sinister guitar atmospherics stretched across a minimalist rock band configuration and narrated by Murphy’s velveteen voice-of-doom croon. Murphy was in top form Thursday, stalking the stage like a creature […]