THE GUARDIAN: Those searching for evidence that, even in a world shrunk by the internet, culture from across the Atlantic can still seem beguilingly exotic to a British audience, might consider the case of Vampire Weekend. They arrived in 2008, a riot of preppy clothes, neat hair, African-inspired guitars and songs that suggested Ivy League backgrounds: replete with titles like Campus and Diplomat’s Son, with lyrical references to punctuation, 17th-century architecture and “good schools and friends with pools”. The band have protested about the detrimental effect all this had on the way they were perceived by those who didn’t grasp […]
BEING THERE: ‘Til Death Do Us Part
Photo by TASLIMA AKHTER TIME: Many powerful photographs have been made in the aftermath of the devastating collapse of a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. But one photo, by Bangladeshi photographer Taslima Akhter, has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire country’s grief in a single image. Shahidul Alam, Bangladeshi photographer, writer and founder of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, said of the photo: “This image, while deeply disturbing, is also hauntingly beautiful. An embrace in death, its tenderness rises above the rubble to touch us where we are most vulnerable. By making […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Shout Out Louds Tonight!
Time is short, so we’ll spare you the usual too-clever-by-half, hipper-than-thou rock crit spiel and cut to the chase: Swedish nouveau wavers The Shout Out Louds are playing Union Transfer tonight in support of their brand new, three-years-in-the-gestating Optica. And we have a pair of tickets we’d love, love, love to put in your pocket — or just hand the to you, if you prefer. Because time is of the essence we are going to wave the usual concert ticket giveaway requirements and the first lucky reader to email us at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the word SHOUT! in the subject […]
HELLO IT’S ME: Being Todd Rundgren
EDITOR’S NOTE: We have two pairs of tix to see Todd Rundgren @ the Troc on Saturday where he will be performing his new album, State, in its entirety plus ‘dance versions’ of his classic songs. To qualify, send us an email at FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the phrase HELLO IT’S ME in the subject line. Include your name and mobile number for confirmation. WIKIPEDIA: Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop star, supported by the certified gold solo double LP […]
BEING THERE: It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Felix DeJesus with living room shrine to his daughter Gina, Cleveland, March 3, 2004. NEW YORKER: Ramsey’s 911 call is transfixing. “Yeah hey bro,” it begins, “you check this out.” His intensity, the McDonald’s shout-out, his undoubtedly loose paraphrase of Berry’s account (“This motherfucker done kidnapped me and my daughter”), and also his competence (he does a better job with the essentials like the address than the 911 operator) make him one of those instantly compelling figures who, in the middle of an American tragedy, just start talking—and then we can’t stop listening. MORE CBS NEWS: Chains were hanging from […]
BEING THERE: Daughter @ Union Transfer
Photo by PETE TROSHAK British trio Daughter packed the house at the Union Transfer Friday night, impressing an overflowing crowd with their moody swirling tales of lost love. The show was originally slated for the tiny First Unitarian Church but overwhelming demand for tickets resulted in it being relocated to a larger venue. Not bad for a band that reminisced on stage about their first U.S. show being in Philly and playing to just a handful of people a few years ago. Playing in black and red shadows and darkness, they kicked off their set with the long fragile album […]
OUT ON ASSIGNMENT: In Bob We Trust
Gonna be out of the office today so posting will be light. Gotta go up to NYC and drink beer and talk about records with this guy. I know, I know. It’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it. Check our Twitter stream in the coming hours if you are curious. In the meantime, enjoy this snazzy essay on GBV’s SUITCASE: Failed Experiments & Trashed Aircraft from 2000. If that’s a little too inside baseball for you, try this heart-tugging Bob Pollard/Kim Deal duet on “Love Hurts,” which is, depending on the day, either my favorite thing either […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See The Presets @ UT Sun.
Though we’ve already filed these guys under THOSE WHO DID NOT LIVE THRU THE ’80S ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT THEM AND HAVING LIVED THRU THEM WE WOULD NOT WISH THEM ON ANYBODY but be that as it may, the kids have spoken. Two million views on YouTube can’t be wrong, right?And besides, we do like this dude’s taste in headwear. Anybody who wears a hat like that can’t be all bad. As such, we have a pair of tix to give away Presets & Dragonette, who have similarly dubious taste in decades, at Union Transfer on Sunday. To qualify […]
THE BOY WITH THE KALEIDOSCOPE MIND: Q&A with Writer-Director-Provocateur Harmony Korine
BY JONATHAN VALANIA To mark the 20th anniversary of A Crack Up At The Race Riots, his deliriously Dada attempt at writing, as he once put it, “the great American Choose Your Own Adventure novel,” we got the aging enfant terrible of American cinema on the horn. Discussed: Drugs, Tupac, apocalyptic Manson-ian race wars, why the Pamela Anderson sex tape is the greatest movie ever made, drugs, what band he wishes he could have been a member of, getting banned from Letterman for rifling through Meryl Streep’s purse in the Green Room, drugs, making a batshit insane video for […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Johnny Marr @ The Troc
` Johnny Marr is the Zelig of alternative rock, consider the list of bands he’s played in, contributed to, guest-starred in or recorded/performed with in the last 30 years: the Talking Heads, the Pretenders, Modest Mouse, R.E.M., Beck, Oasis, Bryan Ferry, Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Black Grape, Electronic, Jane Birkin, Happy Mondays, The The, Chic, Dinosaur Jr, Pearl Jam, Crowded House, Tom Jones. And that’s not even counting The Smiths, the band he started with Morrissey back in early ’80s Manchester, the band that a recent NME readers poll deem the greatest British band of all time, beating out […]
EARLY WORD: Like Lollapalooza For Dads
This just in: Bob Dylan, Wilco, My Morning Jacket and Ryan Bingham @ Susquehanna Center on July 28th! Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 AM. RELATED: Zimmerman, Robert: Aka Bob Dylan, aka the Mystery Tramp, aka Napoleon in Rags. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Bob Dylan was the all-seeing eye atop the pyramid of rock–a razor-thin, tousle-haired visionary speaking in stoned parables and meth-riddles about the nature of transcendental consciousness from behind impenetrable black shades. His status as generational oracle was earned by a triumvirate of hallucinatory folk-rock albums–1965’s Bringing It All Back Home […]
FLAMING LIPS: Try To Explain
From the just-released The Terror. RELATED: The Wizard asks what I think of the new album and I tell him I find it pretty dark and forbidding sonically — perched somewhere between early Hawkwind and late period Kraut rock– and lyrically it’s just so bleak and hopeless. I like it but I’m not sure anybody else will. The lyrics document a traumatic, hope-crushing loss of faith in the transcendental power of love. File this under ART IMITATES LIFE: Around the time The Terror was being written and recorded, Wayne was in the final stages of splitting up with his wife […]
BEING THERE: Hairway To Steven
Steven & Jeff McDonald, aka Redd Kross, moments before they ripped the roof off Kung Fu Necktie last night. PREVIOUSLY: Q&A With Jeff McDonald Of Redd Kross REDD KROSS: Jimmy’s Fantasy