Wilco guitarist Nels Cline performs with Unfold Ordinary Mind tonight at Johnny Brenda’s, presented by Ars Nova Workshop. RELATED: Nels Cline Is An Alien Flowerpot
THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT: Bales Of Cocaine
Last night at the TLA, where he opened for X, the good Reverend announced that he would be performing tonight at the North Star!
RIP: Dave Brubeck, Jazz Giant, Dead @ 91
Jazz and American music in general lost a giant yesterday. Seldom has America produced a more lofty or truer original than David Warren Brubeck. Pianist, composer, trend setter, group and orchestra leader, ambassador, gentleman. He was all of those and more. I find it difficult to put into words my feelings for the man and the musician. I literally grew up on his music. I developed a love and admiration of jazz because of giants like Brubeck and Davis. It’s a sad time but god how much more rewarding has my life and that of millions of others been because […]
TONIGHT: Heyward Bound
If there was a more beautiful, idiosyncratic and intelligently-designed debut released this year than Heyward Howkins‘ The Hale & Hearty, then I didn’t hear it. 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 this magnificent pearl sitting there on the half shell, and when you rub it, much like when you wet your finger […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See X Tonight!
Literary, transgressive, noir-ish in their buzzsawing, X is arguably the greatest West Coast punk band in the last 35 years. If everything I just said was like a dog watching a card trick, watch The Unheard Music and join us at the next sentence. After a series of hiatuses and reunions, they’ve re-activated in recent years as an ongoing touring concern. Tonight they play the TLA with the mighty Reverend Horton Heat and we have three pairs of tickets to give away. To qualify to win all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list (to the […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Passion Pit @ The Electric Factory
Photo by DEREK BRAD EDITOR’S NOTE: All times approximate. Present tense added retroactively the next morning. 7:45 – Waiting for 23 bus en route to Electric Factory. See a stray/lost cat through a fence, talk to him or her, but for some reason assume it is male. “Aw poor little guy, aw my sweet little thing. Aw.” Aw. 7:49 – Board 23 bus. There is food and trash all over the floor. Would not have it any other way. 7:55 – Deboard at Callowhill, catch a peek at The Trestle Inn, get simultaneously happy and sad. 7:57 – Loving the desolation, […]
THE MUSIC TAPES: The Traveling Imaginary
The Music Tapes – Traveling Imaginary (Trailer) from Merge Records on Vimeo. At First Unitarian Church February 4th.
TONIGHT: The ‘Judas’ Priest
WIKIPEDIA: The polarised responses of Dylan’s fans were exacerbated by the structure of his concerts in late 1965 and 1966; the first half would be ‘folk,’ Dylan solo accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica; with the second half ‘rock,’ Dylan and the Hawks with electric guitars and a full rock and roll combo. The rock segment was often greeted with hostility, as seen in shows in Sheffield and Newcastle upon Tyne in No Direction Home. Footage from the Manchester concert, at the end of that film, includes the infamous “Judas” heckling incident. During a quiet moment in between songs […]
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Bob Dylan
BY MIKE WALSH Let me make this clear up front: I’m not a Dylan-head, Dylan-ite, Dylan-phile, Dylan-ologist, or any other kind of extreme Dylan fan. In fact, I never bought a Dylan record or CD until just a few years ago. I never saw the need. Growing up in the ’60s, Dylan was on the radio all the time —“Blowing in the Wind,“ “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,“ “The Times They Are a Changin’,“ “All I Really Want to Do,“ “It Ain’t Me Babe, “Mr. Tambourine Man,“ etc., etc. Plus, many other bands had hits with his songs, like […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Dan Deacon @ Union Transfer
Photo by MICHAEL ORLOSKY BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER On record, acclaimed Baltimore-based futurist Dan Deacon sounds like Philip Glass on Red Bull. A lot of Red Bull. His music is like Koyaanisqatsi for the ears. Live, he resembles nothing so much as a hip, wise-cracking camp counselor DJing a dance party for people who can’t really dance. His name may not ring a bell but for people under 30 he is Santa Claus with a wave function generator. And last night he came to town — Union Transfer to be exact — after a three year absence from […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Bright Eyes @ The Kimmel
OK, this is gonna move REAL fast so snooze you lose. Let this be a lesson to you: Open Phawker, hit REFRESH. Every minute of every day. Week after week. Year after year. Or buy your own damn Bright Eyes tickets, Bucco! Just kidding. Mostly. We have two pairs of tickets to see Bright Eyes at the Kimmel Center on Sunday! To qualify all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list (to the right of this post, at the bottom of the masthead). Trust us, you want to do this. Signing up to our mailing list […]
TONITE: Sympathy For The Devil
“Mick ‘Rock N’ Roll Circus’” by MICHAEL HOUGHTON TIME: Stories sometimes have a way of making themselves true. The notion of The Rolling Stones as the “bad boys” of British ’60s rock, for instance, may have had a basis in reality and personality, but it also originated as a term of marketing and media shorthand. As Brett Morgen’s new HBO documentary Crossfire Hurricane (premieres tonight, Nov. 15) notes early on, as the Stones began to break out after The Beatles’ success, the press framed their narrative as the villains to the Beatles’ nice guys, the satisfaction-getters vs. the hand-holders. It […]
THIS JUST IN: Jeff Mangum Sells Out In Nanonseconds!
Illustration by ALEX MOULDS Tickets for Jeff Mangum at the DuPont Theater in Wilmington, DE on Feb. 5th go on sale tomorrow at noon! Get them HERE. Gone, daddy, gone! PREVIOUSLY: Today, Jeff Mangum announced a new run of tour dates beginning January 9 in Buffalo, NY and wrapping up February 16 in North Adams, MA. Support will include Tall Firs, Briars of North America and the Music Tapes. A portion of the proceeds for these shows will benefit Children of the Blue Sky, which aims to place orphaned Mongolian children with foster families. A full list of Jeff Mangum […]