If consistency is a positive quality in rock ‘n’ roll, then the Fountains of Wayne belong in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Since the late 90s, Fountains of Wayne have created one record after record with the same style, approach, personnel, pacing, and subject matter. Each record has the same clean, straight-ahead pop style with the same guitar/bass/drums arrangements. They have the same dry humor and flat, no-frills delivery they had when they started. The same singer sings lead each song, the same backup singer sings backup, the same guitarist plays the occasional leads. Did I mention that […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Fountains Of Wayne @ UT
Let’s not mince words: Fountains Of Wayne are hands down, the greatest power pop band of all time. Greater than The Knack, greater than the Cars, greater even than Cheap Trick (yeah, we just went there). Sadly, in the grotesquely warped reality of the here and now — where the shittiest people (think Mitch McConnell) and the shittiest music (think Ke$sha) get all the glory and the complimentary gift bags that come with it — being the greatest power pop band of all time plus four bucks gets you a cup of coffee at Starbucks and, well, that’s about it. […]
JAZZER: Wanna Take You Higher
BY ZIVIT SHLANK Slide trumpeter, composer, bandleader and madman Steven Bernstein is not much interested in convention so much as innovation. The man behind the infamous Sex Mob, has been a ubiquitous part of NYC’s downtown, underground scene since the 90s. He’s been known to merge the traditional, avante garde and free jazz with the soulful funk of Prince, the distinctive grunge of Nirvana, the theatricality of James Bond, even the catchy pop of the Macarena. He’s played with an enviable list of legends including Aretha Franklin, Sam Rivers and Lou Reed. He’s arranged and written for artists such as Marianne Faithful and Rufus Wainright. He’s […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See The Ting Tings @ The Troc
Wanna a pair of tix to see the Ting Tings at the Troc on Friday April 13th? Of course you do! To win them, all you have to is be the third person to email us at FEED@PHAKWER.COM with the correct answer to the following Ting Tings trivia question: What is the name of Katie White and Jules De Martino’s went-nowhere band just prior to forming The Ting Tings? Hint, they were signed to Mercury Records. Put TING TINGLY in the subject line and include a mobile number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed, man! PREVIOUSLY: There was a time […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Wild Flag At The Troc
OK, we got ’em, you want ’em, let’s make this easy on everyone involved. We have a pair of tickets to see Wild Flag at the Trocadero on Tuesday April 3rd to give away to the first lucky Phawker reader that can answer the following Wild Flag trivia question: What is the name of Carrie Brownstein’s first band (circa ’93-’95)? Hint: it ain’t Sleater-Kinney. Email your answer to FEED@PHAWKER.COM with the words WILD FLAG in the subject line. Please include a mobile number for confirmation. Good luck and godspeed you black emperors! UPDATE: We have a winner! If you haven’t […]
THIS JUST IN: The Wilco Is Coming
July 21st at the Susquehanna Bank Center with the Avett Brothers and Dr. Dog, as part of the XPoNential Festival. MORE so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. That was written by William Carlos Williams, an American poet. Best I can tell, he was talking about the significance of insignificance, that little things truly do mean a lot—like if you could surf the past in a time machine and you did something as small as, say, kicking a stone in the Stone Age, it could send a ripple through the entire […]
EXCERPT: The King James Version
BY JONATHAN VALANIA James Mercer’s Rosebud is a beat-to-shit acoustic guitar he bought 10 years ago in a thrift store for the princely sum of $3. When he got it home he took out a Sharpie and scrawled the words YOU WILL BE DEAD across the top a la that iconic photo of Woodie Guthrie holding up guitar with the words THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS written on it. Like all good Rosebuds, it’s hard to find. To get to it you have to go to his home, located in a secure undisclosed location in Portland, unlock the high fence […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Swervedriver @UT
Kids, come gather round I’m going to tell you the complete history of early 90’s hair-wagging, peddle-hopping shoegazers like My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Swirlies, The Lilys, Curve, A.R. Kane, Lush, Catherine Wheel, Pale Saints, Velocity Girl and Swervedriver. NOT! What am I the goddamned Shell Answer Man? Google it, you little shits. Repeat after me: I am not your mother, your mother is at home smoking a doobie as big as a baby’s arm and trancing out to Mezcal Head. Anyway, here’s pretty much everything you need to know about Swervedriver who play Late Night With Jimmy Fallon tonight […]
SIDEWALKING: Sweet Jane
Cleveland, November 3rd, 1970, by Cleveland Police Dept. RELATED: The actress had just finished working on Klute – hence her distinctive haircut – when she was arrested at an airport in Cleveland on November 3, 1970. The customs officers wrongly accused Fonda of drug smuggling after finding vitamins labelled b, l and d (breakfast, lunch and dinner) in her bag. Known for her political activism, her arrest over something so innocent as vitamins was a sign of the paranoia of the time. At the time, the actress was on her way back from speaking at an anti-Vietnam war fundraiser in […]
SOFT BULLETIN: Flaming Lips Still Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To So You Don’t Have To
In between one-off shows scattered around the world in the past several months THE FLAMING LIPS have still found time to record a series of unique and experimental sessions for an album featuring a diverse cross-section of heavy friends from every corner of the musical cosmos. THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS includes vocal and musical assistance from such disparate playmates as Yoko Ono, Nick Cave, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Bon Iver, Ke$ha and many more. Some of these tracks have already appeared on previously released, extremely limited edition color vinyl 12″ EPs released in past months, which sold out […]
EARLY WORD: Inmates To Run Asylum
Odd Future Philadelphia Sweatshop March 23rd 11am-6pm @ Exit Skateshop Odd Future will be rocking Philly hard Friday March 23rd with TWO HUGE events. Exit Skateshop will be handing over the keys to Tyler the Creator and the rest of the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All crew for their “Philadelphia Sweatshop”. The shop will feature exclusive O.F. gear that won’t be found anywhere else and supplies are extremely limited. The entire Golf Wang collective is expected to be in attendance, signing autographs and hanging out with fans before their SOLD OUT show at The Electric Factory. MORE STEVE ALBINI: I spent […]
TONITE: John K. Samson At Union Transfer
BY MIKE WALSH Here’s a hypothetical: let’s say you’re up late. Very late. It’s quiet, you’re alone, and you’re stuck on the world wide interweb watching Maru videos. You have to get up early for work, but you just can’t stop watching that fat furry little fucker being insufferably cute. And you’re telling yourself that this is ridiculous, you are pathetic, just go to bed, and then you notice a music video titled “Plea from a Cat Named Virtute” from a band you’ve never heard of—the Weakerthans. You click the link, and it’s not an actual video, just the song […]
EXCERPT: Blooze, Rock And The Pop Narcotic
BY JONATHAN VALANIA The Black Keys are two kids from Akron, Ohio who went down to the big rock show and never came back. When a couple seats on the other side of the velvet rope opened up, they snuck in and sat down. So far nobody’s asked them to leave, in fact they’ve been downright hospitable. The new, uber-catchy El Camino sold 206,000 units the first week out of the gate, went gold shortly thereafter and is currently on its way to platinum. To ensure that it gets there and then some the Keys have booked a yearlong […]