DOCTOR STRANGE (2016, directed by Scott Derrickson, 115 minutes, USA) BY RICHARD SUPLEE By now everyone knows what to expect from a superhero film. We get one every other month and they all follow the same pattern: A man suffers some tragedy, acquires impossible abilities, finds an enemy with similar abilities he has to fight to protect the world, and he saves the world. A love interest and (at least in the case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) tons of sarcasm are usually sprinkled throughout. There are some minor variations (the man might be a god or a whole […]
TONIGHT: Meet Me In Saint Louis
Artwork by SAM SPRATT Louis C.K. is the perfect comic for right now, for the Age of Lessness, when the economy is as clinically depressed as the national psyche is tortured, and the imperial hubris of American exceptionalism turned out to be just another Sarah Palin fever dream for people high on Fox News. He is a prophet of white male failure in the time when aging Caucasian alpha dogs are losing their lock on entitlement as society is increasingly bred to be more inclusive and egalitarian. And he dresses the part: droopy muffin-topped jeans, too-small black tee stretched across […]
THE ORWELLIAN: Q&A W/ Guitarist Dominic Corso
Photo by LORENZO BULFONE via NO SHADES PHOTOGRAPHY BY DYLAN LONG Known for their raucous, no-fucks-given rock & roll and their absolutely iconic TV debut on Letterman, The Orwells are 5-piece rock band from Elmhurst, IL with soon-to-be 3 studio albums under their belt. Formed in 2009, The Orwells are comprised of cousins Mario Cuomo and Dominic Corso on lead vox and guitar respectively, and twin brothers Grant and Henry Brinner and Matt O’Keefe on bass, drums and guitar respectively. As they prepare to embark on tour to support their new album Terrible Human Beings, guitarist Dominic Corso took the […]
OFFICIAL TRAILER: Trainspotting 2
THE GUARDIAN: The movie itself may yet be a different proposition, but this first full-length trailer is clearly on a mission to rekindle the passions of those who adored the first Trainspotting. McGregor is still harping on about lifestyle choices, but this time it’s our reliance on social media and porn that’s getting his goat. The sonic stun-gun that is Underworld’s Born Slippy gets a run out, and there’s a sense that Boyle will be doing his level best to recapture the wired, kinetic intensity of the original, complete with phantasmagorical segues and those sudden, thrilling instances of extreme violence. […]
STOP MAKING SENSE: A Q&A With Fred Armisen
Photo by GENE SMIRNOV BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR VICE Last night, comedian Fred Armisen (ex-SNL cast member, star of Portlandia and Documentary Now!, sidekick/leader of the Late Night With Seth Meyers house band) kicked off an East coast run of live comedy dates that mix the glib wackiness of his stand-up with sneak previews of the forthcoming seventh season of Portlandia and live renditions of the music of his various faux-bands (the cluelessly pro-authority punk of Ian Rubbish & The Bizarros, the ersatz Laurel Canyon soft-rock of The Blue Jean Committee, the artsy-fartsy New Wave nonsense-making of Test Pattern, etc.). […]
FROM RUSSIA W/ LOVE: The Moscovian Candidate?
SLATE: n late July, one of these scientists found what looked like malware emanating from Russia. The destination domain had Trump in its name, which of course attracted Tea Leaves’ attention. But his discovery of the data was pure happenstance—a surprising needle in a large haystack of DNS lookups on his screen. “I have an outlier here that connects to Russia in a strange way,” he wrote in his notes. He couldn’t quite figure it out at first. But what he saw was a bank in Moscow that kept irregularly pinging a server registered to the Trump Organization on Fifth […]
Win Tix To See Fred Armisen Make The Funny Live
Tomorrow night, comedian Fred Armisen (ex-SNL cast member, star of Portlandia and Documentary Now!, sidekick/leader of the Late Night With Seth Meyers house band) kicks off an East coast run of live comedy dates at The Grand in Wilmington wherein he will perform the music of his various faux-bands (the cluelessly pro-authority punk of Ian Rubbish & The Bizarros, the ersatz Laurel Canyon soft-rock of The Blue Jean Committee, the artsy-fartsy New Wave nonsense-making of Test Pattern, etc.). We have a pair of tix to giveaway to some lucky Phawker reader. To qualify to win you must do the […]
FROM THE VAULTS: F*ck Dick Yuengling
EDITOR’S NOTE: Upon learning that union-busting, tax-dodging Tea Partier Dick Yuengling is voting for confessed sex-offender/fraudster/racist/misogynist/phony billionaire/and astonishingly prolific pathological liar Donald Trump, as are his employees, we are reprising this 2013 screed against Yuengling’s refusal to pay the City Of Philadelphia the $6.6 million in taxes he owes. On behalf of all of us here at Phawker industries, fuck Yuengling Brewery and all who sail upon her. BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST There was a time back in the ‘90s that a portion of my nightly prayers were dedicated to asking God to make Dick Yuengling […]
Win Tix To See Criminal Podcast Live @ The Troc
“Criminal is a podcast about crime. Stories of people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.” Such is the self-description of the acclaimed true crime podcast Criminal, written and hosted by award-winning NPR reporter Phoebe Judge, which has just surpassed the 50th-episode threshold of durability and is celebrating with a live-action tour that stops at The Trocadero tomorrow night. We have a pair of tickets to give away to some lucky Phawker reader. To qualify to win, you must do the following: A) Friend us on Facebook B) follow us on Twitter C) send […]
Win Tickets To See Tricky @ Underground Arts
Despite the ebb and flow of his career since emerging from the Bristol England trip-hop scene of the late ’90s, Tricky has remained a street sorcerer adept at the art of black magic realism, cutting his bliss with a sprinkle of menace and alchemical electronica, his powers undiminished by the passing decades. His voodoo still draws its spellbinding power from the languid collisions of rhythm and incantation, and the chimerical atmospherics he conjures. Not surprisingly, he smokes enough pot to deforest Humboldt County. You will have a chance to catch the wizard in an intimate setting when he performs […]
Q&A: Robert Been Of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Photo courtesy of DAMNED UGLY PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES M. DAVIS We had a chance to talk with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club bassist/vocalist Robert Been ahead of BRMC’s upcoming show Death From Above 1979 at the Fillmore on Nov. 7. BRMC was formed in the late 90’s when guitarist Peter Hayes, fresh off being fired from Brian Jonestown Massacre (as documented in Dig!) joined forces with Robert Been [pictured, above right], son of The Call frontman Michael Been. They unleashed a formidable aural assault with their first album B.R.M.C., following muscular/mystical 70’s acts like Zeppelin, while also drawing surreptitiously from the […]
BEING THERE: The Garden In North Philly
Photo by DYLAN LONG Wyatt and Fletcher Shears are The Garden, and they like their Chipotle. This of course I learned from walking around Temple University’s campus on Saturday with my friend Natalie, and running into them just a few hours before their headlining gig in North Philly. We asked to hang out with them, and they said sure. Fletcher was very kind, and made small talk with us whilst we were lowkey stoned as hell and utterly perplexed by the situation unfolding before us. We decided to play it cool by abruptly leaving the restaurant mid-conversation, unable to properly […]
THE CALL: The Walls Came Down
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Michael Been, a singer, songwriter, guitarist and founding member of the Northern California modern rock band the Call, which broke out with the 1983 MTV hit “The Walls Came Down,” has died. He was 60. Been (pronounced Bean) died Thursday after suffering a heart attack at the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt, Belgium, where he had been serving as a sound engineer for his son Robert’s band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. His death was announced in a statement from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s publicist, Juliana Plotkin. […] Been and the Call had famous fans in both the rock […]