HARPERS: Think of all the grand ideas that flicker in the background of the Sanders-denouncing stories I have just recounted. There is the admiration for consensus, the worship of pragmatism and bipartisanship, the contempt for populist outcry, the repeated equating of dissent with partisan disloyalty. And think of the specific policy pratfalls: the cheers for TARP, the jeers aimed at bank regulation, the dismissal of single-payer health care as a preposterous dream.This stuff is not mysterious. We can easily identify the political orientation behind it from one of the very first pages of the Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Aussie Psych-Rockers Pond At Underground Arts Tomorrow Night!
Pond — the circa now Australian psych-pranksters whose memberships Veng Diagrams with Tame Impala, NOT the early 90s Portlandian Sub Pop grunge-titan-shoulda-beens, although there is some haircut similarities — raises more questions than it ever answers. Chief among those questions is not ‘Are these guys high?’ instead it’s ‘How goddamn high are these people?’ ‘Is that even safe?’ ‘Should we tell someone?’ and lastly, ‘What about all the chromosonal damage?’ The answer to these questions in order of appearance: Higher than an entire Phish concert parking lotful of nitrous balloon huffers, fuck no, don’t bother everyone already knows, and […]
Q&A: Talking Big Star Third w/ REM’s Mike Mills
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR VICE It has been said that the genre of power pop—white man-boys with cherry guitars reinvigorating the harmonic convergence of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Byrds with the hormonal rush of youth—is the revenge of the nerds. Big Star pretty much invented the form, which explains the worshipful altars erected to the band in the bedrooms of lonely, disenfranchised melody-makers from Los Angeles to London, and all points in between. Though they never came close to fame or fortune in their time, the band continue to hold a sacred place in the cosmology of […]
THE FLAMING LIPS: The Castle
Teaser track from the new Flaming Lips album OCZY MLODY on January 13th, 2017. They play The Fillmore on March 4th.
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: Now 82, Cohen has a new album, You Want It Darker, with songs that wrestle with mortality, question God and long for transcendence. Originally broadcast May 22, 2006. PREVIOUSLY: Leonard Cohen Is Ready To Die PREVIOUSLY: The first sound Leonard Cohen makes on his new album is a nanosecond’s rush of labored air. It’s not a wheeze, exactly, or a hiccup. But it’s not a singer’s note, either. The singing (such as it is) soon follows, and the 82-year-old’s somber tone signals that matters of grave import are about to be discussed. He’s making an inquiry into […]
SONIC YOUTH: Youth Against Fascism
I still believe Anita Hill.
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
NEW YORK TIMES: “Black Mirror” is hands down the most relevant program of our time, if for no other reason than how often it can make you wonder if we’re all living in an episode of it. This prescient and mordantly funny science-fiction anthology is smart enough to be just barely ahead of its time. It doesn’t imagine interstellar civilizations or postapocalyptic scenarios. Instead, it depicts variations on a near future transformed by information technology — our world, just a little worse. In one episode from an earlier season, characters carry an implant that records their every experience — […]
MODERN TIMES: Tales Of Accelerated Culture
BY CONOR J. HARRINGTON If you were to ask someone who was born in the sixties or seventies “what has changed most since you were younger?” a now standard response would be “the speed/pace of the day,” but what do they really mean? Have things slowed down, or sped up? People born during that period have grown up through the sci-fi esque technological revolution. They’ve gone from cell phones the size and weight of a brick and televisions with four channels to virtual reality and self driving cars right around the corner. All of our cell phones, tablets, computers, […]
INCOMING: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. II
WIRED: The first sneak-peak at next summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is here, and though this teaser is barely a minute and a half long, that’s more than enough time to give you a Groot awakening this morning. As Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” ooga-shockas in the background, we see Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) mid-flight, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) mid-fight, and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) mid-strut, and later, we get to witness Star-Lord and Dax (Dave Bautista) have brutal-truth heart-to-heart. (“You just need to find a woman who is pathetic, like you,” Dax advises him.) But the real star […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Donald Trump Uber Alles
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY After more than a year of trying very hard to discern why anyone regardless of IQ or level of education, regardless of income or economic status, regardless of race or ethnicity, regardless of religion or belief, regardless of political affiliation or philosophy, could bring themselves to support an inane bigoted dunce like Donald Trump for President, I’m going to do my level best one last and final time to lay bare the incontestable facts and incontrovertible reasoning behind my astonishment-turned-bald-headed frustration that so many as ONE American voter (other than tRUMP himself) could cast his or […]
VIC BERGER: Melania Speaks
This is what CNN would be like if David Lynch ran it. If only.
A LIFE IN PARTS: Q&A With Actor Bryan Cranston
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Bryan Cranston is arguably one of the greatest actors of the modern era. He will forever be known for his electrifying performance as Walter White, the mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher turned murderous, Machiavellian meth lord, on Breaking Bad, a show that many argue represents the pinnacle of television as an art form. He drew equally swooning critic’s notices for his indelible performance as Dalton Trumbo, a gifted screenwriter whose life and career was destroyed by the House Unamerican Activities Committee. In All The Way, Cranston uncannily channeled President Lyndon Johnson, who dragged […]
INCOMING: You Don’t Have To Live Like A Refugee
Several of America’s most popular musical acts are coming together for a multi-stop concert tour — coming to the Merriam on Thursday October 19th, with Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant in tow — to raise awareness of the unprecedented worldwide refugee crisis. Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees will feature Grammy Award-winning artists Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, and The Milk Carton Kids. Special guests at select shows include Robert Plant, Joan Baez, Ron Sexsmith, Ruby Amafu, and Nancy And Beth. The concerts will be intimate evenings of acoustic performances benefiting Jesuit Refugee Service’s Global Education Initiative. The Lampedusa tour […]