From the new Black Star, out tomorow.
INCOMING: Long Live Rock!
Be there or be square.
RATTLE & HUM: Q&A w/ The Feelies’ Glenn Mercer
BY JONATHAN VALANIA The Feelies are one of those inscrutable but beloved band’s bands whose influence far exceeds their royalty statements and, as a consequence, the period on the last sentence in their bio keeps turning into a comma. Borne of the suburban garages of North Haledon, New Jersey, they released Crazy Rhythms in 1980 to massive acclaim and minimal sales and then promptly split off into a myriad of minor side projects, only to resurface again in 1986 with the altogether wonderful The Good Earth, produced by Peter Buck, guitarist for REM, whose early sound is deeply indebted to […]
BEST OF: Dan Buskirk’s Favorite Films Of 2015
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It was a memorable year for big Hollywood blockbusters even if the best of them (Mad Max, Star Wars, Mission Impossible) were pieced together from ancient sources. But as someone who still shells out the premium to watch films in theaters, I don’t want to be catered to, I want to be shocked and thrilled by something I’ve never seen on screen before. Bemoaning the state of the U.S. film industry can seem like my default setting yet as I pieced together this year’s film list I was pleasantly surprised to find that almost […]
BEST OF: Our Favorite Albums Of 2015
In the immortal words of the Chairman Of The Board, it was a very good year. So was last year, and the one before that and the one before that and so on. Why? Mostly, we can thank the disruptive, game-eating power of the Internet. The best thing that ever happened to music was the web-abetted collapse of the music industry’s one-size-fit-most paradigm and the death of radio as the prime determinant of what people like. Now people find music everywhere, it literally rains out of everything with an electric pulse, which has triggered a radical re-calibration of the vectors […]
HOT DOCUMENT: The Cosby Criminal Complaint
Criminal Complaint – Bill Cosby The statute of limitations for prosecuting Cosby would have run out on 12:01 AM January 1st, 2016. Below, Cosby arriving at Montco court house minutes ago — with cane, which is new, and a fugly sweater, which is not, stumbling portentously while walking the media gauntlet, looking scared and hunted. His bail was set at $1,000,000, he posted the requisite 10%, i.e. $100,000, in cash, surrendered his passport and had his mugshot taken. He did not smile for the camera. VIDEO: Bill Cosby makes no comment, trips on way into Montco court for arraignment –> […]
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Does Not Forgive Or Forget
“Somewhere around 1956 or, there was this guy by the name of Bob Horn who did American Bandstand from the Philadelphia Arena, which was located at 46th & Market, in West Philadelphia. He got busted for a certain which isn’t necessary to discuss at the present time, and the when Dick Clark took over Bandstand. And when h did, he started off at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He called me to open his first show for him. He was so pleased with the opening that he asked me to stay over and do the show […]
LEMMY’S LAST STAND: Motorhead @ The Tower
Photo by DAN LONG EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally posted on 9/23/15. RIP Lemmy. Having cancelled a handful of shows earlier this month due to “altitude sickness,” it was an open question whether Lemmy would truly be back in the saddle last night at the Tower Theater. Would he bow out after two songs like he did in Austin? Would he plow through, driven by The Will To Rock (and maybe a coupla handfuls of trucker speed)? Or, would he die onstage? These were the lingering questions that hung in the air last night. On top of that, it is the […]
WORTH REPEATING: How A Wouldbe Teenage Dissident Was Driven To Suicide In Putin’s Russia
Artwork via OKKERSE RADIO FREE EUROPE: Vlad’s last message came on December 25, right after Christmas lunch as my children were noisily running out of the door for an afternoon walk. “If I don’t get in touch in the next 2-6 days, you can write [about me]. It means I’m dead,” it said, “I took a lethal dose.”? “Sorry,” he added, thoughtful right until the end. He didn’t answer my calls. My panicked messages never reached him, either. They are still marked as unread. I contacted someone in Russia, who I thought could help. A few hours later, police confirmed […]
REM: Radio Free Europe (Live Letterman ’83)
October 6th, 1983. The national television of a no-name band out of Athens, GA. And then they followed it up with the gorgeous CCR-inflected “South Central Rain,” a song they hadn’t even recorded yet. Who even does that? You know, I’ve had to take a fair amount of shit over the years for unabashedly loving REM, still do. I just want you to know that it was all worth it. Every sling and arrow, every derisive sneer, every snarky aside, every thrown elbow from black-hearted moshpit bruisers — it was an honor and a privilege. And it still is. I […]
CINEMA: Head Case
CONCUSSION (2015, directed by Peter Landesman, 123 minutes, USA) BY BEN LEHMAN Concussion tells the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian immigrant, who first connected the dots between professional football and the epidemic of traumatic injuries it inflicts on players, and then stood up to the NFL when they tried to cover it up. While Omalu, portrayed by Will Smith, ultimately succeeds in blowing the whistle on the NFL’s suits, the film falls short of the goal line. When Dr. Omalu performs an autopsy on the body of “Iron” Mike Webster, a retired Pittsburgh Steeler, he discovers abnormalities in […]
BING CROSBY/DAVID BOWIE: Little Drummer Boy
WASHINGTON POST: One of the most successful duets in Christmas music history — and surely the weirdest — might never have happened if it weren’t for some last-minute musical surgery. David Bowie thought “The Little Drummer Boy” was all wrong for him. So when the producers of Bing Crosby’s Christmas TV special asked Bowie to sing it in 1977, he refused. Just hours before he was supposed to go before the cameras, though, a team of composers and writers frantically retooled the song. They added another melody and new lyrics as a counterpoint to all those pah-rumpa-pum-pums and called […]
ARTSY: Season’s Greetings
Artwork by VICTOR DELORENZO RELATED: Q&A With Victor DeLorenzo, Singer, Actor, Songwriter, Drummer, Recovering Violent Femme