MERGE RECORDS: With its release still 28 days away, The Most Lamentable Tragedy (hereafter TMLT) by Titus Andronicus (hereafter +@) is already the most feverishly / breathlessly discussed rock and roll record of 2015. “The open-hearted response to TMLT has opened my own heart—it means everything,” says +@ singer / songwriter Patrick Stickles, counting out another fresh stack of Blue Bens. “Still, people do not necessarily know the real story…” [he pauses, making a productive cough into a cupped hand] “…but they will.” Now—once again—the seemingly deluded words of the oft-misunderstood Artist snap from vague fantasy to vibrant reality. It’s […]
INCOMING: Snowden
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Directed by Oliver Stone. In theaters Christmas 2015.
EXCERPT: The Gospel According To Father John
Photo by EMMA TILLMAN EDITOR’s NOTE: To mark the release of Father John Misty’s I Love You Honey Bear we are reprinting my 2013 FJM MAGNET cover story and, for the first time, a link to download a PDF of the complete story MAGNET: Father John Misty lives in a red-clay adobe pueblo on top of a low mountain in Echo Park. Good luck trying to find it without GPS and a helicopter. Down below the cloud line, the hazy glittering grid of Greater Los Angeles recedes into the infinite. From the vantage point of this fairly Olympian perch, Los […]
INCOMING: The Foo Fightins
Despite being strongly urged by his doctors to cancel The Foo Fighters’ impending four-month/40-date US tour and let his broken leg heel, Dave Grohl is going to bravely soldier on like the bold rock warrior that he is. Which means The Foo Fighters will be at The Susquehanna Bank Center on July 6th and then again on the 13th. We’ll be sending our intrepid cub reporter Dylan Long to cover it. Here’s a video of Dylan getting a stage-side handshake from Dave Grohl at the Wells Fargo Center back in 2011 — when Dylan was all of 14. On July […]
COMMENTARY: Ann Coulter She-Wolf Of The SS
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Recently I’ve been adding a “comment” or two to some of Ann Coulter’s bigoted articles (does she write any other kind?). I admit to it being a rather nonsensical exercise in as much as nearly all of the “replies” I get are insultingly lame retorts from one or more of her cretinous sycophants all of whom exhibit significantly less cranial content than Coulter’s, which, in and of itself, can hardly be considered of rocket scientist dimensions. But I digress. It’s interesting to note how with all accomplished bigots — Coulter, Limbaugh and Hannity are classic examples […]
Win Tix To See Brian Wilson @ The Mann
Love & Mercy tells the harrowing, heartbreaking story of the life of Brian Wilson — Beach Boys auteur and resident genius — which goes like this: Angel-headed boy from Hawthorne, California, at the dawn of the 1960s, smitten by the harmonic convergence of The Four Freshman and the shimmering Spectorian grandeur of “Be My Baby,” forms band with his two brothers and asshole cousin, calls it The Beach Boys, writes uber-catchy ditties of Zen-like simplicity about surfing, hot rods and girls (despite being slapped deaf in his right ear by his sadistic tyrant of a father), boy becomes international […]
SIDEWALKING: Skeletal Lamping
Rooftop, high above South Broad, after the storm, by Adam Wallacavage
ALL YOU NEED IS PAUL: 10 Thoughts About McCartney @ The Wells Fargo Center On Sunday
Photo by DAN LONG 1. At some point in the last decade Paul McCartney assembled a team of pop imagineers and big-picture media strategists to re-brand his act from ‘The Cute One drum majoring a Boomer-ific oldies parade of warmed-over shimmy-shimmy shake moptoppery’ to ‘Sir Paul, doe-eyed Elder Statesman of Pop with one of the greatest songbooks in the history of recorded music, who is also an Important Artist who continues to make challenging and inventive work that is still relevant to The Kids,’ which is to say everyone under the age of 72. So, in addition to re-animating the […]
FLAG OF OUR FATHERS: Let It Burn
NPR: In December 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union just months after Abraham Lincoln, from the anti-slavery Republican Party, was elected president. In April 1861, the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, S.C. Ten other states would eventually follow South Carolina in secession, forming the Confederate States of America. However, of the three flags the Confederacy would go on to adopt, none are the Confederate flag that is traditionally recognized today. The “Stars and Bars” flag, currently the subject of controversy, was actually the battle flag of Gen. […]
INCOMING: Bowie’s Golden Years
PARLAPHONE: On this day in 1971, David Bowie performed for the first time at what was then known as the ‘Glastonbury Fair’. Today in 2015 as the Glastonbury Festival approaches once more, Parlophone Records are proud to announce DAVID BOWIE FIVE YEARS 1969 – 1973, the first in a series of box sets spanning his career. The ten album / twelve CD box, ten album / thirteen-piece vinyl set and digital download featurs all of the material officially released by Bowie during the nascent stage of his career from 1969 to 1973. All of the formats include tracks that […]
BEING THERE: Morrissey @ The Academy Of Music
Photo by DAN LONG Two songs into his set at the Academy of Music on Saturday night, Morrissey paused to catch his breath and to beg the crowd to “save us from the memory of Delaware,” where he and his band were met by a sparse crowd of booing yokels at the Firefly Fest the day before. The near-deafening response made it clear that he’d get his wish. The packed house at the Academy got their wish, too: Moz more than rebounded from the Delaware disaster with an electric performance that kept the crowd on its feet for two hours […]
INCOMING: Summer Of Love
I go way back with these guys, back to 2001 when they were just called Bill Ricchini [pictured, right], aka the Philly-native-turned-Brooklandian-ad-man pure-pop-for-now-people auteur/wunderkind who is, for all intents and purposes, Summer Fiction. Back then Ricchini was a dotbomb refugee who spent the unemployment benefits afforded him by his freshly-issued CDNow pink slip building a sad-sack bedroom-pop mini-masterpiece called Ordinary Time that worshipped at the altar of the three B’s — Beach Boys, Beatles and Bachrach. Critics swooned, chicks screamed, Jesus wept. He followed it up with the more-assured but-less-appreciated Tonight I Burn Brightly in 2005. After playing out […]
BEING THERE: Shamir @ Making Time
Photo by DYLAN LONG Making Time celebrated its 15th anniversary in grand fashion last night at the Philly gayborhood’s Voyeur Nightclub, with a highly anticipated headlining set from dance-pop’s biggest and newest up-and-comer, Shamir. The 20 year-old sensation from Las Vegas has set himself apart from the pack with his breathtaking countertenor, lovely persona and vibrant variety of songs. Popping up on stage a few minutes after midnight to an immense roar from the hyped up crowd, Shamir knew exactly what kind of time the club was looking for as he kicked off his set with a pep in his […]