I am willing to sign a sworn affidavit declaring that I do not know this person, nor does he owe me money. RELATED: Isaac Brock Is Tired Of Being A Myth
DEATH 2 FAKE METAL: H&M, Nazis & Goat Semen
BY COLE NOWLIN I love H&M. As someone who has been financially enfeebled by my compulsive expenditure of large swaths of my meager income to clothing I do not need, H&M is the perfect place to load up on unnecessary-but-desirable jackets and jeans on the cheap. In this year’s Coachella collection, the Swedish outfitters featured a number of heavy metal-inspired items. I’ve always been less the Slayer T-shirt type and more of a burgundy micro-check button-down guy, so I didn’t take much notice to this metal segment of the new line. That is until the Internet starting rumbling about […]
TRAILER: The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Emperor’s New Clothes = Collective ignorance of an obvious fact, or deception, despite undeniable evidence. World-famous British comedian and activist Russell Brand joins forces with acclaimed director Michael Winterbottom on a polemical documentary about the financial crisis and gross inequality we currently face. Starting with the genesis of today’s economic policies, with the arrival of Milton Friedman’s school of thought in Reagan’s leadership and Thatcher’s UK, the film explores how these policies have come to dominate the western world. The rich have got richer; where a CEO of a major British company used to earn 10 times the […]
BEING THERE: The War On Drugs @ The Tower
Photo by DYLAN LONG Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs cast a spell over the capacity crowd at the Tower Theater Friday night with their celebrated brand of ethereal guitar rock. Their first song of the night, the gloriously woozy “Under Pressure,” is also the lead-off track of their highly-acclaimed 2014 LP Lost In A Dream, which was fitting considering that the runaway success of that album was the reason they were playing the Tower instead of Johnny Brenda’s. Granduciel’s Dylanesque vocals and wobbling tremolo-ed guitar echoed off the walls and the tall, broad ceiling of the Tower, creating a lush […]
MUST SEE TV: Dead Milkman Goes To Anhedonia
Rodney Anonymous, of Dead Milkmen fame, joins the cast of Welcome to Anhedonia, the most punk rock puppet show ever created. Rodney made his first appearance as Mr. Good, proprietor of Mr. Good’s Clown Pound, and returns as the spokesperson for College University. Anonymous joins other puppet and humanoid cast members Scram, Artie and Jef, in their continuing adventures in a place only known as Anhedonia. The show is hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt lookalike Jef Connectorkit, who lives in a kaleidoscopic world where puppets are probable and anything is possible. The son of a human mother and ruthless, monster/tycoon father, […]
FINE YOUNG CANNIBAL: Q&A w/ Hannibal Buress
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Comedian Hannibal Buress has played a homeless man on 30 Rock who was NOT masturbating to Tina Fey, a second banana on The Eric Andre Show, and a nitrous huffing dentist/fuck buddy on Broad City. But no matter how glorious a career he goes on to have, he will forever be remembered as The Man Who Unmasked Bill Cosby, in the bit heard round the world, delivered, let us not forget, at the Trocadero (just a few hours after this interview first published on October 16th, 2014). Which confers on Philadelphia the dubious distinction of being […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
Artwork by SABO FRESH AIR When Ted Cruz announced his presidency, he said: “It’s time to reclaim the constitution.” The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin discusses the strict legal philosophy that has shaped Cruz’s political agenda. MORE NEW YORKER: Ted Cruz’s ascendancy reflects the dilemma of the modern Republican Party, because his popularity within the Party is based largely on an act that was reviled in the broader national community. Last fall, Cruz’s strident opposition to Obamacare led in a significant way to the shutdown of the federal government. “It was not a productive enterprise,” John McCain told me. “We needed […]
JD MCPHERSON: Let The Good Times Roll
JD McPherson’s music video for “Let The Good Times Roll” premiered today at Rolling Stone. “Let The Good Times Roll” is the title track from McPherson’s highly acclaimed new album, which recently debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Chart (Rounder Records). In celebration of the release, McPherson returned to the “Late Show with David Letterman” to perform “Let The Good Times Roll.” The performance can be viewed HERE. Additionally, NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” featured McPherson on the program. Listen to the full interview HERE. On the heels of their sold-out European tour, McPherson and his longtime band—Jimmy Sutton (upright bass), Jason Smay (drums), Ray […]
COMMENTARY: Blood And Treasure
Artwork by SHEPARD FAIREY BY WILLIAM C. HENRY “I pledge allegiance to the arms manufacturers of the United States of America and to the stratocracy for which we yearn.” Ring any bells? It should. As I speak, Republican members of Congress are fighting tooth and nail among themselves to see how much money they can ADD to the $850+ BILLION we already spend every year on the military. So, in the midst of all this right-wing-middle-fingers-up-the-asses-of-America’s-unimaginably-dire-social-and-infrastructure-urgencies, I’m hoping you’ll agree that it might at least be prescient to expose where America currently stands in relation to the world’s other developed nations vis-à-vis unconscionable military overload. […]
HOT PLANET 101: Global Warming For Dummies
UPWORTHY: If the symptoms of planetary fever are shrinking glaciers, rising sea levels, hotter heat waves, stronger hurricanes, and shifting plant and animal ranges, it’s worth asking: Is that stuff really happening? Well, let’s take them on one at a time. MORE
HOT TAPE: The Angel Of Death Meets The BBC
This is an extraordinary piece of tape. The BBC interviews Utah state Rep. Paul Ray (R-Clearfield) who sponsored the bill that reinstates the use of firing squads to execute death row prisoners, which was passed by the Utah legislature earlier this month and was just signed into law by the governor. The firing squad is Ray’s solution to the intentional shortage of lethal injection drugs — European pharmaceutical makers refuse to sell the drugs to anyone using them to execute prisoners — and he sounds positively giddy that the killing floors of the Utah penal system will soon run red […]
THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING TO CHARLIE: Spring Time In Haddonfield = The Saddest Boy On Earth
BY CHARLIE C. If you looked at this picture here and was asked to guess what time of year it took place in, even if you had five guesses (there are only four seasons), I’m sure you wouldn’t get what it is. It was taken out my back door on Friday, the first day of Spring (ironic, right?). I am completely sick of the winter, and I think everyone is at this point. But, this memorable day was way more sad, ironic maybe, than what I expected, because we all know that the normal expectation of a Spring day would be […]
TONIGHT: The Black Swan
Michael Gira is rock n’ roll’s last great tyrant, and his band Swans is the last outpost of rock n’ roll Stalinism. Many former members have been exiled to the vast Arctic wastes of the Gulags for the sins of disobedience, insubordination or just missing one of the many, many cues he dispenses onstage with a wink of the eye, a nod of the head or a shrug of the shoulders (take it to the bridge, repeat this chorus, go left at the next light, etc.). In fairness, some great literature came out of those Siberian banishments. Little known […]