Artwork by EDGEART If Jonathan Richman didn’t already exist, we would have never thought to invent him, which is a testament to both his originality and the shortcomings of our collective imagination. For going on a half century, Richman has been a tireless advocate of hopeful romanticism, rugged individualism and unyielding optimism, traveling the world like some post-modern Jimmy Stewart, armed with nothing more than a stripey shirt and a beat up acoustic guitar, telling anyone that would listen that, despite all the hard-bitten cynicism that surrounds him, it’s still a wonderful life. He is, in short, the immaculate heart […]
BLACK LIPS: Get It On Time
Black Lips have shared a David Black (Daft Punk, Cat Power, Charli XCX) directed video for “Get It On Time” from their recent album Sing In a World That’s Falling Apart. The song is a cover of an unfinished song by The Velvet Underground that Black Lips’ drummer Oakley Munson discovered and helped craft into a finished song. Sung by the band’s Zumi Rosow and shot on a mix of 16mm film and repurposed television equipment (from a formerly Tammy Faye Bakker-owned television studio), the song’s haunting melody and steady buildup marks some of the most cathartic work in the […]
I HEAR A DARKNESS: Q&A With Will Oldham
[Photo by JEFF RUTHERFORD] EDITOR’S NOTE: Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy shares the bill with Jonathan Richman Sunday night for a sold out show at Union Transfer. Oldham is touring in support of last year’s I Made A Place, his first LP of new songs since 2011. To mark this auspicious occasion, we are re-posting our 2010 Q&A w/ the irascible Mr. Oldham. Enjoy. NEW YORKER: Oldham remains an elusive figure, but the show is a gentle reminder of why he is often cited as one of the finest singer-songwriters in contemporary American music. Oldham was a student of […]
DAVID BYRNE: Once In A Lifetime
PREVIOUSLY: David Byrne — Talking Heads architect and post-New Wave elder statesman of all things arch, artsy and oblique — is the Marcel Duchamp of 20th Century rock n’ roll, transmuting the artifacts of the mundane and the quotidian into magical charms to ward off the confusion, dread and ennui of modern life. […] I call it MOMA-rock: A rapturous marriage of modern dance, minimalist grandeur, shit-hot musicianship, and gorgeous gale-force chorales that sing the body electric — all performed without wires, fixed instruments, pre-recorded backing tracks or shoes. All of it cooked up by the beautiful mind of David […]
CINEMA: Indivisble
THE INVISIBLE MAN (Directed by Leigh Whannell, 124 minutes, USA, 2020) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC The latest cinematic take on the H. G. Wells classic The Invisible Man, which hits theaters today, veers away from the source text to tell a much bleaker story, that is as much about domestic violence as it is its titular metaphorical monster. Set in modern day San Francisco, the film opens with Cecilia ( Elisabeth Moss) fleeing her abusive husband, who made his fortune in the field of optics. When he dies two weeks later due an apparent suicide, Cecilia inherits $5 […]
THE DREAM SYNDICATE: Regulator
LA indie rock forbearers The Dream Syndicate are announcing their third ANTI- Records release today. Titled The Universe Inside, the mind-bending new album will be released on April 10. First single “The Regulator” kicks in instantly; at twenty minutes long, immerse yourself in the song. Directed by David Daglish, the video is a psychedelic journey through New York City, equal parts panoramic, psychedelic, somnambulistic and political in all the best ways. George Harrison once said, “arrive without traveling.” This is your ticket to The Universe Inside. Reminiscent of 70s Miles Davis and his chaotic brilliance, the track starts all fired […]
CINEMA: Q&A W/ Emma Actress Anya Taylor-Joy
BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC It’s hard to believe Anya Taylor-Joy has only been acting for six years. After being “discovered” by a modeling scout while walking her dog, she effortlessly made the jump to acting, quickly landing her first starring role in the excellent gothic coming of age fairy tale, The Witch. Born in Miami, the youngest of six children, Anya spent the bulk of her childhood shuttling between Argentina and England, before eventually settling in New York at 16 to pursue acting full time. Since then, she has worked with such directors as Robert Eggers, Edgar Wright […]
INCOMING: Kenn Kweder Superstarr
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally published back in 2016 upon the release of the documentary Adventures Of A Secret Kidd. We are reprising it today in advance of his performance at Locks @ Sona in Manayunk on Saturday February 29th. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA For the past four decades, Kenn Kweder has been rocking a mic 4.5 nights a week at pretty much any place in the 215 that would have him: rock clubs, coffee shops, neighborhood taprooms, frat parties, block parties, house parties, garden parties, birthday parties, pretty much any place that people party. He carries a business […]
MUST SEE TV: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Artwork by LOURDES SARAIVA Inspired by the hit ‘90s sitcom Sabrina, The Teenage Witch comes a new, slightly more devilish drama called The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Where the 90’s Sabrina show included a talking cat and glitter-y, poofy magic, the new Sabrina has a goblin disguised as a cat and dark powers bestowed upon the coven from the Dark Lord, Lucifer Morningstar — the angel in the Bible who fell from grace to become what the Catholic’s call the devil. While the new Sabrina was inspired by the old, it is certainly not the same kind of show. Now, […]
TEE VEE: Jason Segel’s Love Letter To Philly
PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: It seems like just yesterday that Jason Segel and his Dispatches from Elsewhere team were hanging out in Philly. Well, the show is set to debut on AMC this Sunday. And I just got my hands on a special “Love Letter to Philly” video in which Segel and his co-stars talk about how “amazing” Philly is, to use the word that Segel chose to describe us. MORE PHAWKER: True story, Jason Segel’s character’s residence in Old City and Phawker HQ are one in the same!
NPR 4 THE DEAF: Supreme Injustice
FRESH AIR: A new book examines the conservative direction the Supreme Court has headed in over the past 50 years, ever since Nixon became president. The author, my guest Adam Cohen, writes, for five decades, the court has, with striking regularity, sided with the rich and powerful against the poor and weak in virtually every area of the law. He says, in campaign finance law, the court has opened the floodgates to money from wealthy individuals and corporations. In election law, it’s upheld rules and practices that make it more difficult for the poor and racial minorities to vote. […]
BEING THERE: Black Lips @ First Unitarian
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER I have to admit that when I first checked out the Black Lips about a decade ago, it had nothing to do with their music. I’d never heard it. Rather, I was drawn in by their already legendary antics such as whipping their junk out, vomiting, and kissing one another. That last stunt allegedly got them kicked out of India. This stuff may seem pedestrian to you, my faithful old-school punk reader, but for a dyed-in-the-wool folkie like me it sounded super-cool. I mean, in the folk world, the worst we get up to is, say, […]
BEING THERE: The Black Crowes @ The Foundry
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER After breaking up three years prior, The Black Crowes reunited in 2005 and began work on a record that would shift away from the rollicking radio-ready electric blues boogie of Shake Your Money Maker and the space-kissed psychedelia of 2001’s Lions. The resulting LP, 2008’s Warpaint, featured a balanced narrative of contemplative ballads on America’s southern mountain life: bittersweet odes to sunsets, backwoods swamp-stomp evangelism and a subtle, irreverent iconoclasm reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor. All of which revealed Chris’ and Rich Robinson’s deep roots in the lore of early-20th-century Appalachian folk music that framed up new […]