Sad news. After a years-long battle with lung cancer, Mikey passed away this morning. A celebration of his music and art will be held at Pageant Soloveev on June 18th. PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY: Some people are scared to talk to Mikey Wild. Maybe it’s because he’s a living, breathing South Philly legend. Or maybe it’s because he can be an ornery guy who threatens to burn you with his lighter if he takes a dislike to you. But some awe is in order, as Wild is the crazy dean of the South Philadelphia punk scene, making his living as a local […]
Search Results for: tower records
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED Imagine if millions of people had seen you naked before you were old enough to say “embarrassing.” That’s the story of Spencer Elden, whom you may know as the little baby floating towards a dollar bill on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album, Nevermind. Nearly 17 years later, amid hating school and playing water polo, Elden is still struggling to make sense of his (very) public image. “Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis,” he says from his home in Los Angeles. “So that’s kinda cool. I’m just a normal kid living it […]
INSTA-REVIEW: M.I.A. Kala
NOW PLAYING ON PHAWKER RADIO. WHY? BECAUSE WE LIKE YOU! BY SARA SHERR As you’ve no doubt read in a million and one places already, M.I.A. was set to make her sophomore effort, Kala, with Timbaland, but then visa troubles (her father being a Tamil Tiger can’t help) kept her from working in the U.S. So she traveled the world, collecting beats, textures, and sounds. Unlike most of the acts that garner a lot of blogger hype and print-crit “me too”-ing, M.I.A. is truly worthy of your time and effort. No other record that comes out this year will sound […]
GAYBO: Zane Insane For 2007! Sal’s On 12th Goes Way Gay! Dreamgirls Is Gay All Day! Hooray For Gay!
BY TOMMY ZANE Weeks have just flown by and I’ve been oh, so silent. But that just means more chat to share with you, my pets! Ah, The Holidaze — finally over. Yeesh. No hospitalizations or friendships ended in a fury of expletives, thank Goddess. After listening to James Brown for nearly two hours, New Years Eve I was wasted on champagne and vodka — a deadly combination. Frolicking in a makeshift Stevie Nicks-style skirt, spinning in circles to the sounds of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gypsy” nearly made me barf. Other New Year’s hotspots: Robert Drake and company held court at […]
DEATH OF A SALESPERSON: All Things Must Pass
BY SARA SHERR The Tower Records at Broad and Chestnut was scheduled to close on Friday, Dec. 22. Instead, the doors shut late Wednesday night after an independent Virginia record retailer bought up the last of the remaining stock, which really wasn’t much by then. Two similar mass purchases had occurred earlier in the week, one from a New Jersey record store owner who bought up a bunch of major label stuff (which means a lot of Daniel Powter and Ashley Parker Angel, and returns for credit! Smart cookie!) The other was an unknown company which volunteered to take the […]
DEATH OF A SALESPERSON: “No, I’m Sorry, We Will Never Have ‘Nice Music’ AGAIN”
SARA SHERR REPORTS: With just four days left to go, the Avenue of the Arts Tower Records isn’t even a shell of its former self. It’s the Pennsauken Mart. The second floor is no more. It once housed DVDs, Jazz, Vocals, New Age, Folk, Blues, Comedy and Kids. What little of it is left is now on the first floor. Before this everything-must-go transformation, the Jazz guy and the Goth kid from the DVD department were working side by side, a sitcom waiting to happen. The Classical department consists of one bin in the front of the store, much to […]
HOW TO GROW UP TO BE A DEBASER: An Intensely Personal Q&A w/ The Pixies’ Black Francis
Photo by NOAH SILVESTRY EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the complete and unabridged version of my 7,200-word Q&A with Black Francis of The Pixies’ for the cover of the March 2014 issue of MAGNET MAGAZINE. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA The year is 1988. I’m a college DJ stranded in the middle of Pennsyltucky. Entranced by the naked boob on the cover of Surfer Rosa, I slap it on the turntable and…they had me by the first 20 seconds of “Where Is My Mind?” They never really let go. Shortly thereafter I got a gig working for a Pennsyltucky daily. They asked […]
WIRE FROM THE BUNKER: Meet Howard Tate
Art by NIALL MCCORMACK BY JONATHAN HOULON This week’s Wire concerns Philadelphia’s own late great R&B legend, Howard Tate. I’ll send this one out to another late great Philadelphian, my dear friend Peter Stone Brown who passed away earlier this year. Peter, of course, was known both as a formidable songwriter and as one of the world’s leading “Dylanologists” as recognized in David Kinney’s book of the same name. Kinney tells a wonderful story about how Peter, as a teenager, mowed the words “Fuck You” into his parents’ lawn in Millburn, New Jersey where he grew up. They don’t make […]
THE LOCUST ABORTION TECHNICIAN: Q&A W/ Gibby Haynes, Frontman Of The Butthole Surfers
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally published on July 19th, 2020. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Saints be praised! Butthole Surfers frontman/madman Gibby Haynes will be celebrating the publication of his debut novel Me & Mr. Cigar with a book released party/concert (backed by The Paul Green School of Rock) at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville on Friday January 17th — and we are totally there for this. To help get the word out, we got Gibby on the horn for a wide ranging, no-holes barred interview. If you are new to the Gibby/Surfers’ weird-ass corner of the universe, I suggest you read […]
BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN: Q&A W/ Greg Sowders Of Alt-Country Pioneers The Long Ryders
BY BARRY GUTMAN During the 1980s, The Long Ryders – along with The Dream Syndicate, The Bangles, The Three O’Clock and The Rain Parade – were card-carrying members of Los Angeles’ “Paisley Underground” scene. While all of those bands channeled the ‘60s to some extent, none carried on in the folk- and country-rock vein of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Flying Burrito Bros. so prominently and perfectly. “Ivory Tower”, for example, from their first LP, Native Sons, would have fit perfectly on either of The Byrds’ first two albums – so perfectly, in fact, that that band’s master songwriter […]
FROM THE VAULT: Hey, Mr. Spaceman
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally appeared in the November 2001 issue of Magnet and reported in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. We are reprising it here to mark the auspicious occasion of Spiritualized performing at The Fillmore Philly on Good Friday, in support of the new LP And Nothing Hurt. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Somewhere Over The North Atlantic, Sept . 25, 2001 Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space—35,000 feet above the Earth, to be exact. We’re on our way to Ireland to tag along on a Spiritualized tour. It’s gonna be fun, but there are some risks […]
BEING THERE: Neko Case @ The Keswick
Photo by MATT SHAVER The first time I heard Neko Case sing was at a live show and she was singing just to me. The year was 2004 and I was at the Tower Theater, er, sorry, Tower Records, in Fairfax Virginia. The listening stations were a favorite spot of mine after classes. I’d post up on those shiny red stools and bury myself in whatever the staff was recommending at the moment, and in this moment it was The Tigers Have Spoken. I was hooked from song one and have been enthralled ever since. Neko has THE voice – […]
SET THE WAYBACK MACHINE TO NEVER: A Q&A With Jon Spencer, Legendary Blooze Traveler, Elvis From Hell, Noise-Rock Deviant & A Really Nice Guy
BY JONATHAN VALANIA With all due apologies to The Gun Club, Jon Spencer looks just like an Elvis from Hell. Where I come from that’s the highest praise you can confer on someone. And after 34 years of rocking righteously and outrageously, not to mention prodigiously — more than 40 albums and EPs, and countless singles and comp appearances spread across five different bands — he’s earned it. Back in 1985, his band Pussy Galore crawled out of the noise rock sewer of the Lower East Side and proceeded to define deviance downwards. They sounded like Einsturzende Neubauten raised on […]