GRETEL & HANSEL (directed by Oz Perkins, 97 minutes, USA, 2020) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Gretel & Hansel, the new film by director Oz Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter), is an eye-dazzling new take on the Brothers Grim classic. Gretel is played by Sophia Lillis whose complex and remarkably empowering take on Beverly Marsh in 2017’s It was easily one of the best parts of that adaptation. While this recent subgenre of expanding on these familiar stories we thought we knew is nothing new, rarely do we see them take the approach on screen here. The film’s visual palette channels […]
LISTEN: The Cars Circa ’77 Live Tape Surfaces
DANGEROUS MINDS: A pre-fame live tape of a show by new wave heroes the Cars recently surfaced online. The 1977 recording documents the Boston band less than a year on from their concert debut, and just when they were starting to gain some notoriety. The tape contains songs that are now classics, as well as those that are only known to diehard fans, including a few that have never been released. The gig took place at the Paradise Theater, a small Boston venue, on October 1st, 1977. At the time, the Cars hadn’t been together all that long, but […]
GOD OF THUNDER: A Q&A With Gene Simmons
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally published in June 2017. We are reprising it now in advance of Kiss’ performance at the PP&L Center in Allentown tomorrow night, the second date on the End Of The Road farewell world tour, with David Lee Roth opening. We will be sending a writer and photographer, stay tuned for a complete report. In the meantime, enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA In advance of his performance at the Trocadero tonight as part of the Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con nerd jamboree at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (June 1-4), we got Gene Simmons, commander in chief […]
CINEMA: Who’s A Good Boy?!?
TOGO (Directed by Ericson Core, 113 minutes, USA, 2019) BY RACHEL TESON Many people know the story of Balto, mostly from the 1995 animated film Balto with Kevin Bacon as the voice lead. You can visit Balto’s statue in Central Park in New York City. A reward he received for being known as the dog who saved an Alaskan village called Nenana from a diphtheria epidemic. While Balto should be praised for his accomplishments, he, along with over a dozen other mushers, only covered around 20 miles out of the total 674 mile race. A twelve year old husky (considered […]
INCOMING: Zen Arcadia
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally published in 2014 in the pages of MAGNET MAGAZINE. We are reprising it now on the occasion of a string of East Coast solo dates. He play the Queen in Wilmington last night and he plays a sold out show @ The Iridium in NYC tonight. Enjoy. NEW DAY RISING Bob Mould has survived the rise and fall of Husker Du in the 80s, Sugar going supernova in the 90s, a premature retirement in the late 90s, a detour into DJ culture during the twilight of the alt-rock gods in the early aughts and […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: Amy Rigby was a sheltered Catholic teen from the Pittsburgh suburbs when she moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design and fell in love with the ’70s punk scene. “Downtown seemed to be where I felt comfortable,” she says. “It was grungy. It was dirty. It was dark. Everyone was smoking. It smelled of beer. And it felt like it was always really, really hot or really, really cold in New York back then.” Rigby spent years hanging out in the punk clubs before she found her calling as a singer-songwriter, playing first […]
THE RENTALS: Great Big Blue
January 28, 2020 (New York, NY) – Today marks the 34th Anniversary of the Challenger disaster. To honor the fallen Space Shuttle Astronauts, The Rentals are releasing “Great Big Blue”, a song based directly on the tragedy. Outside the thermometer reads 31 degrees Our families in the bleachers, bundled up so they don’t freeze The inspiration for the song came after Matt Sharp accidentally came upon a video of raw, uncut CNN news footage of a select group of school children and families of the seven Challenger astronauts watching the take-off, and tragic aftermath, from the bleachers about 3 1/2 […]
BEING THERE: Blackalicious @ Ardmore Music Hall
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Halfway through a characteristically killer set from opener Reef the Lost Cauze [pictured, above], the Philly rap artist noted, “I expected more Black people! There’s not a lotta Black people here for a band called Blackalicious!” Reef’s rap swings hard and pulls nothing, offering in his trademark explosive delivery shrewd social commentaries that tend not to dodge the uncomfortable, even if he affixes a modicum of self-aware humor at the end — the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. His observation on the crowd was only half in jest. Wherever they stand with […]
TYLER THE CREATOR & BOYZ II MEN: Earfquake
Tyler the Creator’s IGOR won Best Rap Album @ The Grammys tonight.
CINEMA: It Came From Outer Space
COLOR OUT OF SPACE (Directed by Richard Stanley, 111 minutes, USA, 2020) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Richard Stanley’s hotly-anticipated adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s Color Out Of Space is the director’s first feature film since he was fired mid-production from The Island of Dr. Moreau back in 1996. The daring documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau tells the insane story of the director getting fired from the film early into production, and chronicling him hiding in the nearby rain forest only to infiltrate the set as a costumed extra. Color Out Of […]
INCOMING: The Circus Is In Town
LISTEN: The Gliterest Rockinest Overtime-Paidest Boogiest Band In Town
RIP: Terry Jones From Monty Python’s Flying Circus
via GIPHY NEW YORK TIMES: Terry Jones, who earned a spot in comedic lore as a member of the British troupe Monty Python and also had success as a director, screenwriter and author, died on Tuesday night at his home in the Highgate neighborhood of North London. He was 77. His ex-wife, Alison Telfer, confirmed the death. Mr. Jones announced in 2016 that he had primary progressive aphasia, a neurological disease that impairs the ability to communicate. Mr. Jones, four other Britons — Michael Palin, Eric Idle, John Cleese and Graham Chapman — and an American, Terry Gilliam, formed Monty […]
Q&A: Everything You Ever Wanted To Ask Monty Python But You Didn’t Have His Phone Number
[illustration by ALEX FINE] EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally posted in 2007, hence the crappy-looking overcrowded layout. We’re reprising it today to mark the sad passing of Monty Python’s Flying Circus performer/writer/creator Terry Jones. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE INQUIRER In 1969 Michael Palin quit smoking, a pasttime he was quite fond of, through sheer will power. Having achieved a victory for mind over matter, Palin decided to raise the stakes — he would keep a diary for the next 10 years come hell or high water. What makes this enterprise interesting to people like you and me is […]