Borne of a Boston music critic with a vast vinyl collection of vintage blues, soul and country, schooled in the juke joints of the Mississippi Delta and the black churches of Chicago, Eli Paperboy Reed has done his homework and paid his dues and in the process earned a rep as an incendiary, leather-lunged, Elvis-haired blues shouter with a voice as thick and, when he wants it to be, as smooth as pomade. Nights Like This, is fourth album, and his second for Capitol, drops April 29th. To spread the word, he’s been doing select pre-release East Coast shows, […]
SNOWDEN: How To Take Back The Internet
TED: Appearing by telepresence robot, Edward Snowden speaks at TED2014 about surveillance and Internet freedom. The right to data privacy, he suggests, is not a partisan issue, but requires a fundamental rethink of the role of the internet in our lives — and the laws that protect it. “Your rights matter,” he says, “because you never know when you’re going to need them.” Chris Anderson interviews, with special guest Tim Berners-Lee. MORE
BEING THERE: The War On Drugs @ UT
Photo by ERIC ASHLEIGH I’ve always been intrigued by making it out for home town performances, though they tend to be overhyped or more often, the band shows up exhausted – playing one-off hits for some family and friends after a long tour – mustering whatever they’ve got left to give and not much more. At last night’s gathering, War on Drugs was doing the inverse, celebrating not only the release of their new record, Lost in the Dream, but also launching the tour itself at a sold out home town venue. The crowd was all winter beards and high […]
NIXON’S HEAD: Paul Rudd
Splendid jangly 60’s pop ode to the Hollywood funnyman/dreamboat — “Paul Rudd, goofball, wiseass, he’s your best bud” — by the funnymen dreamboats in Nixon’s Head, from the new split CD, MOd!/POW!, co-piloted by likeminded local vets The Donuts, due out tomorrow (March 20th). Both bands play the Boot & Saddle tomorrow night (Thursday March 20th), along with Adam & Dave’s Bloodline, who will also be celebrating the release of a new LP. Nixon’s Head? The Boot & Saddle? It’s like 1989 never ended!
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR In 1961, the 23-year-old son of one of America’s wealthiest families disappeared in a remote coastal area off the island of New Guinea in the South Pacific, a region inhabited by the Asmat, a tribe known to engage in headhunting and cannibalism. In an effort to solve the mystery of what happened to Michael Rockefeller, son of then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, writer Carl Hoffman dug into long-forgotten archives and spent time among villagers in the region. Hoffman believes the fate of Michael Rockefeller is now clear, and his new book tells the disturbing story of the young […]
NASA STUDY: Future Uncertain, End Is Always Near
THE GUARDIAN: It finds that according to the historical record even advanced, complex civilisations are susceptible to collapse, raising questions about the sustainability of modern civilisation: “The fall of the Roman Empire, and the equally (if not more) advanced Han, Mauryan, and Gupta Empires, as well as so many advanced Mesopotamian Empires, are all testimony to the fact that advanced, sophisticated, complex, and creative civilizations can be both fragile and impermanent.” By investigating the human-nature dynamics of these past cases of collapse, the project identifies the most salient interrelated factors which explain civilisational decline, and which may help determine […]
BEING THERE: Arcade Fire @ Wells Fargo Center
Photo by ERIC ASHLEIGH BY JONATHAN VALANIA The jagged through-line of agreed-upon rock n’ roll history is marked by epic strategic blunders and stylistic reboot fails that will live on in infamy. The Grateful Dead going disco, Jefferson Airplane becoming Jefferson Starship, REM attempting rap (nothing personal KRS-One, it wasn’t you it was them), the Rolling Stones hiring the Hell’s Angels to keep the peace at Altamont, to name but a few. Add to the list the Arcade Fire getting ‘funk to funky.’ Or trying to, anyway. There seems to be two schools of thought on Reflektor. A) It’s their […]
EARLY WORD: In Bob We Trust
MAGNET MAGAZINE TURNS 21! Feat. GUIDED BY VOICES SURFER BLOOD * TITUS ANDRONICUS MAY 22 Trocadero Theatre 1003 Arch St * Philadelphia Tickets on sale Friday 3/21 at Noon! Although they’ve been underage drinking for years, MAGNET is finally turning 21! To celebrate, the long-running indie mag is putting on a kick-ass rock show, featuring the classic lineup of Guided By Voices (who we hear might know something about drinking), Surfer Blood and Titus Andronicus. It’s May 22 at the legendary Trocadero Theatre. Be there, or bee thousand. For tickets and more information for Magnet Magazine Turns 21 featuring Guided […]
INCOMING: Slinty Fresh
SLINT Union Transfer Thursday, May 1, 2014 Doors: 8:00 PM / Show: 8:30 PM $25 R5: Hi. We normally do not send out dedicated e-mails about one show but we are going to make the rare exception here. We are thrilled and beyond excited to announce that one of our all time favorite bands will reunite and play a rare live show at Union Transfer this spring. For those who do not know, Slint hailed from Louisville. They were a bunch of teenage punk kids who out of nowhere wrote an absolutely seminal classic album, Spiderland. Without this band, […]
SABINA: Toujours
First track off the solo debut from the lead singer of Brazilian Girls. I could get used to this. She plays She plays the Prince Music Theater on March 22nd.
CINEMA: Welcome To The Hotel Andersonia
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, directed by Wes Anderson, 99 minutes, USA) BY JONATHAN VALANIA There are, I am increasingly convinced, but two kinds of people in this world: people who hate Wes Anderson films and human beings. Before we go further I should make it clear that I am of the opinion that Wes Anderson only makes two kinds of movies: great, and really great. That Wes Anderson is the two-word answer to the increasingly asked question: What good is a liberal arts education? There are times in this country’s history when we’ve had to take stock and […]
RIP: David Brenner, Philly-Born Stand-Up Royalty
David Brenner’s Tonight Show debut, Jan. 8, 1971. He would go on to become Carson’s most frequent guest, with more than 150 appearances. NEW YORK TIMES: David Brenner was born on Feb. 4, 1936, in Philadelphia, the son of Lou and Estelle Brenner. His father was a former vaudevillian who he said had several jobs — not all of them legal — and was one of the funniest people he knew. Mr. Brenner served in the Army and graduated from Temple University with a degree in communications before beginning his career as a documentarian. Tall and skinny, with a toothy […]
Q&A: Blunt Talk About “Cocaine,” Odd Futures, Civil Rights & Coming Out Black With The Internet
EDITOR’S NOTE: WE HAVE THREE PAIRS OF TIX TO SEE THE INTERNET @ THE TLA ON SATURDAY. FIRST THREE PHAWKER READERS TO EMAIL US AT FEED@PHAWKER.COM WITH ‘THE INTERNETS’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND TELL US WHAT ‘OFWGKTA’ STANDS FOR WINS THE TIX. GOOD LUCK AND GODSPEED. BY BRIEN EDWARDS The Internet reps the neo-soul wing of the Odd Future party. They were formed in 2011 by Syd Tha Kid [pictured above] and Matt Martians [pictured below, right] who met on the Internet, hence the band name. They have two albums under their belt, 2011’s Purple Naked Ladies and […]