EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally appeared in MAGNET MAGAZINE BY JONATHAN VALANIA We’d been traversing the spine of Tornado Alley for the last two hours when the stewardess announced that we would be landing in Oklahoma City in a few minutes, and that we should fasten our seatbelts and return our minds to the upright position, when the drugs took hold. We are, as the saying goes, off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Odd—or, if you prefer, the Wizard of OK, a.k.a. Wayne Coyne, frizzy-brained mainman of the Flaming Lips, the P.T. Barnum Of The Stoned, a.k.a. […]
THIS JUST IN: Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss And Kacey Musgrave Play The Mann On June 13th
A man who needs no last name, Willie is to Country what Neil is to rock: the Buddha, bestowing laid-back grace on all those who bask in his benevolent THC-tinged glow. Born April 30, 1933, in Abbott, Texas, Nelson begins writing songs at age seven. After serving briefly in the Air Force during the Korean War and studying agriculture at Baylor University, Nelson moves through a series of luckless, low-paying career changes–disc jockey; door-to-door vacuum and encyclopedia salesman. By 1958, in dire financial straits and married with children, Nelson is forced to sell his songs for cheap (“Night Life,” […]
AVEY TARE’S SLASHER FLICKS: Little Fang
First single off the debut LP from Animal Collectivist Avey Tare’s new side project. They play Johnny Brenda’s April 24th.
EXCERPT: About A Girl
BY JONATHAN VALANIA In 2012, Tom Gabel, the 33-year-old year old frontman of Florida-based million-dollar major label punk band Against Me!, announced to the world that he was transgender and had begun the process of transitioning into a woman. Tom Gabel was dead, long live Laura Jane Grace. Grace told MAGNET she knew, deep down, since the age of five that she been had miscast in the role of heterosexual boy in the play of life. After years of drug-and-alcohol-abetted denial cross-dressing behind a cruel veil of secrecy and shame, Grace realized she could no longer deny her true […]
SH*T ROBOT: We Got Love feat. Reggie Watts
They had me at ‘Shit Robot.’ Shit Robot — I just like typing that — is DFA mainstay Marcus Lambkin, i.e. the man who turned LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy onto dance music. Shit Robot plays The Dolphin on Saturday with JDH Dave P. Learn more HERE.
Q&A: John & Bonnie Raines, Burglars For The Citizen’s Commission To Investigate The FBI
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Back in 1971, John Raines, a religion professor at Temple, and his wife, Bonnie, [pictured, below right, with their children circa 1968] were part of an eight-member group of anti-Vietnam War protesters who dubbed themselves The Citizens’ Commission To Investigate The FBI and broke into the FBI office in Media, PA, and left with 1,000 documents that revealed, for the first time, the details of a massive domestic FBI spying operation known as COINTELPRO. Thus setting in motion a chain of events, not the least of them the death of J. Edgar Hoover, that lead to […]
Scene From Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel
M. Ivan (Bill Murray) offers M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his sidekick Zero Mustafa (Tony Revori) a way out of whatever hot water they have gotten themselves into back at The Grand Budapest Hotel. As getaways go, it’s got that Wes Anderson Feeling in spades. Film drops March 7th. Reason #356 why February can’t end soon enough.
ART GARFUNKEL: Bridge Over Troubled Water
JUST ANNOUNCED: Art Garfunkel at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, March 7th & 8th. Tickets go on sale Friday @ 10 AM.
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Common Corps
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Familiar with Common Core? Don’t fret. It’s not altogether necessary that you be acquainted with all of its intricacies and implications in order to appreciate this contrarian’s point of view, but for the sake of your children and grandchildren I HIGHLY recommend that you become so ASAP. And when you do, please keep in mind that regardless of all of Common Core’s promised furtherances and rewards, this purported “earthshaking advance” in education has in large part been promoted and designed by individuals and corporations that stand to reap considerable financial gain through its implementation. With […]
ANACOLUTHON: Directed By Lola Schnabel
Cool little slice of arty lensed and directed by Julian Schnabel‘s daughter. Dig it.
In The End, Phillip Seymour Hoffman Was Killed By The Arbitrary Prohibitions Of The War On Drugs
Photo by VICTORIA WILL THE ATLANTIC: Naloxone, a non-narcotic, easily-dispensed medication, is being hailed as a miracle drug for reversing overdoses. Like Lazarus, an overdosed user on the verge of death will spring back to life when Naloxone mist hits his nostrils. Police are becoming more willing to carry and dispense the drug. More townships are passing Good Samaritan laws that make it safe for other drug users to contact emergency responders in the event of an overdose, without having to worry about getting arrested for having made the call. Advocates want Naloxone, which is safe and non-toxic, to be available […]
EARLY WORD: Neutral Milk Hotel @ The Mann
Just announced, Neutral Milk Hotel coming to the Mann Center July 21st! Tickets go on sale Friday at noon. PREVIOUSLY: In 1998, Neutral Milk Hotel released an album of hallucinatory folk-rock called In The Aeroplane Over The Sea that is, it can be said without fear of exaggeration, nothing short of a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Like My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, it is lightning caught in a bottle, one of those rare perfect albums that come along maybe once a decade. Or once a lifetime. In 1999, Jeff Mangum — Neutral Milk’s singer, songwriter and primary guitarist — disappeared […]
BLEEDING RAINBOW: So You Know
New album, Interrupt, out Feb. 25th from Philly’s finest new-shoegazers. They play First Unitarian on Saturday with alt-rock avatars Mission Of Burma.