FRESH AIR: Andrew Marantz has spent the past three years reporting on the alt-right’s use of social media. He’s embedded with the people he describes as the trolls and bigots and propagandists who are experts at converting fanatical memes into policy. Marantz is a staff writer for The New Yorker and started this reporting project during the 2016 presidential campaign. He watched how extremist memes and lies were created and went viral, and he profiled the people creating the means. Marantz has also been reporting on social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit, that claim they’re dedicated to free […]
INCOMING: Killing Me Softly With Her Song
I Don’t Wanna Lose by Kate Bollinger Perhaps inspired by her musical therapist mother, introspective indie-rock thrush Kate Bollinger’s soft, yet distinctive voice has a lulling, dream-like effect. Her music radiates a certain sweetness and serenity which serves as a welcome balm in these nerve-shattering times. Her back catalog to date is a series of relaxed-fit singles that sound, at turns, beachy, psychedelic, and jazzy — sometimes at the same time. And she can sing a line like “You give me so much to be afraid of” (from “I Don’t Want To Lose,” see above) with indomitable placidity of a […]
TV REVIEW: The Mandalorian Episode # 1
The streaming war has officially begun with Disney firing the first shot with today’s launch of Disney +, their proprietary streaming service, armed with its secret weapon: Jon Favreau’s take on a Galaxy Far, Far, Away The Mandalorian. For those not versed in Star Wars speak, the Mandalorian’s were a legendary warrior race known for their iconic omnipresent armor, who were typically either mercenaries or bounty hunters. There has been talk for years of Boba Fett, the most iconic Mandalorian, getting his own feature film and up until Solo bombed it almost seemed inevitable, but instead we get a […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR: Judd Apatow was a teenager when he first “met” comic Garry Shandling in a phone interview for his high school radio show. Years later, their paths intersected again when Shandling, who was hosting the Grammy Awards, hired Apatow to write jokes for him. Shandling had been Johnny Carson’s guest host on The Tonight Show before creating and starring in the groundbreaking comedy series It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and The Larry Sanders Show. He became Apatow’s mentor and close friend. “He completely changed my life,” Apatow says of Shandling. “He hired me to write for his show. He […]
SALLY (ALEX G): In My Arms
SANDY (ALEX G) @ UNION TRANSFER SATURDAY NOVEMBER 20TH SOLD OUT
WORTH REPEATING: The Troubles With Spikol
PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE: My psychiatrist first floated the idea that I don’t have bipolar disorder months ago, when we were spending another session dissecting my history of disasters. That’s what you do in therapy, in case you’re not familiar — you take out your calamities and examine them, hold them up to the light until you can see them without shadow. Then, if you’re lucky, you fold their shiny sharp edges in tissue paper, place them in a box, and shove the box to the back of a shelf you can’t reach without a ladder. When all the boxes are […]
SPOON: Inside Out (Demo)
Britt Daniel alone with a piano at midnight in the garden of good and evil demo version of “Inside Out,” which was turned into an sad-eyed electro-static pocket symphony on 2014’s They Want My Soul. RELATED: The Complete Oral History Of Spoon
ALBUM REVIEW: Twin Peaks’ Lookout Low
Chicago-based indie-rockers Twin Peaks have been releasing the same wallpaper indie rock over the course of three albums, sounding more like a bland melting pot of their favorite bands than anything else. Their third album Down in Heaven is the first time the band seemed like they were coming onto their own, but most of the album was drowned out with more filler that sounded just ok. Nothing terrible or nothing even bad, just entirely unexceptional. Most of the time while I’m listening to Twin Peaks, I’m thinking about what a waste of the name they are. To name […]
CINEMA: Bad Fellas
THE IRISHMAN (directed by Martin Scorsese, 209 minutes, USA, 2019) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Based on the mob hitman memoir I Hear You Paint Houses, The Irishman is the “true” story of Irish Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a blue-collar World War II veteran who made a life for himself in the Italian mafia hitman “painting houses” with the blood of his wiseguy victims. At the start of The Irishman, we meet Frank living out his final days in a nursing home as he reflects back on how he rose to the right-hand of not only Russell Bufalino […]
THE FLAMING LIPS: Little Drummer Boy
PREVIOUSLY: Last night the Flaming Lips unveiled the more-awesome-than-you-could-possibly-imagine reboot of their stage show, which replaces the happy-happy-joy-joy bliss rallies they’ve been staging for the past decade. Gone are the balloons and blood and bubble-walking and the dancing Santa Clauses and the big hands that shoot lasers. In its place — well, fact is it defies words, you really had to be there — but calling it H.R. Giger meets Hanna-Barbera on the dark side of the moonhenge isn’t that far from accurate. Frizzy-brained frontman Wayne Coyne conducted the proceedings from high atop a lumpy mound-like perch festooned with bifurcated […]
THE DUDE STILL ABIDES: Q&A With Pete Yorn
PETE YORN PERFORMS @ THE FOUNDRY ON WED. NOVEMBER 6TH @ 8 PM BY JONATHAN VALANIA A way out West there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Pete Yorn. Now, above all things, Pete Yorn is a dude. He is, in fact, a dude’s dude. Same as there’s a man’s man and a songwriter’s songwriter, Pete Yorn is a dude’s dude. You can tell even before he opens his mouth, which is when it becomes really obvious. That hair, that denim jacket, those eyes — eyes that have searched soulfully through […]
POLL: Majority Of Fox News Viewers Favor The Impreachment And Removal Of Donald Trump
FOX NEWS: Nearly half of voters want President Trump impeached and removed from office, according to a new Fox News Poll. In addition, 6-in-10 believe the president did ask foreign leaders to investigate political opponents — and two-thirds say that action is inappropriate. Forty-nine percent want Trump impeached and removed from office, 4 percent say he should be impeached but not removed, and 41 percent oppose impeaching Trump. That’s about where things stood in early October, when 51 percent said impeach/remove, 4 percent impeach/don’t remove, and 40 percent opposed altogether. MORE
BEING THERE: Angel Olsen @ Franklin Music Hall
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Somewhere from the back of Franklin Music Hall last night, a fan let out a blood-curdling “AN-GELLL” that sent an echo of similar calls and pleas for attention all the way up to the stage, where Angel Olsen stood in a black dress and a pair of cat ears, with mock whiskers painted on her face. She let the crowd’s wave of drunken Halloween nonsense fill the room, waiting for one brief quiet moment to say, “What other thoughts do you have? I’m ready.” Standing before a crowd costumed in kitschy face paint, wigs, headdresses, glitter, […]