We Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll But We Like It

HOW ARE YOU: Daniel Johnston, Popped Fest, WCL, Sunday Night BY SIMONE SECCI FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Popped festival 2008: same graphics, same format, fancier names (Gogol Bordello, Daniel Johnston) and locations such as World Café Live and there was where your favorite Philadelphia-adopted Italian reporter was last night to delight his ears. Sunday night there were two stages, with the upstairs more oriented to a dancier, hip and more uncommitted entertainment and a downstairs where a various bunch of more or less underground rock acts gather the attendance. First on stage Gildon Works offered a really great live show of indie […]

Q&A: Dancing With The Devil & Daniel Johnston

WIKIPEDIA: Daniel Dale Johnston (b. January 22, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist. Johnston was the subject of the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He currently lives in a house adjacent to his parents’ home in Waller, Texas. Johnston has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is autistic.[1] His songs are often called “painfully direct,” and tend to display a blend of childlike naïveté with darker, “spooky” themes. MORE Phawker: Hi. How are you? Daniel Johnston: Good. I just woke up. And I just found a bunch of comic books I haven’t even looked at […]

Q&A: The Horrible Truth About Dan Deacon

[Photo by STEFANI LEVIN] WIKIPEDIA: Dan Deacon (born 1981) is a Baltimore, Maryland-based electronic music composer/performer. He attended the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College in Purchase, New York, where he played in many bands, including tuba for Langhorne Slim and guitar in the improvisational grindcore band Rated R, and completed his graduate studies in electro-acoustic and computer music composition. He studied under composer/conductor Joel Thome. Currently, he lives at Wham City in Baltimore, Maryland. Dan Deacon’s compositional style is best classified in the future shock genre along with Videohippos, Santa Dads, Blood Baby, Ecstatic Sunshine, Ponytail, and other bands […]

THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS 2007

PUNK ROCK MOMENT OF THE YEAR The Monks Of Burma Rise Up * ALBUMS WE LOVED Radiohead In Rainbows As fine a Radiohead album as I have ever heard. The devoted will be immensely gratified, and new converts will be drawn in by all the buzz and what proves to be bewitchingly ethereal, yet altogether visceral, rock music. The 10-song In Rainbows collapses into one tidy package all the Radioheads we have come to know: folk-rock Radiohead, electronica Radiohead, alt-rock Radiohead, prog-rock Radiohead. Not only does the band seem to nail the shifting ways those genres contribute to each song, […]

RECONSIDER THIS: My So-Called Life

BY EVA LIAO Here’s one for the kids of my generation, the kids who grew up stuck between the loud, crude fads of the ’80s and the comparably apathetic, bereaved children of today. Here’s to the victims of a less dramatic, and all-the-more innocent decade known as the ’90s. Last month the DVD series of My So-Called Life was released to the elation of the pathetically nostalgic, such as myself. It’s been 13 years since the show last aired on ABC, running only one season. The series came to an unexpected halt once lead actress Claire Danes, who was only […]

TONIGHT: Madlibs, Peanut Butter & A Wolf

BY EVA LIAO Madlib is a super-mysterious musical magician. He’s involved in a billion different hip-hop projects, and chances are you’ve heard his music. But you wouldn’t know it since he’s so low-key and rarely gives interviews. When speaking to his publicist, she says, “Madlib only does interviews on select months.” Then real nonchalant-like, she’s all, “you’d be lucky to catch him during an ‘on’ month.” It seems it’s all a ploy to keep things simplistic at bay. But the irony is that there’s nothing simplistic about his music. In fact, the story of Madlib is actually a bit complicated […]

WARNING: Paris Is Burning Coming Cumming

CLICK TO ENLARGE Paris Hilton will be in town tomorrow to pimp her new fragrance at Macy’s. To mark this auspicious occasion, we thought we’d re-run our infamous Paris Hilton Autopsy slideshow. Because it gives us that ‘peaceful, easy feelin’ we like so much. PREVIOUSLY: The Paris Hilton Autopsy [Photos by EVA LIAO]

INSTA-REVIEW: Five Things You Need To Know About Melt Banana At First Unitarian Last Night

1. Lead singer Yasuko O. is cute as pie, which is a delightful contrast to her seemingly bad-ass reputation. Live, she barks, chokes, shriek and screeches her incoherent English lyrics just as she would on any album. But then she stops to take a breather and she’s all smiles and peace-fingers. 2. My guess is that 75% of last night’s crowd has an Asian fetish going on (which is fine by me). When Yasuko stopped mid-set and said to the crowd, “we have tee-surts, um… tee-shuts, hehehe, tee-shirts!” half the crowd swooned at the sound of her adorably broken English […]

TONITE: Melt Your Banana

BY EVA LIAO Melt Banana is/are/was/always will be cool because A.) they’re Japanese, B.) they have mad style and C.) they are the reigning lords of zig-zaggy schizoid, make-you-want-to-thrash-until-you-vomit, one minute songs that blur the line between music and seizure. They’ve been around since 1992, which makes them pioneers of sorts in the Japanese noise rock scene. They’re lead singer is a precious little Japanese girl who you might otherwise mistake as the girl down the street who does your dry cleaning. Lead singer Yuksuko O. will rape your eardrums with incoherent shrieking. Everything will move very, very fast. You […]