“The Sun Blows Up Today” is a non-album track The Flaming Lips are giving away for free when you pre-order their new album, The Terror, due out April 2nd. This is known as an Instant gratification, Non-Album, Bonus Track. Also known as “a savvy inducement for moving units in the digital age” or a “gimmick like the cardboard “Mary, Mary” Monkees 45 you cut out of the back of box of Honeycomb cereal when you were seven and then your sister grabbed it and crumbled it up and now she’s dead. Or not. Either way, both the song and the […]
TURNS OUT SHE WAS ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY: Fox News Paid Sarah Palin 15 Times More Per Word Than The Average Reporter In ‘The Lamestream Media’ Makes
SMART POLITICS: Sarah Palin uttered more than 189,000 words over 150 appearances on various FOX broadcasts during her three years as an analyst at the network, or $15.85 per word. With the three-year contract now expired between FOX News and Sarah Palin, there is a wealth of commentary made by the former Alaska Governor and GOP Vice-Presidential nominee to dissect. Palin, who was paid a reported $1 million per year as a contributor to FOX since mid-January 2010 when FOX announced her signing, may not have made quite the splash her employers had hoped during this three-year period, and […]
BEING THERE: The xx @ The Electric Factory
The xx, Electric Factory, last night by MEREDITH KLEIBER After a solid performance from Toronto natives Austra, a white curtain fell from the Electric Factory ceiling, separating the crowd from the stage at the sold-out show. A little over half an hour passed, the lights went down, and desperate screams erupted from the mostly teenybopper audience as an artsy design somewhat resembling a woman’s head projected onto the curtain and two silhouettes emerged into spotlights on either side of the stage. The xx had arrived. The uber-chill London band eased into their hour-plus set with the haunting, yet serene “Angels,” […]
THE BANALITY OF EVIL: The Bug Man Cometh
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILLY POST At the police press conference yesterday, there were no good answers, just cold hard facts. The killer was neither a spurned lover nor a serial killer, not a rapist nor a thief. The killer was not — much to the palpable disappointment of the comments section trolls of Philly.com — a dark-skinned predator from the north or the west come to prey upon the white, weak and well-off. It was a white guy from the suburbs who kills bugs for a living. Out of all its awful attributes, the banality of evil […]
RIP: Sally Starr, The Legendary Stardust Cowgirl
INQUIRER: By the early 1960s, she had achieved unparalleled local fame and, arguably, the status of most beloved figure in Philadelphia broadcasting history. On any given afternoon a sizable percentage of local kids (and, often, their stay-at-home moms) were tuned in to “Popeye Theater.” She was so instrumental in introducing the Three Stooges to a new generation of fans that, in 1965, the comedy troupe invited her to appear as gunslinger Belle Starr in their final film, “The Outlaws Is Coming.” Even in a market that boasted such kiddie-show heavy hitters as Happy the Clown, Gene London, Chief Halftown, […]
BRIAN’S SONG: Q&A w/ Comedian Brian Posehn
Artwork by LEE STROUD DESIGNS BY JONATHAN VALANIA Although he’s probably best known as one half of the gay-bear-stoner-couple-next-door on the dearly departed The Sarah Silverman Program, Brian Posehn has appeared in a shit-ton of quality TV comedy, including Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Seinfeld, Mr. Show, Newsradio, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Metalocalypse. He is also more metal than you. [SEE BELOW] In advance of his five-show, three-night run at Helium Comedy Club, which starts tonight, we got Posehn on the horn. Discussed: Juggaloes, Sarah Silverman’s terrible secret, The Burn‘s Jeffrey Ross’ transvestism, Patton Oswalt, Gallhagher, Weird […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Best Of The Worst
Illustration by ALEX FINE BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Duly appreciative of the Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, and Pulitzers — all of which are indeed honorable — I believe the time has come to establish a new and entirely different type of awards program. A completely cynical national dishonors program, if you will. One that judges and affords official recognition of and to the worst. The very worst in American politics, that is. I propose to call this new program the American Scumbucket Awards. Nicknamed the Scummys, and represented by a rusty statuette of a smiling, pants-down George W. Bush perched on […]
Ex-Khyber-Barkeep-Turned-Mass-Murdering-Jihadist Sentenced To 35 Years For Role In Mumbai Attacks
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] WASHINGTON POST: An American drug dealer who had faced life in prison was sentenced instead to 35 years Thursday for helping plan the deadly 2008 attacks on Mumbai, India — a punishment prosecutors said reflected his broad cooperation with U.S. investigators but that a victim’s family member called “an appalling dishonor.” It was David Coleman Headley’s meticulous scouting missions that facilitated the assault by 10 gunmen from a Pakistani-based militant group on multiple targets in Mumbai, including the landmark Taj Mahal Hotel. TV cameras captured much of the three-day rampage often called India’s 9/11. More […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR In the introduction to his new book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, Lawrence Wright writes, “Scientology plays an outsize role in the cast of new religions that have arisen in the 20th century and survived into the 21st.” The book is a look inside the world of Scientology and the life of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986. A recent ad for Scientology claims to welcome 4.4 million new converts each year. Wright, who won a Pulitzer for his book The Looming Tower about the history of al-Qaida, has written […]
TRAILER: The Cohen Brothers’ Inside Llyewn Davis
SLATE: The Coen brothers’ next movie, Inside Llyewn Davis, is loosely based on the life of Dave Van Ronk, but the musician whose spirit hovers over the first trailer is Bob Dylan. That’s his song “Farewell” playing throughout, and the shot above recalls the cover for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, sans Suze Rotolo. Then again, Van Ronk was good friends with Dylan, so perhaps that’s the reason the legend feels near at hand—and the album we see at the end, which gives the movie its title, is borrowed directly from the Van Ronk discography. MORE
THE LADY KILLERS: Women Now Allowed To Travel To Foreign Places, Meet Interesting People, And Kill Them
THE GUARDIAN: Women could assume combat roles in the US army for the first time as early as this year, following a landmark decision by defense secretary Leon Panetta to lift a military ban on women serving on the frontline. The groundbreaking move could open up hundreds of thousands of frontline positions, and could see women working in elite commando units. One official told the Associated Press, which revealed details of the move, that military chiefs will report to the Pentagon on how to integrate women into combat roles by 15 May. MORE RELATED: The biggest safety concern for […]
SIDEWALKING: It’s Comcastic!
Out the window of the 47th floor of Liberty Place, 4:01 PM by JEFF FUSCO EDITOR’s NOTE: Cool picture aside, this does nothing to change our ‘motherf*ck Comcast’ stance.
INCOMING: Win Tix To See Ra Ra Riot
There’s a Ra Ra Riot goin’ on at Union Transfer tomorrow night and we have a pair of tix to see everyone’s favorite neo-retro synth-popsters from Syracuse — not to be confused with everyone’s favorite neo-retro synthpopsters from Buffalo, which would, of course, be Love Scenes. Duh. To qualify all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list (to the right of this post, at the bottom of the masthead). Trust us, you want to do this. Signing up to our mailing list gets you special content alerts and early warnings about special promotions and concert […]