Tenth lucky reader to sign up for our email mailing list (at the bottom of the black box to the right that says FOLLOW US at the top) wins a pair of tickets to see My Morning Jacket and Band Of Horses at the Mann tonight (Friday, 8/18). Good luck and godspeed. PREVIOUSLY: Which is not to say that those seats weren’t completely filled with stubbly, red-eyed young men, and the women who go to concerts with them, by the time My Morning Jacket took the stage and kick-started a sweaty, fist-pumping, three hour hoedown of southern-fried beard-rock, soul […]
YOU’RE FIRED: Silversun Pickups Tell Ronmey To Stop Using Their Song At Campaign Appearances
Disregrading copyright and intellectual property laws, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been using — without permission — Silversun Pickups’ 2009 smash “Panic Switch” at campaign stops across the country. Neither the band nor its representatives were contacted to gain permission for the use of the song and the band has no intention of endorsing the Romney campaign. The band’s attorney issued a cease and desist today. “We don’t like people going behind our backs, using our music without asking, and we don’t like the Romney campaign,” said Silversun Pickups lead singer/guitarist Brian Aubert. “We’re nice, approachable people. We won’t […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Prog Spring
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ordinarily Slate’s Dave Weigel writes comprehensively about the machinations of the political right, but taking a brief vacation from all that, he been writing a must-read multi-part historical treatise on the pomp and circumstance of prog rock, aka ‘the world’s most hated pop music.’ Here’s a taste. SLATE: Very few acts had ever held concerts at this scale. From February 1973 to August 1974, ELP played 145 of them. Three of these concerts were recorded for live albums; two later appeared on band-approved bootlegs. This was music for the masses, not for a niche. The tours, most […]
MUST SEE TV: The Speed Of Light In Slow Motion
A ray of light passing through an empty soda bottle (at roughly the two minute mark) filmed at one trillion frames per second. Quite awesome, we’re sure you will agree. In 1964 MIT professor Harold Edgerton, pioneer of stop-action photography, famously took a photo of a bullet piercing an apple using exposures as short as a few nanoseconds. Inspired by his work, Ramesh Raskar and his team set out to create a camera that could capture not just a bullet (traveling at 850 meters per second) but light itself (nearly 300 million meters per second). Stop a moment to take […]
STOP THE PRESSES: We Have To Stop Publishing The Inquirer In Order To Keep Publishing It
PHILLY POST: [It’s] become clear that the newest owners—a group of community-minded Philadelphia millionaires who bought the newspaper group earlier this year–have roughly the same three-step plan for prosperity as their predecessors: 1. Reduce the number of jobs at each paper, and the wages of those left behind. 2. ????? 3. Profit! The result? We’re watching Philadelphia’s biggest, best, most important news organization slowly melt away. It’s become increasingly clear that few of the journalists who remain believe the top management has a real plan to survive and thrive. So maybe it’s time to try something breathtakingly, radically different. Here’s […]
THE UNTOUCHABLE: Ecuador Grants Asylum
Artwork by MAX FISH NEW YORK TIMES: “The government of Ecuador, faithful to its tradition of protecting those who seek refuge in its territory or in its diplomatic missions, has decided to grant diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange,” said Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño, reading from a government communiqué at a news conference in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito. He added, “There are indications to presume that there could be political persecution,” and that Mr. Assange would not get a fair trial in the United States and could face the death penalty there. The move gives Mr. Assange with protection from British […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Anthony Jeselnik
@The Troc on Friday. Meet the man who boinked Amy Schumer, who is fucking hilarious. Presumably. Talking about the first part, not the second. Oh yeah, he’s also very good at making with the funny. Plus, Vice wants to do him (SEE BELOW) so there’s that. First lucky reader to sign up for our email mailing list (underneath the masthead) wins. VICE: Anthony Jeselnik is my ultimate dream crush. In fact, I’m going to have to type this entire article with just one hand. Most famous for the roasts of Charlie Sheen, Donald Trump, and, as of yesterday, Rosanne […]
SIDEWALKING: Where Les Meets Paul
Johnny Hickman of Cracker Guitar, Radio 104.5, Bala Cynwyd, 1 PM by JEFF FUSCO
MEGADICK: Dave Mustaine Accuses President Of Staging Dark Knight Massacre To Pass Gun Ban
METAL UNDERGROUND: Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, who is no stranger to controversial statements and has repeatedly stated he doesn’t believe President Obama was born in the United States, has now said he believes Obama staged the recent shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin to “pass a gun ban.” Video of Mustaine making the statement can be viewed below. Dave says: “Back in my country, my president is trying to pass a gun ban, so he’s staging all of these, these murders, like the ‘Fast And Furious’ thing down at the border, Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there, and now […]
NO PUSSY, NO PEACE: We Are All Pussy Riot Now
Free Pussy Riot! #freepussyriot from Peaches on Vimeo. Peaches has premiered the video for her new song “Free Pussy Riot.” On Wednesday, August 3rd approximately 400 Pussy Riot supporters joined Peaches in Berlin for an impromptu video shoot. Over 70 people from all over the world who were unable to attend the last minute filming have contributed footage for the clip to show their support. Included in the new video are The Hives, Marshall Crenshaw, Wayne Kramer (MC5), Bonaparte, Margaret Cho, Dave Hill, Kate Nash, JD Samson (Le Tigre, Men), Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), Bun […]
FACT: Judges Upholding Laws That Makes It Harder For Citizens To Vote Are Not Fit To Wield The Gavel
POLITICS PA: The docket sheet read: “After hearing and after consideration of the oral and written arguments of counsel, it is ordered and decreed as follows: Petitioners’ Application for Preliminary Injunction is denied.” He also pointed to the decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding an Indiana Voter ID law despite the absence – and proof of the absence – of voter fraud in the state. Simpson said the lack of fraud does not mean that the law cannot stand Furthermore, to have obtained the injunction, six criteria must be have been met by the plaintiffs. It must […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To See Jane’s Addiction
It may be hard to remember now but there was a time when Jane’s Addiction was the Guns N’ Roses of alt-rock, or maybe Guns N’ Roses were the Jane’s Addiction of metal. Either way, the Berlin wall between alternative and metal came tumbling down and there was no putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Jane’s made it safe to wed soulful weirdness with total heaviosity and for a time — let’s say 1987, the year Nothing’s Shocking came out, to 1994, the year Kurt Cobain crucified himself with a shotgun — all seemed somehow right in the world. […]
INCOMING: Q&A With BJM’s Anton Newcombe
If you’ve not seen Dig, stop reading and go watch it. We’ll wait. [two hour pause while the reader watches Dig and learns everything he/she needs to know about The Brian Jonestown Massacre and probably more than he/she needs to know about The Dandy Warhols] I know, right? Told ya. Anyway, Brian Jonestown Massacre are coming to Union Transfer on August 23rd in support of Aufheben, their 12th LP. So we got mainman Anton Newcombe on the horn from his home in Berlin to catch up. Discussed: drugs, mental illness, early 70s disco, Dig, Dandy Warhols, the CIA, and Marilyn […]