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

HAVE MERCY, BABY: Duffy, TLA, Last Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] TOP FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DUFFY LAST NIGHT 1.) It takes some measure of balls to sashay onstage for the first time in a city you’ve never played before and launch directly into your hit album’s slowest number, accompanied only by a guitar. Apparently our Ms. Duffy has balls to spare, because the love-don’t-cost-a-thing ballad “Syrup and Honey” had the crowded (yet inexplicably not sold-out) TLA shouting out their appreciation during the song’s pauses, waving their hands in the air like it was Sunday morning at the […]

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

HEAD BANGER’S BALL: Man Man, Download Fest, Susquehanna Center, Yesterday BY DAVE ALLEN The Download Festival came to the Susquehanna Bank Center on Saturday and boy are my ears tired. Louis XIV, a punkish quartet with the elemental stab of AC/DC, played to a sparse, disinterested crowd in the mid-afternoon. Lead singer Jason Hill brought some swagger and reverse windmills on guitar, and the set took on an arena-friendly sheen when guitarist Brian Karscig moved over to keyboard on “Finding Out True Love is Blind.” The setup for Philly homeboys Man Man promised something different: keyboard and drum kit facing […]

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

ZOOEY STARDUST: She & Him, Trocadero, Last Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] BY JONATHAN VALANIA We’ve all heard the mythic tale of Robert Johnson‘s Faustian bargain with the Devil, struck at the crossroads under a Delta moon. Let’s imagine for a moment that it’s a different night at that crossroads. On this night, the Devil is busy with other things, perhaps plotting the eventual rise of Slayer. And Johnson, well, he’s long since given the Devil his due, probably having second thoughts as to whether unlimited pussy, corn liquor and a little plantation-rock stardom was worth the eternal damnation as […]

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

LIVE AND DIRECT: Pitchfork Music Festival, Union Park, Chicago, Illinois TEXT & PHOTOS BY TIFFANY YOON It’s day one here in beautiful Chicago. After driving from one Marriott hotel to another, hoping one of them was ours, we finally pulled into our hotel parking lot sometime around 4am. We were meeting friends that hooked us up with a cheap deal at a Marriott hotel (one of the guys works at a Marriott in Philadelphia) and we were supposed to rendezvous with them at the hotel sometime around 8pm the night before. We had some complications along the way, the driver […]

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

THE SUMMER OF SHOVE: No Age, First Unitarian, Last Night PHOTO & TEXT BY TIFFANY YOON A young, near-capacity crowd squeezed into the church basement like it was a pair of skinny jeans that no longer fit comfortably, it was sweatbox-hot, and nearly everyone was drunk and hormonal. In other words, I haven’t had this much fun at a show in a long time. Sadly, I missed Abe Vigoda open the show, but I did catch some of High Places set, but found it somewhat disappointing. They just weren’t very exciting to watch. Danceable music, definitely, but I just wanted […]

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

JOCKO HOMO: Devo, Festival Pier, Last Night 1. Prophets are easily mistaken for jesters or fools, or worse. Understood by a precious few in their day, and largely dismissed as a novelty act by the general public, even by many who bought their records, Devo’s core message was in fact deadly serious: It’s the end of the world as we know it. And we laughed. Thirty years later, Al Gore said the same thing and they gave him the Nobel Peace Prize. 2. Waiting for Devo to come on Saturday night, a friend asked why they were on tour now, […]

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

FINE PRINT: Times New Viking, JB’s Last Night [Photo by TIFFANY YOON] BY SIMONE SECCI FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT I have to admit that I was suckered at this one. Fooled as many people by a fake press release, that displayed Times New Viking as a supergroup including former Pavement bass player Mark Ibold, I went to Johnny Brenda’s thinking that I would find a bunch of aged indie rockers in front of me. Instead I found this heterogeneous trio of twenty somethings from Columbus, Ohio. But Let’s start from the beginning: First on stage Fnu Ronnies local band I believe, devoted […]

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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 […]

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

THE FINEST HOUR: R.E.M., The Mann, Last Night [Photos by JONATHAN VALANIA] BY JONATHAN VALANIA First time I heard “Wolves, Lower” live was at the Beacon Theater in New York City, and The Dream Syndicate opened. It was 1984 and Michael Stipe had hair down to his shoulders. The second time I heard it live was last night at the Mann Music Center, and Modest Mouse and The National opened. Hate to sound like Bill Murray reviewing movies he didn’t see on SNL back in the day, but The National? Didn’t see ’em, babe. I blame the traffic planner who […]

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