EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally published in issue 95 of MAGNET MAGAZINE in 2013 upon the release of Johnny Marr’s first proper solo album, 2013’s The Messenger. Marr followed it up with Playland in 2014 and Call The Comet, released back in June. EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally published in issue 95 of MAGNET MAGAZINE in 2013 upon the release of Johnny Marr’s first proper solo album, 2013’s The Messenger. Marr followed it up with Playland in 2014 and Call The Comet, released back in June. We are re-posting this story in advance of Marr’s performance tonight at […]
BEING THERE: Big Thief @ First Unitarian
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER When I was three years old, I tripped on the wooden floorboards of my family’s small home in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania, my head landed on a nail that gashed my left eyebrow open. Far-removed from any town or decent phone service, my panicked parents rushed me to the closest hospital they could think of, praying their first-born daughter wouldn’t lose her eyesight from the accident. Nearly twenty years later, driving with my mother to that same house in the mountains, I heard Adrianne Lenker’s screaming voice in “Mythological Beauty” detail her own experience of toddler-age blood-gushing head […]
BEING THERE: Mitski @ Union Transfer
Photo by JOHN VETTESE Typically I make a point to miss the opener at shows, but I would’ve been sorry to miss Overcoats. The New York-based duo, Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell, emerged straight from the 70’s in flowy white blouses and corduroy blazers, their aesthetic reminiscent of Heart’s Anne and Nancy Wilson. Their music runs in the vein of indie electro pop, full of pulsing digital beats and synchronized harmonies. The set was composed of songs from their debut album Young, a work that may not be the most musically complex but is driven instead by an overarching sense […]
CINEMA: Laurie Strode Will Have Her Revenge
HALLOWEEN (Directed by David Gordon Green, 105 minutes, USA, 2018) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC It’s been nine long years since the last Halloween film, Rob Zombie’s 2009 franchise-killing sequel to his ill-fated 2007 re-boot of the series. The latest chapter in the Michael Myers’ slasher saga — simply called Halloween — dumps six sequels worth of convoluted plot, mythology and character development to position itself as a direct sequel to the original 1978 film. David Gordon Green (Eastbound & Down) is directing this entry with a script co-written with Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride that picks up 40 […]
Washington Post Taps Phawker Alumnus Alex Fine To Illustrate Jamal Khashoggi’s Final Column
WASHINGTON POST: The Arab world was ripe with hope during the spring of 2011. Journalists, academics and the general population were brimming with expectations of a bright and free Arab society within their respective countries. They expected to be emancipated from the hegemony of their governments and the consistent interventions and censorship of information. These expectations were quickly shattered; these societies either fell back to the old status quo or faced even harsher conditions than before. My dear friend, the prominent Saudi writer Saleh al-Shehi, wrote one of the most famous columns ever published in the Saudi press. He […]
THE VAGINA DIALOGUE: Q&A W/ Nikki Glaser
BY KEELEY MCAVENEY Stand up comedian, podcast host and Dancing With The Stars contestant, Nikki Glaser is known and loved for her lack of a filter. Her honesty isn’t for the mere sake of shock value. It’s thoughtful. It’s real. And for many, it’s a relief, an encouragement, to hear someone speak so honestly about all the once deemed shameful shit that comprises womanhood. From what it’s like being constantly asked about what-it’s-like-being-a-woman-in-comedy to whether or not Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga have banged, she’s got an opinion, and you want to hear it. You can catch her tonight […]
BEING THERE: Public Image Ltd. @ Union Transfer
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER “Welcome to our 40th!” bellowed PiL frontman John Lydon (a.k.a. former Sex Pistol, Johnny Rotten) by way of a greeting to last night’s crowd at Union Transfer with his trademark sardonic smirk, that look of devilish joy he’s proudly worn throughout the span of his musical life. Currently on the North American leg of their The Public Image Is Rotten tour, and with a documentary of the same name to promote, Public Image Ltd. (Lydon, and current drummer Bruce Smith, guitarist Lu Edmonds, and bassist Scott Firth) is celebrating 40 years of Lydon’s post-Sex Pistols amalgam […]
AN AUTEUR IS BORN: Q&A W/ Bradley Cooper
BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC A few weeks ago Bradley Cooper kept up his tradition of hosting a Philly “friends and family” screening of his latest film, this time with his directorial debut A Star is Born. Cooper who got his start playing the “pretty boy” on Alias, proved he could also be the “funny guy” in The Hangover but with A Star Is Born he’s effortlessly transitioned into the role of auteur. His highly-acclaimed re-imagining of Star, with songs furnished by Cooper and co-star Lady Gaga, is the tour de force unveiling of Cooper’s emergent triple threat: director, […]
ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR: Q&A w/ John Lydon
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview originally posted on November 11th 2015. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Thirty-eight years after the release of Never Mind The Bollocks, the windshield of pop culture is still fogged up with the huffing and puffing of critics of hyperventilating over the game-changing filth and the fury of The Sex Pistols — for which John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, served as acerbic, bug-eyed jester raging against the machinery of a corrupt Establishment and a necrotic music biz with a voice like Godzilla’s death ray — so I will spare you the lecture. Except to say this: in the fullness […]
BEING THERE: Little Dragon @ Underground Arts
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Never to be pigeonholed, Swedish genre-benders Little Dragon delivered a face-melting set of dancehall R&B synth-pop disco-tronica at Underground Arts on Friday. You wouldn’t have known it if your cell phone was vibrating that night, not through Frederik Wallin’s pants-rockin’ bass-guitar grooves, anchoring singer Yukimi Nagano’s smoky, sultry vocals. There was no stage-banter to speak of, not much acknowledgement of the proverbial “fourth wall.” Shrouded in mystery — or at least what looked like potentially really warm head-to-toe stage costumes — the singer managed to make sure she reached out to connect in her own way, […]
BEING THERE: Gorillaz @ Wells Fargo Center
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER There’s a plotline to all the mayhem, if you’re interested, some backstory to the wild exploits of this virtual band, that serves to nominally explain why lovable scamps 2D, Murdoc, Russell and Noodle are always under attack by anachronistic seaplanes, what Noodle’s doing with that machine gun that’s as big as she is and why she’s a cyborg now, and why Bruce Willis is trying to kill them. But at their live shows, somewhere between the mesmerizing blazing lights and colors of Jamie Hewlett’s beautifully animated eye candy, Damon Albarn’s enchanting incantations and all of the […]
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE: A Q&A With Sam Tripoli, One Half Of The Tinfoil Hat Comedy Act
BY TONY CARO Do you ever lay awake at night and wonder if there are aliens out there? Or if there are lizard people living in the center of the Earth? Comedian and conspiracy theorist Sam Tripoli doesn’t, because he has no doubt in his mind that there are. In his podcast, Tinfoil Hat, Sam Tripoli and Eddie Bravo talk conspiracy theories, ranging from the undoubtedly insane to the serious and most likely true theories that demand your concern. Frequently a regular on the Joe Rogan Show, Sam makes talking conspiracy hilarious, but when it comes down to it, […]