EDITOR’S NOTE: To mark the auspicious occasion of GBV playing Union Transfer tonight here’s the complete, unexpurgated MAGNET interview with Robert Pollard in New York City June of 2013 Issue Number 100 SCALPING THE GURU In the time it takes you to read this Robert Pollard will have written and recorded three brilliant albums and disbanded Guided By Voices again. MAGNET stages a Beer Summit to find out how and why. BY JONATHAN VALANIA No light or air or hope gets past the front door of Desmond’s Tavern, a grungy windowless taproom in midtown Manhattan that looks like a […]
BEING THERE: Ty Seagall @ The Trocadero
Photo by MARK LIKOSKY Ty Segall is like a combination Buddy Holly, Jerry Garcia and every character who’s ever died in a Mad Max film — but shorter, thicker, with a moonpie face and long dirty blonde Cousin It hair. We go way back. I’ve seen him in small venues like The Knockout back in his budding SF days. Those were smaller scale performances but he’s retained that same sincere demeanor of a committed devotee to shredding a hole in his private darkness and unleashing a blinding haze of purifying rock n’ roll light to awaken the masses. He is […]
WORTH REPEATING: #FireHannity
No, seriously. Fire Hannity.
IN BOB WE TRUST: Win Tix To See GBV @ UT!
Employing the same Buckeye ingenuity that keeps the Goodyear blimp afloat, Robert Pollard can polish a turd with Budweiser until it shines with 24-carat radiance, transmuting a tossed-off, six-pack idea into a classic rock artifact or at the very least a beguiling no-fi curio. As captain of the drunken boat that is Guided By Voices, Pollard built a cottage industry by churning out cheap, miniature melodic masterpieces with all the fidelity of a ham radio broadcast. He does it with volume — by which I mean quantity not loudness. As such, the discography remains daunting if only for its […]
CINEMA: Guided By Voices
AARDVARK (Directed by Brian Shoaf, 89 minutes, 2018, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Aardvark is the feature length debut of writer/director Brian Shoaf, and features an intriguing ensemble cast starring Zachary Quinto, Jenny Slate, Jon Hamm and Sheila Vand. Ostensibly, Aardvark is a “thriller” that tackles one man’s struggle with mental illness and the ghosts that haunt him. Aardvark splits its narrative between Josh (Quinto), a troubled young schizophrenic trying to get his life on the right track, and Emily (Jenny Slate), his licensed clinical social worker. As the film begins Josh has a new job, is back on […]
FLEET FOXES: If You Need To, Keep Time On Me
-Watch the video for “Fool’s Errand,” directed by Sean Pecknold with art direction by Adi Goodrich and produced by Society -Watch the behind-the-scenes video of Fleet Foxes’ 2017 tour by Sean Pecknold, featuring The Westerlies -Watch Fleet Foxes perform “Crack-Up” with Icelandic choir Graduale Nobili at Harpa Concert Hall in Iceland Fleet Foxes on Tour: April 12 | San Pedro, CA at Warner Grand April 14 | Indio, CA at Coachella April 15 | San Diego, CA at Humphrey’s Concerts April 17 | Pomona, CA at Fox Pomona April 18 | San Luis Obispo, CA at Madonna Expo Center April […]
FUNNY GIRL: Q&A W/ Indie Sweetheart Lucy Dacus
BY KEELY MCAVENEY Lucy Dacus, only twenty two years old and already one of Matador Record’s crown jewels, has been three feet high and rising ever since the release of her2 016 debut, No Burden. There aren’t enough hyphens to list all that the Richmond based singer-songwriter-alt-rocker is. Her first single, “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore,” resonated with other females tired of being exiled to the “funny friend” zone. It’s been a month since the release of her harrowing sophomore album, Historian, which upgraded her status from up-and-coming to here-to-stay. Historian maintains the buzzing guitars and blunt lyrical […]
DAMIEN JURADO: Over Rainbows And Rainier
From The Horizon Just Laughed, out May 4th on Secretly Canadian. He plays Johnny Brenda’s on May 20th.
STARDUSTED MEMORIES: Q&A W/ Jessica Harper
Artwork by CATMUNS BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC This week the Cinedelphia Film Festival will be screening both Suspiria and Phantom of the Paradise for SOLD OUT screenings, hosted by the wide-eyed star of both films, Jessica Harper. Phantom was Jessica’s first starring role and it led to leading roles in such iconic films as Suspiria, Pennies from Heaven, Shock Treatment and Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories. Phawker got a few moments last week to chat with Jessica in anticipation for her appearances and we discussed not only the two films that are usually at the forefront of most fan’s […]
Meanwhile Back At Our Long National Nightmare
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Why is it that the nation’s news anchors/commentators and assorted political pundits don’t seem to possess the journalistic honesty, intestinal fortitude and/or linguistic accuracy to properly tag Trump as “America’s Electoral College President” or, say, “America’s non-popularly elected President” or, maybe, “America’s red states’ President” or, how about, “America’s white malcontents’ President” or, even, “America’s lesser-educated citizens’ President”? Why no verbal asterisk for the illegitimate Mr. Trump? I mean, after all, he LOST the popular/one-man-one-vote Presidential election by some 3 MILLION VOTES … that’s MILLIONS with a capital “M,” folks! I certainly don’t think these […]
NATURAL ONE: Q&A With Lo-Fi Troubadour Lou Barlow Of Dino Jr./Sebadoh/Folk Implosion Fame
BY BRIAN HOWARD Lou Barlow, as a founding member of the ear-splitting sonic barrage Dinosaur Jr., and later—after he and J Mascis had their very public falling out—with Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion (and Sentridoh and Deluxx Folk Implosion and Lou B.’s Acoustic Sentridoh…) was one of the architects of the 1990s indie rock revolution. As college kids scrambled to start wryly monickered bands and idiosyncratically named labels to release their limited-run seven-inches, Barlow was a godhead. After splitting from Dinosaur Jr., he began releasing, as Sentridoh, a prodigious array of spare, emotionally flayed lo-fi acoustic songs on cassette. […]
GEEK SQUAD: Black Power
The CW is loaded with middling DC Comics superhero fare like Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and even iZombie. Yet among this bloat of spandex Black Lightning stands out. The show is about Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) coming out of retirement as the electricity slinging hero Black Lightning to fight The 100 street gang. Tobias Whale (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III), the former senator who killed his father, is back in Freeland and running The 100 as he did 10 years ago. As Black Lightning returns, Jefferson’s older daughter Anissa (Nafessa Williams) stumbles upon her own powers to make […]
CINEMA: I, Gamer
READY PLAYER ONE (Dir. by Steven Spielberg, 140 minutes, 2018, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Ready Player One is director Steven Spielberg’s cinematic adaptation of Ernest Cline’s 2011 best selling novel of the same name. Considering the book itself was a love letter to a decade in which Spielberg reigned supreme, it is something of a meta move for Spielberg to helm the film adaption. Curiously, Spielberg chose to tone down the book’s dozens of references to the his own work, while taking some fascinating liberties with the material. The resulting film is Spielberg doing what he does best: […]