In 2005, when I was all of 15 years old, Sufjan Stevens’ angelic voice drew me into Illinoise’s whispery bedroom ballads about serial killers and cancer-claimed lovers and its swelling orchestral epics about Chicago and UFO sightings. The otherworldly sonics and emotional depths of the music on Illinoise! were matched by the lyrics, which I scribbled all over the covers of my high school notebooks and white canvas Chuck Taylors. When my obsession with Illinoise waned, I moved onto his earlier albums, namely Michigan. Friends told me that he was set on the endearing, but ludicrously ambitious goal of […]
BEING THERE: U2 @ The Linc
Photo by DAN LONG First, a word to the haters – you know who you are – and then we’ll be done with them: F*ck y’all. Keep movin’, nothin’ to see here. Now, about that U2 concert last night. Full disclosure: I have seen every Philly U2 concert since The Unforgettable Fire, with the exception of the Pop Mart tour, which I am fine with, and no, I wasn’t cool enough (or old enough) to see them at the Bijou in 1980 when they were just four no-name dorks from Dublin. U2 remains a sorry/not sorry guilty pleasure. I am […]
GRENFELL TOWER: The Faces Of The Dead
Click HERE to enlarge METRO: The missing list includes 57 individuals reported as missing according to multiple reports from friends, family and witnesses on the scene.The Metropolitan Police said the first victim to be formally identified was 23-year-old Syrian refugee Mohammad Alhajali, and is among the 58 thought to have died as flames tore through the 24-storey building. Children as young as six months old and entire families across three generations are among dozens people reported missing or dead in the Grenfell Tower Fire. MORE WIKIPEDIA: The Grenfell Tower Fire
BEING THERE: Sigur Ros @ The Mann
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Thunderstorms were forecast for Friday night, but mother nature stepped aside, allowing Icelandic dream merchants Sigur Ros to roll into the Mann Center and electrify the audience with a distorted, bowed electric guitar, thunderous malleted drumming, ponderous piano, and ascending falsetto singing in Hopelandic — a hodgepodge of Icelandic, English and emoted syllables. Earlier in the day, I daydreamed about the sound of rain falling on the cavernous wooden covering overhead, the electricity from thunderbolts commingling with the electricity from the amplifiers and speakers on stage. After the show, though, it was clear that a thunderstorm […]
CINEMA: Beggars Banquet
BEATRIZ AT DINNER (2017, directed by Miguel Arteta, 83 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It’s a truly classic premise at the heart of the new film from director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Mike White, the pair who previously worked together on indie dark comedies Chuck And Buck (in which White co-starred as “Buck”) and the under-appreciated Jennifer Aniston vehicle The Good Girl. Their latest, Beatriz At Dinner, centers around a wealthy dinner party that takes on an unexpected interloper, the working class mystic/masseuse, Beatriz (played by the always-intelligent beauty Salma Hayek, suitably dressed-down here.) You can see […]
WORTH REPEATING: From Russia With Blood
BUZZFEED: The story of this ring of death illuminates one of the most disturbing geopolitical trends of our time – the use of assassinations by Russia’s secret services and powerful mafia groups to wipe out opponents around the globe – and the failure of British authorities to confront it. The intelligence pointing to a campaign of targeted killings in Britain comes amid mounting international concern that the Kremlin is brazenly interfering in the West, and as the investigation into Russian ties to President Donald Trump’s advisers gathers pace. The Russian government passed new laws giving its agents a licence […]
FROM THE VAULTS: No Sleep ‘Til Reykjavik
EDITOR’S NOTE: In advance of Sigur Ros’ show at the Mann Center on Friday, we present this encore edition of my 2012 MAGNET cover story. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Iceland isn’t the end of the world but you can see it from here. This is both a blessing and to a lesser degree a curse. Much less. It is the land that time forgot, and as such a place of uncommon purity. Primeval is the word that comes to mind: smoldering volcanoes, black sand beaches, towering geysers, geothermal hot springs, epic waterfalls, vast lava fields that recede infinitely out to the […]
BEING THERE: Nevertheless She Persisted
Photo by GEORGIY MARKOV
IN MEMORIAM: Letters To Batman
BIGGLEE: Talk about oddball Bat-items! Here is the cover and some interior samples from a 1966 tome called FUNNIEST FAN LETTERS TO BATMAN! Created at the height of the ’66 BATMAN TV-show craze, this book collects the zaniest letters written to Batman, Robin, or the comics and TV crews that whip up his wild adventures! The best letters are from kids, of course, asking ol’ Batman for money, a weekend visit, advice, or even the use of the Batmobile! Several similar-themed books were done at the time, including KID’S LETERS TO PRESIDENT KENNEDY, KID’S LETTERS TO THE FBI, and LOVE […]
STILL THE MAN: A Q&A With Joe Jackson
Photos by JACOB BLICKENSTEIN BY KAY NOTHSTEIN After a nearly 40 year career, Joe Jackson — the witty, often wry and insightful Brit singer-songwriter of “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” fame — is still going strong. Who knew? Probably his dedicated fanbase who consistently fill his shows. But not me. I left Joe Jackson in the late ‘80s somewhere between Big World and Blaze of Glory for no particular reason other than I was probably just listening to other things. In the course of nearly four decades, Jackson’s put out 20 studio albums, composed a symphony, won a […]
REVIEW: Timber Timbre Sincerely Future Pollution
Timber Timbre fuckin’ rule. I should get that out of the way at the outset, I’m a huge fan and have been for years, ever since they put out Creep On Creepin’ On, an album I’d been waiting to hear my entire young-adult life. I heard them on a college radio station for the first time, driving through Vermont first thing in the morning with a fever developing. “Sparrows at your window / Starlings at your door / Magpies wherever we go.” Freak Folk. Blues. Psychedelia. These are the Wikipedia tags for what Timber Timbre do, but listening to […]
FUNNY OR DIE: Q&A W/ Comedian Chris Gethard
BY ERIN BLEWETT Comedian/actor/writer Chris Gethard has struggled with, and prevailed over, many unfunny things: manic depression, substance abuse, suicidal ideation. When he finally got a handle on his issues and started discussing them candidly in his stand-up act — striking just the right balance of humor, heartbreak and insight — things went next level. Exhibit A is Career Suicide, his hilarious new, Judd Appatow-produced HBO comedy special. Straight outta West Orange, NJ, Gethard got his start with the Upright Citizens Brigade where he birthed The Chris Gethard Show, a gonzo blend of meta and improv that caught the […]
CINEMA: Release The Bats
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have announced the return to US cinemas of One More Time With Feeling, the acclaimed feature film about the making of their album Skeleton Tree directed by Andrew Dominik. The film will screen in select cities in the USA around the band’s live shows from May 2017. One More Time With Feeling probes the deeply personal circumstances surrounding the making of the band’s 16th studio album Skeleton Tree, and features live performances by the band in the studio. It is the first ever non-animated black and white film shot in 3D. One More […]