ASSOCIATED PRESS: President Barack Obama forcefully defended his plans to close the Guantanamo detention camp Thursday and said some of the terror suspects held there would be brought to top-security prisons in the United States despite fierce opposition in Congress. He spoke one day after the Senate voted resoundingly to deny him money to close the prison, and he decried “fear-mongering” that he said had led to such opposition. Moments after Obama concluded, former Vice President Dick Cheney delivered his own address across town defending the decisions of the Bush administration in dealing with terrorism. Expressing no remorse for the […]
RAWK TAWK: With Mike Kennedy Of Audible
BY KYLEE MESSNER As if following the prime directive of the great philosopher known as Old Blue Eyes (“Let’s take it nice an easy”), Mike Kennedy lives his life “in simple intervals,” which is why he chose it as the title of his band Audible’s latest record. “Basically, it was a line in one of the songs on the record,” explains Kennedy. “In the last song on the record we all sing in harmony.” With Kristine Muller, Kennedy’s wife-and-bandmate, expecting twins due in September, the record’s title was, it seems, quite in tune with the the band’s offstage life, as […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Brent Jeffs [NOT PICTURED] grew up in the inner circles of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; his grandfather was a prophet of the FLDS, which teaches that polygamy is a religious practice that guarantees salvation. Jeffs’ uncle Warren Jeffs became president of the sect in 2002. FLDS followers believe that they are the only true practitioners of the Mormon faith, which officially abandoned polygamy in 1890. Although Brent Jeffs’ lineage gives him what he says FLDS followers think of as “royal blood,” he was eventually expelled from the FLDS church during a series […]
Look Ma, Stephen Colbert On Inky/Yoo Controversey
RELATED: The Velvet Revolution DOWNLOAD FULL COMPLAINT: Microsoft Word (.doc) Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) PREVIOUSLY: YOO HOOEY: Inky’s Harold Jackson And Daily News’ Will Bunch Trade Blows Over ‘Torture Guy’ Editorialist PREVIOUSLY: Why Is THIS Man Bloviating About Supreme Court Replacements In The Inquirer?
PAPERBOY: Slow-Jamming The Alt-Weeklies
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
OPEN LETTER: Dear Bicycle Thief
[via EATLIVER.COM]
RECORD REVIEW: St. Vincent’s Actor
ST. VINCENT Actor (4AD) Texas native Annie Clark, AKA St. Vincent, has come a long way since her departure from The Polyphonic Spree, having won over critics’ hearts and minds at this year’s SXSW festival, and releasing Actor, her highly anticipated and justifiably hyped sophomore effort. Critics have described Actor as the captivating soundtrack to some long lost Disney film that never existed, and after a few listens I am inclined to agree. More accurately, I would argue that Actor‘s seamless wedding of tormented lyrics to sweeping symphonic arrangements is closer to the enchanted melancholia vibe of a Tim Burton […]
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: Crips! Bloods! Oh My!
ASSOCIATED PRESS: A new report shows the notorious Bloods street gang has a firm grip on the New Jersey prison system. The State Commission of Investigation report released today shows the Bloods and other street gangs run their crime operations from inside prisons with ease. The report shows drugs and smuggled cell phones are plentiful. The panel calls for statewide reforms, including better security inside prisons and stronger management of inmates’ money. The commission says inmates who want to take advantage of rehabilitation services and re-entry programs deserve protection against gang violence. MORE PREVIOUSLY ON PHAWKER: Last summer a former […]
HEAR YE: WILCO The Album
Congratulations! If you are reading this YOU ARE OUR 1,022,106th CUSTOMER! That’s right, Phawker has hit the big M! We could not be more proud or horny! And we couldn’t have done it without you! To celebrate, let’s all make love in London tonight listen to the new Wilco album on Phawker Radio! Comes out June 30th! Y’all come back now, ya hear?!? And please hit REFRESH on your way out. More Wilco stuff after the jump…
TU-SPOCK: Highly Illogical
@fallonathome Tu-Spock, the Half-Vulcan, Half-Gangsta Rapper #FallonTonight #ForYou #FYP #comedy ? original sound – FALLONNOW – The Best of Jimmy Fallon Fallon show finally gets its funny on. Live long and prosper, yo.
KILLADELPHIA: Two Shot Dead Overnight, Phila. Detective Beaten And Mugged On Ben Franklin Bridge
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Police say a Philadelphia homicide detective was jogging on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge when she was mugged by a man on a bicycle. Officials say the 28-year-old detective encountered the man on the bridge between Philadelphia and Camden, N.J., early Tuesday. He snatched a gold chain from her neck and threw her cell phone in the Delaware River. Police say the two struggled, and the man produced a handgun and struck the policewoman several times on the head. MORE RELATED: Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has resigned as chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, the two-state agency that […]
THE EARLY WORD: I Hear A Darkness
NEW YORKER: [Will] Oldham has been releasing records for fifteen years, though almost never under his own name. His first recordings were credited to Palace Brothers, a name inspired by John Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row”—in which the characters’ makeshift home is known as the Palace Flophouse—and by close-harmony duos such as the Louvin Brothers, who helped expand the scope of early country music, and the Everly Brothers, whose hits from half a century ago underscored the link between country music and early rock and roll. Oldham was a student of music history, clearly, but he never sounded studious. He had an […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Best known as founder and frontman for the Los Angeles punk band X, musician John Doe has always had a weakness for country music — and X’s sound, in fact, sometimes had a twang to it. After that band’s dissolution, Doe explored his countrified yearnings further, and in recent years he’s turned in some eminently satisfying roots rock. With Country Club, Doe dives headlong into the genre, collaborating with the Canadian band the Sadies on a collection of classic covers originally recorded by titans like Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette and Willie Nelson. The Sadies contribute three original tracks, […]