WORTH REPEATING: Being Stephen Malkmus, Again

Stephen Malkmus, Portland 6/8/11 by JONATHAN VALANIA COWBELL: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, satire is a close second. After all, everyone knows you’re nowhere until your locale is brilliantly lampooned in Twitter-iffic, Hulu-able form. Case in point is Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein’s hipster burlesque Portlandia, a loving mockery of the bluest city on the angry red planet that is the USA circa now: All lattes and tattoos, skunk weed and microbrews, unlimited wireless for all, a free-range chicken in every pot, and everyone gets around on solar-powered tofu bicycles. This is the place that Stephen Malkmus—the […]

BEWARE: The Miseducation Of Michelle Rhee

NEW YORK TIMES: At the end of March, three of the paper’s reporters — Marisol Bello, Jack Gillum and Greg Toppo — broke a story about the high rate of erasures and suspiciously high test-score gains at 41 Washington schools while Ms. Rhee was chancellor. At some schools, they found the odds that so many answers had been changed from wrong to right randomly were 1 in 100 billion. In a fourth-grade class at Stanton Elementary, 97 percent of the erasures were from wrong to right. Districtwide, the average number of erasures for seventh graders was fewer than one per […]

RIP: Composer Jerry Lieber Dead At 78

NEW YORK TIMES: Jerry Leiber, the lyricist who, with his partner, Mike Stoller, wrote some of the most enduring classics in the history of rock ’n’ roll, including “Hound Dog,” “Yakety Yak,” “Stand By Me” and “On Broadway,” died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 78. The team of Leiber and Stoller was formed in 1950, when Mr. Leiber was still a student at Fairfax High in Los Angeles and Mr. Stoller, a fellow rhythm-and-blues fanatic, was a freshman at Los Angeles City College. With Mr. Leiber contributing catchy, street-savvy lyrics and Mr. Stoller, a pianist, composing infectious, bluesy […]

CONCERT REVIEW: The Philadelphia Folk Festival

BY MEREDITH KLEIBER We rolled in on early Friday afternoon to camping fields overflowing with tents and people, so it was lucky for us that our friends had set up a sweet campsite on Thursday and saved us a spot for our tent and canopy. After setting up, we headed down to check out the music. Upon entering the concert field, we were greeted by the upbeat bluegrass of Hogmaw, which provided us with a much-needed boost of energy. I made my way up to the photo pit to get some shots of the following act, Miss Birdie Busch, whose […]

TEN YEARS AFTER: The Day The Earth Stood Still

BY ALEXANDER POTTER To mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is hosting a special exhibit of ground zero artifacts — a broken pair of eyeglasses, smoke-damaged visitor badges, a partially melted keyboard — entitled EXCAVATING GROUND ZERO: FRAGMENTS FROM 9/11. The 15 items are on loan from the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center and will be on display at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology through November 6th. Contextualized by the proximity of ancient artifacts in the adjacent, permanent exhibits at the […]

QUEEN IS DEAD: Ackerman Paid $1 Million To GTFO

INQUIRER: Arlene Ackerman is out as superintendent of the Philadelphia School District.  An announcement will be made later today, multiple sources say. Her departure has been rumored for months but as my colleagues and I wrote in Sunday’s paper, it became clear last week that the end of Ackerman’s superintendency was imminent. The money to buy out Ackerman’s contract, which runs through 2014, will come from both the district and private sources, as The Inquirer previously reported. Sources say the district will pay about $500,000 and some amount – exactly how much isn’t yet clear – will come from the private […]

TONITE: The Hornblower

BY ZIVIT SHLANK Oh Philadelphia, you beautiful, eclectic metropolis of diverse artistic wonder. Hey, let’s not forget about the rich jazz history of this iconic music town. Philly Joe Jones, Stanley Clarke, McCoy Tyner, as well as Billie Holiday and John Coltrane among others, have all cut their teeth here.  One of Philly’s brightest young talents, trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator Josh Lawrence has been doing his part to spread the gospel that is jazz both stateside and abroad. He and his new quartet will be hitting the stage of Chris’ Jazz Café tonight. PHAWKER recently sat down with Josh […]

ZERO HOUR: Tripoli Falls;Gadhafi MIA;Sons Arrested

[Illustration by TAMER YOUSSEF] WALL STREET JOURNAL: Rebel forces in Libya surged into Tripoli Sunday, in what looks like the final days in power for Moammar Gadhafi and his sons. We should all first be grateful for the looming demise, after 42 years, of one of the world’s nastiest dictators. The U.S. and NATO interest now lies in executing as rapid a denouement as possible consistent with a minimum of bloodshed. The best outcome would be a quick Gadhafi exit, if not directly to some jail cell then to an Arab redoubt where he can sit in the prison of […]

FOLK FESTIVUS: Q&A With Jorma Kaukonen

Jorma Kaukonen, bottom left BY JONATHAN VALANIA Son of a Finnish American father and Russian Jewish mother, Jorma Koukonen spent his early child in the Phillipines and his teenage years in Washington D.C., where he learned to play guitar. He played in an early rock ‘ roll band called the Triumphs in the late 50s, before being seduced by the finger-style acoustic blues playing of Reverend Gary Davis whilst attending Antioch college. In 1962 he moved to the Bay Area to attend Santa Clara University, where his roommate was one Paul Kantner. During this time he struck up a friendship […]

FOLK FESTIVUS: Q&A With The Wood Brothers

BY MEREDITH KLEIBER FOLK FESTIVAL CORRESPONDENT Oliver and Chris Wood, AKA The Wood Brothers, have been playing as a duo since the middle of the last decade, but their musical pedigree extends even further back. Oliver’s soulful, bluesy style lent itself well to the south, where he toured a lot with his band, King Johnson, while Chris’s jazzy bass-playing skills helped to found Medeski, Martin & Wood. But it wasn’t until 2005 that the brothers decided that they had waited long enough to combine efforts professionally and make an album together. Their third full-length original album, Smoke Ring Halo, was […]

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Bob Dylan

[Illustration by ALEX FINE] BY MIKE WALSH Let me make this clear up front: I’m not a Dylan-head, Dylan-ite, Dylan-phile, Dylan-ologist, or any other kind of extreme Dylan fan. In fact, I never bought a Dylan record or CD until just a few years ago. I never saw the need. Growing up in the ’60s, Dylan was on the radio all the time —“Blowing in the Wind,“ “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right,“ “The Times They Are a Changin’,“ “All I Really Want to Do,“ “It Ain’t Me Babe, “Mr. Tambourine Man,“ etc., etc. Plus, many other bands had hits […]

FOLK FESTIVUS: Q&A With Hoots & Hellmouth

BY MEREDITH KLEIBER FOLK FESTIVAL CORRESPONDENT The lineup of Philly’s own Hoots & Hellmouth has certainly changed a lot over the years, but what remain immutable are their folk-powered melodies, honeyed harmonies, and prevailing sense of good ol’ foot-stompin’ fun. To add a little more oomph and keep spirits high after the departure of founding member Andrew “Hellmouth” Gray, they recently added a drummer into the mix, thus changing the band’s dynamic and adding more rhythm to their already animated live energy. They play the Main Stage of the Philadelphia Folk Festival tonight. PHAWKER: Your performances always contain so much […]

ANARCHY UK: Putting Out the Fires With Gasoline

BY REBECCA GOODACRE LONDON CORRESPONDENT With at least $160 million worth of damage, over 2,500 people arrested, almost 100 small businesses destroyed and five people dead, the riots in the UK last week were some of the worst seen for decades — at it’s peak, there were more fires burning in London than any time since The Blitz.  Whilst lives are tentatively being put back together, the big question which still looms over politicians, the police and the general public is quite simply why? Thousands of people seemingly turned on their own communities, ruthlessly smashing and burning their way through […]