BY ED KING ROCK EXPERT What makes a band a band and not just a group of musicians who play music together? Jazz musicians often play together, but they rarely form bands. Supporting musicians flow in and out behind a clear band leader, the way they did behind Miles Davis, helping to drive his many stylistic permutations. What’s the value of a band, why do people bother? In rock ‘n roll, countless collections of musicians undeniably exist as a band despite barely qualifying as musicians. Alan Paul’s oral history of the Allman Brothers Band, One Way Out, is a […]
UNCLASSIFIED: Secret History Of The Liberty Bell
CONSTITUTION DAILY: On July 8, 1776, popular legend says the Liberty Bell rang to symbolize America’s independence from Great Britain. But many “facts” about the Bell, such as the 1776 ringing, are shrouded in mystery. For example, how did the Liberty Bell get its famous crack? Did it really ring on July 4, 1776? And where was the Bell hidden from the British? Here are some of the facts we do know about the Liberty Bell, and some theories to answer the other big questions about the Bell’s travels. 1. The Liberty Bell pre-dates the Revolution. The Pennsylvania Assembly […]
SNL: The Beygency
F*cking funny and, best we can tell, largely true.
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, Tempest-tossed to me I lift my lamp beside the golden door! F*ck You, I Got Mine!
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Sure, I know it’s a question I’ve kicked around for years, but in light of Rep. Kantor’s election loss I’m willing to ask it yet again if only for its pure “irritation” effect. This time let’s direct it specifically to the real dolts within the Republican establishment (on the other hand, I suppose that description could aptly designate anyone within the Republican establishment these days), those hard-right oracles of lies, injustice and the un-American way; those so-called “influential” conservative media know-it-alls who profess to have all the answers so long as the questions don’t rise above the red-neck line. […]
WAYNE COYNE & FLAMING LIPS + SMILEY VIRUS: “Blonde SuperFreak Steals the Magic Brain”
WAYNE COYNE: “The video story is something like this: Moby is an evil, power-hungry cult leader. He wants the world’s most valuable (according to our story) psychedelic supernatural possession… John F. Kennedy’s brain….the brain contains the original formula for the drug LSD!!! Miley Cyrus has the magic brain!!! And Moby enlists a nympho Manson girl-type blonde superfreak to go steel the brain from Cyrus. She steals the brain from Cyrus while Cyrus is still in bed in a drug-induced coma. Cyrus finally wakes up and is mega-pissed that her BRAIN has been stolen. She enlists a burned-faced Santa and a […]
OUT ON ASSIGNMENT: Across The Spooniverse
Have to go up to NYC today to have a word with this guy. I am bound by confidentiality agreement from saying more about this at the present time. We’ll be back with regular updates tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this excerpt of my tUnE-yArDs cover story for the July issue of MAGNET.
EXCERPT: Where The Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are From Dave Matthews Band-loving-anarcho-hippie-feminista-puppeteer to indie rock’s warpaint-smeared world-beating It Girl in just 10 years, tUnE-yArDs wonder woman Merrill Garbus has been chasing The Real Thing from the mythical savannas of Africa to the humid ruins of Haiti, from the leafy Birkenstocked redoubts of New England to the sun-kissed liberal paradise of the Bay Area. MAGNET goes Left Coast to find out why she still hasn’t found what she’s looking for. By Jonathan Valania Merrill Garbus has this weird obsession with eating babies. It comes up a lot, and she doesn’t even try to […]
CINEMA: Last Train To Oligarchsville
SNOWPIERCER (2013, directed by Boon Joon-ho, 126 minutes, South Korea) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Writing about current film, I worry I spend too much time bemoaning the state of the Hollywood blockbuster, a sizable section of cinema I sometimes feel I should abandon altogether. What does summer boredom look like? Every other Joe is a super hero, every trailer reveals rebooted nostalgia and the sight of city skylines crumbling to the ground has become as old hat as cowboys dueling on a dusty Main Street. But it is hard to let the special-effects epic go. I was a […]
THE HANDMAID’S TALL TALE: A Point By Point Rebuttal Of Emily Zanotti’s Op-Ed Internet Feminists Wage War on Women’s Intelligence
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Not sure how I wound up at American Spectator — who even knew they were still around? Last time I checked they were using their Richard Mellon Schaife right-wing welfare checks to slime Anita Hill and spin trailer park fantasias of phantom menace and the dark doings of Billary in the fever swamps of Arkansas back in the ’80s out of whole cloth. But I wound up there nonetheless, probably because I stupidly follow PJ Media on Twitter and they were hyping Naked DC blogger Emily Zanotti‘s response to the social media outrage in the wake […]
SIDEWALKING: #Norfphillyshit
Photo by Meek Mill
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR The Supreme Court term ended Monday. The New York Times correspondent and lawyer Adam Liptak talks with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross about what the decisions reveal about the nine justices. RELATED: The Supreme Court concluded its term today with a pair of decisions widely described as “narrow”—that is, of limited application except to the parties in the lawsuits. Don’t believe it. In fact, the Court’s decisions in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and Harris v. Quinn conform to an established pattern for the Roberts Court. It’s generally a two-step process: in confronting a politically charged issue, the court […]
THE WYTCHES: Gravedweller
Boys will be noise. Like if Nirvana circa Bleach was listening to Crypt’s Back From The Grave series instead of The Melvins. Things would have been different. They play Boot N’ Saddle July 26th with Harsh Vibes and Love Club.