They may not actually save your soul, but the Soulsavers (MySpace) - an English production and remix team comprised of members Rich Machin and Ian Glover - do have a spiritual (though not so spiritual agnostics, like this Phillyist, can't enjoy it) new album out now (It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land, their second) which will at least entertain you, and they're coming to the mighty North Star tonight to...
. (Complete lyrics here.) We've chosen it in honor of the new PTC show of the same name, set not only to open their 2007-2008 season, but also their brand new theatre. Now, on with the listings!
Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take her medicine and offered their own suggestions to how the city should capitalize on the local music scene. And everyone thinks that a suggested tax on bottled water is a great idea.
Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt, who has completely covered her house in mosaic tiles.
What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.
What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.
Heavy metal is a musical genre that has gone through a lot of ups and downs in popularity and quality over the years. But it's a genre we've always had a fondness for, and so we're quite happy to see it making yet another one of its many comebacks. This time one of the filthy hard rock zombies helping yank the corpse of metal out of its very unquiet grave is Mastodon (MySpace). They've been together making music since the late '90s/early '00s, but they only just released their first major label album - their third and most recent disc - September of last year. It's called Blood Mountain, and besides featuring cameos from such musical greats as Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and Mars Volta frontman Cedric Bixler, it's full of Mastodon's patented brand of lengthy, thrashing, doomy, complex, psychedelic, progressive metal. In other words, it's real good, rocking stuff, and we like it. And we hear their live show is even better, so check them out when they attack the Electric Factory this Friday, along with Against Me! and Cursive.
Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed.
...Beautiful Couples: What's that thing on his chin? (Via .)
One of my dearest, darling manhunting partners emailed me this today:
Breaking
the law, breaking the law. We -ist folks love us some crime, and no
misdemeanor is too petty for a post on any of our sites. This week,
join us for a rogues' gallery of miscreants major, minor, and alleged.
Gothamist gets us started with
"Law
& Order", muppet style. Oh, you know what isn't a crime? Taking
pictures on the MTA. So, why
are cops stopping photographers? In other Gotham crime, a group
of Asian men was attacked
by a group of white guys in Queens. Finally, Boy
George reports for his court mandated community service. Sweet.
Londonist brings us the tale
of poor Bob Hoskins, shaken
at his near-miss with terrorists. Meanwhile, Interpol
sweeps in to reclaim a lost Peruvian artifact. Then, there's the
slasher
who claims he got his weapon from President Bush. Ouch!
Phillyist's bus system, SEPTA,
is fighting
crime in a whole new way, and it would be a crime in and of itself
for you not
to read this story about Oreo the cat. Oh, and can
we agree that requesting "Piano Man" at a piano bar should be
illegal?
Torontoist's thorough
coverage
of the XVI
International AIDS Conference, doesn't fit into the "crime" theme,
but it's too great to pass up. But we're back on track with their
on bike rack vulnerability and an
interview with a controversial crime fighter.
DCist brings us a murder
that gets more mysterious by the day, and we're considering a life
of crime ourselves, if it'll allow us to dine
out like DCist. And if it's not illegal to sell
soiled mattresses, it should be.
SFist muses on the negligent behavior of a public transit employee, covered the
questionable confession of a man arrested for the murder of
JonBenet Ramsey, and delineated the highway robbery that is the Bay Area real estate market.
Shanghaiist brings us this
video of "one
of the worst cover bands we have seen in China", which isn't
illegal, but should be. We're unclear on the legal status of an "invisible
monster cock", and we'd prefer to stay that way. Price
gouging on drinks is a criminal act, in our opinion.
Chicagoist gets thrown in the
hoosgow by readers
who hate the Annual Air & Water Show. Should bottle service be illegal? Chicagoist's commenters debate that,
too. And the criminally overdiscussed (and we say this even as we
trotted this out as a theme last week) gets the Chicagoist
commenter treatment, as well.
LAist exposes the questionable ethics of 's marketing, tells us how to make the
criminally tasty Moscow
mule, and creates
a criminal amount of garbage.
Houstonist blows us away with
the announcement that they
wear pantyhose. Someone call the fashion police! Houston's city
council takes a bite
out of shoddy newspaper rack crime. The only real criminals in
Houston seem to be flying
roaches. (No, not those kind.)
Those miscreants at Bostonist
take their shot at our
newest public enemy number one, Mel Gibson. Public enemy number
two? Gold
bricking spammers. Number three? Bad
mergers.
Seattlest gets a
photo of missing person Bettie Page, breaks some laws of their own
by getting "drunk
on clandestine vodka, and yell(ing) at passing cars." When is
domestic violence kinda understandable? Now.
Austinist's lovable rogues
tell us about issues in their
state's gubernatorial race, eagerly anticipate the arrival of the
criminally hilarious Onion, and bemoan
the firing of a teacher who committed the crime of (gasp!) partial
nudity.
To describe the Eagles of Death Metal as merely a side-project of Queens of the Stoneage frontman Josh Homme (who goes by the hilariously excellent and ridiculous moniker, Carlo Von Sexron, when playing with the Eagles) is to do the band a disservice. Although, as the title of this post suggests, their music is far from being death metal, it is an incredibly fun, perhaps-slightly-harder-than-average bluesy pop rock that is highly enjoyable, and really something quite distinct from the sound of Queens of the Stoneage. EoDM have even more swagger, and even more of a sense of humor about themselves and what they're doing, as you can tell from their entertaining cover of the only famous Steeler's Wheels song, which, ever since Reservoir Dogs, Phillyist likes to call "the ear-cutting song," and which EoDM call "Stuck in the Metal with You."
Tonight at World Cafe Live you can catch a performance by two former members of other bands who've joined together to form a mellow, bland, vaguely countrified folk rock outfit. We're talking about Isobel Campbell from Belle & Sebastian and Mark Lanegan from Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age. They're on tour behind their new album Ballad of the Broken Seas, which was released a week ago. Phillyist has to admit we found the disc a bit boring. It certainly has atmosphere - old, whispery, shadowy, smokey atmosphere. And ocassionally it gets a bit menacing, which is interesting. But generally it's all in a low key, and not particularly imaginative; it makes us want to go to sleep, and we prefer music that wakes us up. Like say, just as an example, Queens of the Stone Age. But if you're a big fan of these folks, or you really enjoy somnolent folk rock, then by all means head on down to the World Cafe Live tonight.
If you tuned into 100.3 FM on your radio dial a few months ago, there was a good chance you would have heard Modest Mouse or Queens of the Stone Age. There was also a chance that you would hear that “Closing Time” song that has somehow survived as a jukebox legend (we point the finger at drunk sorority girls). But, that’s the tradeoff, as is the case with almost every radio station: take the good with the bad. But Radio One had the notion that Philadelphia needed yet another hip hop station and turned Y100 into The Beat, which apparently bangs the best hip hop and R&B in town. So Phillyist asks you, “Whatever happened?” It’s a cliché, it’s tired, and it’s true: you really don’t appreciate things until they’re gone. Alternative music fans throughout the city mourned the day Y100 died. Not because it was the best station, but because, for all its flaws, it was the only station playing alternative music. Now that it’s been killed we’re realizing how devoid our airwaves are of alternative rock options. The other rock stations, 93.3 WMMR and 94.1 WYSP, have tried to accommodate this gaping hole by mixing in some newer stuff that we may have heard on the fallen Y100 like the Foo Fighters, The White Stripes, and Stone Temple Pilots. Classic rock, though, is their thing. Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, and Aerosmith are too popular with their listeners for them to make any drastic changes. New and alternative, while not entirely accurate in its application to Y100, is something that this city’s radio dial desperately needs. It makes no sense that the 5th largest city in the country doesn’t have an alternative music station. At last count we’re up to 27 hip hop and R&B stations, one good college station, one oldies station, and a handful of others constantly rotating Three Doors Down and Nickelback. What we need is another option. We need a station like Y100 to come back, even if they have to play Semisonic from time to time. Image credit: Matt Groening (The Simpsons)
CinePhillyist Reviews... The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Playlist Rewind: Shonen Knife at Johnny Brenda's
BalletX Fall Series Begins TONIGHT
Where Have All Our T-Shirts Gone?
Phillyist Playlist: 311 at the Borgata Event Center
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