Results tagged “queensofthestoneage”

Bummed LA and NY got final Nine Inch Nails shows, but Philadelphia was left out? We have just the good news to cure your blues. Them Crooked Vultures, better known as "Dave Grohl's New Supergroup," released a very select few US tour dates this week and oh, look at that—lucky us, Philly is on the list! While Gothamist and LAist were turning mighty green (no shows for them as of right now) we were busy cherry picking the online presale this morning. After forty full minutes of severe Ticketmaster password failure we finally managed to our golden ticket into what promises to be an epic Electric Factory event.

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...

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 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.

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)