December 26th, 2008

Mike Epps

December 24th, 2008

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa! See you on the other side…

December 24th, 2008

The Year In Concert Photos

So I went back through the vaults and dug out some of my favorite concert photos I’ve shot in Philly in 2008. Enjoy:

SANTOGOLD AT THE TLA

FLAMING LIPS AT PENN’S LANDING

TICKLEY FEATHER AT THE MARVELOUS

NO AGE AT FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH

December 24th, 2008

Christmas Music That Doesn’t Make Me Hurl

“Well, right or wrong, I sing either way.”

“Oughtta naughty you…”

“Don’t start with me!”

December 23rd, 2008

People Still Watch Music Videos. Who Knew?!

In the wake of Warner Music Group yanking all of its artists’ videos off of YouTube over the weekend, there’s an interesting follow-up article in today’s Los Angeles Times that dives into the tensions between the record industry and the online entities that carry their videos. I dunno about you, but I figured that once MTV and VH-1 stopped showing music videos a few years ago and went to virtually 100% reality TV programming, videos more or less were an afterthought and irrelevant. Wrong I was. Seems the advertising and licensing fees that labels get from their videos are a crucial (and growing) revenue stream, especially nowadays when people aren’t buying music like they used to. A couple excerpts from the piece:

“Universal Music, the world’s largest label, expects revenue from online streaming of music videos to approach $100 million this year — up from zero in 2004. Though that amount doesn’t reach the level of consumer spending on song downloads, cellphone ring tones or CD sales, executives nonetheless anticipate that the advertising revenue that flows from the music videos will increase. Revenue for the label from videos is up 80% from last year.”

The popularity of the music video as its own form of entertainment has emboldened the labels to restructure deals and demand bigger payments from their digital distributors — setting the stage for the stand-off between YouTube and Warner Music, the third-largest label and home to such acts as Madonna, rapper T.I., Red Hot Chili Peppers and Linkin Park.

December 23rd, 2008

New Boss At Wal-Mart

Why you’d actually need to buy a Springsteen greatest hits album with songs like “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Born in the U.S.A.” on it — when you can turn on ‘MMR or ‘YSP at any point in the day and hear one of those songs within about 26 minutes, guaranteed — is beyond me. But if you must have it, the “it” being Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s official Greatest Hits, out January 13th, you’ll only be able to get it at Wal-Mart, which has signed a deal with the Boss to be the disc’s exclusive retailer (much like the company recently did with AC/DC). Springsteen and the fellas have a new studio album, Working on a Dream, coming out at the end of January, but you’ll be able to buy that anywhere. They’re also performing during the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII on February 1st (you know, the football game the Philadelphia Eagles won’t be playing in).

Here’s Bruce and Jon Bon Jovi performing together — with tight shirts and silly arm gestures — last night at a holiday charity event in Red Bank, NJ, if you’re into that kind of thing:

December 23rd, 2008

Tonight: Jewmongous!

Everyone knows all the best Christmas songs were written by Jews; you’d think Irving Berlin woulda held something back for a Hanukkah song or something, but nope. All we get is that dumb “Dreidel Song” and that Adam Sandler “happy happy Hanukkah, smoke your marijuanukkah” thing that was only borderline funny the first time, certainly not at all the 1000th. Until now, that is. You can thank Sean Altman for Jewmongous! — the name of his band and the lauded comedy show he’s been touring behind the past couple of years. Named one of “the New Super Jews” (do you need a cape for that, or just a yarmulke with an “SJ” logo?) and a shining light in the “Jewish Hipster Movement” (alongside Jon Stewart and Sarah Silverman, of course), Altman and Jewmongous! have a new album out called Taller Than Jesus, on which you’ll find such awesomely irreverent ditties — done in every style from punk to honkytonk — as “They Tried to Kill Us (We Survived, Let’s Eat),” “Christian Baby Blood,” “What the Hell is Simchas Torah?” and “Long-Tongue Shloime.” Granted, your old-school Uncle Schmuel will probably like these about as much as South Park’s “Lonely Jew on Christmas” song (“And what the fuck is up with lighting all these fucking candles, tell me please?“), but if you’re a Heeb magazine Jew you’ll appreciate the humor, especially an older classic like “Reuben the Hook-Nosed Reindeer.” Jewmongous! is at World Cafe Live tonight at 7:30pm. Tix are $23.