April 30th, 2009

Lilith Fair Returns!

So it’s not just Tupac who’s back from the dead — Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair festival tour is back after a ten-year hiatus, with plans currently being set for a summer 2010 jaunt. So far, only two weeks in Europe have been semi-confirmed, according to Billboard, but it only makes sense that North American dates must be in the works.

This, of course, is great news for Leah Andreone, Chantal Kreviazuk, Heather Nova, Holly McNarland, Meredith Brooks, Melanie Doane, Tara MacLean, Bree Sharp, and many other female singer-songwriters who played Lilith Fair in the ’90s and then were promptly forgotten. Maybe there’s a place for them in 2010…

If/when we hear about a Philly area date and rumors about lineups and so forth, we’ll keep you posted…

April 30th, 2009

Tupac Lives!! No, Totally, For Realz!

Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain are definitely still dead, in my opinion, but I have NO DOUBT IN MY MIND that Tupac Shakur is still alive; that his shooting death was simply a hoax so that he could go deep underground, sell shitloads of albums “posthumously,” and then resurface anywhere he likes — say, at a New Orleans bar — and no one would believe it was really, truly him. But I BELIEVE! And that’s thanks to that bastion of journalistic integrity, TMZ (which actually has broken stories about Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan, and bankers going on lavish spending sprees with bailout money), which just published photographs of Tupac in a Bourbon Street bar last weekend, proving BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT that the rapper is still alive. Hurrah! Hope this doesn’t, ahem, kill his future album sales. Here’s a photo, courtesy of TMZ!:

Definitive proof, yo!

April 30th, 2009

Danger! High Dolt-Age!

I dunno…I do like Electric Six’s tongue-in-cheek, cock-rock-and-roll camp — it’s hard not to enjoy all the fieeee-yahhs and sooo-loooooows bellowing from the mouth of frontman Dick Valentine, who’s actually not seven feet tall and intimidating like he sounds on album but kinda small and semi-nerdy looking (there’s an almost Rick Astley disconnect between his appearance and his voice). And what’s not to love about the band’s killer chops and songs like “Dance Commander,” “Gay Bar,” “I Buy the Drugs,” and of course “Danger! High Voltage!”?

But, as Valentine once told me in an interview, “Our crowd is skewing more and more to, like, aggro-meathead dude, and I love it when those guys wanna bro down with us after the show, and then they realize that we’re just these scrawny guys in our 30s with sinus problems that don’t want anything to do with their lifestyle.” I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe him, but then I saw it for myself when E6 played the Khyber last November — the joint was surprisingly (to me, anyway) full of violent meatheads and assfaces who were getting more hostile and belligerent with every beer; it felt more like being in the stands for a Flyers-Rangers game. And then there was the ridiculously skanky couple who were dancing/dry humping at the lip of the stage right next to me — the chick knocked over one of the mic stands twice while her dude was groping her, and he managed to splash most everyone in a 10-foot radius (band included) with his beers throughout the set. Nast.

So who knows if tonight’s E6 show at Johnny Brenda’s will be more of the same. I really hope not, because as good as the band was that night, the crowd really ruined the vibe of the show. Anyway, here’s some photos I shot of E6 that night:

April 30th, 2009

Tonight In Shows

The Whore Moans
9pm, $8. Khyber.
Do you remember that one night when you puked yourself before even leaving the house? And then you stumbled blind drunk over to that dive bar three blocks away, smoking an entire pack of Camel nonfilters along the way? And you had that conversation with the bartender about how the Stooges were the coolest motherfucking band in the universe while you waited for your PBR? And then you danced and thrashed around the bar in your stinky black jeans, punched some dude in the back of the head, stuck your tongue down some skanky chick’s throat, then puked again and passed out in the bathroom? You don’t remember that night at all, do you? Better go listen to Seattle garage-punks the Whore Moans, then—it’ll all come back to you. (Michael Alan Goldberg)

Kevin Valentine
8pm, $3. Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus.
Jazz vocalist Kevin Valentine, a native New Yorker, came to Philadelphia to attend law school and wound up becoming the city’s quintessential working-stiff musician. He grew up with the old-school sounds of Johnny Hartman but developed a love for classic R&B, and these influences inform his guileless, buttery crooning. Like many jazzers, he believes in modern pop as an element of the American Songbook and insists on the validity of not just old standards but also new. Valentine can often be found in the company of seasoned Philly instrumentalists like bassist Mike Boone, who maintain Ortlieb’s as a bastion of straightahead jazz and inspire cats to be at their best. (David R. Adler)

Lots of other stuff to choose from tonight as well: Marah drops by World Cafe Live with Justin Townes Earle (son of Steve Earle) in tow [8pm/$19-27]; tongue-in-cheek hard-rockers Electric Six will force you to obey the dance commander at Johnny Brenda’s [9pm/$15]; eyeliner-punks Alkaline Trio will whip up a gloomy racket for the fervent faithful at the Troc [7:30pm/$22]; and still-at-it ancient arena-rock group Foreigner — which no longer includes Lou Gramm but does include the ex-bassist of Dokken — plays the hits in the decidedly non-arena confines of the Keswick Theatre [7:30pm/$49.50-129].

April 30th, 2009

ANAM

April 30th, 2009

THE WHORE MOANS with the Midnight Beat

April 29th, 2009

Interview: The Sounds

Swedish pop-punk/New Wave quintet the Sounds — fronted by the vivacious, Debbie Harry-esque Maja Ivarsson — returns to the Philly area this weekend for the first time in a while, playing a sold-out show at the Note in West Chester on Saturday night behind their forthcoming album Crossing the Rubicon. It’s one of their last headlining gigs before jumping on board as openers for the big No Doubt reunion tour for three months this summer (that tour comes to the Susquehanna Bank Center on June 11th). We caught up with Sounds keyboardist Jesper Anderberg the other afternoon from a tour stop in Boston:

The show on Saturday is sold out, that must be a good feeling.
Yeah, definitely. I don’t think we’ve played that venue before so I don’t know how big it is or anything about it.

Yeah, it’s fairly new, I haven’t been there yet myself.
Isn’t that Bam’s club?

Bam Margera? Yeah.
We know him pretty well. We played his wedding.

You did?
Yeah. A couple years ago.

I just saw his parents waiting in line at Jim’s Steaks on South Street here in Philly not too long ago, lots of people were running up to have their pictures taken with them.
Yeah, they’re the world’s most famous parents.