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Archive: January, 2009
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Four hours in two days is way too much.
10-11 a.m.
While the president’s having some boring meeting about war, Tony Almeda’s enjoying the world’s fastest helicopter ride. Five minutes after getting arrested, he, Jack and Agent Walker land at FBI headquarters. Tony’s not talking, so Jack is like lemme try. He opens with “I watched you die in my arms.” Jack says why you all so thief and Tony’s like duh, money. Then he starts taunting Jack about his dead wife, estranged daughter, blithering Audrey, etc. Jack responds with a heavy breathing chokehold and only then, when their stubbles are nearly locked like Velcro, does Tony whisper a secret thing to Jack. It was a phone number! Jack calls it and, holy crap, Bill Buchanan answers dressed in skintight black like now’s the time on Sprockets when we dance. Chloe’s there too! Oh, Chloe. And, aha! Tony was working for them in super extra special deep cover!
Did you know there are rooms in the White House that look Caesar’s Hotel and Casino? It’s true, and that’s where the bony First Gentleman meets with the snake-like chief of staff to discuss the suicide/murder of the First Son in 24: Redemption. Musta been during the non-African parts, when I was in the bathroom. Chloe sets up a secure line so Bill and Jack can exposit. She and Jack also share a little moment and it makes me wonder if they are going to make grumpy love at some point this season, in real time. Okay, so Bill is like: CTU’s dead, but me Chloe and Tony have this little gang where we pull psycho shit without the aid of any government agency. Except with Tony imprisoned we’re scrizzewed, can you help us, Jack? Yes he can.
What else: Tony won’t confess anything. Somebody calls the First Dude and says First Son was murdered, which I hope will be the end of that storyline but probably not. Garafalo, as Chloe 1.0, thinks she found the leak but it turns out no. Jack comes up behind Walker and looks like he’s about to give her a Cold Carl (that’s when you hug someone really tight and pee), but all he does is choke her unconscious and steal her gun and use it to set Tony free. Yay, Jack and Tony on the same team! Chloe and Garafalo use their compu-digi-bili-net skillz to code-block each other, which is pretty funny on purpose. There’s a firefight in a parking garage. Tony jumps out and lands on cars like it's no big thing. Jack hotwires a car a drives it blind through a wall and down a couple stories. It’s kind of awesome. Bill pulls up in his sleazy little love van and they all drive away.
DEATH WATCH:
Nobody dies. In fact, Jack seems to have given Walker and a bunch of other FBI agents the gentlest concussions of all time.
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| Aw snap it's Bill and Chloe!!!! |
11 a.m.-noon
I love how they do Previously on 24 even though it was only an hour ago in real real time. Whatever, it’s a good excuse to show Jack driving that car off the building again. Still awesome.
Okay, so the President really wants to invade Sangala. But if she does that, some guy named Dubaku will activate the CIP device which is the thing that controls air traffic, sewage, Tivo, everything. But I thought Tony had that and he was a good guy so really all the crises have now been averted and the next 21 hours should just be Jack and Chloe debriefing each other. But I haven’t been paying close enough attention, I guess, cause there’s still hot situations and everybody’s all agitated.
Jack, Tony and Bill meet up with Chloe at the severely lit CTU DC, and fill each other in on stuff. Tony says yeah I was dead for 10 minutes but I’m all better, now. Then there’s the bombshell: Tony was a for-real bad guy for a little while. He was so mad at the federal government, you see. Anyway, it’s game on.
Tony and Jack — also posing as a bad guy now, a move he learned from Andre the Giant — go to Bad Guy HQ. Jack pulls a classic trust exercise that ingratiates himself with the baddies, gets a shaved-head thug shot and makes no sense. “Good to have you on board, Jack,” says bad guy boss. Tony sticks the world’s most conspicuous listening device on the back of a chair so Chloe and Bill can listen to the new bad guy plan: Capture a good Sangalan, ex-prime minister Mutobo, and deliver him to an evil one. Good thing Mutobo’s got a panic room.
In subplot news: Lots of planes are circling around unable land, just like in Die Harder. First Dude meets with people about his boring dead First Son. His bodyguard looks on, menacingly. President Pillowface has meetings about that dream Sangala invasion she’s been saving up for. Walker tortures Tanner in his hospital bed for some intel, then kills him by scrunching his air tubes. Geez, lady, Jack really made an impression on you.
DEATH WATCH:
1 Shaved-head thug (shot by his boss)
Maybe a Mutobo guard or two?
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Austin's 23rd SXSW, which is scheduled for March 18 to 22, released a partial lineup of scheduled bands/acts last week. Who does Philly have so far? That Girl Amanda Blank (A.D. just wrote her up) and the ever-expanding Jersey/Philly crew Brick Bandits (check them on Mad Decent).
We'll use this post to keep a running list of Philly bands as they're added. So far:
- Illinois
More bands after the jump.
8Ball & MJG (Memphis, TN)
Akron/Family (Williamsport, PA)
Al Kapone (Memphis, TN)
Alina Simone (Brooklyn, NY)
Amanda Blank (Philadelphia, PA)
Amber Smith (Budapest, HUNGARY)
Angry vs The Bear (Essex, ENGLAND)
Anthony Snape (Sydney, AUSTRALIA)
ARABROT (Oslo, NORWAY)
Arc Angels (Austin, TX)
Asher Roth (Morrisville, PA)
Asobi Seksu (Brooklyn, NY)
Astrid Williamson (Shetland Islands, SCOTLAND)
B.o.B. (Atlanta, GA)
Banda de Turistas (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Bar-Kays (Memphis, TN)
Bavu Blakes (Austin, TX)
Ben Kweller (Austin, TX)
Benny Gallagher (West Wickham, ENGLAND)
Black Cherry (London, ENGLAND)
BLACK SKIES (Chapel Hill, NC)
Blaqstarr (Baltimore, MD)
Blue Scholars (Seattle, WA)
Bomba Estereo (Bogota, Columbia)
Brick Bandits (Philadelphia, PA)
Buck 65 (Halifax, NS)
Buraka Som Sistema (Lisbon, Portugal)
Candy Coated Killahz (Toronto, CANADA)
Cashier No.9 (Belfast, IRELAND)
Casiokids (Bergen, NORWAY)
Charles Hamilton (New York, NY)
Choc Quib Town (Bogota, Columbia)
CHOO-CHOO (Bern, SWITZERLAND)
Chris T-T (Brighton, ENGLAND)
Come On Gang! (Edinburgh, SCOTLAND)
Crystal Method (Los Angeles, CA)
Crystal Stilts (New York, NY)
Damero (Berlin, Germany)
Dananananaykroyd (Glasgow, Scotland)
Dave Alvin (Los Angeles, CA)
David Garza (Austin, TX)
Dead Prez (New York, NY)
Dekadens (Bucharest, ROMANIA)
Dirtblonde (Liverpool, ENGLAND)
Division Miniscula (Matamoros, Mexico)
Doctor Krapula (Bogota, Columbia)
EBONY BONES! (London, ENGLAND)
Ella (Bristol, ENGLAND)
Empire ISIS (Montreal, CANADA)
Explosions in the Sky (Austin, TX)
Flood of Red (Glasgow, SCOTLAND)
Franki Chan (Los Angeles, CA)
Free Sol (Memphis, TN)
Futumomo Satisfaction (Tokyo, Japan)
Gabi Almedia (Sao Paolo, Brazil)
Gary Clark Jr. (Austin, TX)
Grimy Styles (Austin, TX)
Hacienda (San Antonio, TX)
Hickoids (Austin, TX)
Ida Maria (Stockholm, Sweden)
Insite (Mexicali, Mexico)
Invincible (Detroit, MI)
Jokers of the Scene (Ottawa, ON)
Kap Bambino (Bordeaux, France)
Kid Sister (Chicago, IL)
Killer Mike (Atlanta, GA)
LA Riots (Los Angeles, CA)
Los Fancy Free (Mexico City, Mexico)
Madi Diaz (Nashville, TN)
Manana (Basil, SWITZERLAND)
Mandi Perkins (Los Angeles, CA)
Mexican Institute of Sound (Mexico City, Mexico)
Micachu (London, ENGLAND)
Midnight Youth (Auckland, NEW ZEALAND)
Mika Miko (Los Angeles, CA)
Mike Badger (Liverpool, ENGLAND)
Mistah FAB (Oakland, CA)
Monokino (Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS)
Moriarty (Montreuil, FRANCE)
Motel (Mexico City, Mexico)
Mundo Livre Sa (Recife, Brazil)
My Crew Be Unruly (Baltimore, MD)
My Federation (Hove, ENGLAND)
Nacho Vegas (Gijon, Spain)
Nacional (Glasgow, SCOTLAND)
NAVEL (Erschwil, SWITZERLAND)
Outasight (New York, NY)
P.O.S. (Minneapolis, MN)
Pato Machete (Monterrey, Mexico)
Peter Bjorn & John (Stockholm, Sweden)
Peter Rosenberg (New York, NY)
Port O'Brien (Cambria, CA)
Primal Scream (Glasgow, Scotland)
Reflection Eternal (Ohio/New York)
Rob Quest (Houston, TX)
Sage Francis (Providence, RI)
San Quinn (San Francisco, CA)
Scribe (Christchurch, NZ)
Shad (London, Ontario)
Shawn David McMillen (Austin, TX)
Simplifires (Mexico City, Mexico)
Soulico (Tel Aviv, Israel)
St. Vincent (Dallas, TX)
Suzy & Los Quattro (Barcelona, Spain)
T Bird & The Breaks (Austin, TX)
Tanya Morgan (Brooklyn, NY)
Temposhark (London, ENGLAND)
The Beat Poets (Belfast, IRELAND)
The Carrivick Sisters (Devon, ENGLAND)
The Courteneers (Manchester, UK)
The deBretts (London, ENGLAND)
The Deep Dark Woods (Saskatoon, CANADA)
the Devil Wears Prada (Dayton, OH)
The Everyday Visuals (Boston, MA)
The Knux (New Orleans, LA)
THE MOOG (Budapest, HUNGARY)
The Pepper Pots (Girona, Spain)
The Sonics (Seattle, WA)
The Temper Trap (Nth Fitzroy, AUSTRALIA)
thecocknbullkid (London, ENGLAND)
Thee Oh See's (San Francisco, CA)
This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb (Pensacola, FL)
Tittsworth (Washington, DC)
Tommy Tee (Oslo, Norway)
Toy Horses (Barry, WALES)
Twilight Hotel (Winnipeg, CANADA)
Virgin Passages (London, ENGLAND)
Volodja Balzalorsky (Ljubljana, SLOVENIA)
WAZ (Los Angeles, CA)
We Have Band (London, ENGLAND)
We Should Be Dead (Limerick, IRELAND)
White Lies (London, ENGLAND)
Whitechapel (Knoxville, TN)
Willem Maker (Turkey Heaven, AL)
Willy Joy (Chicago, IL)
Yarah Bravo (New York, NY)
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| Everyone Everywhere |
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Every Monday, The Showdown tells you who to see and where to see 'em.
Monday: Cure a case of the Mondays with cheery alt-pop anthems courtesy of Austin, Texas' The Sour Notes. At the M Room. With Broken Trees, Neighborhood Choir & Orbit to Leslie. Doors at 9 p.m., tickets are $8.
Tuesday: He's got rhythm, he's got music, he's got a band ... could we ask for anything more? Check jazz drum virtuoso David Cifelli with his quartet at Chris' Jazz Café. Doors at 5 p.m., tickets are $5.
Wednesday: Despite popular opinion, not all emo sucks. If you require proof, rock out with Philly's own Everyone Everywhere. Their sweet breakdowns should be enough to redeem your opinion of this unfairly scoffed-at genre. At the Khyber. With the Mad Splatter. Doors at 8 p.m., tickets are $8.
Thursday: San Diegoans the The Soft Pack (formerly the Muslims) make lo-fi rock 'n' roll with no pretense. Become their number one fan at Kung Fu Necktie. With the Browns. Doors @ 9 p.m., tickets are $10.
Friday: Looks like Amy's finally been dethroned. Beehive-less (thank god) and pints more sober than Ms. Winehouse, London's Adele is our new soul-pop chart-topping diva. Free at noon at World Live Café (RSVP at XPN.org) or later at the TLA. With Angel Taylor. Doors at 9 p.m., tickets are $18.
Saturday: Makin' Motown beats for the slightly lethargic hipster set, Brooklyn duo the Department of Eagles (Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus) swoop by Johnny Brenda's. With Bear Hands and Here We Go Magic. Doors at 9:30 p.m., tickets are $12.
Sunday: Folk guitar-totin' crooner Natalia Zukerman graces Tin Angel's stage. With Colleen Sexton and Trina Hamlin. Doors at 7 p.m., tickets are $ 12.
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Let's see how long I can keep watching this show.
8-9 p.m.
Featuring: Janeane Garafalo, Krazee Eyez Killa, Dead Meat from Hot Shots, Red from That ’70s Show, that one creepy-nerdy guy from X-Files.
Within the hour, Jack Bauer goes from standing trial before the Senate for torture (self-representing!) to being green-lighted for torture by FBI agent Walker, whom he just met. CTU has been disbanded, but it looks like D.C. is the new L.A. The throw-pillow-faced President plans an invasion in a troubled African-country called Sangala (think Sudan or Sierra Leone) and, following standard 24 protocol, she calls the U.N. a pack of pussies. Tony’s back alive and a bad guy now, though Jack doesn’t believe it. He and some no-frills shaved-head thugs kidnap a nerd and force him to help them take over the Whatever System that controls air traffic, power grid, water, supermarket scanners, zoo walls, mall security, everything. Like from Live Free or Die Hard, I guess. WTF, government, stop making it so one nerd can be noogied into frakking with the whole infrastructure.
DEATH WATCH:
1 informant shot by a sniper
-1 Tony Almeda brought back to life
Untold number of Sangalan people being slaughtered by General Juma
9-10 p.m.
Featuring: President David Palmer (in a rather vague Allstate commercial)
Tony pretends to be an air traffic guy and almost makes two planes land on runways that criss-cross each other which strikes me as a risky design decision to begin with. Then he tells the one plane to pull up and is all “that was just a warning” although basically until Tony kills an innocent person for no good reason, everybody watching will suspect he’s secretly a good guy. President Pillowface talks to people and sets up meetings and blah blah blah. “Tanner,” the sniper who shot the informant right before he could spill the beans, is trapped in a building. Generic FBI Agent #1447 is assigned to keep an eye on Jack, who’s wearing a Paddington Bear raincoat for some reason. He uses it as an opportunity call Jack a misunderstood patriot who is so awesome. Jack says thanks and then runs away. Some other Fed helps Tanner escape and only superpatriot Bauer notices. As a reward, Walker gives him a fabulous new Dodge SUV and they go rogue. They follow Tanner to Tony’s boat and start dropping suckas left and right. Jack tackles Tony and there’s a lot of grunting. It’s basically season two slash fiction. Jack looks at Tony and says “What happened to you?” He’ll have to get back to you next hour. Beep.. Beep... Beep.
DEATH WATCH:
1 security camera
3 boat thugs
The 69th edition of Jon Solomon's Local Support podcast features some catchy tunes, a few pure instrumental gems and a bunch of techno beats and dance party shoe-ins.
The show starts high-energy with Philly funk band, Prowler, whose "Ahead of the Pack" brings to mind the wails/shouts and energetic beats of Architecture in Helsinki. The Classic Brown is next with "Modulation," which may bring a sigh of relaxed relief after the frenetic opener. This track is featured on "Rock The Net: Musicians For Network Neutrality" (find out more here). You can feel you've done a good deed by supporting the worthy cause of music! Now all you have to do is go and buy all of your music legally (I do!) and stop all the downloading (yeah right).
The War On Drugs comes next with "Show Me The Coast." The Dylanesque Adam Granduciel spearheads the roving ballad, rising and falling against the backdrop of drums and guitars (one of which is played by Kurt Vile, who's featured later in this episode). Whales & Cops, aka Man Man half-brothers Clint Killingsworth and Tiberius Lyn, accompanied by Otzi Bogman, break us out of our daze with electronic fun from their debut EP, Great Bouncing Iceburgs. Spinto Band comes next with the move-it-worthy "Vivian, Don't." Von Hayes' short "Boo Hoo" gives just the right burst of scratchy rock, only to be followed quickly by Public Record's mellow instrumental jam "Heavy Ornament." The aforementioned Kurt Vile's "Breathin Out" is a fuzzy, catchy tune that'd feel right at home on the next great Juno-equivalent indie drama soundtrack.
With Kanye and T. Pain's vocoders infesting contemporary hip-hop, Tuff Crew's "Northside Posse" is a refreshing shout to the past with genuine old-school beats and rhymes. A change of mood now — you'll want to close your eyes and imagine yourself in outer space with six-piece Philly band Gildon Works' heavy "Forth But First." Philly's favorite band Man Man is at its norm in "Easy Eats Or Dirty Doctor Galapagos" with lead singer Honus Honus banging on the piano and singing vaudeville style.
Mincemeat Or Ten Speed, aka Davey Harms, brings us "Accident Prone" from his LP, All Critters 12. Davey created the album with nothing but a bunch of guitar pedals — impressive stuff. Techno fun band Pink Skull's "Cry For Meee" is a definite club pleaser. Lillie Ruth Bussey is an entirely different entity with "Heart You Protect," a purely acoustic piece showcasing her haunting voice. National Eye's "Dread Flight Of The Crimson Bee" rolls along with a bit of alt-rock humor ("much of the fun comes when you're alone").
Adam Arcuragi's "The Belgian" has a old-timey folk sound that apirs perfectly with his sweet, simplistic lyrics. Post-rock band Windsor For The Derby finishes the show off with the thoughtful and low-key "Forgotten," which features a line befitting our last 8 years: "Don't worry about the old times, they're not with us anymore." With a new president coming into the White House and Jon's promise to keep laying down lots of local music, who could ask for a better start to 2009?
Go download it now at citypaper.net/podcast.
Prowler — "Ahead Of The Pack" — En Garde! — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
I saw the drummer from Man Man on the Broad St. line a few months ago. I lurve it when I spot local indie rock celebs on SEPTA.
A range of stimulating sounds..and a well-wtitten blog with poetry and spunk.
written!
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| All of your senses are belong to us. |
Yesterday, Live Nation had one Phish show listed for a couple of�hours. Then it was gone. "Hmmmm," wondered many a Phish head before they�asked their friends if the bowl was still going or if they needed the�lighter.
Today from Phish.com comes dates for 10 shows in June.
They will be in�Camden June 7, a Sunday, which is great for the lot scene (yeah) but�bad for work the next day (boo).
Here are the dates:
06/04 - Nikon at Jones Beach Theater - Wantagh, NY
06/05 - Nikon at Jones Beach Theater - Wantagh, NY
06/06 - Comcast Center - Mansfield, MA
06/07 - Susquehanna Bank Center - Camden, NJ
06/09 - Asheville Civic Center - Asheville, NC
06/16 - Fox Theatre - St. Louis, MO
06/18 - Post Gazette Pavilion - Burgettstown, PA
06/19 - Verizon Wireless Music Center - Noblesville, IN
06/20 - Alpine Valley - East Troy, WI
06/21 - Alpine Valley - East Troy, WI
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| Berkley Books, 289 pp., $15 |
At 20, he played at New York City's Lincoln Center.
At 21, he found himself at the psychiatric emergency room of Bellevue Hospital, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
"The pain was never greater than when you heard another student playing better than you thought possible. No matter how good you were, someone was better."
Here lies the psyche of a Juilliard student stressed out enough without the compounding factor of being black in a sea of over-privileged white students during the Civil Rights era, attending the most prestigious music conservatory school in the country on borrowed scholarship money requiring the maintenance of an A-B average.
But it's the gift — the ability to pick up any instrument with the grace of a
well-seasoned musician — coupled with the possibility of becoming the next Beethoven, the next Mozart, Brahms or Dvorak, which drove the promising Nathaniel Ayers to the Juilliard School of Music. It also drove him to an inevitable mental breakdown.
We meet a much-older Nathaniel on a busy downtown Los Angeles street corner serenading passers-by. The aged musician catches the eye of LA Times columnist Steve Lopez with his above-par rendition of Beethoven and shopping cart filled with remnants of his life — buckets and instruments, ragged and soiled clothing and drum sticks (to fend off rats while sleeping on the street at night).
Ayers lives on Skid Row, the notoriously dangerous LA strip home to rampant drug addiction, prostitution, mental illness, violence and every sad story in between.
The Soloist documents the relationship between the writer and the ex-Juilliard student via Lopez's weekly newspaper columns. Through these meetings, we begin to see first-hand the issues of mental illness in America and the lack of coverage and medical attention for those who suffer. All too often, the mentally ill fall through the cracks in the health system, forcing them to live alone in little worlds full of big paranoia.
All too often, the mentally ill fall through the cracks in the health system, forcing them to live alone in little worlds full of big paranoia. Yes, all too often, and no, not the majority. Most of us do find treatment. "The" mentally ill, the stereotype with which we have become enamoured, which entertaines us, is just that, stereotype. Those "cracks" you are claiming? They are abysses trapping far too many. And no, we have not "begun to see." Harold A.Maio khmaio@earthlink.net
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| myspace.com/sexpianoband |
Every Monday Tuesday this week (our bad), The Showdown tells you who to see and where to see 'em.
Tuesday: Are you a fan of Dubliners and/or indie folk epiphanies? We thought so. Check out the Guggenheim Grotto. Upstairs at World Café Live. Doors at 9 p.m., tickets are $0 (aka FREE!)
Wednesday: One of Ira Glass' favorite bands in high school plays the World Café Live (downstairs this time). Camper Van Beethoven survived the '80s, lineup and musical integrity intact. Doors at 9 p.m., tickets are $25-$35.
Thursday: Philly natives Sex Piano churn out dreamy grindcore ballads. Plus their name is really fun to say out loud. Try it, you'll see what we mean. At The Fire. With Braxton Parker, Pow Wow! & Elizabeth Harper & the Matinee. Doors at 9 p.m., tickets are $7.
Friday: The Hold Steady's mustachioed Franz Nicolay is serving up a plate of melodrama in support of the soon-to-be-released Major General. With Spoonboy. At the First Unitarian Chapel. Doors at 8 p.m., tickets are $8.
Saturday: Fishtown's hottest new hangout goes METAL. Thank you! Skeletonwitch with Cannabis Corpse (no, not Cannibal) and Javelina. At Kung Fu Necktie. Doors at 6:30 p.m., tickets are $10.
Sunday: Mo' Mozart? No problem. Take a hiatus from SymphonyCast and give your radio a mini vacay. Violinist Korbinian Altenberger + the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia = a classy way to end the week. At the Perelman Theater @ the Kimmel. Doors at 7:30 p.m., tickets are $24-$81.
From the current issue of Magnet.
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| Click the pic to go to scharpingandwurster.com, where it's actually readable. |
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Much love to Magnet |
RELATED: Mawky Ramone showed up at one of Yo La Tengo's star-studded Hannukah shows!
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