|
|
|
Archive: December, 2011
Our Top 21 Albums issue comes out Dec. 22, but that doesn’t come close to telling you what 2011 sounded like. To help find the devil in the details, we’ve asked City Paper’s critics, friends and family to name some of their favorite songs — be they secret gems on terrible albums, sleeper tracks you missed, huge pop songs that need defending, or just plain good songs everybody already knows and loves.
It’s probably been a while since you’ve thought about G. Love but this cover of the old blues classic is really worth a listen. Here he teams up with the Avett Brothers for a very different sound and style than we're used to from G. This lyrics evoke images of a wounded man processing signs of his own demise. The rest of the album, also called Fixin’ To Die, is similarly soulful and, at times, a bit country.
Reporter Meg Augustin takes you inside some of Philly's most fab dwellings to showcase our city's unique grasp on design and architecture.
Design-happy friends can be hard to shop for. They are picky with their styles and fads, and are often in-the-know on cool items before the rest of the world has even caught a glimpse. Luckily, The Great Indoors has pieced together a foolproof list of inexpensive and creative finds for all types of décor and design fiends. And it’s all available locally, making it doubly easy to shop for the design snobs on your list.
[ for the green thumb ]
For the person on your list looking to liven up their city digs, a decorative plant is the perfect bit of décor. Try this terrarium from Terrain and add a plant for more decorative appeal. $46, 914 Baltimore Pike, Glen Mills, shopterrain.com.
[ for the eclectics ]
Grab something unique and meaningful from a thrift store like Uhuru (1220 Spruce St., 215-546-9616), Made You Look (2601 Pennsylvania Ave., 215-235-2386) or the Germantown Estate Warehouse (48 W. Queen Lane, 215-870-5028). Or stop by your local bookstore for a vintage illustration book that suits your friend’s tastes. Add a few frames and wrap up some creative décor.
View gallery
The Mermaid Playwright Theater is one of the many monthly activities that take place “high atop Mt. Airy” as they used to say — or is it at the foot of Chestnut Hill? Either way this historic tavern just beyond the trolley loop at Cresheim and Germantown hosts a surprising number of recurring cultural events like song swaps, bluegrass jams and on the third Tuesdays the MPT gathers to render a one act play by a local playwright; direction and acting local as well. For the second year the group takes up the challenge of making an ancient tradition entertaining today.
The tradition in question comes over from Ireland and the UK, dating back through the mists of time, popularly created and performed holiday skits have been a staple of the season. There is always a mixture of contemporary characters, some to be cheered, others to be booed, the sun fades and is revived. You get the picture, the cycle of the year and life writ large and comical. Summoning the Sun, as this evening’s entertainment is titled, is based on the only known mummer’s play preserved in Kentucky, adapted by John Krumm. He tells us that it was performed for a school teacher in 1930 who transcribed the show, one the community said hadn’t been trotted out for 30 years prior. Krumm himself used to lead a merry band of mummers in holiday hijinks for almost a decade, “we would invade people’s homes and public spaces...” he recalls almost wistfully of his energetic youth and the loveable foolishness that ensued. As the musical director for the production, Krumm works wonders with just guitar and bass and nine enthusiastic voices. Plus yours, as you will often be encouraged to be part of the entertainment, as is the tradition.
Cassandra Morabito, the show’s producer, explains that the evening is really a variety show, singing and dancing, poetry and prose. Prior to the traditional farce is a small play with lots of audience participation: caroling, including the Twelve Days done YMCA style and a chance to learn to dance the Lambeth Walk along with the players. If you are in the mood for sentimental Christmas gatherings, lots of love and goodwill, this should get you there. Stand by, in the second half, for a reading of the entire Longfellow poem in all its antiwar ardor, one that is usually presented in a shortened, much cheerier carol as “I Heard the Bells.”
The second annual Winter Solstice Celebration, Summoning The Sun, a evening of singing, music, dance and mummery. Starts tonight. Runs Dec. 12, 13 and 14; dinner at 6 p.m., show at 7:30; $20 advance, Mermaid Inn, 7673 Winston Rd. E-mail John Cameron at hotfeat@verizon.net to reserve your seat. More info at themermaidinn.net.
Sad to hear that Beth Case of She-Haw passed away. Back in the ’90s, Case, Amy Pickard and a friends used to put on some rollicking good shows, a mix of Appalachian folk, country charm and footstomping rock. And the banter between best buds Case and Pickard was second to none. First time I remember hearing about them was when Brian Howard wrote about their show at a Whole foods back in ’98:
Their most striking number is the Stan Jones-penned "Ghost Riders In The Sky": Pickard sings the eerie lead over Case's dust-blown ghost howls.
"We definitely have a rapport…" says Pickard.
"An easiness…" interrupts Case.
"It's a sisterly thing," continues Pickard. "We like to keep it open, keep it fun. We bicker on stage, but we always kiss after the show… not a French kiss or anything, though."
Today, Joey Sweeney at Philebrity helped put She-Haw into context, recalling Philadelphia's alt-country past:
And in addition to having a fan base that stretched both outside their chosen genre and all the way to the UK, She-Haw also bore the (all-too) unique distinction of being a female act in a scene dominated almost entirely by dudes in flannel shirts, and handled it with class, distinction and aplomb.
It's true. She-Haw had a reunion show last year, which I believe turned out to be their last show. All my love to Amy and the extended She-Haw family.
Following a sold-out show at Helium Comedy Club, Gary Gulman of Last Comic Standing fame finds himself somewhere between the in-your-face crudeness of Chris Rock and the “kids say the darndest things” innocence of Bill Cosby. And, to my own surprise, that isn’t necessarily such a bad thing.
Gulman’s hourlong act was a hodgepodge of jokes ranging from the comedic absurdities of today’s economic climate (“Everything on the bottom rack of the cart is free,” says Gulman) to explaining why Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz is “a bitch.”
Yet what made Gulman’s act so entertaining was not the handful of scurrilous quips thrown out, but the refreshing stray from the norm by not relying on cliché lines about sex or racial boundaries to pluck laughs from the audience. Glancing back at the crowd, most seemed more than content wiping away tears from laughing at jokes about Blockbuster being “filth” or, my personal favorite, an all-too-true rant about the wonders of shopping malls.
CP music critic Brian Wilensky on the week's sure-bet live acts.
Monday: Decoder’s screaming then cutesy and back to screaming vocals make for the perfect soundtrack to a hardcore metal guy’s sissy brother’s dreams. 6 p.m., with Us, From Outside, In Other Words, At Daybreak, Every Minute Can Kill, Without Words, Beyond Black Skies & The Sea Above Us, UACA Hall, 847 N. Franklin St., 856-430-3120.
Tuesday: Sharif Sehnaoui’s minimalist guitar playing is more of an aural painting that eerily,yet softly fills the ears. He’s all improvisational and every bit experimental. Coming from Beirut, he’s Middle Eastern/classically influenced and doesn’t just strum his acoustic strings. He plays them percussively with some sort of skinny metal prod. 7:30 p.m., $6, with Jack Wright, Andrew Drury Trio & Feeler Gauge, Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Ave., 215-426-2685.
Wednesday: Droning out of Fishtown, Harsh Vibes hammers ultra fuzzed-out, psych rock with tooth grinding energy. If The Perfect Prescription were to be played in the background while the members of Black Sabbath were being conceived, the resulting offspring may have come out equally coarse. 9 p.m., $7, with Fort Wilson Riot, Cheap Dinosaurs & Gypsy Death and You, The Fire, 412 W. Girard Ave., 267-671-9298.
Man Cave is a testosterone-laden Monday feature that highlights the weekend haps of a pop culture-loving Philly dude.
I rented Our Idiot Brother from one of those pharmacy Red Box DVD kiosks. Paul Rudd plays a Lebowski-esque family man, beloved to his sisters, mom and nephew. You can check out our review but I'd like to discuss the ensemble cast of hotties that populate the celluloid.
Zooey Dechanell: Enchanting as ever, the banged brunette plays a lesbian/sometimes bisexual who 
frequents spoken-word open mics. Perpetually rocking the hipster stewardess vibe, Zoey manages to refrain from singing in this one (which is neither here nor there, but I thought you'd like to know in case it comes up at quizzo).
Emily Banks: Blondie Magee fits in with her dark-haired family members by shelving her golden locks for a brunette wig. Normally, one of the most unilaterally smoking chicks in Hollywood, her unique character blend of phoniness and bitchiness in this flick earns her a rare (and temporary) banishment from my mental brothel.
Emily Mortimer: The intriguing beauty from Lars & The Real Girl plays the sheepish wife, unsure as to how to earn her distant hubby's affections, and desperate to be a good mom. Her befuddlement and lack of confidence fluctuates between off-putting and charming.
Our Top 21 Albums issue comes out Dec. 22, but that doesn’t come close to telling you what 2011 sounded like. To help find the devil in the details, we’ve asked City Paper’s critics, friends and family to name some of their favorite songs — be they secret gems on terrible albums, sleeper tracks you missed, huge pop songs that need defending, or just plain good songs everybody already knows and loves.
This song embodies what the entire album, Happeners, is about. Gang vocals, big hooks, punk energy, great lyrics and live guitar sounds. They played a show back in August at Teri’s Diner in the Italian Market in front of me and about 22 other people. They were, dare I say, epic. It reminded me of basement shows and everything I love about music. Kind of amazed that half of the band Anti-Flag could form a band that’s five times as good and sounds nothing like them. As a record, this is Number 1 on the year.
Our Top 21 Albums issue comes out Dec. 22, but that doesn’t come close to telling you what 2011 sounded like. To help find the devil in the details, we’ve asked City Paper’s critics, friends and family to name some of their favorite songs — be they secret gems on terrible albums, sleeper tracks you missed, huge pop songs that need defending, or just plain good songs everybody already knows and loves.
This one falls under the “sleeper” category. Rip Van Winkle sleep. The song has been recorded for better than a decade.
Back story: For 20+ years Gene Shay has honored me by asking for my service on a singer/songwriter critique at the annual International Folk Alliance Conference. People come from all over the world asking for seasoned ears to pick apart their songs. Some are amazing, others not so much. Back in Philly late one winter night I was tormenting Jay Ansill on Facebook. Up popped another commenter, Jack Mctamney, taking my side and being generally funny. Anybody who is a friend of Fats Waller (part of the discussion at the time) is a friend of mine I figured, so we friended. Over the months we exchanged youtubes, bons mots and made each other laugh, a lot.
Fast forward to Labor Day. Jack posted a video of a song he recorded 10 (!) years ago, part of a CD of originals, Halfway to NowHere, that never got much attention. I was knocked flat by “Mr. Ford.” While it was written about the other Great Depression it certainly is timely now. If it’s not you struggling to get enough hours at work you certainly have someone in your circle who had done everything right and is willing to continue to do so, if they can just catch a break.
Betty Wright has new a CD called The Movie. She made it with The Roots, and Snoop and Lil Wayne are featured, but this isn’t a hip-hop record. It’s a Betty Wright album through and through. In fact, on the first track, she sets the tone by praising the soul greats and criticizing the hip-hop generation’s dependency on samples. On “Old Songs,” she sings:
“When you’re thirty-five or forty / And you’re chilling with your shorty / What you gon’ listen to? / What you gon’ listen to / If you ain’t making nothing new”
In a sense, this was her chance to school younguns on game, and she took it. She continues on “Old Songs” by singing:
“You ain’t even writing one strong song / You ain’t even writing nothing to hold on.”
Wright can say what she wants about songwriting. She hasn’t just written strong songs, she’s written strong classics. But after receiving decades of royalty checks from hip-hop artists and putting out one of the most sample-ready records of 2011, does she really think it’s time for young folk to do something different?
For an old-school-soul songstress like Ms. Wright, putting out tracks that scream “sample me!” is good business. On The Movie she caters to her audience by invoking the work of soul and R&B greats. And she even seems to do some sampling of her on The Movie's “Baby Come Back” with Lenny Williams. The backgrounds vocals sound like strings on the intro to Isaac Hayes’ “Walk On By.”
- Activism
- Arts
- Arts Events
- Books
- Dance
- First Person Fest
- Last Chance
- Museum
- On the Fringe
- Philly Artists
- The Curator
- Theater
- Visual Art
- Arts News
- Artist Profile
- Arts Preview
- Street Art
- Been There, Done That
- Big Ups
- Comedy
- LOL With It
- Stand-up
- Critical Mass
- DVD
- Events
- Friday Fill-in
- Ice Cubes
- In Memoriam
- Interview
- Just Do It
- Just Opened
- Kaleidoscopic
- LGBTQ
- Art Phag
- Mailbag
- Movies
- Film Fest
- Movie Review
- On set
- Scenester
- screening
- trailer!
- Music
- 10 Track Mind
- Album
- Album Review
- Concert Review
- DJs
- Local Support
- Now Hear This
- One Track Mind
- Philly Bands
- Show
- Somebody Else Was There
- Song
- The Showdown
- concert photos
- jazz
- DJ Nights Blogged
- Night Watch
- Now See This
- Poetic License
- Printed Matter
- Radio
- Shopping
- Coveted
- Fashion
- What We Heart
- TV
- 24
- Idol Hands
- Mad Men
- ProjRun
- True Blood
- Useless Lost Recaps
- Couch Potato
- Shore Trash
- Turned ONN
- TopMod
- Video Games
- Free Online Game
- PSP
- PlayStation 2
- The 1-Upper
- Wii
- Web Junk
- CAGE MATCH
- Free Online Toy
- Weekend Omnibus
- Win
