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Archive: July, 2011
The Marvelous! Music isn't your average music store. Since 2003, the owners have combined their vinyl collection of over 10,000 titles with other collectibles. At one time the store carried comic books, but today they have room for turntables, speakers, guitars and other accessories as well as a space to host performances. Their knowledgeable staff is friendly, their layout is easy to follow and they have great rare stuff on the walls.
The showroom is stocked with a solid selection of classic rock LPs, new releases, jazz records and soundtracks, but it's their hip-hop collection that really stands out. It’s the most expansive assortment I’ve ever seen. Rap fans are sure to find a gem. They have singles as old as Grandmaster Flash’s Freedom, albums as rare as Pete Rock’s Petestrumentals and mint-condition staples like Illmatic and Ready to Die for only $20. This collection alone is worth a visit to the store, but there are plenty of other draws.
Lining the walls is an impressive assortmant of rare records, including a few original Beatles presses, and all kinds of quirky used wax for cheap. They have most genres vinyl fans are interested in, as well as childrens' albums, recorded speeches and even workout LPs. Although their instrument selection isn’t very large, they offer skilled repair and maintenance as well as workshops on how to fix gear yourself and their performance space is one of the most unique in University City.
For a good introduction to this University City gem, stop by next week when they host a concert by bluesy Brooklyn indie rock group Eleven Twenty-Nine.
Thu., July 7, 9:30 p.m., $5, with Willie Lane, The Marvelous! Music, 208 S. 40th St., 215-386-6110, myspace.com/themarvelousmusic.
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View galleryPrevious AthFests may have offered a wider variety of bands at a great number of venues, but this year’s treats were legion: established Athens, Ga., scenesters coming into their prime, up-and-comers honoring the DIY spirit of their parents’ bands, and veterans having a blast with their past. Here are 10 highlights from the festival, which ran from June 23 to 26:
Buxton: Athens bands took a back seat to Texans at the 40 Watt Club’s kickoff party. Buxton, out of Houston, played a set of introspective and intense alt-country tunes, with shades of Conor Oberst and Rock Plaza Central. A solid start to the weekend.
Lera Lynn: Athens singer-songwriter Lera Lynn has a soulful voice, a lovestruck sensibility and the moxie to cover Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In an Aeroplane over the Sea,” but the real show during her mainstage set was in the sky. At one point, most of the photographers in the pit had their cameras trained on the ominous clouds, and then Lynn’s set ended abruptly when lightning hit a nearby bar, raining down bricks.
Green Thrift Grocery: Costume-clad weirdos are always welcome in Athens. Playing the dark Go Bar as the sun disappeared, Chloe Tewksbury and crew carried on a town tradition of moving asses with their endearingly oddball songs about space and shopping. It’s in their DNA: Bassist Hana Hay’s parents — Vanessa Briscoe-Hay of Pylon and Bob Hay of The Squalls — were among the first on the scene in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
Major Love Event: Rebecca Van Damm and C.K. Koch’s piano-and-drums ballads aren’t quite a major event, but their low-key set at Little Kings was likable enough.
Hope for Agoldensummer: Little Kings’ courtyard is a swell place to enjoy bands, booze and a late-evening breeze. But rain chased Hope for Agoldensummer inside, where the bar chatter was too loud and the crowd to large for Claire and Page Campbell to work their magic. Instead, they covered Little Richard and Aaliyah, and turned the end of the set over to their parents, Ann and Jimmy, who stole the show with a suite of sweetheart duets.
Venice Is Sinking: Headlining the Melting Point’s Friday-night showcase, Venice Is Sinking provided a gorgeous, gentle end to a long day of music. Daniel Lawson and Karolyn Troupe channeled Galaxie 500 on a cover of “Tugboat” and Leonard Cohen on their original “Falls City,” and they soared with “Bardstown Road.”
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies: Brant Slay and Ben Reynolds recently revived Chickasaw Mudd Puppies after 20 years of inactivity, but there’s still nothin’ like ‘em. The mainstage headliners made a swampy, unholy racket with their back-porch blues. Slay sat on his rocking chair, alternately playing bullhorn and mouth harp while stomping his stomp board and, on “Jambalaya,” rocking a tricked-out washboard. Pure sweaty fun.
Guadalcanal Diary: Introducing “Pau Pau,” Guadalcanal Diary frontman Murray Attaway noted that it was the only song in the set written after 1989. Who cared? (Other than a couple of metalhead teens who stood sour-faced in the front row and left early.) The show was billed as a celebration of the jangle-rock group’s 30th anniversary, and what a sweaty celebration it was, with exuberant renditions of “I See Moe,” “Whiskey Talk” and “… Vista.” Genius move: Dropping a spirited cover of Pylon’s “Cool” into the middle of “Kumbayah.”
Dreamboat: On first glance, you might confuse them with Hope for Agoldensummer, but there’s more to Dreamboat than gorgeous, folky harmonizing from the Campbell sisters. (They’re everywhere!) Page takes the lead on a passel of romantic songs she’s written with Dan Donahue of Great Lakes, with the equally ubiquitous John Fernandes on violin and a posse of women playing enchanting rhythms. The crowd at the muggy Flicker Theatre was rapt.
Rachel Farley Band: Will Rachel Farley’s brand of grit ’n’ gloss change your world? No. But Southern rock done right will make you happy you’re here. Damn straight.
Christopher Seybert dishes on the week's best and worst moments in daytime talk.
From Doctor Ken to Hollywood’s Top Comedian
After spending all that money and time on college, you'd hope that it'd be the bridge between you and your dream job. Especially if college for you included four years of undergrad, four years of med school and three years of residency. But sometimes you realize that you have a different dream, as was the case with the hysterical comedic actor Ken Jeong.
Ken, who has been in Knocked Up, The Hangover, The Hangover Part II and most recently Transformers: Dark of the Moon danced onto Live! with Regis and Kelly Wednesday and talked about his unconventional rise to fame. He went from being a successful doctor to doing improv in L.A., where he talked about some of his doctor duties — like the hilarity of prostate exams — as a part of his act. And now, even after a stretch of hit films, he still has his medical license. But the advantage of being an actor over a doctor is that he can do it nude (hence his famous Hangover appearance)!
Devoted poet/avid concert-goer/nerd-grrrl extraordinaire Jane Cassady's weekly horoscopes run in this space every Friday morning.
Cancer (June 22-July 23): Say Please (Monsters of Folk): (Happy happy birthday to one of my very very favorite poetry friends in the entire universe, Daniel McGinn!) 1. You are the very best person ever and 2. The universe is big, waiting and overflowing with shiny things, bright frosted cookies, and dazzling handmade arts and crafts. All you ever have to do is ask.
Leo (July 24-Aug. 23): Home (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes): “Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie, chocolate candy, Jesus Christ, there ain’t nothin’ please me more than you.” Run around, snuggle, snooze, sing and hold hands on the beach with your best best friend in the whole wide world.
Virgo (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): Your Love is My Drug (Ke$ha): “So, I’ve got a question. Do you want to have a slumber party in my basement? Do I make your heart beat like an 808 drum?” Should you start to slouch towards timidity this summer, I want you to stop and think, “What would Ke$ha do?”
Libra (Sept. 24-Oct. 21): Doll Parts (Hole): You ARE the grrrl with the most cake, the gentleman with the most pudding, the kid with the most candy, the Agent Cooper with the most cherry pie. Things are just getting stickier and stickier.
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