DJ Broken Window Fri Dec 20 Delta Café How many times have you thrown Stacey Q.’s “Two of Hearts” on the turntable, only to have the party erupt into a den of hellfire and booty? How about EVERY time you throw on “Two of Hearts” at a party. Because of stuff like plunderphonics (and 9/11!), […]
Julianne Shepherd
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There’s Only One Cex
Your Pops is Pissed You Ain’t Him
Cex Thurs Dec 12 Meow Meow If you want to compare Cex’s flow to another rapper’s, he most resembles a pre-Bel Air Fresh Prince. And when you’re a 20-year-old white kid who boasts a cadence near identical to the one in “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” it takes a lot of balls to declare yourself “the […]
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The Lady with the Cigarette
Marianne Faithfull: Still Amazing
Marianne Faithfull Thurs Dec 5 Aladdin Theater Jarvis Cocker wrote a song for Marianne on her newest record, Kissin Time, called “Sliding Through Life on Charm,” which was based on her autobiography. Set against a twinkling backdrop of disco beats and rock guitar courtesy of Cocker’s regular band, Pulp, the lyrics have her essentially reflecting […]
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Pretty Suicide
Glass Candy Rock Sexy
Glass Candy & the Shattered Theatre Fri Dec 6 Blackbird A while ago, during one of Portland trio Glass Candy’s rare-ish local shows, one fan hollered, “Do you know how sexy you are?” Lead singer Ida No answered matter-of-factly, “No. Why don’t you tell me how sexy I am?” The audience member refrained that night, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Greatest Actress on Earth
Is Parker Posey, DUH!
Personal Velocity dir. Miller Opens Nov 29 Various Theaters Like most people, I believe Parker Posey to be the greatest actress of our time. I also believe that, in general, she plays her parts the same in every movie: the bitchy tour de force who oozes sarcasm with more brilliant subtlety than anyone else alive. […]
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Born Free
Henry Kissinger Can Do Whatever He Wants!
The Trials of Henry Kissinger dir. Gibney & Jarecki Opens Fri Nov 29 Cinema 21 Thanks to a lesson taught by our pappy, George W. Bush, we have learned in recent times that the United States must not be held accountable to the same standards as the rest of the world–especially when said standards, laws, […]
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From the Gut
Desert City Soundtrack is Not Depressed
Desert City Soundtrack Fri Nov 29 Blackbird There are four of them now, and even individually, they are très fucking talented. There’s Cory Gray, the screaming pianist, whose dark-hearted melodies pulse humidly. There’s Mike Casanvo, the bassist who lays down the trembling low end. There’s Caitlin Love, the perpetually awesome drummer who pounds out complicated […]
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WHIPPER WHIP
Prince Whipper Whip is my favorite MC of all the Fantastic 5–his rhymes are delivered with an unmatchable, personable yet tight style. You can see him battling the Cold Crush in Wild Style, and he still sounds good on the mic today. He’s got tracks on the upcoming soundtracks to Paid in Full and Latin […]
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The True School
Hiphop’s Pioneers and the Wild Style of Books
Two days after Jam Master Jay was shot and killed in his Queens studio, I was on the L Train to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, heading to the release party for a book on the origins of hiphop, and wondering how the mood of the event would be altered in light of his murder. Jam Master Jay […]
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GRANDMASTER CAZ
Grandmaster Caz, or C-A-S-A-N-O-V-A F-L-Y, is immortalized in the Sugar Hill Gang’s version of “Rapper’s Delight”–a rap he wrote, but never got credit for. (Later, Jay-Z, of all people, avenged Caz with a lyric in “Izzo”: “Label owners hate me I’m raising the status quo up/ I’m overcharging niggas for what they did to the […]
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WANDA DEE + ERIC FLOYD
Wanda Dee was arguably the first female DJ ever, and the first female inductee into Afrika Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation. She went on to be the diva voice of techno superstars The KLF, but not before she was the first solo female MC to release two consecutive platinum singles (“The Goddess” and “To the Bone” in […]
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Hybrid Rock
Bonfire Madigan’s Punky Cello
Bonfire Madigan Sat Nov 16 Meow Meow From Liliput to The Ex to Amber Asylum to The Intima, bands placing a classical, stringed instrument in a punk context yields undeniably compelling results. The weeping sound of a violin or cello collapsing against dangerously propulsive, distorted guitars and drums just somehow lends more weight to music. […]