Music
Pro Kahn
Save for the occasional overly-contrived pop star, it wasn’t too long ago when cool chicks had a hard time asserting their dominance in a sea of musical testosterone.
Turning Up the heat
Now We Can See, The Thermals’ long-anticipated follow-up to their 2006 album, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, delivers contemplative and often somber lyrics packaged sweetly in methodically structured pop-punk sing-a-longs.
Guilty Pleasure: Ashlee Simpson, "Autobiography" (2004)
As the old saying goes, there are four things that every true musician needs: a former member of 98 Degrees as a brother-in-law, lip service from Ryan Cabrera, a very, very loving father and a reality show.
Nap Time
Street: What brings you to Philadelphia? Had you known anything about Penn? Nappy Roots: I don’t know the college.
No Doubt, "Tragic Kingdom" (1995)
“Only 16?” As if, Gwen. I was only eight when I first tuned into MTV’s Top 10 Countdown to watch the “Just a Girl” video, pulling the bottom of my t-shirt through the neck hole and sporting a hand-drawn dot in the center of my forehead. Sure, she was just a girl.
Pure Blitz
It’s Blitz!, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ first full-length album in three years, delivers listeners the band’s brand new sound — one that trades meaty guitar riffs and guttural yelps for a synthesizer and disco backbeats.
Can you (Pan)handle This?
Flo Rida’s latest release, R.O.O.T.S, rides the popular flow of his debut album, 2008's Mail on Sunday, by essentially remaking it and streamlining his schema for success.
Living Thingle
With Seaside Rock (2008), Peter Bjorn and John seemed to experience the writer’s block that inspired the title of their much-loved first album.
Look Who’s Talking
Smaller than a stick of gum and serving the dual function of tie-clip and 4GB mp3 player, Apple’s new talking iPod Shuffle ($79) is both elegant and understated.
Revelation at the Rotunda
Last Sunday at the Rotunda, the ghosts were out — and they were playing with distortion pedals and tape machines.
The Best Songs For Living the Life
Best Song for Eating Alone in Commons Backstreet Boys, “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely” So you’re still on the Penn Dining plan and it’s getting harder to give out those Moocher Meals.
An Horse of a Different Color
If you’re confused by An Horse’s non-traditional use of the article you’re not alone. One can only assume that this is how drum and guitar duo Kate Cooper and Damon Cox discuss their equine escorts in thick Australian accents when they’re throwing shrimp on the barbie back in their hometown of Brisbane.
KRFT SNGLS
Fist of God, the second LP from punk bassist-turned-electro house DJ Jesse F. Keeler and cohort Al-P, is an attempt at creating a cohesive dance record.
Guilty Pleasure: Destiny's Child, "The Writings on the Wall" (1999)
This album’s all about “good for nothing types of brothers” — you know, guys who don’t pay their girls’ bills, say their names or know when to stop paging them.
Get Ur Philly Phreak On
Making Time No write up of dance nights in Philadelphia would be complete without a mention of Making Time, the behemoth that arguably birthed this burgeoning scene.
Mirah, Mirah on the Wall
This is not the Mirah who innocently devoted an album’s worth of songs to a number of different insects, nor is it the Mirah who gave lyrical love advice through the poppy C’mon Miracle. With (a)spera’s return to Spanish-influenced guitar plucking, addressing listeners directly and thinly veiled moralizing politics, comes the striking of a different note: gloom.
Cyc-ology
There’s an important but subtle difference between burning love and getting burned. Neko Case explores the effects of toggling that particular four letter word in and out of the equation on her latest album, Middle Cyclone. More aggressive and revealing than her previous solo release, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006), and more straightforward than her New Pornographers material, the flame-haired indie/dixie diva is at her songwriting best.
We’re So Moving On (yeah-ee yeah)
Five years ago, the music gods smiled on Kelly Clarkson and the American public’s desire for a more palatable Alanis found its apotheosis in an awesome little song about dumping your loser boyfriend.
Campus Cred: Off the Beat
Street: Of all the OTB-wannabes on campus, why did you make the cut? Maggie Nyce: I have a nose ring.
