Bruce Springsteen To Play Barack Obama Rally Saturday

Yes, yes! Okay! I know I’m derelict on this one! It is true: Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen is playing a Barack Obama benefit this Saturday on the Parkway. (By the way, thanks, Phawker, your post on this gave me a seizure.)

Here’s the conversation I had where I heard about this, probably a lot similar to yours.

Springsteen is playing the Parkway on Saturday!
Me: Oh, neat!
It’s a benefit for Obama!
Me: Oh, well, that’s cool, too, I guess.
It’s an acoustic show!
Me: Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!

So, yes, Bruce will play the Parkway to help Barack Obama, and if he plays “Atlantic City” the whole crowd will cheer when he goes, “Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night…” “Whoo! Say our city’s name again!” they’ll shout. And then a few weeks later they’ll vote for Obama and he’ll win the presidency. “Whoo! Good thing he never got caught with blow!” they’ll say, some of them will, to themselves at least.

Anyway, look: You can get tickets by volunteering to register voters. While Philadelphia will come in somewhere north of 80% for Obama, the rest of the state (besides Pittsburgh and the good colleges) hates blacks, Democrats and cokeheads. So there’s a bit of an uphill battle here for ol’ McHopey, and the only way for him to have a chance is for Bruce Springsteen to play a show for him.

The Boss for Ambassador of ROCK! Or at least to New Jersey.

Super Huge Pop Star Censored By Government

Hey, everybody, Will Bunch has our newest thing to boycott: It’s Star 104.5! Or, rather, Alice 104.5. Wait. Maybe it’s the station that simulcast WJJZ 106.1. Oh, wait, Rumba 104.5?

Wait, that’s right, I actually wrote about this before. (In the previous paragraph, I forgot Sunny 104.5, but that was in my article.) Anyway, Bunch says the station, now on an alt-rock format, was told by its owner not to play the new Bruce Springsteen song!

Yay! The new one that sounds just like “867-5309/Jenny”? Are they maybe worried about being sued by Tommy Tutone? Oh, no, wait, it’s his new track “Magic” which the always-reliable Fox News says Clear Channel has ordered its stations not to play.

Like Springsteen, these “older” artists have been relegated to something called Triple A format stations — i.e. either college radio or small artsy stations such as WFUV in the Bronx, N.Y., which are immune from the Clear Channel virus of pre-programming and where the number of plays per song is a fraction of what it is on commercial radio.

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Born To Steal And Run

In case you haven’t noticed, it seems like every other week now an indie band with a Myspace page has its equipment and/or van stolen in Philly.

Well the boys over at Badminton Stamps have noticed, and they’re taking bets like they’re Rick Tocchet.

Here’s some of the odds and explanations:

4/23, Cold War Kids, 10-1: Hmm…a young left coast band playing at The Fire. Give these guys a van (and then steal it), and they’re Film School.

4/27, Ghostface Killah, 25-1: Philly steps up its game, makes a trunk of those 24 karat dolls disappear from the TLA lot.

5/24, Film School, 7-2: Who says lightning can’t strike twice? The ultimate hard-luck story gets mainstream coverage, briefly distracts the city from Phillies’ 12-36 record.

6/11, Cat Power, 100-1: Those aren’t the odds of a theft. They’re the odds that the show doesn’t get cancelled.

That’s nice and all, but I think Philly’s criminals are going to start looking bigger. They’ve feasted on the likes of Film School and Arab Strap. You know who’s in town June 20? The Boss. And since Springsteen’s playing in The Town That Law Forgot (Camden), something tells me the highway’s going to be filled with broken heroes and a lot of stolen gear.

Rosie Thomas’ Equipment Stolen In Philly [Her Jazz]
Hail To The Thief [Badminton Stamps]
Archives: Rick Tocchet