Phosphorescent | Photo by John Vettese
Phosphorescent (real name Matthew Houck) appeared on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night, backed by a small choir, string section and of course members of The Roots. He performed “Song for Zula” off of his latest LP Muchacho. Phosphorescent will be at the XPoNential Music Festival this summer, happening July 26-28 at Wiggins Park and the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ. Watch the clip below.
Photo by Bryan Sheffield
This must have been something like a dream come true. Dave Hartley, bassist for The War on Drugs and frontman for Nightlands, joined his keyboard-playing WoD compatriot Robbie Bennett to sit with John Cale‘s backing band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They played a song from Cale’s recent LP Shifty Adventures in the Nookie Wood, “I Wanna Talk 2 U” (which was not written by Prince, far as we can tell), and they dusted off the Velvet Underground classic “Venus in Furs.” Watch “Venus” below, see “I Wanna Talk To U” here. Nightlands is releasing its sophomore album Oak Island this month, and celebrating with a show at Kung Fu Necktie on Saturday, January 26. Tickets and information on it can be found at the WXPN concert calendar.
As Pitchfork‘s Ryan Dombal noted in a post earlier this morning, the misogynist swipe Questlove and The Roots took at Michele Bachmann last week—by playing Fishbone’s “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” during her appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon—wasn’t received by everyone as the harmless joke the band intended. In fact, many people (and not just those in Bachmann’s camp, mind you) found the sexist act downright offensive. Imagine that!
During their tenure as house band for “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon”, the Roots– led by drummer and musical mastermind Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson– have taken many opportunities to poke fun or pay tribute to guests by choosing punny, sly, or referential walk-on music. Oftentimes, these mini-gags double as the best punchlines of the night.
But many thought they went too far with their pick for Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann last week: Fishbone’s 1985 track ”Lyin’ Ass Bitch”. A minor political firestorm followed, with the likes of Bill O’Reilly as well as many women’s groups voicing their disapproval. Bachmann herself called the incident sexist, and said it “wouldn’t be tolerated if it was Michelle Obama and shouldn’t be tolerated for a conservative woman, either.”
From the interview:
Pitchfork: Do you regret playing that walk-on music for Michele Bachmann?
?uestlove: It wasn’t like a chess move where you have to think 12 steps ahead; you’re just, like, “Fuck, all right, I’m gonna do it,” in a kamikaze-type way. And I really didn’t think about how it could be perceived as a misogynist swipe– it didn’t hit me until my [Twitter] timeline started showing up that it was seen that way. I was like, “Fuck, I forgot ‘bitch’ is actually in the title.”
It deeply offended a lot of women’s groups and non-Bachmann supporters, and for that I’m deeply sorry. I’m not parading like I’m the poster boy for the feminist movement, but those who truly know me know that that’s not me. I was really just going with her whole revisionist history angle, I wasn’t calling it out on her being a woman.
Whether Questlove’s statement will be taken as a sincere apology, a half-assed attempt at backpeddling (“I forgot ‘bitch’ is actually in the title.” That’s your excuse? Really?!), or nothing more than straight-up damage control is still up for review. You can read the interview in its entirety over at Pitchfork and decide for yourself.
