UsedWigs Live at World Cafe Live on March 19th with Dave Hill and Audible!

Update!

A few tickets still available! Only $7.

UsedWigs Live at Upstairs at World Cafe Live!

Friday, March 19th

  • Music: Audible
    Philly's Audible delivers top-notch pop goodness, layered guy/girl harmonies and chiming guitars with just the right amount of grit and sun-soaked majesty. Get a Taste!
  • Comedy: Dave Hill
    Simply put, Dave Hill is a perpetual volcanic eruption of entertainment — comedy, music, Twitter — his fiery flow cannot be contained. He's also "Big in Japan".
  • Emcee: Nicole Brewer
    The enchanting and diligent digital journalist for Eyewitness News on CBS3 and the CWPhilly, Nicole Brewer, will keep everyone in line and the show running smoothly!

Plus the UsedWigs Emergency Response Team:

  • Hosted by: Todd, Russ and Jeff
  • Performances by: SM Shrake and Crazy Aaron
  • Video by: After School Specialists

Comedy, music, prizes and danger guaranteed.

Only $7: BUY TICKETS NOW!

Keep in Touch: Get Updates

Website: www.usedwigsradio.com

Pass It On! Click to enlarge

View: UsedWigs Live Summer Spectacular 2009 Recap

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My Favorite Mostly Modern Irish Music Videos

In honor of St. Paddy's Day, here are some of my favorite bands and artists from the Emerald Isle, both North and South, old and new. Pictured above: The lovely Gemma Hayes.

The Thrills - "Nothing Changes Around Here"

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Therapy? - "Screamager"

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The Frames - "Dream Awake"

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Gemma Hayes - "Hanging Around"

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Thin Lizzy - "Jailbreak"

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Sinead O'Connor & the Chieftains - "The Foggy Dew"

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The Undertones - "Teenage Kicks"

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Luka Bloom - "Don`t Be So Hard On Yourself"

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My Bloody Valentine - "Soon"

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That Petrol Emotion - "Big Decision"

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Damien Rice - "Rootless Tree"

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Stiff Little Fingers - "Alternative Ulster"

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The Pogues With The Dubliners - "The Irish Rover"

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Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - "When Your Mind's Made Up"

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Music Review: Audible – Isolette (EP)

Philly six-piece Audible recently released their latest EP “Isolette”, which as of this writing you can still download for free here - but move fast, as I’ve been assured that’s only temporary. In fact, you might want to do that now, and have these great new tunes as a companion for the review. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you.

Congratulations! You’re in for quite a ride. This is the band’s first outing since their fabulous 2009 full-length “In Simple Intervals”, and it serves up the story arc of a rock opera of yore without the two-record length, while packing twice the emotional wallop.

Before we get into the content, if you dig smart pop-rock with guy/girl harmonies and great musicianship with a loose, authentic vibe, you’ll love this for nothing other than the music. There are great memorable choruses in these mostly mid-tempo, introspective tracks – songs that smolder and evolve as they reveal their secrets. Interesting guitar tones, airy vocals, and masterful arrangements are anchored by some seriously tasteful and musical drumming (I just HAVE to call this out here – because drummer Steve Cawley really plays for the song – on several of my many repeated listens, I’ve delighted in just focusing in on what he’s doing). So, you could concentrate solely on the music…but you wouldn’t be able to escape the palpable emotional undercurrent – the air around these pieces is heavy with it.

So that’s where the content comes in – what we’ve got here isn’t trumped up emo-drama equating crushes or feelings of personal isolation to epic struggles (I mean that’s fine too, in it’s own way) but something that is in a whole different league of “real”. The story goes like this: Audible nucleus Mike Kennedy was all set to start touring behind “In Simple Intervals” with the band when his wife (and Audible’s bassist) Kristine went into extremely early labor just 25 weeks into her pregnancy. If you’ve ever been there (and I have), that’s the “holy shit, we’re not playing games here anymore” type stuff that makes pretty much everything else you’ve gotten worked up about recently pale in comparison. And amazingly, Mike went ahead and documented the experience in these songs – they should put this in the Library Of Congress for its sociological value alone.

Read the rest

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Conan O’Brien Comes to Philly June 7!

Conan O'Brien comes to Philly — Tower Theater, Upper Darby — on June 7th. This comedy juggernaut is called  "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television" Tour. Sweet!

Tickets now available!

  • Get the latest news. Follow Conan on Twitter.
  • Join the "I'm With Coco" group on Facebook.
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Dave Hill! Let’s Get to Know Him Better

Dave will be performing at UsedWigs Live on March 19th at Upstairs at World Cafe Live in Philly!

Tickets still available!

Only $7! More Details!

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Sneak Peek at Twitter 2.0!

twitter20_sample_tweet_sm2

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Twitter, the popular micro-blogging site made popular by Ashton Kutcher, will be unveiling a slew of new features when its highly-anticipated "Version 2.0" debuts next month. Here's a rundown:

Character Limit

The character limit for a "tweet" (Twitter parlance for a post) has been increased to 1040. "People have a lot more to say now than they did in 2006," said Twitter spokesman Erich McDurgun. "And in this economy, people could use a little more of a good thing, am I right?"

Categories

Twitter will be adding category tabs to its bare-bones interface in hopes of facilitating tweet scanning and increasing general usability. "With users following hundreds, thousands and in some cases, millions of other Twitter users, we thought adding filtered categories would increase the user experience," said McDurgun. "We've been compiling data for the past three years and we've found most of the tweets fall in a few distinct groups. Tweets will now automatically funnel into the new categories using complex algorithms and keyword analysis. Users  can simply click on the categories they wish to read and ignore others."

The new top-level categories are:

  • Lunch
  • Gym
  • Self-Promotion
  • Follow Me
  • Celebrity Ramblings
  • Whining
  • All

Based on  Twitter data, "Lunch" is the most most tweeted about subject by far, with "I'm thinking about a sandwich" as the most popular tweet ever.

"If Twitter serves one purpose and one purpose only, it allows friends to know what other friends are thinking about eating in real-time," said McDurgun. "That's what web 2.0 social networking is all about, my friend. You can also follow up after the meal with another tweet and let the public know how it all went down. Add a TwitPic of the meal and you've painted a nice picture for all to enjoy!"

McDurgun went on to break down a couple other categories in more detail:

GYM - "What fun is working out if you can't tell everyone about it. Twitter is the perfect vehicle to remind people how much time you spend working out or thinking about working out."

Self-Promotion - "Basically, it's what we're all about... "boasting" if you will, whether directly or indirectly.

Follow Me: "This category will contain tweets from new followers who follow you only because they are in the business of racking up followers and not actually caring what you tweet about. Remember, they are banking on a reciprocal follow. If you decline to reciprocate in a timely manner, expect an 'unfollow' quickly."

"I think Celebrity Ramblings and Whining are fairly self explanatory. All allows you to see all unfiltered tweets."

TwitPic Integration

Thanks to Version 2.0, you no longer have to open a new app to post or view a photo. The photo is displayed right in your tweet. "Just click on the photo and a new interface will pop up where your followers can comment and you can touch up the photo using a the new Photoshop Twixelator Lite Edition."

Expanded Sharing

The current Twitter interface has only two options for a tweet: "Favorite" or "Reply." Twitter 2.o has added the popular "Retweet" as an option, as well as "File," "Save to Floppy Disk" and "Print." The user will also have the ability to share the tweet with numerous, popular  social media sites with a simple click of the button.

Products Brand Products

Twitter is taking a page from some popular third-party applications and will now offer T-shirts and messenger bags emblazoned with any Tweet you wish. (Legal: Twitter owns all tweet content as stated in the Twerms of Use). "Mugs, baseball caps and duvets will be added in the near future."

Future

"Everyone is saying Facebook is trying to be like us, which is pretty much true, but we also have to keep up with them and other social networking apps and their popular offerings, " said McDurgan. "We have a lot of great new stuff in the pipeline... and I can't go into it much now, but let's just say were thinking about "Quizzes!"

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Damn, RIP Mark Linkous

Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse took his own life, very very sad. This is one of my all-time favorite tunes. Here's a great cover version too.

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Free MP3 Friday – Nada Surf, Midlake, Roky Erickson, Titus Andronicus, Matt Pond PA & More

Magically make your Friday much more mellifluous. Click the little blue arrows to listen then click the song titles to download these fabulous free  MP3s.

Roky Erickson with Okkervil River - "Goodbye Sweet Dreams"
(via Pitchfork)

Matt Pond PA - "Starting"
(via Magnet)

Love of Diagrams - “Part of You”
(via MBV)

The Soft Pack - "C'Mon"
(via NME)

Titus Andronicus - “A More Perfect Union”
(via Stereogum)

Nada Surf - "Electrocution"
(via nadasurf.com)

Valley Lodge - "Every Little Thing"
(via valleylodge)

Audible - "The Last Thing I Remember"
(via audible)

Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore - "Something, Somewhere, Sometime"
(via Brooklyn Vegan)

Midlake - "Acts of Man"
(via KEXP)

Ted Leo - "Mighty Sparrow"
(via Village Voice)

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Short and Sweet Leno Show Descriptions

Click image above to enlarge or see below.

Thanks to @brad_sukala & @jimtaggart for pointing us to the awesomely and perfectly descriptive Tags for the "Leno Show" on Hulu.

Keep Tagging!

Let's all JayWalk over to Hulu and add some more! Click "Tags" tab to behold the glory. Just don't click the play button, unless you really enjoy aggressive audience-to-host high-fiving.

For more Leno fun, please read Gabe over at VideoGum for his latest take on the Denim-Skinned Nightmare Monster.

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Actors Who Were Too Old to Play Teens But Did Anyway

The Mathletes Club here at UsedWigs High have compiled a classroom full of actors who were well past their teenage years when they portrayed high-schoolers on the big and small screens. Age calculations are based on when the film was released or the year the character debuted on the TV show. The information was gleaned from IMDB.com.

Update! Actor Eric Christian Olsen is 31 and looks it, but that didn’t stop him from playing a high school jock in the upcoming awful movie “Fired Up!”

ACTOR BORN FILM/TV SHOW YEAR AGE
Stockard Channing 1944 Grease 1978 34
Curtis Armstrong 1953 Better Off Dead 1985 32
Sean Patrick Thomas 1970 Save the Last Dance 2001 31
Eric Christian Olsen 1977 Fired Up! 2009 31
Olivia Newton-John 1948 Grease 1978 30
John Cho 1972 Better Luck Tomorrow 2002 30
Derek Luke 1974 Friday Night Lights 2004 30
Alan Ruck 1956 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 1986 30
Frank Whaley 1963 Swing Kids 1993 30
Stacey Dash 1966 Clueless 1995 29
Gabrielle Carteris 1961 Beverly Hills, 90210 1990 29
Ron Lester 1970 Varsity Blues 1999 29
Gedde Watanabe 1955 Sixteen Candles 1984 29
Parry Chen 1973 Better Luck Tomorrow 2002 29
P.J. Soles 1950 Rock ‘n’ Roll High School 1979 29
Tony Danza 1951 The Hollywood Knights 1980 29
Glynn Turman 1946 Cooley High 1975 29
Kerr Smith 1972 Final Destination 2000 28
Adrian Zmed 1954 Grease 2 1982 28
Gabrielle Union 1972 Bring It On 2000 28
Jeff Conaway 1950 Grease 1978 28
Antwon Tanner 1975 One Tree hill 2003 28
Jon Heder 1977 Napoleon Dynamite 2004 27
Parminder Nagra 1975 Bend It Like Beckham 2002 27
Selma Blair 1972 Cruel Intentions 1999 27
Charisma Carpenter 1970 Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1997 27
Rebecca Gayheart 1972 Jawbreaker 1999 27
Lori Singer 1957 Footloose 1984 27
Sissy Spacek 1949 Carrie 1976 27
Tobey Maguire 1975 Spider-Man 2002 27
Denise Richards 1971 Wild Things 1998 27
Kevin Bacon 1958 Footloose 1984 26
Jamie Kennedy 1970 Scream 1996 26
Matthew Lillard 1970 Scream 1996 26
Skeet Ulrich 1970 Scream 1996 26
Paul Walker 1973 She’s All That 1999 26
Scott Wolf 1968 Party of Five 1994 26
Minka Kelly 1980 Friday Night Lights 2006 26
Ian Ziering 1964 Beverly Hills, 90210 1990 26

Before you fire off the "Hey, dummy you forgot...." email, there are hundreds of 23-, 24- and 25-year-old actors who played teens and we certainly can’t list them all here. I’m sure there’s some creepy website out there devoted to this nonsense. Google it.


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