Rock Band

The English rock band Echo and the Bunnymen will headline a show at the University of Pennsylvania's Irvine Auditorium tomorrow night. Echo and the Bunnymen recently released a new album, Songs to Learn and Sing (Sire), a collection of the group's best-known songs. The Liverpool band's most pervasive presence is that of lead singer Ian McCulloch, whose stentorian groan is an apt homage to the band's spiritual forebear, the late Jim Morrison of the Doors. The opening act tomorrow will be the Australian band the Church, whose gloomy music exerts a sort of sultry allure.

Is Half Japanese the greatest rock-and-roll band in the universe? Director Jeff Feuerzeig's feature debut makes a pretty cheeky case that two misfit brothers from Michigan - who bear more than a passing resemblance to cartoondom's Ren and Stimpy - just may be pop music's saviors. Equal parts infomercial for the band, parody of the rock-documentary formula, and loving tribute to the now Baltimore-based noise-makers, Half Japanese: The Band that Would Be King portrays Jad and David Fair as childlike geniuses who single-handedly re-created a moribund art form from the ground up. You be the judge.

One of the most acclaimed young British rock bands, the Woodentops, will perform Sunday in Houston Hall at the University of Pennsylvania. The Woodentops' first American release, Giant (Columbia), features pretty melodies, murmured vocals and vigorously strummed acoustic guitars. In the old days, we called this "folk-rock. " These days, in the amnesiac pop world, it's the Next Big Thing From England. This, of course, is not the Woodentops' fault. At its best, this quintet takes familiar styles and makes them its own - this is the sound of hesitation and doubt, of romantic hemming and hawing, offered in a gentle, unassuming manner.

Add yet another claim to fame to Philadelphia's list. "This is Yes-town," Clifford Loeslin said yesterday. "Philadelphia is Yes-town. " Loeslin, a 29-year-old aerospace engineer, made the pilgrimage from his Seattle home to the Philadelphia area for the weekend-long Yescon - a celebration of the 19-year-old rock band Yes. Other fans trekked here to the acknowledged center of Yes culture from elsewhere on the West Coast and in the Midwest....

A rock band manager, building a pipe bomb to amuse himself as he hung out with friends on a slow night at an Exton service station, was killed early yesterday when the device exploded and blew a hole in his chest. Matthew Harvey, 28, of the Indian Run Village mobile home park in Honey Brook, was dead on arrival at Brandywine Hospital. West Whiteland police Lt. Ralph Burton said the incident occurred about 12:15 a.m. in the cashier's kiosk at the Exxon gas station at the intersection of Routes 30 and 100. He said that Harvey had been assembling the bomb by stuffing a section of metal pipe with sulfur scraped off match books and was screwing a top on the device when it went off. "There was just a small flash," said Brian Moore, manager of the 24-hour station.

The last time Todd Rundgren came through town he brought along a veritable rock-and-roll orchestra. Monday at the Trocadero, the unpredictable Rundgren brought only himself - and a ton of equipment. He billed the show "TR-i" (for Todd Rundgren-interactive). But the restless innovator could just as easily have pegged it "the Return of Rock's Original One-Man Band. " From his stage (set up in the middle of the Troc dance floor) to his songs (from the new No World Order (Rhino/Forward)

Why in blazes would a Bucks County family willingly open its doors to Slaughter? The hottest new hard-rock band of the year, Slaughter has earned a fast reputation as party-hearty animals who like to stay "up all night, sleep all day. " Or so go the lyrics to the MTV and radio smash from their nearly platinum (840,000 copies sold) debut album, "Stick It To Ya. " Another of Slaughter's bone-crunching anthems celebrates "burning bridges, running down, got a nasty reputation from town to town.

Every Phoenix album has offered at least one, and usually two, perfect pop confections, starting with "If I Ever Feel Better" and "Too Young" from 2000's United. But America had not paid much attention until a Saturday Night Live appearance in the spring kick-started Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, the French quartet's fourth album. Now they're playing sold-out theaters across the States. "Before this record we still felt like we were a secret society or something," says vocalist Thomas Mars from a tour bus somewhere between Salt Lake City and Omaha.

The Irish rock band U2 was nominated yesterday for four Grammy awards from its platinum The Joshua Tree LP, while first-time nominee Suzanne Vega received three mentions with a song about child abuse, "Luka. " Hitmaker Michael Jackson had four nominations for Bad, his first album since the historic Thriller LP recorded in 1983. Country singer Emmylou Harris also received four nominations. Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Los Lobos, Prince, Wynton Marsalis and Itzhak Perlman were among 14 artists nominated in three categories apiece.

Max Bernstein had a band, the Actual, with a catchy song called "This Is the Worst Day of My Life," a slot on the Warped Tour, and a gig opening for heavy hitters Velvet Revolver on a national tour. What he lacked was a sense of purpose. "Somebody once asked me, 'Why are you in a band?' " says the Los Angeles singer and guitarist, who will bring his new Internet-distributed agit-rock outfit, Max & the Marginalized, to the Trocadero tomorrow and the Reef in Wilmington on Monday.

On "Disparate Youth," the single from Santigold's new album, Master Of My Make-Believe, that she sang Tuesday at the Trocadero while flanked by a pair of dancers and wearing a floral-print romper, the avant-pop singer led the crowd in the mantra-like chorus: "We know now that we want more?/?Oh-ah, Oh-ah?/?A life worth fighting for. " And what, for Santi White — the Mount Airy-raised, Brooklyn-based, genre-mashing songwriter who began her U.S. tour for her keenly anticipated sophomore album with a sold-out show at the Chinatown club — what, exactly, constitutes "a life worth fighting for"?

The cheesy sex novel has long been a staple of literature, and it's always a problem when staples are taken away. But public libraries in several states are pulling the racy romance trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey from shelves or deciding not to order the best-seller at all, saying it's too steamy or too poorly written. Like there are no poorly written books in libraries. "When a book is removed from the shelf, folks who can't afford a Nook or a Kindle, the book is no longer available to them," said Deborah Caldwell Stone, of the American Library Association's office for intellectual freedom.

MOSCOW - Tens of thousands prayed outside Moscow's main cathedral on Sunday to show their support for the Russian Orthodox Church in a controversy over a punk rock protest that has added to political tensions in Russia. Christ the Savior Cathedral was the scene of a brief surprise performance in February by a female punk rock group protesting Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency. Three members of the band Pussy Riot remain in police custody and face up to seven years in prison on charges of hooliganism.

THAT DRUMMER sure looked familiar. "Malcolm in the Middle" star Frankie Muniz played his third show with central Pennsylvania indie rock band Kingsfoil Sunday night at World Cafe Live (3025 Walnut). Muniz and Co. opened for D&M at their CD-release party for "Wait for Me. " D&M are Drexel students Danny Fornasa and Matt Klahre, the latter of whom is interning at Matthew Vlahos PR and working on the Philadelphia Science Festival and the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Franklin Institute.

"THIS IS HUGE," says porn star-turned-actress Gina Lynn . (And get your minds out of the gutter.) The Berks County resident is referring to her April Penthouse cover, which hits newsstands Tuesday. "This is one of the biggest magazine honors in the adult industry," Lynn says. "I'm really proud of how I look right now. " Lynn gave up hardcore porn several years ago but still is a featured dancer at strip clubs nationwide including the Penthouse Club (3001 Castor)

Davy Jones, former singer for the Monkees, has died in Florida, according to a medical examiner's office there. The singer was 66, and is survived by his wife, Jessica, and four daughters. He died in Florida, but also lived recently in Pennsylvania, and was a Daily News Sexy Single several years ago. The medical examiner's office for Martin County, Fla., confirmed it had been notified that Jones had died, but had no further details. The Monkees, in reality a rock band formed for a TV show, had a string of hits in the 1960s.

Last week's opening of an exhibit on Bruce Springsteen at the National Constitution Center raises a question: What in Asbury Park does Bruce Springsteen have to do with the Constitution? True, both were born in the same country (the U.S.A.) and, in fact, within about 50 miles of Trenton. And both were born to run (in the Constitution's case, a nation). And, of course, both continue to enjoy rock-star adulation despite advanced age and significant imperfections. Springsteen is not the most incongruous figure the Independence Mall museum has featured.

CNN has suspended Roland Martin for tweeting "offensive" remarks demeaning gays on Sunday. Shocking: The cable news network finally decided to do something after taking a demure three-day time-out. "Roland Martin's tweets were regrettable and offensive," CNN says in a statement. "Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.

Portlandia , the frequently hilarious sketch comedy show whose second season began last week, creates a dilemma for its audience: How to react to a TV show that mocks you, and yet - by its status as a buzzed-and-blogged-about cult hit - reaffirms you at the same time? The show, which airs at 10 p.m. Friday on IFC, stars creators Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live and Carrie Brownstein of the rock band Wild Flag. And its principal intention is to satirize the preciousness of the hipster lifestyle that has reached its drizzly apotheosis in Portland, the mad-about-coffee, indie-rock and cycling (and recycling)

Danika Shinn, a pink-haired eighth grader at Andrew Jackson Public School in South Philadelphia, dreams of becoming a rock star. Though her cheeks, also pink, perhaps suggested a touch of nervousness, Shinn confidently flipped into her "head voice" last week when she and a dozen other eighth graders in the school's rock band warmed up the audience with the Rolling Stones' "Paint it Black," just before a ballet performance at the Wilma Theater....