The Fifth Annual Mustache Bash: A Celebration of the Mustache pops off, in a whiskerly way, at 10 p.m. tonight at the M Room.

Fifth annual? Yes. The Mustache Bash originated with City Paper accounting guru Ron Walsh and his boys Ryan Wachter and Leo Storniolo, better known as the Awesome Overload DJs. They’ve joined forces with PaperStreet to venue-fy the endeavor, which simply and gloriously consists of drinking while having a mustache. (Temporary ’staches for the ladies/the testosterone-challenged will be available.)

Joining AO on the decks: DJ Lindsay Maria out of New Zealand and PFUNKT.

“I hosted it at my house two years ago,” says Walsh. “Shit’s all grown up now. I hope I can get into my own party.”

McGuinn (left) with WXPN’s Roger LeMay.

Michael T. Regan

Sucks for us, but you gotta be happy for him: Jim McGuinn — of Y-Rock and WXPN — is leaving us for The Current in Minnesota. Jim went from WDRE to Y-100 to becoming a kinda pioneer for web radio in the area. He will be missed.

Quoth the press release:

St. Paul, Minn.—November 24, 2008—Minnesota Public Radio announced today that Jim McGuinn has been named program director for 89.3 The Current. He will assume his new duties in mid-January.

McGuinn comes to The Current from WXPN, the renowned Triple A public radio station in Philadelphia. As the station’s afternoon drive-time host, McGuinn is also founder and program director for Y-Rock On XPN—WXPN’s Web- and HD-Radio indie music channel. McGuinn has won numerous awards, including Philadelphia Magazine’s DJ of the Year (2007), and Radio and Records’ Air Personality of the Year (2008).

McGuinn has also won awards for programming innovation and excellence during 15 years of guiding alternative radio outlets in Albany, NY; St. Louis, MO; and Philadelphia, PA. With a wide- and eclectic-musical knowledge, McGuinn has interviewed many nationally known bands including the Foo Fighters, Weezer and The Hold Steady—artists also found on The Current. His experience will help further The Current’s mission to serve its audience and bring new listeners to its community.

Jim on Wikipedia.

Aw, remember: CP Cover story from 2006 on Y-Rock linking up with WXPN.

But he only does it on weekends, honest!

From last night’s American Music Awards.

Matthew Smith (Photoshop bastardization by Drew Lazor)

There’s no way the person who registered twitter.com/oates and our legendary cover boy from last week are one and the same.

Right?

Let’s use these three Tweets as evidence:

1. The real Oates seems to be all about the “’stache angle,” and therefore unlikely to address it with passive aggression. He’s even planning an animated series based around it. From Shaun Brady’s story:

John Oates’ mustache has become a pop-culture phenomenon almost
wholly removed from the musician himself. And far from simply indulging
an irony-obsessed generation, Oates has jumped on the bandwagon. He’s
developing an animated series, J-Stache, in which he provides the voice of his family-man self and comedian Dave Attell voices his mustache.

2.The idea that John Oates is using Twitter to do things like ask Shaquille O’Neal whether or not he’s considered reuniting with Fu-Schnickens challenges my entire belief system.

3. Is Daryl Hall really a technophobe, as @Oates alleges? I would say no. After all, he did this ridiculously in-depth interview with Pitchfork last year. And, of course:

Maybe we all need to just take a break from Twitter for a minute.

Every week (slight hiatus here!), we have a staffer, freelancer or
friend/enemy/frienemy of The Clog put their iTunes or iPod on shuffle
and tell us about the first 10 songs that come up. The only rules: No
skipping, no cheating and you don’t need to be all music critic-y about
it. (If you’d like to submit a 10-Track Mind of your own, contact Drew
Lazor at drew.lazor[at]citypaper[dot]net.) This week, Daniel Delaney (@danieldelaney), host of the soon-to-be-launched street food podcast VendyTV and creator of the Rittenhouse / Twitter experiment, makes sound waves.

1. Stevie Wonder – “Overjoyed”
As if I was living under a rock for the first 20 some odd years of my life, Stevie Wonder was simply this name I knew. He was anonymous musician “other” people listened to, and far too mainstream for anything I would dare to put on my iPhone. One evening while forging up the FDR Drive, “Superstition” came on. At the time, I didn’t know it was Stevie, but somehow knew the lyrics and loved the beat. I rolled down my windows on that 30-degree evening, blasted the heat and cranked the radio for all to hear. The rock was lifted, and I found my new musical love: Stevie Wonder.

2. Bach – “Goldberg Variations: Aria”
Renowned psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi was the first to document the concept of Flow. A state of mind so intense, so focused, that all external feelings, troubles and woes fade away. While doing my undergraduate studies in Philadelphia at The University of the Arts it was imperative for me to achieve or come close to Flow for my work. As such, I set out on a quest to control my environment to edge closer toward flow. I altered the lighting, temperature and workspace. Still, something was missing. ENTER: Bach. Bach got me into Flow. He was the missing piece of the puzzled that capped off external stimulation and allowed me to focus on my work.

3. Herbie Hancock feat. Luciana Souza – “Amelia”
Combine Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell, heaps of amazing artist and the album’s Grammy and it’s hard to NOT have River: The Joni Letters in your library. I first got into Herbie while in my freshman year at college. I was lucky enough to have dormed with a jazz head eager to share his passion. We went to see the likes of Winton Marsalis, Chick Corea and Ornette Coleman. I was intrigued, confused, and excited about this newfound genre, and have been hooked ever since, snatching up every album that passes through my ears.

(more…)

No shit, I was hanging out with Max Guerin and Chris McDonough — the core of The Absinthe Drinkers — on Monday night at National Mechanics. We’re laughing. Having a couple of drinks. Chris was telling me how he just bought this condo on Christian. Then on Friday morning, you find THIS in your e-mail from Guerin and your heart sinks.

This is just an e-mail to keep you all up to speed. Some of you have already heard, but bear with me.

Chris McDonough and Kim Zelnicker were mugged outside Chris’ condo last night around 1:15.  Chris was shot by the mugger, who then ran off. The bullet entered his midsection. Fortunately police and medical aid arrived quickly and he was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove the round early this morning. Also fortunately, Kim was unhurt.

The news as of 7 PM tonight is good. Chris is obviously hurt but is out of immediate danger, and will be in the hospital for at least a few more days. More than that I do not know. At the moment he is still recovering from the wound and major surgery, and only family members are allowed to see him until at least tomorrow. According to Kim he is still on major painkillers, so the benefits of a visit would be somewhat limited anyway. As many of you know, Chris’ brother, sister and brother in law are all Philadelphia police officers, so the cops are already on this one in a big way. I have his room number at Jeff, so if anyone would like to visit I will be happy to give you the number individually, but at this point a bunch of people tramping in and out of his room would be counterproductive. His parents and family are currently with him. Kim is obviously shaken up as well, but asked me to say that she is otherwise fine. Please keep them both in your thoughts and prayers.

Sorry for the clinical tone, but I want to make sure I spread what information I do have as clearly as possible. When I have more information I will of course send it out.

And then you say to Chris and Kim, godspeed while praying for a speedy recovery. Then you just want to go out with a sugar cane sword and find the fuckers who do these things.

demorgen.be

When I saw this on ?uestlove’s Twitter:

I wondered what was up.

Turns out The Roots’ double-decker tour bus was involved in accident with a van on a Paris highway earlier this week. They say everyone is OK.

Questo’s full recount of the accident is up on Okayplayer. It (quite impressively) features references to Back to the Future, Spiceworld, Family Guy and Step Brothers.

i don’t wanna get all deep like it was an omen but those that know me
(look at my twit/facebook/myspace/okayplayer/blip history) know that
when not onstage i am glued to my computer, doing some sort of activity
like converting music or tv shows. but this was a rare occurrence in
which i actually went to sleep.

next thing i knew was the most surreal feeling ever….

was i upside down?

why am i covered in cereal?

oh shit….that coffee pot is coming for my face!!!

in
reality the crash was all of about 7 seconds….but to do a 360 on the
highway and end up ramped up (the van that crashed into ours was UNDER
our double decker bus) in the air….is….well…

a frigging miracle.

Look to your right, Taylor Swift! No, your other right!

One of our interns walked into my office while I was watching the video below.

“You heard of this girl Taylor Swift?” I asked him.

“Porn?” he replied, without missing a beat.

“No. Country singer.”

“Oh.”

Can’t really blame the kid. With a name like Taylor Swift …

Randy Alexander with Brian Wilson

myspace.com/randexpr

If you call Randy Alexander or his Randex Communications this week, you won’t get him. (Yes, that includes you, BRE Presents and Philly International Records.) Alexander isn’t out fishing — not for trout, not for new clients. The Philly/Jersey PR flack got nominated for “Publicity Firm of the Year” by the New Music Awards, sponsored by the radio trade New Music Weekly. The ceremony is Nov. 22 at the Avalon Theatre in Hollywood.

“My boutique agency is up against some of the biggest entertainment publicity firms — Rogers & Cowan, Big Hassle in New York and L.A.  — and honestly, I don’t know how we were nominated,” says Alexander, who was responsible for campaigns involving the aforementioned PIR and BRE along with the Steve Miller Band, Smashing Pumpkins, Philadelphia Music Alliance, NARAS Philly and the return of the School of Rock.

“Go figure,” he adds.

I only knew Mikey Brosnan as the lead singer of metallic West Philly punk band The Claw, but I know he was loved by a lot of local music-heads going back to his Stalag 13 days. Word is that he died over the weekend when a drunk driver hit him as he was crossing the street. (Action News story here.) More fitting tributes by people who knew him and his music well can be found at PhillyShreds.

Photo | Martin Schoeller for ew.com

When the AP reported last night that Prince and his music publisher, Universal, “failed to honor a contract to help market a fragrance” called ‘3121,’” the first thing I remembered was that it was Revelations Perfume & Cosmetics Inc. out of Huntingdon Valley that Prince did the deal with. That’s not lovesexy.

The independent company, owned by Larry J. Couey, co-designed bottles, packaging and combined all the right hints
of bergamot, jasmine, gardenia, orange flower, muguet, tuberose, ylang ylang, patchouli, sandalwood and cedarwood. It was/is sold exclusively at the ladies’ fragrance counter in Macy’s.

As the rest of the AP report goes, the breach-of-contract lawsuit was filed by Revelations in New York. The company says it licensed Prince’s name, likeness and the album title “3121″ to market the fragrance.

The company says it put $2.5 million into the project and agreed to pay Universal half of net profits from sales of the perfume. But the lawsuit claims that since the launch of the fragrance in July 2007, Universal and Prince have failed to participate in various promotions for it. Universal did not immediately return a call for comment. Prince’s music studio in Chanhassen, Minn., did not answer several calls.

I would adjudicate 4U.

Will our dude ?uesto be leading the musical charge for Mr. Nick Burns?

Photo | Deesha Dyer

Last week, the Internet was abuzz thanks to a YouTube video that led fans to believe Philly’s beloved Roots Crew would quit touring in 2009 to become the house band for Jimmy Fallon when he takes over the late-night NBC slot from Conan O’Brien. The concept is almost unimaginable, considering that The Roots are known for their hard-ass tour schedule and dope live sh