We told you to hurry, but because many of you may not have been able to make it to Penn on time, here's XPN's video coverage of The Kooks busking at the university.......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Writers, Live!: Live at the Writers House, featuring poets Tom Devaney, Randall Couch, Trapeta B. Mayson, Scott Edward Anderson, and Ish Klein and musical guest Hezikiah Jones, hosted by XPN's Michaela Majoun at the Kelly Writers House (3805 Locust Walk), 7-9PM. Free With the Music: Emmett Lindsay Band, Cortez Cortez, iNFiNiEN, and Brackets & Arrows at Tritone (1508 South), 10PM. $5 Open Mic: Free at The Fire (412......

Dear Scrabulous: I lost more games than I won (somehow, I always ended up with a board full of "u"s and "i"s). I wasted numerous hours of my time when I should have been doing other things—like writing my columns for Phillyist. One might think that I'd see the end of Scrabulous (on Facebook, anyway) as a blessing in disguise. But damn if you don't still have a hold on me. Having refused to install......

We mentioned the other day how Facebook's much-loved Scrabulous application bit the dust, to be "replaced" by the Hasbro-sanctioned "Scrabble Beta" application. (We're refusing to add Scrabble Beta to our Facebook on principle.) But take heart, for this morning we learned via the XPN Morning Show news that the makers of Scrabulous have essentially re-formed the game, and you can now find it as the WordScraper. We haven't played WordScraper yet, but apparently the functionality......

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets. XPN's 885 countdown this year will list the quintessential XPN songs. We're not even sure what that means, but you can go and vote right here. So what's next now that E3 is over? Comic-Con! EW has your photo gallery preview of the event (via). And check out the sweet Star Trek character poster! Amazon has launched a video streaming service called Amazon......

The XPoNential Music Festival kicks off tonight at Wiggins Park on the Camden Waterfront. Featured acts will include The Blind Boys of Alabama, Beth Orton, Alejandro Escovedo, Amos Lee, Ingrid Michaelson, and Joan Osborne. (Remember her? We do, too!) Tickets are available for $25 a day ($17 for XPN Members) or $60 for a four-day pass ($40 for XPN members) online or at the door.......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY Outdoor Music: Friday Night Summer Jazz Concerts every Friday in Cedar Park (50th and Baltimore), 6-8PM. Free The N Crowd: Improv comedy troupe the N Crowd perform at the Actors Center (257 N 3rd), 8PM. $10 Brakes CD Release Party: XPN welcomes The Brakes with Ben Arnold and Carney at Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N Frankford), 8PM. $10 SATURDAY The Kids Are All Right: Paul Green School of......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: London Calling: Free dance party featuring Brit Rock from the '60s to today spun by DJs Jared Styles and Jim McGuinn at World Café Live (3025 Walnut), 6PM. Free (pre-registration required) Exit A: Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead, reads from his latest book Exit A at the Penn Bookstore (3601 Walnut), 7PM. Free Deep Breath: Introduction to Buddhist meditation presented by the Menlha Buddhist Center at the Ethical......

Despite their name, NYC four-piece Vampire Weekend (MySpace) is not a shoe-gazing, emo goth band. In fact, their self-titled debut LP, just released at the end of last month, is perhaps best described as "sunny" - the very antithesis of a vampire's idea of a good weekend. This band, beloved of many blogs (including us), performs bouncy, funny, clever, retro indie/punk/pop/New Wave songs about love. Their music is so fun it feels like there has......

What's not to love about Old 97's frontman Rhett Miller? He's attractive. He's talented. He's wired. He's charismatic. He's a Texan. (Hush, you – the president is not representative of the entire state.) AND, he's going to be back in our fair city on Saturday night. Rhett (we call him Rhett) is working on some new material on his own and just finished recording a new album with the Old 97's, set to drop in......

Every weekday of December (except for December 25, that is), Phillyist will be counting down to 2008 with our highlights from the past year and our predictions for the next. If you have a list you'd like to submit, let us know! Raise your hand if you don't love YouTube/Viddler/Google Video/etc. Okay, that one guy raising your hand? You probably just want to scroll past this post, because it probably won't interest you in the......

The holidays kind of snuck up on us this year. Perhaps because Thanksgiving was so early. After Turkey Day was over, it was still too early to get into the Christmannakkanzaa spirit. (This Phillyist adheres to a strict "No Christmas music before December 1" rule.) And then we got caught up with other things, and we didn't really notice that, yep, we're in holiday season. It took Thursday night's WXPN Musicians On Call benefit concert......

It's the holiday season, so many of us are in a charitable mood. Certainly, there are good feelings to be had from performing acts of selflessness, and we at Phillyist encourage you to donate your time, money, or a toy this holiday season. Sometimes you get the opportunity to contribute to a good cause and have a lot of fun at the same time. Thursday night, you'll get one such opportunity. WXPN is presenting a......

We'd heard Matt Duke's name before (like when Phillyist Meghan's sister covered him for us), but this Phillyist's first encounter with the young Jersey-bred singer-songwriter was a few months ago at the WXPN-hosted Philly Local Lonely Hearts Club Band. Duke, in a pair of crazy patchwork-embellished stovepipe pants (each leg was probably wider than his whole body – you can kind of see them here), completely stole the stage with his performance of "When......

Next weekend's XPoNential Music Festival - featuring artists such as The Fratellis, Fountains of Wayne, Eastern Conference Champions, The A-Sides, Bob Mould, Dr. Dog, The Smithereens, Hoots and Hellmouth, and local-musician Anthony Riley - is going to be three days worth of sun and great music. You can find out all of the details by going to the WXPN website for times, dates, and of course parking. Today, though, is the last day to purchase......

You can worship local music down at the church this Friday when local boys Hoots & Hellmouth (MySpace) take the stage, along with Rocky Votolato and Langhorne Slim (a Pennsylvania-born defector to New York). It promises to be a good old-fashioned country-inflected hillbilly ho-down. Which normally wouldn't be our cup of tea. And indeed, the first time we listend to Hoots & Hellmouth's recently released self-titled album (their first), we weren't sure we cared......

Tuesday night, we carted ourselves out to the hot, misty expanse of the Tower Theater to see Bloc Party with the Maccabees and the Noisettes. British band the Maccabees started things off right with a rousing set which, they confessed, was their first performance as a band in America, and their first performance in front of a seated audience. They didn't sound like they were doing anything for the first time, though; they played......

"Come to Jesus," the featured hit single of Mindy Smith's debut album, sold 300,000 copies, as well as being featured on numerous TV night-time talk shows and VH1 and CMT. Frankly, with a hit like this, we thought she was a Christian-Pop star. But after listening to her sophomore CD, One Moment More, we've realized that she has crossed many genres and landed in Country, Folk, and even Pop. Time Magazine calls it a "hybrid......

In this fine city of ours, 88.5 WXPN is an institution. While we've never been able to figure out exactly the relationship between the station and the University of Pennsylvania (beyond an apparent mandate to broadcast all home Quaker games) and we keep getting letters telling us to renew our membership even though we did a few months ago (and it wasn't twelve either), Phillyist definitely has a soft spot for the X. We mean,......

High up on my list of unforgivable sins? Poorly-attended performances of great plays and bands. (I think that may be because I want the rest of the world to have my taste in the arts realm. Maybe I'd actually turn the radio on once in a while...) Unfortunately, Gran Bel Fisher's show at the World Cafe Live last night didn't break any attendance records—and his opening act, Lelia Broussard, was performing to an almost-empty house.......

We here at Phillyist like to think that we've got pretty good taste in music. (Most of the time, at least.) As such, we also like to think that when we hear a song that really hooks us, we should pass our discovery along to you, our readers. Our latest discovery came in the form of Gran Bel Fisher's single, "Moment," from his debut album, Full Moon Cigarette. For half a second, we thought we......

The website says it is SOLD OUT, but World Cafe Live has in the past, released more tickets the night of the show, so please check back. Yes it true, Valentine's Day is today. For those of us who have a special someone, we should have already bought that special someone a well thought-out gift. If you are still completely clueless about what to buy, than look no further. This weekend at the World Cafe......

Alexi Murdoch took over the North Star Bar on Friday night, and when we say "took over," we mean that he commanded that audience. He's a singer/songwriter, but he has such a powerful stage presence that he could hold a (somewhat drunk -- we waited a long time in the actual bar part of the North Star Bar to get in) crowd captive with his soft, mellow tunes. And the crowd kept him, too --......

We like the idea of a good time for a good cause, so we're pretty excited about the Third Annual Philly Bands Together that's taking over the entire World Cafe Live, upstairs and down, tonight at 7:30PM (doors open at 6). A TON of artists - including Grey Eye Glances, Hoots and Hellmouth, Lili Anel, and Red Heart the Ticker - will be there playing music (you can find a detailed schedule and band......

Yesterday, local radio station WXPN finally finished their playback of their list of the 885 Greatest Artists of All Time, as voted by the XPN community. You can see the entire list here, and make sure to check out this awesome entry on XPN's blog, which is packed with YouTube videos featuring vintage concert footage of the artists who made the top ten. Speaking of the top ten, here they are: The Beatles Bob......

We told you it was coming back in July; later, we warned you when voting had begun. And today, finally, local radio station WXPN's list of the 885 All Time Greatest Artists has been compiled and locked in, and the playback has begun. Today and tomorrow XPN will still be running their Fall Fund Drive, which means they're pretty agonizing to listen to live, but you can keep up with what's going on countdown-wise......

Big music night coming up. On Thursday, a slew of acts signed to the Barsuk music label are taking over Philly. World Café Live will play host to The Long Winters with Menomena and What Made Milwaukee Famous, and Mates of State with the Starlight Mints will be playing at the Starlight Ballroom. Don’t know which show to choose? Check out Barsuk radio here. It’s not an easy decision, whether you know the acts......

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Looking ahead at your Monday night and seeing nothing but watching re-runs or scouring Myspace for high school classmates? No need. Tune in to 88.5 WXPN at 7:30 p.m. tonight for a live broadcast of tonight’s sold out Corinne Baily Ray/Gran Bel Fisher show at World Café Live. Both artists have been featured on the channel’s airwaves before, so if you’re a WXPN listener like this Phillyist is, you’ve heard tracks from Gran Bel’s......