While Orbit To Leslie shows seem to come few and far between these days, the band is still releasing some stellar tunes. Check out their latest EP Preppy Spooky below! You'll find the group intermingling charming doo wop ("Stop Drop And Roll") with eerie, lo-fi surf rock ("KCKC") and beyond. Enjoy!
Check out the video below which contains some footage from this year's Ladyfest Philly and an interview with organizer Grace Ambrose! It was shot and edited by Alan Martofel, and the music in the video was provided by Shady Hawkins & Attia Taylor.
The Electric Factory is in for an evening of psychedelics as local icon Quentin Stoltzfus (known for his work in Mazarin) opens with his new musical incarnation Light Heat. The group, which also includes The Walkmen’s Walter Martin, is set to release their self-titled LP on June 25th via Domino/Ribbon Music. Their sound is balanced retro pop-rock providing clean vocals and steady percussion while the guitars/keys drift onto a distanced and murky frontier. It will pair quite nicely with the free-flowing psychedelic energy of Australian natives Tame Impala. If your lucky enough to have tickets to this sold-out show, let your mind drift into the possibilities that this night offers. Electric Factory, 421 N. 7th St., 8pm, Sold Out, All Ages - Michael Colavita
It’s always a shame when a band decides to disband, but knowing the end is near can result in one helluva goodbye. On the heels of their newest EP, Forget About It, Catnaps will be performing their final show tonight at PhilaMOCA. The group started off playing around Philly and recording under the moniker When I Was 12, which seemed to be a fitting band name considering the oh-so-sweet twee tunes that they were churning out. However, they decided to change it in June 2011 after growing tired of being mistaken as a tween band. With their latest releases, the group began showing off a more aggressive sound that seemed to be a step in the right direction. Amidst heavy feedback and crashing symbols their songs still maintained a youthful electricity, a static shock that sometimes prompted impromptu dancing in front of bedroom mirrors (it can’t just be me, right?). Let’s properly put this kitty to bed! PhilaMOCA, 531 N. 12th St., $7 - $10, 7:30pm, All Ages - Shaylin O’Connell
After paying homage to the Grateful Dead in a recent interview with the City Paper, it's not surprising that Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band have been sharing the recordings of their live performances during the band's residency at Ortlieb's this month. Check out the jams from their set last week (6/13/13) streaming below, or just swing on by their show tomorrow night with local alien shredder Nick Millevoi opening for them. Special thanks to Sebastian Petsu for sharing the recordings. (Photo by Constance Mensh)
Update: You can also download the entire set, but you have to do it one song at a time.
Light Heat's new self-titled album is available for streaming now via The New York Times. It officially come out June 25, and they'll be celebrating its arrival with a free in-store performance at AKA Music on the same day. If you can't wait until then to see them live, Light heat will be opening for Tame Impala tomorrow night at the Electric Factory.
The fact that Northern Arms founding members Keith Peirce sang at the Bible Baptist Church of Christ Winter Recital as a youngster and Eric Bandel’s first concert was watching his mother perform with The Pocono Methodist Choir makes absolute sense to us. There songs sound confessional, hymnal and sacred. Northern Arms’ current lineup also consists of Travis Weissman, Jesse Short, Michael Tramontana, Heather Brann, and Mike Kennedy. They’ll be entering XPN’s studios for a Key Session this evening, and you can catch them live tomorrow night at Ortlieb’s. But first, check out our Featured Artist(s) Poll Winner interview with Peirce and Bandel HERE.
The Guild continues their month of curating Tuesday Tune-Out at PhilaMOCA with an acoustic megashow. Tom May + Greg Barnett (The Menzingers), Nick Harris (Luther), Kirk Malosh (Ma Jolie), Augusta Koch (Cayetana), Candice Martello (Omar/Ghost Light), and Connor Byrne will be performing in the style of a “revival tour.” There will be collaborations, covers and plenty of surprises throughout the night. It also looks like the movie this evening will be Meet the Parents. However, there are votes for Caddy Shack. Both are hilarious so you really can’t go wrong. Just make it there on time because with all these guests performing, things will be starting promptly. PhilaMOCA, 531 N. 12th St., 8pm, $5, All Ages - Alexis V.
Work Drugs continues to be one of the most prolific bands in Philly - giving their fans plenty to be smooth about. They're already back with a new infectious 10-song LP Mavericks that is available on limited edition CDs (ha...are they already a retro medium?) via Bobby Cahn Records. The band will be performing a free show on Wednesday, July 10 at Morgan's Pier. Check out the album below in its entirety, and "please enjoy responsibly"!
We want to send you to a rad show this Saturday, June 22 at Underground Arts with Man or Astro-Man?, Jacuzzi Boys and Dry Feet! To enter for your chance to win, send us an email at thedelimagazinephiladelphia@gmail.com with the subject line "Beam Me Up, Scotty!" Please also include your cell phone number in the body of the message (in case of an emergency). Good luck!
Arrah and the Ferns may have sweetness and light in abundance, but the undercurrent of frank lust in their new album is both new and old hat for these folk rockers. Since their last offering, they’ve adopted growing pains as a lyrical source, to varying effects. While the album relies heavily on much of the same wistfully-ornamented indie delicacy, there’s simultaneously an explicit element, and a successful one at that. Romance isn’t dead on Make Your Mind, it’s just got a mouth on it.
The woozy, low guitars at the beginning of album are one of many instrumental stunners, which we’ve long known to be a touchstone for the Ferns. There is some spectacular guitar and drum work on the album, but for most part, the music and the vocals go head to head in friendly tandem - never trying to outdo one another.
Arrah Fisher’s honeyed vocals push through the knot of winding guitars on the second track, “Go Back,” inciting her band to back her up when she half-purrs, half-belts “I see the way your body moves me - but you don’t have to touch me.”
“Triangle” is a list of questions, an effecting device used by Fisher to protest the coming of a different stage of adulthood - one in which commitment is inevitable and freedom to do as she wants a relic of immaturity. “I wanna meet the man on the other side,” she murmurs, seeing her free-spirited inclinations in danger, and then, with a bravado outburst, demands to know “Why do I have to grow up and be a married schmuck - when all I want to do is fuck...fuck...fuck...fuck...fuck!” The unbridled sexuality is startling, but when you think about it, the turbulence is a perfect underlining for sweet-sounding music about growing up and moving on.
The band then counters that song’s thinly-veiled hedonism with the role-reversing “Hang Up,” whose slow-dance 50s rock balladry finds Fisher imploring her lover to throw himself wholeheartedly into a new life. “This is where I hang up, start to pack my stuff up. I will come to you this time...I don’t want to have you on the side. I just want to have a normal time, have a normal life.” Is she embroiled in an affair? Is she coaxing him out of another relationship? Maybe, but it would seem heartless to resist her sincerity.
Make Your Mind has a welcomed, bouncing energy that picks the album up from its wispy, low-tempo tone halfway through. There’s a uniformity of pace, with most songs choosing a leisurely amble over an all-out rush, but the variance of tone and instrumentation saves the album from tedium, and adds up to an invigorating (and possibly final) effort from Arrah and the Ferns. - Alyssa Greenberg
