Cults Do it For the Kids

It’s been a while since Philthy’s seen a new edition of “Do it For the Kids,” my weekly roundup of the city’s best all ages shows.  The reason?  Well,...

It’s been a while since Philthy’s seen a new edition of “Do it For the Kids,” my weekly roundup of the city’s best all ages shows.  The reason?  Well, it’s just that time of year that tends to induce hibernation in most artists (Although Johnny Brenda’s does have an impressive onslaught of upcoming performances by a handful of brilliant singer/songwriters.)  Unfortunately, this sentiment seems to be stretching well into the new year and I am yet to find a calendar week that has more than one good reason for the under-21 crowd to leave the house.  However, there are a few, isolated all ages shows that are well worth checking out.  This week, for the first local show I’ve been excited about all year, we have Cults, this Friday, 1/13, at Union Transfer ($15).

Boy/girl duos seem to be where it’s at right now in “indie pop.”  And no one’s doing it better than NYC’s Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion (No, not that Brian Oblivion.), AKA Cults.  Cults are able to pack about 50% of the highlights of the history of pop into a 25-35-minute set that has them resembling just about every brand of cool.  They could be described as “totally dreamy,” or “coyly pre-Twee.”  They also owe a lot to the sass of girl groups.  They can even get a bit rambunctious at times… but in a totally sugar-coated way.  So these sentiments haven’t exactly been lacking in recent indie music, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not still ineffably lovely when they all collide in Cults.

 

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During the day Izzy Cihak teaches transgression, subversion, and revolution at Temple University. At night he haunts Philthy's best venues to cover worthwhile acts for Philthy Mag. Morrissey is everything to him and, in their own heads, all of his friends see themselves as Zooey Deschanel.

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