Philthy Mag
  • Band Interviews
    HAU RUCK Turns 20 and Lucia Cifarelli Plays First-Ever Solo…
  • Live Events
    Bloc Party at The Met (6/4)
  • Band Interviews
    Heart Attack Man’s Eric Egan Talks ALL FOUR LPs and…
    Philthy Mag
      • Band Interviews
        • HAU RUCK Turns 20 and Lucia Cifarelli Plays First-Ever Solo…
          HAU RUCK Turns 20 and Lucia Cifarelli Plays First-Ever Solo…
        • Heart Attack Man’s Eric Egan Talks ALL FOUR LPs and…
          Heart Attack Man’s Eric Egan Talks ALL FOUR LPs and…
        • NOBRO: “Lots of shredding! Crowd surfing! Cursing! The middle finger!…
          NOBRO: “Lots of shredding! Crowd surfing! Cursing! The middle finger!…
        • PANIK FLOWER on Getting More Introspective, DIY, and Shoegaze on…
          PANIK FLOWER on Getting More Introspective, DIY, and Shoegaze on…
        • Dean Wareham Talks New Solo LP, Touring Like a Twentysomething,…
          Dean Wareham Talks New Solo LP, Touring Like a Twentysomething,…
        • Humbird: “It’s so cool to play in nightclubs and then…
          Humbird: “It’s so cool to play in nightclubs and then…
      • Music Reviews
        • The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection KNOWS Katie…
          The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection KNOWS Katie…
        • Lauren Mayberry’s Return to Union Transfer
          Lauren Mayberry’s Return to Union Transfer
        • Adrianne Lenker Brings the Bright Future Era to a Close…
          Adrianne Lenker Brings the Bright Future Era to a Close…
        • Orla Gartland, As Intimate as it’s Gonna Get
          Orla Gartland, As Intimate as it’s Gonna Get
        • Alice Phoebe Lou Drops “Better” as Clairo Tour Winds Down
          Alice Phoebe Lou Drops “Better” as Clairo Tour Winds Down
        • The Sisters Of Mercy @ The Met Philadelphia
          The Sisters Of Mercy @ The Met Philadelphia
      • HAU RUCK Turns 20 and Lucia Cifarelli Plays First-Ever Solo Shows (6/15 at Underground Arts w/ Lords Of Acid)

        izzy
        June 12, 2025
        Last month Metropolis Records released HAU RUCK 2025, a 20th anniversary remixed and remastered edition of industrial legends KMFDM’s 14th LP, HAU RUCK.  And just last week KMFDM vocalist and keyboardist (of a quarter century now…) Lucia Cifarelli kicked off her first-ever solo tour, which has her handling opening...
      • Bloc Party at The Met (6/4)

        morgan
        June 12, 2025
        London indie rock band, Bloc Party, perform at The Met, celebrating 20 years of the band and their first album, Silent Alarm. The crowd consisted of older and newer fans alike, and everyone brought the most energy they could to celebrate this big milestone. Check out my photos from the...
      • Heart Attack Man’s Eric Egan Talks ALL FOUR LPs and “unlocking new places on the map” (6/14 at The Foundry)

        izzy
        June 11, 2025
        During a recent Zoom chat with vocalist/guitarist Eric Egan, I found out that, for a number of years, a lot of people thought Heart Attack Man were from Philadelphia…  While the punk trio did record 2017 debut LP, The Manson Family, at Headroom Studios, and they have played more...
      • NOBRO: “Lots of shredding! Crowd surfing! Cursing! The middle finger! Badass women!” (6/13 at MilkBoy w/ Bad Waitress)

        izzy
        June 10, 2025
        This Friday, June 13th, MilkBoy will be playing host to the best double-headlining jaunt of the summer, The Go For Broke Tour, featuring Canadian punk rockers NOBRO and Bad Waitress (with our local buddies Puppy Angst opening the show for good measure!)   Montreal’s NOBRO are touring behind sophomore LP...
      • PANIK FLOWER on Getting More Introspective, DIY, and Shoegaze on EP #2 (6/12 at Khyber Pass Pub)

        izzy
        June 8, 2025
        You may have caught NYC dreamgaze outfit PANIK FLOWER last year when they opened MilkBoy for our phriends partygirl.  And, during a recent Zoom chat with four of the five members of PANIK FLOWER, I find out that it was apparently a highlight of their young career.  This Thursday,...
      • Dean Wareham Talks New Solo LP, Touring Like a Twentysomething, and One Very Special Reunion (6/10 at WCL)

        izzy
        June 8, 2025
        “We play a bunch of new stuff until the audience is like, ‘Well…’” jokes Dean Wareham; singer, songwriter, and guitarist of Galaxie 500, Luna, and Dean & Britta; who has spent the past several months touring behind That’s the Price of Loving Me, his fourth solo LP, which dropped...
      • Momma at Union Transfer (5/30)

        morgan
        June 5, 2025
        Momma, the indie rock band based in Brooklyn, New York, performed at Union Transfer on May 30th. Their fourth album, Welcome to My Blue Sky, was released in early April. This was my second time seeing and shooting Momma, the first time at Johnny Brenda’s a couple of years...
      • Humbird: “It’s so cool to play in nightclubs and then it’s so cool to drive out into the woods for a freaky festival.” (6/11 at MilkBoy)

        izzy
        June 3, 2025
        “I wasn’t sure how I wanted to write about love and being happy without being totally annoying,” laughs Siri Undlin, AKA Humbird, regarding her recent EP, Astrovan: The Love Song Vignettes, whose origins began when Undlin was suffering from an exceptionally bad case of writer’s block.  The 11-track EP,...
      • Phoneboy: “We love Philly so much. Can’t wait to be back!” (6/5 at The Foundry)

        izzy
        June 3, 2025
        Brooklyn indie rockers Phoneboy – who we saw last year supporting our phriends Beach Weather at The Foundry and playing The Fillmore’s big room with Grayscale – have officially been on the road for more than a month now, touring behind the release of their third full-length, Heartbreak Designer,...
      • Cornelia Murr: “I’m so excited to play! I’ve always wanted to play Johnny Brenda’s!” (6/8)

        izzy
        May 28, 2025
        “Going into that first record, I was kind of in disbelief it was happening at all, and didn’t know if it would ever come out.  For this one, I was dying to put something out…  I’m 35 now, and I was in my twenties for the first one,” says...
      • Samia: “The intimate shows are always my favorite — I just love seeing people’s faces.” (5/28 at TLA)

        izzy
        May 27, 2025
        The last time we spoke with indie rock singer/songwriter Samia was September of 2021, just as live music was returning and she was preparing to headline a sold-out show at Johnny Brenda’s.  However, we’ve seen her in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection quite a few times...
      • Three Reasons: The Head And The Heart at The Opera House (6/6 at The Met)

        izzy
        May 27, 2025
        Next Friday, June 6th, folk outfit The Head And The Heart return to The Met Philadelphia for the first time since 2019 and to Philadelphia itself for the first time since… well, earlier this month, although it was a private show…  The Seattle six-piece have a new album that...
      • Lights: “I have full creative control over my career.” (6/4 at World Cafe Live)

        izzy
        May 27, 2025
        “Philly has this attitude that, ‘We don’t care, but we really do care,’” jokes Canadian electro-pop legend Lights, who’s spend quite a bit of time in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection over the past decade and a half, including a plethora of shows at The TLA. ...
      • Treats Turns 15 and Sleigh Bells Return to Union Transfer, 6/3 (Win Tickets Courtesy of Y-Not Radio!)

        izzy
        May 26, 2025
        “I absolutely adore it!  It sounds like two people slipping on a banana peel and accidentally catching lightning in a bottle.  To me, Treats is this little freakshow island of a record,” says Derek Miller, producer, guitarist, and one-half of Sleigh Bells, whose debut LP, Treats, which dropped on...
      • Glare (w/ Superheaven) at Union Transfer (5/16)

        morgan
        May 23, 2025
        South Texas shoegaze band Glare — whose debut LP, Sunset Funeral, dropped April 4th — performed to a sold out crowd at Union Transfer as direct support for hometown(ish) heroes Superheaven last Friday, May 16th.     The show featured Minneapolis alternative rockers Prize Horse, who kicked off the...
      • Remy Bond: “I definitely want everyone to dress up, it takes the show to another level.” (6/1 at The Foundry)

        izzy
        May 23, 2025
        You may have heard Remy Bond’s breakthrough bop “Summer Song” on the May edition of Philthy Radio, my monthly show on Y-Not Radio (now streaming).  However, today the NYC singer/songwriter dropped another summertime jam, “Moviestar,” whose live debut will almost definitely take place in the City of Brotherly Love...
      • Tennis: “Knowing this is the last thing that we do, we wanted to end on an emotional note.” (5/31 at Franklin Music Hall)

        izzy
        May 22, 2025
        “We knew right away it was our last record.  Patrick didn’t want to do any records after Pollen, but we thought we needed to do this right and with respect for our fans,” says Alaina Moore, one-half of indie pop duo Tennis (along with husband Patrick Riley), who announced...
      • Momma on LP #4, Returning to Headlining Duties, and Befriending Modest Mouse (5/30 at UT)

        izzy
        May 22, 2025
        “I think headlining shows are, above all, most fun.  You can fuck up and you kind of laugh along with your fans,” says Momma’s Allegra Weingarten, before Etta Friedman – Momma’s other co-founder, singer, songwriter, and guitarist – adds, “I think that those moments are very endearing.  We never...
      • Mei Semones Takes Her Debut Album on the Road (5/29 at WCL)

        izzy
        May 20, 2025
        “Every kind of venue has its own perks.  The crowd can be more attentive if they’re seated, like a concert, but the standing venues can have a certain energy to them.  But I do love a theatre,” says Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Mei Semones, whose official website characterizes...
      • Alaina Stacey: “I sometimes struggle to put a name to my genre…” (5/23 at WCL)

        izzy
        May 20, 2025
        “I moved here in 2023, and I’ve been loving every minute…  I feel like it’s the Midwest of the Northeast in my mind, with old-old history, but really real people… the art, the murals, the diversity of all kinds that you have here,” says singer/songwriter Alaina Stacey, who originally...
      • Peach Pit’s First Rendezvous at The Opera House (TONIGHT at The Met w/ Briston Maroney and Bnny)

        izzy
        May 20, 2025
        This spring The Met has presented us with an abundance of phenomenal shows, and tonight (5/20) they will be hosting a stellar, nearly-sold-out, three-act bill with opening night of the Long Hair, Long Life Tour, which is entirely comprised of phriends of phriends of PHILTHY MAG.  Co-headlining the evening...
      • Bad Nerves w/ Spiritual Cramp at Underground Arts (5/9)

        morgan
        May 16, 2025
        The powerpop/punk band from Essex, Bad Nerves, return to the States for their Still Nervous Tour. San Francisco punk rockers, Spiritual Cramp, join them as their openers. I attended and photographed their Philly show at Underground Arts, and it was one hell of a show.     Bad Nerves...
      • Sunflower Bean’s Julia Cumming Talks Cheesesteaks, Belle and Sebastian, and LP #4 (5/16 at JB’s)

        izzy
        May 13, 2025
        Sunflower Bean premiered nearly half of their fourth full-length, Mortal Primetime, right here in the 215, during the second half of their eight-song set on the April 18th edition of WXPN’s Free At Noon at World Café Live.  In the time since, the NYC rock trio (who we last...
      • Dandys Rule OK Turns 30: “It holds up to me quite well, surprisingly well…” (5/14 at Ardmore Music Hall)

        izzy
        May 12, 2025
        Last year Portland neo-psychedelic legends The Dandy Warhols celebrated their 30th anniversary.  After spending much of the year touring their 12th studio LP, ROCKMAKER, they celebrated their third full decade together with a string of West Coast dates last December.  “All of them were super fun…  We did multiple...
      • Come See Ginger Root 101, Live at The Met (5/15 and 5/16 w/ Japanese Breakfast)

        izzy
        May 11, 2025
        The last two times we saw Ginger Root – the synth-heavy, alt-disco/indie soul outfit of Cameron Lew – in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection was just last October, when the Southern California band played a WXPN Free At Noon at World Cafe Live prior to a...
      • DAIISTAR Talks New Music and Touring with Legends (5/10 at JB’s w/ L.A. Witch)

        izzy
        May 9, 2025
        Austin noise-pop/shoegaze outfit DAIISTAR apparently have a lot of phriends in common with PHILTHY MAG.  In 2023 the quartet toured with The Dandy Warhols (keep checking the site for my recent chat with Dandys guitarist Peter Holmström, ahead of their May 14th show at Ardmore Music Hall), last year...
      • Djo at Franklin Music Hall (5/3)

        morgan
        May 5, 2025
        Djo, the musical project of Joe Keery from Stranger Things and Fargo, put on an incredible performance this past Saturday at a sold out Franklin Music Hall. His latest album, The Crux, was released just last month. Last year, his song End of Beginning went viral on TikTok, garnered...
      • Alisa Xayalith: “With this project, I am beginning from the ground up.” [5/9 at JB’s w/ Sunday (1994)]

        izzy
        May 5, 2025
        Alisa Xayalith has played the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection a lot over the years, including shows headlining the stages of The Trocadero and Union Transfer.  However, this Friday, May 9th, she will be returning to the 215 to play her most intimate area show ever at...
      • Anna Shoemaker Talks Sophomore LP and Joining Mallrat on the Road (5/7 at The Foundry)

        izzy
        May 5, 2025
        “When I play Philly, it feels full circle because of the people.  My family will be there, my friends will be there,” homegrown indie-pop artist Anna Shoemaker tells me during a recent phone chat.  The last time I spoke to the singer/songwriter, she was preparing for a few performances...
      • “No one will ever see the same Sir Woman show twice.” (5/6 at JB’s)

        izzy
        May 4, 2025
        “It saved my life, for sure…  I don’t know how people survive without writing songs.  I don’t know how to process anything without it,” says Kelsey Wilson, frontwoman and bandleader of Austin soul/funk/R&B outfit Sir Woman (also of Americana band Wild Child).  This February, Sir Woman released If It...
      • Emily Sprague Talks Florist’s Last 10 Years and the Band’s Next Chapter (5/5 at JB’s)

        izzy
        April 29, 2025
        New York minimalist folk outfit Florist have played a number of noteworthy shows in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.  The summer of 2023 had them double-headlining Underground Arts with Skullcrusher and the previous summer saw them headlining The Lounge and World Café Live.  They’ve also played...
      • SASAMI Gets Back to Headlining (5/3 at Underground Arts)

        izzy
        April 29, 2025
        The last time SASAMI headlined the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection was in March of 2022 at Johnny Brenda’s, which the singer/songwriter told me during a chat last November was an especially memorable experience: “That was a great show!  I think I injured my guitarist at that show…  I...
      • Allison Russell: “We’re really leaning into the power of our voices in harmony on this tour.” (5/2 at TLA)

        izzy
        April 28, 2025
        This Wednesday, Americana artist Allison Russell kicks off the U.S. leg of the All Returners Tour, a jaunt that was originally scheduled for last fall, but was postponed after Russell booked her Broadway debut as Persephone in 8 x Tony Award winning musical Hadestown, by Anaïs Mitchell.  The second...
      • “I think what can be expected most at any Fancy Hagood show is vulnerability.” (4/29 at WCL)

        izzy
        April 28, 2025
        Last May we saw queer country singer/songwriter Fancy Hagood at the Music Hall at World Café Live when he opened the No One Gets Out Alive tour for our phriend, and fellow Nashville-based Americana artist, Maggie Rose (He’s also toured with our pal Kaitlin Butts!)  However, earlier this month...
      • Bria Salmena Talks Solo Headline Touring: “I’m just grateful that anybody’s coming out at all…” (4/25 at WCL)

        izzy
        April 24, 2025
        We first met LA/Toronto-based singer/songwriter Bria Salmena in the summer of 2021, just as live music was making a return.  Bria and longtime musical collaborator Duncan Hay Jennings – in addition to being one-half of Canadian post-punk group FRIGS, at the time the two were also members of Orville...
      • LAKE Talk Criterion, Traveling the World, and Being a “Band-Band” (4/27 at JB’s)

        izzy
        April 19, 2025
        “We are a lot more open now to bringing a more raw song to the group, and knowing whatever they do with it is going to be amazing…  Earlier on, we were more ambitious with our ideas, but maybe had too many ideas, whereas now we’re more efficient,” says...
      • The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection KNOWS Katie Gavin

        izzy
        April 19, 2025
        This past Wednesday, April 16th, all of the proudly “sad girls” of the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection (okay, about 3,000 of them…) were gathered at The Met Philadelphia for opening night of Lucy Dacus’ Forever Is a Feeling Tour, the former Philthy resident’s most profound local...
      • Pet Symmetry’s Evan Weiss on The Church, Being with Buds, and Doing “a full album of love songs…” (5/13 at JB’s)

        izzy
        April 10, 2025
        “I basically grew up in the First Unitarian Church basement,” says Evan Weiss, best known as the man behind Into It. Over It., whose Pet Symmetry – which also features Ratboys’ Marcus Nuccio and Dowsing’s Erik Czaja – are gearing up to release their fourth full-length, Big Symmetry, May...
      • Valerie June: “Ya’ll have not seen me yet!” (4/15 at World Cafe Live)

        izzy
        April 10, 2025
        “Working with a genius, you just soak everything up,” says Americana singer/songwriter Valerie June of her upcoming studio album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles, which drops this Friday, April 11th.  “Like the first record, there’s blazing electric guitar.  We’re kind of returning to it, not that I don’t have blazing...
      • Sammy Rae & The Friends: “Our audience has been waiting for an album forever.” (4/12 at The Fillmore)

        izzy
        April 8, 2025
        Jazzy, folky, funky, soulful, classic rock-infused NYC indie pop outfit Sammy Rae & The Friends have been phriends of PHILTHY MAG for some time now.  I first met Sammy Rae in summer/fall of 2021, prior to a sold-out date at World Café Live; checked in with The Friends’ band...
      • Lyncs Talks Brand-New Single and Coming to Kung Fu Necktie (4/14 w/ The Ivy)

        izzy
        April 1, 2025
        We last saw indie-pop singer/songwriter Lyncs (the musical moniker of Jacqueline Hynes) last August when she double-headlined The Lounge at World Café Live with Laur Elle.  However, the Lancaster-born artist has released quite a bit of music since then, including November’s SICK+SIN EP; “I LIVE IN THIS BODY” single,...
      • Annabel Lee: “I promise to bring fearsome energy.”

        izzy
        April 1, 2025
        *Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled. Los Angeles-based alt-rock singer/songwriter Annabel Lee has a lot of impressive credits.  She’s toured as direct support for PHILTHY phriend Moon Walker; performed on a SXSW showcase alongside our buddies Zella Day and Indigo De Souza; regularly worked with producer Justin Glasco, who’s...
      • flipturn: “We always wanna top the last show we put on for an audience.” (4/11 at Franklin Music Hall)

        izzy
        March 29, 2025
        If my calculations are correct, the last time indie rock quintet flipturn played Philadelphia proper, they were in a venue less than 1/10th the size of that of their upcoming area appearance (And the last time they were openers and this time they’re headlining…)  The Florida band, who we...
      • The Weather Station Returns to Headlining Stages (4/4 at WCL and Underground Arts )

        izzy
        March 28, 2025
        “I’m really proud of the show.  I know it’s the best show I’ve ever put on.  I’m treating it like a performance, instead of just, ‘We have to play the songs,’” says Canadian folk singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman, AKA The Weather Station, of her tour behind Humanhood, her seventh studio...
      • Blue Hawaii open TLA for Rebecca Black, 3/29: “The magic of a crazy warehouse DJ set with live vocals distilled into a bite-sized piece!”

        izzy
        March 28, 2025
        Tomorrow night queer pop icon Rebecca Black will be playing her biggest show yet in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection… and so will our buddies Blue Hawaii, who will be opening for Rebecca Black this Saturday, March 29th, at Theatre of Living Arts.  We’ve known the...
      • Poppy Brings Her Biggest Spectacle Yet to Philthy’s Biggest Ballroom (4/3 at The Fillmore)

        izzy
        March 27, 2025
        Genre-bending – often metallic, often electronic, often alternative, and often delectably pop – singer/songwriter, performance artist, graphic novelist, and internet sensation Poppy is gearing up to play her biggest-ever headlining show in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection next Thursday, April 3rd.  Her last two local stops...
      • Immersion and SUSS Bring Nanocluster Vol.3 to Johnny Brenda’s, 4/1: “It’s never a jam session.”

        izzy
        March 27, 2025
        Last month electronic duo Immersion (comprised of Wire’s Colin Newman and Minimal Compact’s Malka Spigel, a “life and art” couple) released the third album of their collaborative Nanocluster series (2021’s Nanocluster, Vol.1 saw them collaborating with our phriend Laetitia Sadier, German post-rock duo Tarwater, and electronic musicians Ulrich Schnauss...
      • A Brief History of Fust: “It’s been kind of happy accidents along the way.” (4/2 at JB’s)

        izzy
        March 26, 2025
        “It’s a bit of a riff song.  It started with a riff, and I had that Shakespeare line, ‘Oh what country, friends, is this?’  And I was looking at ‘country’ and the concept of country in the American context… and Harold Pinter wrote Mountain Language, an amazing play about...
      • senses Bring Their First-Ever Headlining Tour to The Foundry, 3/30: “Energy is definitely our middle name.”

        izzy
        March 25, 2025
        “Joe’s Cheesesteaks!” exclaims Nick Sampson, drummer of LA-based, self-proclaimed “emo-friendly, punk-curious” duo senses (who are ineffably friendly, themselves) when I ask the band their favorite thing about Philadelphia.  senses lead singer/guitarist Madison Taylor goes on to explain, “We walk to Joe’s pretty much every time we’re there, and not...
      • An Evening With Ida & Tsunami, 3/28 at Underground Arts: “It will be a very Gen X time!”

        izzy
        March 24, 2025
        “Daniel and I have a 23-year-old daughter, and her friends are interested in music from the ‘90s, and they’re like, ‘You’re parents are in Ida?!  What?!’” says Elizabeth Mitchell of herself and husband Daniel Littleton, co-founders of 1990s indie rock legends Ida.  This past weekend, Ida kicked off their...
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