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“Recently we were playing a gig in New Jersey and the promoter said Now Is The Time made him feel inspirational, and that’s always our intention, so that was really cool,” says Regina Strayhorn, accordionist, melodica player, glockenspieler, and one-third of Bandits on the Run, a folksy, Brooklyn-based, indie...
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*Update: Sadly, Colter Wall’s entire fall tour (including all of his dates with Riddy Arman) are postponed until next year. “I started writing music as a form of meditation and therapy, without realizing it at the time. That’s what I was using music and songwriting for. So, my music...
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Philly’s favorite local alt rockers, Alright Junior, released their latest EP, Battle Scars, last July, in the middle of the worst part of the pandemic. But during a recent phone chat vocalist/guitarist Jace Miller tells me he thinks that the sound of the EP, and maybe the band in...
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2021 sees the return of bluesy, folksy, garagey Americana rockers Heartless Bastards. A Beautiful Life, their first album since 2015’s Restless Ones, drops September 10th courtesy of Sweet Unknown Records/Thirty Tigers. This current iteration of Heartless Bastards has singer/songwriter/mainperson Erika Wennerstrom (who released her first solo record, Sweet Unknown,...
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This weekend, our favorite contemporary purveyors of soul, Durand Jones & The Indications, kicked off their latest headlining tour in Harrisburg. And this Wednesday, September 8th, they will find themselves headlining our very own Union Transfer. After those dates wrap with two nights at the Hollywood Palladium on the...
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“Maybe it’s because of my age, but I don’t really understand music these days… I think we’re mature alternative, but alternative has grown kind of outside of what I recognize the genre to be,” says James Mason, vocalist for LA outfit Paper Jackets. Since last October the band has...
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“A lot of bands that are in our bracket have a checklist, like what venues they have to play or whatever but, for me, just being able to put out a second record was a big highlight for me,” says Isabel Olive, perhaps better known as Latinx indie folk...
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“I actually created the word. I created my own genre,” says AZRA, founder and ambassador of “substance pop.” Last month I got a chance to chat with the LA-based Korean-American artist (who actually lived in Queen Village in 2016 and 2017), who tells me, “I always have to have...
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All three of our beloved boygenius girls are gearing up to play their biggest Philadelphia shows yet… Up first is Julien Baker, the youngest and emo-ist of the trio, who will be headlining Franklin Music Hall on September 15th (Phoebe Bridgers will be at the Skyline Stage at the...
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Andrea von Kampen should be your next folk obsession! (Our friends The Ballroom Thieves and WXPN’s Bruce Warren are already fans!) Earlier this month, the Nebraska-based singer/songwriter released the whimsically woodsy That Spell (courtesy of Fantasy Records), the follow-up to her debut LP, 2019’s Old Country. The songs found...
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Sometimes it just takes a pandemic… For me, it took a pandemic to give a fair shake to what I’ve been calling Sleater-Kinney 2.0. Sure, Dig Me Out and One Beat soundtracked much of my coolest years, and I’d seen the riot grrrl, power trio numerous times at the...
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“I think I’ve learned a lot and grown a lot. I’ve never gotten so personal, and maybe blunt. I’ve never allowed things to feel this raw and vulnerable,” says Nashville-based singer/songwriter Madi Diaz of her forthcoming album, History of a Feeling, out August 27th on ANTI-. The LP, which...
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“I’m bringing this vintage TV onto the stage. At Lolla we played a Simpsons episode. We’re incorporating this Adult Swim vibe into our show, while we play these sad, heavy songs,” says Sophie Sputnik, better known as Waltzer. Waltzer is garage rock from a former musical theatre kid and...
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*Update: Sadly, and very much at the last minute, Bella White’s show 8/26 at MilkBoy has been cancelled due to health concerns at the venue. “All of Joni Mitchell’s earliest albums are my favorite of her stuff. She got more honest as she progressed, but a lot of emotional...
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“One of my favorite things about my fans is how eclectic and diverse they are. I’ll have ravers in the back that are spinning lights, little girls in tutus, and older couples that just love violin. Sometimes I’ll see the line for the meet-and-greet and be like, ‘Who are...
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The 215’s official/unofficial return to live music was marked with the reopening of Union Transfer, our favorite Eraserhood haunt, mega-venue, and former family restaurant… The grand reopening kicked off with a record five sold out nights of hometown indie pop icons, Japanese Breakfast, who drew a pandemic-capacity crowd...
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Last week British metal outfit Employed To Serve released “Mark Of The Grave,” which frontwoman Justine Jones has called, “A positive metal anthem for people to blast when they’re having a shitty day.” The song is the second single off of Conquering, the band’s forthcoming album, set to drop...
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“I hope to spend the remainder of my life just making more stuff,” says singer/songwriter/actor/dancer/entrepreneur Lana Love during a recent phone chat. Lana already has quite a resume under her belt. In her teens she appeared in international musical productions for Disney and Nickelodeon; she’s found herself on US...
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“We talk a lot about diverse topics, and people have been asking us if there’s more clean singing, because our lead single has some clean singing. There are a few songs with clean singing. We have some songs that sound like ballads, and songs that are mosh parts,” says...
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Today New York-based Americana outfit, The Booklights, release their debut EP, Into a Ball, a release that likely wouldn’t have happened, if it wasn’t for the pandemic. “It’s so wild to be releasing an EP right now. We recorded almost everything last summer and, for the most part, it...
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Although there have been a small handful of live concerts throughout Philadelphia over the course of the summer, The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection will have its unofficial welcome back to live music with Japanese Breakfast, who will be headlining a record five sold out nights at...
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“I was a tomboy growing up, and that’s starting to become cool again, but when I was growing up, it wasn’t,” says queer alt-hip hop artist Lex Leosis, laughing. “I mean, I’m 6’2’’, so it was always hard to find clothes that fit anyway, but I’ve started focusing on...
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Always at the cutting edge of progressive performance spectacles, Dutch symphonic metal juggernaut Within Temptation recently put on what could possibly be the most epic live show we see in 2021… On July 15th and July 16th, the band performed The Aftermath – A Show In A Virtual Reality,...
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“I think coming from the last year and a half of this crazy stuff, spending time rehearsing and writing, we definitely have magical moments together where you really feel like, ‘This is why we started doing this in the first place’,” says Michael Rudes, drummer of LA alternative rockers...
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Earlier this week May Rio (of Poppies) released a music video for “Reservations,” a morosely quirky ballad about being smitten with a recovering junkie. The video, directed by Michael Jenson, was rendered on Mario Paint and edited on VCRs. The audiovisual combo is a poignant reminder of the early-mid...
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Last month a new partnership between legendary songwriter and producer Linda Perry and Repost released its first single, “Home,” by British singer/songwriter Frances Lion. The song is a bold folk anthem recorded during lockdown and inspired by Lion’s hometown of Hampshire, England. It was produced by her own brother...
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Earlier this month our favorite Australian pop-punks surprised us a little bit with “Walk Over My Grave,” their first single since their debut LP. The track has the band sounding a little heavier and more aggressive than we’re used to, in addition to donning darker and angstier duds (Think...
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Someone needs to make summertime jams for the indie kids… Fortunately, Pageants’ upcoming sophomore LP, Sun and Settled Days, is full of them. The second full-length from the Long Beach duo, comprised of partners Rebecca Coleman and Devin O’Brien, is a collection of sun-soaked, surf-friendly garage rock gems… which...
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“I think the album noticeably doesn’t follow any genre. The binding thing is the spirituality of the music. The psychedelic spirituality brought us all together,” says Danny Musengo of Gone Gone Beyond, whose sophomore album, 2030, dropped last month. The album’s title is a reference to a period in...
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“I always try to look like a schoolgirl version of Harley Quinn. I actually get most of my fashion inspiration from fictional characters,” says Chelsea Collins. Upon first glance, Chelsea Collins resembles a cross between an icon of TRL and the starlet of a ‘60s exploitation film. Her sex...
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“It really means more than I can express every time someone plays one of my songs for someone, whether they’re buying it or streaming it. That puts gas in my tank,” says Lauren Jenkins. Jenkins is a heartland rocker who seems to live the life of an always-impeccably-styled Americana...
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“It’s vulnerability at its finest,” says Nashville-based Americana singer/songwriter Leah Blevins of her debut album, First Time Feeling (She’s chatting with me via phone from her Florida vacation.) The album is out August 6th on Thirty Tigers, although Blevins has been on the scene and making music for quite...
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“3,000 times a day these commercials are basically calling you ugly. They have everyone feeling bad about themselves and I don’t think that’s fair… I want people to be able to love themselves,” says Rosie Rebel, frontwoman of Brooklyn punk rockers Typhoid Rosie. She’s discussing the band’s latest single,...
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Although Lisa Crawley may not quite be a marquee name in America, there’s a reasonable chance that you’ve heard her music featured in shows like Nancy Drew, Good Trouble, and Stumptown in recent years. However, the New Zealand-born indie pop singer/songwriter, who recently relocated to Los Angeles, has been...
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“I’m really real in my music. I’m very honest and I just love to share stories. That’s the great thing about country. We’re not sugar-coating anything. We’re into telling real stories and being down to Earth with things. We’re like, ‘Let’s talk about it! Let’s sing about it!’ That’s...
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“If we were one of the bands playing in Twin Peaks, this would be the sound,” says Lizzie Edwards, frontwoman of Lizzie & The Makers, of their forthcoming sophomore LP, Dear Onda Wahl. Lizzie’s chatting with me via phone from a coffee house in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She tells...
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How to Survive a Funeral, Australian symphonic metalcore outfit Make Them Suffer’s fourth LP, dropped last June, just in time for the band to spend a year inside… However, during a recent chat with guitarist Nick McLernon, he tells me that, despite the circumstances, the album was far-from lost...
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“If I could ask something of any listeners, it’d just be to keep an open mind. Leave your expectations at the door. And I’d say that about any music, not just my own,” says Aubrey Haddard. Haddard is not your everyday Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter. “I do love movies. Jean Cocteau,...
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With song titles like “Artificial Happiness,” “God Hates Flags,” and “Eden is the Worst,” Emily Davis and The Murder Police aren’t exactly subtle about their politics… The El Paso band’s sophomore LP, Never A Moment Alone, released June 25th, tackles issues such as climate change, potential dystopias, and toxic...
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Jessica Vaughn, better known as LACES, seems to have come full circle with her latest single, “Almost Happy,” which dropped late last month. The track, an homage to the 1990s, has the singer/songwriter/record label owner joined by Butch Walker, who took her out on her first tour well over...
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“I’m obsessed with FKA Twigs. I’m obsessed with anything that’s inspired by goddess imagery, feminine empowerment, kink culture, anything subversive.” Lea Cappelli, better known as L’FREAQ, is describing her sartorial style, but the characterization could just as easily apply to the sentiments of her music itself. “I think it’s...
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“For me really, I just fell into music by accident. I was a gymnast first, which is where ‘Ariel’ came from, and then I wanted to be Avril Lavigne, so the guitar just fell into my lap,” says the exceptionally enthusiastic Ariel Bellvalaire during a recent phone chat. The...
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This Friday, June 25th, sees the release of Lucy Dacus’ third LP, Home Video, courtesy of Matador. The album chronicles the existential ins and outs of Dacus’ formative years in Richmond, VA. Her fourth and latest single, “Brando,” tells the tale of a high school friend obsessed with Old...
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This Friday German post-hardcore outfit VENUES released the fourth entry in their comically gory Rock N’ Roll zombie saga with videographer Marius Milinski. The video is for “Mountains,” the fourth release off of the band’s upcoming sophomore effort, Solace, due out August 27th. Following the release of their 2018 debut,...
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Upon seeing Jenna Kyle’s recent video for “Tell Me,” any former goth teen won’t be able to help conjuring comparisons to Depeche Mode’s Anton Corbijn collaborations. The hyper-moody banger is equally suitable for midnight epiphanies and moderately-irresponsible nightclubbing. And the accompanying music video, directed by Jay Harwood, has the...
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A girl has a strange experience writing a song inspired by Newton’s 1st law on Jackson Browne’s guitar in Kid Rock’s old house… While that sounds like the plot to a modern psychedelic exploitation film that would play as part of a midnight double-feature with Beyond the Valley of...
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Vancouver’s self-described “genre-blending make-out music-making trio” I M U R recently released music videos for singles “Case of You” and “Sad Girls Club” that resemble Larry Clark and Harmony Korine’s highly stylized explorations of teenage wildlife. So, it’s not surprising that during a recent chat producer/multi-instrumentalist Amine Bouzaher tells...
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“I mean we’ve been around 22 years now, so there are people who’ll bring their kids now,” says Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd. Buckcherry are currently on the road, supporting their forthcoming ninth studio album, Hellbound, which hits shelves June 25th. When their self-titled debut LP and hit single “Lit...
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Earlier during the pandemic, shoegaze savant Jasamine White-Gluz, the brainchild behind No Joy, released Motherhood, the first No Joy album in five years and their most eclectic and surprising yet. The album; which was released via Joyful Noise and received praise from the likes of Pitchfork, The FADER, and...
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“It’s funny because they call your second album ‘the sophomore slump’ because it’s the album that makes or breaks you, which is true!” 24-year-old, blue-haired, usually-leather-clad chanteuse Diamante is reflecting on the classic concerns associated with second LPs in light of her own sophomore full-length, American Dream, which dropped...
“Recently we were playing a gig in New Jersey and the promoter said Now Is The Time made him feel inspirational, and that’s always our intention, so that was really cool,” says Regina Strayhorn, accordionist, melodica player, glockenspieler, and one-third of Bandits on the Run, a folksy, Brooklyn-based, indie...
*Update: Sadly, Colter Wall’s entire fall tour (including all of his dates with Riddy Arman) are postponed until next year. “I started writing music as a form of meditation and therapy, without realizing it at the time. That’s what I was using music and songwriting for. So, my music...
