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This Friday, May 27th, will see the release of The Backbone of Night, the debut album from The Philistines, a spacey, deserty, post-punky psych rock six piece out of Kansas City, of all places… The album would seem to be equal parts early Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, latter-era Mazzy...
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Sadly, I’m guessing most of you missed Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop’s 7-song, mini-headlining, set from downstairs at World Café Live this past Thursday, as part of this year’s sold-out NonCOMM convention… Apparently it was quite something… Well, fortunately, for the rest of us (Yes, I was absent as...
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SHEL are a perfectly and beautifully confusing intersection of classical, modern, and post-modern… SHEL are four Nashville-based sisters who grew up on an abandoned-trailer-park-converted-farm in Colorado, studying classical music, loving the best pop singing/songwriting of the 1960s, and embracing contemporary electronic modes of musical production (in addition to beatboxing)....
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Garage rockers Eureka California’s latest record, Versus, could be as infectious to children of the ‘90s as chickenpox is to kindergarteners with boundary issues. Much of the album rings of the exact half-way point between the quiet loud quiet college rock of Pixies and the rambunctious power pop of...
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I recently got a chance to chat with two-thirds of LA trio Pollyn, a band who would seem to be most famous for avoiding traditional genre labeling. When they first began making noises together they were most closely aligned with ‘90s electronic music, but they’ve transformed and expanded their...
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The term “alt-pop” is thrown around pretty casually these days… And I’m not entirely sure anybody knows what it means… I suspect it would imply a popular chanteuse (not diva) who has integrity and a soul (That would be the alternative part, right?) Well, “alt-popper” VÉRITÉ, who is indeed...
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Although the music of Meghann Wright generally comes off as exceptionally soulful Americana, in a recent chat with the Brooklyn singer/songwriter I find that she is, additionally, quite into punk and metal… Last year Meghann released Nothin’ Left to Lose, an LP reminiscent of the mid-‘90s, when so many...
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We at PHILTHY MAG have long been fans of Cincinnati-born, Texas-residing rockers Heartless Bastards. Over the course of five albums the band has woven an amalgam of twangy Rock’N’Roll that is nearly as indebted to psychedelic garage rock and post-punk alternative as it...
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Few contemporary bands could better soundtrack a Saturday night than Canadian quartet Born Ruffians. The band are currently touring behind their fourth full-length, RUFF, which dropped last year on Yep Roc Records. The album is a bit of an all-star amalgamation of history’s greatest chaotic pop music, which lands...
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This Friday, May 6th, Cate Le Bon will be headlining Johnny Brenda’s for what seems will be one of the best performances Philly sees all year. Last month the Welsh (but LA-residing) singer/songwriter released her fourth LP, Crab Day, courtesy of Drag City, and it’s already achieved overwhelming critical...
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Although there seem to be a lot of people talking about The Thermals show with Summer Cannibals and Amanda X tonight at Union Transfer, for those of you who are 21+, I would highly recommend an alternative just a few blocks over in Eraserhood. Tonight Dilly Dally and Fat...
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Every time Saintseneca comes to the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, the Columbus, Ohio alt rock/folk rock outfit seems to be on a bigger and cooler bill, from their January 2014 stop upstairs at World Café Live, to a few stops at Johnny Brenda’s (most recently last...
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LA six-piece Run River North would seem to always be on PHILTHY’s radar. We first met the orchestral indie folk rock band in the summer of 2013, when they were recording their self-titled debut LP in Seattle with renowned producer Phil Ek (The Walkmen, Father John Misty, Built to...
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Next Friday, April 15th, Iggy Pop will be playing his last-ever Philly date… at an opera house… for $150… So I’m guessing that the party that I will actually be attending is Har Mar Superstar and High Waisted’s show at the 200-capacity MilkBoy...
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Next Friday, April 15th, Philthy is hosting a plethora of cool shows (Lissie at Johnny Brenda’s, The Joy Formidable at Underground Arts, Har Mar Superstar and High Waisted at MilkBoy, and Iggy Pop’s last ever Philadelphia show… at the oldest operating opera house in America… for $150…) but those...
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This Friday, April 8th, sees the release of Daniel Ash’s first studio album since 2002’s criminally underrated S/T album. This one is called Stripped. It features new renditions of some classic Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love and Rockets songs. It’s described as “’re-takes’...
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This Friday, April 8th, The Cult will be bringing what is sure to be the biggest ROCK show Philthy has seen all year to the stage of the Electric Factory. However, the band handling opening duties, Des Moines, Iowa’s Holy White Hounds, seem to know quite a bit about...
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Although we recently lost perhaps our favorite Nashville artist with the conclusion of Those Darlins, Music City is far from done growing artists that PHILTHY loves to love. This Friday, April 1st, Nashville singer/songstress Shannon LaBrie will release her second full-length, War & Peace, an album that’s largely inspired...
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Although they may not quite be a household name, Portland, Oregon’s The High Violets have been kicking out wonderfully lush and fuzzy dream pop and shoegaze jams since the late ‘90s, and this Friday, April 1st, will see the release of their fifth full-length, Heroes and Halos, courtesy of...
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This Saturday, April 2nd, Philly is hosting a lot of PHILTHY’s favorite musical friends, including Worriers at Boot & Saddle and Sleepy Kitty at MilkBoy, but there’s nothing we’re more excited about than our good buddies Pure Bathing Culture, the Portland-based ethereal pop duo, who will be playing a...
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On April 7th longtime PHILTHY friends and exceptionally-environmentally-progressive indie rockers Cloud Cult will play their biggest-ever local headlining date at The Foundry, in the newly-opened Fillmore of Philadelphia. Over the past two decades the Duluth, Minnesota-based band has made a name for themselves not only making some of the...
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Sean Watkins is undoubtedly best-known as one-third of Americana trio Nickel Creek, and likely second-best know for Fiction Family, his duo which has him alongside Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman, but recent years have had him most focused on his solo career (which actually began in 2001, with solo debut Let...
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Even if Skating Polly isn’t a name in your household just yet, their credentials speak for themselves. Their fans include X, L7, Perfecy Pussy, and Rachel Trachtenburg, in addition to some of PHILTHY’s personal favorites, like Beach Day, Dilly Dally (Keep checking the blog for my recent chat with...
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About two weeks ago Londoners Is Tropical played one of the best shows Philly has seen all year, although Boot & Saddle housed a sadly sparse crowd, but neither the band nor those in attendance seemed to mind much… After all, it was a local debut of sorts… The...
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So surely all of Philthy’s post-punks, new wavers, and likely-at-this-point-in-time-hip-as-fuck parents were thrilled when New Order hit up the Mann in the summer of 2013, their first local date in about two decades… However, I think I speak for us all when I say that the 14,000-capacity summertime shed...
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I’m not exactly sure how they would take this, but I think that it’s safe to say that Dear Tracks are easily the best dear/deer band to emerge in the past decade… The Grand Rapids-based band began when frontman Matt Messore (formerly of You Blew It!) moved up to...
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LA trio The Dead Ships have only been kicking out their sugar-coated garage jams (see: latter-era Von Bondies) for about three years now, but they already seem like they’re going to be kinda huge. Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene recently produced a bunch of tracks for them and...
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Today sees the release of the criminally brilliant Empire Underground EP, courtesy of London-based electro duo The Big Pink. The album sees the band fully-embracing a very post-Brit Poppy, shogazey take on poignant electro pop, reminiscent of early BRMC, coupled with the shimmery flair of Asobi Seksu. Well, Philly...
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While many bands these days seem to be touring in celebration of a past album, surfy indie rockers Best Coast and Wavves are currently celebrating the fifth anniversary of their Summer Is Forever double-headlining Tour, with the Summer Is Forever II tour. Each tour had the bands bringing their...
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Sometimes it’s nice when a band turn out to be exactly what their name promises. Such is the case for London trio Witching Waves, whose sophomore LP, Crystal Café, is set to drop on February 26th on LP, cassette, and digital download, via HHBTM Records. The songs of Crystal...
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Not that I have anything against cellists (I’m a fan of quite a few.), but rarely do they find themselves in the realm of what could be considered “hip.” However, Chicago-based cellist Shannon Hayden would very much seem to fit that description. I daresay she’s the hippest cellist to...
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Songwriter Jenny Gillespie has been many places and tried many things. She’s lived in Illinois, Virginia, Paris, and Texas, in addition to spending substantial amounts of time in Kenya, New York, and North Carolina (She currently resides in Northern California.) And the sounds she’s been kicking out for the...
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North Carolina trio (and Philly-live-favorites) Mount Moriah are currently preparing for the release of their third LP, How to Dance, out February 26th on Merge Records. And the album sees the band going in a slightly different direction. While the band has thus far been best known for a...
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Although we first met Rachel Kenedy, frontperson of London trio Flowers, in August of 2014, during a recent chat she tells me that the band’s upcoming sophomore LP, Everybody’s Dying to Meet You, in a lot of ways, feels like their first proper album. Their debut, Do What You...
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If you caught The Knocks at their recent appearance at The Foundry, the slightly-more-intimate venue inside the newly opened Fillmore Philly, hopefully got a chance to see the supporting set from Cardiknox, which I think was indisputably the highlight of the evening. If not, you’ll have another chance to...
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Unless, the sophomore LP from LA trio Crescendo is said to have been conceptualized in a space ship, where members Gregory Cole, Olive Kimoto, and Jess Krichelle got to know themselves and each other very intimately, spiritually and intellectually that is… Their sound is a spacey amalgam of dream...
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Both Philly and PHILTHY are longtime fans of Elizabeth & the Catapult, the musical moniker of singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist Elizabeth Ziman. Elizabeth has played the city countless times over the past seven years (a plethora of Free at Noons; many, many nights at The Tin Angel; slots...
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While London duo Oh Wonder may not have the most sizeable stage presence (spending the majority of their performance standing behind keyboards or other synthetic noise makers), the charisma of Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West would seem to be a profoundly potent source of excitement and more than...
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2016 sees “slowcore” legends (although I hear they’re not particular fond of that characterization) Low entering their 23rd year as a band, having released their 11th full-length, Ones and Sixes, last September on Sub-Pop. The album received much critical acclaim from the likes of NPR, The Guardian, and our...
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I’m sure our readers are well aware of PHILTHY’s mild obsession with “sister acts” (Which makes sense… being that we’re in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection), from experimental sis’s like CocoRosie and The Casket Girls, to the quite punky Girl in a Coma and Dog Party,...
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Although I’m sure it’s a bit bittersweet for super-fans to see that indie rockers Ra Ra Riot are returning to the mega-stage of Union Transfer on their upcoming tour, after gracing the hyper-intimate Boot & Saddle just last November, on a short, rare run of completely-sold-out, extra-cozy gigs, but...
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I do respect and “get” artists who refuse to define or categorize their sound… However, I’m even more charmed when they come up with their own designation… especially when it’s as cool as “Alternative folk pop country soul.” Such is the designation that Seattle-born, LA-residing Amy Blaschke has given...
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In my recent chats with Swahili Blonde and Miranda Lee Richards I disclosed my first favorite tracks of 2016 to PHILTHY readers, but Los Angeles-based singer/songstress Cassandra Violet is officially my favorite emerging artist (whatever the fuck that means) of 2016. Cassandra Violet has been making music professionally since...
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It’s been quite some time since we’ve heard much from Miranda Lee Richards, the folk pop singing/songwriting heroine perhaps most widely known for her involvement with the heavy hitters of mid-late ‘90s neo-psychedelia, like the Brian Jonestown Massacre (of whom she is formerly a member) and the Dandy Warhols....
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Like recently profiled Swahili Blonde, The Weather Station are another act that we last chatted with just a few months ago. The Weather Station are the primary project of Toronto singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman. We last spoke to her last July, shortly before her most recent Philly show at Johnny...
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Although it doesn’t quite compare to Bowie’s recent passing or yesterday’s truths brought to light (or really, print) by Amber Coffman, but I must admit that I’m pretty darn bummed that the upcoming dates of my favorite band, Those Darlins, will be the group’s last for the foreseeable future. ...
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Rarely do you think of “mandolin-based” bands as being reminiscent of the heroes and heroines of 120 Minutes… but that’s exactly what Virginia Beach’s Feral Conservatives are. The trio; comprised of Rashie Rosenfarb on mandolin/vocals; Matt Francis on drums, pedal noise, and feedback; and Dan Avant on bass; kick...
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Nicole Turley has become a dear friend of PHILTHY MAG over the course of the past two years. We first met her in 2014, when she was discussing the roots of Kimono Kult, the “supergroup” featuring herself, alongside Teri Gender Bender, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, John Frusciante, Dante White, and Laena...
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So wait, when did the Church start getting weeknight shows in the basement again? Is this like a one-off thing? Nevermind, I don’t wanna jinx it. But next Tuesday (after being under the impression that the venue would only operate on weekends) Philadelphia’s ultimate bastion of DIY, all-ages, youth-groupy...
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Of all of the people I’ve had the chance to meet in 2015, none was I more honored to speak with than indie icon Eszter Balint… Okay, so maybe she’s not quite an “icon” in the traditional sense… In fact, when I ask her about what that’s like, she...
This Friday, May 27th, will see the release of The Backbone of Night, the debut album from The Philistines, a spacey, deserty, post-punky psych rock six piece out of Kansas City, of all places… The album would seem to be equal parts early Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, latter-era Mazzy...
Sadly, I’m guessing most of you missed Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop’s 7-song, mini-headlining, set from downstairs at World Café Live this past Thursday, as part of this year’s sold-out NonCOMM convention… Apparently it was quite something… Well, fortunately, for the rest of us (Yes, I was absent as...
