-
Jon Crary’s Weekly Sound Off April 28-May 4 is as follows: 1. Quilt -“Tie up the Tides” (Mexican Summer) – From their new album “Held in Splendor”, this tasty tune serves up a creative bit of psychedelic indie folk rock with a retro-60’s feel. There are tons to like in...
-
“Revolutionary” hardcore at the Church is fine. And postmodern performance art at KFN can be nice. But sometimes on a Saturday night you just want some big time Rock’N’Rollers to kick your ass with some ultra-groovy riffs. Fortunately for us, English rockers Band of Skulls will be taking the...
-
You can blame it on the romance coursing through my veins, but it would seem as though many of the greatest works of art are those that nearly didn’t happen. Both are true for London duo Smoke Fairies’ eponymously-titled fourth album, which is due out May 20th on Full...
-
Garage Funk Jammers Little Barrie are a decade and a half into their career, yet May 27th will see the release of just their fourth LP, Shadow… Although that can fairly be chalked up to mainmain Barrie Cadogan’s gig stomping alongside Bobby Gillespie on guitar in Primal Scream (not...
-
The last time I spoke to Run River North vocalist/guitarist Alex Hwang was last summer. The LA-based indie folk rock sextet were currently recording their debut LP with legendary producer Phil Ek (best known for his work with the likes of Built to Spill and Fleet Foxes.) Well… the...
-
Bo Ningen are probably the hippest band that you’ve never heard of. They’re a pretty big deal for the in-the-know in places like Japan (from where they hail) and England (where they currently reside.) They’ve been making records since 2009 and have collaborated with the likes of CAN’s Damo...
-
Jon Crary’s Weekly Sound Off April 16-April 23: 1. Woods- “Moving to the Left” (Woodsist) – This amazing piece of retro folk psych rock is cool and blissful, a bit lo-fi and spacey. The singer has a melodic falsetto which all feels like it floats along while head-bopping beats...
-
Rob Zombie once said that the greatest thing about The Ramones is that they were always around and that they were always great. I think a similar sentiment applies to all-female Atlanta punk rockers The Coathangers. In the past half dozen years they’ve played at least a dozen shows...
-
Minnesota’s Cloud Cult has been kicking out organic jams for nearly two decades now, penning experimental baroque pop tunes, churning out 100% organic merch and album packaging, and greening up the music industry in general with Earthology Records, a nonprofit music organization that’s currently operating out of a building...
-
“So I guess we’re kind of like U2-meets-Depeche-Mode-meets-My-Bloody-Valentine. My favorite band is U2, but we have a ton of electronic influences and a lot of shoegaze, as well.” Ryan Daly, is explaining the origins of Parade of Lights’ sounds, the anthemic dance rock band he sings and plays guitar...
-
Last month Heineken put on a mind-blowing interactive theater show at New York’s The McKittrick Hotel. It was part play, part choose-your-own-adventure mindwarp, with an eclectic cast of characters who encouraged the audience to become a part of the show. When guests arrived,...
-
Jon Crary’s Weekly Sound Off:April 7-April 12 1. Night Drive- “Drones” – This electro-dance track pounds along and takes you back. It’s a journey that reminds you of great times on the dance floor in the 80’s with it’s hypnotic/ robotic vocals and steady keyboard synths that are irresistible and...
-
Most people are a big fan of free candy (see: Halloween). I, personally, don’t have much of a sweet tooth. However, I find, Free Candy, the third LP from Edmonton’s The Wet Secrets to be quite appetizing. The album blends garage psychedelics with the most organic kind of soul...
-
Boston’s Mean Creek are some of my favorite people in music… and not just because they’re named after one of the better films of the past ten years… I first met them in February of 2010, during a horrific snowstorm that had snow piled four feet high on every...
-
“I really love variety and I sometimes get in trouble four that. People like to be able to put a label on you and if they can’t, it kind of frustrates them,” says Beth Thornley, who’s preparing to release her fourth effort, Septagon, on April 8th. While describing her...
-
After begrudgingly suffering through one of the most agonizing winters in a very long time, I think most Philadelphians are absolutely euphoric at the recent signs of springtime. Whether it’s finally seeing runners whiz past you in Rittenhouse Square or little pinks buds starting to show up on cherry...
-
Jon Crary’s Weekly Sound Off: March 31-April 6 1. Little Daylight – “Siren Call” – I just stumbled across this very cool indie rock band from Brooklyn while I was travelling. This has a killer shimmering guitar line, a really nice catchy hook and chorus with bright choppy synths through...
-
I have often argued that Sweden’s The Sounds just might be the best band of my generation. The synth-heavy, hyper-danceable rockers are impressively well-versed in their understanding of the beauty of post-punk, but they’re also just as competent at producing the infectiously popular aesthetic of the best kind of...
-
“This is one of the first bands I’ve played in where music is the primary thing. In previous projects, it used to be music is just the excuse for me to go crazy.” Dennis Lyxzén is characterizing the live experience of his latest project, INVSN. However, he later goes...
-
Jon Crary’s Weekly Sound Off: March 24-March 30: 1. Wye Oak – “Glory” (Merge) – This Baltimore indie pop band has an excellent synth-type sound, and it suits them very well! The huge hooks and the dynamite chorus are beautiful. This is such a great song and is my...
-
There’s not a lot that’s sexier to a culturally transgressive American than artistically-inclined foreigners that refuse to adopt the customs of the Land of the “Free” and Home of the “Brave.” (i.e. speaking to us in our native tongue) And the rejection of the current state of “culture” only...
-
So for the first time since this whole “playing-the-whole-album” craze has come into fashion with bands that have been around the block at least once or twice, I’m going to be seeing a band play an album whose tour I actually attended the first time around, …And You Will...
-
The Baseball Project, which began as a conceptual (and honestly, a bit goofy) side project that came about from an assumedly flavored discussion during R.E.M.’s 2007 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, are currently a punk/ jangle pop/college rock-inspired outfit that may have just recorded the...
-
Live albums tend to get a bad rep from music snobs… often because they’re a quick, largely-work-free way to another paycheck… often because they’re a way for a band to fulfill/escape a contract penned by one of Lucifer’s buddies… and often because they would seem to be synonymous with...
-
Nicole Atkins’ latest LP, Slow Phaser (released last month), represents the songstress’ widest array of musical capabilities to-date: the most soulful psych rock, the sultriest Americana, quirkily empowering piano pop… and most of the things that would fall in-between. She’s beginning to remind me of Chrissie Hynde at her...
-
Ages and Ages are a rare entity that is able to acknowledge the hardships and atrocities associated with the human experience… yet remain hopeful, positive, and even confident in their ability to find beauty within it. In fact, their music manages to be profoundly uplifting, despite its dealings with...
-
Ex Hex’s debut 7”, “Hot Water” b/w “Waterfall” and “Everywhere”, is out today on Merge and the accompanying music video is bizarrely timely (At least for me…) The first video from the playfully punk Washington DC trio (comprised of Mary Timony, formerly of Helium and Wild Flag; Betsy Wright;...
-
Casey Dienel, aka White Hinterland, has the most enlightening and empowering story about moving back in with her parents that I’ve heard in quite some time. Two and a half years after the release of her sophomore LP, 2010’s Kairos, Dienel decided to move back to her family’s Massachusetts...
-
After her initial sizeable splash in her country of origin, Spanish indie pop chanteuse Lourdes Hernandez, better known as Russian Red (named for her favorite shade of lipstick), has become quite an international star over the course of the past half-decade. Her second album, 2011’s Fuerteventura, was produced by...
-
Norwegian songstress Susanna Wallumrod, but usually just known as Susanna, is a lovely enigma of indie pop. Her somewhat avant-garde aesthetic borrows from the worlds of the baroque, jazz, and even a few ‘90s electronic genres… but she’s also famously covered the likes of AC/DC, KISS, and Rush (in...
-
Jon Crary’s Weekly Sound Off is as follows: 1. Sharon Van Etten ” Taking Chances” ( Jajaguwar) – It’s harder, more electric and staightforward than ever before. Sharon Van Etten hits it hard and on target with this one. Pick of the week!! ...
-
After reading City Paper’s response to the NYC Crying Guide, we decided to add to the list of places we have sulked in self-loathe. Let’s face it, Philadelphia is a sad city. Suffering the Napoleon complex to its neighboring city New York, ranking a top-percentage in highest crime rate in the country, and a...
-
I feel like Chicago’s Dead Rider are a band for people who like bands that fuck shit up (And I mean that in the best way possible.)… Hopefully they take that as a compliment. They evade genres better than pretty much any other band in existence… Well, Black Moth...
-
While a lot of critics have been calling dreamy folk singer/songwriter Marissa Nadler’s sixth studio LP (July, released last month) a step in a new direction, in my most recent chat with the Boston-residing chanteuse, she clarifies that she actually sees the album as a logical evolution of her...
-
Ex-Cult are a band that embody an aesthetic equally indebted to the scariest kind of proto-punk and post-punk… They sound a bit like if Bauhaus put out a hardcore record… They’ve also remained relatively elusive, with very little information to be found on them on the internet… As is...
-
The last time I caught up with Orange County indie poppers The Colourist, last June, they’d only recorded two songs — which they characterized for me as “Paranormal California Tropic Rock” (If that could use a bit of context, they are all “avid hunters of the paranormal.”) Since then,...
-
NYC/Berlin quartet Fenster have apparently been through even more than I realized between the release of their 2012 debut, Bones, and their follow-up, The Pink Caves, which is out today on morrmusic. The hyper-mystical, hyper-moody, and hyper-postmodern indie pop outfit kick off a string of US dates tonight at...
-
Although the Australian singer/songwriter might be most famous for her collaborations with others; such as co-writing Feist’s “1234,” and Seeker Lover Keeper an indie pop supergroup formed by herself and fellow Aussie songstresses Sarah Blasko and Holly Throsby; Sally Seltmann is actually on her fourth full-length solo album (and...
-
“We want it to be energetic, engaging, and interactive. The parts of this record we wanted to pull out for the live show were the really joyful and uplifting parts, the things that ignore all the bullshit that’s imposed on women by society,” Caroline Smith tells me. The Minneapolis-based...
-
1. Gardens & Villa – Bullet Train (Secretly Canadian) – This is a quirky 80’s like tune with a bit of choppy guitar, cool chorus with a big keyboard splash and pleasing falsetto vocals. It’s my pick of the week! 2. Beck...
-
We Were Promised Jetpacks are in the midst of a stateside tour taking them from Los Angeles, CA to the East Coast over the next month bringing with them their thunderous and powerful style of indie rock, shimmering guitars and melodic vocals....
-
So, we all know Morrissey is touring this spring… But the second thing I’m most excited about in 2014 is the fact that Tying Tiffany is apparently going to be embarking on her first full-scale US tour ever. Italy’s Tying Tiffany has been making electro-punk-and-clash and an abundance of...
-
The last time Philthy Mag caught up with The Belle Game they were at 2013’s SXSW, where pianist and backing vocalist Katrina Jones explained to me, “At night, 6th street kind of feels like the Apocalypse, like there are no rules, anything can happen. It’s madness.” My recent chat...
-
Philthy Mag recently chatted with Ellia Bisker, songwriter, ukulele-player (among other things), and main force behind Brooklyn’s Sweet Soubrette, a vaudeville-inspired outfit that expands and collapses anywhere from a solo-project to an eight-piece. However, Sweet Soubrette is only one of many of Ellia’s musical endeavors. She’s also a member...
-
The other night on Twitter, I invited ZZ Ward fans to tweet me questions they might have, in preparation for my latest chat with the chanteuse whose personal blend of soul, blues, and rock has earned the moniker “dirty shine.” To my surprise, Ms. Ward herself wanted to get...
-
1. Dum Dum Girls – “Too True To Be Good” (Sub Pop) This brilliant dreamy melodic rock song by Dum Dum Girls comes off an equally beautiful LP “Too True.” The video is amazing. This song is my pick of the week! 2. Trust – “Are We Arc?” (Arts...
-
French duo As Animals sound right around a dozen times larger than songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Fred Grange and vocalist/lyricist Zara Desbonnes. They are an intriguingly strange amalgam of popular music of the past century, from jazz to synth pop to hip-hop to tortured singer/songwriters to that orchestral rock thing going on...
-
PINS are more of a girl gang than a girl band… And I suspect they’re far more comfortable with the former designation. PINS are a Manchester quartet that are both indebted to 1960s girl groups and psychedelica and the subversive potency of late ‘70s post-punk… They write infectious, anti-pop...
-
This is my weekly Sound Off, dedicated to finding really cool tunes. 1. St. Vincent – “Prince Johnny” – (Loma Vista) – The third track to drop from the much anticipated forthcoming album from St. Vincent. This may very well be the best representation of Annie Clark’s amazing angelic vocals...
-
Sometimes the most frustrating reaction one can have to a supposedly brilliant work of art is ambiguity. February 25th will see the Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray and DVD release of Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Colour, the coming-of-age melodrama of queer youth finding young love, that was adapted from a...
Jon Crary’s Weekly Sound Off April 28-May 4 is as follows: 1. Quilt -“Tie up the Tides” (Mexican Summer) – From their new album “Held in Splendor”, this tasty tune serves up a creative bit of psychedelic indie folk rock with a retro-60’s feel. There are tons to like in...
“Revolutionary” hardcore at the Church is fine. And postmodern performance art at KFN can be nice. But sometimes on a Saturday night you just want some big time Rock’N’Rollers to kick your ass with some ultra-groovy riffs. Fortunately for us, English rockers Band of Skulls will be taking the...
