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Okapi Sun are self-proclaimed, “tribal pop dance party enthusiasts,” inspired by a rare crossbreed (The okapi, a zebra-giraffe creature, is real, but only found in the Ituri Forest of the Congo.) Okapi Sun, comprised of Leo Okapi and Dallas Okapi, liken themselves to this intriguingly lovely creature, as they...
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Blondfire are about to release their sophomore effort, yet they already have a career that would warrant a two-hour edition of Behind the Music… Blondfire began with Erica and Bruce Driscoll, two siblings who grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and have since relocated to NYC and eventually LA. ...
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Nina Persson is currently both moving on and looking back. The Swedish-born, NYC-dwelling chanteuse is preparing to release her first solo album donning her own name (She has released two albums under the A Camp moniker.) She also recently reunited with Swedish indie poppers The Cardigans, the band for...
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“My Education” is not only the brilliant final novel of Bill Burroughs, but also a damn-near-“brilliant” post-rock band out of Austin, Texas. The instrumental outfit has been around for a little over a decade now, existing in the realms of both abrasive, avant-garde rockers and classically high-artistry (They’ve composed...
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The Mast are a rare electronic entity that draws-comparisons-to and gains-fans-of both hyper-niche “electronic music” communities (see: IDM, EBM, “post-dubstep”… whatever any of that means…) and people simply into experimental pop music (see: 80s synth pop, electro pop, and the more digital side of post-punk). They have the chops...
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Acclaimed rock pianist Marco Benevento brings his own brand of piano rock to the Arden Gild Concert Hall in Arden, Delaware on Saturday, February 1st at 8:00 pm and with him more than a decade of brilliant work collaborating with a host of established musicians. He is in the middle...
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In a recent chat, JD Samson admitted to me that her favorite aspect of promoting her music is actually her time talking to journalists: “Doing interviews is always interesting for me because it forces me to intellectualize the choices I’ve made or lyrics I’ve written.” For those about a...
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The Doors may divide me, personally, more than any other band of music history. I find “Five to One” ringing in my head and coyly smile about subversions and revolutions… Then I see some douche in cargo shorts and a tie-dyed shirt donning Mr. Morrison’s face and I decide...
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Recent murmurings about Pixies would lead you to believe that the band is currently in a tumultuous, turmoil-y state of flux… which is only partly true… Last year bassist Kim Deal left the legendary Boston alternative rock outfit nine years into their “reunion,” just before they released their first...
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The Hidden Cameras would seem to be more than simply a band. The Toronto-based outfit, led by singer/songwriter Joel Gibb, which began in 2001, have gained a reputation for elaborately chaotic stage shows that can include go-go dancers and choirs and often resemble a cult playfully assaulting the crowd...
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New York’s Swear and Shake are a rare band that actually live up to their rarely-found catchily clever moniker. They identify as “Big Hook Americana.” Their sound rings of an amalgam of popularly sun-kissed folk and the most elegantly spirited take on Southern rocking (“Southern Rock” would be far...
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“I don’t really like being a particularly public person. These songs, in my mind, are all encompassing in their regard to my own, personal life,” Caroline Rose tells me when I ask the young singer/songwriter what she thinks is most important that fans and potential fans know about her...
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Saintseneca are a folk band through and through, but they seem to be more influenced by things like post-punk and “indie rock” in its earliest form than any traditional kind of Americana. They are about to release a new album, Dark Arc, on April 1st. However, they’re currently on...
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Austin’s Mother Falcon have achieved quite a bit in their relatively short career (including making the up-to-20-member outfit function as a single, cohesive unit), however, their greatest achievement, in my mind, might be the ability to make me like Radiohead… or at least Radiohead songs… The last time the...
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Avers are a group of guys and a girl from Richmond. They came together from a plethora of musical worlds (Americana, indie pop, folk rock, etc.) to make a psych record in a whimsically and balls-ily haphazard manner. They are Adrian Olsen, Alex Spalding, James Mason, JL Hodges, and...
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So the final months of 2013 saw me finding inspiration in a plethora of younger acts, emerging into their prime with live experiences that even managed to excite, “someone who’s already sung with Belle & Sebastian, been onstage with Iggy Pop four times, and kissed Kim Deal.” If you...
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The place to be on Boxing Day was in Arden, Delaware at The Arden Gild Concert Hall for the 6th Annual Boxing Day concert. Headliners, The Spring Standards, a band with local roots, played 2 shows 6:30pm and 9:30pm with warm-up bands Inland Traveler and The DuPont Brothers respectively...
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The Pack A.D. have both classical and postmodern approaches to the spreading of their sound. They pride themselves on being road dogs… but they’re also very adept at things such as YouTube videography… The Pack A.D. are drummer Maya Miller and singer/guitarist Becky Black. They’re best known for kicking...
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As I write this best of 2013, many great albums dropped in the beginning of the year, lest they be forgotten in December. In fact, Autre Ne Veut’s “Anxiety” would have been my favorite of the year. Playing it incessantly when it came out in February this year, I...
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My favorite collaboration record in 2013 came from Susanna and Ensemble neoN… who sound (moniker and in aesthetic) like they should’ve been together from the start. Oslo-based Susanna Wallumrød has spent the past decade singing and songwriting, primarily in Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, but also under a few...
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Truth be told, 2013 was nearly the end of the line for my time in “music journalism.” A few months ago I realized that I was almost 30 and had spent the better part of a decade doing something I don’t particularly like for pretty much no pay. I...
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To those who don’t “get it,” Skinny Puppy tend to come across as some of the most confusing and scary noise of the past century… To those who do “get it,” the Vancouver-born, Los-Angeles-dwelling Industrial outfit have proven to be one of the most beautifully chaotic and haphazardly fun...
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Of all the things I like about Sweet Soubrette, I think it’s the things that inspire their songs that I find to be the most endearing and intriguing. “I write a lot of songs about books,” Ellia Bisker, mainwoman and writer and composer for the Brooklyn-based outfit. The singing,...
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Philthy and Philly would like to personally thank YACHT for providing the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection with some of its brightest, most brilliant, and beautiful musical moments of 2013… All without even technically touring the East Coast… Yet, twice in the past two months the LA-based...
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Sarah Dooley is the latest, and current favorite, in my existential love affairs with hyper-quirky NYC singer/songstresses. Dooley has been in the spotlight for a while now, albeit in a different capacity. When she left Indiana for NYC to attend Columbia University around 2008 she wrote and starred in...
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Shy Hunters have characterized their debut album as, “A record about white-light-joy and black-hole-suffering, and the thin membrane that often separates them.” If that’s not enough to get you to give it a spin, then I seriously doubt I am eloquent enough to convince you. That album is O...
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Despite the fact that their self-titled debut LP doesn’t drop until February 25th (on Nettwerk Records), Run River North have already accumulated a bevy of accolades, including being shortlisted at Cannes and gaining over 1.5 million YouTube hits. Over the summer, shortly after first getting signed to Nettwerk, vocalist/guitarist...
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Crushed Stars have been at it for more than a decade now but, in a recent chat with Todd Gautreau, the head and the heart of the project tells me that the Crushed Stars moniker may be nearing an end. On January 21st Gautreau and crew (Jeff Ryan, Hillary...
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Seattle trio Helms Alee have spent the past six years writing and recording abrasively beautiful and avant-garde sounds that have been labeled with phrases such as “experimental metal” and “art rock,” although they would seem far more comfortable with their sound, inspired by the outermost fringes of ‘80s and...
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LA duo Yell For Help recently released Love Will Keep Us Together, their debut EP. I, naturally, assuming it was a snarky nod to Joy Division, was very excited… It turned out to not be any kind of a nod to Ian Curtis, Hooky, and crew… but it’s still quite...
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Philly and Philthy alike have made themselves quite familiar with Tristen Gaspadarek (better known as, simply “Tristen”) over the past several years. However, I think it’s safe to say that the Tristen of 2013 is a new Tristen. We previously knew the Nashville-based songstress for a sassy brand of...
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Jadea Kelly was a country and folk musician based out of Ontario… However, she’s recently shifted her sound into something quite a bit more experimental and orchestral… but without losing the Americana aesthetic which is still ultimately at the core of her songwriting. This can be found on her...
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Dott are definitely the sunniest band to find themselves on Graveface Records… They embrace fuzzy sonic transgressions but, in general, they remain far more delightfully upbeat than label peers like Black Moth Super Rainbow, Xiu xiu, and Monster Movie… yet without being any less awesome. Last week the band...
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Hayley Coupon is quite modest (although she does consider herself to be quite skilled in certain areas). Hayley Coupon is a NYC-based singer/songwriter and pianist. In a recent chat she told me that she’d rather not think about the roots of her music career, but admitted that she has...
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Toronto trio Magneta Lane are a pastiche of music history’s most badass ladies, both sonically and sartorially. At times they sound like a Warped Tour take on Debbie Harry and Blondie. At others, they’re sounding slightly more superficially satanic and are far more reminiscent of Ozzfesty vixens, like Drain...
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Australia’s The Oyster Murders began when Grant Redgen relocated from the creatively numbing countryside to the city of Brisbane and met Wendy, a student of entertainment business. The two formed a cosmic connection of sorts, began making music, and went on to get married. ...
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Although 2013 has been a big year for reunions, there have also been a noteworthy number of first-time collaborations, such as Devon Sproule & Mike O’Neill, who released their first album as a duo, Colours, in October on Tin Angel Records. Devon Sproule has spent the past decade and...
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For someone who’s not exactly a household name, Juliette Commagere has a resume that is relatively mind-blowing. The Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter has played with Maynard James Keenan’s Puscifer, The Bird and the Bee, Nick Lowe, Linda Perry, Liz Phair, and Ry Cooder (whose son, Joachim, is Juliette’s husband and...
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The first time Lucius played Philadelphia there were four people in the room… That’s including the band, the headlining act, and myself… That was more than three years ago and they’ve come a long way. Lucius expanded from Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig to include Dan Molad and Peter...
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Seasick Mama is a stunning and brilliant creature who, somehow, I identify with to an ineffably intense degree (right down to the people we call “friends”). Seasick Mama is Marial Eve Moon, a singer, songwriter, and model. She has been the face (and body) of several of the most...
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Anna von Hausswolff may be the most poignantly conceptual and boldly experimental artist I’ve ever known to characterize her music as “pop.” Anna is a Swedish singer/songwriter and pianist, who has toured with a handful of noteworthy acts and been frequently compared to Kate Bush. This July her sophomore...
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This Weekend Union Transfer played host to a plethora of heroe… well, to be honest, they were mostly heroines… of the 1990s… Mazzy Star took UT’s stage on Friday night on their first US tour of nearly two decades, while Saturday had the ladies of Luscious Jackson playing their...
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Rosi Golan may be based out of Brooklyn, but she certainly feels at home and welcome in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, where she’s played around a dozen shows in the past few years. I recently got a chance to chat with the ineffably enchanting folk...
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2013 has been a big year for getting-back-together… Kathleen Hanna and Kathi Wilcox, Girls Against Boys, My Bloody Valentine, Mazzy Star… but Luscious Jackson have held a monopoly over my excitement for reunions… The alt rock outfit that existed from 1991 to 2000, releasing four albums that embraced traditions...
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San Francisco-based Debbie Neigher’s musical career is still fairly fresh, although she already has quite an impressive list of credentials. Last week she released her sophomore LP, Unravel, her second to be produced by John Vanderslice, most famous for his work with the likes of Spoon, Death Cab for...
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Los Angeles duo Gliss have been at it for nearly a decade now… but 2013 would seem to be their most profound year to date. The band was first brought to prominence by Billy Corgan, who helped them push their psychy, fuzzy, black-clad brand of post-punk revivalism across the...
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Boston trio Quilt have a sound that I’m going to characterize as “mystically quirky indie pop.” They play with sonic psychedelics, but tend to remain on the sunnier, and not scarier, side of things. They recently released “Arctic Shark” as a 7-inch and their sophomore LP, Held in Splendor,...
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I first fell in love with Kate Nash in 2007. She was a young, British chanteuse of the indie pop variety. Her debut album, Made of Bricks, was proudly juvenile and playfully vulgar, including songs like “Dickhead” and “Shit Song.” When it came to addressing loves never to be...
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My relationship with John McCauley and Deer Tick over the years has been complicated. I actually ignored the Providence-born band for their first three indie folk releases. And then, on a whim, simply because I was a massive fan of McCauley’s then-fiancé Nikki Kvarnes’ band Those Darlins (I’m also...
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Minneapolis’ The Melismatics turned ten this year. They seem to have been “celebrating” that landmark all year, but it was formally commemorated this October with the release of their sixth and most accomplished LP, Rising Tide. The album is a concept album chronicling the lifespan and trials and tribulations...
Okapi Sun are self-proclaimed, “tribal pop dance party enthusiasts,” inspired by a rare crossbreed (The okapi, a zebra-giraffe creature, is real, but only found in the Ituri Forest of the Congo.) Okapi Sun, comprised of Leo Okapi and Dallas Okapi, liken themselves to this intriguingly lovely creature, as they...
Blondfire are about to release their sophomore effort, yet they already have a career that would warrant a two-hour edition of Behind the Music… Blondfire began with Erica and Bruce Driscoll, two siblings who grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and have since relocated to NYC and eventually LA. ...
