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When I discovered The Octopus Project they were the most intriguing instrumental band I’d ever heard. I discovered them sandwiched between Austin-based peers …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and The Sword on a 2005 bill. In-between the brilliant proggy, post-hardcore art rock collective and...
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Hurray for the Riff Raff began nearly a decade ago when frontperson Alynda Lee Segarra left the Bronx to travel the country via hitched rides and hopped trains. They eventually settled in New Orleans, where they’ve been writing and recording since, backed with a revolving lineup of like-minded musicians...
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Medicine are perhaps best known as, “You know, the band that was in The Crow?” However, to those in-the-music-snobbery-know, they are actually quite profound. Pitchfork has said that they’re the closest thing to My Bloody Valentine to ever come out of America. They’ve worked with Cocteau Twins members, been...
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Mark Brooks may be best known for being a member of 90s noise outfit Warlock Pinchers, along with directing videos for the likes of Danzig and Slayer, not to mention Cartoon Network’s Metalocalypse, but he also has quite the taste for the popularly palatable. His latest project, Night Club,...
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Bambi Lee Savage is about two and a half decades into her career, yet her third album, Darkness Overshadowed, just dropped last year… Although the story behind her slow progression is pretty existentially romantic. In the late 80s and early 90s she worked behind the scenes, as a recording...
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Of all of the arena rockers whose best albums hit shelves 40 years ago, no one kicks out the jams quite as badassedly and seemingly authentically as Aerosmith… Sure, more than half a decade ago when The Stooges reunited and Steven Tyler admitted that of himself, Mr. Jagger, and...
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Hey kids, it’s that time of the month again…for Philthy Mag’s sponsored dance party DJSC @ Silk City. It’s all going down Wednesday night July 24th. This month we are giving away a pair of tickets to one of the patrons that comes to the event! Raffle tickets will...
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Ellie Herring was once a young girl, growing up in the deep south, listening to mildly progressive bands like R.E.M. and INXS (in the 1990s)… and then her friend gave her a Robert Miles CD and she began her obsession with electronic music. “I became obsessed with Underworld and...
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As an avid cultural anthropology and semiotics enthusiast, nothing annoys me more than artists who don’t know the origins of their craft. That is not the case for Sydney-based singer/songwriter and producer Rainbow Chan. And not only does that make her far cooler than the average musician but, also,...
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Nadine Shah is a young artist, but she works fast… She’s already released two EPs this year and her debut full length is due July 23rd on Apollo/R&S Records… It has the best title of any album to come out all year… Love Your Dum and Mad (produced by...
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Los Angeles’ Leftover Cuties are on the verge of releasing their sophomore LP and critics are still not entirely sure what to make of them (Not that that’s a bad thing.) They’ve been characterized by phrases like “noir-pop,” and “jazz-pop.” Their sound includes upright bass, accordion, and the ukulele...
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We generally don’t think too fondly of sleep-inducing art… However, that’s what Lenka was going for on her third LP, Shadows. In a recent chat with the Australian-born, New-York-residing singer/songwriter, she admits to me that she actually quite likes the notion of falling asleep to music and cites Sigur...
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Walking Bicycles are yet another beautifully transgressive indie band that are currently looking to stray even further from anything resembling the “popular” and fully submerse themselves in the abrasively avant-garde… and it’s working to a pretty awesome degree… The Chicago outfit, nearly a decade into their existence, are currently...
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I must admit I’ve been feeling a bit guilty about my fandom of Heartless Bastards in recent years… I’ve never really gotten over my mega-crush on 2009’s The Mountain… and I haven’t really given their other work much of a fair shot… or even much of a listen. It’s not...
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Desert Stars are the kind of band who would be perfect for scoring a Charles Manson biopic… and I mean that in the best way possible. The Brooklyn outfit, who have been at it for nearly half a decade now, finally release their debut LP, Habit Shackles, this Tuesday,...
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Hey Ocean! write really lush pop songs that also kind of kick ass… in the quirkiest way possible. They’re quite sunny, but they also make your most sassypants friend want to dance quite a bit. The Vancouver-based trio is comprised of David Beckingham, Ashleigh Ball, and David Vertesi, who...
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Italy’s Tying Tiffany pairs abrasive, postmodern electronic sounds with an abrasive, politically postmodern take on recent history and life itself (inspired by things like Dadaism, feminist studies, and explorations of occultism). She’s shared stages with the likes of Iggy Pop and the Buzzcocks and collaborated with people like Nic...
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White Dove are one of those bands that it would be dangerously misleading to listen to anything anyone has said in an attempt to characterize their sound (including myself). They’re sort of a new band, but sort of veterans… It’s clear that they’re well-schooled in Americana, but they’re also...
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Much like male/female harmonies, musicians currently obsessed with analog synthesizers is another “trend” of sorts that I’m not even close to sick of… LA’s Soft Metals are one of such bands, comprised of vocalist/keyboardist Patricia Hall and multi-instrumentalist Ian Hicks. The two met at a DJ night in 2009...
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The Colourist are an indie pop band from Orange County… They’re into Phil Collins and ghosts… They’ve only recorded two songs, but Interview and FILTER are already fans… Their debut 7″ dropped earlier this month… They’re about to kick off a string of summer dates, starting with a July...
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No one seems to be a bigger fan of Eraserhood’s underground, slightly-creepy, gallery/lounge/cabaret, Underground Arts, than NYC’s Lily and the Parlour Tricks, who have graced its stage four times in the past year and a half… And I suspect Lily and the Parlour Tricks have few fans bigger than...
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Possibly you’re the kind of person who went to school for something practical and now pays their bills with the skills they learned earning a degree… but you really want to be able to impress the cute tattooed guy you see at the dive bar you go to every...
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Like any fan of Morrissey, I’m quite charmed by those bluntly self-deprecating existential realists. I recently got a chance to chat with Portland folk singer/songstress Alela Diane, whose fourth LP, About Farewell, was released this past Tuesday digitally (It will be out physically July 30th.) and she quite charmed...
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Of all of the great Americana artists to grace the subcultural (and sometimes, even popular) airwaves of recent years, Sean Rowe might be the most “authentic.” He comprised his debut album, Magic, based on the inspiration he got as a naturalist, after spending 24 days in the wilderness, left to...
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Disclosure is a UK duo consisting of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence. Their debut LP “Settle” despite the talk of dub step, house, disco and other musical categories… I can say that this album is just a brilliant pop album. “Settle” is full of bright danceable euro-synth pop that is...
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Eleanor Friedberger released her sophomore LP “Personal Record” , a follow to her critically acclaimed and much heralded debut “Last Summer” in 2010. This is a tremendously ambitious follow-up to a imaginative debut record but not one that could be bested. Eleanor is the second half of the sister/...
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So there are a handful of legitimately good acts who will be performing at the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware this weekend. But, if you’re looking for something a little bit more intimate and a little less taking-place-in-Delaware, Austin’s Mother Falcon will be taking the stage upstairs at World...
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My favorite thing about Her Royal Harness is the existentialism in their craft. Songwriter Helene Jaeger explains that the inspiration behind the project’s moniker is the notion of individuals being forced to fit into pre-existing identities: “From the time you are born, people around you continually attempt to define...
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While I’m, personally, not a big fan of leaving the apartment, much less Center City, much less the state, I have to admit that the Firefly Music Festival, taking place this weekend in Dover, Delaware, boasts quite an impressive lineup, from recently profiled acts like He’s My Brother She’s...
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If you’ve been monitoring Philthy recently, you’ll know that we really appreciate the “blood harmony” provided by a good sister act (The Staves, Haim, First Aid Kit). Well, there’s a new group of sisters we’re currently getting excited about, the Jurkiewicz’s, AKA Lily & Madeleine. The teenage sisters, who made...
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Indeed, I do “live in a heartbeat city,” “ in love every minute on the street,” but Kim Boekbinder takes the cake for my #1 crush of 2013. Boekbinder is a Canada-born, NYC-based electro singer/songwriter and visual artist, who has made a name for herself collaborating with the likes...
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Unlike acts like U2 and The Rolling Stones, whose live performance media spectacles are only enhanced and further caricaturized by the cuts, pans, and excess lighting of cinema, no piece of cinema has managed to come close to capturing the beautiful raw chaos of The Stooges/Iggy & The Stooges’...
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New York City’s Gold Lake have been making waves in the music industry for the past several years now, at festivals like NXNE, CMJ, and Brooklyn’s Northside Festival, touring with Peter and the Wolf and Nada Surf, and even having their debut LP produced by Phil Ek (best known...
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Suburban Reverb is not only the most poetically and postmodernly cool album title I’ve heard of 2013, but the sounds it contains are also some of the year’s best. The album, which drops next Tuesday, June 18th, is the product of Bay-Area-based, retro-electronic, husband-wife duo Ryan and Rebecca Coseboom,...
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Hearing neo-Americana acts doing ‘90s R&B covers is cool and all, but it’s getting a bit cliché… So I have to give Mississippi septet Rosco Bandana props for their brilliant take on “Tender,” by alpha Brit-Poppers Blur, on their debut album, Time to Begin, released last December… And their...
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If you regularly frequent Ortlieb’s Lounge in Northern Liberties, there’s a decent chance you’ve already seen Kendra Morris, who has made two stops the jazz venue this year. The Florida-born chanteuse has spent the past decade in NYC playing live, releasing EPs, and crafting her brand of soul-fusion that...
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In my notes taken during my recent interview with Los Angeles-based synth-poppers Touché, I see an underlined phrase I seem to have scrawled mid-chat: “Talk about how fucking nice and playful they are.” Touché are Alex Lilly and Bram Inscore (with additional help from Aaron Redfield), who seem to...
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For the past several years Portland, OR’s Radiation City has been making a name for themselves, putting out charmingly quirky, folky dream pop. However, their sophomore LP, Animals in the Median (released this May on Tender Loving Empire), is more along the lines of a whimsically funky postmodern brand...
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Want to be my new favorite band? Be a retro-leaning girl-group who writes badass surfy doo-wop, and send me your latest release on a cassette tape… Seattle’s La Luz did just that… and they are my new favorite band. The quartet seems to enjoy dragging their lovely four-part harmonies...
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Generally when I ask touring musicians if they have any favorite memories of Philadelphia, they tell me about a particular sandwich that they enjoyed… or a venue with a weird balcony… Jessie Stein is the first person to tell me a story about running around a church sanctuary. Jessie...
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Naomi Greenwald is very much my kind of a person. Ms. Greenwald is a heavy-hearted singer/songwriter and PhD student of the humanities, with a penchant for 90s alt rock. The LA-based songstress released Composite, an ineffably entrancing five-song EP, this March and, since then, a cover of Rihanna’s “Stay.” ...
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Burnt Ones have recently given me hope… in a hopeless time… It’s been years since “Rock’N’Roll” has evoked thoughts of anything aside from chunky, post-frat boys kicking it for people in cargo shorts in front of a banner for some drink that makes you hyper… or people your parents’...
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Like most things worth consuming, Sao Paulo’s Mixhell are a bizarre amalgamation of aesthetics and backgrounds whose union you can’t quite fathom… But then it all just comes together as brilliant postmodern chaos. I realize the whole “Dance-Party-at-the-End-of-the-World” thing has gotten to be a bit of a cliché, but...
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In my early years as a music journalist I was a bit uncomfortable admitting my fandom of artists younger than myself… I had to get over it… Well, not only is Tessa Rose Jackson younger than me, she’s younger than the legal age for drinking in America… Yet, I...
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Emma Louise has been a YouTube sensation, has self-released an award-winning EP, has traveled much of the globe with a nearly awe-inspiring live experience but, it wasn’t until earlier this month that she finally has a proper LP, which was released stateside on Frenchkiss Records. Emma Louise is originally...
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Like many of Philthy’s favorite acts, Lauren Balthrop, aka Dear Georgiana, has a quirkily clever indie pop take on the Americana chanteuse. Balthrop grew up in Alabama, although she’s spent her recent years in NYC. Prior to being a solo artist she made a name for herself in Balthrop,...
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This afternoon Garbage’s One Mile High… Live DVD showed up in my mailbox, courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment… I was pretty sure it had been more than a decade since I’d actually heard Shirley Manson and the boys play their electro-trip-hop alt rock… live or on CD. Before watching...
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Eureka the Butcher may not be quite as magical and violent as you would be led to believe… but they’re still pretty fucking awesome. Eureka the Butcher is the latest project of Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez of Zechz Marquise and The Mars Volta. The project reflects the more funky and electronic...
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… I like any band that doesn’t take themselves seriously… That’s not true… But I don’t like any band that does take themselves seriously… And I quite like Blank Realm. Blank Realm are a band of three siblings and one friend from Brisbane who, somehow, manage to blend the...
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Sam Shelton may not exactly be a household name, but I’m guessing you’ve come across some of her work at some point. She’s appeared in films such as Sorority Boys, White Oleander, and Shopgirl; TV series’ such as Judging Amy, Gilmore Girls, and House (She’s currently part of the...
When I discovered The Octopus Project they were the most intriguing instrumental band I’d ever heard. I discovered them sandwiched between Austin-based peers …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and The Sword on a 2005 bill. In-between the brilliant proggy, post-hardcore art rock collective and...
Hurray for the Riff Raff began nearly a decade ago when frontperson Alynda Lee Segarra left the Bronx to travel the country via hitched rides and hopped trains. They eventually settled in New Orleans, where they’ve been writing and recording since, backed with a revolving lineup of like-minded musicians...
