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“What’s important to us is touring and playing live. We put these albums out so we can keep playing and touring… I thought if we could go to Europe once it would be great, but it’s been like 10 times over,” laughs Mathieu Ball, guitarist and co-founder of Montreal...
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“I love supporting any band that’s doing intelligent pop music. I feel like the dream would be like Stereolab, Sufjan Stevens, Belle & Sebastian… Alex G, that would be a really fun tour,” says Joe Stevens, founder and songwriter of Los Angeles avant-pop outfit Peel Dream Magazine (Yes, named...
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“I’m so excited to play that show. That’s definitely gonna be a huge thing. I don’t wanna say it’s all about me, in like a narcissistic way , but I really want it to be a showstopper,” says locally grown pop singer/songwriter Ciara Grace of her upcoming CD Release...
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“The first time I was in Philly, I had a cheesesteak five minutes before I went onstage, which was the worst decision of my life,” Sydney Sprague tells me, laughing. However, the indie pop singer/songwriter has had some more enjoyable experiences playing the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly...
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“You forget that places like Philly and California have a lot of people who love country,” Kaitlin Butts tells me during a recent phone chat. At the time, the Nashville-based, Oklahoma-bred singer/songwriter is about half-a-dozen dates into The Roadrunner! Tour, which will be making a headlining stop at MilkBoy...
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“We got a writeup that called it an ode to 2005, and I was like, ‘They knew exactly what I was going for,’ like, they’re really picking up what I’m putting down!” laughs Lleen Dow, founder, frontperson, and as-of-recently sole constant member of Portland-based, aughts-emo-flavored indie rock outfit Thank...
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New Wave/Post-Punk legends The Pretenders have spent much of the past year performing show-stealing (we’re assuming…), hits-filled festival gigs and support sets for Axl, Slash, and Duff’s Guns N’ Roses and Foo Fighters. However, this past Sunday, July 14th, they brought An Evening with The Pretenders to the 2,500-capacity...
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“It was the first song we wrote that felt like it was part of the Macro world, and we wrote the initial version with only guitar and voice which was a new process for us,” said Brijean Murphy – percussionist/singer/songwriter and one-half of Oakland-based psychedelic pop outfit Brijean, alongside multi-instrumentalist/producer...
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“I try to be very honest in all my music. I don’t lie,” laughs singer/songwriter Ava Della Pietra, going on to explain, “I try to be very authentic in my songwriting process… I feel like it’s easier for people to connect with me that way.” The 19-year-old (She recently...
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“Something crazy always happens in Philly! Not in like a bad way, but the last time at Johnny Brenda’s our drummer’s brother got really drunk and jumped up onstage with us, and then someone stole my chains off the stage,” says Angela Gail Mattson – one-half of Grand Rapids-based...
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“A lot of people think we’re putting out a shoegaze album… They’re like, ‘Yes! Lunar Vacation going shoegaze!” the Georgia indie rock outfit jokes with me during a recent phone chat. They’re referring to “Set the Stage,” the lead single off of Lunar Vacation’s sophomore LP, Everything Matters, Everything’s...
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“We’ve never gotten to play venues this big… We’re the first band on these bills, so we feel like we’ve really got to bring our A-game,” says Brendan Dyer, founder and mainman of LA alt-rockers MILLY, who are about to embark on two pretty massive tours. Just after a...
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Last month LA-based, country-tinged folk-pop trio Trousdale stole the show with a 45-minute set opening The Met for Aussie blues-rockers The Teskey Brothers. Trousdale’s musical journey began when the three University of Southern California students (now alum) — Quinn D’Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones – went viral on...
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“I couldn’t be more excited to hit the road. Live music is the biggest reason why we do this,” says Rae, one-half of LA duo rosecoloredworld, alongside Addison (Yes, Addison and Rae, haha.) The band, raised on pop punk of the early aughts, are currently a little more than...
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The last time we caught up with Washington DC-based indie pop trio SHAED – comprised of multi-instrumentalist twin brothers Spencer and Max Ernst, along with lead vocalist Chelsea Lee, Spencer’s wife – was in February of 2019, when the family band was about to embark on their first-ever headlining...
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“I can see if you’re on Twitter or on Instagram. I can read your phone,” jokes Addie Sartino, lead vocalist for The Greeting Committee, upon being asked if she has a message to fans coming out to see the indie rock band on their upcoming headlining tour. Sartino, a...
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“We would play the smaller venue for like a decade, and rolling our amps through the bigger venue, it was kind of like stinging. So, when our fate changed, it was such a milestone,” says Mother Mother vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter Ryan Guldemond (with whom I last spoke...
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My first encounter with David Bazan’s Pedro the Lion came in November of 2002 when he played Washington DC’s The Black Cat, which had recently relocated to a few doors down the street. Pedro the Lion were touring their third LP, Control, a concept album revolving around a businessman...
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Last week Melbourne-based neo-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote kicked off their North America summer tour, in addition to dropping “Cinnamon Temple,” their fifth and final single from their upcoming fourth LP, Love Heart Cheat Code. The album drops this Friday, June 28th, courtesy of Brainfeeder Records/Ninja Tune, and this Saturday,...
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Just last March we saw Quasi – Janet Weiss and Sam Coomes – return to Johnny Brenda’s in support of Breaking the Balls of History, both their tenth studio LP and their first studio LP in ten years, in addition to their first for Sub Pop. However, the Portland...
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Earlier this month Nate Amos (of Water From Your Eyes) released Box for Buddy, Box for Star, the first “official” album from This Is Lorelei (which dropped courtesy of Double Double Whammy), a solo project whose music he’s been self-releasing online since 2014. The album — whose origins date...
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This Thursday, 6/20, folk supergroup Bonny Light Horseman are bringing their brand-new double album (and first for Jagjaguwar), Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free, to Union Transfer. While the trio – comprised of Josh Kaufman, Eric D. Johnson, and Anais Mitchell – have played the City of Brotherly...
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While 2024 has already given us opportunities to see “classic albums” by Ride, The Charlatans, and Deap Vally in their entirety (the first two on the same night), I was equally entranced by Kim Gordon’s front-to-back performance of her 2024 LP, The Collective, this past Friday (6/14) at Union...
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Last Saturday, The Dresden Dolls blew the audience away with a just-under-three-hour set, appropriately titled An Evening With The Dresden Dolls. Amanda Palmer, on vocals and keys, along with Brian Viglione on drums, gave an incredible, unique, and unforgettable performance that brought me a newfound love for this renowned...
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We’re nearly halfway through Pride Month and we’ve already attended some fabulous events. However, there are still several musical celebrations of queerness that we’re eagerly anticipating, including June 22nd at Theatre of Living Arts. The evening will be headlined by Lynn Gunn electropop outfit PVRIS, with opening duties being...
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“The live shows are heading in this doom jazz direction,” says Nashville musician Rich Ruth during a May phone chat. Although Ruth is perhaps most recognizable as a touring member of Americana singer/songwriter S.G. Goodman’s band, he also spends just as much time on the road with his own...
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“Christina and I are still going crazy up there! We just can’t contain ourselves! It’s true joy and we have to move our bodies! I’ve actually tried to stand still, just to see if I could do it, because I know a lot of shoegaze bands like to just...
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“I came from the late ‘90s hardcore scene, and the uncool-est thing you could do is release an album of songs under your own name. Being a singer/songwriter was extremely uncool before the indie thing,” Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, Operators) tells me during a recent...
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Australian indie pop sibling trio Sheppard are celebrating a number of milestones. The Brisbane band moved to Nashville last October, became the first band to ever play Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (This April they returned to Australia to play a gig on a pontoon for local heroes partaking in...
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It’s a big day for mercury, the Tennessee-based indie rock project of Maddie Kerr. This morning they released short film “Together We Are One, You And I” – a collaboration with producer Alex Farrar (Indigo De Souza, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee, Squirrel Flower, Wednesday, Plains…) and filmmaker Harrison Shook –...
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“I wish it wasn’t more than two years between full-lengths…” Jeanines’ musical polymath Jed Smith glumly muses, before vocalist, songwriter, and namesake Alicia Jeanine chimes in, “I think it’s fine to have an LP every three years! We’re busy, we have jobs… We’re doing the best that we can!” ...
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Philadelphia-based rockers Soraia recently dropped their cover of Blondie classic “Union City Blue.” And we’re proud to premiere the official music video for the ZouZou Mansour-led garage rockers’ take on the legendary power pop track. The clip was shot by local videographer Tom Quigley at Boom Room in Fishtown,...
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This weekend, self-proclaimed Feminist Pop Princess Morgan St. Jean will kick off the “This Is For Life” North America Tour, her first-ever headlining trek. The five-date East Coast jaunt comes in support of the LA-based singer/songwriter’s My Mind And I EP (which dropped this April) and includes a stop...
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Next month, our phavorite locally based internet radio station, Y-Not Radio, officially turns 14. And this Thursday, June 6th, Kung Fu Necktie will be hosting the Y-Not Radio 14th Anniversary celebration with English slacker pop phenom Lauran Hibberd (opening the evening is local bassist and songwriter Harlee Torres). The...
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The last time The Dresden Dolls played the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection was December of 2007, when they appeared at Theatre of Living Arts. At the time, Lou and Bowie were still with us, the South Street landmark was known as “The Fillmore at the TLA,”...
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This coming Wednesday, June 5th, sibling power pop duo Durry will be headlining The Foundry… exactly six months to the day since the Minnesota outfit were originally set to play the Fishtown venue. But during a recent phone chat with Austin and Taryn Durry, Austin (whose sickness resulted in...
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Darkroom has the distinction of being our favorite album of the year by an artist that we’ve never actually met. The LP, which dropped May 17th, is the sophomore full-length from French-Canadian duo Ghostly Kisses (comprised of Margaux Sauvé and Louis-Étienne Santais), the follow-up to 2022’s Heaven, Wait, both...
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This Friday, May 31st, the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection will have two opportunities to see Oakland-based garage punk quartet Shannon & The Clams, who will be playing this week’s WXPN Free At Noon at World Café Live, before they play a full-length headlining set that night...
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Last week local punk rockers Mannequin Pussy played their seventh consecutive sold-out show at Union Transfer. It all began in August of 2021, when the Marisa Dabice-led band opened the first three dates of Japanese Breakfast’s five-night run at the Eraserhood venue, marking the official/unofficial return of live music...
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Local Run for Cover Records outfit Another Michael are headlining a hometown show tonight at Johnny Brenda’s. However, we’re just as excited to get another chance to see Tenci, who will be providing direct support. Tenci is the Chicago-based indie folk project of singer/songwriter Jess Shoman, who we have...
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The last time we saw Nashville singer/songwriter Maggie Rose in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection she was headlining the grand reopening of the Music Hall at World Café Live in September of 2021. Although music fans were still navigating their comfort levels in live settings at...
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The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection first met multicultural British rock trio Calva Louise in April of 2022 on their first-ever US tour, when they were supporting alt-rockers Slothrust at The Church. Well, the band – comprised of Venezuelan vocalist/guitarist Jess Allanic, French bassist Alizon Taho, and...
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Last year the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection saw a number of noteworthy “classic album” tours, from Superheaven doing Jar at Union Transfer to Sparta doing Wiretap Scars at Underground Arts and Boris and Melvins doing Heavy Rocks and Bullhead (respectively) at Brooklyn Bowl. However, the first...
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We remember the days of Texas psych-funk trio Khruangbin playing Eraserhood’s Underground Arts like it was yesterday (The last time was apparently 2018…) However, their last date in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection had them headlining the significantly grander and more opulent opera house (The Met...
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The City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection saw Long Beach, New York-based, highly danceable, alt-rockers Family Dinner just last year when they opened a sold-out Ukie Club for Oso Oso, our local buddies Carly Cosgrove, and Kicksie, but they’re already preparing to return, as tonight they’re kicking off...
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This March SoCal psych-soul trio Chicano Batman released Notebook Fantasy, their first full-length since 2020’s Invisible People. The album was produced by GRAMMY winner John Congleton – known for his work with PHILTHY phriends like Bully, BAILEN, Blood Red Shoes, and even some artists whose names don’t begin with...
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Alyse Vellturo, better known as PRONOUN, has the distinction of being the first artist I went to see live post-lockdown (Earlier that year, prior to the release of her June 2021 EP, OMG I MADE IT, we chatted and she told me she was desperately itching to get out...
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Last Saturday, Spanish Love Songs headlined a stacked lineup at the Theatre of Living Arts. With support from Worry Club, Sydney Sprague, and Oso Oso co-headlining, the show was an incredible experience. The band’s energy was unmatched – only by the energy of the audience. The setlist included songs...
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Nashville-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lydia Luce recently found herself on tour supporting our good buddy Andrea von Kampen for a March trek (The two will be reuniting for a November tour of the UK.) “We’ve been friends for a little while. We’re in each other’s top ‘sounds like’ on...
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We first met Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Nisa – who described her sounds as, “genre-less music, leaning on pop, but not being tied to a genre.” – last February, while she was on her first-ever tour, which included a stop at MilkBoy. Although at the time Nisa only had EPs and...
“What’s important to us is touring and playing live. We put these albums out so we can keep playing and touring… I thought if we could go to Europe once it would be great, but it’s been like 10 times over,” laughs Mathieu Ball, guitarist and co-founder of Montreal...
“I love supporting any band that’s doing intelligent pop music. I feel like the dream would be like Stereolab, Sufjan Stevens, Belle & Sebastian… Alex G, that would be a really fun tour,” says Joe Stevens, founder and songwriter of Los Angeles avant-pop outfit Peel Dream Magazine (Yes, named...
