JB’s

This past Saturday, November 4th, the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection got a live preview of next year’s most anticipated album, Prelude to Ecstasy, at what very well might be remembered as a legendary show in the very near future.  The album is the first full-length from...

During a recent phone chat with Sun June vocalist and bandleader Laura Colwell, in advance of the group’s November 8th show at Johnny Brenda’s, the frontwoman makes a point to confirm with me that they’ll be able to get cheesesteaks nearby, at which point she tells me she’s actually...

TONIGHT, Johnny Brenda’s — our favorite “mini rock n’ roll ballroom” — is hosting a killer double-headlining bill of a doomier and gloomier variety than normally finds itself at the city’s premiere hipster haven.  Closing out the evening will be ultra-heavy Portland psych rockers Blackwater Holylight (Who we first...

“I’m so excited we’re playing at Johnny Brenda’s, because it’s one of my favorite places, and we fought for that.  We actually switched some dates around!” says Molly Burch during a recent phone chat.  We’re discussing the Los Angeles-based indie pop singer/songwriter’s upcoming fall headlining tour, which kicks off...

“We’re so excited to play as many new songs as we can fit in, maybe all of them…  We’ve just been practicing the new record for the release show, the 25th at Schubas in Chicago,” says Julia Steiner, vocalist, lyricist, and guitarist for Chicago post-country (a term championed by...

Last month New York/Philadelphia-based Strange Ranger released their Pure Music LP on Fire Talk Records.  And the album — recorded in a cabin in upstate New York amidst a blizzard — has been surprising critics in the best possible way.  “Strange Ranger continued their metamorphosis from indie rock to experimental electronic...

Earlier today Lawrence, Kansas punk duo Sweeping Promises – comprised of Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug – dropped their recent Unacceptable Color performance.  Unacceptable Color is a live music channel produced by Mondal and Schnug, photographer and multimedia artist Shawn Brackbill, and engineers Rob and Ryan Pope (of The...

Next Thursday, July 13th, Philadelphia’s own Grocer and Brooklyn’s Washer will be double-headlining Johnny Brenda’s, a gig that I find out, during a recent chat with Grocer, has been in the works for quite some time: “We like Washer, and our last show before the pandemic and their last...

“I’m putting the shoe in shoegaze,” jokes Alyssa Milman, vocalist, guitarist, and founder of local D.I.Y. act Puppy Angst, while discussing their potential wardrobe for the band’s Johnny Brenda’s debut this Saturday, July 1st: “I’m wearing insanely high shoes that I don’t know if I can play in yet! ...