Best Friends are Greg Shanahan and Nick Scalise, and they recently released a very danceable and fun ep filled with electro-pop.
New England
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Mätthew Griffin on music, writing, and being just some punk kid from Worcester.
Deli: How did you get started in music?
Mätthew: When I was pretty young, around 9 years old. Both my brother and father sang in a professional men & boys choir, which I joined soon thereafter. I recall there was a lot of singing practice after school and the Choir Master, professor Louis Curran, at WPI (Worcester Poly Technical Institute) was pretty grueling not only about practice, but also about conduct. The guy would throw a temper tantrum at the drop of a hat. But, it was an interesting "family activity" after my mother joined on to be the choir’s secretary. We sang all the classics like Haydn, Bach, Mozart, in English, German, French, Italian, but mostly we sang in Latin. It was fun going on tour; singing in Montreal, Canada, at St. Joseph’s Oratory; in Washington DC, at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; even singing a duet once of Sillent Night in German, with my brother on Christmas Eve, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, in New York City. I think I learned that night how to shit my pants [laughs].
Click here to read the rest of Chrissy Prisco’s interview with Mätthew Griffin.
Photo credit: Molly McGrath
Philadelphia
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Weekend Warrior, March 16 – 18
We are sad to hear that this Saturday’s show at MilkBoy Philly will be the last one for New Motels. We’ve always been fans of the Jenkintown four-piece. They headlined the very first Deli Philly showcase that we put together at Johnny Brenda’s so we certainly have a warm spot for them. Come out and send them off proper, and hopefully we’ll get to hear classic beauties like “Modern Thinker,” “Drama of the Hollywood Scene,” and “West Coast Brawl” for one last sing-along. New Motels will also be joined by Lightninging and Left of Logic. MilkBoy Philly, 1100 Chestnut St., 9:30pm, $10, 21+ – H.M. Kauffman
Other events to enjoy the pretty weather this weekend…
Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N. Frankford Ave.) SAT Shorty Boy Boy 7" Relase Party w/ Mountjoy
Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front St.) FRI Brown Recluse and Resistor, SAT Mischief Brew
North Star Bar (2639 Poplar St.) SAT The Timid Roosevelts
The Fire (412 W. Girard Ave.) FRI The Heat Run and Sunshine Superman, SAT Lauryn Peacock, Todd Henkin (The Great Unknown), KC Jones, Boog, SUN Forest Fools, The Loverboy Wanderers, Anchorhead, Dot Square
Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd St.) SAT Don McCloskey
The Trocadero (1003 Arch St.) SAT Cold Roses, Red Letter Life, Aunt Artica, The Jolly What, Bag of Music, and More
The Blockley (3801 Chestnut St.) SAT Close to Good and Philadelphia Funk Hustle
Fergie’s (1214 Sansom St.) FRI Arcati Crisis, SUN Rusty Cadillac
World Café Live (3025 Walnut St.) SAT Beyond the Element, Dive, Maddam Ink, SUN Kenn Kweder
The Legendary Dobbs (304 South St.) FRI J Cooper Band, SAT Pale Autumn and Willpowerless
Triumph Brewery (117 Chestnut St.) FRI Green Street, SAT West Philly Orchestra
JR’s Bar (2327 S. Croskey St.) FRI Hellstorms, Nobody Yet, NCA, Panther Moderns
First Unitarian Church (2125 Chestnut St.) FRI Spraynard
The Station (1550 McKean St.) FRI White Life, Ddm, New Hero, SAT Old Arrows and John the Conqueror
Teri’s (1126 S. 9th St.) SUN Blayer Pointdujour & The Rockers Galore
Millcreek Tavern (4200 Chester Ave.) FRI Grass and Tapeworm
Highwire Gallery (2040 Frankford Ave.) SAT The New Heaven and The New Earth, Weyes Blood, Jordan Burgis
Warehouse (Details are HERE.) SAT Rockers! w/The Mighty Paradocs, Joe Jordan, Gdag Girlsdressedasgirls
Green Tea House (Please contact one of the acts for more info.) SAT Bandname and Mike Bell & The Movies
Little Berlin (2430 Coral St.) SAT Data Garden’s Computer Groove w/Buffalo Stance, D&D Orchestra, Color Is Luxury
Philadelphia
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Free Download: “Many Miles” – Unpowered Pennsylvania
Hair Rocket mastermind Chris Blasucci has a new acoustic solo project called Unpowered Pennsylvania. Never afraid to wear his pop sensibilities on his sleeve, you can check out and download for free the Beatles-esque ditty “Many Miles” below as well as listen to the rest of his project’s self-titled EP HERE.
Philadelphia
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Brown Recluse Soundtracking the Change of Seasons at KFN March 16
The warmer weather might have you in the mood for sunny tunes and the summer to come. If so, Brown Recluse will provide the soundtrack to those feelings when they play Kung Fu Necktie tonight. The local outfit has a way of mixing 60s sunshine pop with arcade 80s sounds. They self-describe themselves as Baroque-pop, and there are bits of Belle and Sebastian-esque moments disbursed throughout their music. The daydream-y quality of their songs can get you so lost in its warm glow that you almost don’t notice the sometimes eerie lyrics that lay underneath their soundscapes, which is probably one of the many reasons why well-respected indie label Slumberland Records have picked them from the orchard of talented Philly acts making more noise in the blogosphere. Brown Recluse’s well-crafted, sunshiny songs are the perfect transition into spring. Expect to hear some new tunes from the indie popsters this evening. They’ll be joined by the synth-pop laments of Steve Goldberg’s latest project Resistor and Brooklyn’s We Can’t Enjoy Ourselves. Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front Street, 7:30pm, $8, 21+ – Maura Filoromo
NYC
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Rocker Stalker party today (Fri 03.15) at Beale St. Tavern with Kid Savant, Hollis Brown, The Natural, Black Taxi, Vas Defrans + more
Attention SXSW-goers! Today, Friday, March 16, at Beale Street Tavern located at 214 E 6th Street, Rocker Stalker (with the help of Deli rock girl Meijin) presents a litany of superb acts from across the country, including:
11:00am: Ghost Bunny
11:45am: Walker Lukens
12:30pm: Black Taxi
1:15pm: The Courtesy Tier
2:00pm: The Click Clack Boom
2:45pm: Vas Defrans
3:30pm: The Naturals
4:15pm: KID SAVANT
5:00pm: Hollis Brown
Doors are at 10am, and music lasts until 6pm. No badge required, free entry, and 21+
NYC
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SXSW Day 2 – Wednesday, March 14
Day 2 of SXSW 2012 was a mishmash of musical genres. I started my day with Brooklyn-based dance-rockers, Black Taxi, at the Parish before jetting quickly to the Fader Fort to enjoy some free goodies and see Santagold. However, a confusion of set times left me milling around the event while tribal electro-pop Brits, Django Django, supplied the soundtrack. Scurrying back to The Parish, I caught the last moments of Austin’s The Frontier Brothers before making my way to the Paste Magazine Party for buzz bands, Tennis and Cavemen. Taking a break , I enjoyed a serving of Korean spicy fries from one of ATX’s several delicious food truck options. As evening fell, I decided to wander into a Scottish showcase where folk/electro/country act, Woodenbox, hit the stage. Across the street at The Main, I caught a few minutes of veteran punk rockers, Pennywise’s, rowdy set, before making my way to the Flamingo Cantina for the Latin/World Showcase with Kenya’s Sauti Sol and NYC’s Outernational. Running back to the Main and completing the night, I got to check out heavy rock Austinites, The Sword, and Kentucky’s finest, Cage the Elephant. SXSW 2012 is on a roll! –Meijin Bruttomesso
Chicago
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Vapor Eyes Golden Beats Volume #1
Local producer Vapor Eyes takes bedroom beats to a whole new level. His latest project is called Golden Beats Vol #1 and it is the culmination of a year of pulling together an array of samples, sounds, and beats. The album is available for free through bandcamp, and will have you nodding your head no time. These beats are well-defined, soulful, and at times almost meditative in nature.
NYC
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Best of NYC #98: Idgy Dean Live at Big Snow on 04.15
Listen to just ‘Show Me All The Sounds You Know,’ and you might mistakenly think Idgy Dean’s (who placed at #98 in our recent Best of NYC poll for emerging artists) only weapons are her positive energy and beautifully sultry voice. But stick around for harder-hitting songs like ‘Bang Bang Sun’ and ‘Lung’ and you’ll soon discover some of the depths to this roaring personality. Like a cross between tune-yards and Marnie Stern, Dean’s vocals soar over a backdrop that can include anything from her tympani drum and electric guitars, to double-tracked vocals that surround and pulse through your skin with a physical energy too dynamic to ignore.
See her when she plays at Big Snow on April 15th with Howth. – Mike Levine
L.A.
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Sexy sounds: the Violet Lights
This week is the SXSW festival in Texas, which is the breeding ground for up and coming bands as well as unknown acts. One of those up and coming acts is Silver Lake-based duo The Violet Lights. After packing up and leaving their hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin, the pair of Joel Nass and Amber Garvey ended up in Los Angeles and have been carefully crafting their unique blend of homegrown garage rock and melodic pop riffs. Their debut EP "Sex and Sound" is available to stream on their website, which also offer goodies like their blog which chronicles their adventures in making music. Catch them here locally at Hemingway’s on March 27, since it’s a big of a trek to Texas for SXSW. – Taylor Lampela
NYC
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Aunt Ange – Dressed for a Funeral
For any fan of Perfume Genius, here’s Aunt Ange. There’s an acute sense of dread following every twist and turn through new record ‘Olga Walks Away.’ Essentially a document on loneliness seen through the eyes of Olga’s pain. From the lush violins, accordions and toy pianos of opener ‘Black Funeral Dress,’ to the stomping march of ‘Velvet Sidewalks,’ Aunt Ange takes you from the funeral to parade grounds from deep within the psyche of their absorbing subject. – Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)
This band submitted their music for review digitally here.
Philadelphia
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Album Review: Exorcism – Power Animal
The words of Power Animal may be obscured by a boatload of studio manipulation, but what they’re communicating is always clear: This is Feel-Good Music. Evident from Power Animal’s major-key synth hooks and disco percussions is a love of the kind of nostalgic sentimentality bands like M83 and Passion Pit maximize with unrelenting waves of keyboard and second-wave British invasion bands like The Kooks channel into plain-spoken love narratives. But unlike these late-aught champions of electronic-indie, Power Animal don’t do “pleasant” by blending every pleasant thing they could think of into an overwhelming pastiche. Instead of indulging dream-pop’s natural affinity for cheese and excess, Power Animal strip it down into the grimy, humble Exorcism, an EP that, with its bare-bones approach and subtle use of hooks, aims to reclaim the genre’s humanity.
There’s no denying that Exorcism presents itself as “quirky.” The jerky keyboard lines and garbled vocals sound as if they’re culled from records warped by years of sitting in an attic (an image also brought to you by the record’s hazy, Mono production), and the wonky structure of its opening suite “Better Water” suggests the hippie-warbling excess Exorcism could’ve easily devolved into. But as the EP progresses, these cracks begin to reveal the sincere, very real character hiding underneath the saccharine signifiers. The little winks that pepper Exorcism’s excellent second half make it practically interactive. “Mold Spores” was already assured its place as the album’s best tune before the chuckle that slips through its second verse makes its glee infectious, as if we’re being let in on whatever great time Power Animal are scoring. By Exorcism’s eponymous closer, we’re sharing the record’s smile.
It could be a more “conventionally” pretty record, but it’d be worse for it. This ambitious kind of pop has a tendency to become weightless in its nostalgia-bating, and while Power Animal certainly capture the comfort nostalgia offers, they also capture its insubstantiality. Built from bits and fragments of pop-eras past, Exorcism sounds as if it could break apart at any moment. It holds together, of course, but as music that sounds like it wants to save the world through sheer positivity goes, Exorcism accomplishes something far more impressive: It actually manages to inspire the feelings it evokes.
You can purchase the album HERE, and all profits from digital sales will be donated to Philabundance, a local charity organization that provides food to the needy in the Philly area. – Adam Downer