Philadelphia

Laser Background LP Release Show Opening for Darwin Deez at JB’s Sept. 25

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Laser Background commemorates the release of the band’s first full-length album Super Future Montage via La Société Expéditionnaire. Opening for the eccentric indie dance popsters Darwin Deez, the Andy Moholt-led four-piece delivers alluring rock-pop songs characterized by Moholt’s distinct vocal style and distorted image-generating lyrics met with a touch of carnival-esque creep-ride that nearly comes off the rails, but inevitably rights itself. This ability allows Laser Background to playfully toe the threshold of psych-pop establishing their signature sound. Vincent Cacchione-fronted r&b/alt-pop outfit Caged Animals round out the bill, supporting their freshly released In the Land of Giants. Johnny Brenda’s 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 9pm, $12, 21+ – Michael Colavita

Philadelphia

YIKES the ZERO Opening for The White Mandingos at KFN Sept. 25

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Emcee/producer YIKES the ZERO is a low-key fella. He doesn’t go around taking every chance to promote himself like other rappers who are always waiting to retweet every mention of their handle. Instead, he unassumingly goes about his business everyday while continuing to create some seriously unique tracks. He’s nearly finished with the follow-up to his slept-on 2012 release A Kid And His Monster, and you’ll get a taste of what he’s been working on lately this evening when YIKES opens at Kung Fu Necktie for The White Mandingos, featuring legendary founding member of Bad Brains Darryl Jenifer, emcee Murs and Sacha Jenkins SHR. Also on the bill are hard-hitting, politically-charged locals The Might Paradocs. Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 8pm, $12 adv/$14 door, 21+ – Q.D. Tran

Philadelphia

New Track: “Two Bridges” – Avery Rosewater

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Avery Rosewater shared a new song called "Two Bridges" last night. Led by Julien Rossow-Greenberg of Arches, you might notice the use of a lighter hand with reverb and delay on the vocals for this latest in comparison to previous works, providing a more radio-ready track. We’re really digging the searing guitar jam to close things out. The band plans to have their debut cassette EP out by late fall of this year. You’ll have two opportunities to catch Avery Rosewater live in the near future in Philly – this Friday, September 27 upstairs at Kung Fu Necktie and Sunday, October 6 at Boot & Saddle opening for Elf Power.

NYC

Radkey’s rapid ascent to success

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A little over three years ago, Dee, Isaiah, and Solomon Radke were regular teenage brothers from St. Joseph who indulged in video games, movies, comics—stuff that most teenage boys enjoy.
 
Fast-forward to the not-so-distant future. Radkey has amassed a giant resume, from playing its first live show with Fishbone to recording “Cat and Mouse” (also the title of its debut album) at Adrian Grenier’s Wreckroom in Brooklyn to rocking the Download Fest in England earlier this year to recently completing its first full-scale tour to releasing its second EP Devil Fruit on Little Man Records AND undertaking a European tour this October. And… they still enjoy the same things as before.
 
“Quite a bit has changed,” said bassist Isaiah Radke, “but we’re still just a bunch of dorks hanging out at home whenever we’re not off doing the music thing.”
 
Modest, considering their rise from the St. Joe-KC music scene to international heights. But having had several off-the-record conversations with all three of the guys and their father/manager Matt Radke, a large key to their success has been in their ability to continue to hone their craft, remain humble, and stay involved in local music. Though Radkey has enjoyed accolades around the country and across the pond, it hasn’t been uncommon to see them on a KC or Lawrence stage with other local acts.
 
They kicked off their very first US tour to a full house at Czar with Naam last month, and played the KC Live stage with Silversun Pickups a couple weeks before that. A couple weeks ago they played Riot Fest in Chicago. This weekend, they’ll be one of the main acts at Beach Ball, alongside Cage The Elephant, AWOLNATION, Alt-J, and more. Despite all the huge bills they’ve already played on, the boys had never done a real tour before. So, why not?
 
Isaiah explains. “You can practice every single day—which we have done—and get pretty good, but you can only get so good. Playing lots of shows makes you a better musician and it also improves your live show. We finally hit the wall where touring is the only way to become better musicians, so we finally had the opportunity to break that wall by playing live every day.”
 
Since my first observation of a Radkey live show a couple of years ago, their onstage confidence has steadily grown with their musical cohesiveness and audience interactions, both crucial for success. That’s not to say they were lackluster in either department before, but at each performance, Dee’s monstrous voice becomes a bit more menacing and intimidating (in a good way); Isaiah’s banter with the crowd becomes a bit more sophisticated; Solomon’s drum patterns become a bit more complicated and precise.
 
“Because they are so young they will inevitably evolve and change, but there is something magical about the raw energy and earnestness of who they are right now,” said Joel Nanos, owner of Element Recording Studios.
 
Nanos also recorded tracks off Devil Fruit—the first single “Romance Dawn” was released in August, and “Overwhelmed” was released last week on NME. He calls the tracks fast, raw, and real. The brothers announce themselves to the world with a youthful immediacy backed by production that captures them at their purest and most formidable. Already, the songs are receiving a notable amount of attention on reputable music sources, and the album hasn’t even dropped yet.
 
But all for good reason. In spite of their quick strides from being three homeschooled kids to self-taught musicians with a steady local following to a buzz band getting radio play on the other side of the globe, the Radke brothers haven’t taken any of this for granted.
 
“I dunno; I mean, we practiced every day, and did our best to write songs that we loved. Plus, our dad was a great manager so that helped,” said Isaiah. “We pretty much worked very hard and had some percentage of luck on our side. We’re pretty thankful for that.”
 
They’ve also maintained support from the local music community, many of whom recognize their dedication to creating music and spreading the kick-in-your-teeth gospel of rock ‘n roll. Nanos sums it up best: “Those kids are just super cool, definitely beyond their years in maturity and knowledge; they have a great sense of self-awareness. They are the ones teaching me about cool stuff.”
 

You only have one more chance to see Radkey before they head out on their month-long European tour; they’ll be on the main stage at Beach Ball this Friday, September 27 at Berkley Riverfront Park. They’ll be touring the UK with Drenge, plus Germany and Holland, and return to the US in November to tour with Black Joe Lewis. Devil Fruit will be released October 15. And here’s a link to the NME exclusive of their super-cool video for "Romance Dawn."

 

–Michelle Bacon

Michelle is editor of The Deli Magazine – Kansas City, and also plays drums Drew Black & Dirty Electric and bass in Dolls on Fire and The Philistines. She once gave Isaiah a button from her old band and he might still wear it. She will eventually be one of those people who says, "I knew them way back when… AND gave one of them a shiny button."

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Nashville

“Wolves” by Calligan

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Nashville indie/folk duo Calligan released this song on September 16th, excellent timing considering that it features enough acoustic guitar and harmonica to make a listener itch for autumn. You may catch yourself entertaining thoughts of leaving it all behind and heading out to the mountains upon hearing the refrain (or invitation) “Let’s be wolves-.” But those bills ain’t paying themselves. -Terra James-Jura

NYC

Alex Vans And The Hide Away MEGA BAND at Iota this Friday, Sept. 27.

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Alex Vans and the Hideaway are playing an extra special show this Friday at Iota as a Mega Band! The band now features 9 pieces, including a full horn section and backup singers (and will include such talent as Will Rast and Margot Macdonald). Alex says the new setup “really brings the songs to life the way they are on record, plus a few surprises.” For my part, I can’t wait to see 9 pieces on Iota’s stage. Joining Alex and The (now much harder to) Hide Away will be These Animals (a NYC band releasing a new cd), and (playing their farewell show) D.C.’s Kid Architect . Doors at 9. –Natan Press

New England

As The Sparrow new “Porchstep Songs”

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Until recently we had forgotten how much fun dancing to folk music is. Boston Locals As the Sparrow refer to themselves as a “Folk-indie-swing” band, a genre that by itself sounds like a great result of the melting pot of American music. As The Sparrow is a unique and well-executed concept, and their album is a long dark ballad reminiscent of a more elegant and reserved 16 Horsepower.

NYC

Noisy NYC bands on the rise: Pampers tour with The Men

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The four dedicated rockers that make up Brooklyn’s latest, noisiest buzz band, the rising artpunk band Pampers, have slipped into their diapers and been hard at work. Their self-titled debut LP is due out on October 29th via In The Red Records and the band has released 3 new tracks for stream, premiered by Brooklyn Vegan, in support of the upcoming release which was produced by Ben Greenburg of The Men. The aggressive and whirling guitar riffs combined with the rustic, fuzzy vocals take you back to the early days of punk, but their postmodern influences keep them current. The guys are set to open for The Men on their upcoming tour which kicks off in Rochester on 10/13. Listen to "Purple Brain" below via the band’s Bandcamp page! – Michael Haskoor (@Tweetskoor)

Philadelphia

Ticket Giveaway: The Flaming Lips & Tame Impala at Festival Pier Next Thursday

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Yeah, we LOVE getting people into concerts for free! Here’s another rad ticket giveaway for you. We have a pair of tickets for next Thursday’s Flaming Lips/Tame Impala show at Festival Pier! To enter for a chance to win, just send us an email at thedelimagazinephiladelphia@gmail.com with the subject line “Let’s Get Weird!” Please also include your cell number in the body of the message (in case of an emergency). Special thanks to the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. for helping us get you in. Good Luck! 

 

NYC

From The Deli NYC’s online music submissions: Kassini

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A listen to Kassini is like stepping into another world, where trap doors exist around every corner, and you never can be quite sure where one false move might take you. A hazy bridge existing somewhere between ethereal soundtrack and epic power pop, this is a record that demands it be played front to back. As conceptual a journey as anything you’re likely to take in sound and space this year, check it out below and see the band when they announce more shows later this year. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

This band submitted their music for coverage here.

 

NYC

Album review: Vi Tran Band – American Heroine

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You have a dream. You work hard for it. You make many sacrifices. You find friends who share your passion. You create something. You hope for success through hard work and determination and talent. It’s a classic storyline—America loves when good things happen to people who work hard, and Vietmanese-born Vi Tran is second to none in personifying that American dream. He’s an actor, a musician, a tireless voice for and supporter of the arts community, and a pretty decent card player to boot. Above all, his singing, songwriting, and storytelling have been heard around Kansas City through his shows with Hot Caution, a lively cover band featuring a rotating lineup, and his 2010 EP Goodbye, Summer. Hearing him at Czar Bar or the Kill Devil Club or any of the other venues he plays, however, cannot properly prepare you for what you will hear with his debut full-length release, American Heroine. It’s an album that is less about singles and radio play and more about musical theatre and song craft. Tran’s professional Facebook page tells of the literary inspiration he called upon to help create Heroine’s sonic grandeur; it’s a projection that is tied in with the album artwork, which hearkens to the golden days of Hollywood and all the magic that art was and is capable of.
 
He is fond of saying that he is “part wheat fields, part sea salt,” and this is his Wheat album, a tribute to authors such as Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald—authors whose protagonists have dealt with struggles and challenges that mirror those of Tran’s family as they struggled with the challenges of being refugees in a new world. Those stories have been with him for the better part of a decade, waiting for the right time to be shared. When he felt that time had come, and he had amassed the strongest overall support staff possible, he threw himself completely into the project with the intent to make American Heroine look and sound like a well-worn paperback novel.
 
What you get, and what is instantly discernable from the opening typewriter solo in the intro, is an album that is less indie and more musical theatre—less “make it radio-ready” and more “knock ‘em dead, kid.” The earnestness and sincerity in his vocals grabs the listener from the first measures of the title track, where the aforementioned literary tribute takes on a literal tone as the protagonist leans on his inspirations for storytelling (“You are the most precious pearl / You are an archetypal Steinbeckian girl … If this were Hemingway, you’d meet your end in a hospital tent / And I’d watch it happening, wouldn’t be able to do a thing”).
 
“The Charmer” finds Tran trying to woo his way into a lucky lady’s heart in spite of his growing sense of self-doubt and timidity; as Ben Byard’s bass nimbly skips and encircles the twosome as they eventually connect … or do they? The next two tracks, “All the Time in the World” and “Goodbye, Summer” are revisited from his earlier EP, and the three years that have passed since their initial appearance have been good to the songs as they (along with the rest of American Heroine) find added depth and strength from the added instrumentation, along with the benefit of more life experience which Tran’s vocals bring forth with focus and solidity. “The Killing Rain” brings the strings to the fore, as Christine Grossman, Christine Gross, and Sean Hogge all offer virtuoso performances, matching the fragility of Tran’s lyrics and delivery (“I shake and shudder / crack and break / my leaves, my litter / my small mistakes”) with beautifully delicate skill. To me, this is perhaps the most instrumentally stunning track of all …
 
… which makes it all the more effective as a lead-in to what I think is American Heroine’s tour de force: if this truly was a soundtrack to a Broadway musical, “Waterlily” would surely bring the house down on a nightly basis. You know how it is when you observe someone doing what they do, knowing that they’re at the top of their game, and it’s a beautiful thing to see and/or hear? That’s what “Waterlily” represents to me, as every bit of it—vocals, instruments, performance, and production (brilliantly mastered by Joel Nanos at Element Recording Studios)—is awe-inspiringly on point. It starts gently, but when all the players come in about ninety seconds into the song, it’s pretty much as good as any music moment could possibly get, and that sense of top-level execution continues to the end. Jerod Rivers’ percussion feeds the intensity and energy of the song, and though the vocal collaboration of Tran and Katie Gilchrist can be heard throughout the album, here they simultaneously challenge each other, lean on one another, and lift each other higher and higher. “Waterlily” is simply staggering in its majesty and bravado.
 
And this brings us to the final chapter of this narrative, one with which many of Tran’s legion of admirers may be unfamiliar. He usually keeps “The Code” under wraps (along with “The Killing Rain”) because, in his words, “they aren’t well-suited to noisy bar gigs. They tend to be ignored outside an intimate storytellers’ setting. I knew they’d reach their full potential on the album.” The trumpet and piano of Hermon Mehari and Mark Lowrey respectively lead the way into a tale of a man searching for just the right time—and the right way—to make his feelings known to the object of his desire (“Sometimes it’s easier to shoulder the whole world / Than to muster up the courage to admit that you’re in love”). Tran closes the album by laying his soul bare, leaving no emotion unspoken—and no tale untold.
 
To briefly return to the title track, Tran emotes: “I should have learned my lesson well / From these great literary cautionary tales.” It’s a lesson that he has not only learned well, but one he now teaches the listener—and does so with grace and courage. There’s a commonly used phrase in the world of poker: “all-in,” which is what it’s called when you put every one of your chips at risk. Sometimes it’s an act of desperation, when you’re almost out of the game and you want to take one last shot at a big payoff so you can keep playing … but other times it shows supreme confidence, a sense of invulnerability, when the player is so sure of what he has that he dares anyone to challenge him. Vi Tran knows he’s put everything he has—emotionally, mentally, financially, and every-other-ally you can think of—into his new album …
 
… and I think American Heroine is a winning hand.
 
Vi Tran Band is:
Vi Tran: vocals, guitar, typewriter
Katie Gilchrist: vocals
Sean Hogge: guitar
Jerod Rivers: drums, percussion, lap steel, vocals
Ben Byard: bass, vocals 
 
*****
American Heroine was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Joel Nanos at Element Recording, © 2013 SeaWheat Songs. Album collaborators include Eryn Bates (string arrangements), Mark Lowrey (piano, organ), Hermon Mehari (trumpet), Rachel Gaither (violin), Christine Grossman (viola), and Christine Gross (cello). Album cover art direction, design, and layout by Vi Tran, Eric Lindquist (Lindquist Press), Matthew Naquin, and Mackenzie Goodwin. Photography by Forester Michael.
 
The album will be released on October 8, but you can attend the release party next Friday, October 4 at Kill Devil Club at 7:00 pm. Special guests include Mark Lowrey, David George & A Crooked Mile, and Jessica Paige. Vi Tran Band will be performing with the American Heroine Orchestra. Ticket link.
 
 
–Michael Byars
 

Michael Byars is still chuckling silently to himself over his hidden Beatles reference he snuck in there. He thinks he’s just so damn clever. Good job, Michael. Way to go.

*clap … clap … clap … clap …*
 

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Chicago

Massive Ego

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The Pysch-punk trio Massive Ego (aka M4SS1V3 3G0) are celebrating the released of their latest cassette (vinyl coming this fall) D0N’T this week. The tape is being released by Maximum Pelt Records.

You can catch Massive Ego at Empty Bottle on Sept. 25th with Max Clarke & The Cut Worms, Negative Scanner, and John Bellows.