Philadelphia

Weekend Warrior, April 24 – 26

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After a crazy busy SXSW, Marian Hill have been finding themselves in high demand. Selling out shows on both coasts, the dynamic electro-soul team of Jeremy Lloyd and Sam Gongol returns home to another one at Boot & Saddle. However, it will be a short stop in Philly because they’ll be back on stage again tomorrow in LA for JazzReggae Fest. It’s good training wheels for a group that seems like they’ll be crisscrossing around the world at some point in the near future. Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St., 8pm, $12 (Sold Out), 21+ (Photo by Shervin Lainez) – H.M. Kauffman
 
More places to do your thang this weekend…
 
The Boot & Saddle (1131 S. Broad St.)  SAT The Pretty Greens
 
Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N. Frankford Ave.) SAT Work Drugs, Tutlie, The Chairman Dances
 
Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front St.) FRI Husky Bundles/Wizard Eye, Wally, The Magnificent ShitHawks Of  The Greater Northern Americas/Latex, SAT The Improbables, SUN The Mellowells, Lightninging
 
Union Transfer (1026 Spring Garden St.) SUN Sheer Mag, A.M. Mills
 
Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill St.) FRI Low Cut Connie (Record Release)
 
Bourbon & Branch (705 N. 2nd St.) FRI The Racket Boys, Max Swan SAT Suburban Living, Dream Safari, Lithuania
 
TLA (334 South St.) SUN Jazmine Sullivan
 
World Café Live (3025 Walnut St.)  SUN The Ultrakings
 
The Fire (412 W. Girard Ave.)  FRI PHL Good, Wild By Law, Stella Ruze, Ryan Villanueva, SAT Verbatum Jones, Kenneth Sullivan, SUN Bibi and the Bull, Silver Skies
 
MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut St.) FRI Key Fest: The Lawsuits, Rosu Lup, Dylan Jane, SAT Key Fest: The Bul Bey, Brielle, Jacqueline Constance, Tiani Victoria
 
Ortlieb’s Lounge (847 N. 3rd St.) SAT Edgewise, Dysphoria, Die Choking
 
North Star Bar (2639 Poplar St.) FRI Anjuli Josephine, SAT Thom McCarthy
 
Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd St) FRI Black Horse Motel, Wild Orphan, SAT JD Santo
 
Fergie’s (1214 Sansom St.) FRI Hambone Relay, SAT Jersey Corn Pickers, SUN Rusty Cadillac
 
Connie’s Ric Rac (1132 S. 9th St) FRI Lovers League, Rev TJ McGlinchey, Dani Mari, Christopher Davis-Shannon
 
Frankie Bradley’s (1320 Chancellor St.) FRI York Street Hustle, SAT Song Dogs (Record Release), The Rivals, Can You Canoe
 
The Grape Room (105 Grape St) FRI George O’Brien (CD Release), The Donuts, SAT The Good Mess, Sonogram, Alright Junior
 
Ardmore Music Hall (23 E. Lancaster Ave.) SAT Tommy Conwell & The Young Rumblers
 
Creep Records (1050 N Hancock Street, Suite 76) SAT Amanda X, Mannequin Pussy, Fake Boyfriend, Shannen Moser, Roya Weidman, VVeed VVolf
 
Vox Populi (319 N. 11th St., #3) SAT TAOFEST – Hurry, Ghost Gum, Downies, Horsecops, SUN Fake Boyfriend, Kelley Plante, Dead
 
The Pharmacy (1300 S. 18th St.) SUN Limits, Drowse
 
Eris Temple (602 S. 52nd St.) SAT On the Water, City Scapes
 
Beaumont Warehouse (Please contact one of the acts or venue for more info.) FRI Punx For Pussies Vol. 4: Serpent Throne, Crypt Sermon, Crazy Bull
 
3rd & Girard (Please contact one of the acts or venue for more info.) Abi Reimold, Friendship, TWIIN, Tangiers
 
Philadelphia

Get Loose w/TWIIN at 3rd & Girard April 24

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Recent Featured Artist(s) Poll Winners TWIIN performs this evening at 3rd & Girard on a billing that runs four deep. The garage-punk quartet is off to an excellent start with “Sleepover,” a song whose rumbling bass/drum foundation couples with vocals that have a loosely stretched/drawn out sense yet also hints at rage. The raw outer edge with an underlying intensity plays for a dynamic that will be intriguing to watch blossom. Tonight’s slate also includes Abi Reimold, who also works freely in an emotionally dynamic range. Reimold’s vocals grab hold of ones ear with their natural heartache and strength surrounded by a storm of unguarded instrumentation. The quartet of Tangiers kicks in with lo-fi, melodic indie rock that exhibits flourishes of polish, while still retaining that earnest filter-less approach. Peter Gill’s fuzzy folk outlet Friendship rounds this night into a finished form. 3rd & Girard, (Please contact one of the acts or venue for more info.), 8pm, 21+ – Michael Colavita

NYC

The Cutting Room on 4.25: Experimental music, live visuals, and haircuts

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Internet Radio show Culture Remixed and hairstyle team SUMO Hair are coming together this Saturday evening to present The Cutting Room, an intersection of avant garde music, real time visuals, and haircuts. Culture Remixed DJ/ Subsuelo VJ Julián Félix and seasoned hairstylist Nectali Duran provide an intimate setting for Angeleans to absorb new currents of sound in and around the Los Angeles area. For those feeling particularly adventurous or in need of a trim, Vidal Sassoon/Toni & Guy alumnus Nectali Duran can whip up a fresh look at the event.

Lounge around and take in the sounds of up-and-coming electronic acts. Lawrence Lindell and Gypsy Eyes of DIY art/music collective NoiseMetSound present their own interpretations of futurebeat along with IDM warrior Repeated Measures (New Los Angeles), ambient DJ/singer Lola la Showgirl (Space Circus), and abstract hip hop producer headband (Humble Weight). Experimental musicians/heavy scene contributors Kelly Coats and Kathleen Kim will also be performing a set as the eclectic SheKhan with a variety of instruments.

21+ / Free Admission

Check out footage from the first session below. – Ryan Mo

NYC

Dirty Fences unveil video for “Judy Don’t Go” + announce sophomore album “Full Tramp”

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Although NYC if filled with bands playing garage rock, few local acts pull it off as competently as Dirty Fences, who’s been refining this art since the beginning of this decade. The quartet just released a new video for "Judy (don’t go)," in which they have fun with the oldest form of dressing up (by the way, it’s amazing what a blonde wig can do, even to a man…). Look out for their sophomore album "Full Tramp," scheduled for a May 19 release. We are also digging the more psychedelic sounding opening track "Deep in Your Heart" (also streaming). You can check out two more preview songs here.

New England

Album Review: Sun E-Shea

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Sun E-Shea’s debut self-titled album sounds like it should be blasted from a cassette in a Sony boom-box rather than played through an internet link, but I guess that’s why the duo proclaims they "are stuck in the past and…are staying for the music." The release boasts twenty tracks, with influences clearly rooted in late 80s/early 90s hip-hop. While they touch upon a variety of different artists’ styles, I felt an A Tribe Called Quest vibe the strongest. Some of you may think that’s ultra-high praise, but take a listen to Sun E-Shea’s songs and you’ll hear exactly what I mean. The samples, beats and lyrics are all super-smooth and well-written, with the Quest sound coming through particularly strong in their choice of bass lines and drum tracks.

One of my favorite lines from the record comes from the track "Clive": "More times than often, well-skilled and clean, learned how to rhyme from Shel Silverstein." I think I’ll go home after work, listen to a few more of these tracks and try to find a copy of The Giving Tree on ebay.

For more info about these two seemingly unknown MCs, check out their (apparently) new Facebook page.

-Dan McMahon (@dmcmhn)

  

NYC

Interview: (the) medicine theory

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The Medicine Theory is an experimental rock music trio comprised of baritone guitarist Jeff Irvine, percussionist/vocalist Tyson Schroeder, and cellist Barbara Anndrea Arriaga-Delaney. The two-piece version, drums and guitar—formed in 2007—played a set at Harling’s Upstairs a couple weeks ago and chatted with me afterward.
 
Schroeder and Irvine met in various performing and visual arts classes during high school and soon began playing in punk/metal bands. A few years later, the two were playing in KC speed metal/punk band Methods of Man (1994-1997). After a few years, Schroeder decided to take a break from music. Soon after, Irvine moved to Philadelphia then Washington DC to pursue his degree. By 2000, Schroeder moved to Cape Cod to focus on painting while working and living at the newly opened museum estate of artist and author Edward Gorey.
 
“At that time,” said Schroeder, “I was done playing in bands. I was going to play, but only if I was having fun with it like I did when I was 18.” Then he visited Irvine in DC and fun ensued. “It was pretty much, let’s drink absinthe and make noises and record them,” said Schroeder. Irvine recalls, “We did that… quietly,” with his girlfriend, now wife, asleep in the next room.
 
The two had fun, stayed up all night and a few months later met again in Cape Cod. They set up a mini recording studio in one of the estates, Barns (no absinthe this time, just volume), and set about recording “everything we could,” said Irvine. “It was pretty much the beginning of this band,” recalls Schroeder. And it became the template for how the two would write music.
 
“We wanted to write like we did when we first started,” said Schroeder, “when we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing… anything goes.” After so many years playing off of each other, Irvine mentioned, “There’s a lot of instinct. Things just happen.” In late 2014 the two-piece became a trio thanks to cellist Arriaga-Delaney.
 
Schroeder’s percussion is deliberate and big. At times his style and sound somehow lean towards jazz-punk, all the while maintaining an unwavering weight and drive. His vocals expand and retract from the hushed tones of a madman mid-conversation to a shouting lunatic, depending on the story he’s telling or the character being brought to life. Schroeder and Irvine are both visual artists as well as musicians, and this lends nicely to the characters and stories created in their songwriting. Barreling through, over and around all of this is Irvine’s sonic-laced baritone. At times jagged and driving, at others melodic, almost adrift, it is evident he knows how to simply let a song—a story, unfold. Irvine played bass for a long time before picking up guitar and this can be heard in the reserve with which he attacks songs, holding down steady rhythms and flourishes as well as succinct leads.
 
The advent of Austin-based cellist Arriaga-Delaney started as an experiment on a few songs in 2014. By March 2015 the band had played a few shows together and were set to play the MidCoast Takeover stage at SXSW. “She wanted to just do 2 or 3 songs, like she’d done previously,” says Irvine. Schroeder notes, “But we both really liked what she was bringing to the table.” Irvine let Arriaga-Delaney in on a secret. “We’re going to do a full set with you.” The cellist agreed. “She showed to us that she really wanted to be a part of this.”
 
There were a few obstacles, though. Less than a week before the showcase, she had injured her hand and didn’t know the whole set list. But she toughed it out. “Six days in a row,” says Irvine. Schroeder recalls 4- to 6-hour rehearsals.
 
Arriaga-Delaney is a busy cellist. She played in a band calle And The Furies Say, as well as Reverend Glasseye, a Boston-based band that transplanted to Austin, where she got hooked up with them.” According to Schroeder, “She tours around a lot playing solo things, playing with other people. She’s definitely a free spirit—a gypsy lady.” Recently, she worked on a score for a film in real time. “She was out in the desert with them while they were filming it, just coming up with a soundtrack. They put her in the film but they were also recording her live.”
 
The effect of Arriaga-Delaney’s cello on The Medicine Theory’s sound is as subtle yet decisive. The arrangements haven’t changed but have grown. The mood and tone of songs has shifted. The modicum of levity in Schroeder’s vocal attack has decreased with the infusion of the cello, while the stark melancholy has increased. “Covered Bridge” shifts from dark yet driven to stoic, moody, and downright estranged. The song “Timmy,” a twisted fun house take on a very dark subject matter, maintains a sense of levity. But as Irvine and Schroeder romp through the song, Arriaga-Delaney casually creates a sense of foreboding that wasn’t there before. Like smoke slowly filling a room.
 
Putting a finger on the sound this trio is creating is maddening, impossible, and unnecessary. Comparisons to other groups don’t quite fit. The sound is uniquely their own, and that is the intention.
 
–Chris Nielsen
 
 
The Medicine Theory plays at The Riot Room on Sunday, April 26, with Ides of Gemini, Sedlec Ossuary, and The Last Glacier. Facebook event page.
  
Toronto

DUTCH @ The Cavern Bar

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I found my way to a Soundcloud page for a band called Dutch. They’re from Toronto and they have the most honest bio I’ve ever read. "We have an album and we play shows. Nobody buys albums or goes to shows." I was hooked. They’d have to be really bad for me not to like them. So I fired up their album Rotoscope Down. The opening track "Dry Your Tears" was pure party punk rock…but kinda slacker punk rock too. It made me want to party and do nothing all at the same time. I get some Dinosaur Jr. vibes from it too which is extra bonus points from me. Either way these guys have fun shows to attend. See them tonight 4/23 @ The Cavern Bar with Big Frasier. For now have a listen to the album…-Kris “Big City” Gies

Toronto

IN THE SOIL ARTS FESTIVAL

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In the Soil Arts Festival is going on this weekend, April 24th to 26th taking place in downtown St. Catharines. With over 150 fantastic acts don’t miss our favorites The Wilderness of Manitoba, The Dinner Belles, Northern Primitive and Hooded Fang. Take a listen and head out this weekend to In the Soil Arts Festival, it will be an adventure of all sorts.

 

The Wilderness of Manitoba

The Dinner Belles

Northen Primitive

Hooded Fang

NYC

Delicious Audio Q&A with Howard about inspiration, gear and recording

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Howard is a Brooklyn band that plays an atmospheric brand of melodic post-rock (although the band, on their Facebook page, refers to it as “Folktronica”), where gentle textural experiments, synths, samples, varying percussive elements and electric guitars blend effortlessly, guided by the mellow tenor of singer songwriter/producer Howard Feibusch. The band has been active since 2009 in various forms, and lately came to the indie rock audience’s attention through single “Money Can’t Buy,", which early in 2015 gathered more than 2 million plays on Spotify in a matter of weeks. We asked Howard Feibusch a few questions hoping to steal some of his secrets in our Delicious Audio Interview about gear, recording and inspiration.

We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best mellow songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

NYC

Seattle Deli’s Artist of the Month: Cabana

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You just found your mom’s mushroom hoard so naturally you steal them, because you don’t really want your mother to be doing mushrooms for fear that she’ll have a bad trip and make you clean your room, even though you’re 28 years old and she really has no authority over you anymore. So you ingest the dang things, choking them down all the way because they’ve been stored next to a bottle of patchouli, and you wait. In the meantime you put on Eric’s Trip and wonder why bands can’t be this good anymore.

All of the sudden you find yourself online, on shrooms, (because it’s 2015 and we don’t go outside anymore) and you start reading the Seattle Deli. You take one look at the banner at the top and you’re all like “who the fuck is Cabana?” So you take a chance and click through. Suddenly, you are sucked into this new ecosystem we’re calling bandcamp, where bands are kings, queens and denizens alike. Where musical theory is the only law and even it can be broken at any moment, and nationwide healthcare means listening binaural beats and a Shepard’s tone.

Meanwhile Eric’s Trip has stopped, but just as suddenly as you clicked through a new song begun -It’s not Eric’s Trip, nor is it the Smashing Pumpkins; it’s not Galaxie 500 either! Your eyes have become deaf and your ears are blind to anything other than this and you’ve become consumed by the new sound that surrounds you: Cabana! And what a glorious sound it is! The guitars are as fuzzy as they are clear, while the vocals make a child of the 90’s want to crawl back into the womb and be reborn so that they can hear those classic songs for the first time again. Thanks to Cabana though we don’t have to do that because they have taken us directly to the 90’s, passing through the Paisley Underground and picking up Jason Spaceman along the way, all while we sit comfortably at home drooling into our macbook retinas.

Blame it on the mushrooms, or blame it on technology, either way if you hadn’t been guided by voices you may have never discovered Cabana. So, thank you oh! Great deities of the Dream Syndicate, for you have guided mine ears to thine great auditory shelter from the coldness of the future of music: ALL HAIL CABANA.

Philadelphia

New Curly Castro LP Available for Streaming & Download

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The Wrecking Crew’s Curly Castro has just released his new LP Restroy & Debuild, produced by Boston’s Fakts One. Enlisting the help of fellow crew members as well as Dewey Decibel, Elucid and Tomorrow Kings among others, the album provides its fair share of heavy-hitting, thermostat-raising rhymes, while also reaching for that classic party jam feel at times. So feel free to crank it up, and download it below!