Madalean Gauze recently released a new six-song EP Cool and Fun. An impending danger looms as the musical engine continues to rev and the swirl of peripheral vocals hauntingly shakes the foundation. Finding the sweet spot betwixt bright moments of mountaintop clarity and grittier, in-the-woods, unbending ferocity, the album is assertively aggressive and focused. Head out to Johnny Brenda’s on Friday, July 21 for a record release celebration that will also feature Haunted Homes and American Trappist! (Photo by Bob Sweeney)

For Burst & Bloom‘s 50th release, the Portsmouth, NH record label asked its artists and friends to contribute covers of songs from its catalog for its new compilation, Burst & Bloom 50,  you can stream and download for free HERE. Every artist on its roster (past & present) is represented in the collection. You can also take Philly alt-folk outfit Friendship‘s rendition of Seekonk’s "Woo-Hoo" for a spin below. It can be found on band’s album Pinkwood 2. (Photo by Daniel Riffe)

Tall Friend announced last month that they would be releasing their debut full-length album, Safely Nobody’s, on August 11 via Exploding In Sound. Below is their second single from the forthcoming LP, which is also accompanied by a music video that was directed by Allyssa Yohana. "’Small Space’ is a song about growing up in an environment that rejects and suppresses you, then coming out on the other side alive and new. I like the idea of biological processes occurring in spite of difficult circumstances," Tall Friend’s Charlie Pfaff shared with The Fader about the trio’s latest track. The band will be performing next in Philly tomorrow evening at Everybody Hits with Mal Blum & The Blums, King Azaz, and Jenna and The Pups.

Part pop punk, part emo revival – Joy Riding‘s debut full-length, You’re So Smart, is a suitable pick-me-up for the summer/life, in general. Released last month by Black Rd Records, the band’s 10-track slew of anthems will most definitely make you nostalgic for indie greats like Hey Mercedes and Saves the Day, while still managing to be inventive.

The cynical romantics of the album’s opener, much like Brand New’s "Mixtape" or Weezer’s problematic yet beloved "El Scorcho," couple disdain with unfettered feelings and tangible hope. A more tempered musing on longing than what Joy Riding’s predecessors offered in the early aughts, “Golden” is frank but endearing, two elements which make the track memorable long before its end. “Suzie Lynn” starts with buzzing notes and finessed reverb, evolving quickly into an ode for a hesitant sweetheart. Reminiscent of Relient K at their best or Kenny Vasoli circa 2002, You’re So Smart’s second track is brooding, lush, and self-aware, offering its audience a vivid portrait of plausible intimacy before its frenzied start or inevitable demise which is quickly followed by the synth filled thrill of “Different Shapes.” Tastefully retro and awash in guitar, shimmering cymbals, and a New Wave worthy backbeat, Joy Riding’s third offering is difficult not to love. When lead vocalist Joseph Ryans croons, “You fall in love every single day/You’ve got a lot of things you want to say to me,” it feels like an invitation to wear your heart on your sleeve. The album’s title track is a sentimental yet satisfying ballad bound to bring to mind early cuts by The Get Up Kids or Copeland. Perhaps a bit more jaded than “Different Shapes” and “Suzie Lynn,” “You’re So Smart” excavates the existential root of desire with lines like – “They say love, it never becomes fun/until you swallow every bitter pill and let it go to hell” and by asking “Are we just too far gone?”

“Cool Band” examines the difference between authenticity and pretension, along with the pitfalls of curating one’s personal pain for the sake of an audience. The sweeping riffs and textured vocals of “For Jessica” are filled with urgency and a latent promise of autonomy, which is fully realized mid-song, when Ryans sings, “You just left him for dead… You just left and laughed him off.” However, with “For Jessica,” the band celebrates the way that distance can lead to closure and a fresh start in the wake of a romance’s end, while the electronic bleep and heartwarming chords of “Hail Mary” will make you either think about the bae that got away or the bae you’re currently with. It’s a fervent prayer for lovers who believe in second chances. Like a less dreary rendition of Death Cab For Cutie’s “Title Track,” the following track, “Tarrytown,” makes the most of atmosphere with the staccato click of drum sticks and subtle snare. It’s similarly cinematic, offering itself as a ready-made soundtrack for drives at dusk or boozy nights spent willingly or unwillingly alone. The song’s narrative is familiar yet hopeful in a believably bearable way. Although not as optimistic as the preceding track, “Marie & Me” is admirably brazen and melodic. Between astute observations and demands, its narrator highlights the benefits of boundaries and letting things go, which are two of the many themes that bleed into the album’s finale, “Grad School,” a well-chosen end to a nearly faultless album. You’re So Smart’s closer is a meditation on friendship, transitions, and endings. Like an audible embodiment of memento mori, “Grad School” urges listeners that “You can’t win if you don’t try.”

From start to finish, Joy Riding’s LP is an introspective celebration of intimacy, new beginnings, and the psyche’s shortcomings without melodrama or overt misogyny. One can only wonder how pop punk and emo would have evolved the first time around if more bands were as earnest as this. – Dianca London

Krust Toons: "Just Do What I Do" by Tedd Hazard – please feel free to drop him a line at teddandthehazards@gmail.com if you dig or have any funny ideas. You can also check out more of his illustrations and animation shorts HERE.

Powerful yet sometimes delicate compositions will be emanating from Boot & Saddle this weekend. The South Philly watering hole will be playing host to Northern Arms’s record release tonight for Chapel Cabaret. It’s a fitting title for the band’s new album, which feels, at times, holy and intimate, while sounding joyous and celebratory, at others. The sextet will most likely be joined by special guests on stage this evening to bring the record’s grandiose sound to fruition in a live setting. Northern Arms have invited psych-pop outfit HiSoft to open the festivities. The band is fronted by Gerhardt Koerner, who also lent his recording talents on the latest release.

And you may find yourself, once again, camped out in the beautiful sounding square box of a room the following evening, where The Lunar Year will also be holding their record release celebration. Led by Katie Burke’s mellifluous vocals, the band recently shared its beautiful, revealing, piano-driven full-length album Herodias. They’ll be supported by alt-folk crew Rosu Lup and the “bookish indie rock” of The Chairman Dances. – H.M. Kauffman

More places to spend your holiday-ish weekend…

Boot & Saddle (1131 S. Broad St.) FRI Northern Arms (Record Release Show), HiSoft, SAT The Lunar Year (Record Release Show), Rosu Lup, The Chairman Dances

Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N. Frankford Ave.) SAT S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D. (Record Release Show), Northern Liberties, Curtis Cooper

Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front St.) FRI Crackhouse, Surgeon/DJ Tony Modica, SAT Narcos/DJ Royale/A Black Celebration: DJ Baby Berlin, DJ Jem, SUN KingTay

PhilaMOCA (531 N. 12^th St.) SUN Joy Again, Bahdeavn

Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill St.) SAT Hound

Union Transfer (1026 Spring Garden St.)

The Trocadero (1003 Arch St.) FRI Montega Picasso, Maverick The Poet, Montana Blak, Gran Centennial

World Café Live (3025 Walnut St.) FRI (Upstairs) Michele Lynn, SAT (Upstairs) Batiyah, El Gahnt, Saudah Al-Akbar/The Hype presents: Love Fest

The Fire (412 W. Girard Ave.) FRI Tessellations, SAT Vanderlyle, John Dominy

MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut St.) FRI Desoto Jones, Bright and Early, Keeper, SAT Oolala. The Ardvark Felon, You Do You

The Barbary (951 Frankford Ave.) FRI Man About a Horse (Album Release Show)/ The Bigness, The Upticks

Ortlieb’s Lounge (847 N. 3^rd St.) FRI Secret Nudist Friends, Tannins

Silk City (435 Spring Garden St.) FRI Rich Medina, SAT DJ Deejay

Fergie’s (1214 Sansom St.) SUN Rusty Cadillac

Connie’s Ric Rac (1132 S. 9^th St.) SUN Autumn Passing

Bourbon & Branch (705 N. 2^nd St.) FRI Soraia, Tubey Frank, SUN Jus O

The Grape Room (105 Grape St.) FRI Bamboo Tommy, Greenough Wilde

Ardmore Music Hall (23 E. Lancaster Ave.) FRI Swift Technique, Lets Danza, Johnny Popcorn, SAT Splintered Sunlight, Whiskeyhickon Boys, SUN Splintered Sunlight, The Jawn

Morgan’s Pier (221 N. Columbus Boulevard) FRI DJ Beatstreet, SAT Menace Cartel

Everybody Hits (529 W. Girard Ave.) SAT Clique, Weller, Tombo Crush

The Pharmacy (1300 S. 18^th St.) FRI Sublaymen, Hallowed Bells/The Magnificent Shit Hawks, Felipe Pupo, Manikineter, Planet 88, SAT Joshua Alvarez, Child Savage

Finally, A Peculiar Kind of Afternoon, the new album from Circadian Rhythms, is available online. So now, as the temperatures continue to rise, one can quench his/her need for refreshing melodies. Whimsical, strolling, diverse instrumentation precisely paces and illuminates the voyage. Refining the sonic edges without weighing the listener down in the process, the band latest release lifts one into a joyous daydream of possibility.

Gentle guitar gradually opens the hushed, semi-secretive recollections of “Learned Behavior” by Weekend Athlete. Counteracting the ache of vocals with harmony, the song unwinds as a subdued but smoldering guitar run gives way to the fading trail of voices. There’s a lingering resonance of proximity with an underlying identity of isolation.

Finding what surprisingly feels like the right roads to where punk and hip hop meet, NAH, a.k.a. Mike Kuhns, continually releases jaw-dropping recordings at breakneck speed. You may get a bit bruised and battered with each listen. But it’s definitely a good hurt. Take his latest six-track EP Aged for a round or two below! You can also cop it on cassette via Philly’s own Ranch Records.

Continuing their longstanding creative collaboration, Wrecking Crew compatriots Zilla Rocca and Small Professor join forces as Career Crooks. Hot on the heels of its companion EP Take What’s Coming, the full-length, Good Luck With That (which is available via URBNET), kicks back to a classic 90’s hip hop sound. Embedding true to life details within impassioned, in-the-moment lyricism, further accentuated by cinematically synchronized beats, the album zooms in up close and personal. Assertive aggression met with a coolly, confident demeanor, this hits hard and sticks.

Breezy, the new EP and byproduct of their collaboration with Mike Robinson, is a musical field of eclectic electro-funk via The THANGS. In their new video, Robinson creates constantly morphing, celestial montages with an 80’s flair that serve as the visual accompaniment for album opener, “Listen Close”.  Wielding an array of samples/synths, the group toes the threshold between intimacy and strangeness, with darkwave undertones emanating from Robinson’s vocals, while still maintaining an undeniable attachment to the groove.

MC Knowledge does not hide his admiration for Big Daddy Kane’s sense of style on the cover of his new full-length album Know The Ledge. The smooth-flowin’, Philly emcee, with the propensity for the ladies, obviously embraces the old school ways. Intermingling laid-back jazz accents with boom-bap rhythms, "Don’t Stop" teases our FOMO instincts, making us long for another evening that we’ll never forget (if only we could remember).