Here’s a groovy new tune from DRGN KING called "Undertow." It was recorded for the Brighton Sound Sessions.

Check out Grandchildren‘s rad new claymation music video for "End Times"! It just premiered earlier today via Paste Magazine. The band is currently on tour, and will return home on June 25 to open for Caravan Palace at the TLA.

Royal Shoals, featuring former members of The Ropers (Slumberland, Teen Beat), Saturday People (Slumberland) and Public Record (High Two), shared their sophomore release earlier this year – a 4-song EP entitled Surrounderer + 3, which is a noticeable step up from the band’s debut Dirty Water. The tracks are more polished all-around as the trio journeys further into the dance-rock landscape. The EP was once again recorded at Uniform Recording. You can hear how the songs play out live tonight at Johnny Brenda’s when Royal Shoals open for New Zealand indie pop vets The Bats. (BTW: There will also be a free afterparty at the RUBA Club with performances by Catnaps and Ratburn as well as DJ sets from members of A Sunny Day in Glasgow and Literature.) Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 9pm, $13, 21+ – H.M. Kauffman

So it is finally here. Indie pop-rock trio Break It Up just released their long-awaited self-titled debut full-length album. It was engineered and mixed by Uniform Recording’s Jeff Zeigler, and you can stream the LP in its entirety below. Enjoy!

Arrah and the Ferns may have sweetness and light in abundance, but the undercurrent of frank lust in their new album is both new and old hat for these folk rockers. Since their last offering, they’ve adopted growing pains as a lyrical source, to varying effects. While the album relies heavily on much of the same wistfully-ornamented indie delicacy, there’s simultaneously an explicit element, and a successful one at that. Romance isn’t dead on Make Your Mind, it’s just got a mouth on it.

The woozy, low guitars at the beginning of album are one of many instrumental stunners, which we’ve long known to be a touchstone for the Ferns. There is some spectacular guitar and drum work on the album, but for most part, the music and the vocals go head to head in friendly tandem – never trying to outdo one another.

Arrah Fisher’s honeyed vocals push through the knot of winding guitars on the second track, “Go Back,” inciting her band to back her up when she half-purrs, half-belts “I see the way your body moves me – but you don’t have to touch me.”

“Triangle” is a list of questions, an effecting device used by Fisher to protest the coming of a different stage of adulthood – one in which commitment is inevitable and freedom to do as she wants a relic of immaturity. “I wanna meet the man on the other side,” she murmurs, seeing her free-spirited inclinations in danger, and then, with a bravado outburst, demands to know “Why do I have to grow up and be a married schmuck – when all I want to do is fuck…fuck…fuck…fuck…fuck!” The unbridled sexuality is startling, but when you think about it, the turbulence is a perfect underlining for sweet-sounding music about growing up and moving on.

The band then counters that song’s thinly-veiled hedonism with the role-reversing “Hang Up,” whose slow-dance 50s rock balladry finds Fisher imploring her lover to throw himself wholeheartedly into a new life. “This is where I hang up, start to pack my stuff up. I will come to you this time…I don’t want to have you on the side. I just want to have a normal time, have a normal life.” Is she embroiled in an affair? Is she coaxing him out of another relationship? Maybe, but it would seem heartless to resist her sincerity.

Make Your Mind has a welcomed, bouncing energy that picks the album up from its wispy, low-tempo tone halfway through. There’s a uniformity of pace, with most songs choosing a leisurely amble over an all-out rush, but the variance of tone and instrumentation saves the album from tedium, and adds up to an invigorating (and possibly final) effort from Arrah and the Ferns. – Alyssa Greenberg

Lo-fi psych pop-rock act and Indiana transplants Honey Radar recently shared their new 6-song EP Mary Plum Musket, which you can stream below. The cassette will be available via local indie label Treetop Sorbet.

Controversial Philly rapper Saudi Money (formerly Asaad) just self-released his new album #COLDBLUE, which also features an appearance by fledgling local emcee Ffry Ferelll. You can stream the LP in its entirety below.

Tommy Manson and Brendan Graham from Everyone Everywhere are currently working on a new project with Pirouette‘s Scotty Leitch. You can take a listen to their demo track "Hibernia" below. Manson and Graham will be performing with their main outfit tonight at Golden Tea House alongside Little Big League, Sirs and Porches.

Summertime in Philly always marks another hot party (especially with the weather today) at Festival Pier as The Roots Picnic delivers another diverse lineup courtesy of the City of Brotherly Love’s favorite sons of hip hop. This year The Roots will be doing their usual double duty during the fest as they’ll be headlining and backing the legendary Naughty By Nature in a special reunion jam performance. You will also find exciting sets from featured guests such as Gary Clark Jr., Grimes, Solange, How to Dress Well and local rising star Lushlife. Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing, Columbus Blvd. & Spring Garden St., 12pm, SOLD OUT, All Ages – Bill McThrill

OK, I know that there is a ton of shit going on this weekend now that summer is here. But you really should join us at Beaumont Warehouse for The Works’ annual alleycat/fun ride afterparty to benefit Neighborhood Bike Works, a non-profit organization that seeks to create educational, recreational and career-building opportunities for urban youth in Philly through bicycling. We’ll be rockin’ out this Saturday evening with Dominic Angelella (from DRGN KING), The Cats, Cave Life and Bleacher Heat as well as The Deli DJs (Q.D. Tran & Adam G.). There will also be plenty of drinks, food and prizes. We are very appreciative that the kind folks of the Beaumont Warehouse are letting us into their home and sharing their sweet space. Let the good times roll – cheers! Beaumont Warehouse, (Please contact one of the acts or thedelimagazinephiladelphia@gmail.com for more info.), 6pm, $5 – $15 Donation, All Ages – Alexis V.