his past Saturday night at Union Transfer was certainly a local family affair with The War on Drugs, Sun Airway, and Ape School filling the stage with some of the areas finest musicians as well as having them behind the scenes manning the sound. Ha…as predicted by R5, the Fishtown community was definitely in the house as well as the rest of Philly who came out to support on an evening filled with plenty to do in town.

Below is BITBY’s December Episode featuring Break It Up performing “Paint the Town,” “Suzuki,” and “Architect” with a brief guest appearance by the police because things got a little noisy for the neighbors. Enjoy!

The War on Drugs will be wrapping up what has certainly been a breakthrough year for mastermind Adam Granduciel and crew with a hometown show tonight at Union Transfer. The band released earlier this year the long-awaited follow-up to critically-acclaimed LP Wagonwheel Blues giving music critics another full-length album, Slave Ambient, to sink their teeth into and talk about. Their latest offering managed to snag “Best New Music” honors from Pitchfork and made the staff’s list of Top 50 Albums of 2011. It also garnered numerous emphatically positive words from other major music publications and blogs. (Ha…yes, we liked it too. You can check out our review of the September Album of the Month HERE.) The War on Drugs spent much of the year on the road touring with indie darlings like Destroyer and NYC’s Caveman. They also just headlined the majestic Bowery Ballroom and followed-up the appearance with a performance the next evening at the legendary Beacon Theatre opening for The National. And 2012 already shows signs that the four-piece road warriors won’t be stopping anytime soon with confirmed spring dates where they’ll be returning to Europe and spending time on tour in the U.S. with Sharon Van Etten and White Rabbits. The band will be making their late night television debut on January 10 with Jimmy Fallon. Since performances in Philly will be coming few and far between in the upcoming year, you should definitely make it out to UT this evening. They’ll be joined by 2010’s Deli Philly End of the Year Emerging Artist Poll Winner Sun Airway and Ape School, who will be playing some new material from their upcoming album Junior Violence coming out in late spring 2012. Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., 8pm, $14, All Ages – Q.D. Tran

I have never actually worked in an office, but if tonight’s festivities are any indication of what it is like, then I need to quit this bohemian lifestyle and get behind a desk asap. The Holiday Office Party of note is the one being held at PhilaMOCA which includes a stellar local lineup and possibly a copy machine (?). Sign me up. You’ll find local favorites Dangerous Ponies, so you know this party is going to include at least one instance of ballroom dancing along with infectious pop gems and killer outfits. Also performing is Hop Along, who have been keeping pretty quiet recently, but will be in full force playing their skittering and angsty tunes that are propelled by frontwoman Frances Quinlan’s otherworldly voice. Headlining the affair is Algernon Cadwallader, the Midwest emo revivalists to end all Midwest emo revivalists. Their noodling, shouting sing-alongs will certainly get the crowd moving if they somehow are not already. Also rocking the bill are Banned Books and Ecce Shnak. PhilaMOCA, 531 N. 12th St., 7pm, $10, All Ages – Adam G.

TivaTiva will be celebrating the release of their new album Music for Interior Castles tonight at MilkBoy Philly. The four-piece is led by the emotive vocals and haunting cello work of frontman Daniel de Jesús. Their songs have an intimate quality that takes the listener on a journey with the band towards some sort of understanding and enlightenment of oneself – pretty and sincere. Come get swept away with them this evening. MilkBoy Philly, 1100 Chestnut St., 9pm, $10, 21+ – H.M. Kauffman

This past Tuesday at Johnny Brenda’s The Homophones were the sole opening act for a sold out Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. show. The stage was packed with balloons and decorations from both bands. The Homophones fearlessly experimented with a bunch of new tunes for the big show. They proved to be a great warm-up to get the crowd excited for the headlining act. What really impressed us the most about the Detroit-based outfit was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.’s work ethic and desire to entertain. After chatting backstage with one half of the core duo, Josh Epstein, we learned that they had just performed earlier in the day at a radio station sponsored showcase in Annapolis at Rams Head and were djing at Kung Fu Necktie after their set. (They were impressed by Philly for coming out to represent on a Tuesday night.) The band’s hard work showed in their performance with a tight set of ten originals and three covers, which were The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows,” Gil-Scott Heron’s “We Almost Lost Detroit,” and Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” one of the encores and personally a song that we could’ve done without mainly because we watched plenty of MTV during the time its video was popular so there were unwanted flashbacks. However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. closed out the evening with a fine performance of their fan favorite “Nothing But Our Love.” You can check out our photos from the evening HERE.

Local party rockers Cannons are throwing down for one last time tonight at JR’s before taking a brief hiatus in 2012. “They have received a federal grant to research the drinking and migration habits of the North American yak and will take the next 2 ½ months figuring out what to wear.” Actually, they’ll be finishing up work on a new EP entitled Sharing is Gangsta while drummer Ian Kiesel heads to Hawaii on a vision quest and guitarist Adam Riggar and his wife have their first child. Cannons will be joined this evening by Thinking Machines and Hello Radio. JR’s, 22nd and Passyunk, 8pm, $5, 21+ – Alexis V.

The music industry has always been dictated by a bevy of tastemakers – one way or another. Back in the day, the gatekeepers who decided if a performer would make it in the biz were usually music executives who managed to maneuver through and survive the shark-infested waters of the industry. However, as we have learned especially in more recent times, those in charge of making the big decisions probably had/have more business sense than actual taste and passion for music. Well, the music industry is at a very interesting crossroads now with the interweb evening out the once very slanted playing field. The suits with the big expense accounts aren’t the only people holding the keys to the gate for young artists to make it onto the big stage. Instead, you’ll find a bunch of them climbing the walls with a boost from a new generation of passionate music lovers who are using and evolving with modern day technological advances to change the archaic ways of a truly flawed system. One such self-professed “music nerd” is music blogger (YVYNYL) and indie record label co-owner (Small Plates Records) Philly’s own Mark Schoneveld. We recently had a chance to pick the brain of the tall, bearded art and social media loving all-around good dude about the past, present, and future of music as well as some personal stories from his life that helped to make him who he is today. You can read all about it in our interview with Schoneveld HERE.