Cookie Rabinowitz is back!!! We discovered the entertaining animated series from Schoolly D, Kevin Hanson and Julius Curso while we were snowed in over the holidays. Well, they’ve given Cookie his very own talk show with his trusty wise-cracking sidekick Chocolate Spider (Schoolly D). They also brought along a special guest for the inaugural episode. Watch hometown freestyle extraordinaire Freeway battling it out with Chocolate Spider below! You can catch up on other Cookie Rabinowitz shorts here. You also can check him out live next Saturday, January 15 at The Grape Room (or just swing on by The Gold Club to listen to him spin ;o). Enjoy! – The Deli Staff

 

Homebred indie folk outfit, Papertrees, has quite an impressive pedigree of local players. An ever-emergent concept of sorts, Papertrees started with singer/songwriter/guitarist Allison Polans’ lissom fingers and ended up with some notable scene vets as part of its core: Phil D’Agostino (upright bass), Alec Meltzer (drums/percussion), Carl Cheeseman (electric guitar), and Nate Gonzalez (organ/keys/accordion). (Polans can also notch out Andrew Lipke and Deirdre Loughridge as former playmates.) And these guys and doll are also doing time with other revered local outfits like Hezekiah Jones, The Spinning Leaves, and Wes Mattheu & The New Way Down, to name a brief few. Really, it’s a royal family of musicians cooking up jazz-infused speakeasy folk for rainy days and sleepless nights – graceful, distending arrangements that both bustle and drift underneath the feet of Polans’ tenderly rich intones and disenchanted librettos. They recently took a hiatus from performing live (the December 9th show at The Ox was their first since September) but are back in full force and gracing the rostrum at Uni City’s The Blockley tonight with local cohorts Toy Soldiers, Levee Drivers and The Lawsuits.With Toy Soldiers’ fiery blues-rock, Levee Drivers’ boots-kickin’ rock ‘n’ roll, and the Lawsuits’ complex Americana, this bill will definitely keep you warm indoors while the crisp, bitter snow blankets the world outside.The Blockley, 3801 Chestnut St, 8pm, $5 adv/$7 door, 21+ (Photo by Will Connelly)

 

Other places to go if you’re not afraid of snow…

 

Johnny Brenda’s (1201 N. Frankford Ave.) SAT Val de Val CD Release Party w/The Atomic Square and Restorations

 

Kung Fu Necktie (1250 N. Front St.) SAT Mature and Split Red, SUN Metroplex and Conversations With Enemies

 

North Star Bar (2639 Poplar St.) SAT Groovement, SUN The Strange Heat and Papyrus Like You

 

The Fire (412 W. Girard Ave.) FRI Sounds From Atlantis, SAT (Early) Kite Party, (Late) Alien Architect

 

M Room (15 W. Girard Ave.) FRI Razorblade Skin and Workhorse 3

 

Tritone (1508 South St.) FRI Starving The Tsunami and Galaxies, SAT The Midnight Beat and Mondo Topless

 

Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd St.) FRI Shannon Pelcher

 

Highwire Gallery (2040 Frankford Ave.) SAT Anahita and A Stick & a Stone

 

World Café Live (3025 Walnut St.) FRI (Downstairs) Among Criminals Album Release w/ Tsunami Rising, (Upstairs) Dutch and Kuf Knotz, SAT (Very Early) Peanut Butter Jams & KidROCKERS w/Reading Rainbow and The Shackeltons, (Late) Cheers Elephant Album Release Party w/ Nico’s Gun, The Fleeting Ends, The New Connection

 

The Blockley (3801 Chestnut St.) SAT Sonni Shine & the Underwater Sounds

 

Connie’s Ric Rac (1132 S. 9th St.) FRI Nicos Gun

 

The Barbary (951 N. Frankford St.) SUN Halo of Snakes

 

The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.) SAT The Synth Sircus and Dan Malloy

 

The El Bar (1356 N. Front St.) SAT Vintage Kicks

 

The Station (1550 McKean St.) SAT The National Rifle, Univox, Vitamin Cheese

 

Showing kids the value of great music at a young age is fundamental. The fact that KidROCKERS has been blending some of the best up-and-coming indie music and comedy into their events that have featured the likes of Vivian Girls, Ra Ra Riot, and Chairlift as well as local favorites like Sun Airway and Power Animal is simply a wonderful thing. Well, get ready to rock at World Café Live tomorrow afternoon because KidROCKERS will be tag teaming with Philly’s equivalent WXPN’s Peanut Butter Jams. The show will be headlined by Chamberburg’s The Shackeltons, but the day will do one better by adding in everyone’s favorite quintessential indie duo that’s fittingly named after Levar Burton’s classic children’s show. Since releasing their biggest album to date in Prism Eyes, Reading Rainbow have been on a tremendous roll gaining some serious love from critics and fans alike. So grab your kids or someone else’s kids (legally) because you won’t be able to get into the show without one – no matter how good your friend looks in his little sailor suit. World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 11:30 am, Adults: $13 adv/$15 door; Children: $11 adv/$13 door, All Ages – Bil McThrill

 

Jedi Mindtrick’s Stoupe The Enemy of Mankind’s initially collaborated with singer-songwriter Liz Fullerton on JMT’s “Razorblade Salvation” from 2006’s Servants In Heaven, Kings In Hell, and they would later cross paths again on “Death Messiah” from 2008’s A History of Violence. Well, the two have created a stronger musical union with their latest project Dutch. The trip hop duo released their debut LP A Bright Cold Day last year on Enemy Soil, and they’ve been making the rounds on the local music venue circuit. Tonight Dutch will be taking over the Upstairs at World Café Live with Stoupe’s laid-back, downtempo grooves and Fullerton’s attention-grabbing vocals. It should be a night of good vibes all around, especially since Kuf Knotz will be opening the festivities and bringing the positivity and jams from last year’s BoomBox Logic (Mad Dragon) – seems like WCL will be a nice place to chill from the chill this evening. World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St., 9pm, $9, 21+ – H.M. Kauffman

 

Matador Records just posted the second MP3 from Kurt Vile’s Smoke Ring for My Halo that is due out on March 8. Keeping with the religious imagery of the album’s title, the new track is called “Jesus Fever”. It’s catchier and more upbeat than the recent material coming out of the Vile camp. You can take a listen for yourself below and download it for FREE here. There is also new cover art for Smoke Ring for My Halo by Sean Brackbill, which you can take a gander at above. Enjoy! – The Deli Staff

 

The first time that I booked a band for a show at Johnny Brenda’s I was introduced to the music of An American Chinese who also shared the bill. They had just released the EP Panic Pilgrim and an ingenious video for the track “Panic Pilgrim, Quick Grab Your Suitcase”. I have to admit that I was quite enamored by the attention to detail and uniqueness that I found in the artistic efforts of all things An American Chinese so the wait for their latest release and debut LP Utopian Tree has been a bit excruciating at times, especially with lead man Mitch Marzec’s empty promises of its release over the last year. However, I forgive him because it has been worth the wait, and tonight they’ll finally have the official/belated celebration for the release of Utopian Tree at Kung Fu Necktie so join us this evening and enter the strangely unique world of An American Chinese. But first, check out our interview with Mitch Marzec for Where Is My Mind? here.

 

Big Ugly Yellow Couch recently posted their Couch Session with Grandchildren. It was BUYC’s first ever nighttime recording, which should have created the perfect mood for the West Philly crew’s dreamy soundscapes. You can check out the intimate versions of “OK I’m Waiting”, “Everlasting”, and “When You’re Not Looking” below. Enjoy! – The Deli Staff

Ryat gained the most votes amongst the Philly-based artists that submitted to be considered for our Best of Philly Poll 2010. She will therefore go on to the next stage of our poll along with Hair Rocket and Science Fiction Fantasy.  

 

“Collaboratively paired with composer/boyfriend Tim Conley, Ryat’s ‘inter-dimensional’ soundscapes create a universe of their own, luring listeners in with smoldering backbeats and dizzying synth. Expressive and pronounced, Ryat’s work is delicate, fierce, and daring, departing from the norms within her genre for destinations elsewhere.” – Dianca Potts

 

“Like any good breakup, it’s equal parts dark, mysterious and bizarre…With this EP (Novelty – Hair Rocket), we are introduced to what can happen when a Berklee dropout takes what he has learned, what he has felt and what he has tolerated, smashes them all together and hopes for the best. Lucky for us, the result pretty much kicks ass.” – Meaghan McCafferty

 

“The sound at times recalls the haunting pop of Grizzly Bear while the sonic pulsing that emerges seems to pay homage (very skillfully) to ambient composer Steven Reich…It is an emotional traveler that effortlessly flows from melancholy to dreamy contentment both lyrically and musically. The intricate cascading vocals and detailed arrangements along with the thoroughly enjoyable glitch-outs show Science Fiction Fantasy to be a musical chameleon that can flawlessly imitate and thoughtfully create.” – Adam G.

 

TOP 10 ARTISTS FROM OPEN SUBMISSIONS

2. Hair Rocket – NOMINATED FOR NEXT PHASE

3. Science Fiction Fantasy – NOMINATED FOR NEXT PHASE

4. Lillie Ruth Bussey – NOMINATED FOR NEXT PHASE

5. Negative Department – NOMINATED FOR NEXT PHASE

6. The Synth Sircus – NOMINATED FOR NEXT PHASE

7. Creepoid – NOMINATED FOR NEXT PHASE

8. Hermit Thrushes – NOMINATED FOR NEXT PHASE

9. Univox – NOMINATE FOR NEXT PHASE

10. Da Comrade! – NOMINATE FOR NEXT PHASE

 

Special thanks to all who submitted to Sonic Bids to qualify for our Best of Philly Emerging Artists Poll. Below are the chosen local acts that will go on to the next phase. Congrats! – The Deli Staff

 

1. Penrose

2. Suzie Brown

3. Peter Joseph and the Roaring Twenties

 

Loveable goof balls Buried Beds just announced that they’ll be hitting the road at the end of this month with buddies Dr. Dog and Seattle’s The Head and the Heart for a Southern Tour (dates are below). The band has been busy getting together new material, working on art projects, music videos and booking additional touring this spring so stay tuned for more to come! You can also donate to their Kickstarter campaign to help bring last year’s feel good album Tremble the Sails to vinyl as well as an animated video by Juliet Wayne come to fruition. – The Deli Staff

 

Southern Tour Dates w/Dr. Dog & The Head and the Heart:

Sat/Jan 29      Washington, DC – 9:30 Club                    

Sun/Jan-30     Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre                

Tue/Feb-1       Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall              

Thu/Feb-3       Charleston, SC – The Music Farm               

Fri/Feb-4         Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade               

Sat/Feb-5        Nashville, TN – Cannery Ballroom  

 

This was a nice surprise today. Philebrity reported that The Dead Milkmen “have just completed tracking 17 new songs for a full-length album to be self-released in the spring. Tentatively entitled The King In Yellow, the album was recorded in two two-day marathon sessions at Buddha Sounds and at Miner Street Studio, here in Philly.” The  Milkmen’s humble singer Rodney Anonymous also sent more details about the release here as well as a nice list of local bands that you should check out besides them which include “Live Not On Evil, or Gang, or the Tough Shits, or John Train, or Reading Rainbow, or Black Landlord, or Baby Flamehead, or Pissed Jeans, or Total Fucking Destruction, or Jukebox Zeros, or any one of the hundreds of bands in the immediate area who are better than us” – a legendary class act. – The Deli Staff

 

I’ve asked many emcees about where I can go to check out up-and-coming hip hop artists. I usually come across statements like “that’s a good question” or “there really isn’t one”. However, it looks like Philly hip hop has finally found a home, well, at least temporarily. I’ve noticed that more and more acts have been taking the stage at The Blockley, and now every 1st Wednesday of the month you have Rap TV, a new hip hop series to help fill that void of underground hip hop that you’ve been missing in your lives. Tonight you’ll find the live instrumentation and old school love of Philadelphia Slick. And it appears that they might have been influenced by the recent emergence of legendary hip hop warriors Wu-Tang Clan, who just graced the stage of The Troc over the holidays, so if you missed the show, shame on you. Lucky Philly Slick have some of their favorite Wu-Tang tracks all ready to unleash on you this evening. They’ll also be joined by local favorites Germantown’s Writtenhouse & Elijah and the Trees to help settle them in. The Blockley, 3801 Chestnust St., 8pm, $5, 21+ – H.M. Kauffman