Bummer – tonight’s Concerts in the Park Series with The Homophones and A Place to Bury Strangers is canceled due to predictions of rain. They are working on rescheduling the event. Once again, a reminder of why The Deli hasn’t put together an outdoor event yet.

 

 

– The Deli Staff

 

 

We love when this happens! Congrats to former A-sider Jon Barthmus! His bliss-pop project Sun Airway will be releasing their debut full-length Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier, on Dead Oceans (Phosphorescent, These Are Powers). The album is scheduled for an Oct. 26 release date in the U.S. and tentatively set for January 2011 in the U.K. Record labels, keep those contracts comin’ to Philly! – The Deli Staff

 

Lehigh Valley natives Soars undoubtedly deserve the buzz surrounding their forthcoming debut album. Set to release next month, the outfit’s self-titled full-length includes their recent single “Throw Yourself Apart”, a gorgeous gloomy soundscape with haunting echoed vocals and tide like riffs. Persistent yet subtle backbeats propel the pulse of the song, while delicately placed distortion aids in its ebb and flow. “Five Seconds Under Dark Circles” is both breathy and well-pronounced, deliberately layered and impeccably textured. Soars’ sound nears supernatural, engulfing the listener in an eerie pool of delay and reverb. Suitably titled, “Monolith” is solid between symphonic shifts and emphasis. Proving to be a wealth of talent hidden in their humble hometown area, Soars’ dreamy shoegaze is perfect for the soon-to-be last days of summer. They’ll be opening for LA trio The Delta Mirror and depressed duo The Ropes. Kung Fu Necktie. 1250 Front St., 8pm, $10, 21+ – Dianca Potts

 

 

We were just talking about dreams involving "random association of thoughts" (see entry about The Tony Castles here), when we stumbled upon Japan/NYC/Philly based NYMPH, signed to Brooklyn’s Social Registry. This band’s music sounds as if it was created to be the soundtrack to your own Dario Argento-style nightmare. More primal than tribal, unintelligible but never chaotic, tense to the point of becoming really unnerving, NYMPH is the musical equivalent to a quality horror movie, in which you won’t necessarily see blood flowing, but that will scare you to the point of making you repeatedly look over your shoulder on your way home.

P.S. By the way, how bands with members scattered miles away from each other manage to even just rehearse consistently remains a mystery to us.

 

– Paolo De Gregorio

 

Gypsy Death and You is a duo consisting of Drexel students Emily Cahill and Alex Wilson, who met in a History of Music Industry class their freshman year. Named after a line from The Velvet Underground’s “Run Run Run”, they claim to record “their own brand of dreamy-yet-edgy indie rock”. They do, and I’m lovin’ it! Gypsy Death and You are working on their debut EP, and the initial tracks are very promising revealing a songwriting team with maturity and vision beyond their years. The shoegazey dream-pop of “Time Absolute” with its minimalist drums and textured soundscapes lull you into their hazy world of noise frequencies. While “Crocus” bounces with the spirit of the catchiest of 90’s indie rock with Cahill taking vocal lead demonstrating the potential to someday share the stage with the likes of her buzzy Cali contemporaries Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls. But they are young so give them time to grow. However, keep your eye/ear on them. I will. (Photo by Corinne Ryan) – Q.D. Tran

 

The “Summer of Radness” keeps chuggin’ along as we find R5 teaming up with Making Time once again for their Pool Party “The 3Quel” returning to the Flying W Airplane Pool! I guess time heals all wounds. Hopefully the pool will be smart enough to deter the families from coming for one day. Whatevs! It’s still goin’ to be a damn good time with the Making Time Resident DJs and friends with special guests Atlanta’s Deerhunter (4AD). Shuttle buses are available from The Piazza (at 2nd and Germantown) so don’t worry about gettin’ another DUI. Hopefully the weather will go our way. The Flying W Airport & Resort, 60 Fostertown Rd. (Medford, NJ), 2pm – 11pm, $15/$20 w/bus ticket, All Ages – H.M. Kauffman

 

Today marks the end of the wildly successful THIS IS HARDCORE FEST 2010 at the Starlight Ballroom. It’s a momentous occasion for the hardcore scene with the reunion of Ink & Dagger with Geoff Rickly of Thursday on vocals. Ink & Dagger was a local Vampire-themed punk hardcore outfit that formed in 1996. They had a rotating door of characters with guitarist Don Devore and vocalist Sean Patrick McCabe the constant driving force. Ink & Dagger disbanded in 2000 after McCabe (at age 27 – the magic number) was found dead in an Indiana motel room. He had choked on his own vomit after passing out from too much alcohol. If you missed Ink & Dagger’s unannounced performance at The Ox this past Friday with The Making Time DJs, then hopefully you have your tickets in hand for today because this shit is way SOLD OUT! They’ll be joined by fellow Philly badasses Kid Dynamite and Blacklisted plus many more. Starlight Ballroom, 460 N. 9th St., 11am, SOLD OUT, All Ages – H.M. Kauffman

 

 

Dorothy’s mantra, “there’s no place like home”, still proves true. Far from the fictional Oz, last night’s performance at the TLA was warm and fuzzy all the same. Opening with loveable local outfit Buried Beds, the tone of the evening was set with keyboardist Eliza Jones’ welcoming words, “It’s so awesome to be home.” Practically beaming, the band’s indie folk finesse unfolded with “Steady Hand”. Featured on Tremble The Sails, the staccato clicks of drumsticks and strums of mandolin induced swooning by listeners while the acoustic intro of “Ivory Towers” impressed with impeccable harmonies and claps. Closing their set with the help of their tourmates, Buried Beds’ exit was endearingly ecstatic and premised by applause.

 

 

With the swagger of a western, Vagrant vets Murder By Death took the stage with In Bocca Al Lupo’s “Sometimes the Line Walks You”. Fans leaned towards the stage with fists raised high, echoing frontman Adam Turla’s shouts of “Jailbreak!” “’52 Ford” and “King of the Gutters, Prince of the Dogs” brought to mind Johnny Cash, painting pictures of dusty trails and open skies. A quick tribute to whiskey, the band turned to older songs like “Until Morale Improves, the Beatings Will Continue” and dramatic “Devil in Mexico”. Dedicating “Brothers” to fellow tourmates, “Coming Home” gave way to goodbyes.

 

 
Before mewithoutYou graced the stage, the mere sight of their gear caused fans to cheer. The audience shuffled and shoved their way closer to the stage while chatter and “Hand In Glove” filled the atmosphere. Brother, Sister’s “Messes of Men” was a fitting first, later followed by well-loved favorites like “Goodbye, I” and “C-Minor”. A hushed “Son of a Widow” bled into the cheerful “Timothy Hay”, leading to the crashing chords of “Torches Together”. Richard Mazzotta’s drummed out beats incited rhythmic claps from fans and bouts of dancing to the tune of frontman Aaron Weiss’ shouts. “A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains” played out poetic with melodrama, much like the prolific prose of “January 1979”. Ending with “Allah, Allah, Allah,” the band’s exit was brief. Leaving the stage empty for what felt like five minutes, mewithoutYou returned with a three song encore, sandwiching “The Fox, The Crow, and the Cookie” between “Disaster Tourism” and their last farewell of the night, “In a Sweater Poorly Knit”.

 

– Dianca Potts (Words & Photos)