A Sunny Day in Glasgow dropped their latest full-length album Sea When Absent, the band’s first in four years, earlier this week via Lefse Record. They also just shared a playful new music video for the track "In Love with Useless (The Timeless Geometry in the Tradition of Passing)," which was directed by Tanman Films’ Ty Flowers. They’ll be closing out their upcoming tour and back together again in Philly on Sunday, July 27 at Johnny Brenda’s.

What started as a decade-plus long friendship between Randy Randall of Los Angeles’ No Age and the supercharged drummer behind Pissed Jeans, Sean McGuiness, has seen their paths cross multiple times throughout many US and UK tours, even becoming Sub Pop labelmates. After joking about forming a band together, they formally did so when McGuiness traveled to Los Angeles to work on a new album. The end result is the ultra loud smash-mouth West Coast-East Coast outfit Rat Fist, which makes their Philly debut at Space 1026 tonight. They’ll be joined by Dark Blue, the latest project from Clockcleaner’s John Sharkey III, Andy Nelson (Paint It Black, Ceremony, etc.), and Mike Sneeringer (Purling Hiss, The Loved Ones). The evening will also feature a unique blend of comedy from The New Dreamz. Space 1026, 1026 Arch St., 8pm, $10, All Ages – Bill McThrill

Kwesi K, a.k.a. Kwesi Kankam, is having a breakout year as he starts his journey to gain recognition on the national music scene. Below is a performance of his single "Great Goodbye" at an always intimate SoFar Philadelphia event that occurred on April 18, 2014. Look out for him this summer when he makes his Philly Folk Fest debut in August.

If you were lucky enough to snag tickets to the #whyilovephilly Summer Party before it sold out, then you’ll be treated to a sneak preview of Philadelphia’s next big waterfront park project, Spruce Harbor Park. The event will feature photo booths, on site screen printing, Little Baby’s Ice Cream, craft vendors curated by Art Star, and a plethora of park activities as well as hammocks just in case you’d like to chill out and enjoy this beautiful weather. The event will also be the release party for Ron Gallo’s “eponymous” record Ronny, which is the first album that will drop via his new collective record label American Diamond Recordings. It was recorded with a backing band that features members of Up the Chain, Levee Drivers, and Gallo’s group, Toy Soldiers. He’ll be joined by blues/folk-rock, swagger-inducing labelmates The Lawsuits, and the new band lineup debut of Up The Chain, which features Reed Kendall, who recorded Ronny. Spruce Harbor Park, Spruce St. & Columbus Blvd, 7pm, SOLD OUT, All Ages – Bill McThrill

Head on over to Johnny Brenda’s this evening to celebrate the debut release and witness the collaborative musical union of Reverend TJ McGlinchey and Dani Mari with Christopher Davis-Shannon and Dean Gorfti completing the quartet known as Lovers League. Melding their vocals, McGlinchey and Mari create a smooth yet earthy, enriching texture with a folk-oriented acoustic country-blues foundation that provides a natural heartfelt penetrating sound on their promising self-titled debut LP. However, the lineup tonight is chock full of excellent local talent. In fact, the Raph Cutrufello-led creative folk collaborative known as Hezekiah Jones will headline the bill, taking the concepts of folk and reshaping them via unexpected, slightly twisted maneuvers, generating an excitement and energy in the process. The Spinning Leaves, whose members share strong ties within the bill, help to make it a family & friends affair. Wilmington-based indie folk-rock five-piece New Sweden, whose latest EP Fabric Room is due out July 15, will kick off the festivities that is presented by the Philadelphia Folksong Society. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 8pm, $10, 21+ – Michael Colavita

Though Drone Pop was released at the beginning of this year, we hadn’t heard of local quartet The Orange Drop until just a few days ago, and we are glad that we did. The EP’s title is ceratinly an accurate description of a lot of the record that also has a healthy dose of 60’s/70’s-influenced psych-garage rock. The band is made up of Andre Basile on vocals and guitar, Anthony Bove on drums, Matt Calhoun on bass, and Blaze Kozlik on "beef" and "texture." The group is currently working on another EP, which is aimed for release at the end of the summer. Until then, enjoy Drone Pop like we currently are!

Toy Soldiers‘ Ron Gallo just released his new solo LP of folk ditties entitled RONNY, which also includes a cover of "Early in the Morning," written by Louis Jordan and performed by Harry Nilsson. He’ll be celebrating its release tomorrow night, June 26, at Spruce Street Harbor Park, the new Philly waterfront attraction that officially opens this Friday. The record is available for streaming below and purchase via Gallo’s fledgling collective American Diamond Recordings.

Vacationer’s aptly titled sophomore LP Relief, the follow-up to 2012’s Gone, hits one’s ears like a wave crashing against the shoreline. Now available via Downtown Records, the album is a crisp, refreshing expression of tension-easing positive vibes. These island-influenced tracks will easily slip into many summer rotations with their peacefully lifting vocals laid over precision-style percussive grooves, utilizing a blend of keys and guitar to accentuate a twinkling air of optimism. Shed some one those mid-week stressors and usher in the summer with tonight’s release show at Johnny Brenda’s, which will also feature Rochester, New York electro-dance outfit Joywave. Johnny Brenda’s 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 9pm, $12, 21+ – Michael Colavita

This is adorable. School of Rock’s Music Director in Charlotte, NC, Eric Lockwood, exposed some camp youngsters to the wonderful weirdness of Philly’s own Man Man, and told them that they were about to view the "greatest band in the world performing the geratest song in the world – "Black Mission Goggles" live at Amoeba. We definitely spotted some future music critics and a couple of new Man Man fans in the crowd. You gotta love the brutal honesty of children! Special thanks to Philly Mag for bringing this to our attention.

When Strand of Oaks’ new album, HEAL, was conceptualized, it probably sounded like an unremarkable trainwreck. I could see Tim Showalter in a room saying, “It’ll be like really mellow folk-punk, and also, we’re gonna put some ambient synth and heavy metal guitar riffs in there too.” The only reason you wouldn’t roll your eyes is that Tim Showalter has the look of a Viking warrior. However, what should be a seven-car pileup is one of the most exhilarating, soulful, and unique experimentations within the songwriter genre to come along in a good while.

HEAL simply grabs influences from far too many genres to be put in a box. It transitions between aesthetic styles with a deliberate pacing, opening with “Goshen ’97,” as something akin to early The Heavy, gradually bringing in synths to become more and more comparable to Depeche Mode, and by the time the songs “For Me” and “Wait For Love” come around, sounding more like the lovechild between Cold War Kids and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Each song is so radically different that the only thing keeping them identifiable as the same project (or even the same artist) is a rock solid aesthetic and thematic coherence; it’s a record with something to say, and while finding an overwhelming variety of ways to do so, doesn’t go off message for even a second.

The track “JM” is what really exemplifies everything that works about this album; it’s where HEAL goes from simply shifting between different styles to sublimely merging them into a single sound. The song combines furious (yet carefully layered) guitar riffs, melancholy piano, and vocals with a hushed intensity over hooks that concisely capture the bittersweet nostalgia of backwater suburbia. It’s the album’s zenith, a near-perfect balance of head rocking indulgence and sorrowful meditation, tapping into and honoring his fallen songwriting hero, Jason Molina.

And what really should be recognized is that this album is the result of a lot of experimentation and a fair share of failure, coming off 2012’s admittedly subpar Dark Shores, which missteps may fall more heavily on the the shoulders of the album’s producer John Vanderslice. Yet that tonally messy album was really just Showalter coming out of his melancholy comfort zone and realizing the need to trust his own instincts. The result is his latest offering that’s able to make sorrow and existential dread exhilarating and a musical style that’s utterly unique while still feeling completely organic. At its worst, it’s pleasantly reminiscent of other artists and styles, and at its best, it’s blending them together in a way that one could hardly imagine possible. – Daniel Ludwig