Alex Yaker is one of those way-busy Philadelphia musicians. Most recently, you've probably seen him rock his bass-playing swagger in Summer Fiction. In the past he's performed with Grammar Debate, The Yaker Bros and done a bit of production with Surreal Sound Studios. With everything going on, it's not unsurprising that his own project, Roomtone , only makes periodic appearances, but whenever it emerges, it's worth the wait. This weekend, the band Yaker also refers to as "The Official Indie BossaNova Goosebump Machine" plays its first show in over a year and a half at Johnny Brenda's, [...]
Photo by Eric Schuman For this month's Key Studio Video Session, we profiled Arrah and the Ferns , the country-tinged four piece that self-released its latest EP, Soldier Ghost , in fall of 2011. In our interview, singer-guitarist Arrah Fisher talks about coming to Philadelphia from Muncie, Indiana; finding her voice as a songwriter; and the affinity for old country music she discovered after moving to a new city. Watch the video and download the Key Studio Session below, and catch the band in concert on March 2 when it plays Milkboy Philly [...]
Band'its At Ten O'clock is another 101 release that came out the same year as Live Letters . Unlike that album, this record is a collection of studio cuts and not live records. But it's equally, if not more so, impressive and well worth the listen today. The Scene All People Go Mad You like mod music? These guys sure did. This album came out in 1980, but this song sounds like it was ripped straight out of the late-60s. Great stuff, very [...]
photo courtesy of Acres of Diamonds "Our recording process has been somewhat glacial," jokes Sarah Davis, the singer and keyboardist / glockenspielist for earthy, expressive Philly rock combo Acres of Diamonds . The band's excellent self-titled EP dropped in summer of 2010, and it has been working on the followup at an extremely measured pace in the time since. But that's completely fine; if the end result is a collection of songs as rich and inspired as today's Philly Local Phile, AOD's brand-new number "Penultimate," it will be absolutely worth the wait. Stream or download [...]
We just got word over here at The Key that Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies - the Brian-Wilson-fronting-Fountain s-of-Wayne orchestral indie ensemble that warmed our hearts with its Flood EP last year - is on hiatus following its gig at Kungfu Necktie on Friday. The frontman tells us he's using the downtime to move from symphonic pop to synthpop, and has created a new monicker to do so: Resistor . Listen to and download their debut single "First World Problems" below. First World Problems by Resistor [...]
Illustration of Timothy Showalter of Strand Of Oaks by Johnnie Cluney for www.daytrotter.com At the turn of the New Year, the folks at NPR Music contacted WXPN and asked us to pick the "next big band to break out of Philly." Other stations, like The Current in Minneapolis, KUT in Austin, Seattle's KEXP, OPB (Oregon Public Radio), two New York stations (including WFUV at Fordham University and WNYC), and KCRW in Los Angeles were also approached. We were each challenged with the same job: pick one band, one song, and write three or four [...]
Bloopers and Behind the Scenes to Music Video Behind the Scenes and Bloopers to my music dance video of "Sunlight" by Modestep
Photos by G. Fuck Blogs, Fuck You This is going to be long, but I've really thought it through and I want there to be no question as to my feelings on this matter, so if you don't mind, I am about to get up on my soap box. I started writing a blog for so many reasons – and some of the main ones include the fact that so many times in my life, someone introduced me to some [...]
Crashing someone else's holiday office party is almost never a wise move, but with the solid lineup of Philly artpunk luminaries that the PhilaMOCA crew pulled together for theirs, we're finding it difficult to resist. Tomorrow night, Algernon Cadwalader headlines with Key Studio Sessions alums Dangerous Ponies and Hop Along. Banned Books and Ecce Shnack round out the bill; hideous Christmas sweaters and festive attire are encouraged. Stream a track from each of the artists below. If It Kills Me by Algernon Cadwalader [...]
Yesterday I got an e-mail from Matt Nathanson (who has a not-so-secret love of '80s hair-metal bands) reminding me about this 1983 television commercial recorded by Cinderella for the national food chain Pat's Chili Dogs (two locations!). Please note that while no drums were used in the making of this commercial, the jingle is extremely catchy.
C'est à 13 ans que la québécoise-haïtienne Mélissa Laveaux découvre ce qui va devenir son instrument de prédilection : la guitare . Car cette auteure-compositrice-interprè te ne commence à chanter qu'à 17 ans, un peu poussée par le destin et par un spectacle de fin d'année… L'amour pour la guitare se ressent dès les premières notes grattées sur scène ou sur disque . On découvre une vraie musicienne à la technique parfaitement aiguisée. Sa voix cassée au timbre unique lui permet d'évoluer dans un univers folk et blues bien à [...]
Were you at Philly's First All-Rap Spectacular? We found this poster (above) for a show at The Spectrum on July 5th, 1986 featuring Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Whodini and Jam Master Jay on the DogIsland tumblr and we couldn't resist sharing it.
The next Still Life—a bimonthly showcase of experimental Philadelphia music—is Friday, December 9, at the First Unitarian Chapel. Still Life is curated by John Vettese who hosts the Philly Local Second Shift on XPN2 (Thursdays, 5 p.m.-midnight) and also records and produces all of our Key Studio Sessions . From John's tumblr : On the bill is Tadoma, the musical alter ego of Data Garden Records' Joe Patitucci, doing minimal, hazy, Music for Airports-esque ambient pieces; Gemini Wolf, the abstract electronic dance project of Michael McDermott and Megan Cauley; and Gina Ferrera, who inventively [...]
This week, the latest issue of upstart local music mag JUMP Philly hits the streets, and tonight the staff takes to the XPN2 airwaves. Publisher G.W. Miller and a group of the magazine's writers and photographers join me at 8 p.m. to guest host the second hour of the Philly Local Second shift, where they'll play an assortment of artists featured in the latest issue (including cover star Jill Scott , indie rock mad scientist Shorty Boy-Boy and West Philly rapper Chill Moody ), as well as artists artists performing at the various issue [...]
Ils sont quatre, ils viennent de Monthey, et existent depuis 2005 déjà. Courtisés par la presse rock française et acclamés par le public parisien et londonien, les Valaisans enchaînent alors les concerts en Europe, avec quelques très belles dates, notamment au Paléo et aux Eurockéenne de Belfort, et des premières parties prestigieuses. Après avoir prouvé qu'ils étaient un excellent groupe de scène , le quatuor enregistre enfin son premier album en 2009. The Mondrians revendiquent un héritage rock des années soixante/septante, en ne négligeant pas non plus les meilleurs [...]
Ce soir, c'est en tant que grand gourmand que je vous apporte la recette du dernier album de Kid Chocolat , qui se nomme Kaléidoscope . Attention : chaud chaud, chocolat ! Créateur du label de musique électronique Poor Records où l'on peut croiser Luluxpo, Born Bjorg ou Love Motel autour d'un bon capuccino, notre kid genevois, plus si petit dans le monde de la musique , nous sort sa troisième tablette. Déjà j'adore le titre : Kaléidoscope . Annonciateur de renouveau en combinant de [...]
Walk West One Fall afternoon in '07 we came home from work and a new camera we ordered had arrived. We took it out and captured these images. Walked from Noble Square to Loop, train up to East Wicker, what...
This past month David Dye has been celebrating the 20th anniversary of World Cafe which winds up this weekend with a series of live concerts from World Cafe Live. David, as many of you may know, got his start on commercial radio on WMMR in the Seventies when he was a student at Swarthmore. I discovered David on the radio in the early 702s and followed him to WIOQ in the early 19802s. We both started as volunteers at XPN (David was on Sleepy Hollow; I was one of the hosts of XPN's "Beat Planet," the evening "alternative [...]
From the BITBY site : You can read John Vettese's interview with Dave Kain and Kyle Costill of Bands In The Backyard here .
The Key
The Lost Turntable
drink me softly
According to G
Azimut
Avant/Chicago
![Niki & The Dove - The Fox [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/l2f6UbMnlq4_130.jpg)
Music Singles Chart #95
Whitney! ♥
The Twilight Sad cover The Smiths
FREENESS: Robot Orchestra – Beat The Odds (Germany)
