Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes at XPoNential Festival in 2010 | Photo by David Simchock | popdose.com This just in from the XPoNential Music Festival programming depot - three artists have been added to the 2013 lineup. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, who entertained a jam-packed Wiggins Park with a lively set in 2010, will make their second XPoFest appearance. Also added are afropop combo Red Baraat and poppy indie singer-songwriter Matt Pond . Tickets are available here . Below, watch Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros play "Home" [...]

Progrockers Yes - Steve Howe, Chris Squires, Alan White, Geoff Downes & Jon Davison - bring their 2013 festival to the Susquehanna Bank Center on August 3rd. The progressive rock legends will play Yes favorites and two classic Yes albums in their entirety including Close to the Edge and The Yes Album . Also on the bill: the greatest Genesis tribute band ever - The Musical Box , (performing the classic Genesis album, Foxtrot ), Carl Palmer's Band and Rennaissance with Annie Haslam . There will also [...]

Philly metal band Surgeon will release their new album tonight at Johnny Brenda's Kung Fu Necktie (the show was moved due to a water main break). Chemical Reign has been a long time coming for the local four-piece: we first got a sample of the new songs back in 2011 when the band stopped by for a Key Studio Session , a few years after their 2008 debut Angry Guest was released. Tickets and information for tonight's 21+ show with Swarm of Arrows , [...]

Quirky upstate New York four-piece Foxygen got crazy in a late-night Non-COMM set yesterday that blended Doors-esque poppy psychedelia with punk-y dissonance. Check out the setlist below, and listen back to the set in its entirety here (via the WXPN media player). Setlist Make It Known On Blue Mountain Shuggie We Are the 21st Centrury Ambassadors of Peace and Magic Teenage Alien Blues

Local thrash / metal band Surgeon has been readying its long-in-the-making new full-length Chemical Reign for the past couple years - since we had them in for a Key Studio Session , as a matter of fact - and the day has finally come. This weekend the band plays its album release show at Johnny Brenda's , and you can get a taste of the shreddery in store with this video performance of "Greed" at Garage Mahal earlier this year, filmed by The Angry Mountain . [...]

Photo by John Bartol Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze , the latest from Philadelphia psych-songwriter Kurt Vile , has generated international acclaim since its March release on Matador Records. And rightfully so; it’s an ambitious double album exploring a plethora of ideas, and doing them all masterfully. It’s expressive and expansive, but also tight and poppy. It’s deeply personal – “Too Hard,” Vile’s reaction to experiencing fatherhood, has him promising to “do my duty for god and my country,” a vow Boy Scouts know well – but elsewhere, you’ll find clever wordplay equating [...]

XPN welcomes Charles Bradley to Union Transfer tonight. The "Screaming Eagle of Soul" entertained the crowd during a recent Free at Noon performance with his exuberant showmanship and knock-out funk / R&B songs. Following up his 2011 full-length debut, the 64-year-old crooner released Victim of Love earlier this year. Tickets and information for tonight's show with Paul & the Tall Trees can be found here . Watch the former James Brown impersonator perform "Why Is It So Hard?" live on the Public Radio Rocks stage at SXSW below. [...]

JEFF the Brotherhood kick off a two-night stand at Kung Fu Necktie tonight. The Nashville band of brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall got the music bug from their father, who has written / produced for Taylor Swift and Reba McEntire. The younger Orralls' brand of music couldn't be much further from that of Swift's though - with a raucous live show and a sound that inevitably finds itself described as grungy, scuzzy and sludgy, JEFF the Brotherhood attract attention through a barrage of loud and distorted but equally quirky and endearing rock songs on their latest [...]

On their way to SXSW in March, Philly's Thee, Idea Men stopped by WRVU in Nashville, TN with tourmates Katie Frank & The Pheromones , Dan Orlando and WC Lindsay . The group of local musicians performed a cover of Amy Winehouse's "Valerie" live on the Vanderbilt University radio station, with Orlando on keys and Lindsay behind the camera. Check out the footage below and see Thee, Idea Men live at MilkBoy on June 13th. Dan Orlando will be at Kennett Flash on June 1st. Tickets and information for both [...]

Anjuli Josephine and her band, Andrew Lipke and Juston Stens and the Get Real Gang are among the initial artists announced for the 2013 edition of the Sundrop Music Festival at The Fire. Returning for its third year, the festival features two days of music on two stages - a free and all-ages outdoor stage on Liethgow Street in Northern Liberties and a ticketed run of 21+ shows at The Fire's indoor stage. For more information, check out the festival's Facebook Page . Below, download Key Studio Sessions performance tracks from Josephine, [...]

Having released their last record in 1985, Black Flag - whose Greg Ginn-led reunited lineup plays Union Transfer on June 20 - unveiled their first music in 28 years with two new songs this week. First came " Down in the Dirt ," a single in exchange for an email address. Then there's the newest song, “The Chase,” which features a super low-rent music video and lyrics that are massively vague. Given how young these guys were when they rose to fame, we have to wonder what the original Black Flag fans think of all this [...]

All photos by Abi Reimold | Abireimold.22slides.com About a year ago, the snappy and warped psych-pop band Literature relocated to Philadelphia from Austin, Texas with an awesome LP called Arab Spring in tow. Hard tourers, sharp dressers and a buzzing name on the indiepop circuit, they specialize in a sound that's a bit more direct than the washed-out hazy dazy Pain of Being Pure At Heart aesthetic of a few years back. There's a lift to their sound (though still a reverb'd surface) and a galloping-out-the-gate energy (with some oddball lyrical [...]

Scottish melancholy pop five-piece Camera Obscura released another new single today from their fourthcoming 4AD Records offering Desire Lines . Unlike the jaunty lead single " Do It Again ," this one is a haunting, heartrending waltz with delicate and reverbed-out vocal harmonies a la Neko Case. From Camera Obscura singer Tracyanne Campbell: Fifth In Line To The Throne" is a song about someone in a seemingly perfect relationship but there is a dark underside to it. We wanted to sound menacing and give folk the creeps. I believe Princess Beatrice is fifth [...]

Photo by Mark Stehle Alex Shaw is the band leader of of Philadelphia eleven-piece Brazilian music ensemble Alo Brasil . He's also a vocalist, member of the Spoken Hand Percussion Ensemble , educator who works with the Live Connections nonprofit at World Cafe Live, and also teaches at University of the Arts. This week, he's our featured guest at the Philly Local busker's series at The Porch at 30th Street Station. This will be a rare opportunity to see Shaw perform as a solo artist - usually, he's performing in [...]

Folk singer/songwriter Heyward Howkins plays Ortlieb's Lounge tonight. Howkins released a single in December 2012, entitled " Praline Country ", as well as his debut full length The Hale & Hearty in June 2012. Go here to watch a video of Hawkins playing his song "Flimsy Stock". Tickets and information for the 21+ show with Break It Up , Dreambook and Taggart can be found here . Below, enjoy the music video for "Sugar Sand Stitched Lip" off of Howkins' album [...]

Falling somewhere between Primal Scream, Happy Mondays and (egad!) Bush, the buzzing Birmingham, England four-piece Peace makes its Philadelphia debut this summer with a headlining show at Johnny Brenda's on June 10th. The band took a bit of heat for its retro-90s stylistic patchwork from The Guardian's uber-discerning critic Alexis Petridis when its debut LP In Love was released in the UK earlier this spring. And, sure, the bits that sound the most Gavin Rossdale (" Follow Baby ") are kind of heinous. But more are the moments groove in a tasty [...]

With their new single "The Optimist" due out for download later this month, Philly electro-pop project City Rain premiered the song today on the blog Sunset in the Rearview , where not only was the new music showcased, but the background behind the song is shared. From the blog: “The Optimist” tells the classic tale of personal tragedy leading to spiritual triumph. After losing the love of his life, losing two of his close friends, and struggling with unemployment in an unforgiving recession, Runyan met Scott Cumpstone, a fellow Temple University graduate and [...]

Photo by Eric Ashleigh | showtographe.com After quickly selling-out their Union Transfer date last month, Local Natives have announced another U.S. leg that brings them back to Philadelphia with openers Wild Nothing for a show at the Electric Factory on September 28th. The California indie rockers followed up their stunning 2010 debut Gorilla Manor with the expansive and gorgeous Hummingbird earlier this year. Tickets go on sale Friday, May 17th at noon; more information will be available here . Check out photos from Local Natives' Union Transfer [...]

It's been a couple weeks of breakup bummers; in addition to Dangerous Ponies announcing plans to go their separate ways this past weekend, twangy indie four-piece Arrah and the Ferns also quietly announced their indefinite hiatus not long before that. (Hat-tip to The Deli for catching this news today.) Frontwoman Arrah Fisher - whose place of employ appeared in a great Food Network segment last night, along with Adam Garbinski of Bloodline fame and some dude wearing a Richie Records t-shirt - explained the hiatus in a post on [...]

Photo by Bo Hakala The rapper/spoken word artist Dessa (of midwest collective Doomtree ) will be performing at Sellersville Theater tonight with Philly hip-hop artist Kuf Knotz . Dessa is celebrating her newest album Parts of Speech , released on Doomtree Records. For more information on Dessa, check out a piece from The Key here . Alongside Dessa will be Philly native hip-hop artist Kuf Knotz, who blends elements of blues, rock, and other genres with his hip-hip. Tickets and information for the all ages [...]