Local folk musician Meg Baird is currently on tour in the UK with no Philly performances scheduled for the near future. However, you can click here to listen to her recent interview and performance on World Cafe with David Dye. During her appearance, she discusses and performs tracks from her second album, Seasons On Earth, which was released by Drag City back in September.
Monthly Archives: November 2011
Listen to Ryan Adams’ appearance on World Cafe
Couldn’t get tickets to Ryan Adams’ sold-out show with Jessica Lea Mayfield at The Academy Of Music this Friday night? Click here to listen to his recent interview and performance on World Cafe with David Dye. During the episode, Adams discusses and performs tracks from his new acoustic album, Ashes & Fire, which he is currently touring in support of.
Now On The Key: Tour and show announcements by The Swollen Fox
Over on The Key’s right rail, you’ll see a new widget featuring show announcements by The Swollen Fox. Since the site launched last year, it’s become one of our go-to spots for up-to-the-minute show announcements (including local bands and nationally recognized touring acts) as well as its comprehensive concert calendar. In fact, The Swollen Fox has become such a dependable resource for us (and, by extension, our readers) that we asked the folks involved if they’d be interested in partnering up with our site—and we were absolutely thrilled when they said “yes.”
If there’s a recent show announcement worth knowing about, you’ll find it in our widget; click on the links to get the full details from The Swollen Fox, and make sure to check out the concert calendar while you’re there.
Tickets for Dr. Dog’s upcoming tour dates go on sale at noon today
Photo by Chris Crisman
Dr. Dog’s Eric Slick just tweeted that the “fan presale for all upcoming tour dates begins at Noon today. Go to drdogmusic.com for all details!” Over at the band’s website, the ticket status for all non-local shows (including stops in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and New York) are currently listed as “on sale soon.” (Tickets for the tour’s final two shows—March 24th and 25th at Electric Factory here in Philly—are already available.) Below, you can watch the video for “That Old Black Hole” off Dr. Dog’s upcoming release, Be The Void (due out on February 7th on Anti- Records).
Tonight: Nicole Atkins at Tin Angel
Nicole Atkins doesn’t come off as your typical Jersey girl. With artfully two-toned hair and genre-bending anti-folk songs, the singer-songwriter offers the eclectic sensibility of a cultured metropolis dweller, an alternative to the celebrated (yet singular) stylings of other Garden State musicians. Atkins first gained recognition with her 2007 debut, Neptune City, and its major single, “Maybe Tonight.” Though the album was named after her hometown, the music, delightfully, did not sound like the soundtrack for a strip mall or tanning salon. Instead, Atkins did her state quite proud, offering a series of narratives that reflected the lives and untold stories of her neighbors. Her latest record, this year’s Mondo Amore, visits Atkins’ heightened songwriting ability and a wide range of stylistic arrangements—from the bluesy track “My Baby Don’t Lie,” to the closing ballad, “The Tower.” Nicole Atkins performs with Drew Mills at 8 p.m. at Tin Angel; tickets to the 21+ show are $14. —Marielle Mondon
The Key Studio Sessions: White Birds
Listen to this week’s Key Studio Session and count the ways the guys in White Birds impressively play off one another. There’s vibey ensemble moments: Mike Cammarata’s minimal floor tom percussion provides the broken heartbeat to the tales of loss singer Jim Harvey spins thru a 60′s pop loom (“Floating Hands”). Chris Radwinski’s strolling bass line strikes a harmonic counterpoint to the scene in “Hondora.” But the breezy Bucks County psych band also works at the simplest level: “No Sun” and “Veins Lined With Rust” are carried by breathtaking harmonies between Harvey and his brother Farzad Houshiarnejad. It’s a far cry from the spastic carnival music these guys delivered as Drink Up Buttercup, but the band says you shouldn’t be fooled by the downtempo approach of its debut EP (or this session). It’s catalog runs broader, since it’s preparing to release a full length next year, and when White Birds opens for Jukebox the Ghost on Saturday, it promises energetic rock-out moments to break up the mellow mood. Get the full story when their session and interview plays back on The Key Studio Sessions Hour on XPN2 tomorrow night at 7. White Birds opens for The Spinto Band and Jukebox the Ghost Sat. Dec. 3 at Union Transfer. Tickets to the all-ages show are $14, more info at UTPhilly.com.
Listen to The Roots’ new album, undun, via streaming audio (from NPR Music)
From NPR Music:
The record’s most affecting element, however, is its lyricism, led with gimmick-less seriousness by Black Thought, a rapper whose storytelling is unencumbered by sophomoric jocularity or false cartoonishness. His desolation is unvarnished and striking in “I Remember,” in which he darkly rhymes, “I drew a two of hearts from a deck of cards / A stock trick from my empty repertoire / Another hopeless story, never read at all / I’m better off looking for the end where the credits are.” He’s given fleeting respite from the stress of the drug trade in “Kool On,” but is harshly pulled back to earth the next morning in “The OtherSide,” where paranoia surrounds him again: “We obviously need to tone it down a bit / Running around town spending time like it’s counterfeit.”
Go here to read Charlie Kaplan’s full review and listen to the album in its entirety.