The Key’s Year-End Mania: Brendan Menapace’s artists that should just move to Philly already

Year-End Mania is the Key’s annual survey of the things below the surface that made 2017 incredible. Today, Key contributing writer Brendan Menapace beckons a handful of bands to move to the 215.

Philadelphia is awesome. We know this. From huge rooms with expensive sound systems and multiple bars to batting cages, we have some of the best places to check out live music in the country. We’ve cultivated the growth of artists that are now world-renowned, and we’ve played adoptive home to artists who have moved here. I think it’s great that bands and artists want to move to Philly, especially coming from places that used to be the hubs of culture, like New York or LA. Given how huge Philly is (and thanks to the condos that are popping up everywhere, we guess?) we have plenty of room for more people. So, here are a few bands that I think should just move to Philadelphia already, rather than prolonging the inevitable.

Pkew Pkew Pkew

Pkew x3 (henceforth referred to as “The Boys,” which they have requested on their social media) is a four-piece pop punk group from Toronto that loves singing songs about pregaming with cheap beer, the perils of skateboarding in adulthood and baseball. They’re also huge Philadelphia Eagles fans. They’re such huge Eagles fans that they put out an Eagles-centric anthem a few years back – “Road to Victory.”

Between their allegiance to the Birds, love of beer and their particular musical genre, they’d fit in pretty well here in Philly.

So, Boys, move to Philly already.

PUP

Another Toronto band whose brand of punk would fit in nicely in the Philly scene, PUP has said at live shows in the past that Philadelphia has always felt like a second home to them. It makes sense, since they have plenty of friends and tour mates in the city, like Cayetana, the Menzingers, Modern Baseball and more.

So, why not just make the move? All of your friends are here.

Courtney Barnett

Courtney’s album this year with Philly native Kurt Vile was one of my favorite albums of the year. Courtney and Kurt are a musical match made in heaven, and their styles fit together so perfectly for their combined effort. For selfish reasons, I would like Courtney to move here so she and Kurt can continually pump out albums on a regular basis.

Australia has too many spiders. Move to Philadelphia.

Ratboys

The way twinkle personified late 2000s and early 2010s emo/punk, the more Americana twang that’s all over Chicago-based Ratboys’ music is going to personify this current era of indie rock. Local acts like Katie Ellen and Hop Along are good examples of this, too. Both of those bands are in Philly. So, we could just monopolize that scene like we did with Twinkle. So, why not just move here and build that scene together? Heck, the new Lemuria album leans that way, too, so they should join, too.

I understand that all of these other cities are incredible places with their own thriving music communities, and it would be selfish for me to ask you all to move to Philadelphia. I’d even say it was lazy of me. After all, I’d be lying if I said part of my reasoning here is that I could just walk down the street or hop on the subway quick to see some of my favorite bands.

But, I can still dream. I can also talk up Philly, because it truly rules. Move to Philly.