Scottish garage pop rockers Paws have announced a free show at Morgan’s Pier on June 12th with We Were Promised Jetpacks.  The trio made their fuzz rock debut last year with Cokefloat on FatCat Records and were charismatic enough at this year’s SXSW to land on The Key’s 10 Bands We Loved at SXSW list.  Likely influenced by Pavement, Weezer and perhaps Dinosaur Jr, Paws create short and sweet sing-a-long nuggets that will get any crowd sweaty.  Information for the free show can be found here.  Below, stream Cokefloat single “Sore Tummy.”

With their new LP Michael Boyd ready for release, Our Griffins have shared a new video for their song “Come and Wake Me Up.”  The song is the first taste of the upcoming album from Easton, PA’s DJ Brown and is available as a free download on Our Griffins’ Bandcamp.  With hushed vocals and prominent percussion, the song wanders and floats through a gradual crescendo of trembling guitar chords, mirroring the girl wandering through the woods in the accompanying video directed by Brad Kunkle.  Our Griffins will open for Nightlands at Johnny Brenda’s on May 31st; tickets and information can be found here.  Watch the video below and download the song here.

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 Bhangra fusionists Red Baraat and poppy indie singer-songwriter Matt Pond. Tickets are available here. Below, watch Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros play “Home” at XPoFest 2010, and after the jump, check out music from Matt Pond and Red Baraat.

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, Ominous Black and Skeleton Hands can be found here.  Below, watch a live video of Surgeon performing “Greed.”

Setlist
Make It Known
On Blue Mountain
Shuggie
We Are the 21st Centrury Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
Teenage Alien Blues

Surgeon “Greed” from The Angry Mountain on Vimeo.

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 codeine with Springsteen in a manner both playful and universal. His backing band the Violators – guitarist Jesse Trbovich, bassist Rob Laakso and drummer Vince Nudo – craft layers of gripping instrumental interplay, stretching near ten minutes on the title track (and over on closer “Goldtone”); but the record also makes use of haunting minimal space and experimental textures. In short, it’s Vile’s strongest work to date, and tomorrow night he headlines a sold-out hometown show at Union Transfer with Angel Olsen and Steve Gunn opening after a lengthy spring tour. I got a chance to sit down with Vile before tour kicked off, and we discussed the record, its monumental artwork, and making music of epic proportions.

The Key: Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze sounds great, there’s so much going on. But song that really jumped out at me from the get-go was “Two Hard,” the one where you incorporate the Scouts Promise into the lyrics. Were you a Boy Scout when you were growing up?

Kurt Vile: Yeah. I mean, barely. My dad bribed me. I said I wasn’t gonna go into Boy Scouts and he said -like later that night, real smooth – he said if I joined Boy Scouts, he’ll get me a Swiss army knife. [laughs] So I don’t know, I was at the impressionable age. But yeah,that’s sort of just like a childhood reference. It’s such a dorky reference in a way too.

TK: Well the way it plays out in the lyrics, it kinda feels like you’re an adult looking back on this thing that you had to recite as a child in Boy Scouts, and seeing how it plays out in adult life.

KV: Yeah totally, that’s basically what it is. And then you basically just brush it off. I’m the king of brushing off exactly what I just said. [ laughs] You say you’re just human, so basically you’re just making an excuse for why you’re gonna screw up.

TK: It’s a great song. I love how expansive it is, and how expansive a lot of the record is.

KV: Yeah it’s definitely expansive.

TK: How did you come to like delve into that side of your songwriting again this time?

KV: I guess just cause that’s a natural thing to do, to just get lost in what you’re playing. Obviously there’s set verses and set, you know, sections, there’s all kinds of meticulous…it’s not jammy but if you can just let something go, the chords are simple enough to have that controlled improv in there. Not improv like jam band music, you know. More like jamming in the Velvet Underground sense.

TK: So with a song like “Wakin’ on a Pretty Day,” or “Goldtone,” the ones that are the longest, did you write them with the other players in the band?

KV: That’s the whole thing. I always need a right hand man and a left hand man. I always say Jesse’s the left hand man – he just does his own sort of, uh, hippie punk thing. Which, you can’t like put him on the spot too much cause he gets nervous. I guess if someone put me on the spot, I might get nervous. But the point is I need another guy like Rob who, like, he’s more like a brainiac. Jesse is too in, like a musical way, but Rob he’s got these different kinds of schooled chops and also knowledge of equipment.

But anyway, so I would like work on [a song], I’d have all the parts and he’d be like programming the drum machine to like speed up and slow down and stuff like that. “And then it goes like this and then it goes like this,” [laughs] We all bounce off of each other. But this album in particular, at first I was like “yeah we’re gonna rehearse a lot!” And Jesse would have appreciated that, and so would have Rob, but at the end of the day, it’s like so many ideas in my head, first of all I can’t always explain them. And then, it’s gotta be fresh for me and I can’t really like sit around and teach every single part, because when it comes down to it, it happens really on tape, you know? It’s like there are parts written but then there’s magic that happens like on the spot and you just happen to be recording. It’s not not all planned, you know.

TK: It’s not just the big instrumental stuff either. There are also songs like “KV Crimes” – that’s a freakin’ rocker, it’s a tight like three-and-a-half-minute rocker. So there’s a lot of variety on the album.

KV: Yeah that was an early one, we recorded that one pretty early on. [laughs]

TK: I guess the question there being, was there anything that you kind of looked at as a model for this series of songs? Or was it just like you wanted to have variety.

KV: I feel like I always go for like variety. And this one…I mean, I had been touring for two years and definitely playing better electric guitar. I got like this Jaguar dream electric guitar early on in the Smoke Ring tour, and I was playing guitar non-stop, so I knew it was gonna be more skilled guitar, whether that’s acoustic or electric. And I knew I was gonna combine the two. Acoustic was always a big part of my sound and I never, I guess, really had “that folk record.” And this is definitely not a rock record, even though that’s what I said at first, but there is a lot of electricity and there are synthesizers. It’s going for more for epic proportions you know, which is kinda the natural progression I feel like from the last record.

TK: I remember reading this great interview you did with Pat Rapa from City Paper after Smoke Ring came out, and you kind of talked about how you wanted that record to highlight your songwriting. How you wanted to be like “yo, look, I can write really good songs too.”

KV: Yeah, yeah.

TK: I feel like this record, it seems like the pressure’s off. Musically it sounds like you’re very at ease and your just like “I’m making a freaking record,” you’re not trying to prove yourself. Compared to the past, where it seemed like you were showcasing this side of yourself, or you showcased that side of yourself.

KV: I just went with it. Like I said, I didn’t know exactly what was going to come out on the other side, but I knew that I was really getting deep into writing the songs on guitar, like more deep than before because I’d be on the road and working on this one song. Before, I feel like I’ve always done this thing where I’d meticulously work on a song, but I have been playing long enough and forced to be on the road and playing that I could go back to whichever song I wanted, and like keep adding stuff to them. I don’t know. But I’m always trying to prove something, you know. I can’t always give it a name, this time I just want to make it as best and as out-there as it can, but not be so out-there that it’s not, you know, listenable. I want it to be just engaging, but also try push the boundaries of that.

TK: Can I ask you about the mural?

KV: Sure

TK: How did that come to be, first of all?

KV: Well, I have a really good manager, Renny, and so [the artist] Steve Powers – I did know who he was but didn’t connect the name yet, I didn’t know him that well – he contacted me and then it just worked out. Cause the last album, that cover was cool, but it wasn’t like…there was a lot of drama and growing pains with making that album cover. So we wanted to go, you know, go for broke and go for art and modern art vibes and we just teamed up in this convenient way. He contacted me when he was working on something down the road and, you know, it just totally worked out. Those kind of things that happen like [snaps], they just fall into your lap and then they happen really fast, are the best, best kind of things.

TK: I’ve started to hear among the Philly scene and Philly fans about people wanting to make pilgrimages up to Master street to see the Kurt Vile mural. Is that like kind of a far-out idea for you?

KV: [laughs] That’s funny. I mean, one day I was like listening to my headphones and there was this kid in the neighborhood, and he was like “yo, It’s really weird to see you here, I’m going to see your mural.” And that was nice, but sometimes I get, uh… when I don’t know someone, I get shy once in a while, and, uh, it was like at the wrong time, it was at the wrong time. [laughs] So I hope he didn’t think I was rude [laughs], but it is just funny, yeah cause like John [Agnello], who did my record, his daughter was just like “I’m in Philly we’re gonna go see the mural!” It’s funny, it is pretty cool.

TK: There’s another track on the record where I love the song, I love the beat that you have on it, but the thing I wonder most about it is the name, “Air Bud.” That’s a Disney movie, right?

KV: [laughs] Is it Disney, yeah. It is loosely…it’s an inside joke with the band loosely associated with that movie. [laughs] We’re gonna leave at that forever and it’s gonna drive people crazy.

TK: You’re playing with Steve Gunn at the Union Transfer show you have coming up. Tell me about that.

KV: Steve has got a new record coming out, and it’s mind-blowing. It’s so good. We grew up in the same town, we both grew up in Lansdowne. We’ve always been acquaintances but Renny turned me on to the newest Steve Gunn record…and I love all his other records, but this tour he’s gonna play in the band, in the Violators. He’s going to be an opener and a Violator. I’d like him to tour with us as much as possible.

Kurt Vile plays Union Transfer this Saturday, May 18th, with Steve Gunn and Angel Olsen.

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.

Morning River Band celebrate the debut of their new album at MilkBoy tonight.  The Philadelphia-based country group recorded To Suzie at Gradwell House in New Jersey and will release it on May 21st as the follow-up to 2011′s Between the Ocean and the Blues.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ release show with The Miners and John Train can be found here.  Stream “Lefty’s Last Blues” below and check out their Folkadelphia session here.

XPN welcomes Mary Chapin Carpenter to the Keswick Theatre tonight.  With her long-time friend and cohort Shawn Colvin by her side, Carpenter continues to tour in support of her 2012 LP Ashes and Roses.  The singer-songwriter made a name for herself with a string of of successful country / folk crossover records in the nineties and five Grammy Awards over the course of her career, resulting in her induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame last October.  Tickets and information for tonight’s show can be found here.  Below, watch a performance of “Chasing What’s Already Gone.”

MAD Dragon Records caps off its 10th anniversary festivities with a show at The Trocadero tonight.  The Drexel University label has been celebrating all week with block parties, free live music and a special 10th anniversary compilation featuring bands that will be performing at tonight’s event.  Among those scheduled are Cheers Elephant, Wild Rompit and Matt Duke.  Tickets and information for the 18+ concert can be found here.  Check out the compilation here and watch Cheers Elephant’s video for “Doin’ It, Right” 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 Hypnotic Nights LP.  Tickets and information for tonight and tomorrow’s shows can be found here.  Watch them perform “Sixpack” on Late Night with David Letterman below.

XPN welcomes Josh Ritter to The Trocadero tonight.  Touring in support of his latest record The Beast in Its Tracks, Ritter has followed up his 2010 full-length So Runs the World Away with an album of deeply personal songs.  The time-frame of Beast covers the Americana / folk-rock singer’s recent divorce and a period of subsequent rebuiilding, though as NPR’s Stephen Thompson points out, the album has uplifting and happy moments to balance the darker ones.  Tickets and information for tonight’s show with The Felice Brothers can be found here.  Watch a live performance of “Joy to You Baby” on Late Night with David Letterman below and listen back to Josh Ritter’s World Cafe episode here.

Faun Fables play a show upstairs at Kung Fu Necktie tonight.  The project of Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl, the members of Faun Fables fancy themselves “songtellers,” blending the oral tradition of McCarthy’s background with experiential music environments like those of gypsies, field recordings and celtic culture.  Faun Fables are signed to Drag City and released their most recent effort, Light of a Vaster Dark, in 2010.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show can be found here.  Watch the duo perform “The Balland of Limpy Glen” below.

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 shows can be found here.

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 diversions).  For their Key Studio Session, Literature recorded four new “barn burners” in the words of guitarist Kevin Attics, including their latest 7″ a-side “Tie Dye” and a couple unreleased numbers. “Grifted” slowed down the pace and dipped back to their LP, but kept the momentum going enough that it may as well just plow straight into the Johnny Brenda’s show they’re playing (and KDU is hosting) next week. They’re opening the night on May 22nd, with Key Session alums Pet Milk headlining; tickets and information can be found here, while the session is available for your streaming and downloading (and bopping around the room) pleasure below.

• Court Dateby Literature from The Key Studio Sessions, May 15, 2013Download

• Jimmyby Literature from The Key Studio Sessions, May 15, 2013Download

• Tie Dyeby Literature from The Key Studio Sessions, May 15, 2013Download

• English Soft Heartsby Literature from The Key Studio Sessions, May 15, 2013Download

• Griftedby Literature from The Key Studio Sessions, May 15, 2013Download

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 in line by the way.

Desire Lines is out June 4th on 4AD; Camera Obscura will be in Philadelphia on July 7th opening for She and Him and the Mann Center. You can stream and download “Fifth in Line to the Throne” below.

• Fifth in Line to the Throneby Camera Obscura from Desire LinesDownload

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 a large ensemble, or leading a large ensemble (or teaching a roomful of curious minds). Today, however, he performs with only a guitarist as accompaniment.

The hour-long show begins at noon at The Porch at 30th Street, right off of 30th and Market Streets in University City. To get a taste of the unaccompanied Shaw, watch him performing “Dia de Praia” in the video below. For more, listen to Alo Brasil’s Key Studio Session from earlier this month.

Alex B Shaw: “Dia de Praia” from Anula Shetty on Vimeo.

Philadelphia ambient group Northern Valentine comes to Random Tea Room tonight. The five-piece’s music is improvisational and usually set to films and other projections that the group has made. Their most recent album, Fin de siècle, was released in March 2012. Tickets and information for the all ages show with onewayness and dRachEmUsiK can be found here. Below, check out a video of Northern Valentine performing live.

River City Extension plays the Theatre of Living Arts tonight. The group’s show at the TLA will mark the second day of their tour with The Hush Sound and Hockey, which runs until June 8th. Their latest album, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Your Anger, was released last year. Tickets and information for the all ages show with The Hush Sound, Hockey, Genevieve Schatz, and Lucas Carpenter can be found here. Below, watch a live video of River City Extension performing “South For The Winter” on Fearless Music.

I caught up with singer-guitarist Jen Sperling over email, and she tells me that the eleven-track album will feature some familiar material from the band’s live setlist, and some brand new cuts. She explains that taking it into a studio world allowed them to dig into each song’s sonic possibilities, “things like layered vocal harmonies, feedback, and other subtle production effects.” Sperling says the result is simultaneously more pop and more grit.

“I think that we’ve been able to further evolve what is an obvious nostalgia for a previous era of bands in our songs, into something more thoroughly modern,” she says. 

You can hear that in the first single, “New Penzance.” It builds on the punchy, melodic approach of the band’s earlier singles (see also: “Excavate,” and “Paint the Town“), and crafts a striking contract between snappy pop sensibilities and a fuzzy punk rock drive. Tomorrow, the band makes its first appearance since last summer, sneaking onto a bill at Ortlieb’s Lounge that also features Heyward Howkins and Taggart.

Sperling says she is excited for her return to the stage. “We are definitely ready.  We all really love performing, and are eager to present the songs to an audience in that format again.”

“Some of these songs might well be considered ‘old’ at this point,” Sperling continues, “But playing live always breathes new life into them.  Anything can happen when you’re interacting with an audience, and that sense of unknown, that energy and mystery, is something we’ve all really missed.”

Below, watch a trailer video of Break It Up in the studio with Zeigler, and listen to a stream of “New Penzance.”After the jump, check out the tracklist of the album.

Break It Up – S/T (tracklisting)
1. New Penzance
2. Excavate
3. Subterranean
4. Amplify Me
5. Out of Time
6. Sickness for Cure
7. Suzuki
8. Architect
9. Good Bones
10. From Scratch
11. We Have It

Also on the bill are local openers Weekender, who worship at the alter of Spiritualized and Spaceman 3; their EP has been burning a nice fuzzy sonic hole in our corner of the WXPN office, and this show is their live debut, so it’s an ideal setup for maximum good vibes. Watch the music video for Peace’s “Lovesick” below and stream Weekener’s Spanish Peaks EP; after the jump, you can also listen to “Bloodshake” from Peace’s Delicious EP.

“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 working musician. … In the band’s own words, “While every man has the capability to create his or her own personal hell, there is inversely their capability to manifest redemption. ‘The Optimist’ is the story of the way back.” As this song begins, it immediately thrusts you into a realm of ferocious positivity and daring realism behind synths that build stadiums and tear them down in a single powerful wave. It is music that makes you feel things and see paint splashing against a blank canvas.

Listen to “The Optimist” below, and look for a special low-key release appearance at North Star Bar‘s Victorian Dining Room series on Memorial Day. The full album is due out in the fall.

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 show here, listen back to their April appearance on World Cafe here and watch a new video for “Bowery” below.

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 the band’s Facebook page:

that’s right, we’re releasing a new LP and promptly disbanding! I know it doesn’t make much sense…but we’re CrAzY like that!

You see, our guitarist BELSKI is moving to Montana in June and Arrah is going to embark on some lengthy world travels come August. (but have no fear, the ferns always return in some form) So please come out to these last few shows and celebrate with us. it’s never really over.

…

We love y’all. Thanks for all the support. We’ll be around!! And hey on the upside, you get a whole new album to listen to and get sick of…

The band has two remaining gigs: a free show this Saturday, May 18th at the South Philly Tap Room’s Wheat Beer Fest (quoth the band: “Beeeeeeeer”) and an all-ages farewell at PhilaMOCA on May 24th. This show doubles as the band’s album release for their final LP Make Your Mind. Check out a new song from the LP, “Get Lost,” below.

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 show can be found here. Below, watch Dessa perform “The Man I Knew” for MN Original.

Folk musician Jesse Sparhawk plays PhilaMOCA tonight for Yvynyl’s Tuesday Tune-Out. Sparhawk’s last release was in August of 2012, a single entitled “Hummingbird”. You can check out a Fokadelphia session Sparhawk did here. Tickets and information for the all ages show with Strawberry Hands can be found here. Below, check out a video of Sparhawk playing his song “Hummingbird”.

Canadian shoegaze band No Joy play Kung Fu Necktie tonight. In April of this year the band released their newest album, Wait to Pleasure on Mexican Summer. Playing a similar style as bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Whirr, No Joy’s music is dissonant and atmospheric. Tickets and information for the 21+ show with Psychic Teens and CASSAVETES can be found here. Below, watch No Joy perform their song “Ghost Blonde” on KEXP.

With a new album and new tour, North Carolina’s Superchunk are back at it.  I Hate Music will be released through the indie punk / rock band’s longtime label Merge Records on August 20th and they will support the release with U.S. tour that runs through Philadelphia on September 24th.  According to Merge, I Hate Music is the yin to its 2010 predecessor Majesty Shredding‘s yang, though the overall message of the new album is love:

I Hate Music is an album about love more than anything else: love of life, love of living, love of people, and yeah, love of music. It defies its own title so completely and diligently that it never even seems like a fair fight: There’s no pain this deep or yearning this severe without the type of love earned over a lifetime…. It’s dark in here, but if we conjure the right words and sounds, maybe we’ll find our way out.

Tickets go on sale Friday, May 17th.  Information for the all-ages show at Union Transfer can be found here.  Below, watch an album trailer and check out the track listing.

I Hate Music track listing:
01. Overflows
02. Me & You & Jackie Mittoo
03. Void
04. Staying Home
05. Low F
06. Trees of Barcelona
07. Breaking Down
08. Out of the Sun
09. Your Theme
10. FOH
11. What Can We Do

It’s a transitional time for Brooklyn’s Woods, as the indie rock band prepares to move out of their recording studio and home Rear House and welcomes a new drummer to the fold.  On the heels of last year’s Bend Beyond LP, the quartet will mark the new chapter with the release of a new 7″ in July that will include a cover of The Kinks’ “God’s Children” on the b-side.  The track was written by Ray Davies and originally recorded in 1971 for the soundtrack to Percy.  Woods’ version re-examines the song through a Simon & Garfunkel-like sonic lens, highlighting the socially conscious lyrics and retaining its vintage aura and atmosphere.  Woods will play a free show at Morgan’s Pier with Parquet Courts on July 24th; more information can be found here.  Stream “God’s Children” below.

Continuing to tour in support of her latest Sugaring Season LP, Beth Orton returns to Philadelphia for a show at World Cafe Live on August 6th.  The British folk songstress returned to the studio after a six year break following the release of Comfort of Strangers to record Sugaring Season, working with Tucker Martine and collaborating with M. Ward and Tom Rowlands (Chemical Brothers).  Tickets and information for the all-ages show can be found here.  Watch Orton’s Tiny Desk Concert for NPR Music below and listen back to her November 2012 appearance on World Cafe here.

Retro rockers Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside have announced a summer tour that swings them through MilkBoy on July 17th.  Continuing to travel in support of its latest LP Untamed Beast, the Portland band was recently in town supporting Thao & The Get Down Stay Down and will perform a set at Non-COMM later this week.  The Sound Outside walks the line between bluesy rock and old-school country, with Ford’s vocals having been compared to Ella Fitzgerald and influences ranging from Tom Waits to Cat Power.  Tickets and information for the 21+ show will be available here.  Below, watch a video for “Party Kids.”

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez will bring his current project back to Philadelphia on July 13th for a show at Underground Arts.  Bosnian Rainbows appeared after the Texas-based musician announced the disbandment of his former band The Mars Volta, though Volta drummer Deantoni Parks stuck with Rodriguez-Lopez the new venture alongside Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes and Nicci Kasper.  The experimental / alt-rock group will release its debut self-titled album through Sargent House in June, following two singles that were released earlier this year.  Tickets and information for the show will be available on the XPN Concert Calendar.  Stream “Torn Maps” and “Turtle Neck” below and check out photo’s from Bosnian Rainbows’ February appearance at the First Unitarian Church here.