Local saloon-style rock band Low Cut Connie found themselves at the center of attention in a Chicago bowling alley a few weeks ago after getting a call from President Obama’s media staff.  Fans of Low Cut Connie, campaign staffers Mia Sorensen and Christopher Markos offered to film the band performing a couple of live, pop-up songs at Diversey Rock N’ Bowl near Logan Square.  “Boozophilia” (which charted at #31 in Rolling Stone’s top 50 songs of 2012) takes place in the crowded North Side alley while the boys serenaded a line of traffic in the parking lot for “Cat n’ Cream.”  You can catch Low Cut Connie at a pair of non-pop-up shows this summer, first at Appel Farm on June 1st and then at Underground Arts on August 3rd.  Tickets and information for both shows can be found here.  Watch the Chicago videos below.

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.”

Boston bluegrass five-piece Della Mae got Non-COMM attendees warmed up for three days of music with a lively set during the convention’s opening cocktail hour on Wednesday. Their new album, The World Oft Can Be, is out next Tuesday on Rounder Records. Check out photos from their set in the gallery above. For more of Joe Del Tufo’s Non-COMM photos, go here.

Gospel-rock legend Mavis Staples played a powerful set accompanied only by a guitarist for the downstairs Non-COMM crowd at World Cafe Live. Her performance touched on Staples Singers staples such as “The Weight” and “I’ll Take You There” along with selections from her new Jeff Tweedy-produced LP One True Vine. Check out photos from the performance and see the setlist below.

Setlist
I Like The Things About Me
Celestial Shore
The Weight
You Are Not Alone
Do it Again
One True Vine
I’ll Take You There

Photo by Joe Del Tufo | JoeDelTufo.com

Pete Yorn and J.D. King developed their new project The Olms out of a shared love of 60s psych pop (The Byrds, The Beatles) and extended periods of studio collaboration, and brought the live band that resulted to the Non-COMM stage on Saturday. Their self-titled album is out on June 4th; listen to their set in its entirety here (via the WXPN media player).

Photo by Joe Del Tufo | JoeDelTufo.com

Setlist
Whiskey Before Breakfast
Fall Alone
6’2
How Long Lonely Is
Such A Shame
You’re Not Alone

Photo by Joe Del Tufo | JoeDelTufo.com

High-energy Nashville outfit Kopecky Family Band showed just a little bit of the arty, celebratory vibe they’ll bring to this summer’s XPoNential Music Festival when they played Non-COMM on Saturday. The feisty and fun troupe reissued their LP Kids Raising Kids last Tuesday on ATO Records; check out their setlist below and listen to the performance in its entirety here (via the WXPN media player).

Setlist
The Glow
My Way
Are You Listening
Change
HOpe
Heartbeat
Angry Eyes

Photo by Joe Del Tufo | JoeDelTufo.com

Philly pop-rock five-piece Free Energy took the stage at maybe not the most opportune moment during Non-COMM. The Lone Bellow had just wrapped up a tremendous set upstairs, and much of the industry crowd was still smoozing with that band; others had skipped the festival entirely to catch their flight home. So to put it politely, there was plenty of room to dance in World Cafe Live’s downstairs when they opened their set with “Electric Fever.” But true to the slogan on his t-shirt, attitude was everything to frontman Paul Sprangers, and he rocked the crowd of about 75 like it was an arena of 7,500. The band’s trademark boisterous performance raged out into the hall and up the stairs, beckoning Non-COMMers inside. And as the band played on, the room filled up nicely. Listen to the audio from the set here (via the WXPN media player).

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.

Photo by Joe Del Tufo | JoeDelTufo.com

Exciting experimental British singer and songwriter Laura Mvula graced the World Cafe Live stage and delivered a haunting performance on Saturday night of Non-COMM. Her LP Sing to the Moon was released in March, and you can listen to her set in its entirety here (via the WXPN media player).

Photo by Joe Del Tufo | JoeDelTufo.com

Awash in moving acoustic arrangements and stunning harmonies, The Lone Bellow captivated the crowd at the 2013 Non-COMMvention. They sang selections from their self-released self-titled debut and packed what appeared to be the entire attendance of Non-COMM into World Cafe Live’s upstairs stage, raising the room’s collective temperature to a fever pitch. Listen to the band’s set in its entirety here (via the WXPN media player).

Photo by Joe Del Tufo | JoeDelTufo.com

Without a doubt the loudest band to take the upstairs cafe stage in all of Non-COMM, Nashville rock barn-burners Wild Features played a raucous set of Americana-infused rock, something between the Allmans and Led Zeppelin. Their self-titled debut LP comes out in August. Check out their setlist from Non-COMM below, and listen to their performance in its entirety here (via the WXPN media player).

Setlist
Hardwind
Backwoods Company
Got it Wrong
Left My Woman
The nCeiling

Photo from BBC Radio 6

Tomorrow brings the official release of the album the internet has been eagerly anticipating since a 16-second ad aired without fanfare during a March episode of SNL. Random Access Memories, the latest from French discotronic duo Daft Punk, has been streaming on iTunes since last Wednesday, and its lead single – the pop earworm “Get Lucky,” sung by the ever-charismatic Pharrell – has been bumping the XPN airwaves since last month.

But what about the album beyond that? There’s a lot of hype and excitement in the air for it, but hype doesn’t always equate to quality. Sure, the duo of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter released the trend-setting 1997 album Homework and the irresistible Discovery in 2001. And yeah, James Murphy name-checked them in that song title that one time. But less discussed is the uneven 2005 effort Human After All, or the Tron soundtrack.

Does Random Access Memories hold up? Is it a new chapter in dance music and a return to glory for these mysteriously helmet-clad techno-heads? Or is it a bunch of bluster that will breeze away with the next album-of-the-minute? We asked a handful of Philly’s own electronic music heads – from Chris Powell of Spaceship Aloha and Man Man to DJ Apt One- for their thoughts on Random Access Memories, and got a variety of responses. Check them out below.

Les Professionnels

Drew Kramer, Les Professionnels: So we sat around and listened to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories like 4 times while drinking two pots of coffee.We couldn’t agree on anything except for the fact that the coffee was amazing but here’s our gut reactions…
Dan: “It’s pretty amazing and then there is Pharrell.”
Drew: “This is a great live album from a group who has already mastered sampling.”
Chris: “I think I heard this track at the end of a Dawson’s Creek episode or when I was casually browsing Boscovs.”
Allthough this is not the album we we were expecting, we are excited and curious to see how it will be received by the masses and what effect, if any, it will have on the current state of electronic music.

Chris Powell performs with Man Man | Photo by Laura Jane Brubaker

Chris Powell, Spaceship Aloha / Man Man: “Doin’ It Right” is a rad track and the only other memorable one for me along with the single “Get Lucky.” “Doin’ It Right” has been on repeat here all night.
The rest? Hmmmmmm…..
WAY too much noodling throughout. Drum solo? No thanks. Yikes!
Not feeling the acoustic drum sounds on it at all. Some of the other synths and production stuff sound great though!
The Steely Dan-sounding track was a nice surprise.
I really appreciate what they’re going for though I think it could have been presented less as a Daft Punk record and more of a ‘Daft Punk presents’ or some ish.
Maybe it’s just all the hype around it that put an uneasy pressure on it totally delivering.
I like the band’s previous records a lot. This one just didn’t sit right overall for me on first listen.
Oh well! Hoping that the new Arrested Development season makes it all better!

Thomas Crystal of Work Drugs

Thomas Crystal, Work Drugs: We can definitely hear some of the AM Gold tendencies on the record – what with the Paul Williams cut – “Touch”, and “The Game of Love.” Giorgio did what he does best, and I’m happy to see that it wasn’t too much of a departure from his classic songwriting and production work. All of the Nile Rodgers tracks are great – and its so cool that Daft Punk unabashedly went after their influences. The fact is, these guys are the current tastemakers, and they are tapping a lot of old hats as an homage/ tribute or whatever you want to call it, I’m all for it. If there is a chance that groove-based music can slip back into the mainstream, I’m all for it. If anybody can do it, its gotta be Daft Punk.

City Rain

DJ Dave P: I’m not very into it. Especially with all the hype and excessive promo around it. Also…they couldn’t be more wrong in their opinions of dance music and electronic music at the moment. I like the Panda Bear track though.

Ben Runyan, City Rain: A complete snoozefest bordering on easy-listening lets up with a gem of a Daft Punk tune in “Doin’ It Right.” This album feels more like an ambient B-Side album ala Moby than a full throttle effort from the French. They are surviving on legend alone.

DJ Apt One: I am pretty sympathetic to the philosophy behind this album – the idea of bringing craftsmanship back to dance music in the digital age.  I have been trying to work instrumentation back into digitally produced music for a few years now.  I think it’s good that they are using their pulpit to express their ideas about music and it’s a relief that they didn’t try to deliver Discovery 2.0, which is what most people wanted. However, I’m not sure this record doesn’t come off as self-indulgent or simply contrary. Time is going to dictate that.

DJ Apt One

Obviously, a guy like me who will put on Gregg Diamond Bionic Boogie (look it up) in his spare time is not going to complain when somebody makes a jazz-disco-funk record that will get radio play in 2013.  I think there are some really good tunes on there (“Lose Yourself to Dance”, “Instant Crush”), but there are also some really schmaltzy tunes on there that really show their French-ness (jangly disco cabaret anybody?).  Also, the production sensibility is kind of boring – lots of plodding drums and uninspired instrumentation.
I honestly think that these guys got a bit out of their depth by trying to produce a fully instrumental record – you can hear what this could have been on the tracks with Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder – when there is a really seasoned old-school producer/composer and some ridiculous musicians in the room this thing really works.  When you’re listening to five minutes of AM Gold with no drum fills, it’s shaky – half of the value in that school of music was the virtuosity of the musicians, and these guys don’t have the chops.

Bonus Material: when that sixteen-second snipped aired back in March, Apt One got super hype and tried to imagine / predict what the finished song would sound like. Listen to his crystal ball take on “Get Lucky” below.

Wild Belle’s Natalie Bergman; photo by Joe del Tufo | http://www.joedeltufo.com/

More videos of performances from WXPN’s Non-COMMvention are rolling in. You can watch videos from Phoenix and Steve Martin and Edie Brickell here. Below, watch Wild Belle and David Wax Museum at the Non-COMM via The Top 22.

Listen to the full audio archive of Wild Belle’s Non-COMM set here.

Listen to the full audio archive of David Wax Museum’s Non-COMM set here.

Purchase Shruggy Ji here.

Photo by Mathiew Zazzo

Singer, actress and model Lou Doillon is the half-sister of Charlotte Gainsbourg; her father being director Jacques Doillon and her mother actress and singer Jane Birkin. Doillon will release her debut album, Places, on June 18 on Verve Records. Doillon’s album showcases her frank, honest and warm voice. The songs on her debut are stunning and striking, and recall the work of Karen Ann and Cat Power. Below, download “ICU,” and watch the video for another song on the album, “Devil or Angel.”

Lou Doillon “Devil or Angel” from Verve Music Group on Vimeo.

If you haven’t been listening to Milwaukee’s Field Report by now, here’s your chance to make it up with no hard feelings from me (but do it quick). There are only a handful of musicians and bands that I nebulously define as having “that Folkadelphia sound,” meaning that our radio show was created to support and share music exactly like this, like Field Report is making. These “Folkadelphia sounding” bands bridge the gaps not only between various folk music traditions, past and present, but also between other genres, technologies, and artistic disciplines. The end result is an inventive amalagamation of ideas that push at the boundaries of what we think of as being a songwriter and being a folk musician.

I first met Christopher Porterfield, Field Report’s singer and writer, about two years ago when his previous musical outfit, Conrad Plymouth, was visiting Philadelphia. Even in their stripped down band configuration and playing a different repertoire of songs, it was apparent that Porterfield was on a path to becoming a singular songwriter. In Field Report’s debut eponymous album, intricate and striking narratives, full of rich characterization, literary allusions, and philosophical musings are balanced by a fairly hook-laden approach to keep the listeners’ attention without getting too heavy-handed. Painted over with a nostalgic brush, Porterfield’s singing and the band’s music hit all of the right emotional points- seething loneliness, uncertain introspection, all which often builds to an impassioned head. Listening to the band, you get the sense that you’re living through Porterfield and his characters’ memories, faded at the edges by the passage of time, imbued with imagination’s coloring. Porterfield tells the stories as he remembers them, not how they really happened.

Since our session with Porterfield’s previous band, we have seen the advent of Field Report, the release of their debut record, and a handful of stops in the city for live shows (including last year’s XPoNential Music Festival). Here for our latest Folkadelphia Session, we welcomed Field Report, who were playing as a trio (with Ben Lester on steel guitar, Shane Leonard on drums, banjo, and vocals, and Porterfield) to the XPN Performance Studio before their concert on March 29th at the Tin Angel with Sara Watkins (who will be featured as our next week’s Folkadelphia Session). The session consists of two tracks from the band’s debut and two new tracks – a taste of what’s to come from them.

Photo by Abi Reimold

Recent Philly transplants Literature previewed four new tracks in this week’s Key Studio Session. With a sound made for indie dance club nights, Literature are a surf-y, high energy bunch of polished musicians with well-coiffed songs. Stream and download “Court Date” below and check out the full session here.

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

In anticipation of their upcoming Children of Summer LP, local pop group Market East shared a new song called “Evergreen” this week.  Market East will celebrate the album’s release at MilkBoy on June 8th with a great support line-up including Joey Sweeney and the Long Hair Arkestra, Night Panther, Mohican and Former Belle.  Tickets and information can be found here.

Folkadelphia rolled out two new sessions this week: last Sunday featured Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers‘ delightful rootsy pop while Thursday highlighted the new release from Morning River Band called To Suzie.  Listen to a pair of tracks from the sessions below and get the full sessions here.

Local psych pop / shoegaze outfit Weekender is the latest incarnation of The Tweeds, with brothers Derek and Nic Sheehan rejoining drummer Tom Anthony and calling in bassist Emily Cahill for their new Spanish Peaks EP.  They’ll be opening for breaking UK band PEACE at Johnny Brenda’s on  June 10th.  Get a name-you-own-price download of the EP on Weekender’s Bandcamp.

Folk / bluegrass band Trampled By Turtles teamed up with Noisetrade for a free sampler that includes songs from their recent Stars and Satellites release.  The Minnesota group will be in town for the XPoNential Music Festival on July 26-28 at Wiggins Park in Camden, NJ.  Tickets and information can be found here.  Get the free sampler below in exchange for your email address.

Setlist
Shivers
Devil
Lip Boy
Do Me Right
Rockability
They Told Me
Addicted
Party Kids

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.

Setlist
The Rumors are True
Vivian, Won’t You Take Me In?
Yes, Maria, Yes
Will You Be Sleeping?
A Dog In This Fight
The Persimmon Tree
Born With A Broken Heart
Harder Before It Gets Easier

Setlist
Inheritance
Quill
Castles
Switzerland
Take all the Time
Dark Aml
Distance

Tom Jones live from WXPN’s Non COMMvention at World Cafe Live from WXPN FM on Vimeo.

Setlist
Tower of Song – originally by Leonard Cohen
(I Want To) Come Home – originally by Paul McCartney
Hit Or Miss – originally by Odetta
Dimming of the Day – originally by Richard Thompson
Soul of a Man – originally by Blind Willie Johnson
Burning Hell – originally by John Lee Hooker
Just Dropped In – originally by Mickey Newbury
If I Give My Soul – originally by Billy Joe Shaver
Traveling Shoes – originally by Ethan Johns
Run On – traditional, inspired by Elvis Presley
Didn’t It Rain – traditional, inspired by Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Setlist
It’s Too Late
Love Like This
Happy Home
Another Girl
Keep You