Local singer-songwriter Lucy Stone performs at PhilaMOCA tonight. The Drexel University student has had busy year, recording and touring with Rusted Root last fall, working on her own new full-length currently and accepting accolades like The Deli’s Artist of the Month last year and and an Independent Music Awards nomination for her Would You? EP earlier this year. Tickets and information for tonight’s show with Cruiser and Former Belle can be found here. Below, watch an acoustic performance of “Out of Time.”
Matt Marchinowski of Big School Records is moving out of Philadelphia. To celebrate his time here, Marchinowski has pieced together a snapshot of the local music scene with a 27-track mixtape called Philamixington II, available as a free download via his Tumblr. The second installment in the local music mixtape series, this collection samples various genres, circles and side projects with tracks from radio favorites like Cheers Elephant (pictured), basement staples Roof Doctor and The Hundred Acre Woods and new-projects-from-old-buddies like Avery Rosewater. From Marchinowski:
Although April will see my moving out of Philadelphia for the peaceful confines of the sticks I will still consider its scene ‘home’. It wasn’t easy narrowing this collection down to 27 jawns but I can assure you it won’t be the last notch in the Philamixington series.
Download the full mixtape for free on Beat the Indie Drum here and stream a sampling of the tracks below. The first Philamixington set can be downloaded here.
Saturday night brought an electro-pop triple header to a sold-out Kung Fu Necktie with headliners Work Drugs joined by buzzing funk foursome Night Panther and openers Cruiser. Check out scenes from the show in the photo gallery above.
XPN welcomes prolific Philly smooth-fi outfit Work Drugs to Kung Fu Necktie tonight. Operating behind a mission to create make “music specifically for dancing, boating, yachting, sexting and living,” Work Drugs have a steady streak of releasing one song each month since December of 2011 in addition to 2012′s full-length Absolute Bearing and the retrospective / rarities vinyl Delta (released last November). Tonight’s event with Night Panther, Cruiser and DJ Young Mariah Carey kicks off a spring tour for Work Drugs, their first since 2011. Tickets and information for the 21+ show can be found here. Below, watch the video for “Delta.”
This month heralds either PhilaMOCA‘s final Tuesday Tune-Out of the winter or the first of the spring, and the lineup that local writer Nikki Volpicelli pulled together has a similar season-melding element to it.
You’ve seen Nikki’s byline here on The Key somewhat regularly; she also an editor for JUMP Philly, and runs her own music blog, Philadelphia Area Music Showcase, which is curating this month at the ‘MOCA. I’m pleased to welcome Nikki to this space (as an interviewee, rather than an interviewer) to tell us what’s in store. All events are at PhilaMOCA (531 N. 12th Street), start at 7:30pm and are $5.
From Nikki:
Coming into the whole Tuesday Tune-Out, I had two goals. One, I wanted to make sure I highlighted bands that weren’t playing out as much, but should – bands that people should know about and be able to hear. And two, I wanted to make sure every single night was compact. If you’re going, you’re going because you like this specific sound, and you’re not going to be let down by either of these bands. Continue reading →
The aftermath of a snowstorm wasn’t enough to kill the summer vibe at the first Nude Beach party Saturday night at Underground Arts. These new monthly “chill parties” were started by Philly-based band Vacationer, whose dreamy brand of electro pop made it perfectly acceptable for a few concertgoers to wear Hawaiian-style shirts and flowered leis in the middle of February.
Free Sailor Jerry rum drinks flowed and a makeshift volleyball court did not go unused before fellow warm-weather-inspired Philly band Cruiser opened the party. After their smooth set, out-of-town DJ Robert DeLong pumped up the crowd with energetic beats and a set that showcased his multi-instrumental talents, blending live drums and keys into his electronic tracks. These openers one can assume were hand-picked by Vacationer fulfilled the band’s desire for these monthly parties to showcase both Philly local and emerging EDM artists.
Vacationer has always kept their hometown audience in mind, and the Nude Beach show proved a proper homecoming for the band and frontman Kenny Vasoli after touring extensively with Niki and the Dove since the New Year. Playing through favorites off their debut album Gone, Vasoli also gave hints about the band’s new music, promising more shoegaze on their next record.
Beach balls released a near the end of Vacationer’s set quickly became coated with the mixture of dirt and water tracked into the venue from the still snowy ground outside, and served as a reminder that it was in fact February, not July. But for a band that prides itself on making music that affords listeners an instant vacation from their everyday woes, the monthly Nude Beach parties should serve as a great way for Philly music lovers to take this trip together.
Titus Andronicus off-shoot Hilly Eye play the First Unitarian Church Side Chapel tonight with Attia Taylor. Hilly Eye, the new Brooklyn-based duo project of drummer / vocalist Catherine Tung and guitarist / vocalist Amy Klein, have made fast moves in their short time as a band. They released their first EP in 2010, followed by a 7″ on Don Giovanni last year and this year’s subsequent full-length Reasons to Live. Pulling from the avant-noise tapestry of Lightning Bolt, Sonic Youth and the 90s “riot grrl” movement, Hilly Eye focus on transcendence both in their message and their sound with breathy vocals set against a backdrop of angular, heavy arrangements. Tonight they play with Philly-to-Brooklyn transplant Attia Taylor, who just shared a few cuts from her upcoming album Luxurious Corners. Tickets and information for the all-ages show can be found here. Below, watch Hilly Eye perform “Amnesia” at 285 Kent in Brooklyn.
XPN welcomes prolific Philly smooth-fi outfit 
This month heralds either 
Titus Andronicus off-shoot