The latest edition of our Key Studio Sessions compilations is out today – now streamable and downloadable from Soundcloud!  Check out this year’s in-studio appearances with The Key Studio Sessions Vol. 7, including the down-tempo folk stylings of Waxahatchee, the thrashing punk of Pissed Jeans and the all-out rock jams of Ruby the Hatchet.  Thanks to production assistants Fred Knittel, Madeleine Lesperance, and Dan Malloy as well as photographers Rachel Del Sordo and Kate McCann, and videographers The Angry Mountain, HotBox Studios and Out of Town Films for sharing their work.

The video was a lot of fun for us. Granted, we try to not take ourselves too seriously, and I think we managed to uphold that standard while still doing the song justice. Pat and his fiancé actually own the house together, so it made recreating his morning routine all the more fun, and for the most part, pretty accurate.

Keep your eyes peeled for an Everyone Everywhere Cup O’ Joe in the video, which you can watch below, and catch By Surprise in concert next Friday, March 8th, when they play Girard Hall with Nicknames, Sparrows, Secret Plot to Destroy the Universe and Pocket.

Photo by Josh Anderson

Nashville singer-songwriter Caitlin Rose‘s new single “I Was Cruel” is a sweetly presented confessional song with a swinging groove thanks to some twangy steel guitar lines and a reflective coda.  Rose will release her sophomore record The Stand-In on March 5th through ATO Records and plays MilkBoy Philly on Wednesday, April 3rd; tickets and information for the 21+ show can be found here.

Philly’s Everyone Everywhere stopped in for this week’s Key Studio Session, recording five songs from their latest self-titled full-length.  Though the album was released last summer, the charming emo quartet just celebrated the record last night with a hometown show at The Barbary.  Stream and download “Queen Mary II” below and go here for the full session.

• Queen Mary IIby Everyone Everywhere, from The Key Studio SessionsDownload

This week on World Cafe, host David Dye delved into the musical history of Memphis for his Sense of Place travel series.  Between tours of Memphis’ historic recording studios and excursions to the city’s most famous landmarks, Dye sat down with some of the country’s top musicians to record World Cafe episodes.  Included in those sessions is blues musician Rev. John Wilkins, who recorded a version of his father’s “Prodigal Son” for the Cafe – stream and download it below, then listen back to the full World Cafe session here.

Local rock and roll band Arctic Splash were the featured band for Monday’s My Morning Download.  The Joey Sweeney-fronted outfit recorded a Key Studio Session last month and their track “When You Say My Name” is included on the latest Key Studio Sessions, Volume 6 compilation alongside contributions from Bad Braids, Aspiga and Nothing.  Download the full collection here.  Arctic Splash will open for Creem Circus at Kung Fu Necktie on Saturday, February 16th; tickets and information for the 21+ show can be found here.

Everyone Everywhere have returned home for an album release show at The Barbary tonight.  Their eponymous record came out last summer but the Philly emo outfit promptly hit the road for Europe.  The new effort sees the four-piece shifting its gaze from the small-time concerns of 2010′s (also) self-titled debut to the larger-than-life philosophical queries of tracks like “Wild Life’ and “Big Hat” on 2012′s.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show with Glocca Morra, Slingshot Dakota and Band Name can be found here.  Below, watch Everyone Everywhere’s video for “Queen Mary II” and revisit their Key Studio Session from this week here.

Mississippi’s The Weeks will play MilkBoy Philly tonight.  Led by twin brothers Cyle and Cain Barnes, The Weeks sing autobiographical songs about life in the Delta against a backdrop of influences ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Wilco to At the Drive In.  2012′s Gutter Gaunt Gangster EP has a refreshingly punk take on Southern rock, a blend of genres not unusual for the band – since their formation in 2006, The Weeks skittered the lines of folk before settling in with the Nashville punk scene.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show with Shark Tape and Junior Astronomers can be found here.  Below, watch The Week’s video for “The House We Grew Up In.”

Roots rocker JD Malone performs at Burlap and Bean tonight.  The Vermont native relocated to Phoenixville and became active in the Philadelphia music scene, recording with producer and musician Pete Donnelly and winning a Philadelphia Songwriters Association contest.  Most recently, Malone and his band The Experts released 2011′s Avalon, engineered by famed Butcher Bros. producer Phil Nicolo. Tickets and information for tonight’s show with Leo DiSanto can be found here.  Watch JD Malone perform “For You and I” below.

XPN welcomes Lee Fields & The Expressions to World Cafe Live tonight.  The soul phenomenon got his start just over 40 years ago with his debut in 1969 and hasn’t let up since.  Fields released a new record in 2012, Faithless Man, on Brooklyn’s Truth & Soul Records and continues to inspire a new generation of R&B artists with his James Brown-esque funk and suave stage presence.  Tickets and information for tonight’s show with DJ Shawn Ryan can be found here.  Watch a video of Fields performing “Faithful Man” for Yours Truly below.

This week we pit young guns Everyone Everywhere and their merry bunch of hooligans, who play at The Barbary tomorrow, against old emo fogies Matt Pryor (of The Get Up Kids and The New Amsterdams) and James Dewees (formerly of The Get Up Kids and Reggie And The Full Effect), who play North Star Bar. Who will reign supreme? Read and find out.

Crowd:

Everyone Everywhere: If you have seen Everyone Everywhere multiple times, you will probably know most of the people at the show, but if you have never gone to an Everyone Everywhere show, then you will not know anyone, but it will seem like everyone else knows each other. The bands playing are all friends, and probably a bunch of local band friends will be at this show bopping away in the crowd. This will have a familial feel to it, so if you hate your family, you may want to stay home. The All Ages show will ensure a plethora of hoodlums and whippersnappers, so wear your wallet in your front pocket. Expect moshing, whether you like it or not.

Matt Pryor and James Dewees: An elder generation of emo will come to this show to drink and be bitter. This is for the guys and girls who cringe when The Starting Line and Braid are mentioned together. My guess? I can imagine a lot of cool dads with full sleeves will be at this show. The bill is quietly stacked, so people who like to get a lot of bang for their buck are likely to appreciate this one. Also, people who enjoyed THIS album will also enjoy this show. This is all going down at a bar, so NO kids allowed, duh. Also, expect to see at least one Promise Ring shirt.

Verdict: The Everyone Everywhere show is just reeking of Birch Beer keg stands and kick flips. We choose this.

Will They Be Back Soon?

Everyone Everywhere: Well, they live in Philadelphia, so you would think their likelihood of playing nearby would be fairly high, but don’t be fooled, these cats keep their shows few and far between, except when they are in Europe. This show becomes more rare in that it is their record release show for their radical new, self-titled LP. Given the occasion, they will be selling the second pressing of their record in a name-your-price fashion, which they get bonus points for. More bonus points for their EE branded mugs, being sold exclusively at this show. The line-up is pretty similar to most of their shows, but their unparalleled enthusiasm for the merch makes this a pretty solid show.

Matt Pryor and James Dewees: All of these cats are music lifers. Matt Pryor has been playing in bands non-stop since the early 90’s, with James Dewees not far behind. Evan Weiss, the relative newcomer of the group, has possibly been in as many bands as the first two combined. So yeah, they will probably be back soon, and maybe with full bands in tow. I am not sure if they get bonus points for doing this intimate ‘stripped down’ show, or if they lose points for leaving the bands at home.

Verdict: Records are expensive to make! Everyone Everywhere is giving them away for free-ish! Who knows how long it will take them to make another one? If the Matt Pryor-James Dewees show was electric it would be no question, but it’s not.

Band Cred:

Everyone Everywhere: This band has solid local clout, especially within the circuit of houses/venues/associated bands they play with. This young crew, I don’t want to assume, but may or may not have listened to any or all of the bands who are playing on the opposing bill tonight. They gain cred for putting out one of the better rock albums of last year, and they went to Europe!

Matt Pryor: This show is a Cred-a-palooza. Pryor and Dewees were responsible for one of the most influential second-wave emo acts to date, and years ago sealed their scene immortality. Pryor has over 15 LPs to date, between The Get Up Kids, The New Amsterdams, and…wait for it…his Kids Rock band The Terrible Twos. James Dewees played keys for New Found Glory and My Chemical Romance, and I think I saw Reggie and the Full Effect open for Fenix TX or something when I was in High School.

Verdict: Definitely Matt Pryor and Co. But he is a dad, and Everyone Everywhere are still in school.

We think that's Dewees in a tub of Peanut M&M's but we're not getting close enough to tell

Openers

Everyone Everywhere: A bunch of local friends with similar DIY ideals. Slingshot Dakota are fun with a capital F. They are like Mates Of State if they never sold out and had a kid. Glocca Mora is a powerful punk trio with earnest, gruff vocals and rollicking guitar work. Band Name are a surfy punk band who also have lots of fun.

Matt Pryor: This show is kind of a double headliner, but I am going to called James Dewees an opener, because he will most definitely play before Matt Pryor. If you have ever heard a Reggie and the Full Effect song, you may wonder what an unplugged version of those songs sound like. He probably has a bunch of stuff up his sleeve. Legitimately opening the show is Evan Weiss from Into It, Over It. Just last week he was on stage at Union Transfer with his old band Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start. Besides that band, he was also in the highly influential but grossly understated band The Progress. Full disclosure: this band rocks. Into It, Over It, luckily picked up where The Progress left off, and playing shows on acoustic is what Evan almost always does, since the project is all him, all the time.

Verdict: Evan is great, but he can’t win this alone, were are going with a TIE.

Winner: We are going with our local homeboys Everyone Everywhere, but given that it is an All Ages show, maybe you can go to both?

Birdie Busch‘s latest LP, Birdie Busch and The Greatest Night, gets profiled in Unlocked [link]

World Cafe‘s Sense of Place series explores the musical heritage of Memphis [link]

Philly synth-poppers Vacationer announce a monthly music showcase at Underground Arts [link]

Gracie releases a free download and EP details [link]

Emo four-piece Everyone Everywhere records a Key Studio Session [link]

My Morning Jacket’s Jim James announces a solo appearance at Johnny Brenda’s [link]

Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic gives Bleeding Rainbow a shoutout via Twitter [link]

Catnaps premier a playful new music video for “Cherry Lips” [link]

Shorty Boy-Boy also premiers a video for the ultra-catchy “Closer” [link]

Download a song from Kurt Vile‘s reissued Hunchback EP [link]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds release a lyric video for “Jubilee Street” [link]

Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jason Myles Gross appears in a Folkadelphia session [link]

Philly emo four-piece Everyone Everywhere might move at their own pace – touring Europe when their new record came out, then waiting nearly six months to play a hometown album release show – but that’s okay.  These dudes are strong enough players and stirring enough songwriters that I’m totally along for the ride. Whether you’re listening to their album, watching their creative music videos, or digging into their performance in this week’s Key Studio Session, you can tell they’re doing it because they love it, and don’t want to ruin that enjoyment with careerist distractions. “Let’s rip, guys!” Brendan McHugh cheerfully urged as their performance started off. You can hear that he means it – you can tell that the three guys playing with him aren’t just bandmates, but also friends. Stream and download their session below, and catch them in concert this weekend when they play an all-ages show at The Barbary with Band Name, Glocca Morra and Slingshot Dakota.

• I Feel Exhaustedby Everyone Everywhere, from The Key Studio SessionsDownload

• Queen Mary IIby Everyone Everywhere, from The Key Studio SessionsDownload

• $1,000,000,000by Everyone Everywhere, from The Key Studio SessionsDownload

• Big Hatby Everyone Everywhere, from The Key Studio SessionsDownload

• No Furnitureby Everyone Everywhere, from The Key Studio SessionsDownload

• Deep Pocketby Glocca Morra from The Key Studio Sessions, Jan. 2, 2013Download

• Why Am I Not Going Under Walterby Glocca Morra from The Key Studio Sessions, Jan. 2, 2013Download

• The Voidby Glocca Morra from The Key Studio Sessions, Jan. 2, 2013Download

• Kasper Hauser Liedby Glocca Morra from The Key Studio Sessions, Jan. 2, 2013Download

• For Lauren Leeby Glocca Morra from The Key Studio Sessions, Jan. 2, 2013Download

Hideaway Music in Chestnut Hill uses album art as wall art

We can all agree (I hope) that the old “can’t judge a book by its cover” adage applies just as easily to albums. From Magical Mystery Tour to Rumours, The Talking Heads to The Smashing Pumpkins, and even this year’s standout Cat Power LP Sun, there’s a rich history of great music hiding behind heinous artwork. So does album art matter?

I think no and yes. “No” in that it’s about the music, not the packaging. In a world of digital listening, we interact with the songs themselves more immediately than ever before – there’s not that barrier of a bizarro / ugly sleeve to “get over,” in the event you find the sleeve bizarro and / or ugly. But also, “yes” in that cover art is still a way an musician represents themselves and their work. It may no longer be a first impression, but it is an impression, and you can almost look at it as an indicator of how much care they put into their overall project. And even on a more practical end, sure, physical releases no longer drive sales, but they are prized by collectors – the 180 gram vinyl editions and so forth are the sort of thing where people use the download card, then frame the LP cover and hang it on their wall. Would you really want to have Grimes’ frantic scribbled acid freakout hanging in your living room? (Okay, maybe you do.)

This week, UK music and culture blog The 405 listed their worst and best album covers of the year – lively reads, always – and it got me thinking about the role album art plays in 2012. Do you ignore it? Do you (like me) get antsy when your iTunes doesn’t have artwork for all its mp3s? What was the worst decade for album covers? (Hint: the 90s.) Which album covers blew you away this year? Which made you wretch? Discuss in the comments section, and check out some standout Philadelphia album covers from 2012 after the jump.

Cough Cool – Lately (Bathetic Records) – This album cover is just so Philly, from the vintage shot of our hometown team smack in the center to the fact that it’s surrounded by that very specific shade of Phillies red. I’m not even a sports person and I love this. And sure, it doesn’t have a lot to do with the scuzzy lo-fi rock contained within, but it doesn’t not have a lot to do with it – and it certainly draws me in.

Family Band – Grace and Lies (No Quarter Records) – On the other hand, this cover has everything to do with the music. There is a lot of mystery, mystique and uncertainty in the atmospheric tones and surreal lyrics of recent Philly transplants Family Band. Words written on eyelids, startled and brethlessly gazing outward, gets it about right.

The Wrecking Crew – Wu-Tang Pulp (Three Dollar Pistol) - Illustrated album covers tend to be more impressive than photograph-based ones. This release from The Wrecking Crew goes a step further – it’s not just some impressionistic painting, it’s remarkable comic book style renderings of Philly MCs Zilla Rocca, Has Lo and Curly Castro, who this year nerded out over their own personal Beatles, Wu-Tang Clan.

mewithoutYou – Ten Stories (self-released) - Long-standing Upper Darby post-rock outfit never disappoint with their album covers, which often feel more like they should be on a museum wall than in a plastic shrink-wrapped case. For Ten Stories, which loosely tells the story of an 1800s circus train crashed in the wilderness, we get a rich illustration of the scene to help us connect the dots of the album’s narrative.

Lushlife – Plateau Vision (Western Vinyl) – Like Family Band, I’m drawn to the mystery on this one. One could easily dismiss it as blurry-arty-black-and-white-photo, but it seems an apt fit for Raj Haldar’s stream-of-consciousness raps and his imaginative backing tracks. It’s clearly a stage we’re looking at, and on Haldar’s stage, just about everything can happen.

Aaron and the Spell – Sing (self-released) – Another impressive painting; here, Aaron Brown is rendered as a wandering serenader, a nomadic musician somewhere in between the world of the living and the dead. Or maybe it’s more just an illustration placing him on the grounds of his grandparents’ Florida church where he first was inspired to sing. In any case, it’s a lovely cover for a lovely record.

Everyone Everywhere – Everyone Everywhere (self-released) - Photograph of a photograph. But more important, an illustration of vicarious living. The woman in the lower left loves the majestic mountain peaks and tall pines, but is content to experience them through a poster on the wall. Like Cough Cool, not particularly tied to the music, but it does get you thinking.

Sun Airway – Soft Fall (Dead Oceans) - Something about this reminds me of a Pink Floyd LP jacket. Intricately art-directed and highly surreal, this work the band commissioned from the N-A-M photographic collective is an otherworldly image for otherworldly music.

Heyward Howkins – The Hale and the Hearty (self-released) - I’m not sure how many photographs were shredded and geometrically arranged to create this striking, sky-blue illustration for Heyward Howkins’ debut LP. But if we are to assume that a major function of the album cover is, like we said, to draw you into the music, this one brings you directly in to the center and through the sleeve into its brilliant new folk character sketches and metaphorical musings.

Hop Along – Get Disowned (Hot Green Records) - My favorite LP of the year on a number of levels, and its album art couldn’t be more appropriate. Get Disowned‘s songs are covered in layers of sound – instruments, voices, noisemakers – and its lyrics can be as uncertain: the character Frances Quinlan follows is at once tormented, confused, frustrated and haunted. You just don’t know what’s going on, even after dozens of listens, and the image of a dense foliage, a vortex of leaves we can’t see beyond, fits. But like Howkins above, this cover draws you in, to the center, through the sleeve and beyond.

Everyone Everywhere (2012) is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Queen Mary II” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review; watch the “Queen Mary II” video in Wednesday’s post, read my interview with the band from yesterday. And stay tuned to The Key for future album spotlights on Unlocked.

The Key: The record is out and it’s your first new music in a couple years. So it kind of
took me by surprise when the first piece of press you had from it is not necessarily about the
music per se, but about your business / marketing acumen, that piece in Forbes. Were you surprised when they approached you for that?

MATT SCOTTOLINE: Kind of. The journalist is a freelancer, and had written a review of our last record. And he just happened to now be employed by Forbes, so it kind of worked out.

BRENDAN MCHUGH: It wasn’t totally out of the blue, he knew our band.

BRENDAN GRAHAM: And the way we released the new album tied into his new gig.

TK: Do you feel like that article led to any kind of notice of Everyone Everywhere that may not have happened otherwise?

BM: Some. My uncle shared it with some of his friends where he wouldn’t normally, because it’s Forbes or something. It made them scratch their heads and think a little more about our band as an entity. I don’t know.

TK: In the eyes of some – family members, perhaps – it lent some legitimacy to Everyone Everywhere.

MS: It’s one of those things that looks really good on your resume.

BM: That said, it was a nice article.

TK: I didn’t realize until I read it the vinyl release was a pay-what-you-will, for the preorder anyway. Kinda ballsy. Were you worried “crap, we may not break even” at all?

MS: A little, but not really.

BG; We’ve been doing that for a year maybe, at shows. And we found that its roughly, they’ll give you what we would have charged anyway. Almost.

MS: With CDs. We’ve never done it with vinyl. With CDs it was kind of safe because they’re so cheap to manufacture. So we were like, whatever, we weren’t as concerned with them. We knew even if we sold them for $3, we’re going to break even at some point, just because of the way the money worked out. We sort of realized that fans try not to be jerks to you .

BG: The people who were going to buy it were going to buy it regardless. But this was kind of a promotional thing that maybe the people on the edge thought “well, if I can get it for $7 instead of $10, I’ll do it now.” So it helped us off the bat get the ball rolling.

MS: And also, it was a special segment of the preorders, it was just the first 100 that were pay-what-you-will. And if you think, who are the first 100 people who are going to know about this preorder? They’re probably big fans. So its not like those first 100 are random people who are like “oh, look at this band I can exploit.” It’s people who follow us, so we had some security.

BM: And since we’re self-releasing, 100% of the pressing is ours. So if we’re selling records for $10 apiece, the break even point is 400 records, and I feel like based on how our past records sold we should hit that point, and after that, everything else is whatever. I think we’d be more likely to leave money on the table by not offering some sort of promotion like that because we don’t really know . There’s a market price point for records, but every band is so different and their followings are so different that you don’t really know how people value your product, because its so fragmented.

MS: Its more important to us that we get rid of records than make money. [laughs]

TK: Moving on from the money end of it to the music end of it, to me, I feel like the album has this real sense of ‘what does it all mean’, more so than what I heard in your previous records. It feels a lot more questioning , a lot more thematically heavy. Am I right in reading it that way?

BM: I think that’s the case. When I wrote the last record, we were just finishing college, and now it’s a few years out and the landscape of our lives has changed. You have a clear direction in your life until you finish college, you know what your next step is along the way. And then you’re done college, and you don’t know what the hell you’re doing with your life. It’s just, I don’t know. It leads to a lot of opportunity for existential examination and introspection. And terror.

MS: I feel like over the last year or so, a majority of our conversations turn into harrowing philosophical, for the most part, we talk about these sort of intangible ideas a lot.

TK: It’s important to talk about, to verbalize!

MS: Yeah, and even though I didn’t even write the lyrics, I know what you picked up on is something I also feel. It’s generally a tone whether it’s spoken or unspoken.

BM: That said, it’s a concept album about a 12 year old boy in post World War II Germany, so you’re just…nah, I’m just kidding.

TK: The music video for “Queen Mary II”, which I freaking love, is probably not the first music video to mock the making of music videos. However, it is so anti-music-video that the song itself is barely featured.

MS: We talked about making a video for a long time, Brendan wrote the majority of the video. We’re just the kind of band that, I don’t know, I think if we made a serious music video it would be ridiculous. I don’t think anyone wants to see us make a serious music video.

BG: When we were talking about making a music video, the only rule we had was we can’t be playing the song in it.

MS: It’s the same reason we decided to sleep through the full album video. We’re just a very realistic band, we don’t have any delusions abut who we are or what we do. So when you see these bands making these serious music videos trying to get some point across, it’s like “why?”

BG: It works for some bands. If the band has a message, it can work for them.

TK: Although it can be heavy-handed. I’m thinking of the 30 Seconds To Mars video where they’re playing on a glacier and stopping global warming with the power of rock or whatever.

BM: Man, I want to do that. [laughs] But also, I like nonsensical stuff, and I like subverting expectations about stuff. I think my favorite music video is Pavement’s “Carrot Rope” video where they’re all inexplicably wearing rain jackets. It makes no sense and there’s no point to it. And obviously, our video, it’s just hinges on one premise, and that’s having Spike Lee as a director. And then everything else is complete nonsense. I think we like dealing in that sort of thing. I mean, we had a t-shirt with a t-shirt on it.

MS: We never take ourselves seriously as a band. Being a band is not the most important thing to us, enjoying what we’re doing and not really caring is. It all falls in line, name your price vinyl, that video, its all sort of the same philosophy.

BG: It leaves us to focus on the music part. Which we do take seriously.

TK: What was the biggest challenge in this new full length?

BM: I think writing it, we realized we are building on something. The last record we had nothing, we had a 7″ and a CD that we made a long time ago. Now there was something behind it, so we had to consider that going forward. Every band that has made more than one record has said that.

TK: Since you had built a name for yourself, you now had expectations to live up to?

BM: Yeah, and also wanting to do something different. I wanted to do something to progress from there.

MS: A lot of what each of us listen to personally changed a lot, from the time we wrote the first record and the time we went to write this record. We all were listen to tons of music that we were not listening to at all then. So even that shifted where our heads were.

TK: Beyond the European tour, what are your plans? Will you do a similar thing in states when you get back?

MS: I don’t think so. It’s difficult for us to tour at all, but especially U.S. tours.

BG: Touring Europe, its like a trip to Europe. Touring here its like “well, I’m in Cleveland, and the show sucks too.”

BM: We never played Cleveland, for the record. No knock on them.

MS: We’ll probably do weekends or things like that, but I don’t think we’ll do a full-fledged U.S. tour. It makes no financial sense, we’ll surely lose tons of money doing it. But we might go to Japan, that’s an offer we have on the table. The label that releases our records, Moorworks, they’d like us to come there, and we’d like to go. I think our touring interests right now lie in exotic vacations.

Everyone Everywhere (2012) is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Queen Mary II” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review; watch the “Queen Mary II” video in yesterday’s post and check back tomorrow for their Spotify playlist.

Everyone Everywhere shot that video at PhilaMOCA, which was also the site of the full-album-in-real-time clip they released yesterday. If you missed it, you can check it out again below. Worth noting: the video hasn’t even been up for 24 hours and it already has close to 900 views. Which may not seem like a lot, but then consider that it’s almost 40 minutes long.

Everyone Everywhere (2012) is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Queen Mary II” in Monday’s post, read yesterday’s album review; and check back tomorrow for an interview with the band and Friday for their Spotify playlist.

That’s not to say these four guys have all of a sudden gone bookish (although they do somehow make a catchy refrain out of “bicameral progress, dichotomous” and other words I still need to look up). But there is an obvious and exciting degree of growth, both sonic and lyrical, in their latest offering. With speedy, askew guitar lines reminiscent of The Dismemberment Plan, Everyone Everywhere (2012) is a bright and layered record that adds instrumental flourishes and enriched production to the standard guitar-bass-drums grind. Warm counterpoint vocals and harmonies ring across “The Future,” while the chugging, Weakerthans-ish single “Queen Mary II” rattles with nervous auxiliary rhythms, then bursts into a sunny and hopeful saxophone solo.

The lyrics of the latter chronicle the isolation of someone adrift at sea, and reflective thoughts such as this recur throughout the album; the confoundingly catchy “Big Hat,” for instance, tracks the regret and resignation of a character who doesn’t act on their passions. Beginning with the scene-setting line “Time slips by, I’m 38 years old / I’m past my prime, I guess that’s fine,” we revisit them again at age 45 (“I’m tired”), age 56 (“I can’t sleep”) and age 71 (“I’m dead”).

Which, written out like that, looks like a massive downer, a lot to take in – and with this record short on the fist-pumping group sing-a-longs like “Tiny Boat” from their last album, you’d think it might be just that. But when the last refrain rings out, you’ll want to return. On their latest, Everyone Everywhere presents you with an uncomfortable, occasionally distressing snapshot of young men stumbling towards adulthood, and all the awkward thoughts and uncertainties that go with it – and makes it a lively, honest and utterly welcoming portrait.

Everyone Everywhere (2012) is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Queen Mary II” in yesterday’s post, and check back later in the week for interviews, video and more. The album will be available for digital download from Bandcamp tomorrow, but you can hear the entire thing (and watch the band lounging to it) in the video below:

Listen in at 88.5 HD-2 or XPN2.org during the 8 p.m. hour of tonight’s Philly Local Show to catch Goodnight Lights’ set; you can also tune in early to catch Pet Milk’s Key Studio Session during the 7:00 hour, and stick around for the 9:00 hour, when we’ll showcase new music from Young Gliss, Everyone Everywhere, Curly Castro and the BITBY Tape Club compilation.

Philly emo foursome Everyone Everywhere today announced the release of its second self-titled LP, which comes out Aug. 7 on its own EER label. From the band’s Facebook announcement:

We decided to release this record ourselves as EER001. We wanted to do something new as a band, and the process of releasing a record was something we thought it would be good to be completely hands-on with. Releasing the record ourselves seems like a great opportunity, it allows us to have a little more ownership over the release, and it allows us to do some things we probably wouldn’t have been able to get away with if someone else were involved. This album is the result of two years of really personal work, and we wanted to keep it as close to home as we could until we were ready to share it with you. Removing a layer between you all and the four of us should make this whole thing more rewarding for us and hopefully you too! We like you a lot!

The album will be available for preorder in digital and vinyl formats from Everyone Everywhere’s bandcamp page in a few weeks. In the meantime, give a listen below to the first single, “$1,000,000,000″; it carries sweet tones of The Promise Ring and The Weakerthans.

Out today in the self-release world of Bandcamp is the latest EP from Hurry, the dreamy noise pop / shoegaze project from Philly’s Matt Scottoline. He typically plays bass in the comparatively amped up pop punk band Everyone Everywhere, but that’s “amped” in terms of tempo and energy. There was plenty of pure volume filling the room when the live lineup of Hurry recorded its Key Studio Session. Joining Scottoline was Brendan McHugh of Everyone Everywhere on second guitar, and Rob DeCarlois of Univox on drums; I dig the raw immediacy they bring to Scottoline’s songs, which are deliciously lush and layered on the album. Download the session below, compare / contrast with Hurry’s music on Bandcamp, and keep an eye fixed on Facebook for news of their live appearances.

• Thinkby Hurry from The Key Studio Sessions, 05/16/2012Download

• Tonightby Hurry from The Key Studio Sessions, 05/16/2012Download

• Take My Timeby Hurry from The Key Studio Sessions, 05/16/2012Download

• A Rideby Hurry from The Key Studio Sessions, 05/16/2012Download

• Tell Youby Hurry from The Key Studio Sessions, 05/16/2012Download

• That Wayby Hurry from The Key Studio Sessions, 05/16/2012Download

Photo by Madeleine Lesperance

It began as the shy side pursuit of Everyone Everywhere bass player Matt Scottoline – a place for him to dig deeper into his love for jangley dreampop, from Black Tambourine and My Bloody Valentine all the way back to early LPs by The Cure. But over the course of the past six months and some, Hurry has grown into a real, functioning thing that gets out of the studio, plays live shows and releases LPs. The band’s latest is set to drop this Wednesday, along with its Key Studio Session, which we recorded last month. Below, you can grab a sneak preview of what you’ll hear – the twin-guitar fuzz number “Tonight.” And remember to check back to The Key this Wednesday, May 16 for the entire six-song session.

• Tonightby Hurry from The Key Studio Sessions, May 16, 2012Download

When we last checked in with Everyone Everywhere bassist Matt Scottoline, he had just released a set of free music by what we thought was a one-off side project, Hurry. The lofty Slowdive-esque fuzz and whimsical arrangements of the EP instantly hooked us, and apparently, they had the same effect on Scottoline. Some sporadic demos and samplers later, Hurry is now streaming its debut full-length on Bandcamp and making its live debut opening for Slow Club at Johnny Brenda’s. Give the set a listen below, and catch the show this Wed. Feb. 15; Hurry goes on at 9 p.m. sharp.

Emo dudes wearing sweaters and holding cats is the new emo dudes wearing cardigans and clutching composition notebooks

Anyone who grew up listening to emo back in the mid ’90s to early ’00s knows the many pains of being a fan of the oft-maligned genre: constantly being told by indier-than-thou rock snobs that your 7-inch collection consisted of third-wave emo trash that owed everything to old-timer bands you had never heard of (usually Rites Of Spring or Embrace); feeling your peers’ disgust of the genre grow stronger and stronger with each new edition of Deep Elm Record’s “The Emo Diaries” compilation series; and, of course, being denied the opportunity to cry your little heart out from the front row while watching your favorite band perform live because the show was at a 21+ venue. Well, the good news is that emo-revival bands—if you can call them that (did the genre ever really go away?)—such as local quartet Everyone Everywhere haven’t forgotten the things that actually made the music good to begin with: namely, ringing power chords, nasally vocals, and over-earnest lyrics (and song titles, and album titles, etc.). Unfortunately, some things haven’t changed with time: despite the band’s all-inclusive name, tonight’s show is 21+. Everyone Everywhere performs with Young Leaves and Luther at 8 p.m.; tickets to the 21+ show are $5.