Photo by Kyle Costill

Local rock n’ roll trio Lantern will bring the noise to Kung Fu Necktie tonight. The amount of music the band has is immense, with nine releases available on their Bandcamp; the latest, Dream Mine, was released in May 2012. The band delves into both the psychedelic realm of rock, as well as its ripping and visceral nature with their heavy feedback and raw vocals. Dream Mine even goes as far as exploring the depth and haunting nature of ambient noise, and the crowd will surely be bobbing their heads furiously, as well as discovering a side of rock they may not have heard before. Tickets and information with Adult Content and Split Red can be found here. Below, check out the song “Out Of Our Heads” from Dream Mine.

New York Indie band Here We Go Magic will be playing at Underground Arts tonight with Laser Background. Coming from the more electronic and psychedelic persuasion, Here We Go Magic’s atmospheric style and hypnotic rhythms shines on their new album A Different Ship. Released in 2012, and produced by Radiohead’s producer Nigel Godrich, the group’s fourth album exemplifies their electronic elements, but also stays true to the folk style they showed in their debut sel-titled album. Accompanying them will be the local Philly band Laser Background, who released their self titled EP in July of last year. Blending styles of eighties pop and gameboy sounds, Laser Background compliments Here We Go Magic’s electronic music and should make for a good time. Tickets and information for the show can be found here. Check out a music video for Here We Go Magic’s song “How Do I Know” off of their latest album A Different Ship.

XPN welcomes Philly’s own Carsie Blanton at MilkBoy tonight. With three studio albums and two live albums, Blanton has an interesting array of folk and jazz inspiration. Her most recent album Idiot Heart released in January 2012 exemplifies her skill as a musician with a diverse and eclectic variety of musical styling. The combination of funk, folk, jazz, and country go together wonderfully, and her new album utilizes each genre tastefully. Tickets and information for the 21 and up show with Alec Ounsworth (of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) and the Kernal can be found here. Below is a music video for “Backseat” off of Blanton’s album Idiot Heart.

Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes will be continuing their tour at the North Star Bar tonight. Browne’s voice is delicate and soulful, and the R&B group has just signed to Vanguard Records. Their debut album Baby Caught The Bus will be released on May 21st. Tickets and information for the 21 and up show with Aaron and the Spell can be found here. Below, watch a music video for “Love Letter” from the group’s debut album Baby Caught The Bus.

Photo: Gary Miller/FilmMagic

Dave Grohl gave an inspiring and insightful Keynote Speech at last week’s SXSW [link]

Cursive and The Good Life frontman Tim Kasher came to Folkadelphia in his solo acoustic capacity for this week’s live session [link]

Mondays’ My Morning Download featured L.A. five piece The Lonely Wild and their track “Everything You Need” [link]

Florida / NYC duo The Saint Johns were highlighted for XPN’s Gotta Hear Song of the Week with their song “Your Head and Your Heart” [link]

Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five and Guster announced a date at The Mann for July 18th [link]

Purling Hiss are the focus of Unlocked this week; their major label debut Water On Mars was released on Tuesday through Drag City [link]

Philly bands Vacationer, Grandchildren, Lantern and more invaded Austin for SXSW with an impressive showing of hard work and talent [link]

Appel Farm announced a line-up for the June 1st festival that includes Brandi Carlile, Low Cut Connie and Delta Rae [link]

The Philly Drum Project will celebrate its first anniversary at World Cafe Live on April 23rd [link]

Get an exclusive listen of Amos Lee covering “Some Days Are Diamonds” from The Music Is You: A Tribute to John Denver [link]

Slingshot Dakota‘s positive, upbeat pop / punk songs shine in this week’s Key Session [link]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | Photo by John Vettese

Last week at the SXSW Music Conference in Austin, Texas, The Key editor, John Vettese, and I saw a collective 58 bands in 3 days. Here are ten that stood out:

Sir Sly – This five piece from Los Angeles have a confident and charismatic front man, grooves and hooks galore.

Little Green Cars – Dublin’s Little Green Cars charmed us with their gorgeous harmonies and finely honed control of rock and roll dynamics. Lead singers Stevie Appleby and Faye O’Rourke are like the Buckingham/Nicks of Ireland.

PAWS – This three piece from Glasgow play very catchy, garagey, fuzzy, guitar driven pop-rock. Just the way we like it.

Nick Cave kicked off NPR Music’s SXSW shows on Wednesday night at Stubb’s with full force. He plays tonight at the Keswick.

Charles Bradley, the “Screaming Eagle Of Soul,” brought the house down at Austin City Limits during the Daptone Records Revue and at WXPN’s Public Radio Rocks The SXSW Day Stage broadcast on Friday. We needed towels to dry off after the show, and we weren’t even on stage.

Philly’s Lantern were among many local bands who ventured down to SXSW. Their show as part of Jack White’s Third Man Records Rolling Store showcase was a perfect dose of rock and roll medicine for their Saturday afternoon 80+ degree and sunshiny Austin showcase.

Small Black played the Jagjaguwar Records showcase on Friday and brought their fuzzy / psych-pop to life in a big way with body-moving basslines and massive disco beats.

Rhye – the New York smooth operating duo of Mike Milosh and Danish producer/songwriter Robin Hannibal were accompanied by a four piece who played intoxicating indie-cosmopolitan songs that owe a debt to Sade, the Blue Nile, and Roxy Music’s Avalon. We swooned along to every second of their celestial set.

Autre Ne Veut is Brooklyn R&B singer Arthur Ashin. At the hipster #MEGABLAAG party at the Empire Control Room, Ashin played material from his excellent new album, Anxiety. During the set, he sang his heart out, accompanied by a female vocalist, Crist Jo Zambri a drummer and pre-recorded tracks and samples from the album. It was one giant singalong as Ashin channeled a bit of The Weeknd and Stevie Wonder on Midnight Love. Yes, that good.

The Specials took over the Hype (Machine) Hotel for a non-stop journey through the past, delivering one hit after another from the band’s super ska-studded past. For 50 minutes, they brought the Pogo back.

Watch the full video at Baeblemusic.com

Free Energy | Photo by John Vettese

The SXSW PHL showcase wasn’t the only place to see musicians from the Delaware Valley last week. A wide variety of musicians from the region made the trek, with a wide variety of approaches. For instance, Wilmington’s New Sweden took the barn-burning powerhouse approach, not only playing a packed tour on the way down, but jamming in an impressive (and as yet unquantified) number of SXSW showcases into its itinerary between Monday and Saturday. Other artists took it light, by comparison.

Vacationer | Photo by John Vettese

We caught Kenny Vasoli’s Vacationer in their last show of South By Southwest on Saturday night at the infamous Hype Hotel venue, sponsored by The Hype Machine. It was the breezy electronic pop band’s second of two shows, and the relaxed pace left Vasoli in the most exuberant of exuberant moods during their set.

“This has been the best experience I’ve ever had at South by Southwest,” he reminded the crowd at uber-frequent intervals. Like, seriously, in between every song of their 30-minute set. “It’s been such a great few days, and I’ve got all of you to thank for that.” Back in his old pop-punk band The Starting Line, Vasoli probably got swept awat in the hammering gauntlet that the industry festival can be – hence the easygoing approach this time. He’s not alone.

Grandchildren | Photo by John Vettese

“We’ve come to South By every year for the past five years,” Alex Maryls of Grandchildren told me as he and his bandmates packed up the van after their only official showcase – Thursday night at the Meduse Lounge. “We only did two shows this year. Tomorrow we play a festival in Oklahoma on the drive back to Philly. It’s so much better this way.”

Maryls says he too got caught up in the barnburner, fill-your-day-with-shows approach earlier on, but realized how exhausting it can be – and, as his band grew in complexity (and instrumentally), how logistically tough as well. “This is much more enjoyable,” he says. “We saw our label, we saw our friends, and we played a couple good shows.” The last one of which had Ryan “Honus Honus” Kattner of Man Man cheering them on.

Lantern | Photo by John Vettese

By comparison, Lantern took a more filled approach – at least a show a day – and had a generally positive experience. I caught up with them at a few points (Philly writer and regular Key contributor Elliott Sharp was tagging along with them, working on a long form independent piece on the festival and touring in general), and I finally took in a full Lantern set on Saturday afternoon when they played the Third Man Records Rolling Store showcase.

If you’re not familiar with this oddity of Jack White’s label – it’s a basically big yellow van with a PA built in, microphone inputs on the outside and a mixing console behind a sliding glass window. It pops up at random spots with bands in tow – this time, Lantern was featured along with Pujol performing in an East Austin parking lot.

New Sweden | Photo by John Vettese

“This show and the showcase yesterday for Tiny Mix Tapes were probably our two best,” singer-guitarist Zachary Fairbrother told me. “Or the most positive. We played one showcase for [blog name redacted] and there were maybe 500 people there, but they were just there for the scene, they’re not listening and you can tell. The crowd at these past two have been here for the music. It’s a much better environment.”

Free Energy (pictured up top) played an exhuberant Saturday night set to a packed crowd at The Iron Bear – the scene of Bleeding Rainbow’s equipment carnage of last year, an uncanny coincidence since both bands appeared on a recent show at Arden Gild Hall. (Free Energy did not smash anything, however.)

In another coincidence, on Saturday evening I headed down Austin’s 6th Street – a scene of mayhem and madness that falls somewhere between Mardi Gras and the Philadelphia Folk Festival campground – making my way to a bar / venue called The Lodge to catch TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb. When I arrived, the stage was still being set up, but I heard a very recognizable blend of acoustic punk fervor and violin in the near-distance. I poked my head next door, and saw New Sweden, wailing away to a packed bar for their final show.

TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb | Photo by John Vettese

I watched Kong and their gritty folk brethren and thought about their respective tactics: New Sweden playing near-constantly all week, Kong popping in and out at the end of the week. Each has their merits – getting your name out there as much as possible, versus playing it cool and avoiding burnout. Both played to crowds bobbing along to their raucous and enjoyable sound (especially to folks indulging in pre-St. Patrick’s Day whiskey drinks). Both handed out free CDs.

And both are probably in the same predicament in the end – the music may be listened to by people who have been grabbing free CDs all week, the crowd may remember them in a way more specific than “that cool folk band we saw on Saturday,” the band may have a somewhat bigger crowd the next time they play Austin on tour. Or their southwestern fan base may remain at the same level, and this will have just been an exercise in performing live and having fun on the road.

Which is all part of the gamble of the South by Southwest festival, and of a music career in general. When you have name recognition of Vacationer, Free Energy and Grandchildren – and the label support that two out of those three artists have – it’s easier to be relaxed at SXSW. When you’re going it your own, you’re playing by your own rules, and going H.A.M. like is an admirable and respectable option. But in the all-around scheme of things – the knowns, the lesser-knowns, the hectic and relaxed – all of these locals in Austin did Philly proud.

Bleeding Rainbow at SXSW 2012 | Photo by John Vettese

The music portion of the Austin’s annual South by Southwest festival kicks off today, and many of our city’s finest up-and-coming bands have been spent the last week crammed in hatchbacks or vans with amps and instruments, making their trek to Texas. Several have, over the past couple years, recorded Key Sessions in our studio, and today we present you with a downloadable sampler of artists who are repping Philly in in Austin this week.

Beginning with a snappy performance of “Jackie” by Philly pop-rockers Cold Fronts, who won a JanSport competition to be a SXSW featured artist, all the way to the doom-y “Downward Years to Come” from Nothing, it showcases some of the rock (Cheers Elephant), hip-hop (Lushlife) and punk (Lantern) Philly bands on the various bills across Austin. Listen to the set below, download at Soundcloud. And check out some bonus video after the Jump – West Philly’s Waxahatchee performs a ton of shows this week, including an NPR Music showcase with Nick Cave tomorrow, while Bleeding Rainbow is making the rounds as well. See videos of the former playing “Dark Moon” in our studio and the latter tearing up “Get Lost” at Johnny Brenda’s.

Waxahatchee “Dark Moon” – Key Studio Session at WXPN from WXPN FM on Vimeo.

Waxahatchee recorded this week’s Key Studio Session in anticipation of the release of her Cerulean Salt LP (out this week via Don Giovanni Records).  Katie Crutchfield performed three tracks from the album and a cover of 1950s country song “Dark Moon,” a video of which you can watch here.  Stream and download “Blue Pt. II” below and check out the full session here.

• Blue Part. IIby Waxahatchee from the Key Studio SessionsDownload

This month’s Shaking Through episode featured a collaboration between Brooklyn recording / visual artist Helado Negro and Wilco keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen.  The two-day session at Miner Street Recording, made possible by Weathervane Music, resulted in the tropical and lushly layered electronic song “Mitad del Mundo.”  Stream and download the song below and watch the full episode here.  Helado Negro plays the North Star Bar on March 23rd; tickets and information can be found here.

The double sessions keep coming from the Folkadelphia camp, this week with Sera Cahoone and Zach Hurd.  Cahoone spotlighted three songs from her stellar 2012 record Deer Creek Canyon, including the title track, which you can stream and download below.  New York musician Zach Hurd, meanwhile, recorded a batch of acoustic poppy tracks perfect for late night bonfire chats on the beach.  Download both sessions here.

Local band Lantern take their fuzzy garage rock sound in a new direction with “Mr. Mars.”  This is partially due to the addition of Philly sax player David Fishkin, whose jazzy solos compliment the new production style very well.  “Mr. Mars” will be featured on a 7″ that will be released this summer on Sophomore Lounge.  Stream and download the song below, and check out the band live when they play Kung Fu Necktie on March 28th.  Tickets and information can be found here.

Lantern’s Emily Robb on bass and David Fishkin on sax | Photo by Rachel Barrish for The Deli

If you caught Philly’s Lantern at Underground Arts a few weeks back, you might have noticed a distinctly different vibe. The bluesy garage-rock trio was augmented by a fourth player, David Fishkin on saxaphone, and his rambunctious solos and staccato commentary added a lively rockabilly feel to this ever-evolving powerhouse’s sound. You can hear that captured nicely on “Mr. Mars,” a new song the band released today as it prepares to head out on the road for its South by Southwest tour. The song will appear on a 7″ the band will be releasing this summer, a precursor to the full-length they recorded last fall with Jeff Ziegler; the LP will be out this spring on Louisville label Sophomore Lounge. Download “Mr. Mars” below, see the band’s tour dates after the jump. Looks like they’ll be back in town on March 28th for an upstairs show at Kung Fu Necktie.

March 1 – Washington D.C. @ Casa Fiesta w/ Sheer Agony, Tulsa
March 2 – Raleigh, NC @ Slims w/ Sheer Agony, Mechanical River
March 3 – Boone, NC @ The Black Cat w/ Sheer Agony, HATS
March 4 – Asheville, NC @ Static Age w/ Sheer Agony, Cadavernous
March 5 – Athens, GA @ Farm255 w/ Sheer Agony, Cult of Reggonia, Freak in the Fire
March 6 – Atlanta, GA @ 529 w/ TV Dinner, The Fagettes, Nice Guys, J Bros
March 7 – Macon, GA @ House Shows 481 MLK BLVD w/ Sheer Agony
Marc 9 – Orlando, FL @ Uncle Lou’s w/ Sheer Agony, Exit Bags
March 10 – Gainsville, FL @ The Back Yard Bar w/ The Milkstains & Waylon Thornton, the Heavy Hands
March 11 – New Orleans, LA @ TBA w/ Sheer Agony, TBA

………………..SXSW Shows in Austin, TX…………………..

March 13 – 29th Street Ballroom Showcase @ 29th Street Ballroom
March 14 – Bonfire Showcase – 4:20pm @ Club 1808
March 15 – Tiny Mix Tapes Showcase @ TBA
March 15 – Party Show – 1 am @ TBA w/ Wax Museums, Cy Barkley & Way Outsiders, Meat Market
March 16 – Third Man Records Rolling Record Store – 3pm @ Trailer Space

……………………..……………………..……………………..…..

March 17 – Norman, OK @ The Hidden Castle w/ Sheer Agony, Bare Knuckle Shuffle, Psychotic Reaction, Christophe Murdock
March 19 – Fayetteville, AR @ JR’s Lightbulb Club w/ Sheer Agony, Egyptr
March 20 – St. Louis, MS @ Apop Records w/ Sheer Agony
March 21 – Chicago, IL @ Big Forever w/ The Funs, Nonnie Parry, False Paul
March 22 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Space 2435 w/ Sheer Agony, Holy Balm
March 23 – Detroit, MI @ Adult Contemporary w/ TBA
March 24 – Cleveland, OH @ Happy Dog w/ Shitbox Jimmy
March 25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Roboto Project w/ The Long Knives, Good Sport
March 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
March 29 – New York, NY @ Barnard College w/ TBA
March 30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Champagne Room of Silent Barn w/ Martin and Lawrence

Photo by Ricky Codio | rickycodio.com

After celebrating the release of his RFM LP with a sold-out crowd at The TLA a couple of months ago, local hip hop artist Chill Moody comes to The Blockley for another celebration – this time a celebration of love.  Moody will team up once again with Beano and Hank McCoy to perform the last installment in their Valentine’s Day mixtape Who Do You Love? in its entirety.  Tickets and information for the 21+ show can be found here.  Below, watch them perform a track from the mixtape live in Love Park.

Local hardcore punk buddies Pissed Jeans celebrate the release of their third LP Honeys tonight at Underground Arts.  The Key featured the Sub Pop band in this week’s Studio Session and it is quite the nihilistic rager (though the bandmates are extremely friendly people in real life).  With all four Pissed Jeans members holding down full-time jobs and families, Honeys comes four years after their last effort; read more about what went on during those years here.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show with Leather and Lantern can be found here.  Watch the video for “Bathroom Laughter” below and check out their Key Studio Session here.

Goodnight, Texas play Kung Fu Necktie tonight for The Swollen Fox‘s showcase. Described as a “transcontinental garage Appalachian collaboration,” Goodnight, Texas combines the musical talents of Patrick Dyer Wolf and Avi Vincour (The Stone Foxes).  The two met in San Francisco and started a long distance musical partnership that is geographically marked in the center by a town called Goodnight in Texas.  The band’s sound crosses the vast expanse of the country as well, blending dusty western ballads with southern folk instrumentation.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show with Toy Soldiers and August John Lutz II (The Levee Drivers) can be found here.  Watch Goodnight, Texas perform “I’m Going to Work on Maggie’s Farm Forever” below and get a free download of “Jesse Got Trapped in a Coal Mine.”

Also happening:
Pop-rappers Moosh & Twist make up for a cut-short First Unitarian show by headlining Union Transfer. XPN Welcomes singer-songwriter Mike Doughty The Abbey in Harrisburg, as well as other events during the Millennium Music Conference. And XPN Welcomes the Northern Liberties Winter Music Festival at The Fire.

Lantern opened with “Out of Our Heads” from last year’s Dream Mine. Lead singer and guitarist Zachary Devereux Fairbrother asked “Is anybody out there?” with a throaty rebel yell and got an increasingly affirmative answer back from the crowd as their set continued. His and bassist Emily Robb joked mid-set how “Thursday is boss night.” (Apparently that’s who was out there in the crowd.) Lantern left the folk-leaning side of their catalogue at home in exchange for the bluesy stomp of “Evil Eye.” The seductive “King of the Jungle,” crawled and slithered through everyone’s ears. Fairbrother and Robb swapped instruments for a couple songs before slamming through Willie Dixon’s blues standard, “I Just Wanna Make Love to You,” which led to the end of their show with plenty of fuzz-laden jamming. They were at their strongest, bending the hips of the ladies in the crowd and putting the guys in their power stances with fast three chord slammers and a generous fill of extended wah-pedal guitar soloing.

“We’re Dong Johnson and we don’t put out,” said lead vocalist Opal Rock as they started their set. Their name might sound crass and their brand of hardcore punk rock is not something that can be taken lightly. They’re intense, crunchy and cutting by way of single-note guitar riffs and slugging bass picking. “Is This What I Get,” from 2011’s Happy Birthday is influenced some arm-swinging and slam-dancing while Dong Johnson played on a red-lit stage set aflame.

Amanda X opened with “Down” from their release Ruin the Moment. Guitarist Cat Park (of Band Name fame) and bassist Kat Bean joked that they recently discovered a lot of men are into their post-punk sounds. Understandably so, since their relatively short songs feel so complete with rigid, yet catchy riffs. Despite looking a little uncomfortable on stage, they warmed up to the crowd as they advanced through each song. After all, they said, it was only the second stage they ever played on.

Black Prairie will open up the evening at MilkBoy tonight.  The subtly-Baroque bluegrass group came together in 2007 when Decemberists members Chris Funk and Nate Query decided to start an off-shoot project with Jenny Conlee, Annalisa Tornfelt and Jon Neufeld.  2012 saw Black Prairie’s sophomore release A Tear in the Eye is a Wound in the Heart, the follow-up to 2010′s debut Feast of the Hunter’s Moon.  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show with John Wesley Harding can be found here; below, watch a live video of “How Do You Ruin Me.”

New York City’s Blonde Redhead come to Union Transfer tonight.  Comprised of Japanese singer Kazu Makino and Italian twins Simone and Amedeo Pace, Blonde Redhead has had a long and varied career since its inception in 1993.  Not ones to become stagnant in a genre for too long, the trio’s recordings have morphed between early experimental / noise albums and more recent dream pop / shoegaze efforts like 2010′s Penny Sparkle.  Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show with Exitmusic can be found here.  Watch the video for “Not Getting There” from Blonde Redhead below.

XPN welcomes David Johansen to World Cafe Live upstairs tonight.  Johansen is best known as the front-man for influential proto-punk ’70s group New York Dolls but started a solo career in 1978, finding success with a cabaret-style live show behind the stage name Buster Poindexter.  A New York Dolls reunion brought Johansen through Philadelphia in 2006 for an appearance at the XPoNential Music Festival after the two surviving original members (Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain) released One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This in 2005.  Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show can be found here.  Watch Johansen cover Arrow’s “Hot Hot Hot” as Buster Poindexter in the video below.

XPN welcomes Rhett Miller to The Abbey Bar in Harrisburg tonight.  Miller built a strong following as leader of Dallas alt-country band Old 97′s while simultaneously expanding his solo career throughout the 90s and into the new millennium.  Last year Miller released his well-received full-length The Dreamer and brought his crowd-pleasing live show to Camden for the XPoNential Music Festival, closing out the Wiggins Park portion of the event with chamber-rock / Americana songs including “Out of Love.”  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show can be found here.  Below, watch Rhett Miller perform “Singular Girl” live at the festival.

Photo by Kyle Costill

Local grunge punks Lantern took a brief tour through America’s Rust Belt earlier this summer, visiting towns like Chicago and the Cleve with stops in a couple Canadian cities to boot. They documented their tour in a short video posted to their tumblr today. The band was touring on the heels of their latest album, the dystopic Dream Mine, released in May. Lantern will be heading out for an East Coast tour later this fall, the details of which you can check out here. Below, watch the video of their summer tour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yzgSJovJkI&feature=player_embedded

Mike Doughty recently released his new album The Question Jar Show, a two disc collection of 28 live recordings from his Question Jar tour in 2009. Also, earlier this spring he began releasing a song a week for 32 weeks to his fans from his subscription based album, Lo-Fi Lodge. Doughty plays tonight at Haddon Lake Park in Camden with special guest, Griz. The show begins at 7:30 PM and is totally FREE!

R5 Productions presents Alberta Cross tonight at Johnny Brenda’s in support of their new album, Songs of Patience; an album title with literal meaning to the process of its creation. Opening acts include Everest, Aaron Lee Tasjan, and Mach 22. Tickets to this 21+ show are $12, show begins at 9PM.

The five-piece group, He’s My Brother She’s My Sister play tonight at World Cafe Live (Upstairs) at 8PM. This band is full of country rock intuition with a surge of fixated pop melodies. Check out their single “Escape Tonight” and download it for free below. Get your tickets to the all ages show here.

Last but not least, Philadelphia rock ‘n rollers, Lantern play tonight with fellow city friends, Dong Johnson and Streetwalkers at Kung Fu Necktie. This 21+ show is $8 and starts at 8PM, you can snag your tickets here.

• Leviathan Leviathan (demo) by LanternDownload

Illustration of Timothy Showalter of Strand Of Oaks by Johnnie Cluney for www.daytrotter.com

At the turn of the New Year, the folks at NPR Music contacted WXPN and asked us to pick the “next big band to break out of Philly.” Other stations, like The Current in Minneapolis, KUT in Austin, Seattle’s KEXP, OPB (Oregon Public Radio), two New York stations (including WFUV at Fordham University and WNYC), and KCRW in Los Angeles were also approached. We were each challenged with the same job: pick one band, one song, and write three or four sentences about why we think the band would “blow up.”

Not an easy thing to do.

How did we choose Timothy Showalter of Strand Of Oaks as our number one choice, you ask? I reached out to the XPN staff to help pull a list together. I was looking for consensus, if there was any, around “the one.” The following folks contributed to this: John Vettese, producer of The Key Studio Sessions, XPN2 local music host, and music critic for the City Paper; Helen Leicht, WXPN mid-day host and host of the Philly Local hour on XPN; Fred Knittel, host of Folkadelphia on XPN2; Kate Bracaglia, XPN2 DJ, blogger at Underwater Explosions, and freelance music writer; Gene Shay, the legendary of host of The Folk Show on XPN, and myself.

First, let me say that some of our contributors did not follow the rules. Some sent me two “bands that will break” this year; which is okay. Picking one band from amongst the dozens of the incredible bands that in the Philly music scene is really, really hard. Go to NPR Music here to see what bands were chosen by the other stations. That said, while Strand Of Oaks was our final decision, we wanted to also recognize the other bands who were chosen by our committee of local music mavens. These bands are:

Lantern

Hoots & Hellmouth

Work Drugs

Break It Up

DRGN KNG

Bleeding Rainbow

Sandra Bae

FRIDAY, JANUARY 13th

Also Playing: Minas at World Cafe Live (8 p.m., $20); Adrien Reju And Friends at Tin Angel (10:30 p.m., 21+, $10); The National Rifle + Waking Lights, Blayer Pointdujour at Milkboy Philly (9:30 p.m., 21+, $8–$10); Swift Technique + Lady, Dr. Ruckus at Kung Fu Necktie (8 p.m., 21+, $10)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14th

Pissed Jeans performs with Blues Control and Veiled at 9:15 p.m. at Johnny Brenda’s; tickets to the 21+ show are $10–$12.

Also Playing: Negative Department + The Only Ghost in Town, Pray For Polanski, Sure Juror at The Level Room (8 p.m., 21+, $8); New Sweden + KeN, Lettuce Prey at Milkboy Philly (9:30 p.m., 21+, $8–$10);

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15th
Far-Out Fangtooth + Lantern, Harsh Vibes at The Level Room (9 p.m., 21+, $10); Allison Weiss + Mitten, Former Belle, Conversations With Enemies at PhilaMOCA (8 p.m., all ages, $7–$10)

Psychic Teens

This week, we’ll be taking a look at several WXPN/XPN2 staff members’ Best Of 2011 lists. Today, The Key editor Matthew Borlik’s five favorite local albums of the year.

1. Psychic Teens, Teen (Golden Voyage Records) Listen to Psychic Teens’ Key Studio Session

2. Meg Baird, Seasons On Earth (Drag City)

• The Finderfrom Seasons On EarthDownload

3. Creepoid, Horse Heaven (Ian Records) Listen to Creepoid’s Key Studio Session

4. Arches and Banned Books, Split 10″ (Magic Death Records) Listen to Arches‘ Key Studio Session

5. White Birds, White Birds EP (self-released) Listen to White Birds’ Key Studio Session

Honorable Mentions:
Break It Up’s self-released single “Excavate,” which the band posted on Bandcamp earlier this year and is easily my favorite local song of 2011. Had it received an official release this year (either as a 7-inch or on a full-length), it definitely would been included on my list. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ll have to wait until next year for the band to release its debut. Listen to Break It Up’s Key Studio Session

Lantern and Dirty Beaches’ self-released live album, Live At Glasslands—because live albums don’t count. Listen to Lantern’s Key Studio Session

There is a new live album available for FREE download off of our Bandcamp site. This time it’s our collaboration with Dirty Beaches which took place in Brooklyn last spring. We made a tape of the bootleg which we sold out of on tour. Please feel free to spread it around and share it all with your friends – Download it and burn it to a cd to give to one of your friends for the holidays. We are really proud of the results considering how little time we had to prepare. The songs are quasi improvised and the final tune turned out to be a sort of spontaneous cover of Tom Waits’ “Going Out West” – it wasn’t our intention, it just sounded that way – Alex caught on though.

You can listen to and download the live album below; click here to listen to Lantern’s Key Studio Session from earlier this year.

In keeping with our non-official policy of, “We have very mixed feelings about Kickstarter, and we’ll only post about Kickstarter-related news if it involves your pledges getting you something cool that is actually worth the money,” The Key brings you this approved bit of Kickstarter-related news:

Back in early August, the members of the local rock trio Lantern—which was featured in a Key Studio Sessions post the previous month—asked their fans to donate money toward the band’s planned 2011 North American fall tour via Kickstarter. In exchange, the band offered an unreleased mp3 for every $1 pledge, a CD for every $10 pledge, a personally screen-printed t-shirt + CD for every $20 pledge, two limited cassettes + a t-shirt + a CD for every $50 pledge, and five lessons with guitarist Zachary Devereux Fairbrother (pictured above) for every $100 pledge. (By our estimation, all of that equals a pretty good return.) With more than a week to spare, the band has already raised $2,241 from 69 backers—$241 more than the original $2000 goal. So, earlier today, the band sent out a newsletter thanking the fans for their support, and letting them know about the upcoming tour—which will kick off Friday, September 30th, at Voyeur and wrap up on November 11th in Baltimore (full schedule after the jump).

We are overjoyed, we thought it might come down to the wire but thanks to you it’s not! It is a big relief to hit the road knowing you have a $2000 purse. Of course if you were thinking of donating and would still like to, please consider and visit the page! We could always use more and we have some great gifts! We are excited to be launching our own imprint as well called Mean Streets. For the $50 donation you get our first two releases;  the Bootleg of the Dirty Beaches/Lantern set from Glasslands  last spring and a collection of Zachary’s bedroom recordings from 2009 to early 2011 called, Burned Youth. Both are being burned to just 25 tapes and CD-Rs for now. So get those super limited tapes!

The trio also announced the release of its first 7″, which will come out on Mammoth Cave Recordings on September 30th and is now available for pre-order. The single features the track “I Don’t Know” (video by MIke Spano below) from the six-song Stranger I Come, Stranger I Leave cassette released earlier this year, with “Out Of Our Heads” on the B-side.

Lantern “I Don’t Know” from Mike Spano on Vimeo.

Sept 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Voyeur backing Dirty Beaches
Oct 1 – Asheville, NC @ Broadways w/ Cave
Oct 2 – Atlanta GA @ 529 Club
Oct 3 – Memphis TN @ The Frame
Oct 4 – Oxford, MS @ TBA
Oct 6 – New Orleans, LA @ Siberia w/ the Jonesbirds
Oct 8 – Houston, TX @ The Big Top w/ Psychic Palms & Dune TX
Oct 9 – Austin, TX @ 29th Street Ballroom
Oct 13 – Phoenix AZ @ Yellow Canary Dance Hall w/ Acid Dawgz
Oct 14 – San Diego,CA @ Tin Can Bar w/ Ancient Crux + the Cosmonauts
Oct 15 – Los Angeles, CA @ KXLU and Pehrspace
Oct 16 – Fullerton, CA @ Burger Records w/ Haunted Tiger
Oct 17 – San Francisco, CA @ The Knockout w/ Burnt Ones
Oct 20 – Portland, OR @ The Tonic Lounge w/ White Fang and Woolen Men
Oct 21 – Seattle, WA @ Cairo
Oct 22 – Vancouver, BC @ 360 Glen w/Defektors
Oct 27 – Lawrence, KS @ The Replay w/ Living Ghost
Oct 28 – Iowa City, IA @ TBA w/ Wet Hair
Oct 29 – Chicago, IL @ Mortville w/ Wet Hair + Heavy Times
Oct 30 – Detroit, MI @ The Garden Bowl
Oct 31 – London, ON @ Black Shire Pub
Nov 1. Toronto, ON @TBA w/ Omma Cobba
Nov 2 – Ottawa, ON @ TBA
Nov 4 – Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo
Nov 5 – New York City @ Shea Stadium
Nov 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Station
Nov 11 – Baltimore, MD @ TBA

Want to hear more? Click here to listen to the full sessions by all 17 local acts. You can also download the previous edition The Key Studio Sessions Compilation, Volume 1, in its entirety as a .zip file here.

In the handful of cassettes it’s released since moving to Philadelphia, we see a few different faces to Lantern. One deals in pensive, atmospheric heater blues: the stinging slow burn of “You Can’t Deny Me,” which brought its recent Key Studio Session to a haunting close. Another blows out the room with raucous, chaotic garage-punk, while another still works in snarling cover versions of early rock standards. Of those last two faces, “I’m Not Alright” is a little bit of each – it’s the band’s bastardized response to Bo Diddley’s “I’m Alright” (a number that, in its original form, has been performed by acts from The Rolling Stones to Redd Kross, and had its playful riff show up in songs by The Monks and The Beastie Boys). Guitarist Zachary Devereux Fairbrother and bassist Emily Robb are the couple at the core of Lantern; they met in Montreal, returned to Robb’s former home of Philly this past year, recruited powerhouse drummer Sophie White and turned their home recording project into a fierce, functioning live band. Hear the trio chat about its journey tomorrow night at 7 on the Key Studio Sessions Hour on XPN2; you’ll also catch its full performance – which also includes blistering renditions of “I Just Wanna Make Love To You” and “Money (That’s What I Want)” – and get the scoop about upcoming appearances at Kungfu Necktie (July 19) and Johnny Brenda’s (Aug. 12).

• Do You Wear Your Lovefrom The Key Studio Sessions 7/13/11Download

• Get Out Of My Mindfrom The Key Studio Sessions 7/13/11Download

• I'm Not Allrightfrom The Key Studio Sessions 7/13/11Download

• Out Of Our Headsfrom The Key Studio Sessions 7/13/11Download

• You Can't Deny Mefrom The Key Studio Sessions 7/13/11Download