Make Music Philly day will bring a full day of free music events to Philadelphia on the summer solstice

This summer, the city of Philadelphia will host Make Music Philly: a new, day-long event on June 21. That’s the solstice, the longest day of the year, and it will be filled with free music events of all sorts across the city, and WXPN is proud to be involved in the event.

This week, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Dan DeLuca talked to WXPN General Manager Roger LaMay about Make Music Philly, and the station’s role in it. You can read his interview here.
Stay tuned to The Key for more info about Make Music Philly and how you can get involved.

1. David Bowie – “Station to Station”
2. Tom Waits – “Hang on St. Christopher”
3. Roxy Music – “Do the Strand”
4. Patti Smith Group – “Ask the Angels”
5. LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends

As part of this year’s 885 Greatest Rock Songs countdown on WXPN, we asked a number well-known Philadelphians to share their own picks for the best rock and roll moments of all time. Today we bring you the top picks from Philadelphia Inquirer music critic Dan DeLuca. 

1. James Brown – “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing (Open Up The Door, I’ll Get It Myself)”
2. Tom Petty – “Listen To Her Heart”
3. Rolling Stones – “Rocks Off”
4. The Ronettes – “Be My Baby”
5. Chuck Berry – “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”

Photo by Hannah Torresson

Well, here’s something you don’t see every day: A rock band plays a lousy show (OK, that does happen every day), gets called out in the local press (which happens pretty often), and then responds to the critic (which happens much more often than you’d think). But here’s the unusual part: Instead of complaining to the reviewer about how he/she doesn’t understand the complexities of their awe-inspiring, genre-defying music, or whining about how the venue’s sound guy didn’t put enough vocals in the monitors, the members of Marah actually apologized for their lackluster performance at World Cafe Live last Sunday night.

Following Sunday night’s show, The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Dan Weiss wrote a review that charitably called the roots-rock band’s performance “muddy,” noting that, “David [Bielanko] gargled over a raw, basic version of Marah…through riffage that occasionally and strangely recalled Aerosmith.” The band, formally from Philadelphia, apparently felt the need to apologize to its old hometown, and sent this email to the Inquirer: