With so many performances and surprises happening all over the city last Saturday for Record Store Day, it was impossible to see every great moment.  Luckily, the Bands in the Backyard crew staked out a spot at AKA Music in Old City for the store’s showcase of local music by Heyward Howkins, Mikele Edwards, Bridge Underwater and Restorations.  Check out two videos BITBY filmed during the day featuring Bridge Underwater and Restorations below.

Record Store Day is Saturday, April 20th. Started in 2007, RSD brings together independent brick and mortar record stores and musicians to celebrate music and to offer some amazing special releases. Locally, many stores are participating, including A.K.A. Music, who are teaming up with Philebrity, for an event from 1PM-5PM featuring performances from Restorations, Heyward Howkins, Mikele Edwards, and Bridge Underwater. Below, sample some of the goods, including a free download of a “Kind Of Comfort” by Restorations, which we offered as part of our recent Unlocked series on the band. Go here for a list of participating stores in your area.

• Kind Of Comfortby Restorations from LP2Download

When Carlin Brown isn’t making sweet beats behind the drum kit of Philly punk band Restorations, he’s making sweet eats inside the kitchen of some of the city’s most popular restaurants and bars.

Currently a cook at The Industry Bar, Brown’s restaurant resume is almost as long the list of serious bands he’s played in. He said these two jobs are also surprisingly quite similar.

“Being in a kitchen, you’re trapped in this weird, strange little environment with this one group of people, and you can only rely on this one group of people. These are the only people you have to do this job with you, so you just figure out strengths and weaknesses and go ‘OK, we’re going to make this work.’ We’re going to figure this out,” Brown said. “The band stuff translates just as well. In music and in food, in the same way, sometimes egos get out of check. You’ll have these [musicians] that think they deserve things and that sort of thing. The same thing with chefs. Every now and then, you’ll see a chef get out of line. He’s drinking too much or doing this sort of thing, and everything fails eventually because they don’t care about what the original purpose was in the first place, which was making good music or food. You’re supposed to take care of your friends and make something good happen.”

Today’s post details Brown’s experiences from working in some of the top-rated bars and restaurants in the city, along with a few of his favorite recipes. Brown figures that many musicians in Philly have also picked up the same trade due to flexibility with taking time off to tour.

“When you’re in Philadelphia, if you walk into a kitchen and the people who are working in the kitchen don’t have tattoos, the food is probably going to suck,” he said.

Photo by Kate McCann | KateMcCannPhotography.com

Royal Tavern – 937 East Passyunk Avenue
Carlin worked here from 2004-2006

“When I was there it was a completely different chef, a completely different staff, and I only worked brunch. I worked three days a week but I worked about 40 hours in those three days. We’d get there at 6 a.m. and just cook and cook and cook and cook. Sometimes I’d be there at 9 or 10 at night, just making sure we had everything. Not only were we prepping everything that we needed for brunch, we would turn over the entire dining room like five times. We were also prepping all of the 10 specials for the week, and prepping the regular menu. … It would be bad. It would get to the point where were having drinks trying to get our work done. Then as soon as we’d get our work done we were all exhausted and the chef would be like ‘Nope, were going out!’ He would take us out and make us drink all night long, we’d get like three hours of sleep and then there you are, back again at 6 a.m. … After a while it was like ‘I can’t do this anymore dude!’ That’s why I had to have five days off or four days off a week.”

North Star Bar – 2639 Poplar St
Carlin worked here from 2006-2008

“North Star Bar was a strange experience because I was essentially the only cook. There was no chef, there was no anything. There was one other cook who worked there like one or two days a week, so it was just this bare-bones sort of bar menu. I looked at the menu with the owner and said like ‘I can redo this whole thing for you.’ I essentially just took over the kitchen and redid it, and he was all about it. That was pretty cool because I was still pretty young then, maybe 23 or 24 around that time, and essentially I was just given a kitchen. … I was the prep cook, the regular cook, the line cook, I did all of it, ordering. It was even to the point that we didn’t have a dish washer, so I was washing dishes and I was running food out to the bartenders.

“It was one of those things where people would come in and be like ‘there’s a kitchen here?’ No one knew there was food and then all of a sudden people knew about it, and he had to start hiring people. He had to start hiring servers, but it was basically still just me in the kitchen doing everything. He took care of me, and it was really fun because it was just me. I had to rely on myself to make sure the kitchen ran appropriately. At the same time I had this army of beautiful bartenders who were constantly just feeding me alcohol. It was like a big, happy family there. We were all having a very, very good time at work. And there’s a lot of cool bands that come through there, so sometimes we’d get to hang out with our friends or see our friends’ bands play. So it was a really cool environment and a cool thing for me at that age. But it did finally get to the point where it was too much, to the point where it wasn’t worth it for me to do it anymore because I couldn’t do anything else. It was fine, it worked, because I was there for like a year and a half or two years doing that. Off and on, he was letting me go on tour. I would just go, in the middle of the summer, just be like ‘Oh, I’m going to be gone for eight and a half weeks. See ya.’ Then I’d go on some horrible tour with whatever terrible band I was in, waste all my money, come back and do it all over again.”

Monk’s Cafe – 264 S 16th St
Carlin worked here from 2008-2010

“I came back from a really long tour. We (Carlin was in the metalcore band Giving Chase) were off and on in Europe for a month or something like that. I quit the band, and I wanted to get a really job. I figured I would do the kitchen thing for real, so I was looking around for restaurants to work in. Monk’s was voted, what, one of the top 10 places in the world to have a beer, or something like that? It seemed to be the cuisine that I was into and wanted to work with, so I went for it. I hate talking about the way it was, but it was just such a disorganized mess when I was there. And the place is so busy, there is no down time, and it seemed like whatever contraption you needed to make whatever food you were making, was broken that day. That was always how it was. … But it was also fun, and it had its moments. It was cool because we’d be in the kitchen all screaming at each other and stressed out and freaking out, then we’d all stay and hang out until 5 a.m. drinking. … What I learned from there is just being able to get things done, no excuses. You have to make the food, it’s got to go out. We were so busy that I just learned how to work in a high-volume situation like that. It was also a bad time for me. I had a girlfriend I was always fighting with. I also wasn’t happy at my job. I was living in a place I couldn’t even afford, working two jobs. I was working seven days a week, 72 hours a week, just killing myself trying to afford this place. My job was making me miserable. And I did that at Monk’s for over a year before I finally got out and went to the Taproom.”

Memphis Taproom – 2331 E Cumberland St
Carlin worked here from February to September in 2010

I worked there for about a year. I basically was filling in for someone, but I really wanted to get out of Monk’s because it was killing me. It was right up the road from where I lived at the time, and just like a smaller, quieter operation. … It went from this meticulous grind [at Monk’s] to just sort of hanging out. Right before I left Monk’s, I started playing drums in Dirty Tactics because I wanted to do something. I was playing drums in another band called El Toro de Oro, but it was basically just friends having fun and wasn’t really serious by any stretch of the imagination. The Dirty Tactics thing started happening, so once again, here I am going on tour and Memphis Taproom was letting me. And every time I came back it was just chilling in this awesome kitchen with awesome guys. It was a nice grounding, coming back to something familiar after [those] strange places.

Photo by Kate McCann | KateMcCannPhotography.com

Swift Half Pub (Now Gunner’s Run) – 224 S 15th St
Carlin worked here from September 2010 to late 2011

This new place had just opened up in a place called The Piazza, which I had never even been to before. One of the bartenders I knew said she knew all the people that worked there. [She to me to] get your resume and come with me. She drags me down there, we go in, get lunch, and I’m like ‘Hey, I’m looking for a job.’ I give my resume to the sous chef and he’s looking at it. He looks up at me and says ‘These are all of my favorite bars in the city.’ I was like alright then. He said they’d give me a call. … They let me come and go because The Piazza dies in the winter. It’s just a complete ghost town. The restaurant eventually went under because we were having a lot of arguments with our landlord. He kept basically kept raising our rent. But Swift Half was one of those places, the same thing as Memphis Taproom, that was like my happy getaway place. So I would go to work and it was just this euphoric little place for me to make food and have fun.

Good Dog Bar – 224 South 15th Street
Carlin worked here from 2010-2012

I met Jess, the chef at Good Dog. She called me and had me come in for an interview. The interview is going real good. We’re hitting it off and she is laughing about stuff. Then she goes alright well I’m not hiring right now. I was like ‘Come on!’ Then a week or two weeks go by, and she calls me and says ‘One of my guys is going into the Army, come on in.’ It was that easy. … While I was there, for maybe about four or five months, I was working at Vintage, but I wasn’t really there for very long. I eventually had to quit because of this whole band thing. I’d be working three days at Good Dog and 40 hours a week at Vintage. I work a lot … When I quit Vintage I was back at Good Dog, but I knew I needed a second job. I had to do something easy that I wouldn’t care about, so I was like screw it I’m just going to go to Chipolte or Qdoba and get some dumb job working a few days a week. The owner of Good Dog heard about it and was like ‘Oh, hell no.’ She pulled me over to Industry to do prep.

The Industry Bar – 1401 E. Moyamensing Ave.
Carlin worked here from 2012-present

I was there the first night of service, the first weekend of service. I was there in the morning for the first brunch we did and, I don’t remember what happened, but basically the chef got mad at everybody. He got mad at all the cooks and kicked them all off the line and into the basement. He said to me, ‘Get up here, you’re cooking with me.’ Within the first hour of cooking, he’s going to [the owners] and being like ‘Can we please have him? Can I take him?’ They were like, ‘no he’s Jess’ employee.’ But one of my good friends came back [to Good Dog] and took my job, so they sent me to Industry to cook. So that’s why I’m there now. But now, when we’re at work and getting all frustrated, my chef will turn and be like, ‘Why did we hire you again?’ I always get to go ‘It was your idea.’ But it’s really exciting for me to be working under my chef Pat, because we both have similar ethics and beliefs about how a kitchen should run. To be able to work under someone who has worked at places like Vetri and The Farm and Fisherman is a daily learning experience. I’m always encouraged to be experimental and creative. ”

Photo by Kate McCann | KateMcCannPhotography.com

Recipes

Banana’s Foster (Royal Tavern)

• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon sugar, optional
• dash salt
• 1 cup milk
• 10 to 12 slices white bread
• butter
• maple syrup or other syrup
• Bunch of ripe bananas
• Brown sugar
• Butter
• Goslings black seal Bermuda rum
• Walnuts
• Confectionary sugar

Preparation:
Break eggs into a wide, shallow bowl or pie plate; beat lightly with a fork. Stir in sugar, salt, and milk.

Over medium-low heat, heat griddle or skillet coated with a thin layer of butter or margarine.

Place the bread slices into the bowl or plate, letting slices soak up egg mixture for a few seconds, then carefully turn to coat the other side.

Transfer bread slices to griddle or skillet, heating slowly until bottom is golden brown. Turn and brown the other side

In a smaller pan place a good 2 tablespoons of butter and allow it brown over medium heat.

Cut a banana or two down into 1/2 inch thick circles and “sear” on both sides.

Once you have nice color on them throw in about 2-3 ounces of rum.
CAUTION! This will make fire!!! Allow the alcohol to burn off and the fire to die down and add brown sugar till it gains the consistency of maple syrup.

Cut your French toast in half and stack on top of each other and pour your banana “syrup” on top. Cover then with chopped walnuts and shake powdered sugar on top.

Polenta (Monk’s Café)

• Small dice carrots onions and some raw bacon.
• Sliced Spanish olives.
• Veal cheeks trimmed and cleaned from the fat.
• Fresh herbs, sage rosemary thyme
• demiglace
• salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

Throw into a hotel pan all ingrediants with 2 bottles of Val dieu brown ale and enough water to cover the meat.

Cover with foil and throw in oven at 325 degrees for 3 1/2 hours. Then move on to Polenta

• 6 cups water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Sharp cheddar cheese grated fine

Preparation:
Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a heavy large saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the mixture thickens and the cornmeal is tender, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Add cheese to taste and consistency after grating. Turn off the heat. Add the butter, and stir until mixed in. Remove cheeks from your liquid and separate.

In a pan combine 3 cheeks with enough of the liquid and veggies to almost cover them. Cook them hard so the liquid is boiling and reducing. Once it’s starting to get a thicker glazy kind of consistency finish with butter to thicken more and add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour this over top of the polenta.

Marinated Tofu BLT (Memphis Taproom)

1 box of extra firm tofu
1 tomato
Head of lettuce iceberg
1 coconut
Lemon juice
1 head of garlic
Loaf of whole grain bread.

Remove tofu from water and cut the block into 1/2 inch slabs
Place in lemon juice and chopped fresh garlic and allow to marinate.

Bake cocoanut at 350 till it start to spew from the inside and has cracked open. Remove the husk and use a potato peeler to make “bacon strips”

Smoke in a smoker for a good hour

After smoking, drop in a deep fryer till crispy and delicious

Remove your tofu from marinade and throw on a grill and get nice grill marks on both sides.

Now you just assemble the sandwich like you would any other club sandwich!!

Vegan Meatballs

Right now the Taproom also has a vegan spaghetti sandwich that’s pretty out of control. I don’t have a recipe exactly but the secrets I will divulge are for these incredible little vegan meatballs made from scratch. A combination of:
Lentils
Onion
Garlic
Nutritial yeast
Panko
Tomatoes paste
Soy sauce
Oregano
Wheat gluten flour

They are almost the exact texture of the meatballs we all grew up eating. It’s served on a long roll with marinara and spaghetti.

Photo by Kate McCann | KateMcCannPhotography.com

Fried Chicken (The Industry)

Collard greens
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
3 cups veal broth
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 pound fresh collard greens, cut into 2-inch pieces

Directions:
Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add bacon, and cook until crisp. Add onion, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, and cook until just fragrant. Add collard greens, and fry until they start to wilt.
Pour in veal broth, and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until greens are tender.

Corn bread
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup half and half
¼ cup melted butter or shortening
¼ cup sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Sift together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.
Combine the half and half, eggs, fat, and sugar.
Thoroughly grease and flour a 9″ × 9″ baking pan (or use a nonstick baking pan or a flexible silicone pan).
Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones and mix just until the flour is moistened
Once the liquid and dry ingredients have been combined, pan and bake the cornbread immediately.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean and the edge of the bread starts to separate from the pan.

Sambal honey
Mix honey and sambal oelek a ratio of 5 parts honey to one part sambal
Honestly you can use whatever ratio you want.

Chicken breading.
One quart flour
2 cups corn meal
1T garlic powder
Onion powder
Smoked paprika
Sugar
Salt
Red chili flake
2T black pepper

Chicken brine
Ingredients:
1 gallon warm water
3/4 cup kosher salt
2/3 cup sugar
5 Bay leaf
1T red chili flake
2T black peppercorns

Directions:
Pour the warm water into a container that is twice the volume of the water. Pour in the salt, sugar, soy sauce, and olive oil. Stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved, then allow the brine to cool to room temperature.
To use, place chicken in the brine, cover, and refrigerate overnight Drain and pat the chicken dry before cooking.

Ok so now after your chicken has brined for a day remove from liquid and while it is still wet place into your breading mixture. Keep turning it from side to side and pushing the breading onto the chicken. If you want you can dredge the breaded chicken in water or beer or your brine mixture and add a second coating of breading if you are so inclined.

Place in a 350 degree fryer till cook thoroughly.

After cooking drizzle on honey sambal mixture.

Photo by Kate McCann | KateMcCannPhotography.com

Carlin’s band Restorations celebrates the release of its new album, LP2, tonight at the First Unitarian Church. It was is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; download the spotlighted single “Kind of Comfort” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review, watch a video chronology in Wednesday’s post, read yesterday’s interview and check back for more Unlocked features from The Key.

Photo by Peter English for Shaking Through | shakingthrough.com

Indie pop quintet Glitter play upstairs at World Cafe Live tonight.  Taking cues from retro new wave pop, Glitter’s debut Wyld Hrts LP could have been the soundtrack to your favorite eighties-era tv show with its catchy guitar hooks and spacey moog synth projections.  The full-length, available on super cool clear vinyl, follows up the young band’s debut Attack On Fort Gold Paw EP (free download here).  Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show with Joseph Mulhollen and Katie Becker & The Bricklayers can be found here.  Stream “Mirror Master” from Wyld Hrts below.

This week’s Unlocked band Restorations will play the First Unitarian Church tonight.  As we learned from Key contributor Beth Ann Downey’s introduction to the local punk rock outfit, Restorations are upfront and straightforward in every sense imaginable, from the honest and unrestrained nature of their music to their literally-titled sophomore effort LP2.  Check out the full Restorations series for Unlocked here and download “Kind of Comfort” below.  Tickets and information for the all-ages show with Self Defense Family, Exploded Drawings and Psychic Teens can be found here.

• Kind of Comfortby Restorations from LP2Download

Even though today’s Free at Noon with They Might Be Giants and Frightened Rabbit was sold-out, you still have a chance to see the former at The TLA tonight.  The New York nerd pop / rock duo released their 16th studio album Nanobots last month following a brief stint in the children’s music arena and 2011′s Join Us LP.  Despite the multitude of releases over their 20+ year career, the 1990 hit “Birdhouse in Your Soul” remains TMBG’s highest charting song to date.  Tickets and information for tonight’s all-ages show with Moon Hooch can be found here.  Below, watch the original video for “Birdhouse in Your Soul” and then stream their new single “Nanobots.”

Philly rapper Meek Mill will finally step on to the stage at The Tower Theater tonight, several months after the release of his Dreams and Nightmares record.  The quickly-rising performer had to put his tour on hold following a court-ordered travel probation.  But with all of that behind him, Meek Mill is ready to take his Dreams Come True tour across the country this spring.  Tickets and information for tonight’s event with Ace Hold can be found here.  Below watch Mill’s interview with The Fader at Sigma Sound Studio.

Also Happening: XPN welcomes Carolina Chocolate Drops to The Grand Opera House in Wilmington, DE; XPN welcomes Joan Osborne to The Levoy Theater in Millville, NJ.  Tickets and information for both shows can be found here.

Right across from Miner Street Studios, where the band recorded its last three releases, is their warehouse practice space. A series of doors open into cold, dank space, then to a homier environment with a kitchen and sofas. Someone there has jokingly crossed out part of the “Restroom” sign so that it now bears the band’s name. The five-piece squeezes into a tiny, sealed-off room, sometimes also visited or accompanied on a fourth guitar by their producer, Jon Low.

Tonight, songs like “D” and “Let’s Blow Up the Sun” off the band’s newly released LP2 are blaring – seeping through the walls and wafting out on to the adjacent street. Past favorites like “When You’re Older” join the new ones, as do laughs and the spontaneous 30-second launch into a cover of “Slide” by the Goo Goo Dolls.

This little corner of Fishtown is where the fun and the magic happen, but a far journey from where Restorations started with the project in 2008.

“We had all come in as defeated, resigned musicians being like, ‘Who cares, we’ll play for a couple of beers and gas money,” said frontman Jon Loudon, who started the band with guitarist Dave Klyman after the split of their post-hardcore band, Jena Berlin. “That’s all we really wanted. If we recorded, great! Cool! And that was it, we’d have something to do on Thursday nights. That was the M.O. of the band for the longest time.”

In the beginning, it was never the intention for Restorations to be the band they are today — one with an extensive and constantly maturing discography, a new record deal and the ability and opportunity to soon tour the country. They agree that the August announcement of their signing to SideOneDummy Records — home to bands like Anti-Flag and The Gaslight Anthem — was a “we made it” moment for this collection of musicians who had given up on that dream multiple times before.

“We finally just got the job that we wanted,” said drummer Carlin Brown. “So now, it’s actually time to work.”

“I feel really, kind of little kid-ish about it,” added Loudon. “It’s been so surreal, I guess, because I think getting into it, we thought there were going to be a lot of concessions on our end, and things that they would want us to do and a lot of negotiating things. Basically it just boiled down to, ‘Hey, you guys have fun. Let us know if you need any help.’ … They’ve just been really helpful and really nice. Not that we’ve been jerks about it, but they’ve just stayed out of our way in general. They’ve helped us get all of the stuff that we’ve always wanted, more or less, and it’s been all of the right people, all of the right situations.”

The support from the label allowed Restorations to make LP2 in the best way possible – without worry. Logistics aside, the band was able to focus on writing and recording this faster, tighter, more rhythmic and rockin’ LP.

“You would wake up and it was a nice, beautiful day in Philadelphia,” said Brown of the recording experience. “You’d see the sun and you’d walk in and you’d go (sighs), ‘This is everything I want to do, is just drink coffee and play music all day.”

“And I didn’t play percussion in my bedroom,” added Low, referencing his work mixing the band’s first self-titled full-length record. Low added percussion accents to several songs for the band after they ran out pretty much run out of money for more studio time to do it themselves.

Loudon credits Low for LP2’s cleaner, more edited and more purposeful sound. Gone are the days of the band’s less precise, floaty rhythm section and adding feedback or other elements to a recording without reason.

But lyrically, Loudon said he still followed the same process and drew from the same pools of emotional inspiration for LP2.

“I feel like I’m writing the same song every time we make a song,” Loudon said with a laugh. “A lot of the songs are sort of building off of one basic idea, you know, one riff. There’s a certain way that I think we write songs. I’ve tried to sort of, lyrically, have that happen too. So it just sort of tumbles, and everything that is going to happen in the band is already there and it just sort of comes together in different ways as it goes along. … I like the idea of drone and repetition, and just sort of sticking with things. I like that as a theme.”

“There is a story in there somewhere,” added Klyman. “You don’t have to describe the plot, it just sort of happens.”

Songs on LP2 like album opener “D” took just a week for Restorations to write. Others, including “New/Old,” have been more than two years in the making. That track was a cast-off from the band’s first LP that was then revisited, and finally finished, for this record.

“It’s great that people are like, really into it, because that was a song we thought sucked,” Loudon says. “We sort of have a long history of just being like ‘Nope, it’s not going on the record. Then we swat songs down and never release them.”

The meandering, post-rock influenced and half percussion-less “0.014MPH” didn’t make the cut for LP2. Instead of keeping it in the vault, the band released it on a 7-inch record that preceded the full-length.

“We put it out as a B-side thinking some people would appreciate it, and people that give a shit like that, they could have it.” Loudon said.

Criticism for LP2 has been overwhelmingly shadowed by praise since the album was released Tuesday. Kind words any many other factors have helped Restorations build a vote of confidence in their abilities and place in the punk scene. Loudon said some of this is also due to the band’s unconditionally supportive fan base.

“I look at a lot of bands and I feel like their fans are super demanding and entitled and really picky about what the band is doing,” Loudon said. “For us, I feel like we could put out a smooth jazz record and people would be like ‘Hell yea, that’s great, guys. Nice job.’ People don’t get mad at us about stuff. I don’t know why that is with our band, but in general we don’t seem to get that backlash that most bands seem to get. “

No matter what successes or failures the future holds, Restorations has no intention of becoming complacent. The idea of constantly improving is all but ingrained in the band’s namesake.

“I wasn’t even in the band and I said ‘Well, why are you calling it Restorations?’” bassist Dan Zimmerman recalled. “[Loudon said] ‘You know, we’re always try to make improvements, no matter what.’ That was something that stuck with me when I was not even in the band … and it’s still the same concept. No matter what we write, we’re always going, ‘Oh man wait we could do this! Oh hold on, hold on, stop, you do that now.’”

Let’s hope Restorations keeps doing what they’re doing, especially on that little corner in Fishtown.

LP2 is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Kind of Comfort” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review, watch a live chronology of the band in yesterday’s post and check back tomorrow as we travel into the kitchen with drummer Carlin Brown.

PhilaMOCA programmer Eric Bresler previews Cinedelphia‘s Tuesday Tune-Out series for April [link]

Meet Dante Bucci, the local musician who kicked-off WXPN’s Philly Local Busker Series at The Porch at 30th Street Station this week [link]

Watch local folk duo Maitland perform “Embers” in advance of their Friday, April 5th show at The Trocadero balcony [link]

Mayer Hawthorne‘s new song “Designer Drug” was Tuesday’s My Morning Download [link]

JUMP Magazine shared their recap and photos of Plow United‘s Saturday night show at The Barbary [link]

Stream and download Burn the Wish from local duo Great Red Spots, recorded at West Philly DIY space Sprinkle Kingdom [link]

Reed The Lost Cauze is back with a debut podcast/free download called REEF RADIO, [link]

Unlocked digs into Restorations‘ LP2 ahead of their record release show this Friday [link]

Take a listen to Wrong World‘s “See These Streets” and see them open for Bleeding Rainbow and The Cave Singers on Thursday [link]

Patty Griffin was spotlighted on XPN’s Gotta Hear Song of the Week with “Ohio,” featuring Robert Plant [link]

NPR Music’s First Listen is streaming Kurt Vile‘s Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze before the album’s official release next week [link]

The 2011 installment (Fest 10) was Restorations’ first, aside from a one-off house show at Fest 7 before guitarist/keyboard player Ben Pierce was even in the band. It was one of the only out-of-the-Northeast shows the band was able to play with most members carrying full-time jobs. They took on the small club at the festival called Loosey’s. And to that small but packed house, they must have played the set of a lifetime because, after Fest 10, everyone started to take notice.

Through the peaking sound and shakey camera view of the video above from that very set, you can still see what Restorations does to a crowd. It was the energy that made critics at the show write, “Look for them in a larger venue at Fest 11, as the buzz is sure to only grow.” The Alternative Press Magazine writer made an accurate prediction — Restorations was slotted to play the High Dive concert venue for a 600-person crowd at Fest 11 last October. But they stopped by at Loosey’s once again for a smaller preshow event, not forgetting where their Fest hype came from. Both shows highlighted the band’s revered new bassist (Dan Zimmerman), their big label signing news (to SideOneDummy) and a few awesome new songs (from their A/B 7-inch, the video below is the band performing “A”). Their smiling faces show this crowd was anything but a disappointment.

And why should Philly punk fans care about this collection of shows played at a festival in Florida? Well, it can only be assumed that Restorations has a ton of sweat, energy and adrenaline stored up and ready to unleash on the local crowd at their LP2 record release show this Friday at First Unitarian Church. Then they will embark on their first lengthy U.S. tour with Captain We’re Sinking, Fake Problems and fellow local punks The Menzingers. That tour will also stop by the Church again on May 24.

Restorations will be ready to rip right through new tracks the video above of them playing “Let’s Blow Up the Sun” live in Brooklyn this past February. Fest may be where it started for Restorations, but only time will tell just how far this band is headed.

LP2 is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; download the spotlighted single “Kind of Comfort” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review and check back tomorrow for an interview with the band.

This band’s ability to generate a wall of sound is what made the generation of “grown-up” punks gravitate toward Restorations, building their reputation after the release of their self-titled LP in 2011. But close listeners of any Restorations song will pick up on more than just the overview, the surface. They’ll hold on to a subtle but notable guitar lick, a slamming bass note or a simple, poignant lyric that in turn gets stuck in your head for days.

This week’s release of LP2 will not disappoint long-time fans. The sophomore full-length not only crashes over the heads of listeners, but sweeps you away into the sea of complexity, maturity and the band’s full-blown ability to rock. They’re brand is much different from the fuzz rock phenomenon of today. The crispness and thoughtfulness behind each layer and effect are heightened under the direction of producer Jon Low, who mixed self-titled and produced Restorations’ last two 7-inch records. These also aren’t the loud-and-fast, two-minute bursts that often characterize a “punk song.” They’re sometimes slow and steady, with hills and valleys that still lead you somewhere very, very loud by then end.

The band does embrace a faster, heavier and less subdued sound on LP2 compared to past releases that hits you straight off the bat with the opening track, “D.” It’s hard not to imagine a captivated audience slowly bobbing their heads when that triumphant solo guitar blasts into their ears, and then going crazy when the drums and bass finally kick in. The album’s second track, “Let’s Blow Up The Sun,” is an early release hold-out and should prove spectacular to hear live (especially when the band plays it at the First Unitarian Church this Friday), with an irregular beat and dissonance in the chords.

Heaviness and advanced production does not leave LP2 without nuance. There’s “The Plan” and its folky lean, and “Kind of Comfort” with guitars and harmonies buoyant enough for your ears to swim in. Lyrical and instrumental narratives are both present and shine through the ups and downs of “New Old,” and we physically follow the band on the road in Gainesville, Lansing, Charlotte and Montreal in “Quit.”

The nearly six-minute end track “Adventure Tortoise,” (with its two-and-a-half minute instrumental opening) is expectedly the most epic. It reads like an abstract story of short fiction when frontman Jon Loudon sings of a journey to a place “where nobody knows your name, where nobody’s heard of your town.”

Restorations has been compared to a variety of tastemakers and contemporaries – from Goo Goo Dolls and Gaslight Anthem to Bad Religion and Brand New. The scope of these comparisons shows there’s been something about this band that critical listeners could never quite put their finger on or pin down. LP2 is a sign we should all stop trying.

No track on this album is a skip-through or a cast off. Restorations was able to show growth in their sound while staying true to their roots and unique qualities. It’s a refreshing, reassuring thing to see, even after the band’s first stroll with major label SideOneDummy. This band should be happy with the record they produced. And if you’re a fan of loud, straight-forward and emotional rock music, LP2 will make you happy, too.

LP2 is the featured album in this week’s edition of Unlocked. Download “Kind of Comfort,” the album’s highlighted single, in yesterday’s post, and check back tomorrow for its video and an interview with the band later in the week.

Photo by Kenneth Smith | Glass Nail Records

After some plum opening spots on tour with Hot Water Music and The Gaslight Anthem, Philly punk powerhouse The Menzingers are hitting the road on a headlining tour in support of their 2012 LP On the Impossible Past. Like-minded local five-piece Restorations – the subject of this week’s Unlocked showcase – will be one of the support acts for the tour, which kicks off at The First Unitarian Church on May 24th; tickets go on sale this Friday, April 5th via R5 Productions. Below, download Key Studio Sessions performances of The Menzingers’ “Mexican Guitars” and Restorations’ “Non Locality.”

Philly punk band Restorations prides itself on a certain type of simplicity.

The band was formed out of the ashes of not just one failed project, but probably about half a dozen across its five members. Vocalist Jon Loudon, guitarists Dave Klyman, bassist Dan Zimmerman, drummer Carlin Brown and guitar/keys player Ben Pierce came together with the simple goal to restore their faith in music, the industry, consumers and fans.

They make albums with straightforward titles, including 2011’s self-titled LP, last year’s A/B 7-inch, and now, tomorrow’s release of LP2. But the music made by Restorations is anything but simple. The band mixes the energy of punk music with the complexity of shoegaze and the tradition of classic rock. Steady build-ups and loud break-downs take any listener through waves of instrumental and emotional highs and lows. Loudon’s deep, scratchy vocals and growls come in at just the right moment to rattle you to the core. Harmonies and guitar parts layer in ways you would have never thought possible.

Despite initial humble intentions, Restorations is blowing up among mature punk listeners, and even beyond the punk world. All this week, The Key will look into LP2 to find out what all the buzz is about as part of our weekly Unlocked series.

Today, you can download “Kind of Comfort” for free, which highlights Restorations’ inclination toward snarly guitar solos and spacey effects. Several of the album’s tracks have also been digitally pre-released to build the hype for tomorrow and Friday’s album release show at the First Unitarian Church. And check back later in the week for a review, video, interview and more.

• Kind of Comfortby Restorations from LP2Download

Restorations | Photo by Beth Ann Downey

Collaborate Philly hosted its first annual Philly Beergasm charity fundraiser last night, and the event proved to be just as exciting as its title.

The networking collective for the local creative community joined up with Beer Cakes Philly to throw the beer and food tasting party at Yards Brewing Company, with proceeds benefiting Philabundance.

Though the chill hang and networking vibe permeated throughout most of the evening, live acoustic sets from End of America and Philly’s own Restorations were the highlight of the entertainment.

Restorations played through some of the stripped-down stock from their new album LP2, which drops on Tuesday. They serenaded the slightly craft beer buzzed audience with tracks like “New Old,” “A” and even old favorites like “Nonlocality.”

A raffle of beer-related apparel from Triumph and other local breweries ended the event. Whether it was the beer, the prizes or the live music, few in the small audience seemed to leave unsatisfied.

Photo by George Miller III | JumpPhilly.com

Philly five-piece Restorations premiered a new song yesterday through national website Punknews.org. “D” is the opening track on the band’s new LP2, out on April 2 via SideOneDummy records, and it kicks off with ringing guitar notes that cut an alluring soundscape, then launches into an aggressive, snare drum slamming overdrive. Singer / guitarist Jon Loudon seems to be focused on perception, taking stock of the world around him: “Always looked at clouds like continents…always looked the cities like people.” For a band that already did epic dang well, this is epic-epic. Listen to “D” here; Restorations plays its album release show at the First Unitarian Church on April 5. Tickets and information are available here.

Into It. Over It, the ambitious punk/pop solo act of Damiera member Evan Weiss, will be performing tonight with local punk/hardcore hybrid Restorations at First Unitarian Church. This is the first full-band tour for Into It. Over It. after releasing its debut full-length record Proper in 2011. Prior to Proper’s release, Into It. Over It. recorded 52 Weeks, a year-long effort that involved writing, recording and releasing new tracks every week during 2007; the finished product was released as a collection in 2009. Tickets  for the 7:30 show are available here. Below, check out the title track from Into It. Over It.’s Proper.

Philly four-piece shoegaze band Forest Fools will be playing at Pi Lam tonight with fellow local dream pop group The Tweeds. ”Weakend Guest” from The Tweeds’ 2011 full-length album, Goliath, is available for a free download here. The show starts 8 PM; more details can be found here. Below you listen to Forest Fools’ latest track “The Way Out” from their forthcoming EP.

Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora will be playing at the Electric Factory tonight. During Bon Jovi’s two year hiatus, Sambora took the opportunity to release his third solo album, Aftermath of the Lowdown, in September. Tickets for the 8:30 show can be found here. Check out Sambora’s performance of “You Can Only Get So High” at our own Free At Noon show at World Cafe Live a month ago. UPDATE: Richie Sambora canceled tonight’s show, as well as adjoining shows in Toronto and New York City. Refunds are available at point of purchase, internet and phone orders will automatically be canceled & refunded. From Sambora’s Facebook: “Really, really sorry – I just blew my voice out. I’m on vocal rest and it wouldn’t be fair to give you a less than 100% performance. I promise to more than make it up to you though!”

Photo by Madeleine Lesperance

Awesome news for Philly adult-punks Restorations; they’ve been signed to SideOneDummy Records, according to a report on PunkNews.org. They plan to release their sophomore full-length which was recorded will be recorded at Miner Street Studios with producer Jonathan Low this spring in early 2013; sessions begin next week. The label seemed just as stoked on the news as the band and their fans are: “We are thrilled to finally announce that one of our favorite bands, Restorations, has joined the SideOneDummy family,” they posted today. “After their last self-titled record won the entire staff over, we could not stop talking about how great it would be to work with these guys.” While we can’t wait to hear the full new record, a taste of new material is out there: earlier this year, Restorations released the A/B 7″ on Tiny Engines records, which features two songs from the band’s Miner Street sessions earlier this spring. For more streamable Restorations goodness, check out their voluminous Key Studio Session from 2011 here.

You can listen to Restoration’s Key Studio Session here; you can purchase the band’s LP (which is limited to 500 copies and features gatefold jackets with art by Bruno Guerreiro) from Tiny Engines.

Restorations: “When You’re Older” from Punknews.org on Vimeo.

OCT 21 – Brooklyn, NY – Acquatic People CMJ Showcase @ Fifth Estate Bar w/ Look Mexico, Tidal Arms, Summer Pledge, Ghastly City Sleep
OCT 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fire w/ Look Mexico, Kite Party, Lightnening
OCT 23 – Camden, NJ @ Rutgers Camden w/ Look Mexico, Bridge And Tunnel, Banquets
OCT 24 – Alexandria, VA @ Little Man’s Garage (restorationstheband@gmail.com for address) w/ Look Mexico
OCT 25 – Chapel Hill, NC @ The Cave w/ Look Mexico, Red Collar, Gray Young
OCT 26 – Wilmington, NC – Southbound and Down Fest @ The Soapbox w/ Red Collar, Look Mexico, None More Black, Dead To Me, more
OCT 27 – Jacksonville, FL @ TBA w/ Red Collar
OCT 30 – Gainesville, FL – The FEST @ Loosey’s w/ Dikembe, Junior Battles, Nightlights, Failures Union, more

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.

Photo by Madeleine Lesperance

From the layers of instrumental swell that lead into their songs, to the years they spent playing live without an album, Philly rock five-piece Restorations has been all about the build-up. This ragtag bunch of punk-rock refugees first emerged on local stages circa 2008, their songwriting pointed down the path of distortion pedal Americana and their well-worn amp heads cranked. The band’s self-titled debut released in April of this year on Tiny Engines Records was well worth the wait, and its Key Studio Session (co-engineered by XPN2’s Maddie Lesperance) proved to be one of our loudest and most energetic to date. Album opener “Non Locality” shook the studio walls with its dramatic pacing: instrumental parts are added, echoed, and embellished until they drop away for fist-swinging four-part harmonies. “Frankford”—an ode to singer/guitarist Jon Loudon’s home turf in the near Northeast section of the city—was a roaring onslaught, and anthemic closer “Val d’Or” was still ringing in our heads long after we packed up for the night. Dig in and download below, or check out this force of auditory nature in person when Restorations opens for True Widow at Kung Fu Necktie on Aug. 14.

• Canadian Clubby Restorations from The Key Studio Sessions 7/27/11Download

• Frankfordby Restorations from The Key Studio Sessions 7/27/11Download

• Non Localityby Restorations from The Key Studio Sessions 7/27/11Download

• Val d' Orby Restorations from The Key Studio Sessions 7/27/11Download

• West Riverby Restorations from The Key Studio Sessions 7/27/11Download