• Street Burnby The National Rifle from Almost EndlessDownload

California indie alt-poppers Local Natives may have already sold out their Union Transfer date in April, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy their new LP Hummingbird.  The band has made lead track “You & I” available as a free download on their Soundcloud.  The song is reminiscent of the band’s 2010 debut Gorilla Manor with it’s bright guitars and heavy drums, but slants the overall tone in a more mysterious direction.

Nashville’s Photo Ops (Terry Price) has said his goal when recording his upcoming album How to Say Goodbye was to pay homage to three influences – Paul Simon’s self-titled debut (1972), Dion’s Born to Be With You (1972) and The Radio Dept.’s Clinging to a Scheme (2010).  Price blends the classic 70s melodies of the Phil Spector-produced albums with the dreamy, lush production of The Radio Dept. effortlessly on the How to Say Goodbye.  Go here to download “Someplace.”

Each weekday in February, World Cafe will be offering a free download from recent sessions, forming a 20 song, limited edition sampler by the end of the month.  The first offering was 2012 favorite Lord Huron‘s Cafe take of “Ends of the Earth” off of their Lonesome Dreams debut.  Stream and download the song below, and check back all month to complete the collection.  Listen to the full Lord Huron session here.

Lancaster folk trio The Stray Birds came in for a Key Studio Session this week, recording  four songs from their latest self-titled LP and reaching back to 2010′s Borderland EP for “My Horses Ain’t Hungry.”  Thanks to their classic approach to folk music blending both catchy, invigorating melodies with more adventurous explorations of Appalachian-style compositions, The Stray Birds recently received praise from NPR and Folk Alley.  Stream and download “Dream in Blue” below from their Key Studio Session and grab the full set here.

• Dream in Blueby The Stray Birds from The Key Studio SessionsDownload

“Our shows in Dallas, TX which are always pretty crazy and fun.”

“This was taken from one of our Kickstarter thank you videos. It is always funny to see Hugh out of his comfort zone.”

“This is me in our van on tour – when we opened the windows in the van on all four sides it is like a tornado in the van and I was getting a kick out of it.”

“This was taken at a house show we played in Bowling Green, OH. We actually were having an obsession over those cookies from Trader Joes called “Jo-Jos” and Buddy couldnt stop making songs/dances about the cookie.”

“This is Buddy and Jeremiah on the teacups at Disneyland. We got to fly out there to play some shows in 2010.”

“This was taken during the recording of Vanity Press in 2010 – it is rare you see Jeremiah opening a can of beer like he means it.”

“Hugh is in the van next to the clean, laundered underwear drying in the wind. We had to hit the road for the next show and didn’t have time to hang around the motel.”

Almost Endless is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted song “Street Burn” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review; see a video for “Coke Beat” in Wednesday’s post and read yesterday’s interview. And stay tuned to The Key for future album spotlights on Unlocked.

Three-fourths of The National Rifle are gathered ’round a table at XPN Studios, scrambling on smart phones to find thank-you videos they made for their Kickstarter backers. In one, drummer Buddy Mazzenga rolls around Scrooge McDuck-style on a pile of donated money. In another, bassist Jeremiah Sweeney dances to Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf.” For as much as their new album Almost Endless – which we’ve explored all week on Unlocked – finds the band in more serious, contemplative territory than we’ve heard from them before, they’re the same goofy group of players we’ve watched for the past six years. After some laughs, we got collectively focused and talked about a few things – the process of self-discovery that went into this album, the transportive power of synthesizer tones and how personality (which they have no shortage of) goes a long way, but solid songs go even further.

The Key: When you perform, your personality does come across in your live show. I like that you’re taking the extra step further with these personalized videos. How did you realize that your fans would respond like that?

Hugh Moretta: It’s because we really try to talk to everybody at shows, we’re not shy about it. We hang out with everybody that comes, so they all kind of know our personalities. It’s almost like inside joke stuff…they get it, they know our sense of humor, we know how they are.

Jeremiah Sweeney: We’re really close with all our fans. We talk to them every day on our Facebook, they even text us.

HM: There’s a few people in Philly, but it’s mostly people on the road. Texas specifically.

Lynna Stancato: Yeah, for some reason, we have this group of fans in Texas. We have a really good draw in Dallas, and in Austin too. And they, after we played there a couple times and there’s a group of people who like clung on to us. And because we’re not shy people, when we’re on the road, too, we’re gonna hang out, you know? Where else are we gonna go?

TK: You need something to do!

LS: I think that’s why you become closer with people you meet on the road. You need to make friends to places to stay, to make connections, to meet people when you’re in a town you don’t know. So we find ourselves hanging out more at shows – we do in Philly too – but we see these Philly people all the time, ’cause we live here. So I think when we did the Kickstarter and when we were thinking of the rewards we want to give, we tried to think of what the people would like. We knew they would like a funny video, especially the people who hang out with us in Texas.

JS: I think the overall thing is we’re a friendly band. And people cling on to that. And I think with the new album, we didn’t want to so much step away from being a friendly band, but we wanted people to like us and come out to our shows for the music and not just for our live performance and to hang out with us.

LS: People always tell us that they like us as people. But…

JS: But we’re a band.

LS: Yeah! Are you attracted to our music? That’s how you met us, because we’re a band, because we played a show, we hope that you like our also like our music, not just because we’re fun to hang out with. Our main goal is for you to like our music too. I mean, that wasn’t the main drive behind the album, but it was something we hoped for. I said this a lot – we don’t want to be a party band anymore.

TK: You did two things with the album – one, it’s not an EP, it’s your first album. And production-wise, you really stepped up your game. Is that why?

HM: The production part isn’t as much up to us. In the past, it was really been what we could afford. Which is part of the reason we had to do the Kickstarter this time. And it was like that – if we’re going to do a full-length, we’re going to spend a lot of money on it. But you can spend a lot of money for crap too, that’s the thing. But luckily it worked out. Mainly because of where we went, and because of Jon and Brian at Miner Street.

LS: Probably the best decision we ever made.

HM: And Jon had the most to do with it. Brian is a great guy and they definitely share the same passion and same ideas about production. And Jon especially took it to another level. Any success this album has, I will attribute to Jon.

JS: He really created an awesome work environment. He was very laid back, really open to trying different sounds. We kicked off an awesome relationship right from the beginning.

LS: He doesn’t just take what you’re doing and press record. For example – I would show up and have a synth sound in mind for a certain song. I’d play it, and he would be like “we can tweak this, I can make this a better sound.” In the past places, they’d say “oh, that’s what you want, we’ll put it on, you’re good.” He’d listen to it with the rest of what’s done and say if he thought it didn’t go. And we’d sit there with the Juno and tweak and tweak until we made the perfect sound. We would spend a half hour making the perfect sound, and I’d never experienced that before at other places where it was up to me. I felt for once like we’d worked with a real producer.

TK: You moved to a really synth oriented sound on this record. Not that there aren’t rockers like “Street Burn” – you mix it up. But when you first decided to move in that direction, did you know you’d take it this far?

HM: There was a vision, I think. I was really interested in electronic music at that time, I still am. The thing that’s weird is with there wasn’t really that much of a goal with this album. Which is kind of crazy. [laughs]

JS: Well, there was. We wanted it to have a flow, and have emotion, and be an experience when you listen.

LS: But that’s the goal with any album.

TK: But when you’ve just done EPs before…

JS: Exactly. An EP is just five songs, whatever. You put them out there But we actually spent time figuring out how to make this album tie together.

HM: But one thing we definitely took from Jon is thinking about the end result of a song before you start writing. We didn’t do that before. We didn’t even really do it with Almost Endless. Thinking back on the process, it was more “I like this guitar riff, let’s see what kind of song it makes.” And this experience helped understand what kind of band we are, what kind of songwriter I am, and what we want. I don’t think any of us knew. That’s why everything is so different from before. Maybe for all five years before we recorded, I just don’t think we knew.

TK: And what kind of band are you? What kind of songwriter are you?

HM: I learned that the things I value – and it’s based on a lot of pop music things – are melody and movement of the melody, and transition. People would say they’re hooks, but it’s more like unexpected turns of events within the song, but still staying within a pop structure. That’s where I’m working now, trying to create an immersive environment with the music, a feeling for people to latch on to.

TK: “Coke Beat” does that really well. It’s got an ambient, dreamy texture but then Buddy starts drumming and it kicks in to another direction.

HM: That’s a really good example. We make the album and you learn what’s successful. And “Coke Beat,” for me, was the biggest success. So that’s the sound I’m focusing on now. That song has such a feeling, it takes you somewhere right away, and then it elevates you. So those are my goals. Does it take you somewhere in an interesting or unexpected way? Is it transportive? That’s what we value as a band, that’s what’s new with Almost Endless – and its even different with our live shows now too. We want to take you on a trip.

TK: When I saw you at MilkBoy back in the fall, the first show where you were really loading the new material into the set – it was different, sure, but you still felt like yourselves.

LS: I think we still want to bring that energetic element that we’ve always brought to the shows while doing justice to the new material. These songs, they’re a little harder to play live because they’re more complex. We can’t put the amount of craziness we used to put into our shows because we’re not running around hitting floor toms anymore. But we don’t want to be a band that’s up there staring at our shoes either.

JS: It’s not in us

LS: We want to stand out as an energetic band, because that is something we’re known for.

JS: That and we just feel the music when we’re onstage, and you can’t help it. If the music’s good, you gotta dance.

Almost Endless is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted song “Street Burn” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review; see the video for “Coke Beat” in yesterday’s post and check back tomorrow for a collection of The National Rifle-themed animated GIFs. Seriously.

Nightlands | Photo by Matthew Davis

Prairie Empire stops by to record a Folkadelphia session [link]

Philly’s Nightlands celebrates the release of Oak Island at Kung Fu Necktie [link]

My Morning Jacket’s Jim James streams his new album, announces a Union Transfer show [link]

Philly rockers Free Energy get interviewed by a couple sixth graders [link]

Remembering versatile guitarist Jef Lee Johnson, who passed away at age 54 this week [link]

Indiepop five-piece Catnaps releases a new EP for free downloading [link]

Shoegazers Nothing will make the First Friday crowd wish they packed earplugs [link]

Lancaster folk trio The Stray Birds records a Key Studio Session, comes to World Cafe Live [link]

Philly rapper Chill Moody releases a mini-documentary of his December TLA show [link]

Thao Nguyen plays “We The Common” on a banjo, through a microphone, at a rally [link]

All week the Unlocked series features Almost Endless, the new LP from The National Rifle [link]

TNR’s keyboardist / vocalist Lynna Stancato explained that the band knew that it didn’t want to release a music video that was “funny” or “cute.” The group as a whole was inspired by found footage productions a la Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure” music video, while singer and songwriter Hugh Moretta’s had his own fascination with macro photography. So the result is a frenetic and trippy montage of frenzied eyeballs, close-ups of cells and molecules, insects, paint being applied to impressionist canvases, edited together by filmmaker Brian Carroll.

“You notice that the video gets more and more colorful towards the end of the video, which is on purpose,” writes Stancato. “Overall I think the concept is seeing things for what the truly are. Although I particularly like how the eyes kind of ‘freak out’ throughout the video because, to me, it represents how we are not always prepared for what we may find out.” Watch our premier of The National Rifle’s “Coke Beat” video below.

Almost Endless is the featured album in this week’s edition of Unlocked; download the spotlighted single “Street Burn” in Monday’s post, read yesterday’s album review and check back later in the week for interviews, video and more.

Now, I can’t claim to know what exactly Hugh Moretta and his bandmates in The National Rifle are upset about. They don’t provide us with many specific lyrical clues, either. There a lot of vagueness about not wanting, and not having. But on the new Almost Endless – the band’s full-length debut, and it’s most refined effort to date – the frustration is palpable, as is the joy.

Having garnered a reputation as a hard-touring party band on the night club / house show circuit, TNR’s sound was formerly scraggly and boisterous. But with a few notable exceptions – “Jazz History of the World” from the Vanity Press EP, and it’s self-depricating opening stroke “I’m the same age my mother was when she had me, but I’m not grown up” -  it didn’t particularly tug at any emotions, short of “let’s have fun.” This album takes that honest, reflective side of the band and chases it full speed ahead.

Glimmering opener “Coke Beat” is restless and confused – “Don’t look around,” Moretta repeats in harmony with keyboardist Lynna Stancato. “Can’t understand. I’ll wait around. Nowhere to go.” There’s a feeling of being stuck in place, cornered, defenseless. Later on, propulsive synth-rocker “So Real” is in the same spot: “We’re never done. Can’t outrun. Be there always.”

The words across the album read more like stream-of-conscious phrases and random thoughts rather than beautifully flowing lyrics. They’re not specific, as I said – could be about anything, really, which makes them a fine blank canvas for listeners to project their own disappointments onto. But this exhausted brevity also hammers home the point of frustration and stagnation – the things the band’s sound looks to overcome.

“Glass Line” drops tones of 90s dreampoppers My Favorite and Saint Etienne as Stancato sings “You want, you want, you want it all.” Wanting comes up again in the title track – its unconventional structure betrays Moretta’s musical schooling, but its bright chords and falsetto refrain are exhilarating as he sets the stage: “You know what you want.”

Mixing barbs about abandonment and dejection with exuberant rock and roll is the crux of the album – see “Street Burn,” which we’re offering as a free download all week. But in the end, after transforming these worldly frustrations into uplifting music, the message at the end of the album is self-confidence and self-reliance. “All the ways you were wrong,” Moretta and Stancato repeat as “Night High” trails into the night. “All the ways that we’re not.”

Almost Endless is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Street Burn” in yesterday’s post, and check back later in the week for interviews, video and more.

Photo via PhilaMOCA

We’re exploring the album all week on Unlocked, The Key’s regular showcase of new and significant releases from Philadelphia-area artists. Tomorrow I’ll review the album; later in the week we’ll premier a new video, and chat with the band. Today, we’ve got a download of a personal favorite track on the album – “Street Burn.” They played this song in our studio two years ago, when they recorded their Key Studio Session – back then it didn’t have a name, but it had a distinctively synth-heavy sound, bridging the band’s worlds; riled-up rockers and synth-pop adventurers. Thanks to the band, we’re making it available as a free download this week, so grab it below. And check back all week for more from Almost Endless on Unlocked.

• Street Burnby The National Rifle from Almost EndlessDownload

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.

For their final installment of PhilaMOCA‘s Tuesday Tune-Out series, JUMP Philly signed up indie quartet The National Rifle.  The local band is gearing up to release their first full-length Almost Endless, recorded with Brian McTear (Shaking Through Series, Sharon Van Etten) and Jon Low (Twin Sister).  Tonight’s set at PhilaMOCA will be followed by a screening of 1979 cult action film The Warriors; more information can be found here.  Below, stream “Coke Beat,” The National Rifle’s first single from their upcoming album.

Singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne brings her “Up Close and Personal” tour to World Cafe Live tonight.  Lynne will perform a solo acoustic set of songs from her recent Revelation Road Deluxe Edition release, her thirteenth studio album.  The record’s making-of documentary will also be screened, followed by a Q&A session with Lynne.  Tickets and more information can be found here.  Below, watch Shelby Lynne perform the title track to Revelation Road.

Experimental dream-pop group Twin Sister play Union Transfer tonight with School of Seven Bells.  The Long Island band released their most recent album, In Heaven, last year.  Twin Sister also participated in Weathervane Music’s Shaking Through Series, recording “Meet the Frownies” for Volume I Episode 8.  Tickets and information for tonight’s show can be found here.  Below, watch Twin Sister’s Shaking Through episode.

Modern Inventors will open for South Africans Civil Twilight tonight at The Note in West Chester.  The release of Modern Inventors’ debut album Trains & Aeroplanes is just one month away and you can get a taste of the Philly duo’s sound with the record’s first single “Hello” below.  Tickets and information for tonight’s show can be found here.

Philly-bred singer-songwriter Jason Karaban returns home from L.A. tonight to celebrate the release of his new album, Shift, which came out on September 4th. Karaban joined WXPN’s Helen Leicht on her show Leicht Lunch on Wednesday to play a few songs from his new album and his song “Misplaced” was Wednesday’s My Morning Download. Now, WXPN is welcoming Karaban to the Tin Angel tonight for a 21+ CD release party. The show kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available here for $10. Below, watch the video for “Misplaced” from Jason Karaban’s new album.

Haitian kompa musician Blayer PointduJour just released his first full-length album this week with his band, the Rockers Galore. To celebrate, PointduJour is playing a record release show at MilkBoy Philly. The 21+ show also features I Yahn I Arkestra, The National Rifle, and Philadelphia Slick. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and the show starts at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are available here for $10. Blayer PointduJour was also this week’s Unlocked band on The Key. Check out The Key’s album review of his new record The Bull here and listen to his song “One Hit” in the player below.

Former Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra is headed to Philly tonight for an all ages show at the Trocadero with his band, the Guantanamo School of Medicine. The show also features performances by The Ray Gradys, Honah Lee, and Thee Nosebleeds. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are available here for $15.

Finally, Philly bands Arctic Splash, Weird Hot are playing St. James & the Apostles‘s record release show tonight at Johnny Brenda’s. The doors for the 21+ show open at 8:00 p.m. and the show starts at 9:15 p.m. Tickets are available for $10 here. Vinyl copies of St. James & the Apostles’ new album, Baphomet, will be available at the show.

After a half-dozen years raising eclectic hell on a monthly basis, the Rockers gang is having its last hurrah at Tritone tonight before the famed bar / venue stops hosting live music. On the bill are Key Studio Sessions alums The National Rifle, along with minimal cowboy punks Sunny Ali and the Kid, the rock-n-soul swagger of The Baptist Preachers, gritty grunge heads Sherman the Band and series hosts Mighty Paradocs. The 21+ show begins promptly at 9 p.m., and we expect it to go late as the crew burns the house down (not literally, of course) with it’s trademark boundary-blurring bravado that mixes up folks of different ages, cultures and scenes. When the dust settles (again, not literally), Rockers plans to relocate to The Legendary Dobbs at 15th and South – but this is one farewell party you won’t want to miss. Check out tracks from some of the bands and watch a series preview below.

When it comes to indie-rock bands that are composed of romantically involved couples (Mates Of State, The Rosebuds, Handsome Furs), Hank And Cupcakes offers something slightly off-kilter. For one thing, the married pair hails from Israel; for another, along with their silly adopted monikers, the two sport a cheerfully irreverent sensibility. The video for “Hit” features Hank And Cupcakes cavorting in nothing but body paint. With growing popularity and a new album in the works, Hank And Cupcakes is poised to spread its dance party aesthetic beyond the band’s Brooklyn base. Hank And Cupcakes performs with Gang and Pink Skull at 9 p.m. at Milkboy Philly; tickets to the 21+ show are $10. —Kiley Bense

Also Playing:
Blayer PointDuJour + The National Rifle, Adam And Dave’s Bloodline at The Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art (8 p.m., $10)
Purples + White Birds, Mike Quinn at Johnny Brenda’s (9:15 p.m., 21+, $10)
Mutlu + George Stanford at World Cafe Live (Downstairs) (8 p.m., $21–$31)
The Zombies + Acoustic Strawbs at Keswick (8 p.m., $29.50-$48.50)
Ian Axel, Bess Rogers and Allie Moss at World Cafe Live (Upstairs) (7:30 p.m. $10 plus $3 service charge) Download a tour sampler from Axel, Rogers and Moss right below.

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.

Hard-working Philly rock foursome The National Rifle is poised to make a bold jump into the long-player realm, finally. The four EPs it’s released in the past five years are a blend of studied musical nerditry, lyrical suburban malaise, snotty punk attitude, and house-party charisma. Last summer’s Vanity Press was the strongest showing to date of TNR’s skill and style, but it’s about time to put those things on a bigger platform. The band agrees; last month, it visited XPN for some mischief (its “TNRMotherfucker” tag on our studio wall was quickly covered up) and a Key Studio Session where two untitled new numbers were tested out. “Number Two” rocks a dense wall of synthesizer bass, “The Third” is singer/guitarist Hugh Moretta’s first stab at falsetto vocals. Both are intended for the debut full-length planned for a fall release, and I’m stoked to hear how the songs develop between now and then (and what they end up being called). Moretta says the Rifle is heading into sequestered, hibernation mode this summer to write and record; its last Philly blowout before doing so is next Friday, May 27, at Johnny Brenda’s, opening for The New Connection’s record release show (which we’ll tell you more about next week).

• Baby Stole My Gunfrom The Key Studio Sessions 5/18/11Download

• Number Twofrom The Key Studio Sessions 5/18/11Download

• The Thirdfrom The Key Studio Sessions 5/18/11Download

• It's Just Whiskey Mamafrom The Key Studio Sessions 5/18/11Download

The friendly folks The National Rifle dropped us a line this morning to let us know that they’ve got a new video for “In The Weeds,” the opening track off the Vanity Press EP the band released earlier this year. (Sure, the “new” video has been up on the band’s website for more than two weeks now, but we’re pretty sure nobody on the Internet really cares about timeliness.) On the website, the band asked, “Can you name the bands we’re imitating? Tell us the four bands (if you think you got it figured out) on our facebook.” But it looks like the trivia contest was short lived: After one fan guessed “velvet underground, the clash, joy division and the beach boys?,” the keyboardist admitted, “I think I drunkenly told you those answers at [Kung Fu Necktie].” Whoops. (It’s OK, we’ve all been there.) The National Rifle performs with Cheers Elephant and The New Connection at 9 p.m. Saturday, November 13, at Johnny Brenda’s; tickets to the 21+ show are $10.

Untitled from Makeshift Media on Vimeo.

Photo by Miguel Angel

Arc In Round

Saturday, August 28: The National Rifle celebrates the release of its latest EP, Vanity Press, with a performance alongside openers The New Connection and Goodnight Lights at Kung Fu Necktie (7:30 p.m., $10).

Sunday, August 29: Seattle folk duo The Dutchess And The Duke performs new songs from the upcoming Sunset/Sunrise—the follow-up to their well-received 2008 debut, She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke—with The Mural & The Mint and Jesse Hale Moore at Johnny Brenda’s (9 p.m., $10). Meanwhile, Dr. Dog guitarist Scott McMicken opens for My Morning Jacket at Penn’s Landing (7:30 p.m., $39.50).