Photo by Dominic Neitz | blackbookmag.com

Dave Hartley is a man of many roles. He’s the versatile bassist who performs regularly with The War on Drugs, and has joined the Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society, and Buried Beds on occasion. He’s the sonic mastermind behind Nightlands. He’s the scribe behind Top of The Key. Adding to this ever-growing list, you could now call Hartley a civic and cultural ambassador for the City of Philadelphia. The twelve-year resident recently took the folks at BlackBook Magazine out of Brooklyn and on a tour of Philadelphia, stopping at popular locals Letoah’s Coffee, Miner Street Recording, Loco Pez and more. Add into the mix a collection of stunning portraits by photographer Dominic Neitz and it’s a rich and multi-sensory look at our fair city. (I can almost smell the basil in the Pizza Brain photo.) Get a look at the article here.

Fayetteville NC’s Steven A. Clark is something of a “bedroom R&B” artist. Until that sunny day in late September, he had barely worked with others, and he certainly had little experience fronting a group of actual musicians. He arrived at Miner Street Recordings that morning with no instrument in hand, no cases full of equipment – just his song, “Bounty” and a voice to sing it.

Watch the episode below and download “Bounty” from Shaking Through’s Bandcamp page here.

Shaking Through: Recording Steven A. Clark from Weathervane Music on Vimeo.

The War On Drugs | Photo by John Vettese

The War on Drugs ring in the new year with streamers, space jams and jello shots [link]

Philly folk project Bad Braids premiers a new song called “Ships” [link]

Local punks Glocca Morra kick off 2013 with a bang and a Key Studio Session [link]

Read The Key’s most-viewed stories of 2012 [link]

Dr. Dog rocks a Captain Beefheart cover with Magic Band guitarist Denny Walley [link]

Heyward Howkins releases an iPhone-recorded new song and it sounds great [link]

Watch the trailer for Chill Moody‘s new album RFM [link]

Free Energy releases a music video of montaged scenes from Can’t Hardly Wait [link]

“I’m not going to stand here and tell you when it’s midnight,” Adam Granduciel told the New Year’s Eve crowd at Johnny Brenda’s. “You can work that out amongst yourselves.”

If he was attempting to play coy – like this was just another rock and roll show, rather than one of the biggest nights of the year with one of the biggest bands in Philly - Granduciel’s true excitement to be ringing in 2013 with The War on Drugs showed through in other ways. He handed out streamers to the capacity crowd before the set. He had a posterboard of multi-colored Jello shots spelling out the band’s name waiting in the wings (Key contributor Nikki Volpicelli posted a photo of this on her Philadelphia Area Music Showcase blog). And he timed the set perfectly, so the krautrock rhythms of “Your Love Is Calling My Name” raced nearly to midnight, then dipped into the genteel space jam “The Animator” while the clock (somewhere) struck 12. As streamers popped open, confetti flew and champagne was poured, the band closed the trilogy with an outstanding, moving rendition of “Come To The City,” the centerpiece of their 2011 album Slave Ambient. But the show was just getting going.

Kicking off with an inspired cover of The Waterboys’ “A Pagan Place,” Granduciel and his bandmates were energized. New drummer Patrick Berkery fit tightly in the ensemble, and kept a solid grounding to their exploratory jamming. On stage left, Charlie Hall rocked out vigorously on second guitar. Robbie Bennett happily plugged away beneath a towering assortment of keyboards at stage right. And bassist Dave Hartley was focused and Zen-like at the center, riding the groove and breaking out his trumpet for added ethereal effect.

Paul Vile – brother to War on Drugs founding member Kurt – joined the band to play harmonica on a rousing “Arms Like Bouders” from 2008′s Wagonwheel Blues. Later, band buddy Jeff White of Arctic Splash and Creepoid joined them for acoustic guitar on “Brothers.” The Future Weather EP was visited with a yearning “Coming Thru,” and the band closed the out with Wagonwheel‘s “A Needle In Your Eye #16″ – but not before tearing up “The Ties that Bind” by Bruce Springsteen. (Here’s a video of them performing it the night before – the  night they played it twice. It sounded just as great the third time around.)

Purling Hiss performed just before The War On Drugs, their grungy power-trio rock building up the energy in the room. Guitarist Mike Polizze and bassist Keil Everett played charismatically off one another, while drummer Mike Sneeringer goaded them on. The set mixed up ragers from their forthcoming LP Water on Mars – trust us, you’re psyched to hear this record – and wapped up on the dense and rousing “Almost Washed My Hair.”

Opening the show was Avery Rosewater, a new four-piece fronted by Julien Rossow-Greenberg of Arches. The band’s catchy, dreamy psych-pop carried hints of New York trendsetters DIIV, except with less fog and more beat. Those that turned up early for them got a treat – if you didn’t catch them, hear what you missed in this free download.

The War on Drugs setlist
A Pagan Place (Waterboys cover)
Baby Missiles
Arms Like Boulders
I Was There
Your Love Is Calling My Name
The Animator
Come to the City
Brothers
Coming Thru
Best Night
Black Water Falls
The Ties that Bind (Bruce Springsteen cover)
A Needle In Your Eye #16

Purling Hiss setlist
Lolita
Run from the City
Voices
Rat Race
Mercury Retrograde
Mary Bumblebee
Don’t Even Try It
Almost Washed My Hair

Photo by G. Widman | GPTMC

With 2012 wrapping to a close, there aren’t many more questions that have to be answered this year. One that you should definitely think about, though, is which concert you will be attending on New Year’s Eve. The two-night stand at Johnny Brenda’s from Philly’s The War on Drugs is sold out as of this morning, but we’ve got a round-up of what else is going on. So now all you have to worry about is how many friends will be begging to tag along!

Schoolly D at Ortlieb’s Lounge
Resident Original Gangsta Schoolly D is ringing in 2013 in his hometown of Philly at Ortlieb’s Lounge. Given the rapper’s rep as a trailblazer for acts like Public Enemy and Jay-Z, this concert is going to be an event you won’t want to sit out. Tickets for the 21+ show start at $45, which includes a buffet and an open bar from 9 p.m. to 2  a.m. Go here for more tickets and information.

Nico’s Gun, El Malito, The Fleeting Ends at Milkboy Philly
Funky pop rockers Nico’s Gun are bringing the party to Milkboy Philly on the one year anniversary of their debut full-length PLUSH. When former bits and pieces of Philly band Cortez, Cortez teamed up with producer Harry Zelnick, the mission was just to create tracks for hip-hop samples, but the Nicos Gun’s psychedelic rhythms and catchy lyrics caught attention as a worthy stand-alone act. Stream PLUSH here, and find tickets for the 21+ concert here.

Brothers Past, The Heavy Pets, Disco Sucks at The Troc

Indie psych band Brothers Past are jamming out at the Trocadero with Florida reggae rockers The Heavy Pets and DJ project Disco Sucks. One of the most celebrated independent acts from Philly in the last decade, Brothers Past has released three full-length records, including 2005′s This Feeling’s Called Goodbye. You can listen to their live recordings including their show at Union Transfer last spring here, and order tickets for the New Year’s concert on our calendar here. Doors for the 18+ show open at 8. Watch Brothers Past’s performance of “Squeeze” from their Union Transfer show above.

Jane’s Addiction at House of Blues

Alt / psych frontrunners Jane’s Addiction will be rocking the Atlantic City House of Blues for a New Year’s Eve showcase after the wild success of their Theatre of the Escapists tour this year, supporting 2011′s The Great Escape Artist. Between the band’s tumultuous on-again, off-again history and breaking barriers for alt-rock’s shift into mainstream attention, Jane’s Addiction have made their mark as one of the most influential bands in the last 20 years. Find tickets for the all-ages concert here; above, check out the video for “Irresistible Force” from 2011′s The Great Escape Artist.

PhillyBloco at World Cafe Live

Brazilian beat masters PhillyBloco are bound to get your groove on this New Year’s Eve at World Cafe Live. The music and dance ensemble draws its roots from blocos of Rio de Janeiro with vibrant, infectious rhythms and energetic performances, bringing heat to any dance floor in Philadelphia. Find tickets and information for the celebration here.

Devil Makes Three and Brown Bird at TLA

Devil Makes Three and Providence duo Brown Bird are crooning at the Theatre of the Living Arts for a festive celebration. Devil Makes Three, a folk punk trio from California, are known for their unique style encompassing ragtime, indie rock and rockabilly. Their most recent album, 2011′s Stomp and Smash, peaked at number 4 on Billboard’s Grass Charts. Brown Bird’s Salt For Salt, which you can stream here, has a dark folk sound in the vein of acts like The Civil Wars. Tickets for the show are available here, and below you should watch Brown Bird’s 2011 performance of “Thunder & Lightning” at WBUR Studios above.

The Making Time New Year’s Eve Hyper-Rager at Union Transfer

DJ Dave P and his buddies in the Making Time crew are bypassing the featured-live-guests thing for New Year’s Eve, instead presenting an assortment of the city’s best DJ crews in various nooks and crannies of Union Transfer. The Sorted crew brings the indie-dance, Rock Tits does garage rock nuggets for the masses, Broadzilla hits hard with electronic beats and Dave P himself brings an assortment of futuristic sounds for a Making Time hyper-rager. Tickets and information can be found here.

…and then there’s:

Ben Arnold at Steel City Coffeehouse

XPN Welcomes Americana rock singer-songwriter Ben Arnold to Steel City for a special all-ages New Year’s concert celebrating the release of Arnold’s “Circle ‘Round The Sun” album. Arnold’s steady blues rock sound has made him an WXPN favorite, so take the opportunity to check out his music here, and find information and tickets to the release party here. 

Francis Dunnery at The Tin Angel

English singer-songwriter Francis Dunnery will be at the Tin Angel for a very intimate New Year’s Eve performance. Dunnery, who got his start as part of It Bites and a revival of The Syn, released his latest album, Made in Space, in 2011. The album is Dunnery’s first without any guitar and features vocals from Dorie Jackson. You can find tickets for Dunnery’s 21+ show here.

Goodie New Year’s Eve at Underground Arts with Fur Coat, Someone Else, Rob Paine & Dirty (Worship Recs)

Venezuelan electro / dance duo Fur Coat are bringing their game to Underground Arts for New Year’s, supported by the smooth beats of Someone Else (Get Physical) and techno act Rob Paine & Dirty. The 21+ dance party starts at 9 PM; check out tickets and information here. 

Octane, Kid Felix, Bong Hits for Jesus, & The Endless March at the Electric Factory

The Electric Factory is bringing you a very alt-rock New Year’s Eve with performances from Philly’s own Octane, Kid Felix, Bong Hits for Jesus, and The Endless March. Post-metal Octane’s 2006 release When All Is Said and Done churned out cult favorites like “Pure” and “Gasoline”–maybe 2013 will see a new generation of headbanging…maybe? If you’d like to be part of that revival, find tickets and information for the all-ages show here.

For a complete list of more concerts in the region not shown above, visit our calendar here. May 2013 bring you fun, happiness, and another year of sweet, sweet music.

I moved back to Philly 140 days ago today and for a while I wasn’t happy about it. I was living in Portland, Oregon for a year and a half. It’s like adult summer camp and it’s a really hard place to leave. Still, it was time to come home, get a job, sign a lease, and ask my parents for money and food. The past six months have been the most challenging and rewarding so far. Here’s a list of special songs that helped me feel really sorry for myself at times and slapped sense into me at other times. These five songs are part of a revolving play list of local music that I can’t get enough of, part of a scene that’s showed me my folly and made it easier to come home from summer camp.

1. Cruiser, “The Fritz” Cruiser EP

“DON’T WANNA GO, DON’T WANNA GO HOME NOW…” really resonated with me because a) I totally didn’t want to and b) once I was back home, I never wanted to leave the bar. I’d stay up late Wednesday nights and close out the El Bar. To get myself going in the morning, I’d blast this song as loud as allowed to dissolve any bad feeling (hangover) risen from the night before. So peppy, it really helped me wake my brain up and start all over again. Which, when successful, inevitably led me back to the bar. Sigh.

2. Purling Hiss, “Running from the City” Public Service Announcement

The scraggly guitar intro is just as exciting as it is painful. Its deep, fuzzed-out vocals are under decipherable, so the song can be about anything you want it to be (see: starting over! making new friends! not regressing, not regressing, not regressing…). Call it free association.

3. Vacationer, “Summer End” Gone

I remember when this song first found me. It was September and I was in my little kitchen cooking up a stir-fry dinner. The heartbeat drums, lyrics filled with nervous energy, the mention of summer ending, it was all too hard to not feel like someone was Truman Showing me. Too relatable, too topical. This song opened up my memory box–full of rocky coastlines, ice cold waterfalls, sunny rivers and damp campsites–and it splayed all of those pictures right out in front of me. That’s what this track is to me, a memory box, and it might forever be that, the way I said goodbye to Portland.

Vacationer – Summer End from Vacationer on Vimeo.

4. The War On Drugs, “Baby Missiles” Slave Ambient

By the time I got into playing this track over and over again, things were really looking up! I got a full-time job and was able to throw a few bones to the credit cards companies that were funding me up to this point. My roommate and I decided to stick around for another year and I was finally feeling at home in my new Fishtown. No longer did I need some angsty, scratch-fuzz rock to gnaw at my open wounds.

5. GrandeMarshall, “Dearly Beloved” 800

How can you feel sorry for yourself while you’re listening to this? It’s the apple pie of rap (you can even hear little children playing in the background!) I got super excited when a friend turned me on to GrandeMarshall while I was still in the Northwest. Not sure I knew yet about my plane plans, but I was proud that this young kid from Philly could produce a classic, genre-f*cking mix tape like 808. I played this song for everyone, it was annoying I guess. When I got back to the East coast, I thought I’d be swimming in a sea of GM fans, but I was wrong. He’s still this diamond-in-the-rough (listen to “SEC580,” it literally twinkles), and while he’s had some buzz through Fader magazine and plenty of mix tape blogs, he’s still under the Philly pavement. Listen and learn.

Purling Hiss have a deeply satisfying way of drawing from the red, white and blue wells of 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s rock to inform their own sound, giving things a retro ring while doing what they do in the Philadelphia of today  – and no other time could apply, really. Water On Mars is heavy stuff from Purling Hiss, unknotting the strings that tangled all their previous records together so righteously to reveal – another, greater storm within.

Purling Hiss will open for The War on Drugs’ New Year’s Eve show at Johnny Brenda’s with Avery Rosewater.  Tickets and information for the 21+ show can be found here.  Below, watch Purling Hiss’ Shaking Through Session when they recorded the song “Lolita” and check out the track-list for Water on Mars.

Shaking Through: Purling Hiss from Weathervane Music on Vimeo.

Water on Mars track-list

1. Lolita
2. Mercury Retrograde
3. Rat Race
4. Dead Again
5. She Calms Me Down
6. Face Down
7. The Harrowing Wind
8. Water on Mars
9. Mary Bumble Bee

Bing & Ruth’s David Moore on the ambient performance he brings to The Barnes Friday [link]

The new LP from The Fleeting Ends, Our Eyes are Peeled, gets the Unlocked treatment [link]

Dave Hartley, bassist for The War on Drugs, launches his sports column From The Key [link]

South Jersey pop-punks Aspiga treat us to a song from each release in their Key session [link]

Roots collaborator Truck North releases Our American Cousin free EP [link]

Does cover art make the album? We ponder this and look at some great local album covers [link]

Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and drummer John Maloney tonight at Space 1026 [link]

Brooklyn duo She Keeps Bees is features on this week’s Folkadelphia session [link]

The Beach Boys are much more than the just Pet Sounds and Surf-Car-Girl party songs. Here are twelve strange and beautiful songs that came after.”

In a Spotify playlist he created for his bands’ label Secretly Canadian, Hartley handpicks his favorite Beach Boys tracks from albums including 1967′s Smiley Smile, 1970′s Sunflower, 1971′s Surf’s Up and more.  Stream the playlist below and read Dave’s thoughts on each track in a cut-by-cut here.  He also discussed his favorite Beach Boys era in a recent What’s In My Bag episode, which you can watch here.  The War on Drugs return to Philadelphia for two end-of-the-year shows at Johnny Brenda’s in December.  Nightlands will release a new record called Oak Island on January 22nd.