Title Fight | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Title Fight | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Title Fight | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Title Fight | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Title Fight | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Title Fight | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Title Fight | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Texas Is The Reason | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Texas Is The Reason | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Texas Is The Reason | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Texas Is The Reason | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Texas Is The Reason | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Texas Is The Reason | Photo by Rachel Del Sordo
Philly punk rock heavyweights Title Fight opened the show at a packed Union Transfer on Friday night, opening for reunited emo four-piece Texas Is The Reason. Check out scenes from the show in the photo gallery above.
New York City’s Texas is the Reason is one of the most influential and trendsetting bands to emerge from the 90′s emo-punk movement. After almost two decades, only one album, multiple breakups and an immense cult fan base, Texas is the Reason will once again be hitting the road for a few tour dates in 2013. The band will be stopping in nine major cities, including Philadelphia’s Union Transfer on February 16th. This tour is in support of their remastered anthology, which includes two never-before-released songs (recorded with Jawbox’s J. Robbins in 1997) that will mark the band’s final goodbye. The complete remastered discography will be released by Revelation Records on February 12th The band will be supported in Philadelphia by the Kingston, Pennsylvania 4-piece Title Fight, who recently released a new album in September of 2012. Title Fight’s new album can be found here. For more information and ticket sales visit the R5 page located here. Below, watch video of Texas is the Reason playing the First Unitarian Church in 1996.
For The Key’s year-in-review, we asked our trusted sources – our writers and photographers, XPN’s on-air staff, fellow bloggers in the Philly scene and even a few musicians – to send us their Top Five Whatevers. Could be the traditional music route – albums, songs, concerts of the year – or it could be only loosely connected. We’ll be sharing these recaps every day through to the end of the year. Today, contributing writer Beth Ann Downey ranks her top collaborations from regional artists.
We music lovers read, browse, skim, agree with, disagree with and soon forget so many of these lists this time of year. But if you’re a rock/punk/alternative lover from in or around Philadelphia, hopefully you’ll remember this one.
Collaborations amongst hard-working artists are undoubtedly how the best music is made. And in a time when folk, hip-hop and electronic music seem to top most of these other lists this year, I wanted to highlight the local singers, instrumentalists and producers who work together to do what they love despite what’s popular.
Collaborations are also where we see scene veterans training or complimenting emerging talent, and vice versa. Whether it’s bringing them out on tour or asking them to provide guest vocals on a new track, it’s great to see bands helping each other, or big-time producers working diligently on what they think should become the next big thing.
Here are five examples, in no particular order, of just how much love and talent the city of Brotherly Love has to go around. Continue reading
Our New Jersey neighbors can claim The Gaslight Anthem’s Handwritten and Titus Andronicus’ Local Business as their powerful rock releases this year. But on the other side of the Delaware, Pennsylvania has also produced a slew of riff-makers and risk-takers who are nothing to snuff at.
Kingston-born pop-punk/hardcore band Title Fight is the most current and quintessential example of PA’s proven ability to hit hard. The September release of their sophomore album, Floral Green, brought the band Billboard top 100 stature and recognition outside of Alternative Press and Warped Tour-going underground music lovers. Continue reading
Even though the summer will soon come to an end, don’t feel down – R5 Productions just announced five brand new shows for this upcoming fall season. And let me tell you, folks, they’re going to be chock full of cozy musical performances.
First up will be OFF! on October 19th at First Unitarian Church. The super troupe of punk rockers is made up of members of Black Flag, Burning Brides and Hot Snakes. Opening bands include The Spits and Double Negative. Gear up your vocal chords and get stoked for one raging performance.
BOO! A super ghouly and ghostly show will be happening on Halloween (Oct. 31st) featuring The Dead Milkmen, MC Lars and Philadelphia’s own Psychic Teens. The show will be happening at Union Transfer; trick-or-treaters are welcome! Psychic Teens filmed Bands in the Backyard episode recently, watch it below.
This is Hardcore Festival 2008 | Photo by Ken Penn | www.kenpenn.com
Now in its seventh year, This is Hardcore Fest has evolved into a multi-site music festival which brings together bands less than a decade old – like Pennsylvania-based Title Fight – with bands like Suicidal Tendencies and the Cro-Mags, who first took to a stage in the early 1980s. Theoretically at least, what binds them all together is something called hardcore.
The word is vague, but if you were wondering, it refers to a spin-off sub-genre of punk rock that had fully taken on its own identity by the mid-1980s (or the early 1980s, depending on who you ask). Where punk bands were often deliberately shambling and sloppy, hardcore bands were generally tight and disciplined. Where punk bands were frequently androgynous, hardcore was intensely masculine. Whereas punk was generally libertine, hardcore was ascetic, with bands like Youth of Today emphasizing abstinence from drugs and alcohol, some, like Earth Crisis, focusing on strict veganism, and some Krishna-affiliated bands even calling for strict sexual abstinence. (Don’t believe me? Check it out.) Continue reading
