Much like a track runner, Granchildren see the benefit of getting off the block with the burst of energy that will maintain you through the finish line.  Momentum is key to Golden Age, the new album by Grandchildren, out May 7^th on Ernest Jenning. The album is big in scope and big in sound, though not maximalist. The album explores quite a few variations of their orchestral pop, while being a more cohesive compared to the band’s debut album Everlasting . For example, the percussion is brought to the forefront on the album and is constantly apparent – though never overwhelming – and never close to being redundant.

Awaking the album is the pulsing and humming “Sunrise,” with it’s tribal percussion, distant keys and ascending vibraphone. From the start you can hear the complexity of the arrangements, which flow into each other like bodies of water meeting and growing as an ocean. Without slowing down much the album progresses to the dreamy title track “Golden Age” and then into one of the standout tracks, “End Times.”

As you reach the middle of the album it opens up into a different kind of album where, instead of combining all the ‘essential’ parts of Grandchildren, like they did to begin the album, they explore the various directions their arrangements can go. This begins with the jumpy, precautionary track “No Way Out” which is highlighted by an idiosyncratic clapping part, otherworldly falsetto and wandering horns.  The atmosphere completely shifts for the next song to a gentle, calming surrounding, with something magical in the air. The light strumming, distant drums and lead singer Aleks Martray’s soft, and comforting voice all compliment each other in the beautiful song. Rounding out the middle of the album is the cinematic “Into Gold” which blooms in front of you, and does so elegantly.

The back of the album is less easier to define musically. “You Never Know” is one of the most restrained moments of the album. It shows the band’s musical chops, but does so in a different light.  On this album there are various moments where the songs can go in different directions, either going big or pulling back on the reins.  This album succeeds because, despite their large size and ability to go bigger, they choose to restrain compositions as a way to let them breathe.  The band, on their previous album, were working on defining their sound. Equally important to a band having a sound, though, is having a “voice” and a “vision.” On Golden Era, Grandchildren continue to evolve and mature their sound, while finding focus in their songwriting, arrangements, and studio performances.

Grandchildren celebrate their record release tonight at Johnny Brenda’s with support from The Lawsuits, Laser Background, DJ POW POW (Man Man’s Chris Powell).

This week’s Unlocked series has been about Grandchildren’s expansive new album Golden Age. Earlier in the week we premiered the new track “End Times,” and today the track is getting the live treatment.  Shot at their Underground Arts show back on March 1st, this live performance video is a delicious sample of what Grandchildren do best. Their sound has become what it is, in part because of time spent touring and practicing their dynamic live show, which demands precision, but exudes pure energy. Lucky for you, the band is celebrating the release of their new album tomorrow at Johnny Brenda’s with support from The Lawsuits, Laser Background, and DJ POW POW (Man Man’s Chris Powell) spinning througout the night. Watch the video for “End Times” below:

“The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.” - Willem de Kooning, 1968

Everybody deals with getting older in different ways.  Some people get motorcycles, others opt for meditation retreats, but everyone faces it regardless. It is the constant struggle to age gracefully, and Aleks Martray and the members of Grandchildren are all dealing with very essential times of their lives. One of the results of the past few years is their new album Golden Age, out May 7th, which The Key is exploring for Unlocked series this week. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the daily routine we caught up with Aleks Martray to chat about the recording process, growing older, and defining the Golden Age.

The Key: What is the Golden Age? 

Aleks Martray: It has sort of become a catchall.  I tend to write a bunch of music and not really know thematically what I’m working with, or what the message is, it’s all music first.  I work a lot more like a composer or an arranger. I have all of this material that I compile, and then I sit back and listen to it and create songs out of it. The lyrics, the words, the concepts, they all come at that last phase once the music has come together. I never really know what I am writing about until the end, and “Golden Age” happens to be the last song I wrote for the album. I think of it like how an author writes an entire book, and then they write an epilogue, and somehow, the epilogue becomes the arc of the story.

For me, that specific song (“Golden Age”) was about the feeling of getting older, and those moments where you feel a narrowing of the openness and possibility of anything happening in your life, and the excitement of it all. And it was about having an experience that was renewed, where you no longer have to see things that way, and things are still open and possible.

It was also about having gone through a lot of things the past few years with family and friends. The past couple years have been weddings and funeral and babies being born, so it is just that time in my life and my band members lives where there is this generational shift, and you are just in the middle trying to place yourself in it. As an adult, and as an artist, and when you are around your parents and grandparents shifting to old age and you have your friends shifting to other phases of life, what happens is everything comes to the surface. It is a sea change moment. “Golden Age” was really revolving around this idea, that everybody, no matter what age or generation, has this magical, golden reference point of the way things used to be, or aught to be, but that is always just a figment of ones imagination.

TK: There seems to be a relationship between the song “Everlasting” from your last album and the new album.  Was the thought process that went into “Everlasting” a jumping off point for the new record?

AM: The song “Everlasting” was written, not only at the end of the first record, but a few months after the whole thing was finished. I was actually writing “Everlasting” to start a new record. I think it was the beginning of the process of starting a new record.  Two things happened, stylistically I was going in a really different direction. I was a lot more interested in singing and putting the vocals up front, because I have never been a natural singer before, I have always been a songwriter and the singing just came as something I had to figure out. And then beats, being very beat oriented.  Those are two things that came together just from writing that song “Everlasting,” and I think that definitely was the beginning of the new album.  I see that song “Everlasting”, as a link or bridge between the two albums, and I think you can sort of hear that.

TK: How did things change after recording your first album?

AM: I think the biggest thing that happened with the second record was being really aware of my process, because the first record was really the first full record that I put together on my own and it was very experimental. I had no real broader concept of what I was doing, I was just trying to make interesting music that I liked, and the band wasn’t really even fully formed, so I didn’t even have that to go off of. That said, once you finish a record, whether you like it or not, you have established some kind of process, some sort of routine, so for the new record, I was hyper aware of my process. But once you are aware of your process you want to start challenging it right away, you don’t want to become formulaic or tied down, you still want to feel in control. The new record was the push and pull of that, becoming aware of the process, but also trying to challenge it.

TK: The album blooms into some really lush material. How did you approach the recording of such an expansive project?

AM: It is all written as a record, and the way that I work is that I am alone in my studio and I just record bits and pieces of little ideas. So, I’ll have about hundreds of little files that I will listen through on a playlist.  Then, I put the pieces together like a puzzle in my brain and do a preliminary recording. So what may be a bunch of little guitar parts and a drumbeat that I’m playing will end up being horn parts and keyboard parts, so it gets translated. Once I can hear the music interacting with itself, then we go and orchestrate it with the band and do additional recordings. The analogy I make is like having a car where you keep replacing all these different pieces until you have a completely new car, but you used the framework to start off with. So the final recording there are probably little vocal or drum pieces, initial draft recordings that stuck around, and everything layered on top is from other sessions. There might be some songs with no trace of the original pieces, but it is the same file and was the same recording project. I think, to me, that speaks to what we are going for in terms of being able to attain a real sense of intimacy for certain moments, and then a real sense of grandiose, orchestral hugeness, and make it work so it sounds like the same world essentially. I think a lot of that comes from the process, so I think if we were to totally change the process, we would be a totally different band.

TK: How did you go about sequencing the album?

AM: For us, we put what we considered pop songs, up front to create the energy and set the tone of the record, and then used the middle section of the record to go into other realms of orchestra music to slow things down and break things up.  Once you have gotten through the original rush of the beginning you can go in a million directions, but I feel if you go in too many directions right off the bat, you haven’t given people orientation to what the record is. Especially if you aren’t this super famous band where everyone knows who you are. You are trying to establish your sound and your style up front and then you can be a little more experimental as the record goes on.  The whole album is a batch of songs, but within that record, there are sub-batches of songs, so I can definitely see relationships between certain songs, and part of it was seeing where those songs fit together and also where they needed to be broken up because the sounded repetitive. Yeah, it was interesting sequencing, it was definitely a huge part of finalizing the record.

TK: There seem to be some darker moments in the album, like, “End Times,” “No Way Out,” and “Where The Knife” in particular. Where did those themes come from?

AM: A lot of it goes back to the fact that these are all connected to one concept but they are all rotating around a few different perspectives. Some of the songs I am singing from my perspective, but most of the songs are from fictional characters perspectives. I had never really thought of it as certain parts being darker then others, but I think that makes a concept three-dimensional when you are looking at it from all different levels. Those songs in particular, definitely come out of darker times where I was either dealing with death, or the death of a friendship, or the potential death of a friendship; intense things where you are really dealing with doubt but ultimately trying to hang on to hope. So I think the range of emotions is just how life is. I don’t think of us as a positive or dark band, I think you just write music, and it is coming from an authentic place, so it’s automatically the things you are dealing with in your life. That’s the thing, I am not only comfortable with having a record full of conflicting messages, but I prefer that.  We don’t have one particular message, we don’t have one particular take on things, and the record is as all over the place as life is.

Grandchildren celebrate their record release this Friday, May 3rd at Johnny Brenda’s with support from The Lawsuits, Laser Background, DJ POW POW (Man Man’s Chris Powell) and May 15th at Glasslands in NYC. 

Front Cover:

“Yeah I worked for months and months on album art, had a bunch of different drafts and ideas but nothing really worked.  I didn’t even have a grasp on what the album was about yet, but I think when I wrote “Golden Age” and realized what the album was all about, right away this little photo that I had found a few years back came into my mind. I thought, that’s it, no question, no intentions, that’s the image that all this music is about.

My grandfather passed away a few years back and I was in his house with my dad just cleaning it out, and I am kind of a history buff, particularly when it comes to my family history, so I was just collecting hundreds of photos that were all over the house, and out of these hundreds of photos I found this one photo and I never before looked at a photograph and in one second everything was just put into perspective and everything just made sense and was so clear. To me, I know all these people at an older age, so I could already see into their character, so it looked really true to life, but on the other hand, it looked like a staged photograph with costumes and blocking involved. But really it was just this moment in 1969 when my father had graduated from West Point where his family just stood there, and somebody took the picture.

I think it is a really intriguing image, and when somebody who doesn’t know these people sees it, it is even more powerful because they can inject it with their own experiences, their own ideas.  It is a very open photograph in a lot of ways.  I like anything that borders the line between fact and fiction, or reality and imagination, so for me, the photo is really powerful in that way.”

Back Cover:

“The back cover is at a place called Battle Monument, which is actually a Civil War monument. It is an outlook over the Hudson and I have dozens of photos and videos of myself hanging out there as a kid, but it’s at the same location where the front photograph was taken. It’s the idea that the front is a photo from 1969, and then the back is a place where I spent a lot of time as a kid in the 80’s. It was a weird, surreal place to grow up, because, it was a military base so I was surrounded by military culture and these monument cannons, but I would just sit on these cannons and look out over the Hudson. It was a really calm and beautiful place, and it was a weird paradox to have all this military culture in such a beautiful place when you are a kid.” 

Gatefold Art: 

 “A lot of times when I talk about music I use this analogy of it being like a collage of all the places I have lived in my life and sort of like a soundtrack for that puzzle. So the gatefold photos are just two aerial images of the place I was born  (Heidelberg, Germany) and the place I live (Philadelphia, PA). The images are connected by this river lined up in the middle, so I was just trying to illustrate that analogy in a more literal way.”

Grandchildren celebrate their record release this Friday, May 3rd at Johnny Brenda’s with support from The Lawsuits, Laser Background, DJ POW POW (Man Man’s Chris Powell).

Below, download a free song from the new album, “End Times.”

When talking to Aleks Martray, singer, guitarist and band leader for the orchestral pop band Grandchildren, he said, about his role in the band: “I feel kind of like The Wizard behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz.”  The cinematic allusion is fitting, given the small stature of the front man and the massive, sweeping compositions he creates. Grandchildren’s new album, Golden Age, finds the band both refining and expanding upon the distinctive sound and dynamics from their 2010 debut album Everlasting. The album, produced by Chris Powell (Man Man) and Bill Moriarty, is coming out on Ernest Jenning Record Co. on May 7th.

This week, we are delving into Golden Age for our Unlocked series, where we feature in-depth coverage of new releases from notable Philadelphia-based artists. Today, we are getting the ball rolling with the pulsing, hypnotic track “End Times”, where Martray’s commanding tenor and the bands fervor reintroduce you to a reinvigorated Grandchildren. Below, download the track below and stream the full album via here via Allmusic.

Grandchildren celebrate their record release this Friday, May 3rd at Johnny Brenda’s with support from The Lawsuits, Laser Background, DJ POW POW (Man Man’s Chris Powell).

Bad Braids’ Megan Biscieglia / Photo by Elizabeth Lennox

Trees – “Murdoch”
Megan Boscoeglia (MB): This song is beautiful and a little bit scary. I have an urge to fill this playlist with only Trees, Fairport Convention, and The Incredible String Band, but I will refrain from doing so.

Dara Puspita – “To Love Somebody (Bee Gees cover)”
MB: This is a 60′s girl group from Indonesia who played their own instruments  I found this on a blog once and fell in love with it. Their other song “Lonely Street” is also one of my favorites.

Black Sabbath – “Wizard”
MB: If you put this song on [every] morning, first thing when you wake up, it is guaranteed you will grow a little more badass as each day passes.

TwinSisterMoon – “Spells”
MB: I accidentally downloaded this while trying to download something else. I’ve found a lot of really great music that way. I thought while listening that it was for sure from the 60′s, but it is current and they live in France. This song kind of kills me.

Patti Smith – “Lands”
MB: Patti Smith is intense. I have always liked her music, but never really got into it until I read her book a few years ago.

Terakaft – “Tenere Wer Tat Zincheg”
MB: I like cooking to this song and dancing to it with my cat.

The Incredible String Band – “Banks of Sweet Italy”
MB: I was introduced to this song while driving up to New Hampshire last summer.  The [Black Magic Family Band] and I had been asked to play one show, so we made the trek. We were in my mom’s car which only had bad 90′s country in it. For some reason, none of us thought to bring music for this six hour drive. We had three CDs and The Incredible String band’s Earthspan was one of them. We kept putting this song on repeat, we must have listened to it 20 times. We learned it when we got home.

King Crimson – “Moon Child”
MB: In the Court of the Crimson King is one of my top five favorite records. I could happily listen to this song on repeat for the rest of my life.

Weyes Blood – “Candy Boy”
MB: I met Natalie from Weyes Blood while touring in California. We ended up playing some shows together and hanging out all over the West Coast.  She lived in Philadelphia for a while and is one of my favorite musicians.  She now resides in [New York City].  This song makes my body feel realllyyy weird.  When I saw the video it made sense she was in the ocean.  I want to be there when I am listening to it on a really windy and cold day.

The Everly Brothers – “Down in The Willow Garden”
MB: I had to include this song. It’s one of my favorites to sing and I covered it on my first record with Mike Bruno. I am such a sucker for harmonies, and no one does it better.

Before next Wednesday’s release of Supreme Parallel, we swapped email Q’s and A’s with Bad Braids’ Megan Biscieglia, the 25-year-old songstress behind the group who started writing and recording on her own music back when Talkboys were still topical. This Saturday, she’s celebrating the coming of her second full-length album (and her European tour) with a release show at the fantastical Rigby Mansion in Germantown. We got a preview of Parallel last September, when Biscieglia performed an intimate bathtub version of “White Mane” at Rigby for Out of Town Films. Fingers crossed, Saturday’s event will turn just as magical.

The Key: What is your connection with the musicians you chose to collaborate with on Supreme Parallel?
Megan Biscieglia: All the musicians who played on SP are very dear friends of mine. I’m lucky enough to have a close knit group of friends who are all incredibly talented. Paul Christian recorded most of the album and can pretty much play anything/ do anything/ fix anything/ is a wizard/ not human. Paul, April Heliotis, Cameron Vance, and I sometimes play in another band fronted by Mike Bruno, the Black Magic Family Band. We were all already accustomed to playing music together, so it made sense to ask them to play on my record. I knew their vibe and I knew whatever they did would be special. I met Jesse Sparhawk at a show we played together at the now defunct Emoda Gallery. I love everything he makes and feel honored he is on my record.

The Key: You’re leaving to head to Europe for a month and a half shortly after your release show this Saturday. Do you have any advice on booking a tour of that magnitude?
MB: If you decide you want to embark on a journey such as the one I am about to go on, you need to be 1,000% into it. Be ready to spend all of your time, energy, and money. As far as the actual booking of the tour goes, if you take yourself seriously, other people will too. Know that you will be ignored by many, but at the same time many others will be more generous and supportive than you could ever hope for. Get in touch with people who have toured before to book your show, they’ll know how to treat you right. Once you’re gone, be open minded and get weird.

The Key: Have you visited some of the places you’re touring in the past?
MB: Only London.

The Key: Your music has vibrant “folk” aspects to it, but you don’t seem to play many shows with other acoustic and/or folk artists. Your shows tend to lean on the side of dark rock/punk/psych stuff. and metal. Is that a conscious performance decision or is it personal style/taste?
MB: doesn’t happen so much anymore. When I first moved to Philly, I didn’t know many people. The people I did know played in heavier bands. When i decided I wanted to start playing music, they helped me and booked me in whatever show was already happening. Nowadays, I play with all kinds of bands. I like going to shows that have versatility and I’m happy when I get to be apart of them.

The Key: What do you read that inspires your lyrics, and if you don’t look towards books, how do you come up with them?
MB: I’m not really sure where my lyrics come from, they just kind of happen. I do read a lot of fantasy, and though I can’t really say whether or not one book in particular has affected what I write, I can definitely say I have a fondness for and interest in made up places, not of this time and maybe not of this planet. I love getting lost in a book or movie, then looking up and being surprised I’m sitting in my living room. I wanted to create another world for the listener with Supreme Parallel. Maybe a dreamier and hazier world where everything is a little bit foggy and warm and everyone is floating around, a place you can forget your troubles for a second and zone out.

The Key: Aside from singing, you play everything from the lap harp to guitar to sets of wine glasses. When did you start playing music and which instruments did you start with?
MB: I started writing music when I was 6. My best friend at the time and I wrote and recorded songs together on his karaoke machine and on my talk boy. We both played the piano in the recordings and I would occasionally play the bongo. I started playing guitar when I was 15. But didn’t really get into it until I was 20..

The Key: You grew up in South Jersey and went to school in Brooklyn, NY. Now, you’re building a career in Philly, where you’ve resided for the past two years. How did you start performing live, and which city did you start performing in?
MB: I was living in Brooklyn and was in a pretty dark place. My best friend had moved out of the country, my other best friend and I were in the midst of a tragic break up, and I was very very lonely. I didn’t really know what to do with my time and didn’t really have anyone to spend it with. I had written songs since I was a kid, but never really thought anyone would want to hear them. I thought maybe I’d try to play out and in the process I’d meet new friends or maybe a band I could play in. I think that’s what I wanted to do, play in someone else’s band. I had friends in Philly and they booked me at some house shows. I started playing in Brooklyn first though, my first show was at coco66 in Brooklyn and then 2 weeks later is was at the Manton house in Philly opening for Gods and Queens. I went on tour kind of right away, and fell in love with that.

The Key: What made you decide to further your career in Philly as opposed Brooklyn?
MB: New York is too money driven. I was finding it difficult to focus on creative things because I had to hustle so much just to feed myself. All of my priorities were off too, I just wasn’t happy. I started taking music a little more seriously and found happiness in that, but could never really find the time. Philadelphia made sense because I already knew a lot of people here who were doing things I wanted to be a part of. There is a rich artistic community here and it is a relatively cheap place to live.

The Key: BONUS QUESTION: Did you grow up listening to N*SYNC and the Backstreet Boys like I did, and if so, how would you rate them as musicians?
MB: No, but I was a Hanson freak. I can tell you that my moms ringtone was once “Sexy Back” by Justin Timberlake. No one can deny, not even my mom, that song is dope.

Bad Braids’ shares the “release” part this Saturday with local harpist Mary Lattimore (whose “The Withdrawing Room” will be distributed on 300 limited edition black vinyl) and the “tour kick-off” thing with her good friend (and co-conspirator) Mike Bruno, who’s accompanying her to Europe. Go here for more information about the show. Go here ]]> http://thekey.xpn.org/2013/04/25/unlocked-qa-with-megan-biscieglia-of-bad-braids/feed/ 1 http://thekey.xpn.org/2013/04/24/unlocked-watch-the-video-for-bad-braids-ode-to-fig/ http://thekey.xpn.org/2013/04/24/unlocked-watch-the-video-for-bad-braids-ode-to-fig/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:36:41 +0000 Nikki Volpicelli http://thekey.xpn.org/?p=77122

We continue this week’s Unlocked series with Bad Braids, and the video for “Ode to Fig” from Bad Braids’ forthcoming album, Supreme Parallel, out on May 1st.

Bad Braids – Ode to Fig from Daughters on Vimeo.

I won’t ruin the ending for you, but I will say it’s unexpected. That’s the best thing to do when it comes to introducing film, isn’t it? Because if you start by telling someone there’s a strange twist, they can’t help but watch the entire way through. It’s in our nature as human beings to be curious when it comes to that type of stuff.

Not that this music video for “Ode to Fig” is a chore to sit through whatsoever. It looks like the best day of playing hookie imaginable. The video (which was created by Tamyka Smith and Diana Martinez of the Daughters Project in Brooklyn) is basically one grown man getting super day drunk and playing house in someone’s summer cabin the middle of the woods.

To be more specific: the furry fellow artist Mr. Troy Swain sits on a porch and frolics through the woods, aimin’ guns and drinking whiskey from his morning coffee cup all the way through the day until dusk, when he switches to the bottle. A rolling, folk guitar riff comes in over a lake full of sleepy, autumn foliage that’s sliced up through hazy transitions and shots of blinding sunlight. Everything is green, from the hunter color of our hero’s shirt to the long grass fields and trees growing out of them.

It’s a serene, pretty video that looks like it was as fun to film as it is to imagine yourself taking a day off and into the subject’s shoes… if he was even wearing them. The filmmakers, who are both great friends of Biscieglia, expected to be able to capture her as a similarly carefree woodland creature, but the poor girl sprained her ankle falling off of a tree stump before the shoot.

But that’s not even the most unexpected twist (you’ve got to watch all the way to the end for that).

To pre-order Supreme Parallel, visit Haute Magie. To preview some of the songs from the record, you can check out the Bad Braids Bandcamp page. Download “Pennies” from the album here.

Bad Braids’ Megan Biscieglia / Photo by Elizabeth Lennox

I didn’t set out to write a “walking” review of Bad Braids’ Supreme Parallel, but once I started I couldn’t stop finding the, uh, parallels, between the songs and the scenes around me. The second record from local singer-guitarist Megan Biscieglia’s dark art/folk project is a longtime journey of ritualistic storytelling and gypsy-like instrumental concoctions. There is a vein of solitude that runs deeply through the album, making it best experienced alone. For me, it was while walking through my neighborhood on a damp, overcast Monday morning when no one else seemed to be out in the world. Suddenly, my surroundings became foreign and open to interpretation, and my imagination went wild running through the songs on the record.

It hit me during “Clover,” (the third track off of the group’s intimate second record), that I was experiencing some form of serendipity. I passed a church on Hewson street just as a pickup truck drove by with a bed of bright, fresh flower arrangements. A funeral. Cars blocked the street with nobody in them, just tiny orange flags fluttering from their antennas. “Clover” is an eerie outcast of a song. It’s sounds like being a stranger passing a stranger’s funeral. It’s a different kind of lonely, with recurring Braids’ collaborator Paul Christian on organ creating haunting, church-based harmonies.

“Ships” dives deeper into that solitude, suggesting the idea of tiny vessels in the mind that can take you far away. You can embark on your own wild adventures without actually going anywhere. I pass a place called the Penn Home, which is carved out like the White House with red, white and blue flags and ribbons wrapping around every window and a well kept green yard out front, between right and left wings. It’s not until I see a tiny wooden sign on the corner of the building advertising “three meals daily, laundry and housekeeping,” that I realized I let my imagination sail away for awhile, maybe a little too far.

But it’s so easy to do with this record. Each song straddles the line between dream and reality through the introduction of exotic instrumental elements like the lap harp, theremin and the vibraphone. Biscieglia is an expert at vocal transitions, from soft, barely-there whispers to strong, stark serenades, she leads with melodies that are wintery and warm, like a hot, spiced something on a snowy night.

It’s interesting that there are so many instrumental collaborations on Supreme Parallel, considering how individualistic it still ends up sounding. Biscieglia chooses a wide array of choir-like characteristics to display throughout the record, enlisting in the help of a multitude friends including Paul Christian, Jesse Sparhawk and Mike Bruno (of the shamany-sounding Black Magic Family Band).

Most of the musicians Biscieglia selects to help out on this record are longtime contributors to her sound, also aiding in some of her live performances. Still, it’s no secret that her voice is the frontrunner of the project. While her contributors are experts at creating the perfect complimentary construct, even the theremin and wine glasses used in “Palace” can’t upstage her naturally haunting sound.

You can lose yourself in Supreme Parallel without even trying, though I suggest you try it.

“Pennies” starts off as a delicate trickle, utilizing Biscieglia’s multi-instrumental expertise through plucky guitar and haunting harp harmonies. Her vocals start out carefully spaced-out and cavernous, but grow brighter and more structured as the song carries on. At less than three minutes, it’s the perfect introduction to the Braids’ sound: experimental, evocative and tragically beautiful, a sound so mesmerizing it could sink mythical ships.

• Penniesby Bad Braids from Supreme ParallelDownload

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.

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.

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.

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

Kiel Everett, the bassist of Purling Hiss is also the guitarist, main song-writer and singer of local roots rockers Tin Horses. Their first release, 2011’s well-received American Radiance was full down-trodden reflections of days past but not missed. Everett and and the rest of Tin Horses, whose lineup has changed a little over the last several months, released A Life of Trouble at the beginning of this album to his approval.

“A Life of Trouble actually feels like a band’s album,” Everett says. “I recently listened to American Radiance and realized I distanced myself from that album. I’m not a big fan of that one and have never been shy of saying it. We were a band for only a few months and put it together.”

Aside from plans to promote Trouble in 2013, Everett is also looking to release a solo record (he actually plays a solo set at the North Star Bar tonight).

Outside of Purling Hiss, drummer Mike Sneeringer is also a member of Puerto Rico Flowers, a band fronted by former Clockcleaner singer/guitarist John Sharkey. But Sharkey’s been living in Australia. So Sneeringer, who says he’s “very infrequently said no to a gig,” has just been sitting in on whatever he gets approached to sit-in. Traditionally, drummers are always at a premium, allowing Sneeringer to wear many different hats.

“I’ve played in a lot of bands spanning from hardcore to alt-country,” he says. “Every gig I take is to make me a more well-rounded drummer. I really enjoyed playing with John (Sharkey). It was a learning experience, before that I never played six-minute songs with zero fills. It also helped me improve my meter because John liked everything to be so slow and sparse.”

Sneeringer has been playing with D.C. power poppers Title Tracks and even recently filled in for three gigs with Kurt Vile. But there’s nothing like home base. Which, he says, is how he feel about playing with the Hiss.

As for Polizze and the rest of Birds of Maya, a band best known for their live performances of long psych-improv, has some plans for 2013, too.

“We’re hoping to put out an album in the next six months,” Polizze says. “It’s not going to be presented as a live, but the A-side will be one show and the B-side will be another show.”

Polizze continues, explaining he’s unsure what label will be putting it out, so it’s still a tentative release. Regardless, he and the rest of Purling Hiss have their hands full with an upcoming two-week tour of the US before heading to Europe in the summer.

Water on Mars is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; download the spotlighted single “Mercury Retrograde” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review, watch the “Mercury Retrograde” video in Wednesday’s post, read yesterday’s interview and check back for more Unlocked features from The Key.

Photo by Tiffany Yoon | tiffanyyoon.com

Every Purling Hiss record prior to Water on Mars was recorded exclusively by guitarist and singer, Mike Polizze. He was laying down every drum track, each bass line and every layer of grimey lo-fi guitar on his own. However, it’s now a group effort. Polizze is now accompanied by drummer Mike Sneeringer and bassist Kiel Everett on the new album; it’s a major change in not only the album’s sound but also in song writing.

“Now I’ll have an idea and practice it with the rest of the band,” Polizze says at a table in Fishtown Tavern, just blocks from their practice space. “It’s just an obvious difference for me and how it went from me literally recording everything on my own in my bedroom and now everyone puts a bit of their own spin and personality on it.”

Polizze originally put the power trio together to just be a live band. Although Water on Mars suggests otherwise. It’s a complete album with highs and lows, spot-on sequencing and maturity shown by its players by never over-stepping one another, only playing what’s necessary for each song. It’s clear that they’ve been putting their better foot forward in working together as band. And naturally as they continue to work together as a unit in practice more they’re starting to gel more.

“Now Mike will come in with ideas and they won’t be completely worked out,” Sneeringer says. “But he’s writing all the time, so he’ll just want to share a certain guitar part he came up with. And sometimes he’ll just noodle around on stuff and I’ll subconsciously start playing along.”

Immediately Everett agrees, saying that they’ve been creating music more by “picking up and playing” rather than Polizze teaching him a song or telling Sneeringer how the drums should sound. Even though Polizze is still the primary songwriter, he’s been letting their practices and jamming influence the direction of songs. And he never felt uncomfortable about adjusting their creative process.

“It’s been better in a lot of ways,” Polizze says. “I’ve learned their personalities and it’s helped me know how to bring ideas to start with because I know their playing now and how the others will complement it.”

However, the three personalities in this band are noticeably a bit different. Polizze is a fast-paced guy at times. But he isn’t hyper. It almost just seems like he can’t get all the words out of his mouth fast enough, and can be a bit tangential when he speaks as he sits straight up against the back of his chair. Sneeringer speaks distinctly slower and never without thinking first as if to not waste a word; he casually keeps one leg rested over his other knee. As for Everett, he’s a little more reserved and soft spoken, leaning forward on the table in front of him, often checking his cell phone. But combined musically they’re perfectly complementary, like three long-time friends that have gone through school together, learning a lot along the way.

That education of each other’s playing is on display on Mars. Purling Hiss’ songwriting matured beyond chord-strumming and blasting through guitar solos layered on top of lo-fi riffs as heard on the albums such as Hissteria and Lounge Lizards.

As a trio they excel in more structured songs like the melodic “Mercury Retrograde,” a song Polizze says is about “everything being on the fritz and going wrong.” Which actually seems to be a recurring theme. The mid-tempo track, “The Harrowing Wind,” where Polizze sings “A change in atmosphere/ Rebukes a longing/ And your money no longer pays/ The harrowing wind came today,” shows a side of the songwriter that wasn’t seen on prior releases. Now there’s clearly something inspiring Polizze’s writing, something that’s a little heavier than the simple lyric writing he’d done on song like “Midnight Man,” from Lounge Lizards. The same goes for “Face Down.”

“I had a friend that got mugged in Philly,” he says. “Someone who’s not from Philadelphia might have a totally take and not know it’s about this city. It’s essentially about the darker side of living in an urban atmosphere.”

Sneeringer’s drumming on “Face Down,” twists Philly pretzels around the listener but is never convoluted. That’s how he plays on the entire record actually. Sneeringer’s playing isn’t ever that flashy, but it’s rock solid. And for a driving, fuzz grunge record like Water on Mars, Sneeringer plays exactly what’s necessary and nothing more.

“I really enjoy jamming with these guys,” Sneeringer says. “But I come from a more punk background where everything is just super short songs and everything’s to the point. So drum-wise, my playing is being shaped a little because Mike has great drum instincts to give me ideas. He’s super attentive to the overall sound of the band, which I’ve never experienced.”

The improv they’ve been doing and working into their live shows is of the adventurous variety at times. The album’s title track, “Water on Mars” features five minutes of classic Polizze guitar noise, bending notes beyond recognition and toying with feedback.

“I like making music that’s almost interactive to the listener,” Polizze says. “I don’t want to make anything entirely complete. That’d mean that it’s done. I always love listening to music that I can keep going back to for ideas.”

Water on Mars has also shone a new side of Purling Hiss paying more attention to song lyrics. The simple guitar strumming on “Dead Again,” leaves the listener with little more than the lyrics to pay attention to and try to make sense of what Polizze is singing. He says he was trying to make it psychedelic lyrically rather than sonically.

Lyrics were basically the only part that wasn’t collaborative on Mars. Surprisingly, Everett, who is the main songwriter in his own band, Tin Horses, didn’t work with Polizze on lyrics.

“I didn’t write any [lyrics] because I think lyrics need to come from whoever’s singing them,” Everett says. “They need to be able to feel them. I know I personally wouldn’t be able to sing someone else’s lyrics.”

The Hiss recorded Water on Mars at Uniform Recording in North Philly with Jeff Zeigler at the production helm. They also brought long-time friend, Adam Granduciel of the War on Drugs into the studio with them to give some input on production.

“Adam’s really understands us as a band,” Sneeringer says. “He’s seen us grow and change since the beginning. So it helped to have someone in the studio who’s witnessed that progression so closely.”

But it doesn’t take a close friend to see that Purling Hiss has changed, rather, moved into the next phase of their sound since Sneeringer and Everett began playing with Polizze. The more team-oriented effort in writing has only proven that they truly are a trio and no longer just a one-man recording project.

Water on Mars is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Mercury Retrograde” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review, watch the “Mercury Retrograde” video in yesterday’s post and check back tomorrow for more on the extracurricular activities of Purling Hiss.

Water on Mars is this week’s featured album on Unlocked, by Purling Hiss. Yesterday we reviewed the whole record; today’s it’s all about the video for the first single, “Mercury Retrograde.” It features the band playing in space and really looking only half-interested in being there. But their cover is blown for a quick second at the beginning as each of them are show in front of a green screen. Don’t lie, you were fooled.

“Wait until you the see the ‘Mercury Retrograde’ video,” said guitarist and singer Mike Polizze, laughing with the rest of the band when I talked to them. So their intention is obviously a bit flippant. As if that wasn’t clear enough in the shot drummer Mike Sneeringer growing to mammoth proportions at the start of the first chorus. Or the shots of Polizze and bassist Kiel Everett flying around in a chair in kaleidoscope formations and across the cosmos. They’re even tailed throughout the video by ultra-violet colors as they play. It was directed by Jon Khanlian of Philadelphia Philms.

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

Without a doubt, Purling Hiss is the definition of that type of lineup. In an age of Pro Tools perfecting every note on the record, the Mac laptop and complex synth arrangements nearly being a standard part of the rock setup, it’s refreshing to hear stripped-down rock n’ roll again. And guitarist Mike Polizze, drummer Mike Sneeringer and Kiel Everett on bass are unrelenting on Water on Mars, the band’s first release with the full lineup.

That’s due in part to where these songs come from. Polizze is still the Hiss’ primary songwriter and he’s still exploiting his guitar as much he had on his prior releases. And he doesn’t hesitate to burst into a threatening solo on most songs on Water on Mars. However, his unabashed guitar slaying never feels too noodley.

In fact, the opener “Lolita” is not only the perfect blast-off jam for the album, but its minimal lyrics allow the music to speak more. Polizze adds an entire vocabulary of words to the song by way of screaming guitar noise and wah-pedal work. The title track, “Water on Mars,” speaks in tongues from the same planet. There’s about five minutes of Sneeringer and Everett casually wandering together, never deviating from their comfortable pace while Polizze plasters more and more noise on top of their path. The noise is what the ears hear at first, but on every following listen, the casual guitar melody Polizze’s plucking layered underneath comes more to the front.

“Rat Race,” may be the record’s most narrative song is sing-along, party rock gold. When Polizze repeats, “Everybody’s steppin’ on my shoes,” at the end, it seems like it was inspired by someone killing his buzz on a good night out. The existential and stripped down “Dead Again,” paired with “She Calms Me Down,” makes the album’s mid-point feel like the appropriate intermission before slamming back into the action on “Face Down.”

That attention paid to sequencing is what makes Water on Mars feel more like a complete album rather than just a collection of rock songs. Much like the album’s middle section, the placement of “Mary Bumble Bee,” is spot on. They thoughtfully let the listener down easily with a mid-tempo sway, and Polizze even sings, “So long, goodbye” as the last chord rings out.

The pace of the record is what’s most striking. Polizze’s writing is still just as direct as Purling Hiss’ first four releases. They don’t wasting any time to even introduce a song’s main riff, much like on Hissteria and Lounge Lizards and most of the songs end almost a bit suddenly, none just fading out. However, none of the songs from Mars are nearly as lo-fi, ultra-fuzz psych like Polizze’s early work, such as their self-titled record or Public Service Announcement. Which he’d played all the music on.

Water on Mars is a major change for them on many fronts– from band lineup to songwriting and overall album sound, at least compared to prior releases. And while NASA’s Curiosity is still roving around the red planet looking for some answers, Purling Hiss has definitely found all they’ll need to know what’s working for them from here on out.

Water on Mars is the featured album on this week’s edition of Unlocked. Download “Mercury Retrograde,” 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.

“Mercury Retrograde” is the album’s first single and it showcases a new, controlled approach from the band. The song is driven by Polizze’s catchy guitar melody guitarwork – which is actually a bit reserved, considering what he’s capable of – but it nonetheless blasts off into three minutes of raw rock. This week we tread through Water on Mars on Unlocked, The Key’s regular series spotlighting new and noteworthy releases coming out of Philadelphia. We begin today with a free download of “Mercury Retrograde.” Get your mp3 below, and be sure to check back all week for an album review, music video, interview with the band and more.

Circe is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Life of Mud” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review, watch their live cover of “Not Fade Away” in Wednesday’s post, read yesterday’s interview and check back for more Unlocked features from The Key.

The Key: The biggest thing that jumps out about Circe is that death comes up a LOT. That’s what “Life of Mud” is all about, it’s also an undercurrent of “Underground” and “Rivers to Hell.” You focused on dark things on your debut Devil’s Grip, for sure, but why death this time?

Dan Murphy: I think that on Devil’s Grip a lot of the lyrics were written very quickly and focused more on relationship problems or even just simple storytelling. The writing process for Circe took much longer because I wanted to focus on more universal themes through the narrative that the album presents. Nothing is more universal than death, we all gotta go sometime and that very thought scares the hell out of most people.

TK: You work in interesting themes, as far as blues music goes. Very existential, very philosophical, lots of good-versus-evil rather than “woe is me.” What draws you to focus on the bigger things?

DM: It was a few years ago that we really immersed ourselves in and came to love the blues, which is what shaped Devil’s Grip. That being said, the blues is a genre that’s been played for about a hundred years, so if you want to play blues music you have to change it up somehow. I think that guys like Robert Johnson and Skip James were pointing to a lot of these bigger things, but they were doing it with lyrical motifs that would eventually be beaten into the ground. That’s why I think we wanted to get away from the “my baby left me”s and step outside to find something more personal yet more relatable to the human experience.

TK: Between your first record and this one, you performed a lot – between New York, Philly, and the surrounding region, as well as on tour. How did that shape the sound of this album?

Tom Murphy: What really emerges from playing around so much is just trying things out and seeing what does and doesn’t work. If things didn’t come together on stage like we thought they should, we’d go back and work the song out until it did. A great example is “Life of Mud”. Something always felt off about that song and we addressed it in the studio. Some songs just flow after the first take, but that was one that we had to sit down with for weeks until we felt comfortable playing it. So all the rehearsing and playing gave us a clearer idea of what the record should come out like, and I think that made for a more cohesive album.

TK: What was your experience recording with Bill Moriarty like? The record sounds great, so it was obviously positive in the end, but how was the road getting there?

TM: Working with Bill was really great.  When Dan started writing the skeleton of the record last year, Lynne [Krohn, manager] and I started basically “shopping” around for producers to help us with the project.  We met with a lot of great people with some serious backgrounds in music, but Bill really stood out as a guy who seemed to get us and get what we were going for.  We were sold after the first meeting.  I mean, we were probably sold before that.  My iTunes reads like Bill’s resume’, so really we were honored when he reached out to us.  I remember seeing the e-mail and sending a text to Pat and Dan like “THE GUY WHO DID THE MAN MAN RECORDS WANTS TO WORK WITH US!”

The cool thing about working with Bill is that Bill’s a guy who is going to protect you from yourself. We never really had anyone say “no” to us in the studio before Bill, and that’s exactly what we were looking for.  When we were writing this record we knew we had some good ideas but we also knew we couldn’t flesh it out on our own, and that’s where Bill came in.  He was great about nudging us in the right direction when we needed it, without shattering our fragile egos.  We really can’t wait to work with him again.

TK: Okay, time for a quick Wikipedia check – Circe is the Greek godess of magic who turned those who offended her into animals. She also murdered her husband and was well versed in drugs and herbs. How did Circe become the namesake of your record?

DM: It was actually Tom’s idea to name it Circe. Within the narrative of the album, the event that starts the protagonist’s journey is a breakup with a lover, and he can’t help but think about her throughout the entire story. Circe was famous for “turning men to swine”, not to mention that the word “circus” originates from her name, and there’s a couple spots on this record that feature circus music. I also think that by referencing the Odyssey, the title tells the listener a bit about what they’re getting into, as the story is itself a somewhat twisted odyssey towards self-discovery for the narrator.

TK: I’m really glad “Underground” made the cut on the album – I was impressed when you recorded it during your Key Session a couple years back. It’s a long song with lots of twists and turns, but reads almost like a mission statement. Was it a tough decision about whether to include it or not?

DM: It was a while ago, but if memory serves me right, “Underground” was the first song that was actually intended for the record. It served as a good starting point for the very reason you present: it reads like a mission statement. Pretty much all the themes and problems that the record presents are summarized in “Underground,” and I think the album would be incomplete without it.

TM: The way it came together back when it was being written, we had what we termed “the medley” which comprised “Underground,” “The Passing,” and Eulogy which are tracks 9, 10, and 11 on the record.  As you saw on Devil’s Grip, we have a sort of penchant for really long, three part songs a la “Suite for Stack.” This was in a similar vein, but ultimately we decided to cut them into three different tracks.  An important thing for us in the studio though was to have seamless transitions, so that if you were listening to the record straight through, these songs would all kind of mesh.  We decided that was actually a good approach for the whole record, so we tried to record in such a way that someone listening might not always realize where one song ends and another begins.  With this one, we just really love the idea of a cohesive, fluid Album with a capital A.  I think that idea started with “Underground” and the songs right after it.

Pat Murphy: And I think that’s one of the greatest ways Dan’s songwriting has developed. While Devil’s Grip was a collection of similar songs this really is a cohesive Album. Circe starts in one spot and ends in a completely different one, but with a journey in between that takes you there. As we’ve been working on it I’ve been most impressed with how each song moves you to a different point in the journey and that makes the album flow so well.

TK: You’ve knocked out a lot of really strong cover versions and interpretations over the years – “Suite for Stack” being a big one. Anything you’ve been covering lately that we can look forward to at the Underground Arts album release?

TM: I can tell you the answer is yes, but you’ll have to come to the show to find out…

Circe is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Life of Mud” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review, watch a live version of “Not Fade Away” in yesterday’s post and check back tomorrow for a Penrose-curated Spotify playlist.

Circe is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Life of Mud” in Monday’s post, read yesterday’s album review and check back later in the week for an interview and more.

The three brothers who make up the band (Tom, Dan and Pat Murphy) are schooled not only in playing, but also vibe – those humming Hammond organs! that spooky Theremin! On their latest record, Circe – self released today and being celebrated this Saturday at Underground Arts – they harness that vibe to trace a themeatic arc. On the band’s 2011 debut Devil’s Grip, the Murphy brothers seemed like they circled around the border of the dark side. On Circe, they dive into the abyss.

“Every River Goes To Hell” strikes out on a rumbling chord arpeggio, tracing the journey through amp stacks, pounding drums and broken promises: “That ship is going down.” Death plays strongly into “Life of Mud,” the snappy, piano-led single we showcased yesterday. The mud in question is the earth that the deceased narrator is telling his tale from: “I know I won’t have a single regret, only these memories I ought to forget.”

The snarling, sneaky acoustic ballad “Tango With Lucy” is about a meeting with a seductive woman in New Orleans – who might just be the devil a total blues motif if there was one. “I wonder if she is who she says she is, but in this case, ignorance is bliss.” But there’s not a sight of redemption, or hope, just an acknowledgement of the often flawed side of human nature.

All these contradictions and complications are summed up in “Underground,” which might just be songwriter Dan Murphy’s manifesto. In the nearly seven-minute song, he knocks down icons of 20th century literature and philosophy: Joyce, Kafka, Bukowski. “God only knows what god only knows, you try to justify it with your lyrics and prose. / You tell your self things to help yourself sleep ’cause you just can’t imagine taking that leap.”

After traveling this train of thought, writing off religion, technology, science, dabblings with drugs and love and lust as a “highly praised way of twiddling your thumbs.” What’s the conclusion? No matter how much we know, or think we know, we don’t really know that much – we’re just idling away our time until it’s no longer there. HEAVY.

Or a dark reality check that’s made somewhat more palatable by heavy, rocking arrangements and even snappy moments. Which is the most exciting thing about Circe, and about Penrose. They play blues and rock in a loud and accessible way, but they don’t compromise when it comes to the themes. These guys are dark, unflinching, unafraid, and taking all those into consideration, more honest and clearheaded than most of their indie-blues peers.

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

All week we’ll be spotlighting Circe on Unlocked, The Key’s regular feature on new and significant releases from Philadelphia-area artists. Over the next five days we’ll dig into the record with a review, an interview, odds and ends and a free download today. “Life of Mud” is a boisterous number with a thudding kick drum and a bright piano lead. It encapsulates the album’s overarching themes of meetings with the Devil, rivers to Hell, the clash between good an evil and the journey of discovering how those elements play out in day to day life. Heavy stuff, but good to rock out to. Download “Life of Mud” below, and check back all week for more from Penrose and Circe on Unlocked.

• Life of Mudby Penrose, from CirceDownload

Fidel is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Coal” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review, watch a music video for “They Call Me Castro” in Wednesday’s post, read yesterday’s interview and check back for more Unlocked features from The Key.

Curly Castro is one of my favorite people to interview. We can be chatting about his music and then wind up on a long tangent about Cold War history, or the character dynamics of Wu-Tang Clan, or mass media consolidation. He’s a super insightful character, in addition to being a thought provoking Philadelphia rapper. His new album Fidel is out this week on Man Bites Dog Records, and he celebrates with a show tonight in his native Brooklyn at The Legion. Last week, we sat down talked about the progression the new record took from Castro’s 2011 debut Winston’s Appeal, a certain storied laundromat at 6th and Girard and how his outlook parallels both Marilyn Manson and Johnny Cash. Read more below.

The Key: One thing I like a lot about Fidel is the move from a first person narrative to more satirical, theatrical elements. Like “Starch” and “Colored Water Fountain” – they feel like sketches set to music, with an underlying message. How did this element come to be?

Curly Castro: Well, most of the songs especially on this one were dictated by the beat. I don’t know if its an epiphany or anything but certain things come to mind when I’m listening to a beat. So with “Colored Water Fountain,” that came about because I wanted to sing on my record. I don’t write many songs, I mostly write raps, but I wanted to try it. And so I don’t know what came about, but I started doing the Louis Armstrong voice – that’s me doing that! And once I started doing that voice, the words came for the song. I said allright, what’s the most, like you said, satirical way to get my point across? To symbolize how there are some white extremeists that have very staunch racial views, but they love black culture somehow. So it’s like, okay, come on down to my restaurant, you can have all the black food you want, you can dive in all you want, and then at the end I pull the rug out.

TK: “You’ve all been poisoned…”

CC: Yeah. The song made me think of a juke joint, the song made me think of the Cotton Club. And the dichotomy of the Cotton Club is that some of us were the main performers, but we had to come in through the back door. You could talk to people, they could be fans and come see you on stage, but if they want to see you after, you got to leave out the back and they leave out the front. So I was also thinking of a restaurant like that, but turning Jim Crow and segregation in its tail – making it the Colored Water Fountain. Like Tavern on the Green, there’s the opulunce to it.

TK: And what about “Starch”?

CC: Well, there’s this infamous laundromat at 6th and Girard. It seems like its open all the time, there’s this weird light emanating, there’s not many attendants after 10:00, and there’s all types of seedy activity that goes on there. They sell DVDs there, behind the glass. So I thought what if I was at laundromat one night, what could happen. But then I thought I want it to be a story, I want it to be circular. So I got Boogie Mandela on there, who’s doing really nice things in the city these days. And I got the legendary Has-Lo on there. When people hear it, hopefully they get its not too deep. But I think that those stories would be told best in that vein. And also, there’s the underlying issues – even with “Starch,” it’s about gentrification, enablers being all jacked up. And people in personal space. And people with germophobia. “Colored Water Fountain” has a more concrete point.

TK: With the circular story element, do you think the Wu Tang Pulp project had an effect on that?

CC: Not directly because we were working on it simultaneously. We finished Wu Pulp last year, but I’d been working on it for a couple years. We’d also been working on Fidel for a couple years. But you are keen to notice, because Boogie was on Wu Pulp too. We were just feeling collabroative, going with the spirit of Wu Tang, not that they’re deceased or anything, but the essence of how they would mix and match people. Not that these are posse cuts  or anything, but that’s just how Wu would have done it, with three or four people. So with Fidel, I knew I wasn’t going to have a lot of guest appearances. Winston’s Appeal has twice as many. But in the same vein, I knew that if I had people  on there, I wanted it to be poignant.

TK: I was also struck by “Winter ’87,” with its Vince Guaraldi piano sample. How did you pair up those samples?

CC: I actually have the original Charlie Brown record in my crib, next to my telephone man from New Edition. My mom picked up on my affinity for it so she just bought me the whole record. I picked that beat from an old Small Professor project, he didn’t even know I took it. And it just hit me that I had all these stories. And once I realized that Fidel was becoming more and more autobiographical, these stories I would tell Zilla [Rocca, frequent collaborator and producer] or Has, they would be like yo, why don’t you make a song out  of that? But I’m also a little old school in the sense that – you know, sometimes my mom says “Don’t tell people our business.” So certain stories, I’d call and ask if I can use it on a song. Sometimes she says yes, sometimes she says no. So this song, because Small didn’t even know I took the beat, I just went with the story. It’s an interesting and kind of horriffic story about us getting held up on an elevator on Christmas Eve. And when I heard the song, It hearkened back to Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas, and how majestic New York can be in the winter time. The snow falls, light glistens, there’s street lights, sometimes there’s a nice mist going or whatever. But there’s still crime and suffering and terror happening. And it was fast – it was so fast. That song is like two minutes, and it’s longer than the actual event. Zilla told me he was riding in his car, listening to it – he calls it “doing a field test” – and his eyes watered up, ’cause I took him there.

TK: And Charlie Brown is one of those things that the music is so universal, everybody has an association with it. You hear it, and it takes you back to some point in your life. And then, paired with it, you hear this other story that goes with it. That’s part of the reason why that track is so affecting.

CC: You start thinking it’s the one thing, and it starts changing.

TK: So the record is autobiographical. Not like Flatbush and Church, which was very linear, but this is more vignettes.

CC: Zilla and Has sequenced the record, and that’s when I realized how personal it was. It’s laid out in a way where it’s my story in the vein of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Some songs represent certain phases of my life, even though the may not have been written specifically like that. So “Mesrine,” “Fenster & McManus”…they have different themes to them. So they’re indiciative of when I didn’t give a damn, how I was trying to scheme and trying to do anything. To later points in the record, my enlightment, there’s “Kintro.” It was written to be the first song in the record, but the way it is, it’s my retribution, my rebirth. “Colored Water Fountain,” that’s my learning to understand hate and love dealing with race. “Spook” is about parinoia. So it’s me going through all those things, until I get to “Kintro” at almost the end of the album.

TK: So even if it’s not a literal representation of a phase in your life, a story about your life, its something where the underlying message of the story relates back to you.

CC: Yes, exactly. When they gave me back the record, and it was in the order it’s in now, it was like oh – I didn’t have the foresight to see that, but the way it ebbs and flows, of course.

TK: You kind of as an artist you need to step away from your work to see the bigger picture. Do you agree with that?

CC: Yes, and that’s a testament to it. People say you don’t see the forest for the trees. When you’re working on something and dealing with so many minute factors – a kick, a snare, a word, a phrase, alliteration, prepositional phrases. When you get so microscopic, you miss the full picture sometimes. It’s hard to pull back when you’re in there scraping on DNA, digging on caverns, every nook and cranny of what you’re working on. Somebody else can step in with a fresh eye and more importantly fresh ears and say okay, this is what this is. It’s almost impossible to listen to your record like you never did it. But you’ll hear your record and know oh, that was the fourth take, the second take was better. And it eats away at you. But the public never notices. So that’s why I’m glad I have friends and in turn colleagues like Zilla and Has who can take the material and put it in a good fahsion.

TK: Tell me about the Johnny Cash cover. Or the Johnny Cash extrapolation, would it be?

CC: Again, that was an instance where I wanted to sing. And at that time, Zilla and I were doing covers, but flipping them back, changing the cadence, making them rapped lyrics. And we were successful at doing it a few times. So I said this is my opportunity to sing Johnny Cash, I love his spirit, I love what he wrote, I love the message. And I really love the At Folsom Prison album that “Cocaine Blues” is on, I love the nature of why he did it in there for those men. And i know it can seem a little mysogonistic – hah, the song is actually very mysoginistic – but to understand you’re going into a hostile environment with hardened criminals, what do you do? He wrote a song about “I shot my wife.” It’s macabre, but you have to understand the performance, catering to the audience -  and that was perfect for it. And because it’s written as a blues song, the time form made it a perfect rap song. It was nothing to transpose the lyrics. I tried to modernize it here and there, put my little reggae accents that I do, I tried to make it mine.

TK: As an artist, your name is an homage to Castro. calling this album Fidel continues that. As an artist, what draws you to him?

CC: Well, to an extent, Americans are supposed to dislike Castro because Castro was one of the few who stood up to the U.S. government when America was the biggest bully in the world. And when I took the name Castro, it was because I respected that – and I knew not to take everything at face value that was given to me. So there’s a militancy about me, so we’ll take that with the Castro. But there’s also a playful side to me, a humorous side, and so there’s Curly. People call me Curly, I have curly hair. When the name hit me in my head, I said this is my Marilyn Manson. The juxtaposition of those two divergent types of ideas. My tagline is “I’m your friendly neighborhood rebel.” You know, you can come over and kick it, have a beer, but we will be storming the capitol at 0900. So I studied him, I studied Che. I want to be knowledgable, globally. I mean, we have american newspapers, and the Metro is the best international news we have, and it’s like ten pages. It’s strange – I don’t want to be out of the loop.

TK: How about calling the record Fidel – does that come from the fact that its so personal?

CC: At some point I realized that it fit. If you call him Fidel, his parents call him Fidel, Che called him Fidel. What did that mean? Winston’s Appeal was my formal document, I’m submitting it to the government and I’m like here, this is what I don’t like, this is what I think should change. And with Fidel, I’m making my statement at a personal level. You think about revolution, you think about explosions and revolts. But before we even get to the big event, how are all the little pieces being connected? So I thought that by calling it Fidel, it would humanize it, bring it down from it being so sensational and be like let’s get down to the ground, to the soil, and see what’s really happeing.

Fidel is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Coal” in Monday’s post, read Tuesday’s album review, watch a music video for “They Call Me Castro” in yesterday’s post and check back tomorrow for more.

Fidel is the featured album in this edition of Unlocked; hear the spotlighted single “Coal” in Monday’s post, read yesterday’s album review and check back later in the week for interviews, a playlist and more.

Yes, the emcee born Kinte McDaniel took his stage name from the Cuban leader widely regarded as a despot in the United States. By calling his sophomore album Fidel, he pushes that parallel more to the front – something that, depending on what political era the listener grew up during, what part of the country they were raised in, and so forth, might be read as a massively controversial statement.

But there’s another thing that the record’s title does – it humanizes its polarizing namesake by using his first name, the familiar form of address. When I interviewed the emcee, he discussed this very conscious decision – he’s a human being, as we all are human beings, and the new album is a reflection of the journey of humanity from pre-post-racial America to the world today. It’s a world where problems persist, but are addressed in a lively manner through Curly Castro’s funky / jazzy / cinematic hip-hop tapestries.

The moniker is the subject of the opening song, “Call Me Castro” – it’s about him reading up on revolutionary figures and shaping his own character accordingly. “When I finally knew the deal than I turned Bobby Seale,” he raps, a nod to the co-founder of the Black Panther party. “I settled some scores and now I’m ten points up.”

The Wall of Sound-sampling “Starch” is the first of many figurative songs on the record. It’s a three verse story (with a great guest spot from Philly’s Has-Lo, part of Castro’s Wrecking Crew collective) that involves a shakedown at the 24-hour laundromat at Sixth and Girard. Through the comical story, Castro weaves a tale about gentrification.

Equally poignant, but more direct, is “Winter ’87.” The song’s “’twas the night before Christmas” verse gives it a nursery rhyme undertone, but as Castro reminds us, it’s a “true story – and I’m not just sayin’ that.” Over samples of Vince Guaraldi from A Charlie Brown Christmas, Castro tells about one holiday growing up in the Bedford-Stuy section of Brooklyn where his mother and siblings were robbed in an elevator on the way home from a family holiday gathering. The choice of the music takes something that much of America has a very specific, sentimental association with, and spins it to say that, well, for some other folks, this is what Christmas is like.

“Coal,” a song out of a David Lynch soundtrack which we heard in yesterday’s featured download, also works in the world of parable – which is the distinct difference between this album and Castro’s 2011 debut, Winston’s Appeal. That time out, he was overtly relating his own story in a straightforward narrative – this time, the songs reflect back on his life, but through metaphor and allegory. The most entertaining example of this is “Colored Water Fountain,” where Castro sings a jingle for a restaurant in a Louis Armstrong voice, but uses the restaurant as a way to enact a twisted revenge on notable bigots of modern society.

Elsewhere, an extrapolation of Johnny Cash’s “Cocaine Blues,” could be interpreted as a simple chauvenistic party cut, but it works in a few other ways as well. There’s the empathetic, unflinching account of a hardened criminal – something not unlike Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood or Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. There’s also the parallel it draws between rebel country music of the 50s and rebel hip-hop a half century later – topically, they’re not all that different.

With Fidel, Curly Castro’s ambition continues to grow as his songs become more lyrically sophisticated and musically pointed, but also energetic and engrossing. It’s not without its challenges – Castro’s voice is always so much in the forefront, that it’s all but impossible to allow his heavy topical matter recede into the background, and just listen because you want to bump a high-energy track. Castro wants to capture that energy and transform it, putting it towards examining the rights and wrongs and inbetweens of society. And with Fidel, he succeeds in a massive way.

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

We’ll dig into Fidel this week on Unlocked, The Key’s regular series spotlighting new and significant releases from Philadelphia area-artists. Tomorrow, I’ll review the album. Later in the week, we’ll have a video and an interview. Today, it’s a free download of the track “Coal,” a track with a loungey, David Lynch soundtrack vibe that’s basically Castro’s hard-hitting nursery rhyme. “I grew up the opposite,” he explains on the first verse. “Didn’t grow up Cosby.” Download the track below, and check back all week for more on Castro and Fidel in Unlocked.