You know boundary-pushing sax player Colin Stetson, even if you don’t realize it. As a performer, he’s best known as a player with Bon Iver and Arcade Fire; as a studio musician, he’s sat in with Tom Waits, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and countless others. His latest solo record, New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light, came out last week, and tonight he plays World Cafe Live on tour in support of it. The all-ages show with Sarah Neufield begins at 7:00 p.m., tickets are available here. Below, watch the music video for “In Mirrors” + “And In Truth.”

Vacationer‘s second Nude Beach party hits Underground Arts tonight with New Yorkers Body Language and local buzzmakers Night Panther on the bill, along with the vibey curators. Vacationer, fronted by Kenny Vasoli (formerly of The Starting Line and others), just wrapped up tour in support of its 2012 album Gone, and is looking to head into the studio this summer to lay down a second LP of its breezy, expansive electronic pop songs. Tickets and information on the show can be found here. Below, watch a video of Vacationer performing at the first installment of Nude Beach.

Folk music runs in Amy Helm‘s family tree. Her father is Levon Helm of The Band, and she’s into her second decade performing as a musician in her own right, both as a solo artist and in bands like Ollabelle and The Dirt Farmer Band. She was just announced as part of the 2013 Philadelphia Folk Festival lineup, and performs tonight at the Arden Gild Hall in Delaware. Information on the show can be found here. Below, see a video of Helm and her band performing “Makes No Difference” a couple weeks ago at the New Legacy Series in Passaic, New Jersey.

Vacationer | Photo by John Vettese

Following up on the packed crowd and snow-slippery volleyball court of February’s inaugural Nude Beach party at Underground Arts, Philly-area electronic pop outfit Vacationer announced the second edition of its showcase this week.

Joining the band on Friday, May 10th will be discofied Brooklyn group Body Language and local buzzmakers Night Panther, who were just featured in a pretty sweet Shaking Through profile. In addition, Vacationer front-guy Kenny Vasoli will DJ between sets. Tickets and information on the party can be found here. Check out a video of Vacationer performing “Trip” and “Dreamlike” from the inaugural party below.

Photo: Gary Miller/FilmMagic

Dave Grohl gave an inspiring and insightful Keynote Speech at last week’s SXSW [link]

Cursive and The Good Life frontman Tim Kasher came to Folkadelphia in his solo acoustic capacity for this week’s live session [link]

Mondays’ My Morning Download featured L.A. five piece The Lonely Wild and their track “Everything You Need” [link]

Florida / NYC duo The Saint Johns were highlighted for XPN’s Gotta Hear Song of the Week with their song “Your Head and Your Heart” [link]

Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five and Guster announced a date at The Mann for July 18th [link]

Purling Hiss are the focus of Unlocked this week; their major label debut Water On Mars was released on Tuesday through Drag City [link]

Philly bands Vacationer, Grandchildren, Lantern and more invaded Austin for SXSW with an impressive showing of hard work and talent [link]

Appel Farm announced a line-up for the June 1st festival that includes Brandi Carlile, Low Cut Connie and Delta Rae [link]

The Philly Drum Project will celebrate its first anniversary at World Cafe Live on April 23rd [link]

Get an exclusive listen of Amos Lee covering “Some Days Are Diamonds” from The Music Is You: A Tribute to John Denver [link]

Slingshot Dakota‘s positive, upbeat pop / punk songs shine in this week’s Key Session [link]

Free Energy | Photo by John Vettese

The SXSW PHL showcase wasn’t the only place to see musicians from the Delaware Valley last week. A wide variety of musicians from the region made the trek, with a wide variety of approaches. For instance, Wilmington’s New Sweden took the barn-burning powerhouse approach, not only playing a packed tour on the way down, but jamming in an impressive (and as yet unquantified) number of SXSW showcases into its itinerary between Monday and Saturday. Other artists took it light, by comparison.

Vacationer | Photo by John Vettese

We caught Kenny Vasoli’s Vacationer in their last show of South By Southwest on Saturday night at the infamous Hype Hotel venue, sponsored by The Hype Machine. It was the breezy electronic pop band’s second of two shows, and the relaxed pace left Vasoli in the most exuberant of exuberant moods during their set.

“This has been the best experience I’ve ever had at South by Southwest,” he reminded the crowd at uber-frequent intervals. Like, seriously, in between every song of their 30-minute set. “It’s been such a great few days, and I’ve got all of you to thank for that.” Back in his old pop-punk band The Starting Line, Vasoli probably got swept awat in the hammering gauntlet that the industry festival can be – hence the easygoing approach this time. He’s not alone.

Grandchildren | Photo by John Vettese

“We’ve come to South By every year for the past five years,” Alex Maryls of Grandchildren told me as he and his bandmates packed up the van after their only official showcase – Thursday night at the Meduse Lounge. “We only did two shows this year. Tomorrow we play a festival in Oklahoma on the drive back to Philly. It’s so much better this way.”

Maryls says he too got caught up in the barnburner, fill-your-day-with-shows approach earlier on, but realized how exhausting it can be – and, as his band grew in complexity (and instrumentally), how logistically tough as well. “This is much more enjoyable,” he says. “We saw our label, we saw our friends, and we played a couple good shows.” The last one of which had Ryan “Honus Honus” Kattner of Man Man cheering them on.

Lantern | Photo by John Vettese

By comparison, Lantern took a more filled approach – at least a show a day – and had a generally positive experience. I caught up with them at a few points (Philly writer and regular Key contributor Elliott Sharp was tagging along with them, working on a long form independent piece on the festival and touring in general), and I finally took in a full Lantern set on Saturday afternoon when they played the Third Man Records Rolling Store showcase.

If you’re not familiar with this oddity of Jack White’s label – it’s a basically big yellow van with a PA built in, microphone inputs on the outside and a mixing console behind a sliding glass window. It pops up at random spots with bands in tow – this time, Lantern was featured along with Pujol performing in an East Austin parking lot.

New Sweden | Photo by John Vettese

“This show and the showcase yesterday for Tiny Mix Tapes were probably our two best,” singer-guitarist Zachary Fairbrother told me. “Or the most positive. We played one showcase for [blog name redacted] and there were maybe 500 people there, but they were just there for the scene, they’re not listening and you can tell. The crowd at these past two have been here for the music. It’s a much better environment.”

Free Energy (pictured up top) played an exhuberant Saturday night set to a packed crowd at The Iron Bear – the scene of Bleeding Rainbow’s equipment carnage of last year, an uncanny coincidence since both bands appeared on a recent show at Arden Gild Hall. (Free Energy did not smash anything, however.)

In another coincidence, on Saturday evening I headed down Austin’s 6th Street – a scene of mayhem and madness that falls somewhere between Mardi Gras and the Philadelphia Folk Festival campground – making my way to a bar / venue called The Lodge to catch TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb. When I arrived, the stage was still being set up, but I heard a very recognizable blend of acoustic punk fervor and violin in the near-distance. I poked my head next door, and saw New Sweden, wailing away to a packed bar for their final show.

TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb | Photo by John Vettese

I watched Kong and their gritty folk brethren and thought about their respective tactics: New Sweden playing near-constantly all week, Kong popping in and out at the end of the week. Each has their merits – getting your name out there as much as possible, versus playing it cool and avoiding burnout. Both played to crowds bobbing along to their raucous and enjoyable sound (especially to folks indulging in pre-St. Patrick’s Day whiskey drinks). Both handed out free CDs.

And both are probably in the same predicament in the end – the music may be listened to by people who have been grabbing free CDs all week, the crowd may remember them in a way more specific than “that cool folk band we saw on Saturday,” the band may have a somewhat bigger crowd the next time they play Austin on tour. Or their southwestern fan base may remain at the same level, and this will have just been an exercise in performing live and having fun on the road.

Which is all part of the gamble of the South by Southwest festival, and of a music career in general. When you have name recognition of Vacationer, Free Energy and Grandchildren – and the label support that two out of those three artists have – it’s easier to be relaxed at SXSW. When you’re going it your own, you’re playing by your own rules, and going H.A.M. like is an admirable and respectable option. But in the all-around scheme of things – the knowns, the lesser-knowns, the hectic and relaxed – all of these locals in Austin did Philly proud.

Free Sailor Jerry rum drinks flowed and a makeshift volleyball court did not go unused before fellow warm-weather-inspired Philly band Cruiser opened the party. After their smooth set, out-of-town DJ Robert DeLong pumped up the crowd with energetic beats and a set that showcased his multi-instrumental talents, blending live drums and keys into his electronic tracks. These openers one can assume were hand-picked by Vacationer fulfilled the band’s desire for these monthly parties to showcase both Philly local and emerging EDM artists.

Vacationer has always kept their hometown audience in mind, and the Nude Beach show proved a proper homecoming for the band and frontman Kenny Vasoli after touring extensively with Niki and the Dove since the New Year. Playing through favorites off their debut album Gone, Vasoli also gave hints about the band’s new music, promising more shoegaze on their next record.

Beach balls released a near the end of Vacationer’s set quickly became coated with the mixture of dirt and water tracked into the venue from the still snowy ground outside, and served as a reminder that it was in fact February, not July. But for a band that prides itself on making music that affords listeners an instant vacation from their everyday woes, the monthly Nude Beach parties should serve as a great way for Philly music lovers to take this trip together.

Vacationer bring their inaugural monthly gig to Underground Arts tonight.  The electronic dreamscape creators released their full-length Gone last March.  And though the production is totally 21st century, the album crackles and pulsates with a golden-aged nostalgia for childhood summers and excursions to exotic places.  Also playing tonight are Robert Delong and Cruiser.  Tickets and information for the 21+ show can be found here.  Below, watch Vacationer’s video for “Trip.”

Local pop-rocker Shorty Boy Boy plays MilkBoy tonight.  After releasing 2006′s LP Kicking Your Ass, Then Smoking Your Grass, Shorty Boy Boy’s Josh Pannepacker announced his retirement from music “to focus on getting paid.”  The retirement eventually proved tiresome and Pannepacker was back in action in 2010 with a second LP titled Tru Luv in the works (expected out this spring).  Tickets and information for tonight’s 21+ show at MilkBoy Philly with The Quelle Source and Seamus Browning can be found here.  Watch the video for Shorty Boy Boy’s “Closer” below.

If you were at yesterday’s Free at Noon, you know this already: it is impossible to not smile at a Free Energy show.  The dudes know how to get the crowd dancing with their catchy pop / rock songs.  If you don’t believe me, just listen to their recent full-length Love Sign and see how many beats it takes before you’re on your feet singing into a hairbrush.  Or you could check them out tonight at the Arden Gild Hall when they play with local shoegaze-inspired punks Bleeding Rainbow, who also have a brand new record out called Yeah Right.  Tickets and information for the all-ages show in Arden, DE can be found here.  Below, watch Free Energy’s video for “Girls Want Rock” and listen back to their Free at Noon performance here.

Free Energy – Girls Want Rock (Official Video) from Free Energy on Vimeo.

Philly’s Ape School and The Interest Group join forces tonight at Johnny Brenda’s.   Ape School is the brutally honest, relentlessly sarcastic and incredibly infectious project of man-about-town Michael Johnson.  In addition to recording LPs under that moniker, Johnson has played or recorded with a continually expanding list that currently includes Lilys, Kurt Vile, Nightlands and The War on Drugs.  Most recently, Johnson released his excellent second LP as Ape School called Junior Violence.  Meanwhile, The Interest Group will be premiering a new band and new songs at tonight’s 21+ show with Ramona Falls.  Tickets and information can be found here.  Watch Ape School’s video for “Weak in the Teeth” below.

Birdie Busch‘s latest LP, Birdie Busch and The Greatest Night, gets profiled in Unlocked [link]

World Cafe‘s Sense of Place series explores the musical heritage of Memphis [link]

Philly synth-poppers Vacationer announce a monthly music showcase at Underground Arts [link]

Gracie releases a free download and EP details [link]

Emo four-piece Everyone Everywhere records a Key Studio Session [link]

My Morning Jacket’s Jim James announces a solo appearance at Johnny Brenda’s [link]

Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic gives Bleeding Rainbow a shoutout via Twitter [link]

Catnaps premier a playful new music video for “Cherry Lips” [link]

Shorty Boy-Boy also premiers a video for the ultra-catchy “Closer” [link]

Download a song from Kurt Vile‘s reissued Hunchback EP [link]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds release a lyric video for “Jubilee Street” [link]

Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jason Myles Gross appears in a Folkadelphia session [link]

Vacationer | Photo by Rachel Barrish

When Vacationer‘s Kenny Vasoli talked with The Key’s Beth Ann Downey back in September, we got a hint about a new regular music series the band hoped to launch in Philly. Today, we’ve got the official details. The dreamy electronic pop group will throw a monthy party at Underground Arts, beginning on Saturday, February 9. Tickets for the inaugural show with Robert DeLong and Cruiser are available for $8 in advance at the venue’s website, and the band is promising drink specials at the show a la Making Time.

Vacationer also released a remix EP this week, featuring re-versions of “Good As New” by Geographer, Ghost Beach, and Philly’s own Les Professionnels. Listen to their remix below, and stream the entire EP here.

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

1. Cruiser, “The Fritz” Cruiser EP

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

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

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

3. Vacationer, “Summer End” Gone

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

Vacationer – Summer End from Vacationer on Vimeo.

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

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

5. GrandeMarshall, “Dearly Beloved” 800

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

Rising spectral rock gang Ladies Auxiliary is opening for Churchill tonight at North Star Bar. The trio released their album On The Shadow last year, which you can grab for a name-your-price cost here. Tonight’s 21+ concert starts at 8; go here for tickets and information. Below, watch Ladies Auxiliary’s performance of “I Haven’t Been” from First Unitarian Church last spring.

Folk artist Dan Bern and his International Jewish Banking Conspiracy crew are performing tonight at Puck Live. The singer-songwriter, who released his latest album, Doubleheader, earlier this year, is something of a renaissance man, having built a career recording, writing, and painting for the last sixteen years. His familiar “talking blues” approach to performing has made Bern’s rambling-song style stick out in a generation below greats like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Go here for tickets to the 21+ show tonight, and below watch “Marilyn” from Bern’s self-titled 1997 album.

The Key: Vacationer has spent a lot of time on the road since the record came out, but it seems like over the summer you’ve had some time to play a few local shows. How does it feel to play for your hometown audience?

Kenny Vasoli: It feels really good. We’re pretty underplayed in Philly thus far so it’s nice to be able to get out there and make a little bit more of a presence. It’s pretty convenient being able to just go down the street and play some shows.

TK: You’re having two pretty popular local bands open up for the show. What do you think about the local Philly scene nowadays? Are there any other local bands that you like or might want to play with eventually?

KV: There are more and more Philly bands that seem to be coming to my attention that are really good. I saw Cold Fronts play last year down in Asbury Park and I like their stuff a lot. … Unfortunately, Algernon Cadwallader just broke up. They were probably my favorite local band up to that point. It wasn’t even a thing where we’d fit on the same bill together necessarily, but in the back of my mind I always wish we could have done more stuff together just to see them play more.

TK: How do you describe what a Vacationer show is like? As a band, do you guys try to recreate or re-envision your album live?

KV: I tell people that [our music] sort of walks the line between dance music and gaze music. As far as recreating the album, we do our best to have all of the elements of what’s in the record, and then just have it slightly more hyped up and go a little bit more dimensional with live instruments. I think it maybe has a little bit more bottom to it and seems a little more like dance music when you see it live.

TK: How do you keep the electronic-based scope of your music sounding organic in a live setting? Electronic shows can sometimes provide a push-the-button-and-walk-away type of atmosphere.

KV: It’s funny because when I first started conceiving this project, that was almost what I had pictured. It’s little embarrassing to admit because I didn’t really know anything that was a hybrid of it. I had been getting into DJ stuff like Four Tet, and I’d been exposed to the Neon Indian and Washed Out side of things. Washed Out, at the time, was doing that sort of press play and sing along and then eventually added a band. I thought it would be something that would be easy to do. It would be cool to have an electronic project rather than have to play acoustic shows all the time. Then when we were like four songs into the writing process, [co-writers Matthew Young and Grant Wheeler of Brooklyn-based band Body Language] kind of gave me a nice dose of reality, and said this is not going to be compelling to see live if you don’t have a full band. You want people to be engaged with it. … I really took that to heart, and then we started putting an ensemble together. I’m really glad it went that way because I think the live show definitely benefits from having the full band. …We’re able to mess with the arrangements and not have them stick to the grid so much, which is really nice. It’s a little bit more comfortable for me because that’s the world I grew up in.

TK: In the past few months, it’s come out that you’ll be going out on the “Say It Like You Mean It” 10th anniversary tour with The Starting Line. Are you excited to go out on tour with old friends?

KV: I like the pace of doing things with The Starting Line once a year. It’s nice to get us together because we’re by no means on bad terms. Matt [Watts] from The Starting Line actually manages Vacationer. … It’s a little bit weird that [we’ll be playing] the whole first record all the way through. I never thought that I’d be doing that kind of thing, but it sort of dawned on me that that stuff is important to a lot of people and I can’t look that gift horse in the mouth. There are so many bands out there that would be really grateful to have an opportunity to play material for people that are still so interested in hearing it ten years later. … I can’t in good faith forget where I came from because I really do owe so much of my character and the opportunities that I’ve had musically to The Starting Line and to that record. So I’m going to embrace those shows with open arms, look forward to it and try to bring back as much of that energy that I had for that material back in the day as I can.

TK: I heard Vacationer is looking to start a monthly showcase somewhere locally? Is that true?

KV: We’ve been knocking around this idea of doing curated parties at some sort of local venue, and have shows where we can bring other…like-minded artists [and] have some good parties with us. If not that, then we would DJ the event and have other DJs and other bands, and sort of do what Making Time do to an abbreviated level because we really don’t have that type of recognition at this point. We want to sort of move to that mindset with a collective of artists that are happening right now. We’re trying to do our homework as far as who’s out there and who would be right for that sort of thing. So yeah, definitely keep an eye on us for that coming into the end of this year and the new year.

TK: So you’re keeping Philly close to your heart of the next few months?

KV: Yeah, definitely. I love Philly. I’ve lived in the suburbs, but I’ve grew up around Philly my whole life and I really can’t picture myself living anywhere else. I want to do what I can to help nurture the electronic scene. I know there’s a bit of it out there, but not as much to my knowledge as some of the other cities. So, I’d like to help anybody that is trying to make a name out there get on the same page that we’ve been lucky enough to be on.

Vacationer plays with City Rain and Cold Fronts at Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill Street, Friday September 28 at 9 p.m. Admission to the 21+ show is $12, tickets and information are available here.

Photo by Kirk Love | kirklove.tumblr.com

We love to see a musical pairing that’s working this well. Electro-pop outfit City Rain and swaggery rockers Cold Fronts first shared the stage at PhilaMOCA in August. Since then, they’ve opened the Work Drugs Endless Summer Kickoff at Johnny Brenda’s last weekend, and now they’ve both been added as openers on the September 28 Vacationer show at Underground Arts. Tickets to the 21+ show are available here; below, check out Cold Fronts’ video for “Blood.”

Cold Fronts – Blood from think/feel on Vimeo.

Check out our coverage of Good Old War at this year’s XPoNential Music Festival here, and watch their video for “Amazing Eyes,” from their latest album below.

DOM – Jesus (Vacationer Remix) by FILTER Magazine

I grew up and still live in Philadelphia and the two other guys are in Brooklyn. The project started a few months back. The two guys in Brooklyn also play in a band called Body Language, and we sort of just got together and wrote and recorded 5 songs in the BL studio…the first of which went up on the interwebs yesterday. We’re shocked and pleasantly surprised by all the warm feedback. We’re planning on releasing a few more songs over the coming weeks as we’re getting ready to start playing shows.

Below, download the song and check out the video for the song, “Trip.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbhumzOeTQc&feature=player_embedded