The Boston Phoenix discovers what Philly’s been saying for a while: The band Reading Rainbow is pretty awesome

Thanks to local photographer (and occasional The Key contributor) Chris Zakorchemny for giving us the heads up: The Boston Phoenix has just named Philly’s own Reading Rainbow as the best band not just in the city, but in the entire state of Pennsylvania. So sez The Phoenix:

“Everton and Garcia’s music is sweet but not lacking a punk-rock backbone, made clear by the way Reading Rainbow was born: the two were in another band together, when their previous drummer suddenly announced that he couldn’t go on a tour. They improvised and created a new band they could tour with — Sarah took a floor tom and snare and taught herself to play drums. With that stripped-down set-up they’ve created some of the best pop songs we’ve heard this year, including “Always on My Mind,” recorded at Philadelphia’s Miner Street Studios during a session of Weathervane Music’s video series ‘Shaking Through.'”

(Poor Washington, D.C.: Not only do the residents of Our Nation’s Capital still not have the right to vote for representatives in Congress, but the district’s local music scene doesn’t even count in the eyes of alt-weeklies any more. That’s just harsh.)

You can listen to our own Key Studio Session with Reading Rainbow here; our recent interview with the duo-turned-trio (including the new third member, Al Creedon) can be found here.