Bands I Caught: Public Record, Feather Mills, Phil Moore Browne, Hail Social

Venue: Northern Liberties Block Party

After the idle talk and identically polished wood floors, after the occasionally tired heads draped over banisters at 1 o’clock and often stiff legs standing in stuffy bars for sets that last a bit too long, after loads of manicured details that so easily lend themselves to overwrought introductions, it was nice to just relax outside for once. POPPED! was fortunate. One day earlier and the crowd’s fashionable blazers would have been far too light; one day later and rain would have shorted out the whole thing. Instead, Saturday’s POPPED! block party was pleasantly chill in the truest possible sense. Children were abundant. Some practiced ollies in adjacent alleyways. Others teased the numerous pit bulls. All wore hand-me-down Tool T-shirts and bummy jeans and ran freely as their pierced punk parents took sips of Red Stripe, their bottles exposed without fear. Northern Liberties has become the little oasis it seems. The nerds are all grown up now and have made themselves a little hometown. F@&king posers. Whatever.

Public Record
This unique (for this festival anyway) afternoon of music started off strong with Public Record, a band I could best describe as Grover Washington Jr. turned up to 11. The whiny guitars and aggressive percussion were still in full effect, hard and driving as ever. The anchor of the songs, though: the talented saxophonist in center stage, who blew out smooth rifts I could easily see coming off a Spiro Gyro album. Riding underneath, maraca-like bass chords added a reggae feel that similarly struck a nice balance between the rocky and the soulful. It was something I would love to let my dad listen too.

Feather Mills
Another first for my POPPED! experience: a songwriter and his guitar. Feather’s songs were all love songs, his voice worn and tattered at the edges. It was a sound reminiscent of early Radiohead. One song, my companion for the evening so astutely pointed out, had the same feel as the Bend’s “Nice Dream.” Now granted, Yorke’s voice is realer and more gut-wrenching than anything this guy gave us. But still, standing in the open air with my arms around someone I love listening to him croon out a Lucinda Williams cover was among the more genuine moments I have had at POPPED! Then again, I guess I was a little biased at the time.

Phil Moore Browne
Phil Moore Browne just didn’t do it for me. Which is sad, because what they were doing was unique. Equal parts Rage Against the Machine and late Saul Williams, their two vocalists were more spoken word poets then singers. Their instrumentals where pretty repetitive punk, the same basic guitar riffs over and over. What is more, they didn’t really fiddle enough with the volume settings. There was constant feedback through the entire set and, for a band that seems dependent on the content of their lyrics, having static drown out your words is just unacceptable. I can say that they did feel comfortable on stage and did everything they could to draw the audience in. I bet they are better indoors. You wanted to like them. But unfortunately, having a social conscience does not automatically make you a good musician.

Hail Social
Hail Social was a fitting bookend to the previous act. While Feather Mills was unsuccessfully innovative, Hail Social was satisfiably standard. It was standard poppy indie rock through and through. An up-tempo Shins? A less lyrical Death Cab for Cutie? My companion and I traded these kinds of references back and forth for a while, but it soon became clear that they were all really the same thing. High whiny vocals. Near-electronic windchime keyboards. Simple guitar riffs and driving drums that didn’t vary too much from song to song. And yet, Hail Social added just enough funkiness to the preceding that, against my better judgment, they had me bouncing on my feet. I wanted to hate them, but couldn’t. Just fun, danceable music. It was a fitting end to my tour of POPPED! fest ’07. I look forward to seeing how it and the Philly music scene in general expand.