Results tagged “allages”

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

When we went to check out Murder By Death at the First Unitarian Church on Sunday night, we thought we knew what to expect. Thanks to R5 Productions, we're used to the quality all-ages shows the Church always delivers. We hadn't seen Murder By Death live before, but we'd been hooked ever since we first heard Like the Exorcist, But More Breakdancing.

Vladimir Putin is celebrating his birthday today. We wonder if Vladdy can get any privacy these days, what with Republican Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin watching him from afar and all...

Happy birthday Casey Affleck. We're sorry you have to share a birthday with Muqtada al-Sadr, but it also happens to be the IBM Personal Computer's birthday, too. So call it even?

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

OK, we'll admit, the title of this post is deliberately sensationalistic, but every part of it is true, in one way or another. Anyway, it got your attention, right?

Annuals/Manchester Orchestra Giveaway
10/30/07-10/31/07

We'll make this short and sweet: Voxtrot (MySpace) is a good band. Their self-titled full-length release is a super-fun disc, full of catchy pop rock. Download a great track from the album ("Kid Gloves" - wherein vocalist Ramesh Srivastava cries, "Cheer me up, cheer me up, I'm a miserable fuck") right here. They're playing an all ages show at the First Unitarian Church this Sunday with 1990s and The Little Ones. Check out the R5 Productions site for more information, and for more free MP3 downloads. Then consider going to the show.

Portugal The Man isn't a country or a person; it's a classic 3-piece band from Alaska whose latest album, Church Mouth, is a collection of indie music with a rich classic rock flavor. Their website says that bands referenced on the disc include the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the White Stripes, the Mars Volta and Santana, and... yep, we can hear all of those in there. Especially the White Stripes, since lead singer John Baldwin Gourley sounds quite a bit like Jack White.

BBC America has instilled in us a love of all the accents of the British Isles – not just the ones you see on Masterpiece Theatre. A few years ago, we became quite enamored with a show called . It didn't stay on very long (apparently Americans don't get jokes about feudalism!), but it did make us realize that we rather enjoy Welsh accents. And lucky us, because tonight, we can get our fill of them at North Star Bar when The Automatic Automatic (MySpace) take the stage.

Saturdays are for shopping. There's something about a slow Saturday afternoon that lends itself to kissing discretionary income goodbye. This weekend, you can shop 'til your wallet cries mercy, all while supporting your local DIY concert promoters, R5 productions. The Punk Rock Flea Market takes over the Starlight Ballroom from 10 to 5, which gives you plenty of time to soak up someone else's air conditioning, buy random stuff, and eat vegan cookies. View the full list of tables here. From records to real art, seems like they've got everything covered. All proceeds go toward the equipment and supplies needed to keep putting on shows at the Church.

You can worship local music down at the church this Friday when local boys Hoots & Hellmouth (MySpace) take the stage, along with Rocky Votolato and Langhorne Slim (a Pennsylvania-born defector to New York). It promises to be a good old-fashioned country-inflected hillbilly ho-down. Which normally wouldn't be our cup of tea. And indeed, the first time we listend to Hoots & Hellmouth's recently released self-titled album (their first), we weren't sure we cared for it very much. Country, after all, is one of our least favorite music genres. But H&H aren't just country. They're part alt-country, part folk, part roots-rock. And during our second listen to their disc, we noticed that our feet were tapping and our head was bobbing uncontrollably to the music. This is catchy, fun stuff with strange, intriguing, and sometimes silly lyrics, as well as a hand-clapping, foot-stomping beat that's undeniable. We're particular fans of the songs "Abattoir Altar Boy and Girl" and "Two Hearts, a Snake and a Concubine," and not just because they have awesome titles. Hoots and Hellmouth weren't named WXPN's Artist to Watch in July for nothing!

Join us tonight for a little music at North Star Bar. Tonight on the menu is Kate Voegele and The Click Five. MySpace was singlehandedly the reason for this singer/songwriter's recent claim to fame. She's even signed by MySpace Records. Her music ventures into the normal pop/rock scene which heavily relies on Kate's big voice to carry the tunes. She recently just won the USA Songwriter's Competition with her song, "Only Fooling Myself." Headlining tonight's...

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Being the good geeks, music fans, and Philadelphians that we are, we find it hard to resist a local hip-hop duo (Vinnie Paz and Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind) called Jedi Mind Tricks (MySpace). These guys have serious skills with rhyming, rhythm, and beats, and use them to talk about violence, religion, mythology, and Philadelphia, as well as, of course, all kinds of science fiction and horror-themed elements, like time travelling, vampires, cyborgs, space travel, and mad scientists (not to mention Jedi). These are combined with sampled audio from movies like Pi and Planet of the Apes. Of course, sometimes their lyrics can get a bit too violent, and refer to insane conspiracy theories and extreme politics that we'd rather not be associated with. But... they're called Jedi Mind Tricks! And they're really quite fun to listen to, most of the time. And they're at the Troc this Saturday night with a couple of other local hip-hop stars. So you might want to check them out, is all we're saying.

VNV Nation Giveaway
4/9/07-4/10/07

So after temps in the 70s and promises of 50s next week, why does St. Patrick's Day need to be slammed with just-above-freezing weather? That doesn't help anyone's bar crawl (except, maybe the thought that more booze will keep you warm).

-y.

WQHS (Penn’s student radio station), is currently a steaming-only station. As part of an effort to help the station grow, there will be a show TONIGHT at the Pilam House (3914 Spruce Street). It will feature local bands Golden Ball, Creeping Weeds, Brown Recluse Sings, and Arc In Round.

Emily Haines Giveaway
1/2/07-1/5/07

Tired of sifting through that same-old same-old at your local shops and malls? Get your holiday shopping done tomorrow, flea-market style. R5 Productions is hosting the holiday edition of its Punk Rock Flea Market at the Starlight Ballroom. Almost 100 tables will be filled with new and used fare, from wearable art by local artists to used vinyl and CDs. We find ourselves especially interested in table 56, which promises to be full of "kickass...

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

Blood Brothers Ticket Giveaway
10/23/06-10/27/06

Be Your Own Pet are endorsed by Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore's label is putting out their records), which is practically enough right there to make us like them. But it turns out their music is good, too! As R5 Productions says, they sound like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were still good. Crazy, brutal rock with a lead singer who even sounds a bit like Karen O. But they rock in their own right, delivering pure, full volume, head-banging thrash music. And they're playing the First Unitarian tonight at 7:30PM with the very '60s retro rock Black Lips (whose live show is apparently crazy wild, involving violence, nudity, arson, and flying bodily fluids - so be warned!) and "demented and manic" local band Clockcleaner. Doesn't sound like an appropriate group of bands for an all ages show in a church, but...whatever! Rock and roll!!!

Well, we haven't got Wilco in town tonight, but we do have a couple of guys from Wilco. It's guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche, and they're playing the First Unitarian Church at 8PM. Each guy will do a solo set, and then they'll form together ("just like Voltron," R5 tells us) to perform as a live improv duo. But if you're expecting a Wilco-esque show, it sounds like you're out of luck. Separately they are known for pretty strange, experimental, avant garde kind of music; together they are apparently even weirder. Should be an interesting show! For more info and some intriguing music samples, skip on over to the R5 website.

Free Chicago: Not the city - the band. They're giving a free performance at the Willow Grove Naval Base at 7PM. Directions and more info here.

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Music at the Church: R5 Productions presents Kayo Dot, Rosetta, Belegost & Tower at The First Unitarian Church (22nd & Chestnut) at 7:30 PM. $8. All Ages. Moshav: Moshav plays the Tin Angel (20 S. 2nd Street) at 8:30 PM. $10 Plain Parade Presents: The Doctor and Philip, Dilly Dilly, and Fence Kitchen at 10 PM at Tritone (1508 South Street). $7 Adam Arcuragi: Adam Arcuragi, The Whigs, The Annuals & El Dorado at The Khyber (56 S. 2nd Street) at 8PM. $8 Got a frugal tip? Don't be stingy! Send it here and share the wealth!

If you read Phillyist regularly (and if not, why not?), you're probably already aware that we're partial to both music and video games, so when the two come packaged together, we get rather excited. And that's just what's happening at a couple of upcoming shows at First Unitarian.

It's become cool to watch family slideshows, thanks to the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players. As we explained in our ticket giveaway post (congrats again to the winner, btw!), this band is a real family of three - which includes a talented twelve-year-old girl on drums - who add their own bouncy indie pop musical commentary to a live slideshow of real photos taken by other families and collected by the band at yard sales and the like. Sounds weird and fun to us, but if you're still confused about their style and their mission, just listen to the explanatory theme and various other songs playing on their ecard, check out their MySpace page, or read about them on the R5 Productions site. This seems like the kind of band you can't really enjoy to the fullest unless you see them live, so join us down at the First Unitarian Church tonight for their all ages show.

Two music festivals are hitting the Philadelphia area this weekend, and they couldn't be more different. The first is R5 Productions' This Is Hardcore 2006 fest. It starts Friday night at 5:30PM "*SHARP*," goes from noon until who knows when on Saturday and Sunday, and it's at the Starlight Ballroom all three days. We must not be hardcore enough, because we recognize pretty much none of the artists on the bill (which you can find here - along with links to buy tickets - if you scroll down a bit). We like the name Fearless Vampire Killers, though, despite the fact (or perhaps because of the fact?) that there's a really bad Roman Polanski vampire sex comedy with the same title. And anyway, isn't that what fests are for: discovering bands you've never heard of before?