Results tagged “chestnutst”

In about a week and a half, singer/songwriter Johnathan Rice is going to be down at Stubb's in Austin, supporting no less a band than R.E.M. at South by Southwest. But luckily for those of us who live up here in Philly and won't be able to make it to the big party in Austin, Rice is currently touring with Matt Costa, and will be a little closer to us tomorrow night, at the First Unitarian Church. (Hope you've already got tickets, because unfortunately the show is sold out!) Why is that lucky? Because Rice is a pretty big talent. His latest album, Further North, released at the end of last year, is a strong collection of indie rock with a bit of an alt-country flavor; the sound reminds us of the Wallflowers and Josh Ritter. The strongest track is probably the supremely catchy "Hard to Believe," but "THC" and "The Ballad of King Coyote" are nearly as excellent. To get a better idea what he sounds like, stream "End of the Affair" in Windows Media Player or Quicktime formats, or check out the video for "We're All Stuck out in the Desert" embedded here. You can also download some free MP3s over at the R5 website, as this show is indeed another R5 production.

Yes, it's that time of year again: gift-getting time! Will Santa bring you that video game console you're hoping for? Or is this finally the year when Satan will give you eternal life and help you take over the world?

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa stops by Philadelphia for a recital of Mozart, Strauss, Poulenc, Puccini and Copland on her Farewell Tour. This may be your last chance to hear the world-renowned New Zealand soprano.

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.

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!

The Graduate's debut CD entitled Anhedonia is definitely not lacking what the CD's title refers to. Anhedonia is the loss of capacity to experience pleasure. It usually occurs in people with depression and schizophrenia. This is not what we felt as we listened to their new CD. Again, Philly's music scene is rockin' and this is a show you should run to before The Graduate becomes so big you'll have to buy lawn tickets at...

The Graduate
4/16/2007-4/20/2007

As part of the Philadelphia Art Alliance's New Music Mondays, award-winning composer Michael Hersch comes to town to discuss his compositions and for the Philadelphia premieres of his Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 for Unaccompanied Cello, performed by cellist Daniel Gaisford.

You won’t be able to stop crooning "Summertime" after this week. Yes, Porgy and Bess is opening at the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

Sigh…. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Philadelphia Orchestra could stay out of the orchestral gossip articles? Regardless, it, along with some gossip-free groups, have some great concerts coming up.

At first, we weren't sure we wanted to write about MSTRKRFT (pronounced "master craft") and their show at the Medusa Lounge this Saturday night. Yeah, they were half way to winning our hearts just by having the letters M, S, T and K in their name, in that order. But half way isn't all the way. Then we watched the video for their song "Work on You" (which you can find at their eCard), and we were totally hooked. It's a cool adventure story - starring robots that look like Transformers - with explosions, fighting, resurrection, disco dancing, chases, escapes, true love, miracles, and is that KITT?! The song has a fantastic beat, and is sung by...well, essentially, Stephen Hawking. Seriously, this video is just about the coolest thing ever. As if that weren't enough, you can find another crazy awesome video on their website; just scroll down a bit and click on VIEW VIDEO. Be warned though - this one is a bit NSFW. Nothing explicit actually happens, but you'll feel like you're watching pr0n anyway; the video is composed entirely of young women in business attire drinking (and getting splashed with) liquids in the most highly sexualized ways possible.

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.

If Wolfmother is the triumphant, vibrant rebirth of '70s heavy metal (and they certainly are, may the Gods of metal bless 'em; by all means pick up their new self-titled full-length, which is fantastic), then The Clientele are the triumphant, vibrant rebirth of '60s Brit-pop, served with a large side of thoughtful sadness to make it bittersweet. And happily, they're invading Philly tonight (the First Unitarian Church, to be exact) along with Great Lakes and Shai Halperin from the Capitol Years (check the R5 Productions site for song samples and more details on the show).

Mission of Burma is back in Philly this weekend, playing the Church with NYC rock outfit Pela. That's right, Mission of Burma. If you don't know who Mission of Burma is, you need to go. If you do know, you already know you need to go. MoB is indeed, as it says on their website, "one of the most important American rock bands of the last 20 years." This is despite the fact that the main body of their career covered only 1979-1983, and produced only two albums worth of studio material and one rather crappy set of live recordings (entitled The Horrible Truth About Burma...that truth being that their live show is often not quite as great as their studio performances...but what can you do?). Those two albums alone make them worth listening to, full as they are of such a fantastic blend of punk/pop/rock, with such intelligent lyrics full of humor, scathing political commentary, and powerful artistic statements. But in 2004 MoB returned to the stage and the studio, picking up right where they left off with the amazing OnOffOn. And just a few months ago MoB put out a brand new disc - The Obliterati. With incredible songs like "2wice," "Man in Decline," and "Careening with Conviction," they sound just as fresh and raw and relevant on this album as if they'd formed yesterday. R5 Productions is doing the show, so check out their site for the usual colorful descriptions and awesome music files.

Our old friends Dirty on Purpose are back in town tonight at the First Unitarian Church with crazy Canadian indie folk pop outfit the Hidden Cameras, so it's time to head on down to Center City and worship at the indie rock altar! Dirty on Purpose will no doubt be playing plenty of tracks from their brand new album, Hallelujah Sirens, which we've had a chance to listen to thanks to the generosity of a fellow local blogger. Verdict: it's good! It's got a really nice sound to it. Lots of pleasant, melodic indie pop rock. Great music to sway and ponder to - sort of like Yo La Tengo. Something aboout it is reminding us of the Breeders, too. The real stand-out track is the bouncing, rollicking "Car No Driver," a fantastic song about being passed on the road by a car without a driver, amongst other things.

This weekend in Mandell Theater at Drexel University, on Saturday evening and then again on Sunday afternoon, what looks to be just about the coolest show ever is going to be performed. First of all, it's called Deadly She-Wolf Assassin at Armageddon! Let us repeat that: Deadly She-Wolf Assassin at Armageddon! We challenge you to come up with a cooler title. The show itself makes use of narration, "high-energy martial arts choreography," and "a live score combining traditional Japanese music with driving Afro-Asian jazz" to tell a story inspired by the Japanese manga and movie series Lone Wolf and Cub, which is about a masterless samurai assassin killing his way across the land while pushing his infant son ahead of him in a James Bond-type baby carriage, loaded with hidden weapons. Of course, the show seems to be less about that and more about "a cunning and beautiful assassin, who like a deadly she-wolf leaves a trail of deception, revenge, double-crossing and death in her wake." Dude, that's hot. We're talking crazy, jazzy martial arts dance theater here, people. We don't know about you, but we feel like maybe this show was created just for us. Obviously, we're going to go see it, and we'll be sure to let you good folks out there know when we get back if it really does turn out to be the coolest show ever.

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

We hope you already got your tickets for the Books/José González/Death Vessel show tomorrow night, because it's sold out! Phillyist is a particular fan of José González, whom we discovered, believe it or not, while watching a really cool commercial. He's mainly a guitar and a voice, but those two things together have a beautiful, mellow pop sound. González also just got signed by Mute Records, and his latest album, the fantastic Veneer, is going to be rereleased on April 4th. See him now so you can say you were into him before he was cool.

Okay, it's hard to say this, but we've been meaning to for a while, and now's the time: Phillyist doesn't think you're punk enough. There, it's out, and we feel better for it. Whew.

Exhumed Films is invading the International House again, this time with a double feature on the subject of REVENGE. Yes, in all caps, just like that. In fact, the program is entitled REVENGE...Loud as Thunder, Cold as Steel! which we think sounds really cool.

Editor's note: Jim Genzano attended the first night of Exhumed Film's terrifying triple features series. It resumes this Saturday night at 8 p.m.