ACE ENDERS AT THE FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH After we saw Murder By Death, we decided we need to spend more time at the First Unitarian Church. That's precisely why we're taking our own advice and deciding not to miss tonight's show. We're especially excited to see what Ace Enders, of The Early November fame, is doing these days. He's hoping fans of The Early November and his more recent project, I Can Make A Mess......

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. Their fiery brand of cinematic Western-style rock saga has carved them a place......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Tributes R Us: The Great Unknown, Conversations With Enemies, Toy Soldiers, The Wayfairs, and The Armchairs at Millcreek Tavern (4200 Chester Ave), 9PM. Free Green: Status Green at Tin Angel (20 S 2nd), 8:30PM. $8 Orch: West Philadelphia Orchestra, The Mean, and Old Goats at North Star Bar (27th and Poplar), 9PM. $10 BYOTP: Mischief Night Banger featuring $1 PBR and a live painting by Ben Howard at......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: What is the What Now?: Whenever Wednesday Lecture: “What is Contemporary?” at the Institute of Contemporary Art (36th and Sansom), 7PM. Free Metal and Wood: Dolce Suono Chamber Music Concert Series: Metal and Wood Band Redux at the First Unitarian Church (2125 Chestnut), 7:30PM. Free Party!: 4th Anniversary Party featuring $4 food and booze, and Sea Trio, Butane Variation, That Toga Band, Do You Need The Service?, and......

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? WPRB & FREE YR RADIO PRESENT SECRET MACHINES AND DJ DAVE P We post many a musical romp over here, but some might say we're not covering enough of the all-ages action. Well, you don't need to serve alcohol to throw a killer show.......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: FRIDAY: We Were Framed!: Phillyist Framed, a photo exhibit with works from Phillyist readers, at Studio 34 (4522 Baltimore), 7PM. $5 suggested donation (plus free beer) Hype: the HYPE! presents Boy Wonder, Nicole Lynn, Steve Hackman, Swift Technique, Laura Cheadle, and Half Evil Half Good at Upstairs at World Café Live (3025 Walnut), 8PM. $9 The N Crowd: Improv comedy troupe the N Crowd perform at the Actors......

This Phillyist would like to thank a certain pink-haired girl for introducing me to one of the greatest bands to come out of Southern California in the '90s: The Mountain Goats. Singer-songwriter John Darnielle is pretty much the only permanent member of the band, although he's been accompanied by Peter Hughes for quite a while now, along with a shifting group of other people. The lyrics are powerful, intelligent, character-driven, and literate—but don't worry, there's......

This is the part where we [try to] say something funny. But this is one hell of a Wednesday, so think of something funny in your head. Today, it's all about short and sweet. GRADUATE STUDENT MIXER WITH IRISH RED ALE SAMPLES Graduate students are cool because they're like, totally graduated, but, like, totally still in school. If you are one, go meet more. Drink. Rinse. Repeat. WHO: 21+ WHERE: Sláinte, 30th and Market......

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......

The sun is out and, although it looks pretty, it isn't doing us much good. It's still colder than a Phillyist's, uh, hand, in a, um, brass, hm, glove? Politically correct humor is an oxymoron. Since it's Valentine's Day, we'll offer something angry for the loners, something romantic for the lovers and something educational for the learners to do in the city that is suddenly too cold for murderers. At least there's something good......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Love Songs: Dolce Suono Chamber Music Concert Series presents Love Songs: A Valentine’s Serenade at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia (2125 Chestnut), 7:30PM. Free Lopez: The Lopez, The Dollyrots, and Percocettes at the North Star Bar (2639 Poplar), 8PM. $8 Jazzy: Ars Nova presents Ben Ratliff, author of the new book “Coltrane: the Story of a Sound,” speaking on jazz history at the Kelly Writers House (3805......

Finally! The Day of Days, only hours away from the Hour of Hours, when the bright and beautiful dawn of the Weekend shall arise above our spellbound eyes, pushing the darkness and decrepitude of the week deep into the recesses of distant memory! Huzzah! Huzzah! BLUE MAN GROUP HOW TO BE A MEGASTAR 2.1 TOUR If you thought that intro up there would be a hard act to follow, well, we'll put our humility aside......

Despite their name, NYC four-piece Vampire Weekend (MySpace) is not a shoe-gazing, emo goth band. In fact, their self-titled debut LP, just released at the end of last month, is perhaps best described as "sunny" - the very antithesis of a vampire's idea of a good weekend. This band, beloved of many blogs (including us), performs bouncy, funny, clever, retro indie/punk/pop/New Wave songs about love. Their music is so fun it feels like there has......

It’s almost that time again folks: Compulsory Love Day is next Thursday, so it’s time to stock up on the champagne, chocolates, and condoms. That is, if you have a partner. If not, tradition dictates you sit at home alone, preferably in a battered bathrobe, and eat a quart of ice cream out of the container. If you’re feeling somewhere in the middle of the champagne/battered bathrobe spectrum, here are some ideas to keep you......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Reelblack: Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan and Chief Rocker Busy Bee: The Architect Vol. 1 at the International House (3701 Chestnut), 7PM. $7 Armed America: Author Kyle Cassidy speaks about his book Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes at Germ Books and Gallery (2005 Frankford Ave), 7PM. Free Margot & The Nuclear So and So's: Margot & The Nuclear So and So's, Le......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: THIS JUST IN:The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society is holding a $10 ticket sale today, featuring 14 upcoming jazz and classical music performances (list after the jump). You can call the box office at 215-569-8080, or order the tickets online using the discount code "HolidayOffer." Air Power: Wind Quintet and Piano featuring the music of Poulenc, Barber, Ibert, and Higdon at First Unitarian Church (2125 Chestnut), 7:30PM. Free Sing,......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: Phillyist Happy Hour: Get your drink and eat on with the Phillyist crew at St. Stephen's Green (17th and Green), 6-8PM. Free Alan Licht: Guitarist Alan Licht at the Kelly Writers House (3805 Locust Walk), 6PM. Free Meg and Rob: Comedy duo Meg and Rob present “Reviving the Lecture Circuit” as part of the Philly Improv Theater's week at the Shubin Theater (407 Bainbridge), 8PM. $5 Baroness: Baroness,......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: At The Church: Heavy Heavy Low Low, Dance Gavin Dance, Foxy Shazam, and Tera Melos at The First Unitarian Church (2125 Chestnut), 7:30PM, courtesy the folks at R5. $10 An Unreasonable Man: Preview of the Independent Lens film An Unreasonable Man at the WHYY Technology Center (150 N 6th), 6PM. Free (RSVP online) Life’s Joys, Life’s Disappointments: Reception for Michael Grothusen’s new sculpture Life’s Joys—Life’s Disappointments at the......

Fun around town, for $10 or less: At the Church: Avail, Smoke Or Fire, Let Down, and Bridge & Tunnel at the First Unitarian Church (22nd and Chestnut Streets), 7:30PM via the fine folks at R5. $10 Rocky Roads: Showing of Rocky Road to Dublin (a portrait of Ireland in the Sixties) with The Making of Rocky Road to Dublin at the International House (3701 Chestnut), 7PM. $5-$7 Venezuelan Serenade: Serenata Guayanesa, world-renowned vocal......

Wednesday The Dolce Suono Trio devotes an entire concert to Philadelphia composers, including Ned Rorem, George Crumb, Charles Abramovic, and Curt Cacioppo. First Unitarian Church (21st and Chestnut); FREE; 7:30 PM The Opera Company of Philadelphia presents Verdi's timeless Rigoletto. You'll be humming "La Donna è mobile" all the way home. Academy of Music (Broad and Locust); 7:30 PM; $8-$113 Thursday The Philadelphia Orchestra shows its love for Beethoven with an all-Beethoven concert featuring his......

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......

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......

Summer is here. The humidity and heat were in full force at The First Unitarian Church Friday night. Though it was a relatively cool night, the body heat of hundreds of teenagers made up for that in the dark, dank basement of the Church. Everyone seemed to be sweating, even the people standing away from the crowd on the sides. Though there were several bands that played Friday night, The Graduate is who we went......

A couple of months ago, we tried seeing The Graduate's concert and we also interviewed the lead singer, Corey Warning. We were very excited for the concert because Anhedonia, their newly released record, was playing non-stop. Unfortunately we missed most of the show, so we promised that we would see them again when they came through Philly. Finally, they will be here at the First Unitarian Church on Friday night. If you hadn't heard......

We told you that we dug Arcade Fire in our preview but we didn't realize how much until we left Arcade Fire's concert on Saturday night. Arcade Fire's show was one of the best shows we have ever been to, hands down. Their mission was, "to uplift fans, combat 'spiritual death' and bring back the hurdy-gurdy." They completed all three of these missions with incredible music, awesome stage presence and an overall kick-ass show.......

I have the worst luck sometimes. Seriously. I haven't lost my wallet, keys, or car (it's true I have lost my car - don't ask, it's a long story) for a LONG time, so I guess karma has to bite my ass in other areas of my life. A couple of weeks ago, I sat patiently for two hours to hear Albert Hammond Jr., and by the time they came on, I could only......

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 lead singer, Corey Warning...

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

Last night, I was reminded again of how damned short I am when I ended up right in the middle of the tallest crowd I've ever seen at First Unitarian Church, where I was to see William Elliott Whitmore, and, to a lesser extent, Red Sparowes. "See" is generous. I heard fine, but mostly, what I saw was a lot of people's backs. And the top of Whitmore's jaunty hat. But that's okay. I've kind......