Want to party 90’s-style with the Meat Puppets for free tonight at Underground Arts? Should be a great show, with Enemy Planes and Birds of Maya.
Like us on facebook and email us at FreeJumpStuff@gmail.com to enter to win a pair of tickets (give us your name and put “Meat Puppets” in the subject line). Winners will be announced by 2:00.
If you want to play it safe and get your own tickets, find details for the show here.
Text by Kyle Bagenstose.
When Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter Kwesi K releases his EP, PRONOUNS, next month, he might have the chance to finally put down the guitar and catch his breath. Until then though, the grind continues.
The smooth-singing Kwesi K, whose music will please fans of Ben Harper and Jack Johnson, is giving listeners a taste of the new album with release of the EP’s first single, “Fold.” The song, like the rest of the album, was produced by Fishtown-based producer and drummer Charlie Patierno. It was Kwesi K’s first time being professionally recorded.
Last night at The Painted Bride, we launched a new music series, The Rub-Up.
The idea is to bring together musical acts from across the spectrum of Philadelphia music so that they can listen to and learn from each other, maybe even form relationships so they can collaborate and experiment.
We kicked off the series with Beano and Commonwealth Choir, two young Philly acts on the rise. Beano was joined on stage by his Talent Island cohort, Chill Moody.
It was great fun in an awesome venue. Stay tuned for upcoming events in the series.
Images by Luong Huynh.
Text and images by Darragh Dandurand.
Johnny Brenda’s was a whirlwind of five bands playing back-to-back last Thursday. Birdie Busch started off with a short set at around 8 p.m., followed by Willy Mason and Roadkill Ghost Choir, a six-piece band on tour from DeLand, Florida. They kicked up the energy in the venue with a help of a few loyal fans. Lead singer and guitarist Andrew Shepard swayed to the band’s alternative rhythm when he sang and swirled his waist-length locks during instrumental solos.
Next on was Prowler (above), self-described as “colossal, spaced-out basement boogie from the land of Philadelphia.” The five musicians transformed Johnny Brenda’s into a electronica and rock fusion rumble, with the smoke and strobe lighting of an underground rave. Each instrument melted together in pulsating beats, which matched the intensity of the band’s enthusiasm. Lead singer Keith Greiman bounced around like a ping-pong ball soaked in Four Loko as audience members tried not to spill their beers while they head-banged along to the beat.
Pattern Is Movement: Success Through Separation.
Text by Nikki Volpicelli. Images by Kate Harrold.
The thing about making things is you’re rarely ever going to think they’re good enough yourself, as the maker. Anyone who knows that feeling can understand why it’s taking Pattern Is Movement four years to complete their newest self-titled record, the fourth release from Philly’s mad-sound scientists.
Wavves, King Tuff and Jacuzzi Boys @ The Church.
Text by Nikki Volpicelli. Images by Clayton Rossner.
The spotlight – in our eyes – of Wednesday’s WAVVES (above), King Tuff and Jacuzzi Boys show at the First Unitarian Church was Kyle Thomas’s performance.
Kyle Thomas (right) of King Tuff stood alongside his giant of a guitar-shredding friend, Magic Jake, blasting through their reissued Was Dead record, which is a culmination of songs that took him more than four years to write and a few years to record and a few years to perform.
So glad he got around to it because he’s a killer showman.
He even Oprah’ed the crowd, giving one lucky lady a chance on stage so he could dazzle her neck with one of his homemade sun medallions.
Our Nikki Volpicelli spoke with Gabe Fulvimar of Gap Dream. The band performs at the First Unitarian Church tonight with The Growlers, Cosmonauts, Together PANGEA, Habibi, The Memories and Colleen Green (see here for show details).
Find me someone who loves Burger more than Gap Dream’s Gabe Fulvimar and I will find you a liar.
The Cleveland-born musical collaborator breathes, eats — even sleeps — Burger. You see, when Fulvimar moved to California last December, he locked in a spot in a storage space behind the Fullerton-based record label and shop’s record shop. That’s where he still lives today.
“I didn’t move to California. I moved to Burger,” he says over the phone while apologizing for the constant screech of the car alarm that’s going off around him somewhere in Salt Lake City. That’s where the Burgerama Tour has dropped down to play for the night. He tells me the Osmonds are from there. I tell him that explains a lot. He says it’s a religious experience, or you know — some kind of far-out-land of rare spirituality in all of the SLC local. That’s what it feels like.
The Burgerama Tour is familiar to him. In 2010, when the label budgeted some groups into a touring vehicle and sent them across the country, Fulvimar made it to the Cleveland show. It was there that he met Lee Rickard, one the label’s co-founders. They talked shop, he gave him some tunes and, in his words, “Found a way to worm my little ass in there.”
Lupe Fiasco will perform at the Electric Factory on December 4. Tickets go on sale Friday at noon. But you can win a pair of tickets from us before the sale begins.
Like us on facebook and email us at FreeJumpStuff@gmail.com to enter to win a pair of tickets (give us your name and put “LUPE” in the subject line).
We’ll announce winners at 11 am Friday.
Text and images by Breannin Hansteen.
The Tower Theatre became Philly’s dance floor for nearly four hours last night. Not even the classy, red seats could entice fans to take breaks in between each act.
It has been a year and some change since Two Door Cinema Club blessed Philadelphians with arresting riffs and melodies that compel crowds to jump and sing uncontrollably. The Northern Ireland band kicked off their tour at the Tower Theatre last night with St.Lucia and Smallpools.
Billy Barton: Living Punk, 24-Fucking-7.
Text by Beth Ann Downey. Images by Michael Bucher.
Billy Barton is about to play a punk show in South Philly. He’s standing in a parking lot across from JR’s Bar, off of West Passyunk Avenue, drinking with his band, The Charley Few, before they play a tribute to Oi! show as part of the lead up to the annual Philly Punx Picnic. A green bandana is tied around Barton’s Mohawked head and he wears no shirt underneath a jean vest covered in patches.
The parking lot crowd has grown to 20 or more by the time his band’s set rolls around. That’s when it’s time for Barton to roll their amp across the street, plug in his bass and sound check. Before they start, Barton is sure to carefully hang a black cloth that spells out “SPP” in white masking tape. The acronym for the South Philly Punx, this matches a patch on Billy’s vest, and is the scene which most in the room identify themselves as a member.
Barton has become, rather inadvertently, a champion of this scene, and in turn, a preserver of punk, after a letter he wrote this past February to the Philadelphia City Paper was made public. It called out a writer for, as someone from Barton’s background would see it, mislabeling the band Pissed Jeans as a punk band.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 