Tuesday Tune-Out: Sweatheart @ PhilaMOCA.
Text and image by Chris Malo.
This month, PhilaMOCA‘s Tuesday Tune-Out is being curated by Cinedelphia Film Festival. For the first installment last night, Sweatheart was on stage and 1983 rom-com Valley Girl was on screen.
Never heard of Sweatheart? Shame on you. They describe themselves as “Approachable Stadium Pop, Man Jams (with Women) or Community College Rock. No wait, 80’s Screwball Comedy Soundtrack Rock…from Philadelphia.” They know how to have fun and have fun with their music.
Cold weather outside. Good music and good people inside. The room got packed as the film started, and ran almost halfway through before intermission. After overcoming some technical difficulties, Sweatheart – decked out in ’80s garb, began playing some choice gems from the film’s soundtrack.
One of the interesting facts about the film was that the music was seemingly the biggest obstacle in completing the movie. Due to clearance problems and high financial costs, there are actually several different versions of the film and soundtracks in circulation. Sweatheart chose to bang out songs both on and cut from the official soundtrack.
They covered “Johnny Are You Queer?” “Who Can It Be Now?” “Girls Like Me” (which lead singer Rose Luardo admitted, “No one in the band likes this song.”), “Jukebox (Don’t Put Another Dime)” and “Eaten by the Monster of Love.” The band also ran through some of their own tracks, including “Soften the Pain” and “Couple of Pegs.”
Before leaving the stage to watch the second half of the film, guitarist Brian Langan put down his axe and stepped behind the keys for a stirring solo rendition of the movie’s “I’ve Got Angst In My Pants.”
It was magical.
Thrones and Floor @ The Barbary.
Text and images by Kate Bodnar.
If you didn’t get a chance to swing by The Barbary on Monday night to see Floor and Thrones, you actually missed out.
To start, Thrones is one guy (above). Literally. Joe Preston has been around a long time (The Melvins, High on Fire, and Earth) but it was a real treat to see him doing his own project. Through an array of samples, effects, and what looked like an electric Steinberger, Preston put together something truly unusual and incredibly heavy.
Floor is so incredibly good. I’m not even sure what else to say.
Dan Yemin: The Psychology of Punk.
Text by Bree Wood. Image by Jessica Flynn.
Sit down with Dan Yemin at his home in Fairmount and it is easy to see the many roles he plays in his life — family man, frontman and working man. Records, books, children’s toys and laundry fill his living room.
A long-time member of the Philly music scene, Yemin, the former guitarist for the now-defunct Kid Dynamite, is currently the vocalist for Paint It Black and guitarist for Lifetime. And he’s working on a new band. If juggling all that, plus a 3-year-old daughter and a 6-month-old son sounds crazy, it is. It may not be surprising that Yemin spends a lot of time in a psychologist’s office. What may be surprising is that he is not on the couch but in the chair as a self-employed, licensed psychologist.
Jackie Paper: Psychedelic Pop In Kensington.
Text by Bryan Wallace. Image by Ryan Treitel.
Over the last few years, our fine city has seen a resurgence of the reverb-driven genre known as psychedelic music.
One of those to ignite the flame is multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Joshua Dowell.
And unless you are allergic to first-rate rock ‘n’ roll, Dowell’s voice, backed by a thick coat of gritty instrumentation in his band Jackie Paper, will be received merrily.
Text by Joseph Gallagher. Images by Jessica Flynn.
Three generations of punks came out to The Barbary for Plow United‘s record release show Saturday night.
The overlooked band that had its first run in the early 90s as part of the same wave of post-Year that Punk Broke pop-punk bands that also birthed Lifetime and Weston (among hundreds of others) curated the night.
DRGN King @ Johnny Brenda’s.
Text and images by Tim O’Donnell.
It was a typical Friday afternoon, as I sat quietly on the El heading home from a busy day at work. I gently bobbed my head to the slow and groovy jam “Warriors” off DRGN King’s debut album, Paragraph Nights, when a long-haired guy sat down next to me. He looked vaguely familiar, but I thought nothing of it at the time.
Several hours later, I strolled into Johnny Brenda’s to catch DRGN King play their first show back in their hometown since their grueling SXSW schedule. Coincidentally, the first person I saw at the bar was the same guy I was sitting next to on the subway, lead singer and guitarist, Dom Angelella.
“I rode the El about four different times today,” Angelella said, sipping a beer before his set.
See Yourself in JUMP? Buy Pics Here.
Did you see a photo of yourself in the pages of JUMP? Or online here?
Or did you see an image you love and you want a copy?
Well, we are making all JUMP images available to the public for sale. Large prints (11×14 inches) mounted on cardboard are available for $30 (add $5 if you need the images shipped through the mail).
Scroll our pages. Email us here with the link to the image you want and your address, and we’ll direct you to our PayPal account. Images will be at your home within a week, in most cases.
Please note that images are for your own personal use only and not for reproduction in other media outlets. But they make for great birthday presents!
Rick@SXSW: Bleeding Rainbow Lives To Play Live.
Text and images by Rick Kauffman.
Rainey Street, a few blocks south of the mess of downtown, embraces the side-street charm and features best food trucks in the city. Behind the barricade entrance, rickshaws, or pedi-cabs for you fellow Americans, line up in wait of the next fare adorned in hipster cutoffs and shades or decked out in full-costume — Spiderman, Superman and Wonder Woman among them.
Down the street, in the back of a surf-bar-looking joint, Bleeding Rainbow played in the shade. Shielded from the blistering sun, the band played a more punishing sound than their CD would have you expect. The crowd, wrinkling their toes atop the Astroturf, was present for something heavy and unexpected. Read more…
Yusuf Muhammad: The Original Veteran Freshman.
Text by Sofiya Ballin. Images by Michael Bucher. Snapshots courtesy of Yusuf Muhammad’s Instagram feed.
In a black hoodie reading “Young King” and an Africa pin on his snapback, Yusuf “Yuie” Muhammad wears his pride on his sleeve, chest and everywhere else visible to man.
The 27-year-old artist, photographer, booking agent and show managing powerhouse sits with a cell phone in one hand and fork in another. He tweets, texts and talks simultaneously. He speaks fast and direct with the ease of a businessman used to giving an elevator pitch.
Marilyn Silva, his assistant of sorts, soaks it all in like a sponge. She’s a chef and a mother collaborating with one of Philly’s youngest, who’s doing it big.
“He’s straightforward and personable,” she says. “Every time I participate in an event with him, something great always happens.”
He’s worked with everyone from Musiq Soulchid to Cam’ron, from Marsha Ambrosius to Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, and he’s the creator of the locally-focused Veteran Freshman concert series. Yusuf recently accepted the position as the Philly ambassador to A3C, one of the country’s largest hip-hop festivals, held annually in Atlanta. Read more…
STS and the Gold Rush Tour @ The Blockley.
Text by Edward Barrenechea. Images by Naveed Ahsan.
It was around 8:p.m. on a cold and lonely Sunday and all I could think about was the Gold Rush Tour at The Blockley.
The scene was thin at first – a few people were scattered around the dark, purple-lit venue waiting for the lineup to begin.
After I drank one cup of Yuengling, the show slowly unraveled as equipment was brought in. More people poured through the doors for the event, which promised a lineup of Mz Lynx, The Wurxs, Asaad, Truck North, Grande Marshall, Reef the Lost Cauze and Sugar Tongue Slim – some of the most creative MCs in Philly. Read more…
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 