Pet Milk: Pain Packaged in Pop Music.
Text by Brian Wilensky. Images by G.W. Miller III.
It’s 8:35 on a summer night in South Philly. Three of the five members of Pet Milk are sitting in the Broad Street Diner at the corner of Broad and Federal with a hankering for grilled cheese. Herbie Shellenberger gets his with American cheese. His bandmate and fellow guitarist, Richie Roxas, gets one with American and one with cheddar, both with tomato. Meanwhile singer Adriane Dalton takes advantage of breakfast being served all day and orders a mushroom and swiss omelette.
The other two members of the band, drummer Josh Agran and bassist Adam Herndon are across the street at the band’s rehearsal space, practicing with their other band, The Glotones.
Almost the entire band shares roles in other Philly bands. Agran’s also a part of Paint it Black. Roxas was in Hail Social. Herndon’s got his plate full with with two other projects; A Sunny Day in Glasglow and Faux Slang. Shellenberger was once in Brown Recluse. Meanwhile, this is Dalton’s first band she’s played in.
“It was a little intimidating at first, but it’s helpful in some ways,” Dalton says about having such seasoned bandmates. “Josh sings in a barbershop quartet, so he helped me with vocal parts and harmonies in the studio.”
Shellenberger, the mastermind behind the crunchy pop-leaning, post-punk sounds of Pet Milk, has been working on material with Dalton for a couple years now.
“We’ve known each other maybe six years, just from going to shows around Philly and having mutual friends,” Dalton says. “Then one day, he sent me an email with some songs and asked me to sing on them.”
Shellenberger just wrote a batch of songs that he felt would be best suited with female vocals and simply asked Dalton to be the voice on them.
“But it’s Herbie’s concept,” Roxas says.
While Shellenberger’s muse is alive throgh Pet Milk, the bandmates work as unit – even though at the moment, Roxas and Dalton almost seem like accompaniment to Shellenberger at the diner. Whenever he speaks, it’s like they know not to interject. They let him explain that Pet Milk represents the realities of being young and dissatisfied.
“Our lyrics are inspired by things like having a week and a half until your next paycheck and having only $40 to spend until then,” Shellenberger says. “And walking around town in the rain without an umbrella and feeling like you’re in a German film from 1970 or something like that.”
But he gets cut off by the arrival of their dinner.
The pause in his explanation makes it seem even more heartfelt and sincere, much like his demeanor. He’s tall and soft-spoken despite his words having to make their way through a woodsman-like beard. And as Shellenberger continues, his eyes get just a tad more glassy.
“A lot of the themes could seem personal,” he says. “But I’ve written things that she [Adriane] sings, so it’s like, ‘Who’s the one actually saying that?’ Or sometimes I’ll write things that are hypothetical or someone else’s experience.”
Putting it like that almost sounds like he’s telling a fictional story, even writing for a screenplay. Which probably comes from Shellenberger’s biggest hobby – film. And by film, he’s into the true stuff: reel-to-reel. He works at the International House. He studies and makes films. He even recently shot a video on 16mm for Bleeding Rainbow.
The films that he draws inspiration from came out of Britain in the 1950s and 60s, known as kitchen-sink dramas. According to Shellenberger, they’re relatable to Pet Milk’s tunes since they’re generally about young love that doesn’t work out.
He’s been working with Dalton on lyrics, and he jokes that she should take over that end of the writing process.
“I kind of fucking hate lyrics anyway,” he says after dipping the corner of his grilled cheese in ketchup and taking a bite. “I can easily come up with a melody and maybe something like what I want the lyrics to sound like but sometimes not actually get the lyrics for months on end.”
They’re almost through mastering their debut LP. It will be released on Batimore’s Fan Death Records and will likely hit the streets in the winter. But the band is approaching their first full-length with an open mind, adding more synths, making it a bit more atmospheric, Roxas says. The new album will be a step away from what’s heard on their earliest demo recordings and their self-released 2011 EP, Philadelphia Punklife.
But Shellenberger won’t be leaving his post as Pet Milk’s primary writer. And Dalton’s female vocals will still be first chair.
“Female vocals just fit this band,” she insists.
And that’s a recipe that listless Philadelphians will continue to eat up.
Suzann Christine: Living Out Destiny.
Text by Aneesah Coley. Image by G.W. Miller III.
Suzann Christine says she was always singing. Since the age of 5, she loaned her voice to church and talent shows, but she didn’t think about turning her passion into a career.
“I didn’t really come to the conclusion that it was something that I may want to pursue until probably, like, 2010,” says the 22-year old singer/songwriter who grew up in the city’s West Oak Lane section. “Not that long ago. And it was just something that I really wanted to do. I felt like I couldn’t run from it.”
Inspired by Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé and Teena Marie, Christine says she really enjoys being able to express how she feels through music. She hasn’t released a full album yet but she’s managed to build a fan base by releasing singles, doing shows and contributing to various records with other local talents including Chill Moody and Lee Mazin.
“It’s just gonna be a matter of getting everything together,” she says, “deciding which songs I’m gonna put on the project and which songs I’m not.”
She’s a versatile artist who tackles various genres including hip-hop, R&B and pop.
She earned the chance to perform at this year’s Radio One Fest in Miami in July after entering her single, “Closed Casket” to a contest advertised on OurStage.com. She beat out more than 1,400 entries from across the country. At the fest, she performed before T.I., Wale, Melanie Fiona, Monica, Young Jeezy and others.
“I love her,” says Craig White, owner at Sound Doctor Productions. “She’s very beautiful, obviously talented, a fabulous writer, and she can really, really sing.”
The Girls High graduate aspires to be someone who young girls and people in general can look up to. She definitely wants to be a voice for women.
“I feel like we go through so much and we let men kind of get us in a place where we hate each other,” she says. “That’s not the way it should be.”
Christine finds herself to be relatable because a lot of her songs are about things that she’s actually lived through. Music is very powerful, she says. The messages that artists put out can really affect people, changing the way they feel and act. This is why she wants her music to be able to speak to people, to encourage them. It’s fulfilling to her when her music can be the reason why someone was able to get through a tough situation.
Through her non-profit organization, SCH Creative & Performing Arts Inc., she gives back to the community. Beginning in October, the organization will offer classes in photography, dance, vocal music and music production at the Philadelphia Center for Arts & Technology in West Oak Lane.
“At the end of the day you have to live out your destiny,” Christine says. “You have to live out your dreams.”
Suzi Analogue Goes Global.
Suzi Analogue’s music combines old-school style soul crooning with hip-hop and electronica, creating a mesmerizing, futuristic sound. She signed a record deal with a Dutch label when she was 19. Since then, she’s collaborated with the likes of Stalley, Quelle Chris and La Melodia. She recently teamed up with LA beat maker Tokimonsta to form Analogue Monsta. They released an EP, Boom, in August.
The Virginia native bounces across the country and around the world but calls Philly home. Our Teresa McCullough talked to Suzi about her “Raw & B” sound. Images also by Teresa McCullough.
What shaped you as an artist?
I grew up at the same time as Timbaland and Missy were getting popular, so it really inspired me as a kid to appreciate good, out-of-the-box music. By middle school, The Neptunes were coming out, so I was listening to that music. But even before then, the radio was playing a lot of R&B songs that The Neptunes were already producing and writing for. I was just following who was making what and producing what and why things sounded the way they did. Now that I’m 24 and I’m listening to new things, I have a really good frame of reference for the different regional music that’s been coming out, especially the East Coast.
At what point did you realize shit was getting real?
I guess when I got asked to send a demo over to Amsterdam for Dopeness Galore Records. That was in 2006. I was actually a freshman at Temple and I was just putting my songs up on Myspace. I got serious about my music after that and what my possibilities could be. They started working on music with me and every step after then has just been an eye-opening experience to where things could go, where things could lead. They flew me out to do a session with an artist, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and we put out a record, NNXT. That really inspired me. With every step, everything that comes out, you know each flight makes it all more real.
Temple Welcome Back Party @ Bouvier Street.
Text by Sofiya Ballin. Images by Michael Bucher.
DJ SYLO
Deep in the cut of Bouvier Street, Jay-Z’s voice and a heavy bass resonated. DJ SYLO spun on the ones and twos as Cody Kahmar’s daughter Honovi, danced vigorously on the stage.
Residents and Temple University students came together on Saturday in a family atmosphere to drink, dance and enjoy performances from some of Philly’s own. This kind of intermingling is rare and many found themselves doing the electric slide and forming an impromptu Soul Train line led by the host, Philly comedian Clint Coley.
Cody Kahmar and his daughter Honovi
This was the third annual TU Welcome Back Block Party. It was created by 21-year-old Temple journalism student, Saleem “DJ Taaj” Sabree, as a way of bridging the gap between the students and the residents within the community.
With artists like DJ Damage, Jade Alston and Mic Stew on the bill to perform, the crowd was thick. Cody Kahmar graced the stage while his daughter sang back up.
“A lot of local artists, though they’re older they want the college crowd and this is a great platform,” said SYLO.
O.H.M.
A cypher broke out on stage, featuring O.H.M., Pharaoh Dinero,I-Know Brasco and others. As Lyriciss performed, there was a surprise appearance by Chill Moody. Then it began to drizzle and people grouped under the tents. DJ Damage took the stage and the rain was soon forgotten as a few people came out from the tents to start dancing.
“Fuck the rain!” became the mantra.
However, due to the tumultuous showers, the block party was cut short. With plans of another block party in the spring, Sabree wasn’t discouraged at all.
“It was definitely worth the headache, battle and money,” he said. “Even though it ended early, everyone enjoyed themselves. The only thing that could have made this even better was no rain.”
Chill Moody
Shining Leicht on Local Music For More Than 35 Years.
Text by Beth Ann Downey. Top image by G.W. Miller III. Other images courtesy of Helen Leicht.
It’s Helen Leicht’s day to be visible.
She hustles around Saturday’s installment of the XPoNential Music Festival, shuffling between stages to introduce bands and performing the other duties necessary of the assistant programming director of the radio station throwing the festival.
But she’s also enjoying herself.
After settling in for a set backstage, Leicht bobs her head and takes photos of an act she most likely had a hand in booking for the festival or put on air at some time.
Between performances, there’s virtually no artist who exits the stage without talking to Leicht, a 61-year-old with blonde pinwheel curls. Most artists hug and thank her, and take in her warm smile and words of encouragement.
Leicht with Jim Belushi and DJ Ed Sciaky.
She’s a woman who’s more become visible within the local music community, even though she built a 35-year career mostly by being audible only. Her voice, a stalwart force championing local musicians and bands, has been present on Philadelphia radio since 1976.
Leicht grew up in a house where the radio was always on. Her late uncle, Joseph T. Conaway, was the general manager of the pioneering rock station WIBG in the 1960s. His example led to the development of her dream, even though there weren’t many women on-air when she started out.
“When I said ‘I think I’ll be on the radio,’ even my uncle said, ‘It’s only for men. You don’t want to be on the radio,’” Leicht recalls. “I thought, ‘You don’t say that to me.’”
Blayer Pointdujour & The Rockers Galore: The Culture Clashers.
Text by Sofiya Ballin. Images by G.W. Miller III.
“I study British music,” says Blayer Pointdujour. “That’s my dream – to play Europe all the time. I really
don’t want to tour the U.S. that much. I think we’ll go to California and do the West Coast thing but I really
want to play London, Paris and Milan.”
When he says we, he means The Rockers Galore, his band that he collaborates with to create a fusion of
punk, hip-hop, reggae and Haitian Kompa music.
“We never have any in-between fans,” he says with a laugh. “People either love it or they’re just like, ‘NO.’”
They recently collaborated with the father of gangsta rap, Schoolly D, on Pointdujour’s new song, “Ominous Black.”
“The song is about not giving a fuck,” Pointdujour explains. “He fits that mold. He’s definitely an OG. He took his time. He needed his vodka, his chips. He wanted to sit and tell us stories first before he hit the booth.”
The song toys with the old-school versus the new-school concept, ultimately bridging the two ideas.
“I’m kind of a newcomer, trying to make my mark, and he’s an OG,” Pointdujour explains. “I did my part in the Italian market at night and its dark. His part has bright lights with girls around him.”
Born in Newark, New Jersey and being of Haitian descent, the diverse nature of his music seems almost inevitable.
“I have a huge Haitian family,” Pointdujour says. “We all speak a little French, a little Creole. Haitian church music was the first music I ever listened to.”
Pointdujour left New Jersey after high school and went to college in Phoenixville, where his musical influences took a turn.
“I got into rock, metal, punk, all of that,” he says. “When I got to Philly, I started playing drums in a rock band. Then I played in punk bands.”
As Pointdujour became immersed in rock ‘n’ roll, he longed to merge the new music with the sounds of his childhood. He began to experiment, mashing the different sounds.
“I started sampling things,” he says. “I found my reggae beats and put whatever I wanted on top of them, then picked what I was going to sing or rap.”
He joined forces with friends to form Blayer Pointdujour and The Rockers Galore in 2008. The band is currently composed of drummer Dan Peterson, percussionist Chuck Duquesne, keyboard player Tyler Hyduk, trumpeter Chris Tolomeo, guitarist Ian Nauroth and singer Camico Coumbassa.
Their latest EP Port Au Prince, named after the capital of Haiti, features “Iron Dread.” The song talks about Pointdujour’s uncle and his ability to rise above economic and racial oppression.
“In Haiti, my uncle was a philanthropist,” Pointdujour says. “He had orphanages, schools, a radio station, a nice house. He was used to militia coming through his house and putting AK-47s in his face and robbing him. He was very peaceful about it.”
In Philly – and the United States in general – Pointdujour believes we don’t appreciate the circumstances of people and what led them to take certain actions.
“Here, anyone gets robbed and it’s like, ‘Let’s throw the robber in jail forever,’” says Pointdujour, who works at Project H.O.M.E., an advocacy organization that seeks to end poverty and homelessness.
“We don’t try to think about where these people are coming from. That’s what I try to bring forth in a lot of the songs.”
Pointdujour’s next album dropped online on September 4th, with CDs at a.k.a. music. On Friday, he and the band will perform at Milkboy to celebrate the release, which officially launches on iTunes on the 18th.
“For this next album, I’m trying to up the musicality a little more, get even more technical,” he says. “The band gets closer and closer. Instead of doing everything myself, they’re coming in to my home studio.”
Their music covers so much territory, Pointdujour simply says, “We play world music.”
Fabian Akilles: The Opportunist.
Text and images by Michael Bucher.
For many across the country, the Great Recession has had a profound negative impact. But for musician Fabian Thompson, it has been a period of artistic metamorphosis that transformed his sound and led to an exciting new venture in a startup record label.
Thompson had been performing as Akilles, a hip-hop artist in the same vein as Mos Def, Black Thought and Pharoahe Monch. Then, in 2009, he lost his day job as a public school teacher in Philadelphia. “I was really, really, low on shit,” remembers Thompson. He went home that day and wrote a song that eventually became the single “Comb My Hair,” a soulful song about shattered innocence.
Thompson found work as an assistant engineer at Larry Gold’s recording studio, where his college friend Ricky Friedrich worked as an engineer. Thompson began working with artists like Kid Cudi, Jill Scott and Dice Raw, and he frequently saw The Roots, who have studio space there. “It’s not the most money I ever made but it’s definitely the most important for artist development,” says Thompson.
As he started questioning his image as a non-native Philadelphian performing in the shadows of one of the biggest hip-hop bands in the world, Thompson started exploring his family’s Jamaican and Barbadian heritage.
“Ever since then, I’ve been on this lean where I’m just blending reggae-singer-man, soul and hip-hop,” he says.
To reflect his new artistic pursuit, Akilles became Fabian Akilles and released his debut album, Evil Round That Corner, in May. The seven-song album released on Friedrich’s startup label, Bold New Breed, focuses on issues of greed and self-indulgence.
“It turned into this critique on why life is so difficult for certain people and not for others,” says Thompson.
In the song “Money,” Thompson speaks of the shortfalls of consumer culture with lyrics like, “Seems like everything I want, they can sell me. But when it comes to what I need, they can’t help me.” The driving drum beats and catchy choruses inspire an urge to groove along.
Thompson spent the better part of his summer doing demolition work in a sweltering, 6,000-square foot Fishtown commercial building that is being renovated to house Friedrich’s Bold New Breed label. Both Friedrich and Thompson hold management positions in the company. Friedrich, performing as Ricky Radio, Thompson and Dewey Saunders, aka Dewey Decibel, are the only artists now but they are eager to expand.
They predict the space will open in September and be fully operational by early 2013 with a recording studio, space for video shoots, multimedia editing capabilities, lounge and a stage to host shows.
“Bold New Breed’s goal is to change Philly into a commercial hub where people come down and know they’re gonna get the talent,” Thompson says.
The Meatmen, Anti-Nowhere Leauge, Lecherous Gaze, and Eat the Turnbuckle @ Union Transfer.
Text and images by Matt Emmerich from Modern Bropar.
Did I take my time leaving South Philly and miss Eat the Turnbuckle bleed all over the UT stage last week? Yes.
Did I find a cheap place to drink a beer while Lecherous Gaze shredded? Yes.
Did Anti-Nowhere League play everything everyone wanted to hear? Yes, except for “Animal,” of course.
Does Tesco Vee make me wonder what it’d be like if my 57-year-old dad was a punk rock pioneer parading around the country – and soon Europe, with giant inflatable cock and balls? Yes.
Does indulging in the sophomoric lyrics and power rock riffs of The Meatmen make me a scumbag? Probably.
Would I do it all again tomorrow? Of course.
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band @ Citizens Bank Park.
Our Brittney Bowers was among the masses at Citizens Bank Park on Monday to see the second show of Bruce Sprinsgteen‘s two-day visit to Philadelphia. Here’s what she experienced …
Labor Day in Philadelphia may have been tortured by rain but by night, it was as if the clouds parted and storms paused for one purpose – The Boss. Citizens Bank Park was alive with faithful fans undeterred of the threat of severe storms to see Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.
“Bruuuuuce” chants echoed throughout the ballpark in anticipation for the show. The crowd was wildly captivated the moment Springsteen stepped onstage decked out in a vest and tie, sporting his guitar. The second night on the Philadelphia stop of the 
Wrecking Ball Tour began with a solo and acoustic performance of “Factory” off of Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Instantly, the crowd jumped to their feet and stayed there for the next three hours and forty minutes of the show.
The rhythmic flow of the songs made it impossible not to dance to. Fans sang in unison to great classics such as “Spirit in the Night,” “Atlantic City,” “The River” and “Thunder Road.” During “My City of Ruins,” a song Springsteen explained to be about ghosts, he stopped halfway through to do a role-call with The E Street Band. At the end, he asked if anyone was missing and the crowd erupted in shouts of “YES!”
The missing member is the late saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who passed away in 2011. Springsteen then made a bone-chilling, tear-evoking statement, “If you’re here, and we’re here, then they’re here.”
Before the encore, Springsteen sat on stage, took off his shoes and dumped out all of the sweat that had collected inside.
The Boss, along with the members of The E Street Band, poured their hearts and souls into the show, and it could be felt within the concertgoers. The encore included “We Are Alive,” “Born To Run” and “Dancing In The Dark.”
The band then performed “Jungleland,” leaving fans with goose bumps. Jake Clemons magnificently took over the saxophone solo of the song. The show ended with fans dancing and clapping along to “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” and “American Land.”
There isn’t a simple way to explain experiencing a Springsteen show. The only way to know is to experience it first hand. Seeing Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band is a musical revival. It’s a way to free yourself. Every lyric and note being played can be felt not only inside your bones, but your soul.
After a set of almost four hours, if your body is dripping with sweat, if your throat burns from singing and screaming, if your legs are on the verge of giving out from dancing, and if your hands are chapped from clapping, you’ve experienced the legendary Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.
The Lawsuits: Americana Charm.
Text by Brittany Thomas. Images by G.W. Miller III.
It’s a typical sweaty summer day when The Lawsuits play their set at a block party on Passyunk Avenue in South Philly. But it only takes a few measures of their blues-soaked music until the crowd forgets about the unrelenting humidity and starts toe-tapping and head-bobbing just as heavily and genuinely as the band members do.
The Lawsuits take the audience from the gritty, concrete city and put them in a place that feels more like an open meadow beside the Mississippi River – just one of the places the band sings of longingly.
Vocalists Vanessa Winters and Brian Strouse keep perfect sync as they harmonize angelic, folk-rock melodies that gush with true-blue, Americana charm. There’s something about the harmonies that give off a Rolling Stones kind of feel. Strouse has a slightly gruff, Mick Jagger-esque sound while Winters contributes a delicate harmony that single-handedly possesses the power of an entire backup choir.
The band formed in 2007 when Strouse, Winters and her longtime friend Brendan Cunningham were all sort of thrown together by mutual friends. They later added drummer Josh Friedman and Noah Skarof, a multi-instrumentalist who plays banjo, guitar, mandolin, slide guitar and sax.
“Two years ago, we didn’t even make a footprint in this city,” says Strouse, who also plays lead guitar and writes many of the songs.
Then, in 2011, they dropped their first album, Darleen, named after an infamous 1987 Winnebago Cerro they drove on their first tour. All the bandmates except Winters, who chickened out, have a tattoo of the RV.
“We drove 10 hours back from the Outer Banks and it exploded in Delaware,” says Cunningham. “We were so close to home and we couldn’t do anything, so we just drove it with fumes coming into the car, going like 15 miles an hour on 95 during rush hour.”
“It was terrible,” says Strouse. “Everyone was asleep and I was just driving. Terrible.”
Things have been going much better lately. In April, they released their latest album, Hot Love, and celebrated with a show at Milkboy. They have performed around the city and region in front of packed crowds.
Some of the successes certainly could have something to do with Winters’ obvious sincerity and hometown-girl appeal. The opera-trained songstress at the front of the band says she just feels like one of the guys.
“It’s kind of empowering a little bit because there aren’t many females out there in our circle,” says Winters.
Her bandmates are quick to boast about her talents, like finding harmonies and belting it out without needing the slightest bit of guidance.
“Nobody’s telling her what to do,” says Skaroff. “She just trusts her ear, has a great voice and is just a totally organic part of the band.”
The Lawsuits are certainly not lacking in passion. They are constantly evolving artistically and experimenting with genres and sounds.
“Brian is just one of those people that’s constantly creating,” says Friedman. “Every practice, he shows up with two or three new songs. We’re just constantly absorbing and spitting out new material.”
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 