Modern Bropar Brings You the Occupy Philly Benefit Album.
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The Young Werewolves: Howling Good.
Text and images by Bianca Crespo.
The Young Werewolves growl out contagious rhythms. Just an earful will have you hooked.
Bassist Shewolf Dana Kain, guitarist Wolfman Nick Falcon and drummer Jonny Wolf have been spewing out dark, Munster-esque psychobilly rock since 2002.
Each of the musicians rose from the night on the eerie streets of the city and took the music scene by their ferocious paws, stumbling into each other along the way.
“I was somewhat notorious for my exploits as a teenage graffiti writer,” Falcon says. “And I played in some punk groups growing up in West Philly.”
Then he joined the Army and left town. When he returned, he put an ad in the paper looking for bandmates. Jonny Wolf answered. He had been toiling in the service industry.
“I had a stellar barbacking career,” Wolf notes. “And I also moonlit as a secret agent from Transylvania.”
Kain had studied visual arts but it left her unfulfilled. “Then, I discovered that I love music,” she says. When she booked a gig for the trio at a bar in Northeast Philly as The Young Werewolves, the band was officially born.
Their shows are loud and theatrical, with the three dressed in dark, matching garb. They’ve always loved that brief encounter on stage with the adrenaline monster feasting on their musical souls. But they’ve also released three albums and they’re slowly crafting the next.
“We’ve started throwing some new song ideas around the practice room,” Kain says. “We’re going to try to flesh out a new recording, most likely a 2013-14 release.”
Curt Chambers: Eminem’s Guitarist and Solo Artist.
Text by Mercedes Jones. Image by G.W. Miller III.
It doesn’t get any saltier than Curt Chambers. He’s the perfect mixture of determination, undeniable talent and rock-star mentality.
Chambers was raised in Nicetown, a working class community in North Philadelphia. Both of his parents were singers and his father also played the bass. Chambers grew up spending weekends in a church that was heavy on blues music.
Chambers started with the drums, playing for hours every day after school. When he got to high school, he began reading and writing music, which gave him the control and freedom to create his own sound.
The summer before he started college, Chambers and a few friends hooked up with producer Rich Nichols, who ran the career-launching weekly showcase, Black Lily. After auditioning, Chambers and his friends were brought in as Black Lily’s house band.
For a young artist like Chambers, Black Lily was the perfect opportunity. He backed up a wide array of neo-soul artists.
“It was a crash course at being a musician and an artist, while actually getting to work,” he says.
Nick Millevoi: The Shred King.
Text by A.D. Amorosi. Images by G.W. Miller III.
Nick Millevoi is a monster, a dexterous improvisational guitarist who shreds like he’s auditioning for James Hetfield’s seat in Metallica. He can also perform with the soft, aural scrawl of a Gary Lucas or a demonic, airy blues akin to James Blood Ulmer.
More often than not, those noises and nuances of his come out in a single song or a rubbery elongated lick. Yet, if Millevoi – a professional musician since graduating from Temple in 2005 – chose, he could save up each dramatic, avant-garde turn of his six-string for use throughout his numerous projects and parse them out individually.
There’re plenty of gigs at his fingertips. He’s got a solo career that finds him fingering a 12-string electric, and that yielded fruit last year when he released Black Figure of a Bird. Millevoi’s been part of the oddly-rocking Make A Rising (his most conventional teaming), putting out New I Fealing in 2011, in which he plays the Nels Cline role in Rising’s Wilco-like patter. Circles and Mea’l are two of Millevoi’s oldest inventions, bleak bands whose distant howling sounds are the stuff of local noise lore.
He also plays in Electric Simcha, a Hassidic punk band, and the Johnny DeBlase Quartet, an avant-garde jazz group. Bailly/Millevoi/Moffett, an improv trio with trumpeter Joe Moffett and guitarist Alban Bailly, released its debut Strange Falls just weeks ago.
As an improv giant, Millevoi is good for the chance meeting and the immediate encounter. He’ll ply that skill when he and Philly trombonist Dan Blacksberg, the duo that make up the noir-toned band Archer Spade, head to Oakland to play with legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell.
Good Old War: In Harmony … Again.
Text by Jillian Mallon. Image by G.W. Miller III.
Good Old War, the three-piece folk act that calls Philadelphia their home, completed their third full-length album after touring, recording and growing as a band. The album, Come Back as Rain, dropped on March 6. The title is an homage to an unfinished song of the same name written in honor of lead singer Keith Goodwin’s late aunt.
The songs on this album are similar to those of its two predecessors – 2010’s self-titled album and 2008’s Only Way to Be Alone – in that they combine acoustic guitar and pounding percussion with the voices of Keith Goodwin, Tim Arnold and Dan Schwartz in their signature three-part harmony. Goodwin says the songs vary in style.
“There are upbeat songs that are kind of chillin’, head-bobbing-type stuff and a couple serious ballad-type songs,” he offers. “But overall, I’d say the mood is kind of easygoing.”
Bombay Bicycle Club @ Union Transfer.
Text and images by Grace Dickinson.
Last night, Bombay Bicycle Club performed the last show of their tour in the States at Philadelphia’s Union Transfer. Kicking off the show with “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep,” one of their top hits from their latest album, A Different Kind of Fix, the North London band immediately got the packed crowd clapping and dancing. Bombay’s poppy beats and repetitive lyrics made it easy to sing along with the energetic band.
Wearing cropped, navy pants, a long-sleeved button-down and brown Chelsea boots, lead singer Jack Steadman easily fit the part of British indie pop star, frequently whipping his hair across stage along with guitarist Jamie MacColl. The two were constantly moving – at times flinging the main mic towards the audience and at one point, lifting water coolers up to the drummer so he could tap his sticks on their blue plastic surface.
It was an animated show that sent an equally animated crowd home with a satisfied fatigue.
Sing Along With Sara Sherr.
Text by Kelsey Doenges. Image by Olivia Vaughn.
There isn’t even a stage – just a microphone, a monitor and the concrete floor beneath him. There are no flashing lights or colorful backdrops, just PBR paraphernalia covering every available space on the wall. This isn’t a performance venue. It’s like your friends’ parents’ basement. The crowd is literally so close, he can touch them. And his biggest fans are his friends, the kickball team who won their game earlier tonight and then came to Bob & Barbara’s for a celebratory drink and a little karaoke.
The beat blasts through the speakers and hits his ears. He immediately transforms from the kid on the kickball team to the number one Ginuwine impersonator in the room.
“If you’re horny, let’s do it,” he belts out. “Ride it, my pony!”
Between lyrics, he snaps, “I don’t see enough people grinding. Come on! I just need a saddle and a horse. Just a saddle and a horse, everyone.”
Two teammates join him at the front of the room, one bent down pretending to be a horse while the other mimics a cowgirl, riding him while swinging an imaginary lasso in the air.
This young man knows “Pony” so well he doesn’t even need the lyrics on the monitor to guide him. In the corner of the room, a group of girls debate whether this is endearing or a severe flaw – as they double-fist sweating cans of PBR and whiskey, the city-wide special.
There is only one person to thank for this boy’s instant stardom. And no, it’s not his voice teacher (one would be surprised if he actually had one), his parents or even God.
It’s Sara Sherr, the host of Sing Your Life Karaoke, who has been generously providing a stage for the able-bodied singers and the tone-deaf dreamers for five years now.
Lushlife: The Media Darling.
Text and bottom image by Ashley Hall. Top image by G.W. Miller III.
After releasing his latest mixtape, No More Golden Days, in October, Raj Haldar, known as Lushlife, got attention from numerous magazines and blogs, including Stereogum, which called it “the mixtape of the week.” He never expected the coverage he received from the New York Times. They referred to his work as “attitude-thick rapping, long dense strings of compressed rhymes heavy with Philadelphia arcane.”
“My mom was most excited about that,” Haldar says.
But he recognized that there was something bigger going on.
“When I put that mixtape out,” he says, “there were thousands of people downloading it from the moment it went live. That’s so awesome.”
In January, the 30-year old, Philly-based artist signed with Western Vinyl and announced he would release a full album, Plateau Vision, on April 17th. Despite previously putting out two full-lengths, including the acclaimed Cassette City, Haldar feels this is the first time he’s truly creating his own sound.
“I’m not just exploring how other sonics work,” he says, “but doing stuff I don’t think has been done a lot on the production side of rap music.”
Although his sound changes on every track, everything he does has immediate roots in classic 90’s hip hop. Inspiration for his sound comes from artists like Nas, Mob Deep, The Roots, the Beach Boys and the Philly soul artists of the Gamble & Huff era.
The genre-bending rapper and multi-instrumentalist blends influences, jumping into extremely experimental territory.
“I try to not make my influences too obvious,” he says. “I synthesize them through myself. Whatever comes out, comes out.”
Haldar began playing piano when he was 5. He played in jazz bands in middle school and high school.
“Even at a young age, I was so obsessed with music,” he says. “I just never even thought about doing anything else.”
He now operates a modest recording studio out of his South Philly home.
“It’s like, the perfect life for me,” he says. “I love the city. I love the music scene.”
Plateau Vision will feature members of Das Racist, Styles P (above) and some of the numerous major artists featured on No More Golden Days.
The MC/producer says his sound and priorities have shifted as he’s moved from project to project.
“If you would’ve asked me when I was 22 what I wanted, I would’ve probably said I want to be darlingized by the press and have a super hot record,” Haldar says. “But now, I am really settling into the feeling that it’s just the music. And I can’t ask for more than that right now.”
Jaguar Wright Mentors a Young Philly Talent.
Text by Alexis Simmons. Images by G.W. Miller III.
It’s the first night of a brand new monthly event called “Soul Food Cypher.” Deemed a combination of open house, social mixer, family reunion and musical cypher, this event brings together the best elements of musical events, in the home of Philly’s own Jaguar Wright.
Artists are treated like family. Catfish nuggets and salad are served as appetizers, while pasta, collard greens, jasmine rice, turkey, lamb and other delectable dishes are being prepared for the main meal. Amidst the organized commotion in the kitchen, stands Ms. Jaguar. Not only does she help cook the food, she also initiates a cypher in the living room. She encourages the MCs to do their thang as the DJ mixes it up with old-school hip hop and Philly favorites.
In the center of the circle, Ms. Jaguar stands proud. She pulls me in and we freestyle over Sade’s track, “Soldier of Love.”
As she heads back to the kitchen to finish prepping dinner, I watch her in admiration, stunned in the realization that Ms. Jaguar Wright is my mentor.
It all began in February 2011. I was scheduled to open for Ms. Jaguar at the acclaimed venue S.O.B.’s in New York. As I prepared myself in the dressing room, I had a million thoughts in my mind: what would she be like? What songs did she have for her set? Did she give a damn about who I was or was I some random stranger just given an opportunity to be on the same stage as her?
Text by Brian Wilensky. Images by G.W. Miller III.
Purling Hiss creates some of the most blistering guitar tones in the city. They make hard-rocking, psychedelic, Detroit-style proto-punk.
And yet, there was no live Purling Hiss to speak of until recently.
Frontman Mike Polizze started the band in 2008 as a personal project, documenting ideas and recording music he then posted on his Myspace site. He never gave much thought to his personal recordings since they were essentially just home recordings.
Permanent Records contacted him in 2009 and released his first album under the Purling Hiss moniker. He put out several other albums, all on different labels, but it was just him on every release.
After Hissteria dropped in 2010, Kurt Vile asked if Polizze would hit the road with him and the Violators for a five-week tour.
“Kurt asking me to tour prompted me to get a band together,” he says.
Polizze reached out to bass player Kiel Everett, a former neighbor whom he’s known for a long time. Polizze connected with drummer Mike Sneeringer through John Sharkey of the band Puerto Rico Flowers. Sneeringer doubles as their drummer, too. Sneeringer didn’t meet Everett until Purling Hiss’ first practice.
“Just before Mike rolled up with Kiel, I found out my car had been stolen,” Sneeringer says. “I just decided I wasn’t going to deal with it at the moment and when they showed up, I just said, ‘Fuck it. Let’s play.’”
Polizze says the trio is just three friends who share a desire to create music together, which is probably why it feels natural.
“We just went on tour and played our first show with only about two months of practice,” Polizze says.
They went across the country supporting the Violators for two months in 2010. Last year, they toured Europe for two weeks before hitting the road with The War on Drugs. This year, they’ve been touring the United States with Dr. Dog.
“Their management gave them a list of bands to consider,” Sneeringer says. “Apparently, they just threw the list out and called us, which is really flattering.”
Throughout that tour, Purling Hiss unveiled new material that they expect will see a fall release.
“It’s not 100 percent yet but we almost know who our next album will be with,” Polizze says.
That’s right. He said our.
Now its clear to Polizze that it’s time to embrace the new recording arrangement for Purling Hiss. But he’ll still be doing all the writing.
“Working on this record is solidifying this unit as a band,” Sneeringer says. “He’s (Polizze) the principal creator but he’s talked about how much he wants this to be a band, so we’re all pretty happy with where it’s headed.”
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 