Celebrating JUMP @ the Philebrity Awards.
So, last week, we attended the Philebrity Awards and XMas Pageant after we were voted by readers of the site as “City Publication of The Year.”
It doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things but it capped a decent week for us. City Paper gave us a shout out in their annual, year-end wrap up, The Big Vision Issue. They recognized our work with an honorable mention in the Journalism & Media category. And in 2011, we were nominated as best magazine of the year in the Philly Hip-Hop Awards.
Check out what we did during our first year. Click on an issue to find the stories we covered:
We have big things planned for 2012, starting with a spring issue featuring Chiddy Bang.
Follow us on facebook and twitter to stay up-to-date with the music scene.
And here are a few more pics from the Philebrity party at the Trocadero: Joey Sweeney and company on stage (below) and El Malito (bottom). That’s Schoolly D in the top image.
Marisa Salazar of Da Rezarekt: A Reason to FIGHT!
Text by Lauren Gordon. Images by G.W. Miller III.
“When I first heard, deep down I knew,” says Marisa Salazar (above, left) of the band Da Rezarekt of her diagnosis of stage III breast cancer. “I was steadily losing weight and I just didn’t feel right.”
Now, she is awaiting the results of a PET Scan to find cancer cells at the molecular level. The treatment plan is ever changing until doctors can determine if the cancer cells have metastasized anywhere else in the body, and they are trying to determine if she has the BRCA gene that makes her predisposed to cancer in both her breasts and ovaries.
“In lieu of that, I have to make a decision of whether I want both breasts removed,” Marisa explains.
Rather than have more tissue removed, she’s contemplating a full mastectomy.
“As everyone says, I can buy better ones in time,” she jokes. Read more…
Insatiable Dance Beats: Yelle @ Union Transfer.
Text and images by Kirsten Stamn.
Effusiveness and exuberance would be two words that come to mind when thinking of Yelle‘s show at Union Transfer on Saturday. Fronted by Julie Budet’s adorable French accent and her collection of wacky garbs and peppy dance moves, the energy stayed high as the crowd danced their asses off to Yelle’s techno dance beats.
Appearing first in some sort of swamp creature ensemble (left), Budet quickly whipped off the mottled green hooded cape to reveal a sequined jaguar dress.
After dancing out a couple songs and flirting merrily with the crowd, she disappeared briefly, only to come back with a skintight, American-inspired ensemble, all the better to show off her long limbs as she rocked out onstage.
Budet’s freaky, aggressive, girl-power lyrics have been gaining attention all over the world. Singing about everything from dildos to small breasts to boys, Budet’s insatiable drive to dance and her explosive performances have quickly launched her to success.
With a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek approach, it’s impossible not to get sucked into the happiness of her shows.
Even though it was their last show on their U.S. tour, Yelle’s energy never wavered.
When not rocking out with her drummers, who kept the crowd going by encouraging more screaming from the crowd, Budet thanked their fans continuously in both English and French. Towards the end – after inviting the opening band Housse De Racket to come “shake their booties” onstage – Budet looked at the adoring crowd in what appeared to be slight overwhelm.
“I think I’m going to cry!” she exclaimed. “My English has left me. Thank you all so much! Merci beaucoup!”
Japanese Doom Metal: Dir En Grey @ The TLA.
Text and images by Lee Miller.
Dir En Grey‘s latest album, Dum Spiro Spero, climbed to number two on the Billboard Heatseakers Album chart and 135 on the Billboard 200. Their previous effort, Uroboros, climbed to number one and number 114 on those same charts respectively.
Any Western band could take satisfaction in that level of success but for a Japanese band, that level of success in America is astronomical. While not quite as big as fellow countrymen LOUDNESS’ 1986 effort Lightning Strikes, which climbed to 64 on the Billboard 200, Dir En Grey has been by far the most successful Japanese rock band in the States over the last decade.
Philadelphia was the ninth stop on their current 18 city tour of North and South America. Dir En Grey are on tour in support of their new album and fans got a taste of their latest stylistic evolution. The band spent much of the last half of the previous decade blasting out fast tempo death metal, but has now largely moved to a slower 
tempo style that might be described as doom metal.
Rather than just be pegged to a genre descriptor, this new material has an experimental quality to it, and is lifted into the bizarre and avant garde by lead singer Kyo’s inhuman noises and chanting that punctuated and proceeded the lyrics of many of the songs performed. Although much of the set was in this slow, foreboding style, Dir En Grey touched on some of their older material in the set as well.
While the band moved through their 16 song set Friday at the TLA with impressive technical skill and Kyo put on a spectacle of sound whilst bathed in an impressive light show, much of the crowd simply didn’t seem to be feeling the new material. Although the first few rows of die-hard fans jumped and fist-pumped throughout the set, most of the people behind them were less enthusiastic. For a metal show, there wasn’t much moshing either. Read more…
Local Music Fun in Philly This Weekend.
There’s a lot going on in town this weekend, so brave the cold and head out!
FRIDAY
• Chill Moody (above) will be a part of huge Philly hip hop lineup at HEARTbeats at The Rotunda. Also on the bill are Selina Carrera and DJ PHSH. Details are here.
• DJs KurtLife, Wolfcity and Emilio Airhorn will have the second floor at Little Bar popping tonight at their new monthly dance party, EmotionZ. There’s no cover. Details are here.
• Philly’s Led Zepplin-loving musical act Get The Led Out plays the Electric Factory. Get info and read about the crew here.
• The Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus will perform Nutcracker: The Tale of the Sugar Plum Fairies at The Prince Theater on Friday and twice on Saturday. Details are here.
• It’s a weekend in Philly, which means Toy Soldiers (below) will be making a party happen somewhere in town. Tonight, they’re taking on Johnny Brenda’s, playing with Jesse Malin & The St. Marks Social. Details are here.
SATURDAY
• It’s a weekend in Philly, which means Toy Soldiers (above) will be making a party happen somewhere in town. Tonight, they’re at Milkboy Philly, playing the Monster Entertainment Holiday Party with a boatload of other local bands. Details are here.
• Bleeding Rainbow (formerly known as Reading Rainbow) headline a killer lineup at Kensington’s Little Berlin. The hot new Philly band Nothing is also on the bill, which is a benefit for the art-space Little Berlin. Details are here.
• DJs Rob Paine and Willyum will have The Barbary rocking for their dance party, The Shakedown. There’s free vodka and PBR from 10 to 11. Details are here.
• Steve Goldberg & The Arch Enemies takes the stage at Johnny Brenda’s with Oh! Pears and Arrah and the Ferns (who also tends bar at The Fire). Details are here.
• The Modern Bropar crew will be DJing with Honkytron at JR’s, with a late-night punk garage sale. Details are in the image on the right.
• The Dead Milkmen are playing Kung Fu Necktie but it’s sold out. Bummer.
SUNDAY
• Speaking of garage sales, the Punk Rock Flea Market will takeover both sides of 9th Street this year. Details are here.
There are also a few good touring acts in town this weekend: Japan’s Dir En Grey at the TLA Friday; Harry & The Potters play The Church on Saturday.
Friday: Get The Led Out @ The Electric Factory.
Philly’s own Get The Led Out, the Led Zepplin-loving musical act (not a cover band and not a tribute act), will play the Electric Factory on Friday. Find show details here.
The band is made up of a bunch of Zepplin fans with long resumes: bassist Billy Childs and drummer Adam Ferraioli were members of the ’80s American glam band Britny Fox; guitarist Jimmy Marchiano played lineups with Guns n’ Roses and was managed by Gene Simmons; lead singer Paul Sinclair and guitarist Paul Hammond run Fat City Studios; and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Lipke performs in a number of area projects and he’s released several solo albums.
Our Kevin Stairiker spoke with lead singer Paul Sinclair this week.
Why Led Zeppelin? What makes them more applicable than the Stones or Pink Floyd or any number of coverable bands?
Well, for some people, I think it’s more of a thing where they sit around and think, “Ok, which band should we pay tribute to?” That really wasn’t how it works for us. I came into this gig because of my love of Led Zeppelin. When I was learning to sing, the rock music that I found myself attracted to was Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. They became the two biggest bands in my life when I was a teenager and influenced my voice the most. Eventually I gained a bit of a reputation locally for being able to do that type of thing, so when a couple of guys were looking to put a band together to do a Led Zeppelin show, they found me through a monthly bar gig I was doing.
Originally they were going to do the whole tribute band thing where everyone dresses up in costumes but I wasn’t really into that. So we sort of morphed the group into what it is now. That’s how the whole thing began. Read more…
Georgia’s Turf War Tonight @ Little Bar.
Georgia rockers Turf War will hit the stage tonight at Little Bar, which over the past year has become a destination for great music. The show is free, and there will be free rum served.
Turf War’s catchy melodies and power chords create nostalgia for a time when rock and roll was a magical thing. Our Jake Mattera spoke with lead singer John Robinson.
How did Turf War start?
I’ve been playing in bands since I was 15-years old but I stopped playing music for a while and went to school. That didn’t work out very well so I decided to start writing music. I was just doing it solo for a few months. Then I decided to get a full band because I thought it would be fun for live shows. We played around Augusta for about 2 ½ years as a four piece and then decided to move to Atlanta. That way, we could get a bigger following and move to an industry city. That’s pretty much how we started. We live in Atlanta now, got a van and just been touring around.
Do you do all the songwriting?
Yeah, I write all the songs.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Um … just the trials and tribulations I’ve been through in my life and things I’ve seen my friends go through. Other music that I listened to that helped me out when I was a teenager not being accepted by my teachers or other kids I wasn’t as cool with because I dressed different and acted different. I guess a lot of angsty stuff. But I’m a lot older now and it’s a little less angsty and just more about life, ya know?
What are some of the bands that inspired you?
I think Nirvana was the first band that I remember definitely that made me want to play music. I started playing guitar when I was 11, which was a few years after my dad and brother introduced my to Nirvana. One of the first songs I learned how to play was “Come as you are.” They were my first influence
I had an older brother who would get me into a lot of the cool punk rock and indie rock bands as I was growing up. When I was fifteen, he gave me Let it Be by The Replacements and that was really the thing that changed my life. Let it Be, by The Replacements is probably the most influential album to this band I would say. We also take influence from Credence Clearwater Revival, The Clash and all kinds of other punk bands.
What was it like recording “Years of Living Dangerously?”
It was awesome. We actually had recorded that whole album completely in Augusta like minus two songs but added two new songs for the rerecording of it when we moved to Atlanta. When we moved to Atlanta, we recorded with a young guy we met – Ian MacDonald – and he recorded it with us. It was an awesome experience inside of his house in Cabbagetown. Then we met Ian Saint Pe from the Black Lips. We had played a show with them and he really liked our music, so he wanted to come in and help us mix it and produce it. He came in during a crazy ice storm in Atlanta, which we never get in the South really. We were kind of blocked in and couldn’t work so we would drive down to where we were mixing and would drink wine and mix the record for like 16 hours straight for a week or so. It was an awesome experience. Ian Saint Pe brought in a lot of awesome input to help us out, he kind of managed us for a little while when we were going out to SXSW.
What’s been the funniest or most fun thing that has happened while being out of the road?
We were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yesterday with that band Staind yesterday that was pretty hilarious. I’m trying to think …
We did mushrooms last year at Austin in the middle of a field.
OHH! Actually, no! I know the funniest experience – one of our members was in a tiny bathroom with a girl one time while we were partying and all of a sudden they came barreling out of the door and broke the door down. That was a pretty hilarious experience.
What is your goal for the band? Where do you want to take it from here?
Well, we want to keep working hard and definitely want to be really successful. I just want to be a well-respected musician rather than be famous. But if fame comes with it, that would be awesome too. Mainly we want to be able to tour and support ourselves off it and not have to go home and work our crappy jobs. But we’ll keep doing that until we get where we need to go.
Click here for show details.
Valencia, Live in Japan. For the Last Time.
There’s really no good reason to talk about Philly’s own pop/rock band Valencia, except that they are currently playing their farewell tour in Japan this week, starting today.
The band, whom we interviewed in our spring issue, has been together since 2003 and touring nearly non-stop ever since. Now, they’re sort of calling it quits (they won’t be hitting the road anymore but they are reluctant to say the band is breaking up).
They’ll play their last official show together on December 28 at the Electric Factory (that’s the show poster on the right). Get tickets here.
“I really like Philadelphia so much,” guitarist JD Perry told us last March. “It’s a very inspiring city because it has so much history and at the same time, it’s really youthful and thriving. You can take any culture, any background, any generation, and put them in Philadelphia and they’ll find something they enjoy.”
Read our full interview with the guys here.
Derek Dorsey: The Talent Finder on Two Wheels.
As part of our partnership with Philly Beer Scene magazine, we’re documenting Philly’s relationships between music and beer. For the most recent issue of Philly Beer Scene, G.W. Miller III hung out with Derek Dorsey, the music promoter and Friday night bartender at The Fire, who found his calling after meeting his hero, Lance Armstrong.
Derek Dorsey was standing by the keg, backstage at a concert on Penn’s Landing, when Lance Armstrong approached him.
“Hey, man,” Dorsey said to Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner. “You want a beer?”
As he poured him a cup of Yuengling, Dorsey spoke of his love of cycling and about his then recent diagnosis of dystonia, a neurological disorder that sends him into spasms at unpredictable moments.
“He said to keep riding and never stop,” Dorsey remembers, more than six years later.
From that point on, Dorsey, 38, the talent buyer, artist development rep, promotions coordinator and Friday night bartender at The Fire in Northern Liberties, took cycling seriously. He began training five hours per day, cycling up and down the hills of East Falls, Manayunk and Roxborough. He did that every day for a year, up to 700 miles per week, and then began competing in events across the country.
“It’s the biggest escape from this disorder,” he says. “Specifically climbing a mountain.” Read more…
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 