New Video: “Hands High” by Chill Moody.
Check out the new video by Chill Moody, the West Philly rapper who we profiled for the winter issue of JUMP, due on the streets on 11/11/11.
Feist, Dawes and Mumford & Sons @ The World Cafe Live.
Text and images by Kirsten Stamn.
For World Cafe’s 20th anniversary, WXPN put on one star-packed show Saturday with headlining guest Feist (above), as well as Dawes (right) and surprise guests Mumford & Sons (below).
Hosted by the radio program’s David Dye, the concert was both intimate and thoughtful, with both the musical guests and the hosts expressing gratitude for all that the show has been able to achieve over the past two decades, giving both fledgling and established musicians a platform to be heard.
Mumford & Sons started off the night with a crowd-pleasing mix of songs from their album Sigh No More, with Dawes later joining them onstage for a rollicking collaboration that has spurred rumors that the two bands may join forces for a future tour.
When Dawes took the stage, lead singer Taylor Goldsmith grinningly told the audience, “We have no idea how we landed this gig.”
Their danceable folk music had the crowd seriously in the groove. After one more appearance from Mumford & Sons, the crowd rewarded both groups with a standing ovation. Read more…
The Black Angels and Dead Meadow @ Union Transfer.
Text and images by Chad Sims.
For fans of psychedelic rock, Austin’s The Black Angels (above and right) played Union Transfer Thursday night. Performing songs from all three of their albums, including tracks from their most recent LP Phosphene Dream (2010), the Angels brought their brand of throwback psychedelic rock. The audience loved the set, which sounded like an updated mixture of The Yardbirds and The Velvet Underground. Vocalist Alex Maas deserves a special shout out for his amazing performance.
Spindrift opened the show with a great performance combining elements of psyche rock, spaghetti western soundtracks and sci-fi cheese, a la Man or Astroman?. Although this may sound like an odd combination it worked in a truly inventive way.
Dead Meadow (below) played their darker, more sprawling version of psyche rock, drawing from all six of their full-length albums. Anyone interested in heavier psychedelic rock in the vein of Black Sabbath needs to catch Dead Meadow the next time they roll through town.
CANT (Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear) @ Johnny Brenda’s.
Chris Taylor of Brooklyn-based Grizzly Bear came through Philadelphia yesterday performing as his new solo project, CANT.
Taylor, the bassist, vocalist and producer of Grizzly Bear, put out his first solo, Ghosts, back in 2009. In September of this year, he released the full-length album, Dreams Come True, in collaboration with George Lewis Jr. from Twin Shadow.
Taylor played to an intimate crowd at Johnny Brenda’s, debuting his new, dark-toned, synth-based tracks, which go quite astray from the easy-going, harmonic sounds of Grizzly Bear. His music is more reminiscent of a rhythmic playground just following a hailstorm. The heavy bass line and beats are prominent but they’re also slippery and at times unpredictable.
Taylor gave the crowd a small glimmer of his multi-faceted talents, switching back and forth between bass and electric guitar, alternating with Devonté Hynes from the opening band, Blood Orange.
– Text and images by Grace Dickinson.
The ReBel Yell Occupying Philly.
Here’s a new track and video from The ReBel Yell, the James Poyser/ Khari Ferrari Mateen produced band featuring Domini Quinn SupaStar. The band’s second album, Hotshot, drops on 11/11/11.
$10 Cover Gets You Beer and Dancing All Night Long.
How do you make friends really quickly? Offer them free beer, all night long, while DJs spin and people dance in costumes.
There are some smart people over at Vox Populi.
We wrote about their new performance space in the fall issue of JUMP. Looks like their putting that space to good use on Saturday.
The $10 cover gets you beer all night. And you’ll be supporting the arts. Win, Win for sure.
Lushlife at Johnny Brenda’s on Friday.
This week, Philadelphia hip-hop artist Lushlife released his latest mixtape entitled No More Golden Days. He will perform at Johnny Brenda’s this Friday, October 28th with Brown Recluse, and Sunny Ali and the Kid. Our Ashley Hall caught up with him to talk about everything from his new release to why he’ll never leave Philly.
How did the name Lushlife come about?
I grew up playing a lot of jazz. I was in jazz band in middle school and high school. The early hip-hop that I was into was pretty jazzish, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Moon and stuff. And Lushlife is actually a reference to Duke Ellington Song and it’s fitting I think about stuff I rap about. I feel like there’s a sense of romance in a lot of the stuff that I rap about. It’s like really lush kind of ideas that I like to weave together. So I just thought it was fitting in a metaphorical way.
What inspired you to become a hip-hop artist?
I’ve been playing an instrument for any portion of my life I can remember. I started playing piano when I was five or six and it’s kind of always what I felt I would do. Even at the youngest age I was so obsessed with music and I just never even thought of doing anything else. There just wasn’t really any question in it. So I was going to school for music for a little while and get the opportunity to release a record in London and I left school and started making records for the last 10 years. Read more…
The Naked and Famous @ The TLA.
Images by Rick Kauffman. Text by Ashley Hall.
Chart-topping New Zealanders The Naked and Famous brought synth-dominated tunes and irresistible head bopping to Philadelphia as they rocked the TLA on Monday.
The five indie popsters managed to bring the feeling of summer back on a fall night as they played catchy tunes compared frequently to artists like MGMT and Passion Pit.
TNAF vocalists Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith bounced off one-another’s melodies flawlessly while playing hits off their first full-length album Passive Me, Aggressive You. Crowd-pleasers included their singles Punching In A Dream (below), All of This and Young Blood.
Hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, TNAF hit number one in 2010 with their single Young Blood, a rarity for a New Zealand band. Not to mention their six nominations for The New Zealand Music Awards. After last night’s show it’s clear these guys are a poppy, synthesizing-force to be reckoned with not only in the UK but also in the states.
Opening acts The Chain Gang of 1974 and White Arrows played solid sets before a close-to-sold-out crowd.
NOFX @ The TLA.
Our Matt Emmerich, the man behind Modern Bropar, hung out with the guys from NOFX last week when they played two show on two nights at the TLA.
The Wombats @ Johnny Brenda’s.
Images and text by Kirsten Stamn.
The adorably scruffy indie group from Liverpool, The Wombats, made their second ever appearance in Philadelphia on Saturday with a sold-out show, opened by The Static Jacks and The Postelles.
Hailing Johnny Brenda’s as “the coolest bar,” the group rocked out to both old and new hits, making sure to take time in between songs to chit chat and display their Liverpudlian accents to their fullest extent.
The three-man band, comprised of Matthew Murphy, Dan Haggis, and Tord Øverland-Knudsen, have enjoyed smashing success since their 2007 debut album Guide to Love, Loss And Desperation. And with this year’s This Modern Glitch, which received widespread praise for its cross genre-appeal (and also a damning BBC review which pronounced that “it’s virtually unthinkable that the 
second album…will grace the high echelons of any end-of-year polls…”), the band seems unstoppable.
Known for their upbeat, catchy tunes that are heavy on guitar riffs, timely hooks and intense drum beats, they also feature rather insightful, introverted and melancholy lyrics that belie the dance appeal.
Playing a full set, complete with an epic encore, the band rocked the house. And dance, the crowd did.
A piece of advice: Next time they swing by town, make sure to get your ticket far in advance. These scousers put on a good show.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 