Zilla Rocca: It’s A South Philly Album
Zilla Rocca is a productive – if not busy – man at peace. He’s a solo artist, one third of his own nuclear family and one half of Career Crooks (along with producer Small Professor). The duo recently released the Good Luck With That LP.
The album tackles and speaks to Zilla’s own life and experiences, likely knowing it won’t necessarily speak or be relatable to everyone. Nor will it speak to what many want to portray. His lyrics often capture that time right before many people fall asleep, when the truth isn’t escapable, despite what one wishes to portray to others or tell themselves.
Topics range from dusted rappers, exes and lust, to a story about a degenerate gambler and the consequences, as well as the workingman’s plight as someone who is not new to the game of life or the music industry (please refer: #FailedRapTales).
Zilla was kind enough to break from 4th of July festivities to speak with JUMP.
So besides a new wife and newer baby, what’s your world like since the last time we caught up for JUMP?
Just being a dad and a family man, but that’s changed everything for me. It’s made me realize why I still want to make music, since music isn’t the number 1 priority for all facets of my life anymore, and that is because I just love doing it, man. It’s been almost 20 years since I decided to rap as a very young man, and with that decision, I’ve made so many weird and interesting friends all over the planet. My son isn’t even 2 years old yet and loves to make beats! It’s crazy. I used to sing him the hook to “The World is Yours” to rock him to sleep when he was first born. I still love it as a fan and as an artist, so with Career Crooks, it’s exciting to stay sharp and put out an album with Small Pro, who I’ve been friends with for almost 10 years now. My time is more limited than ever, so I like spending it only on things I really enjoy with people I care about the most. That’s different. Also, shouts to URBNET for signing me – got my first deal well into my thirties!
When or how did the idea for the first song, the title track “Good Luck With That,” come to be?
We were wrapping up the album and felt like we didn’t have a good introduction song. So I was listening to Heltah Skeltah’s first album Nocturnal where they intro’d the album by using all of the song titles. I thought that was a dope idea, and Smalls sent me the beat. He originally made it for Westside Gunn and Conway but was like, “I’d rather just use it for ours instead of waiting on those dudes to check for it.” And voila – that’s the opener.
Is it a point of frustration or pride that a detail like this could be missed by some listeners?
This album dropped May 19th, and by May 20th people were incredibly vocal about all the parts of the album they loved and understood right away. That’s never happened to me before, because most of my records were more layered and abstract to a degree. Like even when I thought I was being straight forward, my projects typically took a while for people to pick up on. But with the Career Crooks album, it’s unapologetic East Coast rap, and people knew of me and Small Pro as friends and Wrecking Crew members for years now, but having a real duo set up, they were accepting it with open arms right away. It was really inspiring to have people from around the world catch references I made to obscure athletes, or be impressed with the album art. It’s a South Philly album and I’m grateful people from different corners of the planet are rocking with it.
What is the significance of the Mike Mulligan character from Fargo?
We’re hip hop guys, so someone like Bokeem Woodbine has been one of “our guys” since the early ’90s, from “Strapped” to “Dead Presidents” to even being in the Wu-Tang videos for “The Jump Off” and “Careful Click Click.” When he stole the entire second season of Fargo, it was like watching a dude from your neighborhood who could hoop a little bit get drafted in the NBA lottery, like, “Wow I always thought he was good but now he’s on the main stage!” I would argue that the second season of Fargo is one of the greatest television shows ever made, and Bokeem’s character Mike Milligan is the first person I think of at least as to why it happened that way. The grandiose speeches, the ruthless pursuit of power, the hair, the showdowns with law… We just wanted to pay homage to him on this album.
And Steve Martin? You sort of black out on this one…
I don’t know man ha ha! I just was freestyling to another Small Pro beat on a Saturday afternoon like seven years ago while I was going to the laundromat on Front and Snyder Avenue. I was just walking back and forth to get my clothes washed, rapping to myself, and boom – “Keep pace, lead car, ZR, Planes Trains Automobiles, STEVE MARTIN!” Smalls remixed it for the album and we made it a single with a video that we shot at Jinxed in Fishtown – shouts to everyone at Jinxed for taking me in. They did a lot for me. Anyway, we performed “Steve Martin” for the first time together in New York a few weeks back and Quelle Chris said to me, “I like songs like that where you keep bringing back the same couplets,” and I was like “Me too!” So it’s just a song about reacting to a beat without much thought to it and going off.
You had mentioned the song is actually old (originally having a different beat). What made you release it now? What made it relevant?
Like I said, that song existed many many moons ago and I always loved it, but it never made it on any of my projects for whatever reason. So when we were rounding out this album as Career Crooks, I thought it would be dope to revisit. Small Pro hates almost all of his beats that are old, so naturally he wanted to put a new spin on it. I love the final version – it’s really hectic. It’s a great closer for a show and an album to me, and it sums up our group so far–just two guys who have chemistry and go with the feeling. It’s carefree but it’s gritty.
You had mentioned the EP is a mix of old and new. How do you go about selecting something out of the vault?
I’m very very critical of using stuff that’s in the stash. There’s a reason why most songs I’ve made that haven’t been released, you know, haven’t been released, ha ha. But sometimes, you make a song you love and it’s always the odd man out when you compile a mixtape, an album, an EP, etc. So we didn’t have to dig too hard. The album started with Small Pro remixing songs I made with another cat, and that relationship soured, so I wanted to get the songs out because I still loved them. Smalls loves remixing, so I thought it would be a real quick turnaround, but the more he kept doing it, the more we felt like it should be something more than that, it should be an actual realized group. So then we started making new songs and there you have it. He really did a Madlib job to the album in terms of beat switches, interludes, movie clips, arrangement, etc. I’m used to being the one doing that but he really did incredible work. I got to sick back and be a lazy ass rapper for once.
You being a happily married man, I’m guessing “Lipstick Itch” was an older track?
I wrote “Lipstick Itch” in 2012 right when I broke up with my last girlfriend. My next girlfriend became my wife, so I was conflicted about putting the song on there, but I felt like the song is very real to men who are in the late 20s or early 30s and how it gets harder with relationships sometimes as you get older. Like you start realizing what makes you actually happy, how maybe you were the root of the problem in past relationships. “Lipstick Itch” is a song I don’t replay a lot because I’m so far removed from that guy now, but it’s 100 percent honest about where I was going into my thirties as a single guy at the time.
Where did the idea for the story in “Cold Ten Thousand” come from?
“Cold Ten Thousand” is loosely based on people I knew for a long time in South Philly, who were real people but also fit the film noir archetypes – the loser who always eats through money, the unsatisfied wife who makes a move in a dangerous direction, the loan shark who is your buddy but is only there to collect. And I delivered pizza for a long time, so I met guys who were hustling gigs, betting money, paying off bookies with their side gigs specifically. One of my best friends was a bookie when we were teenagers so other parts of the song are based on the degenerates he was dealing with who were kids and grown men, going to their house trying to shake them down, or showing up at their jobs to collect. It’s not fun, ha ha.
I know you pay attention to things like sequencing. What was the narrative arc you had in mind when arranging this album?
We arranged it like Nas’ It Was Written — not to fit any specific concepts, just to put a collection of hot songs together. There’s some story joints in there, some rapping for the sake of rapping, some wild hot beats on deck, posse cuts. That was it.
To say someone is a student of the game is cliche, but it would be hard to argue you don’t fit the bill. How does being a prolific consumer of music affect you as an MC?
I study people heavily, from their flows, to their rhyme schemes, to how they move on stage, to their artwork, etc. I never felt like I had all the answers as an artists, so I always kept a sharp eye as a student from the time I was 14 until now. Plus, I’ve been a producer for 15 years, so that led me to be a consumer of all types of music too. In general, I like to learn and always find out what made people do things that they’ve done, what environments were they in, what was the hot style at the time everyone was copying, etc. With us, Career Crooks pay a lot of homage to ’90s rap specifically but from a place where it’s not in opposition to anything current. I like 2 Chainz, Drake, Kanye, Vince Staples, I just don’t make that music naturally on my own. Small Pro loves all kinds of producers, from Dabrye and Lex Luger, to Large Professor (obviously) and Havoc. We’re the only rap duo in South Philly that loves Prefuse 73.
When your son is old enough to understand, what is the first song of yours would you sit down with him and play for him? And why that one?
Man….that’s an incredible question. There’s a song I’m writing now about him and his mom, it’s taken me forever to write because our lives change constantly with him growing, learning more stuff. It’s hard for me to put in all in a song because I always feel like there’s stuff I’m leaving out and I want it to be special. Regardless though, like most sons, I think he’ll think either I’m a total cornball or a superhero whenever he hears my songs and understands it. He did like the video for “Steve Martin.” But he’s been listening to nothing but rap and podcasts whenever he’s in the car with me. He’s a big talker already because of that.
From story telling to honest introspection to elements of the noir rap you pioneered to nods to artists and a time you hold in high esteem without simply trying to recreate that time and place. It’s all in there. Do you think this album best represents you?
This album came together in a strange way, where some songs were written in ’09, ’12, ’14, ’16. So it does take a picture of where I was in all of those stages as an artist and as a person. I lived in four or five different parts of the city during those times, went headlong into specific styles and everything. It represents me, but it’s also more like my first project ever, Bring Me the Head of Zilla Rocca, where I can hear myself just enjoying the art of rapping. Most of my projects over the years weren’t very joyful – they were focused, or conceptual, or made in reaction to something negative. Good Luck With That is an effortless listen so I hope people want to hear what we do next.
The debut album from Philly’s eclectic, genre-blending crew Shy Boyz drops today, so we caught up with King SoloMon and Airyon Love from the band.
On one hand, this album sounds like you are messing with us. On the other, this sounds really groovy. Are you guys for real?
King SoloMon: I have no choice but to find a way to make the Shy Boyz successful because otherwise I’m dead inside and might as well kill myself. So to answer your question, yes we are deadly seriously about what we do.
Airyon Love: The album is available on Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, etc. It doesn’t get more real than that.
Is there a theme for the album?
Airyon Love: Not consciously but there are several songs about children, sex and food. That’s kind of referenced in the album title because some people eat horses. It’s called 2 Horses (and 2 Naked Boys).
King SoloMon: Over ten years ago we discovered a mysterious painting in the trash near the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia. We used this painting as the cover for our album. It inspired the title track, “2 Horses (And 2 Naked Boys).”
We utilized some poetic license, because the painting only actually shows one naked boy. But we did start a postering campaign around the city to try to identify the actual artist who created the piece. If anyone reading this has any leads let us know. They can hit us up at shyboyzmuzik@gmail.com.
In the song “Small Meatball,” is the meatball a metaphor?
King SoloMon: No, we don’t deal in metaphors. We are always completely direct and literal in everything we do. The audience can read whatever they like into the lyrics, although we don’t appreciate that. We want our audience to take everything at face value. The song is kind of about what everyone fantasizes about doing with meatballs but either because of guilt or hunger they don’t go through with it.
Airyon Love: So there’s lines like “Small meatball, throw it at the wall” and “Small meatball, roll it down the hall.” We did want to reference some of our Philly Soul heroes in the song, which we did with the line “if you drop those balls on Rawls I’ll pull out my Voodoo dolls” in reference to the late great Lou Rawls.
How do you describe your sound?
King SoloMon: Bloop, bleep and blop.
We generally try to do songs/tunes with slick vocals and farty sounding guitars.
Each of the ten tracks has a very different sound. What’s happening here?
Airyon Love: Variety is the spice of life. We are strong believers in the buffet mentality … quantity over quality, etc. So, of course we want to take people on emotional journeys, have them travel from light to dark, etc. It’s all done very consciously and it’s backed up by marketing research. For example, the hot tempo in Vegas right now is 154 BPM, so we tried to use that tempo for one of the songs. But also we wanted to mix it up with other tempos.
King SoloMon: “2 Horses (and 2 Naked Boys)” is in the key of Gm and has a tempo of 91 BPM.
“Small Meatball” is in the key of C and has a tempo of 105 BPM.
“My Silver Daddy” is in the key of F# and has a tempo of 140 BPM.
And the other songs have other tempos and keys too.
What would be the perfect date night for one of the Shy Boyz?
Airyon Love: Well we have lots of Boyz in the band…King SoloMon, Airyon Love, Coke Shoulderz, Jimi Moon, RamaDom, Chef Dolce Vino, our poet Brian and our Illuminati Lecturer Cyti Gui. So this is a loaded question.
King SoloMon: For me, a perfect date would start at the shooting range and end at Donna’s Bar in Port Richmond for karaoke.
Airyon Love: But ultimately our dating preferences are private. What’s important is that we want people taking THEIR dates to OUR shows.
We have a bit in our live act where we encourage couples to say, “I Don’t Love You” to each other. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s actually quite therapeutic.
One time a guy came up to us after a show and said, ‘I came here with my fiance. We have 2 kids together. It’s a done deal – we’re together forever and you gave me my one chance to say, ‘I don’t love you’ without any consequences.’ We’ve had both men and women tell us this, so we just want to make people happy.
If the world was about to end, what kind of stuff would you get into?
King SoloMon: If I was in Philly for the end of the world, I’d definitely make sure I was at Sugarhouse Casino.
Airyon Love: They say you should live life to the fullest…you’ll never win unless you try, etc. That’s why we decided to send our album to Lady Gaga. She recently purchased Frank Zappa’s former home in Laurel Canyon in LA. So we sent her the CD and asked her to perform a seance to reach Frank Zappa and have him give his response to the album from the afterlife.
She hasn’t responded yet.
The release show is in about five weeks, right? How should we mentally prepare?
King SoloMon: Ya, August 5th at PhilaMOCA. It’s gonna be a banger. We ran into Bunny Sigler (the Philly Soul icon) at Shady Maple Smorgasboard on New Year’s Day in Lancaster County (we actually wrote a song about the experience, which will be on our next album). We dreamed of inviting him to perform with us at our album release show but unfortunately he’s been sick so he won’t be able to attend but he will be sorely missed.
Airyon Love: That won’t prevent us from pulling out all the stops. There will be plenty of special guests, prizes, surprises, nudity, food, etc.
We caught up with Milton, the genre-blending performer who was born in Italy, raised in DC, educated in Reading, PA and now calls Philly home.
He’s opening for Jakubi at Boot & Saddle on Friday.
What’s up, Milton? Where’d you come from?
Nothing much, enjoying my chance at life.
I came from where everybody comes from – nowhere.
Initially I met Dan (Emmons, his manager), who introduced me to Rob Devious, who produced Simple Pleasures. During that time, I was in the Philly at ANY show, open mic, anything music related or recording three or four days a week.
I lived in Reading, PA for school, 1.5 hours away from Philly. Through consistency, being professional and having an appreciation for everyone we met, things just started to connect for us.
You were born in Italy? How’d you wind up in Philly?
My parents were in the military, so I’ve moved around a bit.
Maryland is where I’ve been for the most part though. I got to Philly through music. I was told this is were a singer needs to be, so I went to a college not too far out and eventually found my way into the scene.
Do you think all the bouncing around has helped influence your music?
Absolutely. I feel it’s made me open to new cultures and willing to incorporate that in my sound/creative experience. “Slippin Dippin” is a prime example. It’s based off a situation I experienced in my more diverse travels. There is also little southern stank on it in appreciation for were I learned that side of life from.
How do you describe your sound? It seems to have an appreciation for past R&B and current hip-hop, but also very futuristic.
I think that description was pretty spot on. I appreciate the soul that old R&B had, with melodic instrumentation and sultry vocals.
On the other hand, I appreciate the energy and rawness in current hip hop.
All in all, I just work to create an experience for people to relate to, making music that lets them know there not the only one.
Does that genre-blending make it difficult to succeed in Philadelphia?
No, it allows me to be received by almost anyone. I feel I have something in my catalog for everybody and if you don’t like a song, you at least appreciate it.
What do you have coming up in the near future? Releases? Big shows?
A show at Boot and Saddle Friday June 23rd, a 45-min set as local support for Jakubi.
I’ll also will be releasing new music through the summer with my new band Kontrolled Khaos and some solo work as well. I’ll be posting a lot about that.
What’s the experience of a Milton show? What should people expect at a live performance?
A live ass time (haha).
As a solo artist, I usually fit my show to the capabilities of the venue I am performing at. The bigger the show, the bigger the band.
I am lucky enough to be accompanied on stage with some of the best musicians I have found from Maryland and Philly. The DMV will be represented by Footz on drums and Adam Lee on guitar (formerly of The Legendary Cloud 9). Philly will be in the building behind the keys and bass of Rob Deckhart, who people might know as Rob Devious, the producer for my album Simple Pleasures as well as some secret future releases.
When I hit the stage, I make it about the audience. It’s about bringing a experience, whether its with the visual, the sound, whatever. They leave entertained.
Text and images by Rick Kauffman.
Chon released their newest LP, Homey, on Friday and celebrated with a a sold-out show at Union Transfer.
The stage was a tropical paradise of illuminated palm trees and pink-washed color, offering a fitting backdrop to the math rock quartet from San Diego. The band has evolved in short time from a heavy, post-hardcore instrumental group to a bright and shiny, jazz-influenced quartet that lays heavy on the grooves and oddly-timed polyrhythms with the drummer dropping tempos mid-measure.
They were supported by a stacked lineup of fellow math rockers in Covet, Tera Melos and Little Tybee.
Covet performed math-y, prog rock that drew hoots and hollers during the intricate and complex grooves. Yvette Young’s soft-sung vocals offered a wispy and ethereal texture to songs that reached a crescendo with slap-happy drum-and-bass grooves that were layered by tops taps and riffs and pitch harmonics.
Tera Melos began as a purely instrumental math rock group but they have adopted a more typical pop structure, with lead guitarist Nick Reinhart continuing his frenzied tapping of pedals between two boards and electronic machinery. At times, his guitar sounded like a dying robot; other times, it was like an electric saxophone. The flurry of slapping pedals, hopping back and forth from foot to foot while playing erratic and unconventional guitar licks elicited serious awe from a crowd that was baffled by his wizardry.
Little Tybee, from Atlanta, Georgia, featured an eclectic sextet of an eight-stringed guitar, electric bass, violin and viola and others, that has in the past utilized a massive arrangement of brass and woodwind instruments throughout their four albums. The openers featured a sound that continually expanded and expounded upon their particular brand of experimental, psychedelic indie rock.
After a few years off, Thrice returned in 2016 with To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere, the band’s first studio album since 2011’s Major/Minor. The band is hitting the road with Deftones and Rise Against, stopping at Festival Pier tomorrow.
We caught up with Thrice drummer Riley Breckenridge about how it feels a year out from their return, touring with old friends and what’s in the future for Thrice.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the newest album. It’s been just about exactly a year. It’s a year tomorrow, right? [at the time of the interview]
Oh shit, I forgot! Yeah, I guess so!
So, now that a year’s passed from that first album after coming back from hiatus, how is everyone feeling?
I think we’re all really happy with how the record turned out, and how amazing the response has been. Not only with fans that have been with the band for a long time, but I feel like we’re getting a lot of new ears giving this record a chance.
I don’t know if that’s because of the hiatus or because we’re spreading the word about it better, or because it’s more accessible, or what the deal is, but there’s been a surprising number of people on social media and talking to people that are like, “Oh man, how did I not know that Thrice had a record?” or “How have I never listened to Thrice?” And it’s like, we’ve been doing this for almost 20 years, where have you been?
But it’s been really cool. We’re a little nervous about making a “comeback record,” and nervous that people maybe would have stopped caring during the hiatus, but it was a really good response and we’re stoked.
It did really well based on a few traditional metrics, like chart positions and reviews. Does that almost feel like a validation of sorts after that “comeback record?”
I’m not going to lie and say like, “Oh, well we don’t care about any of that stuff. Don’t care about album sales, don’t care about chart positions, don’t care about reviews or anything like that.” Because ultimately we make the music that we want to make and hope that people like it. But yeah, I guess it’s validating to a certain extent.
But I’m just happier, I guess, with the response in a live setting. People have been singing along to a lot of the new songs more enthusiastically and more often than they have in, I want to say, almost a decade if not more. And it was right out of the gate, too, which was crazy.
The songs have been going over well in a live setting. And I feel like, for us, that’s like the best kind of litmus test to see how a record is doing or how the band is doing in general.
So, you’re touring with Deftones, who also took a bit of time before their latest album. Is there any kind of kinship there, even though they didn’t officially announce any sort of hiatus?
Maybe more so for us, because we took an official hiatus. And for me, as a fan of the Deftones, I never felt like they really went away. I was just like, “Man, I could really use a new Deftones record.”
But we’re so excited to go out with them. We did Taste of Chaos with them in, like, 2004, and then did some Canadian dates with them. We just saw them in Belgium. We played a festival and they were there, and got to catch up with some of the guys. We’re just really excited to spend a month of the summer with those dudes and watch them every night.
Throw Rise Against in the mix, and we did a two-month headlining tour with them before. They’re really great guys and an awesome live band. I think it’s going to be a really solid bill, and a good show.
How did this tour set up come to be?
[Deftones and Rise Against] hit us up to see if we’d be into it. They had been talking about touring together for ages, and their record cycles weren’t really lining up. So now that they are lined up, they kind of jumped at the opportunity to tour together, and they reached out to us.
I don’t know if it’s because we have past history or they’re interested in the new record, but it worked out really good for us.
We’d done a lot of headlining shows for this record already, and we’re kind of looking to do something more in the support slot, so this really couldn’t have worked out better.
So, to backtrack a little, around when the new album came out, [vocalist] Dustin Kensrue had said there weren’t really concrete plans, but you guys were thinking about what’s next. About a year out now, are there any concrete plans for what’s next for Thrice?
Yeah. We are going to be touring in the fall. I can’t announce who with or where or what we’re doing. But after the Deftones thing, we’ll come home and decompress a little then head out in the fall.
We’ve already started sharing ideas for the next record, and started tinkering with those a little bit. I think we’re going to use some of the downtime on this Deftones/Rise Against tour to develop those ideas a little more and keep writing individually, and, yeah, hopefully have a new record out by maybe summer of next year. That’s the plan, anyway!
You guys have been around for, like you said, almost 20 years. You kind of have your own eras of development musically. Is there anything you guys are looking to try in the future that you haven’t toyed with at all before?
It’s hard to say. Even the rough ideas that we have now, there might be something that’s like a full idea that’s more mellow or moved to a different instrument. I think something we talk about with every record is really making the most of dynamics in the mix, so the lows are really low and the highs are really high. Just kind of building that juxtaposition between dynamic ranges, I guess. And that’s an ongoing quest and a never-ending quest, and so we’re going to keep working on that.
But, yeah, every time we make a record we talk about, “Oh let’s try this, let’s try this.” And then records become their own thing while you’re writing them, at least in our experience. The record and the parts that you’ve written will kind of tell you where you should take them.
We’ll see what happens. I’m excited that we’ve got some good ideas in the tank, so I’m excited to see how they develop.
For this specific tour, what do you think fans can look forward to the most?
It’s gonna be tough because I think we only have a half an hour to play a night, and we have, I think, like 115 songs or something to choose from. So we’re going to do the best job possible of playing some of the fan favorites, but then also kind of showcasing the new record—or new-ish record—a bit.
We’re not known for talking a lot on stage or being, like, overly flamboyant or anything, so you’re gonna get a pretty jam-packed 30 minute set of music. We’re just going to have a lot of fun. With a half hour, you can just go balls out. You don’t have to really worry about pacing or anything. It’s going to be a fun summer.
Shy Boyz: Actually Talented? Yes.
Text by Eric Fitzsimmons. Image by Charles Wrzesniewski.
Shy Boyz finish their set at Ortlieb’s and lead singer King SoloMon returns from the back room wearing only an adult diaper.
“I just have to clean some stuff on the stage,” King SoloMon says as fake blood rolls down his chin. “Then, can we talk in the bar?”
The Shy Boyz — which includes Coke Shoulderz on bass, guitarist Airyon Love, saxophonist RamaDom, Jimi Moon on drums, Chef Dulce Vino on keyboard and the group’s “poet laureate” Bryan, who sometimes performs as the dancing girl Anna — are a band known for bizarre live shows and music videos. They all hail from East Falls, a sleepy neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia that probably has little idea the sorts of mayhem its sons are committing in the name of music.
This may be why band members insist on going by stage names.
The group’s founding members, singer King SoloMon and Airyon Love, return to the bar still in diapers but also in scraps of their typically strange stage outfits as a small nod to decency and staying warm. Animal prints are a common feature of their costumes. So are bright colors and fake furs. Often, it’s a combination of the three. Tonight, Airyon Love wears what looks like the old Members Only jackets popular among suburban dads in the 1980s, except his jacket is hot pink.
Love says Shy Boyz were always in the ether but if you have to put a date on it, they started playing under that name in 2014, showing up at local open mics and building a following. Open mic nights can be a tough way to break through in music but this band had an ability to make lasting impressions.
Vocalist Ali Wadsworth was working the bar at Fergie’s on one of these occasions when she first encountered Shy Boyz. She remembers that they seemed normal when they signed up, except for some off-beat fashion choices. But by the end of their performance, they had stripped down to diapers.
Wadsworth was hooked.
“I just thought it was just such a good performance,” Wadsworth says. “You end up seeing the same people week after week, playing the same songs, and a lot of them I really love. But the Shy Boyz blew my fucking mind.”
Of the five friends she invited to the bar that night, one other friend liked the band. The other four were annoyed that Wadsworth tagged them in the videos of the show she shared online.
Wadsworth got to know the band over time and is contributing background vocals on two tracks for the band’s upcoming debut album. She says their antics may have gotten her attention but it’s the music that keeps her coming back.
Despite the wild stage shows, the Shy Boyz bristle at the suggestion that they are poking fun at anyone or that they are anything less genuine in their music than sad breakup ballads.
“We like to have fun,” King SoloMon says. “It’s all about pure entertainment. We put some humor in our music. People always say, ‘Your show was amazing, and you guys were actually good.’”
“Why can’t you be good and funny at the same time?” Airyon Love asks. “Why is that like breaking the rule?”
Not that Shy Boyz seem to have a problem breaking rules. Their show culminates with “Big Boy,” as it has since the open mic days. It’s a boastful rap that repeats, “I’m a big boy,” and it could easily have stopped at casual mockery. But Shy Boyz throw themselves into the performance (this is the point in their show when they strip down). It’s silly and fun and completely unexpected even if you know it’s coming.
For Love, performing the song is freeing. It’s a license to break the rules in a way that would probably get you arrested any other time, as he realized during one performance.
“I was on the floor in a pizza shop in Doylestown for an open mic night, screaming at the top of my lungs,” Love recalls, “and in my mind I was thinking, ‘This is the happiest I’ve ever been.’”
Video Premiere: cranes are flying’s “”Don’t Wake Me Up.”
Robin Carine started the band cranes are flying in North Jersey nearly a decade ago. He moved to West Philly and his brother, Lucas Carine, followed. They picked up bass player George Cosgrove in 2015 and now, the band is preparing to drop their new EP, Code Switching, in August
We caught up with Robin and Lucas and talked about the new EP, as well as the video above that we are premiering today.
What brought you guys from North Jersey to Philly?
Robin: After the Jersey City-based, early incarnation of the band fell apart, I was living in Brooklyn and performing under the name cranes are flying as a solo act. Then I lost my job. Several of my high school friends lived in Philly and I was already somewhat enamored with the DIY music scene here. So I ended up moving to West Philly and connected with other musicians to work with immediately. George and I were roommates at a show house on Locust.
Lucas: I went to college in Chicago and moved back east shortly after. Crashing on my brother’s couch till I found a place was a much more attractive prospect than moving back in with my parents, and I think both Robin and I missed the musical chemistry we had kind of just discovered before going our separate ways.
How’s life in West Philly?
Robin: Summertime in West is the best. There was a block party on my street last weekend, everyone’s porch-hanging and there’s pretty much barbecues every day.
But there’s also a prominent, divisive local figure who recently passed away, which has prompted some unpleasant muck-slinging among different factions in the neighborhood. Plus this summer is seeing several of the active house venues shut down.
So, a lot of things that define West Philly for me are in flux right now and in some ways, I’m mourning what used to be. In some some ways, I’m excited for what may come next.
You seem especially excited about the new EP. But you’ve been making music for nearly a decade now, no?
Robin: Yes. I am proud of everything we’ve done up ’til now but this lineup and this material marks a turning point for us.
It’s who we’ve been as a live act for a couple years but this is the first recorded document of the incarnation. That, combined with the fact that it is the best quality recording/production we’ve managed to achieve, makes us especially excited to share this EP with people.
Lucas: I’m excited to share our first output since I stepped into this new role. For a long time I experienced Cranes as a fan, then as a drummer/backing vocalist. The whole time i was writing my own material, so I’m excited to have an outlet for that, but it also represents the next step toward Cranes becoming a fully collaborative effort rather than a frontman-oriented thing.
Tell us about Code Switching.
Robin: Code Switching is the thing where speakers of multiple languages alternate between languages in conversation maybe because one language best articulates a point or maybe in order to appeal to the overall context in other ways.
One track on the EP is called “Polyglot,” which is a term for a speaker of multiple languages. As we began to navigate a version of this band in which both Lucas and I sing, write songs, and play guitar and drums, we began thinking of each other as musical polyglots. And, thinking of our approach to this band as one that could involve as much “code switching” as necessary.
Lucas: As far as the lyrical themes of the record, I think most of the songs deal with code switching as a form of miscommunication or misdirection. They’re about the ways in which people try and sometimes fail to communicate in relationships, or succeed in concealing their true intentions, by changing their vocabulary to fit the conversation.
What’s happening in the video for “Don’t Wake Me Up?”
Robin: The main character, played by Kit Collins, is experiencing some shocking changes to her initial take on the world around her. In a way her experience of these changes is a love letter to the West Philly house show scene.
Lucas: It’s kind of a ghost story, only with party ghosts!!!!
What do you guys have coming up in the near future?
Robin: We are celebrating the release of the next single, “the Patriarch,” by playing Boot and Saddle on July 15th, with rad local acts Decent and DANAFOX.
Then, in August, we will release Code Switching in full. We’re planning an awesome show celebrating that as well. We’re also touring around the region this summer, so like New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, etc. Many shows to be announced in the coming weeks.
Video Premiere: OOLALA’s “Space Camaro.”
Today, we bring you the brand new video from OOLALA, the funk/rock trio comprised of Rumi Kitchen, Vince the LION and Lux Nauta.
We asked Rumi about the video, which was directed by Airyon Love from Shy Boyz, and about the special brand of music OOLALA creates.
This video is wild. What’s a Space Camaro?
Thank you. It’s a Chevrolet. A Camaro. In outer space. Duh.
Well, it is also nothing.
That laser shot to the groin … did it give you special powers or anything?
It did. As you can see, the laser went directly to my penis and allowed me to spew a cosmic orgasm of love out into the universe for everyone.
Seriously though, what’s happening in this video? It’s a love story, yeah?
Yes, the deepest love!
This song and video convey a surreal domestic space relationship gone wrong – the dream is over, the space cops are knocking at the door, the space money has run out, the resentment and lies on both sides are stacked up to a fever pitch, the space sex ain’t right, and they both need to get their ass out of town, in that Space Camaro.
They just can’t quit that shit.
Our man Airyon Love from Shy Boyz directed and we wanted to lean on his brilliant aesthetic and story-telling styles.
Who is OOLALA? Where did you guys come from?
OOLALA is me, Rumi Kitchen on guitar and vox, Vince the LION on bass and Lux Nauta on drums, though, we freely switch instruments on stage when we perform.
Together we form a triangle, the strongest form in the universe, and it lends us magic as we explore the feels of the cosmos. I am from Kentucky, LION is from Jersey and Lux is from York, PA – and we’re all flying at a mind-bending speed away from the boom that “made” us 13.8 billion years ago.
How do you define the genre of music you guys create? Where does it come from?
We are practicing RockRoll Cosmology. We are interested in providing mystical vision pillars for the furtherance of human knowledge, at its edges. RockRoll is our tool.
Our stuff usually consists of a heavy funk riff centered on a deep beat, with raw, trashy soul singing on top of it.
What’s coming up next for the band?
We’ve been writing new stuff like crazy and are looking to get in the studio and out on the road.
In late June, we’ll be touring a jagged line from Cleveland to Nashville and back. In August, we’ll be doing New England and up into Quebec. This winter, we’re working on getting out of the country – whoever wants us more – England or South Korea.
We are also shooting two more videos this summer. Keep an ear to the cosmic ground. We’re just beginning.
Track Premiere: “Sycamore” from Maitland.
Today, we’re premiering a new track from Philly’s own Maitland, the indie/folk/rock band led by brothers Josh and Alex Hines. “Sycamore” is as rocky, raw and natural as the song name suggests — a glimpse of what’s to come on the band’s new album, aptly titled Glimpse, out June 2nd.
Our Beth Ann Downey caught up with Josh about the inspiration for the track and what’s coming down the pipeline for Maitland.
This is one of the first tracks you’re releasing off your forthcoming album, Glimpse. Why is “Sycamore” one of the first songs you want fans to hear from this new record?
Along with many songs on Glimpse, “Sycamore” has evolved very drastically from the live duo recording that we previously released. We wanted to highlight the raw emotion of the song as a call to make changes in our lives. This song in particular serves also as a self-learning tool and reminder to keep looking beyond the monotony of daily life. Lyrically, we felt it was important to open a door to new perspectives with their first experience with Glimpse.
You describe “Sycamore” as “a song about seeking meaning in life while continuously running into walls and expectations.” How do you think the music and lyrics get this point across to the listener?
The Sycamore tree is held as a sacred tree in many traditions. In this song, a man is sitting underneath this symbol of the Tree of Life, yet he’s wallowing away in self pity and doubt. It seems dark, but in reality it’s a song about hope. He’s sitting beneath “opportunity,” but he has created walls and mental concepts that blind him from seeing the beauty that is above, below, and all around him. “Sycamore” is the first half of this story, the part where the man can understand that he has a choice to live his life in a more fulfilling way, but he hasn’t taken the first steps.
What was the recording process for this track?
The whole album started with some live tracking at Spice House Sounds, which was a pretty amazing experience overall. We spent two 12-hour days in the studio, where I decided it was a good idea to sing with a fever and sore throat, resulting in months of recovery and some gnarly versions of the vocal tracks, one of which we used in the final version of “Sycamore.” We then headed to East Room Studios / The Headroom for more live tracking and plenty of experimentation. After over two years of refinement, we finally landed with an album that we are all happy with.
Glimpse is a project more than two years in the making. How excited are you guys to share it with the world?
We’ve been playing many of these songs as a full band for over two years, but they have never been heard in this way. Watching friends add their touch with strings, bass clarinet, harp, and other fun sounds offered a new perspective of these “old songs”. Each time someone tracked a new instrument, we had a hard time keeping it to ourselves. Thanks to much patience and dedication from Drew Taurisano and Asher Brooks, who worked with us on the album, we ended up with a collection of songs that we can’t wait to share.
What about living in Philadelphia and being a part of this music community has inspired this song, or this record? Are there any other artists, facets of daily life here, etc., that have helped Maitland get to where the band is today?
We’ve got a lot here. Although many of these songs were written back home in Williamsport, PA, we tapped a lot of local musical friends to join in the making of Glimpse. Asher Brooks of Tutlie spent a lot of the early months helping us record the tracks. Collin Dennen of Ellen Siberian Tiger and Mother Moses spent a day tracking upright bass. Evan, our guitarist and front man of Kenny 3, took a lot of creative liberties while recording guitar parts. Adam Shumski, our drummer and part of Vita and the Woolf, tirelessly perfected his parts and offered his spin on arrangements. There are many others, but in general, the friendly music scene alongside the Philly grit also played a part in how these songs evolved in the studio.
Look for a full story on the making of Glimpse in our forthcoming fall issue.
In the mean time, keep an eye out for the Glimpse pre-order, which will be available soon, and catch the band at their record release show at Johnny Brenda’s on June 9th with Former Belle and Dirty Dollhouse.
Black Hippy founder Ab-Soul brings his YMF Tour to The Trocadero on Friday and we’re giving away tickets. Little Simz, who released an Alice in Wonderland concept album in December, will open the show.
If you want a pair of tickets, email us at freeJUMPstuff@gmail.com (put “Ab-Soul” in the subject line and your full name in the content box). If you don’t want to take a chance, you can purchase tickets online here.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 