The Retinas: Caught in a Lo-fi Struggle.
Check out the new track from The Retinas, Philly’s evolving lo-fi, post-garage, indie rock, whatever band. And read Darragh Dandurand‘s conversation with singer/guitar player Tom McHugh and bass player John Brennan below.
Talk about the inspiration behind the song. Who wrote it? About whom?
Tom: The song was written kind of by accident. We were getting ready at practice one day and Jake (Brennan) started playing part of the chord progression to the song. As we all got ready, we joined in on it and jammed on it for awhile. Afterwards, it fell together so nicely that we polished up and started demoing it.
John: Yeah, it was one of those happy accidents. He happened to play the chord progression and we all fell into it, like something clicked in. I believe we actually had the main idea for the song done that day.
It has a beachy, surf sound, reminiscent of The Donkeys, Cayucas and similar groups. Is this something new you are trying out?
Tom: We love all different kinds of music and avoid being put into one specific genre. So, we like doing things out of the ordinary for us, changing up the mix and keeping it interesting.
Why this single? Why now?
Tom: One of our goals this year was to release as much music as possible and we thought this would be a good start. Usually we record things ourselves and this is the first time in awhile we’ve worked with an outside engineer/studio, Andrew Meoray. We’re happy with the way it came out. We’re caught in a lo-fi struggle cause we love lo-fi sound but we’re trying to bump it up a smidge so people have a better idea of whats going on when they listen.
Is “Take Me By The Hand” part of a larger project coming along shortly? Will the album be concept?
Tom: “Take Me By The Hand” is just a single. We have a lot of songs that we’ve been working on and putting together, so there’ll be larger projects coming soon. We also have another single we want to release after “Take Me By The Hand,” which is completely the opposite in every way from the song.
What should fans expect from The Retinas in 2015?
Tom: A lot more music.
John: Releasing more music, playing more shows and a tour.
How would you describe how the band has changed since coming together in 2011?
John: I don’t know if we have changed a whole lot as a band since we got together. Our minds are still aimed at practicing songs, releasing music, playing show etc. I still feel we’re the band from the basement just a little older and more ambitious.
Since the start, have their been any goals for the band you’ve accomplished? Ones that haven’t worked out?
John: Our main goal since the beginning was to always play music and have it reach out to as many people as possible. In retrospect, I feel we’ve done that in our short existence, at least in the Philly scene.
If you could open for any band touring this year, who would it be?
John: The Pixies. Fidlar. And Mozes and the Firstborn
Ideal pizza topping?
Tom: Sausage, green pepper, onion.
John: Pepperoni and sausage.
Modern Baseball, Marietta, Spraynard, The Weaks and Hurry @ The Church for Lame-O Records United Cerebral Palsy Benefit.
Text by Tim Mulhern. Images by Jessica Flynn.
It started as an idea for a senior project.
Emily Hakes, a senior music industry major at Drexel University and co-founder of Lame-O Records, developed the idea for the label’s most recent release – a six-way split entitled Strength in Weakness, featuring Spraynard, The Weaks, Modern Baseball, Marietta, Hurry and Beach Slang – after realizing she had to complete a senior project before graduation.
TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb: Confessions of a Storyteller?
Text by Beth Ann Downey. Top image by Kara Khan. Bottom images by Jason Melcher.
The members of TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb pile into a booth at The Dew Inn, a friendly, neighborhood-y, no-nonsense diner on Girard Avenue in Olde Kensington.
They’ve come here in search of cheap Sunday brunch fuel and won’t be disappointed, save the disproportionate boiling of bassist Josh Machiz’s soft-boiled egg.
As a smattering of eggs, bacon, scrapple and toast take over their table, the TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb bandmates discuss why they enjoy living in a working class city like Philadelphia, with all of its grit and grease. The same characteristics have also kept the local Americana scene, of which the band is a part of, both relevant and thriving.
“Folks come here to live on the cheap and work and find their way in the world,” says frontman Dan Bruskewicz. “It’s a great place to live in order to find what you want to do because you can live for cheap, you can find work, you can drink for cheap, eat for cheap. It’s easy to get around town. It’s a great place to live in your 20s and find out what you want to be. I just feel like folk music is a very nice soundtrack for that.”
Water Polo, Mike Pays Heat, Reward, Weatherhead and Skinny Dip @ The Mile High House
Text by Tim Mulhern. Images by Emily Scott.
The pipes were frozen at the Mile High House but that did not stop fans of Skinny Dip, Water Polo, Mike Pays Heat, Weatherhead, and Reward from filling the Mile High basement on a frigid Friday night for a show benefiting Project HOME.
The pay-what-you-want show reached capacity early in the evening, as recent Rolling Green Records signees Skinny Dip kicked things off in a packed house. The band kept stage banter to a minimum and drew heavily from their debut EP, released on Bandcamp last month.
Water Polo, who released a three-song acoustic session with Somewhere Sessions late last month, kept the crowd entertained with new tracks and two cuts from its split with Zoo Books.
Mike Pays Heat got the crowd moving with their bouncy, melodic indie punk. The band has kept quiet, with the exception of an EP released last month, but was given a warm welcome to the Mile High stage. Taking cues from bands like Modern Baseball and The Front Bottoms, the group’s upbeat set contrasted nicely with the moodier offerings of Skinny Dip and Water Polo.
Weatherhead took a heavier approach to pop punk and the crowd reacted enthusiastically. Early in the set, frontman Evan King respectfully asked those in attendance to control their forward movement. King was joined on stage by a keyboard player, bassist, and drummer, so performing space was limited, but the band made the most of it, and kept the crowd entertained, who sang along to nearly every word of the band’s set.
Reward closed out the night, and followed closely in the footsteps of Weatherhead, laying down distortion-heavy post-hardcore-inspired punk. Vocalist Rob Blackwell commanded the attention of the audience throughout the group’s performance.
The Mile High House generously donated proceeds from the show to Project HOME, “a Philadelphia non-profit organization empowering individuals to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness through affordable housing, employment, health care and education.”
Mile High’s next show is Feb. 21, featuring Osaka, Brown Rainbow, Buster, Shrink and Wring Out.
The Spirit of The Beehive: New Spirit With Old Roots.
Text by Tim Mulhern. Images by Jessica Flynn.
Members of The Spirit of the Beehive, including guitarist/vocalist Zack Schwartz, drummer Pat Conaboy, guitarist/keyboardist Justin Fox, guitarist Tim Jordan and bassist/vocalist Rivka Ravede, are situated in a corner of the basement of the North Philadelphia home where they hold rehearsals. The space is cluttered. Low ceilings expose pipes and harsh lighting.
In less than 24 hours, they will depart on a 10-day tour of house shows, out to the Midwest and back, and this is how they’re getting ready.
“This is the preparation for the tour,” jokes Jordan, referencing the time they spend rehearsing their set before packing the van and hitting the road.
“I have directions to all the shows,” adds Schwartz.
The members of the band gravitated toward Philadelphia due, in part, to the bands they played in prior to forming The Spirit of the Beehive. Conaboy came to Philadelphia to study and stayed for the music scene. Schwartz arrived in Philadelphia while playing in Glocca Morra.
Languid PA, Uncle/Father Oscar, A Day Without Love, Osaka and Second Marriage @ The Baker Bowl.
Text and images by Diana Shalenkova.
About eighty people packed The Baker Bowl Saturday to see A Day Without Love, Languid PA (above), Osaka, Second Marriage, and Uncle/Father Oscar.
In the string-light decorated basement, Second Marriage opened the show, closely followed by Osaka, with the crowd bouncing, nodding and dancing along.
A Day Without Love provided a change of tempo, with Brian Walker playing solo with a guitar and a pedal board. He serenaded the audience with sorrowful stories set over melancholy melodies, dropping names of friends in the crowd in response to their cries of “I love you!”
“I’ve never played this song live,” Walker admitted before jumping into “Senseless.”
Uncle/Father Oscar began their set by stringing the mic from a beam on the ceiling, claiming they were going to “do it like Hawthorne Heights” (referring to the “Ohio is for Lovers” music video). They soon had the whole basement thrashing around, awakened from a somber trance.
Languid PA (formerly Forever Lesbians) took the stage last with a friend dancing on the PA, encouraging the show-goers to dance along to old and new material and urging them to get low before the climax of the last song.
Afterward, the crowd slowly trickled out, discussing late night taco joint runs and exchanging phone numbers with promises to see each other at another show.
Folk By Default: Everyday People.
Text by Vince Bellino. Images by Darragh Dandurand.
Kayla Raniero clutches a cup of Starbucks coffee while poking out from under a mountain of schoolbooks. At this moment, you would never know that Raniero’s brainchild, Folk By Default, is in the midst of its biggest shift yet.
Raniero is not just a musician but also a visionary and a voice for the queer community. After coming out as agender, thus identifying with they/them pronouns, Raniero realized there was an opportunity to do something beyond playing music.
“It has opened my eyes to the importance of using your platform as a musician,” Raniero says. “It’s important for me to just be a musician and show that I’m a normal person doing things … and just happen to be queer.”
Raniero never had a non-binary role model while struggling with identity issues. The artist wants to be that for people who might not otherwise have one.
Dentana: “There’s a Hypnotic Nature of Dance Music That Draws Me In.”
Here’s the latest installment of our monthly mixtape series, which is curated by GUN$ Garcia. This month, she brings us Dentana, who hosts the EXTRA DARK parties at Kung Fu Necktie every Tuesday.
Our Brianna Spause spoke with Dentana about the party and her inspirations.
What kind of vibe do you create at Extra Dark?
It’s the escape from places and people and things. Electronic music is the best way to escape and find yourself while getting lost dancing. I think that’s why a lot of people struggle and don’t like to dance but I like to encourage a very dark, more mature kind of dance vibe. People can have more space and darkness to express themselves, and not have to worry that people are judging what they’re doing.
What is it about electronic music that draws you in?
GASH: The Fetish of The Floggers.
Text by Gabi Chepurny. Image by Michael Bucher.
The practice space of Philly S&M punks GASH is tucked away in an easily overlooked alley one block south of South Street and decorated with mural-sized naked ladies, close-ups of vaginas included.
It’s perfect for the six-piece group – vocalist Tibbie X, guitarist Hit Cunningham, guitarist A.J. Delinquent, bassist Travis Travesty, drummer Atom Riot and dominatrix Mistress Stephxecutioner – whose relationship began when Cunningham and Tibbie X met via Craigslist.
“I was playing bass in Reagan Youth and that was awesome,” Tibbie X says. “But I really wanted to write some new songs and somehow Hit came through Craigslist. It’s actually really sleazy that we met on there.”
Asaf Avidan @ Union Transfer.
The Asaf Avidan backstage – curled on a leather couch, legs tucked underneath like a cat – seemed so different from the one showing off in a muscle shirt and tight black pants, running the show and screaming into the mic only an hour later.
On Monday, the 34-year-old Israeli played Union Transfer on tour for brand new album Gold Shadow. There was no opener. He was backed by a quintet of multi-talented musicians who were prepared for anything.
Avidan’s edgy, yet polished live set, like a stone in tumbler, made for a mind-blowing experience, equal parts mesmerizing, melancholy and memorable. It was unbelievably clear how crafted his sound was, easing effortlessly from one genre to the next. His songs flowed with little break in between. On occasion, he spoke either nervously or embittered about the breakup that inspired the album and took a few too many swigs of whiskey whenever he had the chance.
The crowd swelled and only grew larger throughout the show. The eclectic audience was soothed into submission with melodic numbers like “Let’s Just Call It Fate” and “The Labyrinth Song.” He sometimes stopped to explain a few facts about physics for mini-lessons about the inner workings of the universe, winding his poetic prose into song after song.
Avidan’s stage presence was undeniable – bold and unapologetic, yet, when he obliged the audience for an encore, it became all too apparent as he began to rant that perhaps he should stick to more singing and less conversation. The night ended better than it began as a collective sigh settled after his final performance, as if the crowd was disappointed the show was over.
Our Darragh Dandurand spoke with with Avidan before the show.
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JUMP: The Philly Music Project 