WIN FREE TICKETS: New Found Glory @ The TLA on Wednesday!
Veteran pop rockers New Found Glory will perform at the TLA next Wednesday and we are giving away tickets to see the show.
If you want a pair of tickets to see NFG with We Are the In Crowd and Fireworks, like us on facebook and email us at FreeJumpStuff@gmail.com (give us your name and put “NFG” in the subject line).
If you want to play it safe and get your own tickets, find details for the show here.
We Are Scientists @ Johnny Brenda’s.
The guys from We Are Scientists burst on to the stage at Johnny Brenda’s on Saturday and blasted through a high energy set of pounding rock.
“How many of you are Philadelphians?” asked bass player Chris Cain between songs.
After the crowd erupted, Cain followed with, “That was about 20 percent. That’s not bad. The crowd in DC last night was 92 percent from Arkansas.”
Then he dedicated the next few songs to the people of Arkansas.
Cain and college friend Keith Murray started the band in 1997. Songs from their major label debut, With Love and Squalor, began dropping in 2005 and the bandmates found themselves invited to the Reading Festival and touring with the likes of Arctic Monkeys.
They released three more albums before this year’s TV en Francais.
They seemed to enjoy themselves on stage, with steady banter from Cain, who polled the audience about which Philadelphia icon – the cheesesteak or Liberty Bell – should rule supreme (cheesesteaks won). Drummer Keith Carne was constantly smiling (he visited the David Lynch exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts earlier in the day). And after they performed “The Great Escape” with the lights in the club flickering like a strobelight, Murray said it felt like a snuff film.
“Do it again for the next song,” he requested.
Surfer Blood and Eternal Summers opened for We Are Scientists, as they have throughout the tour.
Last week, Temple University’s School of Media and Communication hosted the 14th Annual Lew Klein Awards, an invitation-only celebration of prominent media makers in Philadelphia and beyond.
Recipients of the award this year ranged from Larry Margasak, former journalist for the Associated Press Washington Bureau to Claire Smith, longtime sports reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. NBC’s Brian Williams took away the honor of the Lew Klein Excellence in the Media Award, but we really showed up to see John Oates, of Hall & Oates fame, perform a few new songs.
Oates, a former Temple Student, has been no stranger to his alma mater since he left. Having come back several years in a row to speak with students, Oates has spent time promoting his work and sharing his music knowledge.
This year though, he proudly climbed the stage at the Lew Klein Awards to thank Mr. Klein and several other prominent figures in Philadelphia’s entertainment industry for the recognition. Having just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Oates spoke fondly on his time with Daryl Hall and perched himself on a stool to play a tune for the adoring audience of his peers.
After the event, Oates met with a gaggle of reporters, including our own Darragh Dandurand, who filed this report. He answered some cliche questions about the 1980s, some queries about his upcoming tour and no one, thank God, asked about his long-gone mustache.
You referred to that first recording you made here on campus. Could you talk more about that experience and when you and (Daryl Hall) began playing together?
Well, Daryl and I were in different groups. He had a group called The Temp Tones and I had a group called The Masters and we were both being played on the R&B stations in town so we didn’t know each other but we knew of each other.
My group broke up. Two of the guys got drafted into Vietnam and I actually joined Daryl’s group as a backup guitar player. That group subsequently broke up and left the two of us. We then became roommates, started hanging out in Center City and one day we had written a song together and we thought that it would be great to record it and I said that I could get the key to WRTI. After hours, we went in when no one was there. We ran the little tape machine, we recorded the song and it was awful. And then we agreed that this would never work and that we should just stay friends. But then, little by little, we evolved into having a partnership.
Do you feel that there is any inspiration left in Philadelphia? Are you keeping up with its folk scene?
I don’t really spend enough time in Philadelphia to really know what’s going on here with young artists and people like that, but every time I come back…it puts me in touch with memories. It puts me in touch with reasons I became who I am and the reason my music is what it is.
You know, people always talk about Philadelphia and its tradition of artists and the urban R&B tradition but for me, Philadelphia is much more than its folk and blues traditions. I’ve been there since the beginning, there at the right place and the right time. Philadelphia in the 60s for me was so rich and vibrant with culture and traditions.
Philadelphia just always feels so warm and fuzzy to me. Read more…
Skrewtape @ Voltage Lounge Tonight.
Text by Chesney Davis. Images courtesy of Skrewtape.
With a gritty, bass-heavy sound, Skrewtape, a rapper from South Jersey, has been making a name for himself in the underground scene in Philly and surrounding area.
The 29-year-old only began carving out a career for himself for the last few of years but the success has been relatively swift.
His first LP, Skumbag Millionaires, dropped last year with his undoubtedly East Coast sound, reminiscent of great mid-90s’ hip-hop.
The 22-track album is packed with guest appearances by many of hip-hop’s seasoned artists, including El Da Sensei and Miilkbone, plus local heavies like Voss, Reef the Lost Cauze and producer and beat maker Mr. Green.
Calle 13 @ The Merriam Theatre.
Text and images by Darragh Dandurand.
The Merriam Theatre seemed like an unlikely place for Puerto Rico’s Calle 13 to perform on Saturday but the Latin-inspired hip-hop group rocked the venue through the night.
Calle 13, who holds the record for winning 19 Latin Grammy Awards, is on tour this fall covering much of the United States. This was their debut performance in Philadelphia.
The group, which is led by two step-brothers, Residente and Visitante, is famous for their political messages and heartfelt tributes to Latino culture.
Lead singer Residente came out on stage to a flair of horns and symbol crashes. The crowd immediately stood and stayed standing for the rest of the show. Often compared to Eminem by critics, Residente’s lyrics were witty and self-aware. As he rapped (mostly in Spanish), he flung himself into his music, bouncing back and forth on stage and grinning toothy smiles to the crowd. Read more…
Images by Jason Melcher and Michael Bucher. Text by G.W. Miller III.
Thanks to the nearly 500 people who came out to see RJD2 at Underground Arts on Saturday as part of the Red Bull Sound Select, an event that was curated by JUMP.
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats with DANAVA @ Underground Arts.
Text and images by Greta Iverson.
Six TVs sat on stage, all tuned to static. Uncle Acid was in town.
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are touring North America for the first time and they kicked it all off last week at Underground Arts.
The English band drew a line around the block early. People shivered anxiously, with excited talk of seeing Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats for the first time live buzzing throughout the night.
The Lawsuits with DRGN King and Tutlie @ Johnny Brenda’s.
Text and images by Jason Melcher.
In celebration of the release of their newest EP, Tumbled, The Lawsuits played a sold out show at Johnny Brenda’s on Friday night.
Tutlie opened the evening with mesmerizing harmonies between female vocalists Jessie Radlow and Rebecca Way. Backed by Greg O’Neill on electric guitar, Greg Diehl on bass, Mark Cruttenden on drums, and Asher Brooks on keyboard and trumpet, Tutlie unleashed a stunning set with its orchestral, chamber-pop charm.
Read more…
Why? @ Union Transfer.
Text and images by Greta Iverson.
Why? came to Philadelphia last week and proved that frontman Yoni Wolf could probably rewrite the standard for prancersize.
Why? is on tour for about two weeks but not to promote an album. This short fall tour seems like Why?’s way to keep a strong fan base and have some fun performing. And they really do always look like they’re having a ton of fun.
Marian Hill: The Essence of Truth.
Text by Chris Malo. Portraits by Michael Bucher. Show photos by Grace Dickinson and Jason Melcher.
In November, they appeared in the pages of NME magazine, on their Radar list of new bands to check out. In February of this year they played their first show at Boot & Saddle. Jon Caramanica wrote about them in The New York Times in March, around the time their first EP, Play, was released. Following that, they did a short tour through California. The five tracks on their Soundcloud have more than 1.5 million plays. Adding the three remixes, boosts the numbers by another 650,000 plays.
Not bad for a group that has only officially been together for less than two years and that you may not have heard of. Yet.
Marian Hill is a two-piece electro R&B/blues group, comprised of vocalist Samantha Gongol and producer Jeremy Lloyd. Both were raised in the Havertown, Pennsylvania area, becoming friends in school. Back then they both had their own musical talents and interests which would come to intersect in a place like a school play. Gongol had to kiss Lloyd during an 8th grade performance of “The Music Man.”
“The show went off without a hitch,” says Gongol with a laugh.
“I looked great,” adds Lloyd. “I was in a nice suit. I was looking sharp. I was an attractive kid back then.”
Today, the two 24-year-olds sit on the concourse lobby of the Kimmel Center, days away from their first festival performance at the XPoNential Music Festival. Lloyd is dressed in a soft blue T-shirt, shorts, brown shoes and messy brown hair, Gongol’s blonde lioness mane falls over her 5-foot-1-inch frame and a floral halter top, completed with a black skirt and heels.
Lloyd went on to Yale, where he graduated with a degree in theater and music, while Gongol received a music business degree from NYU. Lloyd was focused on making music while Gongol had her eyes set westward, wanting to pursue a career in top lining.
But during spring break in 2013, when they got together to share what each had been working on, it produced a different result, a different path.
Lloyd played Gongol the track that would eventually become their first single, “Whiskey.”
“I think a big thing we locked into with that track and that we have been working to embrace going forward is that a lot of that glossier music, the vocalist doesn’t matter that much,” explains Lloyd. “It’s the sound, the atmosphere of the song and the vocal fits into that. Where as with this we have this beat that’s big and taking up lots of space but it’s nowhere the vocal is so the vocal can totally exist on its own. It’s big for me that we never tune her vocals. We never double her vocals.”
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 