Big thanks to SteveO from The Holy Mess and Likers, both of whom performed at the JUMP spring issue launch party on Friday at Ortlieb’s.
It was a super-fun night, with SteveO growling as he played acoustic. Likers then took the stage and SteveO joined them for several tracks.
All of the guys are featured in the new issue of the magazine. You can see the digital version here. Copies are all around the region, with more drop spots coming soon.
Mo Lowda & The Humble @ Milkboy.
Text and images by Tyler Horst.
Packed into Milkboy’s upstairs room, surrounded by whooping patrons with a beers in hands, seems the most appropriate way to enjoy Mo Lowda & The Humble‘s high-energy rock.
The big sound comes from an outfit comprised of only three, which begs the question: which one is Mo Lowda, and who’s The Humble?
Questions of identity aside, the group brings a hugely mature sound despite being only one full album into their career. Mo Lowda treated the room to a range of tunes from their recent full-length Curse the Weather, featuring big alt-rock rhythms and a bit of bluesy soul.
The Ataris Reunion Tour @ The TLA.
Text by Gabi Chepurny. Images by Jesse Marass.
Indie-punk veterans The Ataris brought their reunion show to Philadelphia on Thursday night, with a mixed bag of bands in tow.
Brooklyn’s Gasoline Heart opened the show with a lineup of songs that you would probably listen to while you were missing your ex-girlfriend. We’re not too surprised though, because what do you expect with a name like Gasoline Heart? Not that that’s a bad thing, because in reality we wouldn’t have had the beginning of this show any other way.
Drag the River brought their alt-country style to the stage. The Colorado two-piece took the tempo down with what you might expect to hear while sipping moonshine on someone’s back porch.
Susanna @ International House.
Text and image by Donte Kirby.
Susanna, Charles Cohen and Chris Forsyth each showcased their craft at the International House last Tuesday night.
Chris Forsyth opened the show, one man sitting in a chair in dim light, strumming his guitar. A lauded guitarist who has been living in Philly since 2009, he has received acclaim for his most recent record Solar Motel from the likes of The New Yorker, Uncut and Pop Matters.
Forsyth’s playing evoked imagery of walking through a long corridor while having a distinct awareness of time. The presence of Forsyth’s guitar was distinct, drawing you in the moment you heard his playing.
When Forsyth finished his performance, an unassuming man with white hair, flannel shirt and sky blue sweater walked on stage and stood behind a blue and red 1970’s Buchla Music Easel. He began twisting knobs and alternating wires. Charles Cohen made sounds ranging from joyful rhythmic machinations to sonar under the ocean to water dripping in a cave.
Cohen is an improvisational artist, which makes the fluidity and natural progressions in his performance all the more amazing. Cohen’s music takes you on a journey through the unknown.
Susanna, which has performed in many different formats, such as Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, arrived as a three piece.
“I am Susanna,” lead singer Susanna Karolina Wallumrød announced. “We are Susannna.”
She sat at a piano, waving her hand toward guitarist Helge Sten and drummer Fredrik Wallumrød, who also performed beautiful backing vocals that complemented Susanna’s voice well, especially in their cover of “Joy and Jubilee.”
The Norwegian songstress performed songs from her back catalog and covers alike. One of the most striking songs of the night was a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Dark and haunting, Susanna’s rendition was heart-wrenching, forcing you to empathize with a woman pleading for her man.
Susanna’s tour continues to Chicago, Louisville and the Big Ears festival in Knoxville.
Wild Ones @ Boot & Saddle.
Text by Kyle Bagenstose. Images by Grace Dickinson.
Watching the low-key performance from Portland based Wild Ones at Boot & Saddle Wednesday night, it was a little difficult to put a finger on what genre the band falls into. Not that a band needs to be quickly shuffled into a particular box, but it helps to have some frame of reference to relate to others.
And then the five-piece outfit solved that problem for me toward the closing of the set, when they spectacularly covered Drake’s “Hold On We’re Going Home.”
“Ah,” I thought. “Now it makes sense.”
Like Drake’s 2013 hit, Wild Ones often combine a synth-heavy pop sound that would be right at home at a prom in the late 80s, with underlying drumbeats and guitar riffs that hold more modern R&B sensibilities.
The sound had a small crowd of about three dozen swaying and head nodding by the second song, “Golden Twin,” and encouraged some of the looser listeners into outright dancing by the time more uptempo numbers like “Curse Over Me,” hit later in the set.
We’re working with our friends at Underground Arts, who have a bunch of great shows coming up.
Cass McCombs performs on May 24; Orchard Lounge performs on June 6; BANKS performs on June 7.
To enter to win a pair of tickets to any of these shows, email us at FreeJumpStuff@gmail.com (give us your name and put the name of the act in the subject line).
Tickets for all of these shows officially went on sale today, so you can get tickets here if you don’t want to take any chances.
Air Is Human @ Ortlieb’s, with Commonwealth Choir.
Air Is Human wrapped up their month-long residency at Ortlieb’s with a packed show last night that featured their Fishtown neighbors, Commonwealth Choir, who opened the show and then collaborated on a few tracks.
After Commonwealth Choir played their energetic set on the small stage with red lights, the bandmates remained on stage and performed The Beatles “Taxman” with the Air is Human duo.
Air is Human then followed with their experimental, groovy ambient instrumentals, followed by a few more songs with Commonwealth Choir bandmates.
St. James & The Apostles begins a month of shows next Wednesday.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. @ Union Transfer.
Text and images by Kyle Bagenstose.
There was a moment Monday night, right in the middle of the party that was the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. show at Union Transfer, when things got sentimental. The indie-pop duo from Detroit was just wrapping up “War Zone,” a catchy, hop-along-on-a-sunny-day kind of song, when the lights began to dim and the gigantic white beach ball that had been displaying colorful visuals from a projector across the room slipped into darkness.
Standing in the lone light on stage, frontman Joshua Epstein raised a saxophone from around his neck and poured out a soulful string of notes as the rest of the instruments faded out. An electronic looper built the sound louder and louder as Epstein repeated the progression, and the room fell silent, intently listening in the sudden sereneness.
And that’s when it hit you: This is one hell of a show.
With the exception of a few slower moments, and the occasional stage banter from Epstein and bandmate Daniel Zott, the DEJJ show was a 90-minute dance party.
With the stage framed by four wooden “JR JR” letters, which were lined with incandescent light bulbs that would strategically illuminate to the beat, Epstein and Zott worked through the majority of their two albums: 2011’s It’s A Corporate World and the newly released The Speed of Things.
Shorty Boy-Boy: Spirit In The House.
Text by Tyler Horst. Images by Kate McCann.
Josh Pannepacker is a lot more reserved than his on-stage antics suggest. He speaks deliberately, planning each sentence before opening his mouth as he prepares a cup of tea in the kitchen of the now-defunct Studio A in South Philly. Since getting back underway with his weirdo-pop pet project, Shorty Boy-Boy, Pannepacker has spent more time in Studio A than he has his Northern Liberties apartment. If he’s not working on his own music, he’s directing videos or working as engineer for someone else’s project.
“It’s my home,” he says, only half joking.
But it easily could be. After a brief, quasi-retirement, dropping in and out of other bands and getting a day job, this month, Pannepacker is finally set to release the latest Shorty Boy-Boy full-length, his first since 2006’s whimsically titled Kicking Your Ass, Then Smoking Your Grass.
Roadblocks to the completion of the new record (which he says will be titled Spirits in the House) range from tragically breaking his wrist after providing an ill-fated piggyback ride, to the decidedly more positive experience of drumming with Sun Airway during their fall 2012 tour with M83.
Actually, the two events sort of overlapped.
After the tour, Pannepacker played two more Sun Airway shows with what he thought at the time was a sprained wrist. When he confessed his worries to guitarist Chris Doyle before that second show, Doyle handed him a bottle of whiskey and suggested, “This will fix it.”
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 