coming soon

Crystal Stilts @ Kung Fu Necktie (4/9/09)

The sound of Crystal Stilts conjures up images of absinthe-mindedly stumbling through alleyways of Weimar Berlin. It’s as if everything surrounding you is morbidly glorious, yet you know you have much reason to be scared. Although their resentment of comparisons to Joy Division and the Jesus and Mary Chain isn’t exactly, or at all, warranted, that should be little to complain about. Their debut LP, Alight of Night, hit the shelves last October, just in time for Halloween, and has been pleasantly frightening Vice Magazine-readers ever since. “Graveyard Orbit” and “Shattered Shine” echo like a glitter-encrusted death rattle in the hands of Peter Murphy and “The SinKing” embraces the sound of being chased through a Sadist’s maze by Ian Curtis. The band does have its cheerier moments, such as their twist-evoking eponymous track and “Prismatic Room,” which could incite a sing-along (if only the lyrics were the least bit discernable), but any glimmer of hope is drowned about by a psychedelic garage fuzz in the tradition of the Velvets. So if the idea of being haunted by Brooklyn hipsters in designer duds excites you (and how could it not?) make sure to drop by Crystal Stilts’ April 9th gig at Kung Fu Necktie. Izzy Cihak

music reviews

Attrition
Kill The Buddha! The 25th Anniversary Tour
1/27/09
Projekt Records
www.attrition.co.uk

RATING: BADASS

More than twenty five years in and Attrition are still as brilliantly unlistenable to pop music audiences as ever. Kill The Buddha! documents their celebratory trek through the modern caves of the western world, playing their avant-garde synthetics for sparse audiences looking to be pleasantly disturbed. Attrition’s sound pits the primal against the plastic and haunts in a way which evokes long and blissful contemplation. “Dreamcatcher” has intensely dark beats closing in on operatic howls, “A’dam & Eva” is reminiscent of a postmodern burlesque performed by classically trained robots, and “The Mercy Machine” is along the lines of a dance party for the tortured souls of Dante’s Ninth Circle. Izzy Cihak

***

Living Things
Habeas Corpus
2/17/09
Jive Records
livingthingsmusic.com

RATING: BADASS

Living Things are the perfect example of when failing social revolution can be a pretty solid dance party. Habeas Corpus has them expanding on their brand of The (International) Noise Conspiracy Light political power pop. “Brass Knuckles” will likely be the year’s brashest pop anthem, “Oxygen” drips with delightfully infectious synthetics, and “Cost of Living” has the groove of making love to an atomic bomb. Unfortunately, the band’s grasp on the political concepts they grapple with is still at the Afterschool Anarchist level and their ideas are about as radical as anything that can be heard daily on NPR during an evening commute, but if we’re all fucked anyway (and we are), we might as well dance. Izzy Cihak

Throwing Muses @ World Cafe Live

Throwing Muses
@ World Café Live
03/10/09
www.kristinhersh.com

Philthy’s most iconic musical event of 2009 looked something like a 15-year reunion of Reality Bites extras. For the first of only four scheduled US dates from not-surprisingly under-appreciated (as is the way of music history) Bostonian legends Throwing Muses, the city’s musical sanctuary of sterility, World Café Live, was filled to about half capacity with aged poster children for VH1’s I Love The 90s whose years of teaching five days a week at a community college have taken a slight toll on their Gen. X anti-dance moves. The truly alternative trio looked disappointingly inoffensive in a setting usually reserved for bearded singer/songwriters and “world musicians.”

The band’s set focused on material from the latter portion of their career, most notably 1995’s University (“Shimmer,” “Bright Yellow Gun,” and “Hazing”) and 1996’s Limbo (“Serene” and “Shark”). These brilliantly transgressive pop fables ring just as progressive as ever, but they lost much of their potency in the vast dinner theatre venue. While Kristin Hersh’s coy refusal to “perform” her songs as a pop star is charmingly striking in more intimate settings, from the back of WCL she likely just looked sleepy. Izzy Cihak

R.I.P Lux Interior!

In the early morning hours of Wednesday February 4, 2009, the world of rock and roll lost one of its most original, dynamic, freakish and underrated frontmen of all time - Lux Interiror (born Erick Lee Purkhiser) of the pioneering garage/punk band the Cramps.

I was lucky enough to see the Cramps perform at Motherf*cker (the now defunct NYC dance party) during late 2006. Seasoned veterans by then, I cannot erase the images of Interior as he threw himself about the stage like a deranged ragdoll with reckless abandon or performing fellatio on his mic. (in between songs he would chug red wine, naturally).

The Cramps was the bastard love child of Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy (born Kristy Wallace, later his wife). They eventually left California and traveled east in the mid 1970s with their band to become part of the nascent punk scene that revolved around venues such as Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs in lower Manhattan.

While the bands that inhabited the NYC milieu were initially varied – both visually and sonically (think leather-clad Ramones, spastic Talking Heads or the glamorously trashy Blondie), the Cramps truly stuck out, as they were simultaneously campy and menacing. Their look and sound was a melting pot of references and aesthetics, from 1950’s B-horror movies and sadomasochism to rockabilly and double entendres (“Can You’re Your Pussy Do the Dog?” Ahem.)

Like many bands associated with punk rock, the Cramps never achieved commercial success. However, songs like “Human Fly," “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” and “Goo Goo Muck” are ingrained on a generation of listeners. Even without a gold record under their garter belt, many credit the genre of “pyschobilly” or “horror rock” to the band.

Recommended viewing, the grainy clips on YouTube of the band in the late '70s performing a show for patients at the Napa State Mental. A few songs in, you almost can’t tell the difference between the band and the incarcerated. Take that, Live Aid.

One reviewer put it best, describing Interior's voice as "the psychosexual werewolf/ Elvis hybrid from hell." Somewhere out there, the afterlife just got a little kinkier.

– Daniel Alonso

Mid-Winter Scottish and Irish Music Festival Review

Every year on President's Day, a couple hundred people wake up and realize they shouldn't have had just one more drink the night before. They get up, stumble out of their hotel room(10 am check-outs are the worse) and before leaving the hotel lobby, they are already making sure they can book a room for next year. Goodbyes are said, bands pack up to start their 12 hour drives home, and the people ofPhiladelphia are thinking of reasons why they can call out of work on Tuesday. Everyone needs a day to recover after the Mid-Winter Scottish and Irish Music Festival.

The festival, affectionately called "Mid-Winter" by its regulars, just wrapped up it's 17th year at the Valley Forge Convention Center. It's organized by Bill and Karen Reid who run East of the Hebrides Entertainment in Plymouth Meeting. Bands and fans from all over the country (and other countries) drive in, fly in, and spend a few nights in the adjacent hotels to begin a mini vacation in the middle of winter. For those who love the sounds of Scotland, Ireland, and anywhere else someone can pick up a fiddle or bagpipes (and play the instrument well), this is the perfect getaway each year.

On Friday night, the music gets started around 7 pm. This year, three of Philadelphia's own Irish-inspired rock bands opened up the weekend- Five Quid, The Hooligans, and the Bogside Rogues. Be sure to check out their upcoming shows in the area! Along with these groups was Albannach, a band that always brings people up to the front of the stage and gets the crowd ready for the weekend. They're a bunch of big Scottish men who carry pipes and drums (and one fantastic girl drummer too). Tribal drumming music at it's best.

Saturday morning started with a pipe band Bagpipers played throughout the day, the first band to play Saturday morning was the MacLEOD Fiddlers and then the line up from the night before was joined by more than enough bands to keep everyone on their feet all day. It's important not to fall over and get trampled on by the step-dancers at this place! Paddy's Well is another great local band who woke up the Saturday afternoon crowd. Then followed Cliudan, who is festival and pub favorite from upstate New York. Other North American acts included Scythian, the four man band who won't let you come up for air; Charlie Zahm, a singer-songwriter who lives near Philly, and Rathkeltair- a Celtic rock jam band from Florida (though two of the members are from Europe). The Screaming Orphans could be considered an American band, too, since the four sisters live in NYC but they are originally from Ireland. Their drummer is the lead singer, and this is chic rock at it's best…along with Canada's Searson, the other kick-ass Celtic girl band at Mid-Winter's line up. Canada was also represented by the MacLeod fiddlers and Hadrian's Wall- two great groups who always make the trip to Pennsylvania for this festival. Australians were in attendance as well, in the form of Brother. Mongrel rock, as those mates call it, with didgeridoo, bagpipes, drums and guitar.

Sunday's at Mid-Winter are much more calm. Everyone is tired, but still ready to dance with a Guinness in hand. Most of the same bands played, and a few more joined in for the last day of the festival. The McDades, another Canadian group, fuses the sounds of Celtic music and jazz. Then there were a few more groups from Europe- Oliver McElhone (Philly based but born in Northern Ireland), the Tannahill Weavers who are a traditional Scottish band, and the Dublin City Ramblers (who have been performing since the 1970s).

Whether you stay for the weekend or just come for a day, mark Mid-Winter on your calendar for next February. It's more than just music and dancing. Enjoy a whiskey tasting, trace your roots at the clan tables, shop for jewelry, clothing, or other gifts, and fill up on fish and chips.

In the meantime, many of the bands will be back in the Philadelphia area around St. Patrick's Day. And almost all the performers at the festival this year will be returning to Pennsylvania before February 2010 (The Reids run a few other festivals throughout the year as well as a January cruise). The musicians love it here, and really, after playing at a place like Mid-Winter, who can blamed them? Ask any fan of this genre if they'll be making an appearance in 2010 and you'll get the same answer: we're counting down the days already.

-Brenda Hillegas

Lydia @ The Barbary

Lydia
@ The Barbary
03/03/09
www.lydiamusic.com

The band seamlessly segued from tuning their instruments themselves into the opening number of their set as frontman Leighton Antelman made his way through the audience and onto the equally cramped stage of the Barbary; Lydia are not the typical act signed to Universal Motown. Although the group has been described in terms as disturbing as post-emo, the band’s sound is far more complex and intriguing. Their brand of melancholy power pop isn’t dissimilar to Kill Hannah at their least synthetic, Antelman embraces the delicate morbidity of Robert Smith, and keyboardist/backup vocalist Mindy White brings keys and vox akin to those found in symphonic metal – all of this through a Warped Tour aesthetic (if you can even call it that). Although their latest release, Illuminate, is a little too reminiscent of well-polished, pseudo alterna-pop to discuss with your more progressively hip peers, their live show is far more raw than one would expect. The band’s set was riddled with charmingly credible ailments like faltering drums and tumbling mic stands and Antelman proved to be a sassily paramount frontman with the coy, androgynous swagger of Brian Molko. Tightly-packed fans roared over the band during “This is Twice Now” and “I Woke Up Near the Sea” as if they were anthems of 1977. The only disappointing aspect of the performance is that it lacked catalogue highlights like (the unfortunately titled) “Now the One You Once Loved is Leaving,” that cement White as more than just the band’s novelty hipster eye candy. Izzy Cihak

coming soon

The Airborne Toxic Event @ The Note (3/9/09)

The Airborne Toxic Event are along the lines of A Clockwork Orange's gang as produced by Butch Walker. And next Tuesday, March 9th, they will be ravaging the khaki-and-cargo-short-infested town of West Chester with their brash and crass brand of power pop. The quintet is the postmodern prose of leader Mikel Jolett’s manifested into a glorious, bubble-gum-coated riot. The band’s live shows are general blitzkriegs that often find members making their way into the audience to incite more intimate assaults. The last time the band found themselves in the area they were upstaging Scott Weiland and the Ting Tings on the stage of the TLA. If they can manage to leave that impression in the heart of Philthy, just imagine what kind of havoc they’ll wreak on Bam Margera’s town of tools. Izzy Cihak