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(11/17/24 8:49pm)
Kapacity calls itself Penn’s premier Korean rock band, but it's not one to be pigeonholed—its setlists span ‘70s hard rock epics, 2000s emo classics, top–of–the–charts K–Pop, and heart–rending balladry. Long divorced from its primarily international student beginnings, now the band’s only focus is quality music, and it’ll reach out to any corner of the world to attain it. I saw this quality for myself at its show in March, and I knew I had to talk with the members—so I sat down with three leading members of the band in their regular rehearsal room to discuss their goals, inspirations, and creative process.
(11/17/24 11:39pm)
As I took my seat on Friday night at the Academy of Music’s cozy Perelman Theater to hear chamber orchestra Sphinx Virtuosi, I reflected on other concerts I’d attended in this very same venue. Generally reserved for chamber ensemble performances (consorts, quartets, the occasional Baroque soloist), the Perelman is intimate, seating 650 as opposed to the 2,500 that its sister concert hall, Marian Anderson Hall, can manage. I’ve most often received an overwhelming impression of comfort from Perelman concerts: safe musical choices, small ensembles with a homespun feel, cute but at times banal performances … from regional youth orchestras to masterful but familiar solo pieces performed by Yo–Yo Ma, I’ve left the Perelman smiling in appreciation but never in astonishment.
(11/17/24 11:46pm)
The roll out for Halsey’s fifth studio album, The Great Impersonator, was anything but subtle. For eighteen days prior to the release, Halsey posted pictures of herself on Instagram dressed as her greatest musical influences. Amongst the greats they dressed up as were Dolly Parton, David Bowie, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, Bjork, Britney Spears, Joni Mitchell, and Bruce Springsteen. It was clear from the start that Halsey wanted us to get up close and personal with The Great Impersonator, revealing the significant figures that influenced each track—but this would only be the tip of the iceberg. In The Great Impersonator, Halsey truly rips themselves open, revealing all the light (as well as the darkness) that exists within them and recounting their past few years spent battling with illness, coming to terms with motherhood, and finding love. While some of the tracks, or “impersonations”, on this album fall flat at times, the album as a whole is Halsey's most earnest, intimate, and deeply personal work yet.
(11/10/24 5:00am)
There’s never a dull day in the K–pop universe, and that’s been especially true this past month, which saw a string of Ws for NewJeans against all odds, Bruno Mars’ first Korean music show win, and an appallingly bleak situation regarding RIIZE’s Seunghan. Even past all that, there’s been an unprecedented flow of drops from third, fourth, and fifth–gen titans alike—and like last time, I’ll be going over and reviewing some of the most notable ones.
(11/12/24 3:01am)
“I was up late night ballin'” at Vince Staples’ Black in America Tour. As hundreds of people swarmed to Franklin Music Hall to see the Californian rapper, all you could see on the stage was a lone, mighty American flag—and considering how much Staples criticizes America in his music, the irony was not lost on fans. It’s safe to say that we were feeling pretty patriotic for Vince.
(11/12/24 3:04am)
Anna Shoemaker is many things: a proud cat owner, a SoundCloud sensation, “Brooklyn's own Olivia Rodrigo”—the list goes on. In the seven or so years she’s been signed to Plus 1 Records, the singer has carved out a “crying in the club”–girl image—relatable and deeply unapologetic, she’s the kind of artist whose lyrics feel like a page from your diary. Her discography is nothing if not brutally honest, a conglomerate of songs on self doubt, young adulthood, and of course, heartbreak. But in the couple years since her debut album Everything is Fine (I’m Only on Fire), the (temporarily) Los Angeles–based pop confessionalist has uncovered another aspect to her accomplished identity—it only took her a couple thousand miles to get there.
(11/08/24 5:18pm)
One thing that every Tyler, the Creator fan loves about him is that his marketing campaigns are short, sweet, and honest. So when he teased “St. Chroma (ft. Daniel Caesar)” on Oct. 16 with a short video and no other context besides the word “Chromakopia” at the end, fans became very excited for new music. The next day, he officially announced Chromakopia was set to release on Oct. 28, teasing merch and singles up until then. For fans like me, even waiting the short 11 days up until the record came out felt like waiting for the light to arrive after sitting in darkness for nearly three years. It’s safe to say that I went to heaven when the record finally dropped.
(11/10/24 5:29am)
The crowd stands shoulder to shoulder. Adults in their 40s stake out the back of the venue. Behind them, signed posters of Bruce Springsteen, vintage guitars, and faded Stone Pony flyers dating back 50 years wrap the walls. The younger fans swarm as close to the stage as possible. Inhaler concerts will always be a melting pot of generations, from older fans eager for the live sound of Bono, the 64–year old father of Inhaler’s lead singer Elijah Hewson, to Gen Z enthusiasts hungry for the band’s distinct basement rock sound, which echoes the Arctic Monkeys, Catfish and the Bottlemen, and the Strokes.
(11/04/24 2:55pm)
A little fire is lit in the courtyard behind Van Pelt.
(11/01/24 2:32pm)
For the last few months, I felt like one of the only people left in the damn world who actually got BRAT.
(11/08/24 1:27am)
Bows. Kisses. Hearts. Repeat. There's no other way to describe every other visitor of the Wells Fargo Center on the evening of Oct. 8, when child–actress–turned–superstar Sabrina Carpenter returned home to Philly. As the stadium gradually filled with Carpenter's fans sporting pre–ordered merchandised t–shirts or sparkling corsets, singer Amaarae prepared the audience for the evening show. Performing with just one dancer and a small group of musicians, she played 13 songs that leaned more toward TikTok–core than the light, girly pop of the event’s headliner. Still, hearing Travis Scott's “FE!N” at Carpenter’s concert was a pleasant surprise.
(11/12/24 3:00am)
“Thank god it’s Friday” is a phrase I was saying a lot this past weekend. Sure, Fridays are great because the weekend is coming, people can go out and socialize, and I get to have my chicken–over–rice from a halal cart as a reward for making it through the week. However, this Friday was extra special—we were blessed with the debut album Glorious from Memphis rapper GloRilla, featuring the hit single “TGIF." Her most recent mixtape, Ehhthang Ehhthang, was released earlier this year, and the new direction her music has taken in just six months is remarkable.
(11/13/24 12:50am)
In the 1976 film Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle shields his eyes watching pornography in a theater while feigning a sense of righteous power over New York City. His smallness is palpable, his horniness is devastating, and he doesn’t know what the hell to do about it. Almost fifty years later, he’s rightfully regarded as the OG film incel, embodying a charmingly pre–internet brand of male awkwardness—obviously not socialized enough to engage in romance, but without a grifter–saturated manosphere to multiply its misogyny. So what remains for the trope today, besides some awful pickup lines and prostitutes? Let’s ask the grimy, miserable, and equally theatrical protagonist of Geordie Greep’s The New Sound:
(10/25/24 5:26am)
Three weeks ago, Penn football opened its season with a game against Colgate, but strangely, I knew only three people who attended the game—two of whom left during halftime. They didn’t leave because Penn was losing—in fact, by halftime, the Quakers had a significant lead—the problem was there was no excitement around the game and no sense of energy in the crowd, especially among current students.
(11/17/24 11:32pm)
Despite the album’s incredible success and booming popularity, after four weeks in the No. 1 spot, Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet was bumped to second on the Billboard 200 chart by Travis Scott’s mixtape Days Before Rodeo.
(10/25/24 12:16am)
Like a shofar cry from the furthest end of the room, breath hits brass. Just one note, guttural, and the crowd falls quiet.
(11/10/24 5:47am)
The night of Saturday, Oct. 5 hit me hard … and soft. As I clambered into my seat amidst a crowd of screaming bisexuals, I wondered vaguely how I could have been enjoying my fall break at home just two hours ago. Somehow, here I was at the Wells Fargo Center … in Philadelphia, again. But I was "Happier Than Ever" to be in my city when Billie Eilish purred into her mic: “Hey, Philly, you seem like you’re feeling pretty good.”
(10/23/24 4:16am)
SOPHIE had been producing the follow–up to her monumental first LP, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un–Insides, for almost four years before her passing in January 2021. Including the ones she’d chosen for its lineup, the PC Music veteran and hyperpop godmother left behind hundreds of tracks—some considered for a project dubbed “TRANS NATION”, some already unveiled between 2015 D.J. sets and quarantine–era HEAV3N streams, and all lying dormant to be overseen by her brother and long–time mixing engineer, Benny Long.
(10/28/24 2:28pm)
This July, Jojo Siwa dropped her fourth EP, Guilty Pleasure. Months prior, Siwa defined this highly anticipated album as personal rebranding: a transition from her formerly charismatic Nickelodeon persona to a provocative, grunge influencer. RIP to the 2017 Jojo and her bows, neon jackets, and anti–bullying anthems. The two music videos accompanying Guilty Pleasure—for singles “Karma” and “Guilty Pleasure”—illustrate this artist’s reinvention of her image: Siwa now centralizes her choreography, costuming, and lyrics around her love and lust as a mature adult.
(10/13/24 4:00am)
It feels like The Dare’s song "Girls" is all around us. It’s become the (supposedly) sex positive anthem for the girls themselves, the backtrack of Instagram stories or self–referential thirst traps. It’s the talk of the effervescent “Indie Sleaze revival” we’re still waiting on, with everyone seeming to have a take on the return of a raunchy, sin–addled party scene for hipsters and the song as its poster child. Hell, we even used the song at a Street meeting as an icebreaker, Buzzfeed style–what type of girl are you?
