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(02/27/19 7:40am)
It is the summer of 2016, I am fifteen and, like everyone else who has ever traversed through adolescence, I am knee–deep in an emo phase. My playlists cycle through the same artists who comprise the emo canon—My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco—and I beg my parents for Warped Tour tickets with desperate fervor. I mold myself to fit the stereotype of the misunderstood teenager so well, save for one detail: I am Hispanic, and Hispanic girls aren’t allowed to like punk music.
(02/22/19 2:19am)
On Monday night, four bands performed for the PhilaMOCA crowd, waking sleepy audience members from their exhaustion at the dawning of the week and giving them something to talk about. Adult Mom led the charge, headlining the night with a set of bubbly, pop/punk songs, a divergence from their more lo–fi and quiet studio sound. Steph Knipe, the creative center of the project, sings with sincerity, not unlike Petal's vocal strength, but with an added twang. Seeing them with a full band only added to the sound, melding several influences smoothly while conveying a singular sound. The night, however, was chock full of great bands, with enough in common to create a cohesive wall of sound throughout the night.
(02/18/19 2:00pm)
FIDLAR means “Fuck It Dog, Life’s A Risk.” This is a band who made their 2012 debut with lead singer Zac Carper screaming, “I drink cheap beer/So what?/Fuck you,” on their eponymous album FIDLAR’s opening track, “Cheap Beer.” Immediately, FIDLAR became the epitome of SoCal party–punk, but “punk” has never really been their sound. Rather than worrying themselves with the strict sonic and cultural guidelines put forth by the generations of social outcasts and staunch, self–identifying nonconformists who call themselves “punk,” FIDLAR has always done what they’ve wanted. And that’s what makes them punk as all hell, even if their music isn’t.
(02/19/19 7:33am)
A walk down Cedar Park’s Baltimore Avenue reveals a neighborhood in transition. There’s a punk rock hair salon, an ice cream parlor known for its vegan CBD flavor, and no shortage of well–lit brunch spots. There’s also, however, a dollar store, a quiet corner bodega, and a fixture of old men who play dominoes in the park. Right now, Cedar Park is at a pivotal stage in a hard–fought gentrification process: does it want to be “attractive” or inclusive?
(02/19/19 12:22am)
French house, a musical genre often defined as a combination of Euro disco and Deep house, used to be everywhere. You definitely know it if you’ve ever heard anything by Daft Punk prior to Random Access Memories (perhaps "One More Time" or "Harder Better Faster Stronger") or "D.A.N.C.E" by Justice. Characterized by head–banging drum machines, glittery synthesizers and sequencers, and filtered samples of '70s and '80s music, French house can be seen as the bass–head electronic cousin of disco. Yet, despite the genre itself being just barely 3 decades old, we are beginning to see it die out.
(02/25/19 12:20am)
Hip–hop pervades every city in America—it developed in urban environments and remains a strong musical influence there even as it has taken center stage in popular music within the last few decades. Los Angeles has brought us N.W.A. and Kendrick Lamar, Jay–Z and The Notorious B.I.G. came from New York, and Atlanta provided Outkast and T.I., among others. Similarly, Philadelphia has nurtured numerous hip–hop artists who have carved out their place in the upper echelon of the genre. But who among these individuals are the best to come from Philly? Here are the top five rappers repping the City of Brotherly Love:
(02/21/19 1:25am)
The smell of leather was thick in the air, coming off of the battered jackets and beer–soaked combat boots of every aging hard rocker in the crowd. Everyone that packed into the Theatre of Living Arts (TLA) this past Saturday for rock band Dorothy’s sold out show started the evening dressed in all–black, although several would go on to buy and wear opener Spirit Animal’s “banana cream”—not yellow, they insisted—t–shirt. The population density of the venue allowed little room to dance, but did nothing to deter the concertgoers from flipping their hair, swaying their lighters, and pumping the devils’ horns all in time with the heavy riffs, punchy drum beats, and lead singer Dorothy Martin’s cutting vocals.
(02/19/19 12:38am)
Wedged between the Golden Globes and the Oscars, the Grammys always seems to be the arts award show that's hastily passed by. The first Grammys were in 1959 when only 28 different awards were given out. Since then, categories have been added and removed, and at one point even reached more than 100. However, even with the addition of new categories, the Grammys still don't feel like they're inclusive to important genres of the music industry, the most obvious being hip–hop and rap.
(02/21/19 12:53am)
The music video for Young Fathers' "In My View" begins with several entirely disconnected visions: the band made up and posing, a sinner bowing before a priest, two men holding each other's faces, a dancing cowboy, and so on. The action heightens: the sinners turn on the priest, the men thrust each others' faces aggressively, and the cowboy begins to sweat. Just as everything comes to a peak, they glance off camera, hands can be seen making adjustments, and a title card reads: "The Art of Making People Care." The behind–the–scenes becomes the video, the cameras are visible, and the producers behind the video are shown putting together the scenes. To say nothing of the music, it's a stunning three minutes of art.
(02/19/19 6:00am)
Thursday night. Valentine's Day. In the basement of the First Unitarian Church stands everybody who would rather be seeing Cherry Glazerr than doing anything else on the most romantic night of the year. Whether it was an alternative date or a getaway from all the hype, Cherry Glazerr delivered for them with a high–octane set of punk rock that brought out the energy and passion in the audience. The California–based trio, led by singer/guitarist Clementine Creevy, has a varied discography based around glittery–grungy guitars, light synths, and heavy drums, all sugar–coated with Creevy's soprano voice. At this show at the Church, the trio managed to up its sound and give the crowd something better than dinner and a movie.
(02/21/19 4:42am)
If you search “lo–fi hip hop beats to study/relax to,” you’ll come across several 24–hour live streams of ambient hip–hop beats often paired with calming and cute visuals. Starting as an underground phenomenon, this hip–hop subgenre has emerged in the past year, gained popularity and influenced the genre as a whole. Two of the most popular channels—Chillhop Music and ChilledCow—each have over two million subscribers and thousands of people tuned in at any given moment. Crossing over from Youtube, Spotify’s “Lo–Fi Beats” playlist has nearly four hours of “Beats to relax and focus” and over one million followers. Other music platforms like SoundCloud and Pandora are starting to be populated by similar playlists, gaining lo–fi hip–hop’s legitimacy as both a concentration tool and music genre.
(02/16/19 4:37pm)
The brother–sister duo from New Zealand, Broods (Georgia and Caleb Nott), have proved that they can do it again as they explore and experiment with a whole new side of indie–pop with their third album, Don’t Feed the Pop Monster. Three years ago their album, Conscious, produced the pop hits “Free” and “Heartlines,” which propelled Broods to international stardom. They soon found themselves sharing a stage with the likes of Tove Lo and Taylor Swift. Now Broods is back with something lighter, simpler and more vulnerable. Ditching the heavier beats of Conscious, the new album opens with “Sucker,” a synthy track in which lead singer Georgia Nott admits to having tried hard to fit in. From the album’s title to the first track, it’s clear that Broods is trying to distinguish themselves from mainstream pop. Despite their millions of monthly listeners on Spotify, with this new album, Broods tries to reclaim a more authentic, almost singer–songwriter aesthetic.
(02/17/19 11:08pm)
Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad formed Girlpool as teenagers living in Los Angeles. Armed with just a guitar and bass, the two–piece sang in inseparable harmony on their unique brand of folk punk jams. Simple instrumentation left them nowhere in their tracks to hide, but hiding was never Girlpool’s intention; their sharp singing took lyrical swings at slut–shaming and white male privilege on their 2014 debut Girlpool.
(02/14/19 7:20pm)
While 2018 saw Ariana Grande preemptively vow to wed an SNL comedian who apparently sub–tattoos his exes, 2019 begins with Grande making yet another vow, only this time to her fans. A woman of her word, Grande dropped her explosively candid fifth album, thank u, next, just six months after Sweetener. This departs from the standard industry cycle—album release, promotional stints, world tour, rinse and repeat—in a bold way.
(02/16/19 4:33pm)
Chaz Bear, known professionally as Toro y Moi, is notorious for utilizing a wide array of funky beats inspired by numerous genres in his music. Bear's latest work, Outer Peace, marks a tangible step forward in his ability to weave new sounds into a cohesive album. While his previous album Boo Boo is a pleasant, lighthearted work of psychedelic synth music, Outer Peace marks a sonic departure into a new breezy funk vibe interspersed with emotional, slow–burning beats.
(02/16/19 5:09pm)
It’s easy to assume that live albums are just a fast way for artists to make money, given that their tracklists are simply old songs played in a new setting. However, LCD Soundsystem makes you feel their newest live album is more than a cash grab. Much like their last live album, 2010's “London Sessions,” “Electric Lady Sessions” is "live" in the sense that it was recorded while on their American Dream tour over a three–day period at Electric Lady Studios in Manhattan, N.Y. The 12–song album, released Feb. 8th, includes renditions of their existing hits as well as covers of songs by other artists.
(02/16/19 6:55pm)
When I walked into Union Transfer on November 7th, it reeked of adulthood—overpriced IPAs, musky cologne, and menthol cigarettes. This, I decided, meant that Sharon Van Etten didn’t fuck around. Her fanbase was full of dads who wears leather jackets on the weekend and middle–aged women with subtle tattoos. Clearly, life experience was a prerequisite for liking Sharon Van Etten and her brand of deep rock, and I was hopelessly short on that.
(02/12/19 5:47am)
The mid–2000s were not always a great moment for hip-hop. 4 of the top 10 highest–selling rap albums in 2004 belonged to Nelly, Ludacris, and Young Buck, and somehow Robin Thicke held the top spot on Billboard's "Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs" in 2007. However, one great thing to come out of this era is Omarion’s “Ice Box,” a collaboration between Omarion and Timbaland that puts The Weeknd’s dramatic tracks to shame.
(02/11/19 4:59am)
On Wednesday, February 6th, Omar Apollo performed at the Rotunda, a church, turned concert venue and community–gathering place. Within this cozy and basement–like venue, Jazz & Grooves, a sub–group of Penn’s Social Planning and Events Committee, has hosted R&B stars like Daniel Caesar and BROCKHAMPTON’s Kevin Abstract. The quality of performers that Jazz & Grooves brings through the Rotunda’s doors is exceptional, and Omar Apollo is no different. This 21–year old Chicagoan has been making waves in the indie–pop genre by drawing on jazz, soul, and latin vibes. A true genre–blender, Omar Apollo's music has hints of (Sandy) Alex G’s lo–fi minimalism, The Internet’s modern soul, and the renowned latin pop of Pedro Infante and Vicente Fernandez.
(02/12/19 4:24am)
Since the dawn of tape decks, lovers have exchanged mixtapes as a sign of alternative intimacy. Cassettes, and later CDs, gave the music-sharing experience a physical form representing a desire to grow closer through the sharing of tastes.
