Wake Up! sounds like a match made in heaven: alumnus crooner John Legend got together with Philly favorite The Roots for a politically driven covers album.
Every issue, we’ll be giving an in-depth look at a different Philadelphia music venue. This week, we start with one of the city’s most iconic: The Electric Factory.
Philadelphians are a group prone to repurposing: they’ve successfully recast a simple meat sandwich as a nationally renowned icon (cheesesteaks); made existing near one of the world's biggest cities as a cause for celebration (being 90 miles from NYC) and turned a handful of otherwise grungy city blocks into one of the nation’s most beautiful college campuses (your future alma mater). So it makes sense that one of the city’s most beloved (and well-known) musical venues is The Electric Factory, which used to be, well, an electric factory.
Rockers stay moody on self-titled album
Paul Banks has the second most ominous voice in indie rock today (Tom Smith of Editors takes first prize). While Interpol has surely crafted valuable tracks in the past the part of them that is most singularly Interpol is Banks’s cavernous, almost nefarious bellow.
On their latest LP, indie rock veterans get lost in the details.
As coy and ironic as the modern indie landscape may be, The Walkmen have always aimed for the gut of both their fan base and their steady, shifting musical output.
We know that by now, summer seems like a sad, distant memory. As you struggle to get into the school grind, take a look back at some of summer’s happenings in music both in Philly and beyond.
Netherfriends is Shawn Rosenblatt, a 23-year-old Chicagoan-via-Suburban Philadelphia who produces buoyant psychedelic pop that ranges from frustrated to ecstatic in tone.
Born out of a bedroom psych-folk project by singer-guitarist Luke Temple, Here We Go Magic has bloomed into a buzzworthy indie rock act with two albums under its belt.
CHICAGO —
Over the past several years, the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago’s Union Park has valiantly worked to separate itself from the usual crop of summer festivals, attracting attendees with an ear for interesting bands and a yearning for more comfortable, personal concert experiences.
The sound that dominates today’s dance floor is a heady mixture of R&B and techno, whose building beats and naughty lyrics are best characterized by the likes of Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Ke$ha, the new divas of nightlife.