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Music
Editor's Note: Please welcome City Paper food editor Caroline Russock to the world of music criticism. Don't worry, she's only going to be commenting on the potable aspects of shows around Philly.
Okay, so Kung Fu Necktie has a $4 Citywide featuring 16 ounces of Pabst and a generous shot of Heaven Hill. I had a few, they were fine. Review over, right?
Eh, not really. So Mac DeMarco has been a long time coming to Philly and last night's show was pretty much perfect. He was growly and wonderful, equal parts crooner and cool rock and roll with just the right amount of stand-up calibre band banter. "Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans" plus "Rock and Roll Night Club," "Freaking Out the Neighborhood" rounded out with a cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" transitioning to a sweet rendition of "Still Together" that lead to a few pretty hilarious KFN pickup attempts. Solid set and afterwards MDM asked the crowd for afterhours Philly suggestions (El Bar, obviously) earning him the title of the most party dude on Captured Tracks.
View galleryYou know those parties that feel totally perfect? The ones where everybody gets to dance to music they love, and it keeps you moving without wearing you out? Where rock and electronica sit side by side without anybody batting an eyelash because something’s too jarring or out of place? Where people keep themselves in check so well that you don’t have to clean up blood or haul buckets of vomit out the window?
Some of the best shows have that effortless atmosphere of fun and intimacy too, like Friday’s Isaac Delusion show at North Star Bar.
Tonight’s show at North Star Bar is a trip through a reverb-drenched sonic forest. The Downtown Club, a Philly-based trio rooted in British post-punk like Gang of Four and Public Image Ltd., will get you moving early on. Metronomic drumlines and gritty picked bass lock in tandem with singer April Harkanson’s vocals, alternating between hushed utterances and anguished belting, sitting on top of the whole mix. Stay for Cruiser, the project of local musician Andy States, and their jangly and timeless take on dream pop. Their latest EP (produced by Jeremy Park, who also produced Youth Lagoon’s The Year of Hibernation) features jangly guitars and States’s baritone moving in and out of melodic soundscapes as beautiful as they are catchy. Paris duo Isaac Delusion closes the night with party-ready synth-driven music combining hip-hop beats with light-footed vocals that’ll have you leave the venue with a smile on your face. Of course, be sure to bring your dancing shoes, as silly as they may look at whatever gallery you’re hitting up right before, because this line-up begs it of you.
Fri., March 1, 9 p.m., $8-$10, North Star Bar, 2639 Poplar St., 215-787-0488, northstarbar.com.
John really brings it on this White Stripes cover. More on John & Brittany here. Also, check out one of their originals, "Zzzoloft" here.
In the dozen years since they first emerged as a brooding, expansive, 10-piece symphonics-plus-electronics post-rock ensemble, Copenhagen’s Efterklang have slowly undergone a curious evolution, contracting in size and sound enough to resemble a more pedestrian atmospheric indie-rock band, but without fully losing the evocative majesty that earned them those early Sigur Rós comparisons. While last year’s Piramida (4AD) still boasted a robust roster of contributors (including the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra and the South Denmark Girls Choir), they’re officially down to a trio, with vocalist Casper Clausen’s burnished croon (a less melodramatic echo of Tindersticks frontman Stuart Staples’ eternal baritone) now forming the clear focal point to their compositions. And despite taking inspiration (and field recorded ambience) from a visit to the Arctic Circle ghost town that provided the album’s title, these compact, sound-stuffed fantasias tend to evoke wistful domestic tranquility rather than your typical resplendent Nordic mountainscapes. Call it Danish Modern chamber pop; in this case, it feels like it could actually fit inside a chamber.
Wed., Feb. 27, 9:15 p.m., $12-$14, with Jherek Bishoff, Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave., 215-739-9684, johnnybrendas.com.
There are many reasons for EDM’s popularity, some musical, some attributable to assorted cults of personalities. No matter who came before or after, one of the genre’s most consistently prominent faces (or at least its hands) is Tiësto. The Netherlands-raised DJ/producer won acclaim first in the mid-’90s for doing impossibly lengthy trance sets. Before settling into the 21st century, he experimented with commercial sounds and vocalists as diverse as Sarah McLachlan and Ferry Corsten, released his first artist-solo album, In My Memory, and recorded the electronic heartbeat that became the 2004 Olympic Games’ soundtrack. Since then, Tiësto has launched a successful series of mixed CDs — Club Life — and made DJ residencies at hotel casinos de rigueur for dance music top’s names.
Sat., Feb. 23, 7 p.m., $30-$49, Liacouras Center, Temple University, 1776 N. Broad St., 800-298-4200, liacourascenter.com.
A quick primer:
- “Emo” isn’t really a bad word, despite what the last 10 years of Fueled By Ramen and Fearless Records rosters have led many to believe.
- A lot of young bands in the Midwest and East Coast have been turning heads with fresh takes on the ’90s emo subgenre. Call it a comeback, maybe. I’m not sure yet.
- Doylestown’s Balance and Composure doesn’t exactly fall in line with their peers sonically, but their broad amalgamation of influences from the past two decades secures them as one of the more fascinating among said bands.
Thursday night’s show at Union Transfer, a homecoming for the five-piece, was also their largest headlining date in Philadelphia. Nearing the end of an almost month long tour with support from The Jealous Sound and Daylight, B&C came off as understandably battered. “I’m a little under the weather tonight,” vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons confessed to the nearly sold out venue a third of the way through their set. It didn’t show at first, as the band tore apart tracks from 2011’s Separation, their split with Scranton-ites Tigers Jaw, and their Only Boundaries EP. They also snuck in a new song from an upcoming split with Braid.
Balance and Composure’s sound is an exercise in control and release, evidenced through their set in songs like “Burden,” “Show Your Face,” and “Quake.” It’s super heavy stuff except when it’s not, with songs often turning on a dime into shoegaze and post-rock territories (see: “Stonehands”). The lava lamp-esque projection behind the band was a nice touch that added to their ‘lock-yourself-in-your-bedroom’ aesthetic.
While Simmons’ performance and Jeff Mangum-reminiscent voice not so slowly depreciated through the night, the rest of the band managed to hold it all together. Drummer Bailey Van Ellis —whom my friend Julie kept reminding me between songs, was “really good” —adds a tribal fervor to Balance and Composure that translates strongly live.
But, man, poor Simmons. He was really toughing it out towards the end, even tagging in a couple friends for mic duties during parts of “Patience” and the incendiary closer “I Tore You Apart In My Head.” His best vocal delivery, however, came midway through the show, in a line from the pensive “Echo” that sums up the band’s pathos and lyrical nudity: “And I’ve been great these last few days / But, oh my God, who gives a shit anyways?”
Bob Merz — the guy who saw to it that Philly's adopted gospel-blues-rock saint Sister Rosetta Tharpe finally got a gravestone at Northwood Cemetery — tipped me off to tonight's special on Tharpe on PBS. Tharpe was the total package: booming soul voice, killer guitar skills, charisma for miles. In short: She's somebody everybody aroud here should know about. Here's the press release for tonight's show. Set your DVRs.
Watch Trailer: The Godmother of Rock & Roll on PBS. See more from American Masters.
It's also online, because we're not insane. Here's what's in it:
Moosh and Twist can’t be shut down! A young hip-hop duo is earning some rabid (and drunk) fans.
Tom Keifer rocks a new Cinderella story! And damn if he doesn't look like Alan Rickman these days.
Anthony Tidd is on a mission! The Kimmel's resident saxman has worked with The Roots, Pink and Macy Gray.
Gillian Grassie follows her harp! And it's leading her all over the place.
PLUS: Sgt. Sass divides and conquers! They're here, they're putting out solo shit, get used to it. This isn't technically in the Music Issue package, but who cares?
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