Swanning, “Sleep My Pretties” (Salinas Records) Cynthia Ann Schemmer might be best known for her involvement in Philadelphia indie-pop project RadiatorHospital, but it’s not her only extracurricular: She’s also an editor at She Shreds magazine, and singer and lead guitarist of the recently formed pop-punk project Swanning. “Sleep My Pretties,” from their forthcoming Drawing Down the Moon EP, presents some tough subject matter (Schemmer says it’s about grieving her deceased mother), but her impossibly buoyant vocals keep the sunny-sounding track afloat.
New project from Cynthia Schemmer, who has played guitar for Radiator Hospital, some of whose members also played on this recording. l’m looking forward to this Philadelphia group’s 12″ EP due in May of 2016 on great label Salinas Records.
Philadelphia bandSheer Mag blew my mind when I unintentionally heard their live set opening for Ex Hex back in April 2015. Led by ferocious front woman Christina Halladay, they are hands down one of the best up and coming rock bands on the scene right now. Get into their new single “Can’t Stop Fighting” and hope for more to come asap!
Sheer Mag’s appeal is best exhibited in a live setting, where Christina Halladay’s forceful wail is drives the palpable energy at the band’s live sets. Sonically, the band channels late-70s glam rock vibes with Thin Lizzy licks for loud and obnoxious—but not necessarily scuzzy—sound. Lyrically, it references the horror of the countless unsolved murders in the Mexican border city of Juarez, ground zero for the importation of drugs into the United States. Like the best rock and roll, it’ll make you move, then make you think.
Anomie is the solo moniker of Philadelphia, PA-based Rachel Browne, current Field Mouse vocalist/guitarist and forever alt-pop songstress. The four songs on Anomie’s self-titled EP, available February 10, 2015 (Father/Daughter Records) were written in California over the span of a week where Rachel escaped to think during a difficult time. What emerged was a time capsule for the experience — the music functioning as a therapeutic means to alleviate the heartache Rachel felt in the moment. An EP that bursts into sparkling life on the summery opening track ‘So Long’ then twists it’s way through the seasons to Winter over the remaining three tracks. Our original review stated this is easily accessible and fun and yeah, we’ll stick by that. Bonus points for Anomie being Rachel from the wonderful band Field Mouse.
released February 10, 2015
Guitars: Rachel Browne
Bass: Andrew Futral
Drums: Eric Slick
All songs written by Rachel Browne
great moody dream pop, you’ll be won over within seconds of the opening track. a great little gem of an ep! Favorite track: So Long.
Father/Daughter Records is already killing it this year. Earlier this week, Anomie. The name might sound unfamiliar, but it’s the solo moniker of Rachel Browne, who’s the vocalist and guitarist of dreamy pop band FieldMouse. Anomie shows Rachel going in a new direction, and it’s one that I already can’t get enough of.
“So Long” is the first of four tracks on Anomie’s EP, and it rips and roars like nothing Rachel’s done before. There’s a visible urgency to the song, like Rachel has something she needed to get off her chest RIGHT NOW. The following track follows suit until Rachel slows it down for the latter half of the album, exploring the range of emotions and feelings that come from heartache. The album officially comes out on February 10th
Will Lindsay (W.C. Lindsay, Steady Hands) and Sean Huber (Modern Baseball, Steady Hands) are the bright-eyed Philadelphia pop-punk outfit Vicky Speedboat. The duo’s debut EP Two Years No Basement is a cathartic explosion of rock n’ roll storytelling. This music swells with heart; The Hold Steady and Springsteen are obvious comparisons for their combo of bristling physicality and wistful yarns. Vicky Speedboat’s first EP showcases Lindsay’s and Huber’s musicality and talents for songcraft, but there’s more to it than that. Two YearsNo Basement is a document of their friendship and shared sensibilities: wanderlust, a taste for reflection (and for beer), and the desire for transformation.
Philadelphia’s DIY scene seems to be thriving at the moment, with an host of acts breaking through over the past 18-months. The latest from the area we’re excited about are Beach Slang. The post-punk outfit are preparing for the release of their debut album ‘The Things We Do To Find People Like Us’ next month.
Ahead of its release the band have shared online it’s latest cut, ‘Young & Alive’ – which sees the East Coast quartet bring to the table another brilliantly snarly, in you’re face punk number, plied with the ever-reverberating lyrics of “We are Young & Alive” – it isn’t a track you’ll want to forget in a hurry.
“Young & Alive” appears on our upcoming album, The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, out 10/30/15 on Polyvinyl Records (North America), Moorworks (Japan), Big Scary Monsters (UK & Europe) and Cooking Vinyl (Australia & New Zealand). Beach Slang are a three piece punk rock band from Philadelphia. Members also play in Weston, Crybaby and Ex-Friends. They have been described as sounding like “a one-night stand between The Psychedelic Furs and The Replacements”.
“Go truth or dare like brats tonight. It’s wild. Go shake your Cher. Go bake a dime. We are young and alive. Go bang the snares and amplifiers. It’s wild. Take down your hair. Wake up the night. We are young and alive. Go barely care with all your might. It’s wild. Go scare your skull. Bring it to life. We are young and alive. Go punch the air with things you write. It’s wild. We are awake with hearts to riot. We are young and alive.”
Beach Slang release their debut LP ’The Things We Do To Find People Like Us’ on October 30th via Polyvinyl Records. They will also be at the Bodega in Nottingham
”Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas”(from The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us)
”This song is for a friend who really needed to hear it. It’s strange how really brilliant some people can be and just never know it. I wanted to remind her. I don’t know,Stephen Merritt said this thing once about there only being two types of Music that matter – pop and avant garde. This was me listening to way too much Jesus & Mary Chain and having a go at writing a loud pop song. I think maybe I even got some of it right. Who knows?”
When we named Palm as a band to watch this year, I compared their music to fractals — unending sets of patterns that radiate out from a song’s basic structure to create limitless iterations of its initial sound. Trading Basics is as inventive and daring as a debut can be, somehow managing to syphon a small fragment of Palm’s often improvisational, mathy live shows into something cohesive and inviting for first-time listeners
Palm’s debut LP, Trading Basics, finds the Philly art-rockers just barely inching towards a pop center from a dense, instrumental wilderness. Odd, floating vocal bits now serve as rounded safety stoppers on their jutting, overlain guitar lines. Still, Palm lean in to their complications, sounding effortful but not labored, and never careful. It’s math-rock, more or less, but they run too hot for it to ever feel studious.
The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app ), released 30th October 2015. Beach Slang took off so quickly. With nothing but a pair of EPs under their belt, the scrappy Philadelphia three-piece was able to get themselves booked on festivals and tours alongside bands like Cursive, Knapsack, Modern Baseball, and The Hotelier, not to mention a label deal with indie stalwart Polyvinyl Records. But it’s not hard to crack the code of the Slang’s appeal. There is a timeless universality behind Beach Slang’s lyrics, one that celebrates the idea of being young and carefree (regardless of how old you actually are). Throw a dart at any of their insert sheets and you’ll no doubt nail a lyric about turning the stereo up, singing along with your best friends, and feeling alive.
Now, after a seemingly endless wait, Beach Slang are finally, finally ready to unleash The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us, their long-anticipated debut album. Though they’ve got a few new tricks in their arsenal, including additional guitarist Ruben Gallego, the album is more of the same, thematically, from the Slangers. The album’s first single, “Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas” is a pretty good example of where they’re at. It packs in their trademark hopeless romanticism and a lust for nostalgia over emotional vulnerability. “I’ve always felt stuck, alone, or ashamed!” James Alex sings with a hushed scream, before giving way to the “ah-ah-ahs!” and “ooo-oohs!” that you’ll no doubt be shouting back instantly.
So here it is, the first taste of one of the most anticipated records of the year. Let its chords dig into your brain. Turn your speakers up, and feel this song—the soundtrack for the angry, young, and wild.
The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us came out on October 30th from Polyvinyl. Catch Beach Slang on tour.
The Perfect Cast may not be treading any new ground — it’s six catchy punk songs from a band that has already proven over two albums that they’re great at constructing them — but it’s so relentless in its hook-filled approach that it’s impossible not to smile and nod along. Even when Modern Baseball deal with heavy topics like depression and anxiety and feeling like you’re not always all there, they do so with curiosity, verve, and breakneck lyricism. “Can you sing it with your friends, or alone?” they ask in a particularly bitter moment. The answer is both, and thank the Holy Ghost for that.
The Philly band’s new EP was merely supposed to be a surprise and now it’s become a decorated trailer for LP #3. Over six songs, Modern Baseball take on grey days (“…And Beyond”) and greyer weeks (“Infinity Exposed”), but it’s the way they deal with it all — cornering the heavy topics so they can be outfitted with hooks, verve, and a comforting sense of purpose
“You don’t know who you’re tangling with,” Christina Halladay belts on the closing track of her Philadelphia band’s second EP. “I’m a bad bitch if I please/ I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again/ I brought many a man to his knees.” Sheer Mag’s anti-authoritarian attitude bends around Halladay’s powerful voice and charisma; they’re a blown-out Alabama Shakes for the basement set, taking their cues from a lot of the same ’70s inspirations as their Southern contemporaries, but infusing their sound with a hefty dose of gasoline. They make anthems for a generation of punks who need an extra kick in the ass to pick up the fight: “You’ve got to fan the flames/ You’ve got to stand up and break the chains.” II is matter-of-factly threatening, a rousing and intoxicating rallying cry to carry on the cause.
Since we stumbled across Maine-to-Philly transplants Friendship earlier this year, we’ve been hooked. The band’s simmering, tempered take on meditative Americana struck a huge chord – Dan Wriggins’ emotive vocals and vivid lyrics about companionship and disconnection, Michael Cormier’s restrained drums, Peter Gill’s expressive pedal steel. Like I said in our feature profile of Friendship earlier this year, “it’s reminiscent of Pedro the Lion and Jason Molina, but also of Gram Parsons and George Jones.”
With that rich tapestry of influence, the band released its excellent debut LP “You’re Going to Have to Trust Me” in October on Burst and Bloom Records and embarked on a short fall tour with Abi Reimold. Back in town, they’re gearing up for a gig at West Philly’s All Night Diner on Monday, December 14th, and stopped by WXPN Studios to record a Key Sessions Set featuring highlights from the album as well as a couple surprises.
Alongside moving performances of “The New Normal,” “He Said ‘You Seemed So Much in Luv’” and the aching solo acoustic “EL,” they dug into their back catalog (aka the home-recorded YouTube-only EP The Further You Kick, The Bigger It Gets) for the simmering “Darla” and opened the set with a rousing new number called “Familiar.”
Dan Wriggins: vox and guitar
Peter Gill: pedal steel and guitar
Chalmers Hall: bass
Mike Cormier: drums and percussion
The Fat Angel Sings 