Jul 25 : "Loss Learning" - Instamatic (Philly)

New Music / Freshly Written & Recently Released (July 16)

Philly Music!

The way it looks I might not be getting out to any shows this week, so, in the meantime, here's whazzup.

Philly band "Instamatic" came out with an exciting new ep last week (July 16), titled "Things Went Black". Instamatic describes their music as "rumbles, glonks and metallic squinks. made in philly." True to their dark and dirty synth pop style, there are three good songs, one of which, "Loss Learning", is playing right here.

Instamatic doesn't do enough shows. They will, however, be DJing tomorrow night at the The Mann.

To visit Instamatic on Bandcamp, where you can find links to all their work, here is the click ::: Instamatic on Bandcamp (CLICK HERE)

Jul 21 : "Million Years" - Wild Yaks (Brooklyn)

PRIOR PLACEMENT

A big surprise when I went to Glasslands on Thursday night was the band Wild Yaks. They did a phenomenal show, playing some great rock and delivering it with high-powered excitement.

It was a "surprise" to me because, after listening to online samples of the various bands that were going to be playing that night, I couldn't even imagine from the little music that Wild Yaks has on line the huge impact that their live performance would actually deliver.

Wild Yaks is a four member band, with the lead vocalist leading the whole show with interludes of over-the-top commentary between songs as well as high-energy jumping around the stage with a couple times mikes flying off into the audience. Almost matching his drive was their drummer who was another dynamo himself.

And over to the right-hand side of the stage were two singer / guitarists standing together and singing backup in unison. This reminded me a lot of the placement of singers in early rock bands from the fifties or early sixties. While most bands have singer / guitarists that do harmonies or provide some extra backing as the songs progress, the fact that these two were standing by themselves, close together and sang their backups as a two-member team just brought to mind the placement of singers in early rock bands.

The music is loud and aggressive rock with interesting hooks and melodic lines and some great Garage stylings. The performance definitely comes across at times as rough or even crazy around the edges, even chaotic, but it's also a very smooth delivery with the backup boys punctuating just at all the right times. Rough around the edges, chaotic, and smooth. All at once. I don't know how they do it, but they do.

I loved their show; I think everyone else did as well. If you ever see one of their shows listed, MAKE PLANS IMMEDIATELY. You'll have a good time.

But, alas, what they have posted on line just doesn't do their live work justice. In prowling around the Internets, I can find nothing that's representative of what I heard Thursday night. But here's "Million Years", which is one of their samples :::

So keep an eye on their page for the next LIVE show that they have coming along. Right now they seem to have one show coming up on September 5th at The Grand Victory. Here's the click to their Facebook page ::: Wild Yaks (CLICK HERE)

Jul 18 : "Hot Summer (2009)" - Jackie Paper (Philly)

Philly Music!

On a day like today I just have to play this song. "Hot Summer" by Philly band "Jackie Paper" ::::

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6/27/20 UPDATE! ::: OOPS! Looks like the band removed this song from their webpage!

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To visit Jackie Paper, here is the click ::: Jackie Paper (CLICK HERE)

Jul 18 : Dockument (Philly)

Also playing the same night at Johnny Brenda's with Tygerstrype was (new) Philly band "Dockument", which features City Rain alum, Jarrett Zerrer, as vocalist. This was my first time seeing them.

Dockument is too new to have any sounds posted any place, so I don't have any samples to show you. However, I did enjoy their show and would recommend you keep an eye out for listings of future performances. Nice eclectic sound!

In the meantime, to visit Dockument on line, here is the click ::: Dockument (CLICK HERE)

Jul 10 : "Tygerstrype live on YNOT Radio" - Tygerstrype (Philly)

New Music / Freshly Written & Soon to be Released

Philly Music!

BATTLE OF THE ELECTRICS

The lines were drawn. The two sides were ready for battle. Up on the stage (a couple weeks ago) was Tygerstrype's (my friend) Alden Towler and Gabe Guerrero, and in the other corner of the room was the sound man of Johnny Brenda's trying to get this show going.

Tygerstrype had started to play and then abruptly stopped as the sound was not quite right.

Adjustments were made and Tygerstrype again started, only to stop again after a few bars.

This sequence repeated itself several times. Tygerstrype stood their ground. The sound system would not get up and running satisfactorily.

Reinforcements were called in. Over in the Johnny Brenda's sound corner of the room two more sound engineers were called in. They checked the console then went up on the stage.

Back and forth. Start and stop.

Finally, after quite a while, the sound was good enough for Tygerstrype to start for real.

It was great to see Tygerstrype on the JB stage. I had first seen Tygerstrype play at Kung Fu in August of 2011. At that point Tygerstrype was still a relatively new band in Philly. The band has made some big strides since then including being interviewed by YNOT Radio just a few weeks ago. The interview was about both Tygerstrype and the band's collaborating in "Magic Death Sounds", a collective of Philly musicians who are pushing the envelope of experimental music and sounds.

Here is the recording of that interview, done on June 19th :::

Some of the music played during the YNOT interview as well as the Johnny Brenda's show will be on Tygerstrype's new album ("We Learn to Love Our Chains") to be released later this Summer.

To visit Tygerstrype's Bandcamp page, here is the click ::: Tygerstrype (CLICK HERE)

To visit Magic Death Sounds, here is the click ::: Magic Death Sounds (CLICK HERE)