Jul 27 : "Theia"

New Video / Recently Released

One-half Philly Music!

A few weeks ago, "Mayu", a collaboration between musicians Tom Lugo and Gardy Perez, premiered a video of their song "Theia", whose audio version was originally released back at the beginning of the lockdown.

Here is some background from their web page:

Gardy Perez is the mastermind behind Puerto Rico's first dreampop/shoegaze band Un.Real. He was the lead guitarist for several instrumental bands in the Puerto Rico underground scene, like Defacto and Arnold Layne, and he continues to forge ahead with Un.Real and The Artificial Shadow Band. He is also an accomplished graphic design artist and co owner of 3 Robots Records.

Tom Lugo is a Philadelphia based Puerto Rican singer-songwriter who's projects include the post punk-indie rock band Stellarscope, electro indie pop project Panophonic, dream pop project Cielo Oceano, electro trap gaze project Under The Wire, and more. He is the owner of Patetico Recordings and the curator behind Popnoise Festival.

While I have not heard this particular duo live, I have gone to a lot of Tom's Stellarscope and Panophonic shows over the years, as well as to some of the larger Popnoise Festivals. (One of the most memorable was when he took over The Rotunda for a night).

Here is a click to the audio version of the song including the lyrics and links to other work by Patetico Recordings. Here is the link to Gardy Perez' 3 Robots Records ::: 3 Robots Records (CLICK HERE).

Jul 23 : "Recliner"

New Music / Video Just Released

A couple years ago New York musician and artist Sam Seeger started a project of making videos out of voicemails. He takes a portion of a voicemail audio message and creates a musical background and then an animation to create a video. "Nan" has been one of his subjects a couple times. And just this last Friday he's released another, but this under more somber circumstances.

Here is the click to Sam's Soundcloud page ::: Sam Seeger on Soundcloud (CLICK HERE).

Jul 17 : "Friday Night In Philadelphia"

Philly Music!

I think it was about the same time that I was going out to live shows for the first time (2005-2006) that Philly band "Peppers Ghost" was winding down. I did get to see them once in 2007 which I think was one of their last shows before they went on a "hiatus". It was at M Room.

One of their standards was "Friday Night in Philadelphia" which was the final song on their 2005 album "Shake the Hand That Shook the World". BTW on that big album, they were "Peppers Ghost", but on their next album a year later ("The VET EP"), they were "Pepper's Ghost". Websites didn't seem to combine the two, so you'd have to look up both separately.

They did go on a hiatus and came back for a reunion show at Grape Room in 2011. Here is a video of the band playing "Friday Night In Philadelphia" at that event. Unfortunately the video starts up without the first verse.

Fast forward to 2015, and Robbie Bennett, an alumnus of Peppers Ghost, came out with a solo version of the song, this time a video in the song's entirety. Without the full band and party vibe of the shows, darker aspects of the lyrics come through.

I normally write about current music, but this week was a short diversion into Philly's past. :)

Jul 13 : Hot Summer

Philly Music!

DRONEPUNK & SHOEGAZE

When I saw the weather report for this week and saw that we were going to have another week of another heat wave, that brought back to mind the title, "Hot Summer", by Philly band Jackie Paper. "Hot Summer" is one of my favorite titles of the band.

I had never heard the band's music until one night I saw them do a show when they were on the bill with another band I had gone to see. It was just a minute or two into their first song when I realized I was falling in love with their chord progressions.

Jackie Paper did a couple versions of this song, one in approx 2009 and another in approx 2013. This is the later one. The band did a number of instrumentals in their earlier years, and the 2009 version was part of that block. Veering off not too far from an instrumental itself this song is an excellent example of living up to the band's self-description as dronepunk, shoegaze, or psychpunk. True to shoegaze stylings, the vocals in the 2009 version were not out front but were a minor player. In the 2013 version the vocals seem to be pushed even farther into the background.

pic from Jackie Paper's Facebook page

That first night that I saw Jackie Paper was at the "Comly Haus Basement Sound Laboratory", which was a musicians and artists' commune in Northeast Philly. There was a full lineup of five acts. The residents moved stuff around to reconfigure a bedroom into a showroom on concert nights. I would go on to see Jackie Paper at a number of locations all over Philly including their own diy house venue, "Hong Kong Garden".

Here's some dronepunk for a hot day.

jackie paper · 02 Hot Summer

Jackie Paper as we knew it has disappeared and is re-inventing itself as a new outfit "Dead Heir", but, in the meantime, here is a click to Jackie Paper's Soundcloud page where you can find an eclectic sampling of work they did over the years. ::: Jackie Paper on Soundcloud (CLICK HERE).

LOOKING FOR MUSICIANS! ... Joshua Dowell, mastermind of Jackie Paper, says on Dead Heir's page that he's looking for musicians to join him in this new venture. Here is the click to Dead Heir looking for musicians (CLICK HERE).

pic from Jackie Paper's Facebook page

Jul 01 : "Filing Cabinet" - 185668232 (East Williamsburg)

News
185668232 Releases New Video

BACK TO WORK

As we ease out of covid-19 restrictions and head back to work, it might be helpful to have a refresher in office life and routines. Here, Brooklyn noise artist 185668232 steps up to the plate in his new video, "Filing Cabinet". He starts off with the simple sound of a file drawer being closed, then gradually takes that sound, plays with it, and builds it into a rhythm base, and then through the rest of the piece, gradually brings in instrumentals.

He comments: 185668232 live stream samples and mangles the sounds of a filing cabinet, into a post-apocalyptic office dance beat!

For full effect play this for the full hour even if you have it going in the background.

To visit 185668232 on line, here is the click ::: 185668232 web page (CLICK HERE).