Oct 21 : "100K" - Sun Hat (Philly)

New Music / Freshly Written & Recently Posted (11 days ago)

Philly Music!

A few weeks ago I went to Kung Fu "Upstairs" and heard Philly band Sun Hat for the first time. They did a good show and have been working on an album, "Pet Shapes", which is due to be released on November 5! They've released one teaser, "100K", which is right here :::

Here is the click to their Bandcamp page, so you can hear the full album when it comes out in a couple weeks ::: Sun Hat on Bandcamp (click here). They'll be doing their album release show at Pharmacy on November 5. Here is the click to their Facebook page ::: Sun Hat on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

Oct 03 : "Better Rest" - Repelican (Philly - Baltimore)

Philly Music!

It's been a hectic month. I'm just catching up today writing about a great show I saw back on August 28. Yikes! It was my second time seeing Repelican, which is getting to be a favorite. Repelican did everything. And More!

Repelican is the solo effort of Philly (ex=Baltimore) artist, Jon Ehrens. His performances include a combination of live and pre=recorded elements. Some songs have vocals and guitar live with rhythm coming through as pre=recorded.

But don't believe the songs are too formulaic and set in their format. In reality, the music's styling as well as the show's format are all over the map. In fact, Jon said before the show started that a lot of it would be impromptu, he hadn't planned it out.

With Repelican shows, you absolutely don't know what to expect next. This dynamic was enhanced by the show's being at Ortlieb's, which has a low stage. About halfway through the show, Jon hopped off the stage while still singing and walked around, mingling with the audience as he sang. He did a couple songs mixed in with us and then returned back to the stage. Ortlieb's is a way better match for his shows than Johnny Brenda's where I saw him previously.

Repelican has several albums on its page, but I guess I'm obsessing over my favorite, the 2014 "Pall Mall Blues". From that album and towards the end, the ninth track, is "Better Rest". An interesting quality of this song is that the vocals are sort of half-spoken and half-sung :::

Repelican has been mounting a lot more music on line since the beginning of the year, including new work as well as albums previously released. Here is "I Don't Know What She Wants [And I Don't Wanna Care (But I Do)]" which is the last track on the 2008 album "Repelican Presents: Fuk You! It's The Revoltn Developments!" :::

The last track on "Pall Mall Blues" is "In the Mystery". I like the instrumentals on this :::

Repelican doesn't have any upcoming shows listed at the moment, but here is the click to the Facebook page where you can follow what's going on ::: Repelican on Facebook (CLICK HERE). And if you'd like to hear more music, here's the click to Bandcamp ::: Repelican on Bandcamp (CLICK HERE)

Aug 28 : Kyle & The Silkboys

I really liked the opener at Silk City on Wednesday and want to see them again, but this appears to be another band of "secret agents", where they don't have any website and they don't even have a Facebook page! The mystery was deepened when the powers that be had the show listings separately as "Kurt & The Silkboys" and "Kyle & The Silkboys". But no Facebook page for either. (I'm doing a duplicate writeup of this on an adjacent "Kurt & The Silkboys" posting, because I'm not sure which they are.)

I got to the venue a little late and was able to hear the last three songs the band did. I was impressed. Interesting covers, including a Beatles track. Nice instrumentals, well-defined and fairly crisp, but with some engaging fuzz around the edges. I'm going back and would recommend you check them out as well. However, with no Facebook or web presence, their whereabouts are for them to know and for us to guess!

Aug 28 : Kurt & The Silkboys

I really liked the opener at Silk City on Wednesday and want to see them again, but this appears to be another band of "secret agents", where they don't have any website and they don't even have a Facebook page! The mystery was deepened when the powers that be had the show listings separately as "Kurt & The Silkboys" and "Kyle & The Silkboys". But no Facebook page for either. (I'm doing a duplicate writeup of this on an adjacent "Kyle & The Silkboys" posting, because I'm not sure which they are.)

I got to the venue a little late and was able to hear the last three songs the band did. I was impressed. Interesting covers, including a Beatles track. Nice instrumentals, well-defined and fairly crisp, but with some engaging fuzz around the edges. I'm going back and would recommend you check them out as well. However, with no Facebook or web presence, their whereabouts are for them to know and for us to guess!

Aug 21 : "'Freak Scene' Live @ Arlene's Grocery" - Red Datsun (New York)

Off the charts! Tuesday night I saw New York punk rock outfit Red Datsun do a show at Pianos. This was my first time seeing them. On a scale from zero to ten their stage presence is somewhere around eleven. Front man and vocalist Dave Miller is a powerhouse who keeps the show fired up every minute the band is on stage.

Red Datsun has been around for about ten years. They've played mostly in Manhattan and at many famous as well as infamous spots. They have a loyal following; the show Tuesday night brought an enthusiastic crowd. And that crowd was introduced to some of the band's newest work.

So when it comes to the part where I tell you to go out and see this band, even though the band is busy writing, I don't have a lot of recent music to show you as samples. The band has some videos on You Tube, but they were recorded several years ago. As a sample below, I'm featuring "'Freak Scene' Live @ Arlene's Grocery". This was recorded at a show in 2011, almost five years ago, but, for a band that is ten years old, that could be considered the halfway point from its inception to where they've arrived today.

So what is the band like today compared to then? ... There have been changes. The sound of the instrumentals Tuesday night was more cohesive than what we see in the videos from years' back. And Miller's performance front center, while way more polished, still retains some nice over the top. :)

Here is "'Freak Scene' Live @ Arlene's Grocery" from "back then" :::

So if you want to have the real Red Datsun experience, you'll just have to go out and actually see them live! Here is the click to their Facebook page where you can find out about their next shows ::: Red Datsun on Facebook (CLICK HERE)