As you may have heard, a new music venue called Union Transfer will be opening at 1026 Spring Garden St. (in the former Spaghetti Warehouse building) come September. According to a press release, the venue will be a “big dramatic space with sweeping arches, stained glass, vintage chandeliers and […] the best and biggest PA/sound system in Philadelphia, plus parking for 200 cars and lock-up posts for more than 200 bicycles.” They just announced their fall line up, and it is quite impressive: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (9/21), Mogwai (9/29), Shellac (9/29), RJD2 (10/14), Wild Flag, Gillian Welch(10/20), Dum Dum Girls (10/23), Friendly Fires (10/25), St. Vincent (11/02), The Sea and Cake (11/09). MORE
RELATED: First, a bite of crow: in the interest of full disclosure, I must confess to being among the few critics that did not clap my hands or say ‘Yeah’ when CYHSY first blazed across the night sky of the blogosphere two years ago, leaving behind of phosphorous tail of spent Pitchfork hype and Brooklyn hipster cache. But it would seem that either they have changed or I have, or perhaps a little of both. Judging from CYHSY’s taut, expansive and altogether persuasive performance Friday night at the Starlight Ballroom, I must declare: After year non-stop on the road these guys have finally grown into their hype. [..] The band has a knack for writing intriguingly quaint yet thoroughly modern-sounding songs, which they invariably record in an artsy, but not necessarily inviting or entirely flattering manner. Friday night, the drums and bass were mixed as high as the rest of the instruments, giving the songs warmth and heft, not to mention mid-range and incessant motivation. And when those twinkling, hyper-strummed guitars meshed with that dreamy,pnuematic wheeze of New Wave synth, as on “In This Home On Ice” or “Foreign Land” or “She Smiles,” CYHSY could do no wrong. MORE