Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Being assigned to cover the Die Antwoord show at the Electric Factory last night meant boning up on Zef culture (pun intended), which is all about looking extravagant while being poor. Zef is the South Africa version of ‘ghetto fabulous’ meets white trash. All of which dovetails nicely with Die Antwoord’s mission— embracing the oddities of humankind, casting aside all negative associations with obscenity and horror, and telling censorship to go fuck itself. Hard. Waiting in the photo pit at the lip of the stage for the band to arrive, I began to worry that […]

Photo by DAN LONG It was easy to fade into the ether last night. Between the langorous doom-riddled sludge of Windhand and the colossal cannabinoidal metallurgy of Sleep, one could get seriously lost in the shear density of each performance, not to mention all the sonic ooze lathering the venue much to the absolute delight of the sold out crowd at Union Transfer. Bodies were flung, necks were tested, weed was incinerated and any unplugged ears, I’m certain, were rendered inoperable within the first few minutes of Sleep’s set. Following a series of recorded NASA transmissions which aired as the […]

Photos by PETE TROSHAK One of the must-see musical events of summer is radio station WXPN’s annual XPoNential Music Festival, which features alternating sets on two outdoor stages at Wiggins Park during the day and a main stage show at night at Susquehanna Bank Center adding up to 12 hours of non-stop music each day. This year’s edition carried on the tradition of an eclectic mix of music featuring less heralded but worthy acts and more famous acts like this year’s headliners Ryan Adams and Beck. Philly based Strand of Oaks set the bar high early on Saturday for the […]

Nick Cave, Mann Music Center, 9:01 pm Friday by DAN LONG DAN DELUCA: Way back in the 1980s and 1990s, when the Australian punk-goth songwriter Cave was in the early stages of what has become a legendary career, I was a Nick Cave skeptic. Sure, I was attuned to the sheer force of the music he made with The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds, with its combustive mixture of gospel, blues, and early rock and roll influences, and the way his sound was shot through with intermingling gangsta-outlaw and Biblical imagery. But it all seemed a too humorless and […]

Ryan Adams, XPoNential Fest, 9:31 pm last night by PETE TROSHAK Tune in tomorrow for complete XPoNential Fest coverage.

Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Arriving at the spooky little dimly-lit venue that is Johnny Brenda’s last night, I definitely felt like I was in the right place to hear Avey Tare’s Slasher Flick’s play a set. I got there around the time doors opened, which is basically when the major dweebs with too much free time arrive for these affairs. It was pretty empty except for a few other people, so I had time to check the place out. The mini-skeletons hanging along the bar provoked the kleptomaniac in me, while the broken photo booth in the back left […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK In the mid-1990s, Veruca Salt released two well-received albums of post-Breeders girlie grunge-pop before a 1998 cat fight between co-lead singers/guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post [pictured, above] caused Gordon to abandon ship and the original lineup to dissolve. Post recruited new members and carried on under the Veruca Salt banner, releasing a few albums that failed to capture original lineup’s magic while Gordon embarked on a solo career that included one successful album and undoubtedly the greatest N.W.A. cover ever. Ten plus years later, Post and Gordon reconnected via email and buried their hatchets, paving […]

Photo by NOAH SILVESTRY I have seen Cheers Elephant do their thing on stage twice now, and I can say for sure that these Philly natives bring more fun and light to a roomful of people than any other band I’ve seen in my 17 years on Earth. Their relocation to L.A. was nothing short of a tragedy to their Philly fan base. It was with a heavy heart that I wrote the following about their “Farewell For Now, Philadelphia” show back in November of 2013: Between [frontman Derek] Kryzwicki bouncing around and doing the running-man and drummer Robert Kingsly, […]

Photos by PETE TROSHAK The Roots hosted their 7th annual picnic at Festival Pier on Saturday and, like the band itself, The Roots Picnic brand has aged like fine wine, with this year’s edition maybe being the best ever. The 2014 edition featured a series of incredible performances including a star-making turn by one rookie rapper and a must-see collaboration between hosts The Roots and one of the most successful and iconic singers in hip-hop’s illustrious history, Snoop Dogg. Early arrivers were treated to a fun performance by Roman Gianarthur, who delivered a Prince-like set of funk, some amazing guitar […]