Photo by PETE TROSHAK Juliana Hatfield and Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws brought their collaborative acoustic project, Minor Alps, to Philly for an eminently entertaining show at World Café Live Friday night. The duo is touring in support of their excellent and critically well-received debut album Get There, which successfully blends ’90s alt-rock with Everly Brothers style harmonies. They took the stage armed with just their acoustic guitars and a small mellotron-style keyboard that Hatfield occasionally jammed on. This duo doesn’t need extra equipment, their magic is in how perfectly Caws and Hatfield’s voices mesh. Live and on record, Caws’ strong […]

Photo by LUZ GALLARDO Not sure how Mazzy Star wound up being one of those band’s that releases a new album with the regularity of a Haley’s Comet flyover, but as a long time fan of all things Mazzy Star-connected (Rain Parade, Dream Syndicate, Clay Allison, Opal) I’ll not look a gift horse in the mouth. It’s kind of like you’re cool stoner older brother who went to Paris to become a painter and disappeared into the sweet oblivion of heroin for 17 years suddenly showing up for Thanksgiving unannounced. Nobody asks too many questions, we’re just glad he’s here. […]

Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ When Sleigh Bells took the stage last night at Union Transfer, I got the feeling that some serious ass-kicking was about to take place. A military-style drum line track introduced the four-piece band as they took their places accordingly, building up anticipation for the arrival of frontwoman Alexis Krauss. Emerging onstage dressed in a flashy, silk cheetah-print boxing robe with the words “Bitter Rival” across the back, Krauss made it seem as if the show was merely a pit-stop after a run up the steps of the Art Museum with Rocky Balboa. She made it […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK A packed house witnessed an impressive double bill on Friday night in Camden. Metric came first, performing a short laser focused set of their best. Emily Haines alternated between jamming away at a bank of synthesizers and stomping around the stage wailing into a gold mic as the band delivered eight of their best songs. Highlights were a beautiful, ethereal “Breathing Underwater” and a stadium rocking “Gold Guns Girls.” Next came Paramore who are touring in support of their critically and commercially successful self-titled album produced by bad-ass bass player/Beck collaborator Justin Meldal-Johnsen. The band were […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK In 2011 British singer Kate Nash was dropped by her record label. She then started her own label and changed up her style, ditching her keyboard and melding her cheeky pop confections with a more aggressive almost punk-like musical style. If her impressive show last night at the Union Transfer is any indication, Nash made the right move. She took the stage wearing a white bass with the name of punk band FIDLAR scrawled on it, joined by an all-girl backing band of two guitarists and a drummer. Nash delivered some rumbling bass notes and the […]

Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ As a Black Lips newbie assigned to review this show, I thought I’d get a crash course to all things Black and Lips by attending the Wednesday night Ritz 5 screening of their Middle East tour documentary Kids Like You And Me. The film documents the bands 2012 tour of places rife with things Americans fear most: radical Islamist protests, the threat of terrorism, and perhaps most frightening of all, People Who Aren’t Americans. The noble purpose of the tour was to find common ground and connect with the youth of places like Egypt. What […]

Photos by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ As of this writing, Animal Collective is midway through a sold out two-night supercalifragilisticexpialidocious double-freak-out at Union Transfer. Last night, the band took the audience on a mind-melting supersonic trip that seemed to violate all the laws of the time and space, presenting something that was closer to quantum physics than cosmic indie-rock. The sold out crowd seemed well-prepped for the trip, some having donned lurid halloween costumes and consumed the requisite pharmaceuticals. Near the lip of the stage where I stood last night, the crowd gave the man in the long white nightgown and […]

Photo by MARY LYNN DOMINGUEZ Although Of Montreal’s new album Lousy With Sylvianbriar finds the Elephant 6 graduates getting back to basics — which is to be expected of any group after 17 years and 11 albums of sonic exploration — last night’s show at Union Transfer was anything but predictable. After taking the stage, frontman Kevin Barnes politely greeted his adoring audience with a raise of his hand. He wore an unsurprisingly flamboyant outfit that consisted of a loud, tailored two-piece suit covered in a pattern of yellow leopard and green tiger faces, as well as black leather boots. […]

Photo by STEVE GULLICK The first time I met Mark Lanegan was in the men’s room of the now-defunct Maxwell’s in Hoboken. Google reminds me that it was Novermber 4th 1989. Actually, ‘met’ is probably too strong a word for it. I was standing at the urinal, using it as God intended, when suddenly Lanegan burst through the door, ran up to the sink and proceeded to projectile vomit. Prolifically. Then he looked up in the mirror, wiped his mouth with the back of his had, turned on his heel, exited just as abruptly as he entered, and then climbed […]

Photos by DEREK BRAD Last night the Flaming Lips unveiled the more-awesome-than-you-could-possibly-imagine reboot of their stage show, which replaces the happy-happy-joy-joy bliss rallies they’ve been staging for the past decade. Gone are the balloons and blood and bubble-walking and the dancing Santa Clauses and the big hands that shoot lasers. In its place — well, fact is it defies words, you really had to be there — but calling it H.R. Giger meets Hanna-Barbera on the dark side of the moonhenge isn’t that far from accurate. Frizzy-brained frontman Wayne Coyne conducted the proceedings from high atop a lumpy mound-like perch […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK Last night, reggae legend and Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer Jimmy Cliff and his merry six piece band filled the Keswick Theatre in support of 2012’s aptly-titled Rebirth, his first proper album in more than a decade. Opening with “Bongo Man” and segueing into “Rivers Of Bablyon, Cliff and his band proceeded to deliver, a 23-song testament to his career sequenced in chronological order. With a newsboy cap pulled down over his eyes and his guitar slung upside down and left handed, Cliff appeared younger than his 65 years. He strutted and danced joyously like […]

Photo by PETE TROSHAK Neko Case and her magic band took the stage Wednesday night to the pinging sound of submarine sonar and launched into a shimmering “Where Did I Leave That Fire.” Behind them was a green backdrop of an underwater scene featuring electric eels and an assortment of pointy weapons aimed at the Fiona Apple-esque title of her new album, The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You.” Case wore a hoodie, jeans and a t-shirt and when she grabbed the mic she showed off recent forearm tattoos that […]