The Slackers
No it's not 1996 ! That's right we are doing another SKA show. Well sort of - The Slackers have always been like 8 years ahead of the curve, an amazing group of talented musicians who blend dub, ska, reggae, soul, swing, garage rock, and jazz (for over 10 years now) . By following their muses of the Skatalites, the Beatles, Bob Marley, Lee Perry, Bob Dylan, and Curtis Mayfield. The Slackers have created a niche all their own in contemporary music. We promise they blow every "indie" / "emo" or whatever kind of band out of the water. These dudes are the real deal. Haters : listen to the sound clips below ! Epitaph Records.

The Downgrades
Traditional ska/jazz band from Philly.
Sound Clips : Check Out The Downgrades' Myspace Page

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 advance / $14 day of show / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Auxes
Featuring three ex-members of MILEMARKER plus guys from : Fing Fang Foom, Bats & Mice and 800 other bands. New record on Lovitt Records.

Gods & Queens
Gods And Queens 3 piece band from Brooklyn/Philadelphia, who tried in vain to blatantly steal riffs and song patterns from some of their favorite bands, like Hoover, Rodan, The Telescopes, Angels Of Light, June Of 44, Lowercase, Spaceman 3 and the like...but failed on every attempt. Instead here are 7 songs that resemble nothing of who or what they were intended to be. Instead a few have said it sounds like a low rent super depressed version of Fugazi, and Quicksand with out the start stop timing, which Jamie is NOT happy about at all, in any sort of the word happiness. The lyrical content isn't nearly as good as Jawbreaker. That's what happens when you don't write any lyrics until 5 min, before you're supposed to record vocals for the songs. There is no target market audience for this record. There is no marketing plan for this record. There is no advertising budget for this record. There is no publicity for this record. No fancy name did the art work, just some kid Doug Foulke, some dude Jason LaFarge (are weapons, angels of light, devendra banhart) recorded it. The band will probably tour the US, and Europe a few times, and break up after two years. You'll be able to find this in the cut out bin real cheap in a few years, save your money and re-buy it at a later date. Robotic Empire

Algernon Cadwallader
"Peter is in 2 bands called Peter & Craig! and Velouria. He plays drum in both bands, but he plays bass and takes the main singer in Algernon. His talent of singing and playing bass is way much better than his talent as a drummer." -Toshi. Philly/Yardley

At Disgraceland
What We Do Is Secret Lane
(aka get in touch if you dont know)
All Ages / Donations For Traveling Bands Please

The Psychic Paramount
Have you experienced The Psychic Paramount yet? If you get the chance, see 'em live, they're pretty much the ultimate in ultra-heavy, This Heat/krautrock inspired, interestingly rhythmic instrumental post-rock... An intense, very controlled freakout is how we'd paradoxically put it. Plenty of jumbled sounds and scrambled chaos to disturb your placid listening, like we'd expect from these guys. It's pretty much the most beautiful white hot, black hole noise we had ever heard, a seriously jaw dropping blast of superdistorted, ultra complex, psychedelic prog rock freak out. No Quarter
Sound Clips :
1) Ecoh Air | 2) Para 5

Arbouretum
It's not surprising that Arbouretum sounds like Palace on overdrive, as Arbouretum's mastermind, David Huemann, is a veteran sessions musician for both of the Oldham brothers as well as Cass McCombs. In fact, Paul Oldham takes on production duties through this sort-of concept record based on the writings of Paul Bowles. But avoiding conventional song-structures for a more organic evolving approach of shambling tribal blues and rustic folk motifs plays to Heumann's strengths as a big picture songwriter steering clear of the first person confessional stance of Will Oldham's narratives. If you wish those Bonnie Prince Billy records had a more epic musical bite to them, then Arbourteum might just fill your prescription. Thril Jockey.
Sound Clips :
1) Sleep Of Shiloam | 2) Ghosts Of Here And There | 3) Underneath The Arches

Pontiak
A delicious Pink Floyd/Doors/Kyuss swerve. Dripping guitar dirge; drawn, mopey/apathetic vocals; an elephant's lumbering pace; a chorus that howls without lifting its head. It's actually kinda perfect ... It's like a goodbye peck on the cheek from an album that's spent the rest of time together shoving its tongue down your throat

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$10 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Silver Jews
RARE LIVE SHOW ! A beautiful mess of indie rock, country-rock and lo-fi with lyrics both witty and profound, the Silver Jews were formed in 1989 by writer/musician David Berman with his friends, guitarist/singer Stephen Malkmus and drummer Bob Nastanovich. The trio performed together as Ectoslavia when they studied at the University of Virginia; after graduation, they moved to New York and shared an apartment. Dubbing themselves the Silver Jews -- after the Silver Apples, the Silver Beatles, and slang for blonde-haired Jewish people -- they played noisy, often improvised songs, mostly for the sheer enjoyment they got out of playing together after a hard day's work. At the time, Berman and Malkmus were guards at an art museum and Nastanovich was a bus driver. After work, they would record songs into people's answering machines, but even after the band's sonics improved, the basic idea of friends playing together in a spontaneous way became the Silver Jews' trademark style. Before moving to New York but after finishing his studies, Malkmus founded Pavement with his childhood friend Scott Kannberg. As Pavement's acclaim and visibility grew, the notion arose that the Silver Jews were a "Pavement side-project," despite the fact that Berman's writing, singing, and guitar playing led the band's music. On the band's initial recordings, Berman tried to protect the Jews' individuality, listing Malkmus and Nastanovich under aliases, but it backfired when people learned who "Hazel Figurine" and "Bobby N." really were. The notion of the Jews as a side project was only reaffirmed when Nastanovich joined Pavement as a second drummer (to supplement the duties of Gary Young, their then-current, unpredictable drummer) before the release of the group's debut album, Slanted and Enchanted (which was named after a cartoon that Berman created). Steve West, another college friend, played drums for both bands, first for the Silver Jews on Dime Map of the Reef, and on all of Pavement's releases after Watery, Domestic. However, the Jews' sometimes frustrating "Pavement connection" did bring some important attention to the band: Dan Koretsky, founder of the Chicago-based indie label Drag City, met Berman at a Pavement show. When he heard of the Jews' tapes, Koretsky offered to release them. On their first EPs for the label, 1990's Dime Map of the Reef and 1993's The Arizona Record, the band held to their ultra lo-fi aesthetic and recorded the majority of both on a walkman. Berman has continued to release six albums and for the first time over two years ago, The Jews played Philadelphia - though he is a reluctant live performer as a musician, Berman occasionally does readings of his short stories, poems in both the U.S. and the U.K. and will be returning to The First Unitarian Church and we are excited!

Monotonix
Dissatisfied with the state of the music scene in their hometown of Tel Aviv, the Israeli trio Monotonix formed in November of 2005 with the mission of redefining the rock show. They channeled riff heavy influences like Led Zeppelin, the Sonics, and Thin Lizzy to create raw, driving rock & roll. Shortly after forming, they would accomplish their mission in Tel Aviv, defying the expectations of what a rock show should be there. They would set up on the floor among the crowd and proceed to turn every performance into a wild party, wild enough that more often then not they would find the power getting shut off on them or the police called to break up the show. Eventually finding themselves banned from most of the venues in Tel Aviv, the band decided to leave Israel so they could tour the United States and Europe. From 2006 to 2007, Monotonix played over 300 shows around the world. These tours furthered their reputation as a band whose shows are not watched, but experienced. Monotonix have become known for setting themselves and their equipment on fire, stealing drinks from audience members to pour on themselves, and generally turning their shows into unabashed, frenzied dance parties. Drag City.
Sound Clips :
1) Summers & Autumns | 2) Lowest Dive

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 advance / $14 day of show / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

The Wombats
Touted as "The Next Arctic Monekys". Humorous pop-punk bands are a mainstay of many large towns, so it takes something more for one to break into the mainstream. Enter the Wombats, a three-man cross between Art Brut's Wire-like fractured art-punk and Half Man Half Biscuit's wicked Liverpudlian humor. Not only are the Wombats fellow Scousers, they have a tangential Beatles connection: singer and guitarist Matthew "Murph" Murphy and drummer Dan Haggis formed the Wombats in 2003 when they were students at the Paul McCartney-founded Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts. After drafting in bassist Tord Overland Knudsen (unsurprisingly, not a native of Liverpool, but a Norwegian student also attending the LIPA), the members of the new trio chose their name at random on the day of their first gig. Though early shows were as much alcohol-fueled Dada-esque performance art as anything else (the three members dressed in jester's outfits and sang songs with titles like "Ode to Charles the Goat"), the trio quickly progressed into a spiky blend of danceable indie rock, Murph's sardonic lyrics, and high-energy pop hooks. They have had a handful of several top 20 singles and their latest album cracked the top 10. NME Hype machine........begin!
Sound Clips :
1) The Director | 2) Let's Dance To Joy Division | 3) Moving To New York

Spring Tigers
Spring Tigers is a pop rock/electro band from Athens, GA. The band is fronted by Kris Barratt, formerly of The Capes.
Sound Clips : Check Out Spring Tiger's Myspace Page

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$10 advance / $12 day of show / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Super last minute top secret show! Debting a bunch of new material from their upcoming album (which is currently being recorded here in Philadelphia)

Wild Light
Featuring an old ex-member of The Arcade Fire. They opened up for them on their past US and European tours. Musically, Wild Light are probably most often compared to their friends Arcade Fire, but with an abundance of keys, reverb-drenched guitars and tambourine, their music actually has more in common with Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs. The lyrics are bittersweet stories about the pain of learning through experience, sprinkled with enough cerebral turns of phrase to keep lyrical-minded listeners thoroughly engrossed

At The Barbary
951 Frankford Ave (At Frankford and Columbus Blvd)
Philadelphia, PA
$15 / 21+ (sorry!)
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY STARTING ON MONDAY 9/8 At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Why?
A folk-pop, indie-hop, sometimes-mustachioed, psych-rock quartet fronted by Yoni Wolf, former member of cLOUDDEAD and Reaching Quiet as well as collaborator with Hood, Fog, DJ Krush, Boom Bip, Sole, Dept. of Eagles, and 13+God. Why? released a mega superstar awesome album back in 2005. When it first came out we would playing an advance of it in Spaceboy and literally every single customer would come up to the counter - asked what it was was and then asked if they could purchase it. And it makes sense they would ask, as artists such as Boards of Canada, Mum, Tv On The Radio Stereolab, Danielson Famile, The Notwist and Mogwai have been singing their praises for his recorded output lately. Yo La Tengo took him out on a full U.S. tour . Yoni writes and sings mainly, but he’s also known to dance, play any instrument he can get his hands on (piano, keyboard, guitar, bass, drums, harmonica), sample, and occasionally beat his chest like a gorilla. Doug is the utility man, maneuvering such heavy machinery as pianos, guitars, samplers and turntables. Josiah plays drums, teaches drums to little kids, eats drums for breakfast, and sleeps drums at night. Driven by brotherly competition, he also plays anything that Yoni plays. Matt sticks to his guitars. Their latest record is AWESOME. We love this band! Anticon Records
Sound Clips :
1) The Hollows | 2) The Vowels Pt.2 | 3) Song Of The Sad Assasin | 4) Crushed Bones | 5) Rubber Traits

Mount Eerie
A hodge-podge of tape-loop trickery, stereo panning, super fuzz bass, radio signals, acoustic pluckings, clamoring drums, tympani, xylophone, organ, distorted piano, keyboards and noise that aims for the lo-fi jugular. Delicate pop songcraft, emo-blown yearning, and white-hot rockers, loaded with hooks, harmonies, well thought (and placed) lyrics, and imagination galore. K Records.

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Laura Marling
Just nominated for a Mercury Prize! Singer/songwriter Laura Marling was only 16 years old when she emerged on the British indie scene in 2007 thanks to a handful of infectious singles made available on her MySpace profile. Endowed with a husky voice, an acoustic guitar, and a gift for building quirky, hooky folk songs (characteristics that would have the artist compared favorably to artists like Lily Allen, Regina Spektor, and Martha Wainwright), Marling quickly made a name for herself throughout England thanks to a heavy touring schedule and a few high-profile gigs, not the least of which included an appearance at the 2006 City Showcase: Spotlight London and as the opening act for Jamie T. Still without a label one year later, her debut EP, My Manic and I, was nonetheless slated for independent release in the late fall of 2007. This status didn't last for long however, because in early 2008, signed to Virgin
Sound Clips :
1) Night Terrro | 2) Ghosts | 3) My Manic And I

Johnny Flynn
Actor, poet, songwriter, and musician Johnny Flynn was initially a member of British folk group the Sussex Wit before moving up to become the group's frontman. As would befit someone with such a varied artistic background, Flynn cites both W.B. Yeats and Shakespeare as influences, as well as musicians such as John Fahey, Vaughan Williams, and Langhorne Slim. Flynn's debut album, A Larum (recorded with the Sussex Wit but credited with his name), was released on Vertigo Records in the U.K. and Lost Highway in America in 2008.
Sound Clips : Check Out Johnny Flynn's Myspace Page

At The First Unitarian Church's Chapel
Small Intimate Seated Space That Only Holds 50 People !
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$10 advance / $12 day of show / All Ages
Online Tickets SOLD OUT (That means there are no more tickes available online)
The only remaining tickets are CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
They can not hold / reserve tickets for you. First come - first serve !

Sunset Rubdown
Featuring Spencer Krug (singer/keyboard player) from Wolf Parade. It could be described as a side project since Spencer sings and plays keyboards in Sub Pop’s Wolf Parade and also performed on Frog Eyes debut "The Bloody Hand". More accurately it is an experimental creative outlet - with sparse, echo-dipped ballads for this truly unique artist. Over the course of just one year, Sunset Rubdown has progressed from Snake's Got a Leg's rickety and insular lo-fi basement tape sound to a fuller-bodied EP to this exceedingly well-dressed, multi-hued glam pop. Now operating as a full band (here, a quartet), Sunset Rubdown more closely resemble Wolf Parade but still maintain the rougher ragtag sound of their previous recordings. And now that Krug has followed some of the best material on Apologies with this elegant wallop, he's looking increasingly like an important songwriter rather than just another flavor-of-the-month. This is really some awesome shit man ! Absolutely Kosher Records.

One More TBA

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Death Vessel
Their soon to be released album could be a contender for 2008's best album! Death Vessel sound like they're probably a Swedish black metal group, but in fact, their debut album is a charming exercise in country-ish folk-rock led by singer/songwriter Joel Thibodeau. There is no insult or judgment implied by this statement, but it must be said: Thibodeau sings like a girl. Seriously, anyone approaching this album without foreknowledge would simply assume that Death Vessel had a female lead singer with a voice along the lines of Gillian Welch or Tift Merritt. Thibodeau's twangy vocal style is the band's most immediately appealing element, followed by the easygoing lope of the band's arrangements, built mostly on acoustic instruments but with none of the straining for folk or country "authenticity" that hampers many similar albums. Sub Pop.
Sound Clips :
1) Brunos Torso | 3) Deep In The Horchata

Micah Blue Smaldone
Micah sources his vaudeville blues in a tradition that predates even the American mystery schools favoured by Jack Rose, crossing early folk forms with ragtime and minstrel stylings and a macabre showtune aspect which brings to mind the work of Dame Darcy, Tiny Tim and Josephine Foster. Tequila Sunrise.
Sound Clips : Check Out Micah Blue's Myspace Page

Peasant
Damien DeRose, from Doylestown, PA, arrives with the humility of one of the working class. Performing under the name of Peasant, DeRose seems to exemplify the simplicity of musical creation in light of dark times. With an ostensibly perfect set of circumstances to fuel the flames of his own artistic revolt, Peasant is the ideal songwriter to resemble the struggle.
Sound Clips : Check Out Pesant's Myspace Page

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$10 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Mogwai
Fucking Yesssssssssssss! Shit Yeah! I kid you not we have been trying to book MOGWAI since 1998 and finally got the chance last year. When it was all said and done - they enjoyed our "punky" approach to shows and decided to come back to the Starlight. I love smart bands who are cool! The last show was one of the most memorable R5 events ever, they absolutely destroyed The Ballroom and put everyone on their ass. For those not in the know Mogwai basically reinvented indie rock / post rock with their seminal Young Team record. On Young Team, Mogwai took the loud/quiet dynamics of Slint and added a My Bloody Valentine wall of guitars and the results were nothing short of breathtaking. Millions of bands who were already trying to sound like Slint now had a new, even less attainable goal. The later era stuff is more meandering, filled with tension and emotion, that slowly dissipates as the songs wind down and run their course. Shimmery and shuffling and summery and hypnotic. Sinister, but only slightly so. Smoky and loping, propulsive but only lazily so. There is an urgency, but it is displayed in Mogwai's restraint now, instead of the more obvious bombast of their early years. Galaxie 500 is the band that comes to mind most, especially when there are vocals, heavily reverbed, over ultra simple guitar lines, achingly plaintive lyrics, and simple spare rhythms. Codeine and Slint are other obvious comparisons. As is Godspeed (with all the random samples). Lugubrious and glacial, lazy and hazy, the perfect wandering the streets on a sweltering summer night music, or driving aimlessly sad and confused music, all minor key and melancholy but with a weird sort of hopefulness under the surface. Mogwai are bringing a ton of production with them. DONT SLEEP ON THIS SHOW !
Sound Clips :
1) Travel Is Dangerous | 2) Fear Satan | 3) Friend Of The Night | 4) Helicon 1 | 5) Acid Food | 6) Like Herod

Fuck Buttons
Best New Music! The Bristol-based experimental duo of Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power contrast blissed-out melodies, nu-trance heartbeats, and heavenly ambient loops with construction-crew guitar noise and throaty, indecipherable growls. They don't do much fancier than start quiet, add elements, and eventually get louder (a lot louder). But their ethereal, billowing sound-- an ecstatic hybrid of Wolf Eyes' or Prurient's noise, Boris' blissed-out moments, and Nathan Fake's pastoral techno-- is as vivid here as it is violent. Something like the sun rising over the ocean... then going supernova. UK ATP Recordings.
Sound Clips :
1) SWeet Love For Planet Earth | 2) Okay Lets Talk About Magic

At The Starlight Ballroom
460 North 9th Street (Just Below 9th & Spring Garden)
Philadelphia, PA
$20 / All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Stars
If you like your pop music to be on the lush and pretty side but with a little bit of an edge to it, this new Stars album might be your new favorite... really! Montreal indie popsters featuring members of BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE. Sweetly-crafted love songs delivered simple, straightforward, and beautiful with male and female vocals, shimmering melodies, and tons of affection. Rich, lush, and ornate. Arts & Crafts Records
Sound Clips :
1) Your Ex Lover | 2) Take M eTo The Riot | 3) The Night Starts Here | 4) My Favourite Book

Bell X1
Irish indie rock four-piece Bell X1 call to mind pre-electronic Radiohead and the more sedate side of Coldplay, crafting tight, melodic pop with introspective and witty lyrics. Having recorded albums with the likes of Nick Seymour (Crowded House) and Roger Birichiam (Elvis Costello), the band is best known for its ability to craft infectious yet durable radio-friendly hooks with strong production values
Sound Clips : Check Out Bell X1's Myspace Page

At The Trocadero
1003 Arch Street (10th & Arch Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$16.50 adv / $18 dos / All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets Now (click the tickets) :
Tickets Also On Sale w/ No Surcharge At The Trocadero Box Office
And All Ticketmaster Locations

Horse The Band
Horse The Band deconstruct hardcore and metal, combining them with a sharp tongue and inventive keyboard leads. Playing what they refer to as "Nintendocore", the group delivers a harsh sound while displaying a manic punishment and twitchy self-abuse, but in a happy and catchy way. Combat Records

Heavy Heavy Low Low
It is hard to believe that the guys in Heavy Heavy Low Low are not free jazz composers or classically trained metal scholars when you hear them attack their instruments. The band creates a densely layered collage of noise, imbued with the speediness of hardcore punk, the low crushing tones of death metal, the loose and dissonant playfulness of indie rock, and arrangements that hit multiple places at once dissolving into waves of chaos. Ferret Records

So Many Dynamos
Melding pop with disco, punk and R&B ala The Dismemberment Plan. Well maybe not even ala, almost EXACTLY like D-Plan with their moog sounds, insane drum fills and hi-hat work, gang choruses, dissonant guitar interplay, abrupt stops, and the frenzied pace. Skrocki Records

John Fonda
With a multiphasic musical smoothie of fast paced melodic hardcore, progressive and jazz, the Philly based quartet John Fonda will get your brain juices flowin' in anticipation of what comes next. Catchy rhythms and tricky leads together with fluent changes and cutting vocals keeps it fun and fresh for the ears.

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

3
Holy Prog Rock. There are select few bands able to function successfully within the progressive rock realm with as much staying power as Woodstock, New York's Three. They have all the instrumentally indulgent trappings prog fans relish; the most notable being vocalist/guitarist Joey Eppard's percussive guitar stylings

Kiss Kiss
Kiss Kiss do the Eastern European-flavored thing right (especially when they crash into Oingo Boingo). With morose lyrics that seem ripped out of a Tim Burton poem (if he wrote poetry), the dual pounding keyboards, psycho-circus-inspired melodies, a fleeting chainsaw and a frantic violinist, Kiss Kiss are the Geppettos to the Living Dead dolls

One More TBA

At The Barbary
951 Frankford Ave (At Frankford and Columbus Blvd)
Philadelphia, PA
$10 advance / $12 day of show / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Rachael Yamagata
Unabashedly lush, deeply textured pop that makes no apologies for its radio-friendliness or its adornments. Her elegance reflects a willingness to overreach--emotionally as well as in production. Yamagata's voice is full of elliptical slides and slurs; it swoops, croons, rasps, and whispers; it looks for the crack in a lyric in order to reveal the depth behind it. One can hear that same quality in vocalists such as John Martyn, Billie Holiday, the young Rod Stewart, Dinah Washington, Maggie Bell, and Jeff Buckley. That context embodies within it a certain kind of approach, one that fuses grace with grit, and passion with pathos, but also the slow, erotic burn of control and restraint, where heartache becomes the river on which everything is carried; it is given a voice, an unvarnished utterance. In its grain, phrasing is also a vehicle: for something that lies just beyond the scope of actual words pointing down and in, not out. It contains the pastoral languor of a summer afternoon combined with the emotional intensity of a gleaming stiletto opening a vein. The similarity here is in the quality of performance. Listeners can definitely hear traces of her influences, but these are woven into a fabric that serves the song, not the singer.
Sound Clips :
1) Reason Why | 2) Be be Your Love

One More TBA

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$15 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Cut Copy
Justice, Digitalism, Crystal Castles. The list of contemporary indie-electro goes on on and on. And it's all at least slightly retro: disco, French house, video games, or whatever. But what we have to high five Australia's Cut Copy for is attempting to revive the orchestrated power-pop sounds of bands like Electric Light Orchestra! Take that, throw in a drum machine, maybe a few heavy post-production filters, and that's where they're at. Above and beyond anything else, and unlike some of their contemporaries, these guys seem to understand that they're essentially making pop music. Whereas projects like Justice sometimes rely too heavily on form rather than content, Cut Copy has their eyes on the songwriting prize. Much like British producer Richard X, they have a healthy and addictive affection for the '80s. Severed Heads, Tears for Fears, even maybe a little Roxette. Yeah! Don't come expecting a challenging musical experiment, or something as conceptual and cohesive. But if you can handle great pop tracks, just give in and let your feet do the dancing. Recommended. Modular Records.
Sound Clips :
1) Cut Copy | 2) So Haunted | 3) Out There On The Ice

The Presets
The Presets are an electronic two piece from Sydney, Australia and have been one of the biggest indie bands for the past few years in the Sydney area touring and supporting many well known bands such as 2 Many DJ’s, Ladytron, and Daft Punk. Their debut LP Beams combines electro, rock, techno, pop and a handful of other genres together in a seamless manner We like em! Modular Records
Sound Clips :
1) This Boy's In Love | 2) My People | 3) Are You The One

At The Trocadero
1003 Arch Street (10th & Arch Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$19 / All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets Now (click the tickets) :
Tickets Also On Sale w/ No Surcharge At The Trocadero Box Office
And All Ticketmaster Locations

Circa Survive
We've been super into that new strain of epic, super complex emo prog lately. Groups that combine killer metal riffing, super dense and complicated prog arrangements, with super emotive wailing vocals. Like a whole new breed of punk rockers re-discovered Yes and King Crimson and managed to create some impossible hybrid bridging the gap between classic progressive rock and modern emo metalcore. There are about a million bands doing their own version these days, and admittedly most of them suck, but we'll still stick by Chiodos, and the first two Coheed records, and Circa Survive - a dreamy, epic, psychedelic, dramatic emo prog outfit, who actually eschew the more metal elements that define most of their sonic brethren, focusing instead on texture and melody and mood. There is definitely a Mars Volta vibe, a lot of that has to do with the Anthony Green's impossibly high voice, clear and crystalline, a soaring near falsetto, the vocals drifting above dense harmonies, gorgeous melodies, a thick sonic tapestry of shoegazer guitars, angular riffs, complicated rhythms, all woven into haunting and strangely catchy mini epics. None of the songs are outright 'pop song' catchy, but they all manage to suck you in and make it virtually impossible to avoid repeat listens. Heavy, but not in a metal way, just deep and emotional, darkly dramatic, with layers of sound that are continually shifting to reveal hidden parts and recombining into unexpected surprises.

Special Guests TBA

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$17 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets Starting Thursday August 28th Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Black Kids
Holy internet hype! The Black Kids got a TON of attention after they posted their demo on Myspace and the offers came flodding in. Now they released their first proper album. Dueling keyboards and scrappy lo-fi guitars give rise to Go! Team-style shouted-back cheers, a communal urgency not unlike the Arcade Fire's, and an uptempo bounce paying homage to Motown 45's. In short, Black Kids make catchy, tightly executed songs that put a memorable stamp on pop's classic themes.
Sound Clips :
1) I'm Not Gonna teach Your Boyfriend .. | 2) Hit The Heartbrakes | 3) I'm Making Eyes At You

The Virgins
The Virgins have been together for all of 20 minutes and yet have already managed to tour Europe, open for Patti Smith, sign to a major label, and get their genteel young faces all over the "blogosphere" All of this, believe it or not, is well deserved. The Virgins play lovely poppy gems in which you can find equal measures of Pavement and Squeeze. We’re jealous of their future, basically.
Sound Clips :
1) Rich Girls | 2) Private Affair | 3) Teen Lovers

Magic Wands
Magic Wands are hotly tipped Nashville based girl/guy duo Chris and Dexy Valentine. Bedroom pop type stuff that's getting all sorts on hype and attention including touring with The Black Kids, The Kills and The Breeders. Sound Clips : Check Out Magic Wand's Myspace Page

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$14 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Robert Pollard's Boston Spaceships
Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices joining up with fellow GBV band members plus peeps from The Decemberists. Expect the usual Bob Pollard expierence - two + hour set, one case of beer on stage for himself and lots of new and old material including classic GBV stuff. This is going to be an epic night!
Sound Clips :
1) Go For The Exit (new!)

The High Strung
Rough-and-tumble, brainy power pop from Detroit. Park The Van Records.
Sound Clips : Check Out The High Strung's Myspace Page

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$16 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

The Juan Maclean
Hands down the best / greatest live "electronic" band we have ever seen. Now filled out with new members: Jerry from !!! and Nancy from LCD SOUNDSYSTEM. They can barely be contained on the stage, bursting forth with ultra broad spectrum energy. Super vibrant and fun with its solid dance thump to keep you goin' 'til the wee hours. Sure there's lots of folks targeting the funky dancefloor these days, but Mr. MacLean takes a more elegant and captivating approach, as well as an ample dose of Kraftwerk reverence, that most definitely bears repeat listens... and not just while you're shakin' yer thang.
Sound Clips :
1) Give Me Every Little Thing | 2) Happy House (new!) | 3) Tito's Way |

BitClipr
Songful progressions, large atmospheres, and rhythm centric heavy grooves. With influences from 70's disco, 80's pop all the way to 90's hardcore and shoegaze. Sounds stitched together with the dance floor in mind

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Super last minute top secret show! Debting a bunch of new material from their upcoming album (which is currently being recorded here in Philadelphia)

Wild Light
Featuring an old ex-member of The Arcade Fire. They opened up for them on their past US and European tours. Musically, Wild Light are probably most often compared to their friends Arcade Fire, but with an abundance of keys, reverb-drenched guitars and tambourine, their music actually has more in common with Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs. The lyrics are bittersweet stories about the pain of learning through experience, sprinkled with enough cerebral turns of phrase to keep lyrical-minded listeners thoroughly engrossed

At The Barbary
951 Frankford Ave (At Frankford and Columbus Blvd)
Philadelphia, PA
$15 / 21+ (sorry!)
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Ratatat
Bringing all sorts of seemingly unrelated sounds and ideas perfectly together. The danceability of electronica, the organic emotion of guitars and the limitless possibilities of what can happen when you re-imagine different ways to create melody. Ratatat continues to create a world that makes you feel like you are some powerful character in a video game that you just want to play forever. There is something so endearing and instantly likable about this group. The way they make fun sounding music without being cheesy or gimmicky. The way they force you to use your imagination, it's almost impossible to hear these songs and not create elaborate shapes, colors and stories in your mind. Classics is the kind of record that can break through to even the most jaded hipster as well as hitting the spot for those who are always ready to have a good time. So fresh and fun! XL Recordings.
Sound Clips :
1) Mirando (new!) | 2) Falcon Jab (new!) | 3) Wildcat | 4) Loud Pipes

Panther
Weird rock alert! Young and a little wet behind the ears, Panther seem to be channelling the cryptic, kaleidoscopic eccentricities of Mr. Bungle. High on creative and imaginative spirit, albeit somewhat less proficient and seamless than that sadly defunct SF juggernaut. Freaky and a bit cracked is their execution of proggy, loopy organ and electronic noodlings and mainman Charlie Salas-Humana's rollercoaster vocalizing that alternately brings to mind Mike Patton and TV On The Radio. Kill Rock Stars

ERock
Solo electronic dude from Portland

At The Starlight Ballroom
460 North 9th Street (Just Below 9th & Spring Garden)
Philadelphia, PA
$17 advance / $19 day of show / All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Jenny Lewis
The lovely voice that defines the sound of L.A.'s Rilo Kiley has been doing the solo thing for a few years. Jenny Lewis unveils a much broader range of both style and expressiveness -- generously planting a number of bare-branched country and gospel inflected saplings here and there amid her more familiar sounding lush pop blossoms. Initially we mused that fans of Neko Case might also take a shine to the equally red-tressed Lewis. Mind you though, Lewis and her music do come across as being considerably more milquetoast (meaning, you probably won't be finding The Grand Ol' Opry taking issue with her the way they did with the fiery Ms Case!). At any rate, it's clear that in both fashion and song, she's just as comfortable in womanly Lawrence Welk Show gown as she is in a winsome floral country frock or barefoot in a sassy pop gal mini-dress. To boot, she's stacked the indie luminary decks in her favor -- with appearances of M Ward, Elvis Costello, Zooey Deschanel and even Chris Robinson (Black Crowes) on her new album. She puts them to good use as it might not only appeal to her younger Rilo Kiley fans, but also their parents!

One More TBA

At The Keswick Theater
291 N. Keswick Ave.
Glenside, PA (only 1.5 miles from the northwest city limit - 20 minute drive!)
$25 All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or At The Trocadero Box Office (1003 Arch Street - Philadelphia, PA) and Keswick Box Office
Or Call 215-572-7650 (toll free)

Fleet Foxes
Best New Music and probably our new favorite band of 2008! Largely influenced by vintage folk and rock LPs, but this pastoral psych-pop band does something special with these elements. Fusing classic rock, church music, old-timey folk, and epic, reverb-drenched harmonies, the group's brilliantly rustic songs never go quite where you expect them to, instead taking more scenic routes to arrive at perfect, natural conclusions. Like the Shins but 100X better! Sub Pop Records.
Sound Clips :
1) White Winter Hymnal | 2) Ragged Wood | 3) Quiet Houses

Frank Fairfield
Fairfield, a street musician who plays banjo, fiddle, and guitar and sings traditional folk songs. Fairfield is not only unsigned, he hasn’t even recorded an mp3 yet, but he gives an absolutely amazing live performance. He is skilled at acoustic guitar, fiddle, and the clawhammer style of banjo; and when he performs it’s as if he channels some old mountain man or backporch country blues singer from the early 1900’s

At The Starlight Ballroom
460 North 9th Street (Just Below 9th & Spring Garden)
Philadelphia, PA
$14 / All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

The Felice Brothers
Back after selling out two straight shows in advance in the chapel! Dirtbags capturing lightning and spinning it into harvest gold. "Dirtbags" because the Felice Brothers (three of them : Ian, Simone and James - brothers of blood, with dice-throwing bassist Christmas adopted in as blood brother) are the type of guys who, no matter how much you wire-brush scrub them, will never clean up entirely. I've personally never seen them without a little bit of dust or grime somewhere upon all of their persons, and having gotten to know them, I know for a fact that it's hard won. The Felice Brothers live and travel as a unit. Their main mode of transportation is what we call in America a "short bus," a miniature school transport usually reserved for the kind of kids that sometimes need to wear helmets just because. The Felice Brothers' short bus is battered and wheezing, but it runs. It's cluttered with stained dress shirts, holey vests, suits shiny with age and wear, and punch-drunk hats, all of which finds their way on various Felice body parts at any given time. While in transit or simply sitting parked in a haze of smoke and talk, Faulkner and Dostoevsky paperbacks, passengers, guests and paramours sit on whisky boxes, or instrument cases containing accordions or dented drums. It's a good feeling

They're a bunch of slouching Hudson River pirates, the Felice Brothers are. They're natives of the same wooded portion of Upstate New York that was the sometimes physical and always mythical home of The Band. They charm like a snake oil salesmen in a 19th-century medicine show; they stomp the boards like spirit-filled preachers; they close their eyes when they croon their imperfect (and therefore paradoxically perfect) Catskill Mountain harmonies; they smile wickedly when they drop into a groove; they bring a little bit of that front porch feeling with them wherever they go, even when they're not playing; they watch the Nashville skyline with bemusement. They're a harvest festival, a late-night meal of greasy roast chicken and a stolen bottle of red wine shared with friends, and a woozy summer night filled with the promise of love, danger, barbecue and fireworks, all rolled into one. All of that is in the vinyl of this record you're holding right here. As is the lightning. How do I figure? I figure literally. On track three, what you may be thinking is a glitch in the recording of "Hey Hey Revolver" is nothing of the sort. Your record is fine. What you're hearing is literally lightning hitting the ad hoc studio the band was recording in at the time (a leaky, abandoned Shakespeare theatre). No fooling. And that's the Felice Brothers all over - imperfect and rough in an age of false perfection and polish. Their edges aren't smooth; their clothes (and their voices, and their instruments) are tattered, threadbare and frayed. And they're all the more golden and beautiful for it.

A.A. Bundy
A Bondy was in the band Verbena, which I didn't know at first. You probably wouldn't have known by just listening either. Without any prior knowledge of its creator, and you'd never guess that A.A. Bondy is the former singer of rock band, Verbena. Then known as Scott Bondy, it is said that the A.A. stands for August Arthur. It's this odd elusiveness that adds to the mystique of his solo debut. After detaching from his grunge-rock roots, Bondy has reinvented his identity, morphing into a Bible belt preacher man with songs drenched in religious imagery. Fat Possum.

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Damien Jurado
It's no stretch of imagination to mention Damien Jurado in the same sentence as Nick Drake, as the Seattle-based singer/songwriter has a Drakesian tendency toward lovely, lonely acoustic guitar melodies strummed sparsely alongside his wistfully brooding croon. Secretly Canadian / Sub Pop Records.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
25 year-old Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson is Brooklyn’s best-kept secret. Since recording an album with Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor and Chris Bear in 2006 (with appearances by Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio and Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen), Miles has squandered much of his initial momentum and potential promise in an alcoholic haze and series of shambling yet, ultimately, transcendent live performances at some of Brooklyn’s most and least renowned venues.

With the addition and solidification of his backing band, the Black Boys, Miles’ folk rock has taken a turn toward the anthemic stylings of Fleetwood Mac, Bell Biv Devoe, and early Pavement. The total effect integrates the album’s intimate sounds with that of several bands he led during the past decade that you’ve never heard of. The new line-up is already hard at work on the mildly anticipated follow-up, "Summer of Fear".

At The First Unitarian Church's Chapel
Small Intimate Seated Space That Only Holds 50 People !
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$10 advance / $12 day of show / All Ages
Online Tickets SOLD OUT (That means there are no more tickes available online)
The only remaining tickets are CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
They can not hold / reserve tickets for you. First come - first serve !

Hot Chip
Most genre labels end up being so annoying and wrong. IDM for example - when did Oval really make you dance. Hot Chip would never be labeled IDM but taken for its literal meaning they are totally intelligent dance music. With elements similar to last years great record from The Junior Boys, Hot Chip have made a record that will shake your ass and somehow soothe you at the sem time. Songs that reference Stevie Wonder, Ween and Yo La Tengo, but with a vocal aesthetic that brings to mind more recent Damon Albarn outings. Listening to Hot Chip sort of feels like going to a disco with super sweet nerdy boys in glasses. They have no problem shaking their asses yet manage to stay sensitive and intelligent at the same time. Even at their most catchy there is something bittersweet underneath it all that makes Hot Chip such a satisfying and pleasing listen.

Growing
It must be hard to find a sound, especially one that is based in drone and drift, and continue to constantly push the limits of that sound without drifting too far away from the elements which define your essence. Growing have managed to do just that, moving gracefully from drone drenched space rock to minimal rumble and whir, to wherever it is they are now, some musical netherworld, equal parts subtle shifting shimmer, grinding distorted dirge, and sparkling barely there ambience. No higher compliment can be paid than "how the hell do we describe these amazing sounds?!" And really, it seems that any cursory description could not possibly do justice to the amazing sonic world Growing have created.

At The Trocadero
1003 Arch Street (10th & Arch Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$20 / All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets Now (click the tickets) :
Tickets Also On Sale w/ No Surcharge At The Trocadero Box Office
And All Ticketmaster Locations

VersaEmerge
A band who's sound combines sophisticated guitars and huge rhythms with electronic turbulence and vocal hooks that will grab you by the neck will leave you nothing short of breathless.

Eye Alaska
Go ahead and Google "cinematic rock." Didn't come up with much? You probably won't, but when southern California's own Eye Alaska releases their debut EP Yellow & Elephant in June 2008, you'll be seeing the term everywhere. Hailing from Orange, CA, this quartet of musical visionaries has hit the scene with a sound that is just as bright and just as big as their EP's title. With rolling vocals, overlapping melodies and a polished sound, Eye Alaska doesn't just claim to be a genre pioneer: they deliver. Freshly signed to Huntington Beach based Fearless Records, Eye Alaska's obvious skill and distinctly unique flair makes them the band to watch in 2008.

Gennero
Ex-members of The Grand Finals, The Prize Fight, Passion and One Dead Three Wounded. Philadelpia

A's Rage
A's Rage is an electro-pop band based out of Philadelphia, PA. Formed in 2008, A's Rage is the brain child of front-man and composer Adrian Silva.

At The Barbary
951 Frankford Ave (At Frankford and Columbus Blvd)
Philadelphia, PA
$10 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Girl Talk
Mining ultra-familiar pop from the late '70s to last weeks number one hit, Girl Talk has fashioned an infectious live show and record completely out of supposedly unauthorized samples. While this is neither a conceptual Plunderphonic cluster fuck nor merely just an illegal mix of mash-ups, Girl Talk fashions cleverly dance-y compositions using the flotsam and jetsam of pop music's collective unconscious. By the time you get to recognition, new sample juxtapositions occur just in time to throw your head into a tailspin. This is definitely a good party-starter, Girl Talk being very aware that it is the girls who get the dance party started, but usually only if something familiar and fun is playing. And there is enough of that incredible stuff to guarantee a nasty but well worth it hang over. Lets have a big dance party on the stage please. Crafty!

Grand Buffet
A swashbuckling hip hop mess-up from Pennsylvania's goofball Ritalin kings. Heavily styled in the vein of immature-era Beastie Boys, with shit-eating moog beats and catchy, nerve-rattling vocals. An audio carwreck you can't turn away from.

Hearts of Darknesses
Frankie Musarra, AKA Hearts of Darknesses, is one part composer, five parts spaz and a dope MC to boot. Musarra once became so entangled in his mic cord during a performance that he fell and broke his collarbone. new York.

At The Starlight Ballroom
460 North 9th Street (Just Below 9th & Spring Garden)
Philadelphia, PA
$15 All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Online Tickets SOLD OUT (That means there are no more tickes available online)
The only remaining tickets are CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
They can not hold / reserve tickets for you. First come - first serve !

The New Year
The New Year recalls the fond familiar sounds of those slouchy slowcore bands of the '90s. Heck, it's no wonder 'cause members of The New Year were in a couple of those very bands. Yup, brothers Matt and Bubba Kadane were in the mellower than mellow indie rock combo Bedhead, and drummer Chris Brokaw was in the darkly creeping blues rock band Come. Plenty of ample melancholic comtemplativeness, and yet some of the songs are comparatively livelier than those of their former incarnations -- more like Sebadoh, Pavement and Seam than the hushed Codeine and Low. Electric guitars swell from warm delicate strums to full-on waves of washy distortion while the strolling basslines and tight drumming provide the solid foundation for the drowsy boyish spoken-sung vocals.

Dirty On Purpose
Often compared to Belle and Sebastian and described as ethereal and emotional spacerock, the band beautifully combines sonic washes of noise with delicate, pretty harmonies. Brooklyn. NY

Tre Orsi
Ex-members of Shearwater/Okkervil River. From. Denton Texas

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Wire
Woah! Amazing show alert. This is by far the smallest venue that Wire is playing on their American tour. GET YOUR TICKETS NOW. Wire emerged out of the British punk explosion but, from the outset, maintained a distance from that scene and resisted easy categorization. While punk rapidly became a caricature of itself, Wire's musical identity -- focused on experimentation and process -- was constantly metamorphosing. Their first three albums alone attest to a startling evolution as the band repeatedly reinvented itself between 1977 and 1979. That capacity for self-reinvention, coupled with a willingness to stop recording indefinitely when ideas weren't forthcoming, has been crucial to Wire's longevity and continued relevance. Playing old and new songs alike.

One More TBA

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$20 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

THE REVIVAL TOUR with :
In a match made in folk-punk heaven, Hot Water Music’s Chuck Ragan, Avail’s Tim Barry and Lucero’s Ben Nichols will embark on The Revival Tour this fall. A series of shows that will see all three artists playing solo sets as well as performing on each other’s material.

Chuck Ragan
Singer/guitarist from Hot Water Music. This tour will mark Ragan's final run in support of last year's solo debut Feast Or Famine, after which he'll begin pre-production on his next album for SideOneDummy.
Sound Clips : Check Out Chuck Ragan's Myspace Page

Ben Nichols
Singer/guitarist from Lucero. Playing his own songs and various Lucero songs as well!
Sound Clips : Check Out Lucero's Myspace Page

Tim Barry
Singer/guitarist from Avail. Barry is touring in support of his own folk debut, Rivanna Junction.
Sound Clips : Check Out Tim Barry's Myspace Page

Jesse Malin
Singer/guitarist from D-Generation.
Sound Clips : Check Out Jesse Malin's Myspace Page

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$14 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Jonathan Richman
Year in and year out, Jonathan Richman keeps on opening his heart in song to his legions of devoted fans delight. Charmingly heartfelt, genuinely sweet and seemingly ageless, especially live as he is extremley personable and funny (which gives everyone in the room warm feelings inside).

For those who do not know th etale - In 1969 he moved to New York City, where he spent time living on the couch of The Velvet Underground’s manager and working odd jobs while trying to break in as a professional musician. Failing at this, he returned to Boston. Having moved back, he formed The Modern Lovers, a proto-punk garage rock band. Other notable members of the group were keyboard player Jerry Harrison and drummer David Robinson, who later joined Talking Heads and The Cars, respectively. In 1972 they recorded a series of songs, including the seminal "Roadrunner" which were eventually released on the group’s sole album, Modern Lovers, in 1975. Shortly after these recordings were made, Richman broke up the band and embarked on his long and eclectic solo career. For a while he continued recording under the Modern Lovers name (or rather, the more telling "Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers" appellation), but all the members were different, and in the new incarnation were essentially his backing band. The sound of the new group was considerably different as well, focusing on acoustic instrumentation rather than the prior electric guitars and drums

Always possessing an ardent cult following, becaus eof his tremendously charismatic stage presence. Richman has become better known in recent years thanks to a series of appearances on fan Conan O’Brien’s show; also helping was a major part in the 1998 movie There’s Something About Mary, where he played half of a two-man Greek chorus that commented on the movie while performing in the framed action itself. This will be a sanctuary show to remeber !

At The The Sanctuary Of The First Unitarian Church
Seated Show! Check Out Pics HERE and HERE
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Streets)
Philadelphia, PA
$15 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Now :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

The Dead C
Hole rare live show! The Dead C have only played a handful of shows in their 20 year exsistance. Much like how Nirvana spawned a million shitty wannabe's, the Dead C basically did the same for the noise rock underground. Anyone with a piece of shit guitar and a beat up four-track got to thinking they could be a band, not realizing that the match up of Bruce Russell, Michael Morley and Robbie Yeats was a magical once in a lifetime sort of lucky draw.

They come up with some amazing sounds assembled in amazing and perplexing shapes and letting us figure out how to enjoy them. And enjoying them is exactly what we're doing. If drastic stylistic shifts and difficult listening are things that send you packing then odds are you gave up on these guys long ago. The Dead C reclaim the noise rock throne from Wolf Eyes or whoever happens to be parked there this week. These guys are legends for a reason, they can take seemingly unmusical sounds, caustic, abrasive, minimal and harsh, and weave them into something beautiful. Wheezing chords, tape hiss, amp buzz, strange disjointed melodies, huge billowing rubbery low end ooze, plenty of electronic glitch and squiggle, bits of buzz and beep, until about halfway through when a riff enters the fray, a gorgeously SUNNO)))-y wash of distorted guitar rumble over simple spare percussion,

Blues Control
Don't let the punny name fool ya, this surely isn't "blues rock". Nor blues. Nor rock. Not really. Nor is it of Yugoslav origin, despite the biographical misinformation posted on the Holy Mountain website that claims Blues Control to be an obscure '70s psych band from Yugoslavia. Nope, Blues Control are an instrumental Brooklyn duo on guitar and synths and drums, making a wonderfully fucked up yet pleasantly listenable psych-squabble of a sound that's not super easy to describe, actually... let's just say that if it were blues rock, it'd be druggily confused, utterly EXPERIMENTAL blues rock. Holy Mountain.

Pink Reason
Pink Reason seemingly emerged out of nowhere last summer and dominated playtime on turntables around the blogosphere. Kevin De Broux, a 26-year-old Wisconsin native, crafted the three-song Pink Reason 7-inch, which recalled tightly-woven lo-fi singles of the early ’90s. The single earned him a live session on WFMU and a coveted record deal with Siltbreeze. In mere months, it seemed like De Broux ascended to a peak that underground artists spend their whole careers trying to reach. His debut album is dominated by creeping synths, stark strums and rickety percussive splats that complement his heartscraping vocal catharsis, "Cleaning The Mirror" journeys far beyond any known perspective, practically insinuating an alternate otherworld where Tim Buckley's Lorca and Jandek's Ready For The House have been hybridized into a ripe-for-plucking masterpiece

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

The Notwist
YES! PROBABLY ONE OF OUR TOP FIVE FAVORITE BANDS EVER ARE COMING BACK TO THE CHURCH !!!!!!!!!!

The Notwist started out as a punk band but have gotten better and more different with each release (reflecting the Acher brothers' growing musical smarts and proficiency), culminating in this nice rock album. But not just any indie rock, this music is wistful, lyrical, softly flowing music that's *extremely* well executed, no filler, and brings in all kinds of non-rock elements -- in sort of the same way that the Beta Band does -- *casually*, not making a big deal out of it. Cos electronic keyboards and programming and stuff (courtesy Martin Gretschmann of the solo electronic act Console) are merely one facet of The Notwist's sound, which also includes very catchy minor key hooks, attractively textural cracklings and wooden clop clops, plucked strings (cello?), machine made gurgles and squishies, even out-of-place (-but-not-really) breakbeats that actually work. They pretty much released one of the greatest albums of the 2000s so far, NEON GOLDEN and set the mark real high for "Indie / Electronic" Records. Fun fact : The Postal Service were going to open up for them at the church, but the dates did not work out. Sad. When I worked at Spaceboy everytime I would put it on, it would sell like 5 copies in an hour. I CANT WAIT TO SEE THEM PERFORM THESE SONGS !!!!

They just released a new album, and needless to say, the over five year wait has elevated everyones expectations to unrealistically lofty heights. So we're approaching with care, and we'll be totally honest "The Devil You + Me" isn't as good as "neon Golden" - but what can be. Again that record was PERFECT. Devil's appeal is certainly not as immediate, but it does sink in slowly, and Markus Acher's hushed yearning vocal delivery is as charming and affecting as ever. Songs such as the title track are sweetly engaging in a surprisingly Belle & Sebastian way. Meanwhile others such as "Sleep" draw easy comparisons to the lovely pop-tronic tunes of Canada's Caribou. Overall, it's a much darker, less catchy, less pop structured collection of songs. A bit more brooding, a bit less dreaming, and perhaps drawing in a bit more of some of their other bands: both Village Of Savoogna's sprawling sonic explorations and Lali Puna's breezy, melancholic ruminations. Indeed, it instead favors more grand and sweeping journeys particularly with the gracious presence of The Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra. Ask yourself, when doesn't the presence of a bassoon and a harp add epic sorrow and fantasy panache (respectively)? We're sure this one's going to continue to lay down its roots long into autumn. If you're new to this band, Neon Golden's the place to start, but you definitely shouldn't overlook the charms of the Devil.

Dosh
I never seem to know what to say about new solo releases from Martin Luther King Chavez Dosh, recurrent drummer for Fog and frequent touring partner to Andrew Bird. His music is so unique, abstract, and weirdly logical that it defies all industry standard pigeonholing. His self-titled debut in 2002 was arguably a work of cut-and-paste basement downtempo glitch with ambient post-rock overtones and one track featuring a complete game of pool in the background. It was kinda like early Four Tet, but more lo-fi and obscure.

Anticon mainstays Jel and Odd Nosdam helped bring together 2004’s Pure Trash, an album that opened up Dosh’s sound to harsher electronic influences - letting peaks of drum and bass shine through the glitch as well as an increased production value. The Lost Take (2006) reimagined his basement sound as a full band, with less of the lo-fi and more organic instruments. Bird chipped in some nice violin, Mike Lewis of Happy Apple lent his saxophone, and Tapes ‘n Tapes guitarist Erik Applewick threw down a few crunchy chords. Moreover, Dosh actually let some vocals grace a few tracks

Dosh’s fourth solo record Wolves and Wishes picks up precisely where Lost Take stopped rolling : Punchy drums, strong piano, and a taste of xylophone. The peak of the work gets there with Bird’s violin and the sonically subtle guitar of Fog chief Andrew Broder trading frequencies in an epic solo. Awesome stuff. Anticon

At The First Unitarian Church
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Sts)
Philadelphia, PA
$14 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show Right Now (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Dan Deacon's Round Robin Tour (you got to read this)
Okay this is going to be CRAZY. At each show, all of the night's bands will set up their gear simultaneously "along the perimeter of the room, with the audience in the center." Then the round robin part begins, as each band rolls through one song, then passes the spotlight to the next band with nary a moment's break in between. By the end of it, in exchange for a sore neck, you'll be intimately familiar with the musical goods Baltimore has to offer. There will be two full rounds per night, each band will play a few songs in each round. There will be a brief 'intermission' between rounds during which various performance/comedy episodes will take place. This will happen on both nights.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 15TH 7:30PM - EYES NIGHT
Beach House
Jana Hunter
Santa Dads
Lexie Mountain
Nautical Almaniac
Lizz King
Creepers
WZT Hearts
Ed Schrader
Sand Cats

THURSDAY OCTOBER 16TH 7:30PM - FEET NIGHT
Dan Deacon
The Deathset
Adventure
Video Hippos
Future Island
Nuclean Power Pants
DJ Dog Dick
Blood Baby
Height
Cex
Smartgrowth
Double Dagger

At The Starlight Ballroom
460 North 9th Street (Just Below 9th & Spring Garden)
Philadelphia, PA
$8 Advance / $10 Day Of Show / $15 For Both Nights (advance only)
All Ages To Enter / 21+ To Drink
Purchase Advance Tickets For Wednesday (click the tickets) :

Purchase Advance Tickets For Thursday (click the tickets) :

Purchase Advance Tickets For Both Days (click the tickets) :

Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

SUNN 0))) - A TEN YEAR CELEBRATION (one of only 4 shows)
With honor SUNN O))) is announcing only four live performances in the United States, to recognize the 10th anniversary of SUNN O)))'s creation ... and to coincide with the recording of our first album: "The GrimmRobe Demos". We will be playing material from this album exclusively. It will be a return to our primal origins, and approach respecting a concept of shoshin Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro. Tthe beginner's mind, the yet undyed pure wool, the clarity in initiation upon the untraveled. The attitude of embodying the basics precisely, point by point, line by line, with an immovable faith in the teaching, experience and of beyond the possibility. Of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when approaching, even with much experience, just as a beginner would upon the initial impetus and thirst to seek the path. And so, with this mindset we will be approaching these live concerts. Pure, raw, uninhibited invocations featuring 0)))s core members: Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson ONLY. No guests, no vocals, no keyboards. We hope you will join us.... For those who do not know about SUNN 0))) :
SUNN 0))) is made of Khanate/Burning Witch (Steve O' Malley) and Goatsnake (Greg Anderson) members. It was formed in memory of the cult drone-riff founders EARTH and honors the beautiful Ozma. The SUNN0))) mission is to create trance like soundscapes with the ultimate low end/bottom frequencies intended to massage the listeners intestines into a act of defecation. SUNN 0))) have gathered for a few dozen live performances, at which they have successfully made audience members instantly nauseous, or better yet run for the toilet in terror. This is going to be the most evil yet as they will drone out the actual church sanctuary complete with their scary robes and smoke machines and laser light show. Walk into a completely pitch black church. Gregorian chant music issues forth from a massive sound system, causing the 300 year old church, and your insides, to rumble. You can only see two aisles illuminated by candlelight, like an airplane landing strip. You are greeted by young men wearing black robes asking you for $12 or your advance ticket and take your to your seat in the wooden church pew. Soon the room begins to fill with smoke and dark blue beams of light shine down on to an altar offering up towers of heavy vintage bass gear. More gentlemen with robes take to the altar in an eerie, solemn procession. The most intense tones and sonic waves you have ever experienced slowly envelop your head. You become lost in the music and are transported to a place of drone consciousness. The next 90 minutes you experience will be one of the most memorable and unique live music happenings of your life.

Earth
In the early nineties, when most of us heard Earth for the first time, our minds were totally blown. What was that massive slab of fuzzy sludge doing on Sub Pop? Why didn't it sound like Soundgarden or Mudhoney or Tad? It didn't take long before we stopped asking questions like that and began wondering where the hell were all the other bands that sounded like Earth. Well, it took 10 years, but now that whole downtuned slow motion sludge thing is an actual genre. With more and more new bands popping up every day. All honoring the mighty sludge that was Earth. But those of you who were into Earth the first time around, might remember the band changing directions pretty dramatically, adding a drummer, and playing actual songs, even doing a Hendrix cover at one point, the Earth of old having mutated into a groovy sort of stoner post rock, propulsive swinging riffs, relentless chugging guitars, all wrapped in a druggy spacy swirl. Supreme precision and feel is needed. To play music this slow, they've got to be good -- and they are.

At The The Sanctuary Of The First Unitarian Church
Seated Show! Check Out Pics HERE and HERE
2125 Chestnut Street (22nd and Chestnut Streets)
Philadelphia, PA
$16 / All Ages
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Now :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)

Wovenhand
Woven Hand is David Eugene Edwards, who fronts the equally brilliant Sixteen Horsepower, a dark and doomy swamp folk outfit that peddles gorgeously dreary ballads of death and destruction. Woven Hand takes the sound of Sixteen Horsepower even further down that dark and seldom travelled path. Tales of an angry God, fire and brimstone, confusion and misery, the coming Rapture, lost souls, death and misery and the long hard road to salvation, all set inside mini epics of biblical proportions, acoustic guitars, mournful piano, throbbing upright bass, shuffling drums, weeping strings, creepy fuzzy ambience, and Edwards' gorgeous throaty moan of a wail. But it's not just pretty and sad and creepy, it's absolutely menacing, and intense and as heavy as a band like this can be. Imagine the Swans playing country ballads or a born again Nick Cave with a bayou pick up band forced to play the devil for their souls.

Not sure what else to say about this record. It's just so goddamn good. And so utterly soulful and important. It's everything music should be. You don't need to agree with his spiritual bent, or even understand what he's on about. This is passionate and pure and heartfelt and disturbingly personal and is thus more important than 90 percent of the music that gets made these days. Listening to the Woven Hand, you can't help but imagine them playing atop a crumbling mount, as the cities below them lay in ruin, flames and famine, death and pestilence ravaging the land, while the band, suffused with a heavenly glow, plays one last dirge, a skeletal ode to death, a bittersweet funereal lament, as the human race sinks into oblivion and the world prepares to begin anew.

Silver Summit
Brooklyn outfit Silver Summit just dropped its self-titled debut on psych-folk imprint Language of Stone, and its revenant, deep sound is right at home there. Sondra Ow Sun-Odeon sings as if reading ancient chants straight out of the Cosmonomicon, while Shawn Bosler's array of guitars wrap her in darkly patterned blankets.

At Johnny Brendas
1201 N Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard Aves)
Philadelphia, PA
$12 / 21+
Purchase Advance Tickets For This Show (click the tickets) :
Or CASH ONLY At Our New Box Office at Deep Sleep (54 N 3rd St / 3rd & Arch Streets)
Or Call 1-866-468-7619 (toll free)