By Lavinia

Published: September 20th, 2007

Why is it that Tupac comes out with an album every year, but the great defuncts of rock 'n' roll die with the last chord struck on the last stage they played. Cheap commercial greatest hits albums and B-side collections aside, true fans are relegated to trying to track down rare UK issues if they want more of a band who called it quits before they were even born. True gimps and junkies, LISTEN UP! Imagine if the truest American artisitic visionary of the past century were to diversify, trade one of his paintings for studio time to take a small piece of his famed party lifestyle, a band of his protege musicians, and record them in his own image. ...

By Lavinia

Published: November 9th, 2006

So I'm not normally a fan of metal bands, although I have to respect anyone that can play the guitar with their teeth. I am, however, a total slave to a spectacle, so a lot of shows slip into my schedule on entertainment value alone. Not everything you listen to has to be artsy and groundbreaking, and if you stretch the meaning of the word, a guy on stage eating a duck can be considered experimental. It's definitely popular, look at Gwar, Ozzy, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden. For extra snob-solace, we can even call it Performance Art. There're a few times a year when death metal is particularly relevant and meaningful to the masses. Obviously Alice ...

By Lavinia

Published: October 4th, 2006

It's fall in Philadelphia, and Philly is a fall city. It's not just the fact that the fallen orange and yellow leaves temporarily blanket the dirty sidewalk, or that the tube tops go away and more flattering clothes come out of the closet. It's that warm, woody sound in the air, the energetic whistles of sharp gusts of wind, the crunchy, steady rhythm of cold-weather shoes on dry leaves. It's like the city's making music, ambient and instrumental, singing to us silently about our changing lives and her changing seasons. When Kunek showed up on Freshout's doorstep after the long trek from Oklahoma, even though it was July, their six-man, larger-than-life instrumentals brought out that feeling of beauty ...

By Lavinia

Published: September 5th, 2006

I heard the Wrens play at the North Star Bar in February. I say heard, because the show was so sold out that even journalists weren't getting in. A house packed to the balcony is a far cry from the Wrens shows most of us know. They've always been cult darlings in Philadelphia, but a hipster fad? I guess that's when you know you've made it.How skewed is our judgement if we think that filling the North Star is alternately an evil feat (we were bitter because we couldn't get in) and also a sign of success. The Wrens should have been packing that place, any dive-bar venue, from the get-go, but it takes some ...

By Lavinia

Published: August 28th, 2006

I'm making a prediction that Alligator, last's year's gorgeous album by newbie-famous-Indies The National, will hit classic status by the time I turn 35. I'm not trying to speak for you, so get off my back. Maybe you won't still be listening to it in fifteen years. I'm just saying that this album's a grower. It gets better and better with every spin. And if given enough of a chance, it can grow to be a huge part of Indie rock culture, an album we all remember as we age gracefully and start to reminisce about our twenties and the "great times" we had watching the Indie scene explode. "Remember Alligator?" "Oh yea, dude, it ...

By Lavinia

Published: August 9th, 2006

I've never seen more than a few hundred people at a Man Man show. Back home in Philadelphia, where the bearded Indie hodgepodge are from, they ride their bikes around town, serve us coffee, and draw fairly well for a local band, but nothing like the thousands of pasty hipsters who flocked to see them at the Pitchfork Music Festival. For two days last weekend in Chicago, incredible bands who in their hometowns are only celebrities to a privileged few hundred, were swarmed by tens of thousands of their devoted fans who'd previously been spread out all over the country. It's the same rationale used by promoters in every city, book four bands on a bill, get four bands worth of ...

By Lavinia

Published: July 24th, 2006

We all know how the city of Philadelphia celebrates the Fourth of July. The former capital of the United States knows how to throw a P.C. party, there's always the fireworks (because what red-blooded American doesn't love to see shit blow up), and this year's Penn's Landing concert included funky middle-ager favorites the Ohio Players. But how did Philly's Indie scene show their patriotism? How did those of us slightly skeeved by the idea of half of South Philly's population all jammed into the riverside wearing wife-beaters and bad sunburns from their recent trips "down the shore" show our stars and stripes? By hitting the Khyber to catch a very patriotic set by Poconos popsters The Sw!ms and ...

By Lavinia

Published: July 4th, 2006

The first time I heard Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, it was last year's Etiquette, and the simplicity of his synthesizer coupled with the bitterness in his fuzzy vocals was captivating. From the twenty-something lonely heart anthem I Love Creedence to the tell it like it is Young Shields whose lyrics read like a regurgitated parental lecture, Etiquette makes me wonder whether college dropout turned low-fi songwriter Owen Ashworth is claiming that unused intellect, vintage pearls, bleak loveless existences, and endless, reflective subway rides home are the sad realities of young urban bohemian life. Three months later I tell the guy behind the counter that I'm going to need a second bag. I spent my subway money on records ...

By Lavinia

Published: June 11th, 2006

Everyone is afraid of something. Whether it's rational or ridiculous, the trigger that shoots paralyzing terror into our guts can be as little as a mouse in the apartment at night or as big as nuclear fallout. Fears can be justified by experience - I always get a cold shiver on the street in Fishtown where I was once mugged - and they can come from nowhere more tangible than our own imaginations like the monster in a child's closet. Almost anyone who has a career fears failure and would think that the opposite would be a fear of the irrational variety, but for musicians entering into the industry, hoping to make it is like opening up that ...

By Lavinia

Published: June 1st, 2006

On the first hot, sunny day of summer in the city, we sat down over some coffee and grilled veggies with the four bright-eyed and bushy-tailed members of The March Hare to find out more about their genre and ear-bending debut EP, People Dressed as People, where an experimental band finds a home (and a few shows to play) in Philly, and how a band can become prog-rock without actually listening to any. Four close friends, Zack Guy, Charlie Heim, Chrissy Tashjian, and Jon Hafer have combined their love of jazz with their propensity for wild rock'n'roll energy to create an album that refuses to conform to any sort of specific musical genre. It's too musical to be hardcore and too ...

By Lavinia

Published: May 14th, 2006

It has a pace that teases the listener. Synthesizers and rhythmic guitars careen from the speakers like a runaway train, but just before the whole song derails, just when you feel like the energy is about to combust, suddenly the guitar is arpeggiating, slowing down to concentrate on a single chord change, leaving you a few seconds to catch your breath before charging back to breakneck speed. On A Certain Trigger, Maximo Park are the UK's newest kings of the catchy chorus and the mesmerizing bridge. A bridge is the movement in the middle of a song that is unique and separate from the verse and chorus, which flavors a tune and breaks the A, B, A, B pattern of songwriting, ...

By Lavinia

Published: May 9th, 2006

Ever wonder what an Indie rock frat house would be like? Of course not, because the idea of plaid, shaggy haired boys in tight jeans moping around strumming guitars does not jibe with puke-soaked couches and hazing rituals that revolve around pubes. Until now. To escape from the rewarding but restrictive White Stripes, Jack White has created his own low-fi-beta kappa in the form of a four-man side project, The Raconteurs. Their first single "Steady As She Goes" first hit my radar on a mix cd that was a Valentine's Day present from a friend in Detroit, and ever since hearing the catchy, rammy guitars coupled with the mixed-up, wavering vocal harmonies, I've been eagery waiting for the release of a full ...

By Lavinia

Published: May 2nd, 2006

A handbook for parents that D.A.R.E. will never adopt as part of its "Talking to your kids about drugs" campaign and jingles that will never make it into Planned Parenthood commercials are both contained on Hamell on Trial's latest release, Songs for Parents Who Do Drugs. Hamell, the self-proclaimed anti-folk musician, has created another entertainingly offensive opus that not only encourages former party-animals turned domestic to lie to their young 'uns about their sordid pasts, but also endorses filling your purse with a beautiful rainbow of pills, and putting the heat on a pimp. A one-man opinion machine, Hamell on Trial laces his songs with steely guitars, sing along-style choruses (e.g. on the imitation campfire anthem, "Pretty Colors" when people in ...

By Lavinia

Published: April 27th, 2006

As part of the opening weekend of Thrilladelphia Festival's third year representing the incredible wealth of musical talent in the 215, Cordalene, Sam Champion, Jake the Flying Rake's Nitrogen Band and American Altitude almost took the roof off the Manhattan Room at the Freshout Media showcase. All four bands said a big "Up yours!" to the pouring rain and cold weather playing until 2 a.m. to the soggy but enthusiastic crowd of music lovers who braved the downpour to see the show. The free Yards took the edge off. Cordalene jump started the night with their unique and energetic drive-beat and mesmerizing vocals, playing a really tight and intensely fun set after bassist Jeff Anderson tossed off his Thrilladelphia organizing duties ...

By Lavinia

Published: April 22nd, 2006

When I see a local group is going to be playing a huge, beautiful venue like the Kimmel Center sitting right smack in the middle of our city, like any Philadelphian would, I swell up with pride. But when that group is not only local, but also groundbreaking and original, well, this time I almost burst. Philadelphia's best answer to the question of what lies in that dead zone between Jazz and Rock is a musical Ellipsis. This trio of local Jazz session vets have come out of the Indie-rock closet, admitting that they love bands like Radiohead and Bright Eyes, and filling in the spaces between two formerly conflicting genres with jazz-inspired rock covers. Pianist John Stenger backed by the ...

By Lavinia

Published: April 2nd, 2006

Jeff Love is whining about how people in the city are too uptight about their kites. To be fair, the kite he’s running around with in a Northern Liberties courtyard legitimately belongs to a girl who lives upstairs. After a few minutes being sweet talked by National Eye’s two principle front men, Doug Kirby and Rick Flom who explain to her that they’re in a band, she’s more than happy to let us borrow it. She even helps Jeff, running in front while he shouts, Faster! It’s hard to tell with any of them whether they are joking (always) or being serious (never), but that charming inability to keep their sarcasm to themselves was what landed National Eye their first record ...

By Lavinia

Published: April 1st, 2006

On our second day on tour with the Teeth, we spent the whole afternoon and evening following their huge gunmetal grey van as it creaked and hauled up steep winding roads into the mountains of western North Carolina. Our car struggled on the inclines, and while I was being cut off, passed, and hollered at, by angry, hairy fist-waving locals in hulking 4x4s, the Teeth’s fifteen-passenger sliced steadily through the semi-darkness, passing a huge strip mall and then miles of nothing but dusky pine forest. Suddenly, the town of Boone popped up, out of nowhere- a brightly painted, slightly eerie hippie-themed college town loaded with coffee shops, record stores, bars, and a giant rock wall that the Teeth wanted to climb ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 31st, 2006

Monday, 6 February, 2006 - Tour Eve Illinois’ practice space is at the end of a series of winding roads in an industrial complex in Feasterville, PA. There’s a stiff, frozen basketball net hovering over a car. The doors to the car are all open. Band members are draped over the seats, skinny legs hanging out, feet tapping to the beat of a cabaret-country style song blasting through the speakers from guitarist Dru Lee’s iPod. Although the tune sounds like a scene straight out of A Mighty Wind, with a female vocalist and a contentedly strummed autoharp, it quickly becomes obvious (from the “fuck” peppered chorus) that some acoustic-lovin’ folks from who knows where down south have covered the Illinois’ song ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 29th, 2006

We picked up National Eye at Rick's house on Tuesday morning. It was freezing cold, but I was being optimistic about the weather in the south, so all I brought was a jacket. Will had to de-hinge the trailer to get in all the instruments, sleeping bags, and Trader Joe's trail mix. Before we took off, Doug and Jeff put our car on trailer duty. We had to notify the band if it came off and do everything in our power to stop it. It wasn't supposed to go over 45mph, but Will had a theory that if we drove faster, we'd get there sooner. At the first state border, Delaware, it was still cold. Still cold in Maryland, too. All five ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 28th, 2006

The Teeth by the light of day were much more tame than their late-night alter egos. Aaron and Jonas related most of their recent history over coffee on the porch, then Peter and Brian emerged from the basement and the whole band played with Eli the dog. Before climbing into the mountains to their next gig, The Teeth stopped at a Waffle House. According to the waitress Aaron's options for waffle toppings were, "strawberryblueberry." She picked at her cold sore while she waited for the food to come up and another waitress lectured her, "Quit pickin' it or it'll spread!" Boone, North Carolina appeared suddenly after almost twenty minutes of driving uphill through nothing but forest. Brian parked ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 24th, 2006

We spent an extremely civilized morning in Boon with the Teeth playing chess and reading the newspaper. Brian and I finished an entire sudoku puzzle except for one box, which we just blacked out. The Teeth told us that they do tons of reading on tour because there isn't much else to do. They also proudly said that they've only had to actually ask for a place to stay once, in Boston (they made an announcement and someone offered). After leaving the Teeth in Boone (they're camping somewhere along the way to New Orleans) to catch up with National Eye at their gig in Atlanta, we make a pit stop at a roadside farm stand. I try ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 22nd, 2006

Mapquest said it would be 9 hours from Atlanta to New Orleans, so Gianmarco was up at 8 in the morning cooking everyone breakfast (from Wholefoods, of course). After a tearful goodbye to the big comfy house, it was back on the road trailing the Uhaul for another day of praying it would stay hitched. At a rest stop in Alabama I smell tested the National Eye van against our car: Van = sweat, Car = broccoli. A few hours into the drive the van started to slow down. They pulled over onto the shoulder and coasted for five more minutes at less than 10mph before stopping. Will jumped into our car, explained that the van's gas gauge was less than ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 21st, 2006

At 9 the next morning Peter's face was peering into the living room where we were all camped out. I got up to watch him with Will stumbling in a zig-zag crossing back and forth across the street. They came back two hours later with iced coffee and big smiles. In the daylight it was obvious that a lot of work had been done to the neighborhood to fix it back up. There were dumpsters lining the street filled with debris and at least a quarter of the houses on the block were swarming with construction workers whacking away at floorboards. The house we slept in belonged to Matt, a friend of Park the Van, and he sat out on the porch ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 19th, 2006

As one last gesture of Shreveport's full-on Teeth devotion, LaVette hosted a huge Louisiana-style breakfast for National Eye, The Teeth, The Big Positive, and ten of their friends. There was cereal, sausage, potatoes, grits, tofu scramble, fruit, coffee, tea, everything. The whole house was filled with musicians and fans, all three bands hanging out in different groups, joking around, breaking things, playing with the cat and dog, learning about roller derby, posing for a big group picture and finally helping to clean up the kitchen. In an empty Chinese restaurant in Huston at dinner The Teeth decided they didn't want to play the gig that night. Peter thought they should rock paper scissors and the loser would have to do a solo ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 17th, 2006

The morning in Huston, which was really just an extension of the night before, turned into another rowdy breakfast free-for-all. Rick made a bag of frozen french fries explode all over the kitchen, but we just picked them out of the plant pots and the sink and put them in the oven. I was starting to notice a lot of the band members didn't seem to be changing their pants so I did some scietific research. The Teeth said a tearful goodbye to their Shreveport fan base to head for Fort Worth, the last gig on the tour before South By Southwest. There was a huge pileup on the floor as The Big Positive tried one last time to keep our whole ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 15th, 2006

Park the Van sprung for a hotel suite for The Teeth and National Eye to share, so in the morning everybody woke up together rested and happy, even though Will was the only one up in time for the free breakfast. Jeff, Rick and I ran across the street to the Barnes and Noble so that Jeff could get a book on Patton and I could buy Mad Libs for each van. Rick and I talked about the night before and the musically mismatched bands (Sex Slaves!) that are put together for these tour shows. Since the crowd was there for a punk show, they weren't receptive of National Eye's psychedelic indie and Rick noticed the effect that it had on ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 9th, 2006

Brian and Peter woke up elated to see Andrew, and ran around excitedly making a sign to hold for him at the airport. They were so keyed up that a disagreement about whether they should tape the hot dog sticks to the back of it for stability sent them to opposite corners of the campsite for a while. We started taking down the tent with Jonas still asleep inside. Three big guys in 10 gallon hats walked past the Teeth's table at the Tex-Mex truckstop where they were having breakfast tacos. The cowboys were talking about doing their morning crossword, and for some reason it made the whole band burst out laughing. Since we were sans marshmallows the night before, Aaron felt ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 8th, 2006

The UK is truly the land of Rock and Roll opportunity. The tiny island has produced more than its fair share of musical trendsetters and heavy hitters, from the Beatles to Franz Ferdinand. It seems that each British group to take the world by storm carries with it a distinct look: mop tops, tight pants, horizontal stripes. So it is fitting that Badly Drawn Boy, one of England's best contributions to Indie rock, is rarely seen without his signature beard, wool hat, and cigarette. He is known in the underground circles for much more than just his lack of style. Badly Drawn Boy, whose real name is Damon Gough, has created a whole series of albums that ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 8th, 2006

At 8:30 in the morning there were two guys in cowboy hats drinking Corona in the hotel hot tub. The manager of a band from Massachusetts sat down at my table at breakfast, where I was waiting for the Teeth to wake up and come down. He was wearing plaid pajama pants and a black suit jacket. The hotel room smelled really badly of feet, but every time we opened the window the noise from the highway made it impossible to have a conversation, so we just decided to deal. Over the a gut-busting Denny's breakfast (cajun omelettes, hashbrowns, sausage, bacon, pancakes, and fruit-filled waffles) The Teeth picked their set-list for the showcase. They were sticking with the set that ...

By Lavinia

Published: March 7th, 2006

Many a hipster heart was broken in 2000 when the kings of the fledgling Indie rock scene, Ben Folds Five, broke up for reasons still speculated. For some, the thought of facing the new millenium without the North Carolina based group's lyrical piano-slamming tunes was too much to bear. The group's songs could turn from adolescent-minded and bitter ("Song for the Dumped") to optimistic and whimsical ("Philosophy") in an instant. The rest of the now orphaned Folds fans sat quietly waiting to see what would come next. While frontman Ben Folds pursued his solo career, releasing albums similar in style but not in sentiment to the work he did as part of the ensemble, the other two musicians ...