Instrumental Analysis

Another summer weekend with a boatload of shows to check out. Here’s what’s going on.

Summer is the time for festivals and this Saturday the Download Festival rolls through the Philly area for the only east coast date of this three city festival. It is a huge line-up featuring The Killers, Iggy Pop & The Stooges, Ghostland Observatory, The Parlor Mob, The Duke Spirit, Colour Revolt, Louis XIV, Sia, The Whigs, The Airborne Toxic Event, Eli Reed, and Philly’s own Man Man. It’ll be a hot one, so go prepared. For all details of what you can bring to the Susquehanna Bank Center (The E-Center, Blockbuster, whatever you called it), check out the festival website.

mp3: The Parlor Mob – Cant Keep No Good Boy Down
mp3: Colour Revolt – Naked and Red
mp3: Sia – Electric Bird
mp3: The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight

As far as the rest of the weekend goes, a huge number of local and national acts are playing the area.

The minimalist acoustic sounds of Bon Iver are joined by Bowerbirds, who are re-releasing Hymns for a Dark Horse, for two shows. Thursday they are in Philly at the First Unitarian Church, then head on down to DC for a show at the Black Cat.

mp3: Bon Iver – Skinny Love
mp3: Bowerbirds – In Our Talons

Dubbed “The thinking-mans Wilco”, Earlimart are on tour and making two stops in the area, starting in Philly Friday at Johnny Brendas. They are joined by Philly locals Sunshine Recorder and JJL (otherwise known as Like A Fox). Saturday, check out Earlimart at the Ottobar in Baltimore.

mp3: Earlimart – Song For
mp3: Sunshine Recorder – Hemmingway
mp3: JJL – Vertical Dance

Aimee Mann is playing quite a few shows over the next few days. You can catch her with The Submarines at the 9:30 Club on Saturday, then she plays back-to-back shows at the World Cafe starting Monday.

Priscilla Ahn is also making a run through the area, starting Saturday at the Tin Angel in Philly, then heading to Jammin Java Sunday where she hooks up with Willoughby. Those two are also at Rams Head in Annapolis for a Tuesday show.

Before gracing us with their presence for our Saturday Anniversary show next weekend, Bellman Barker are pulling a two-for. They will be at the Metro Gallery Saturday with Baltimore’s The Courtesy Line and then travel to Philly to perform with DC-mates The Caribbean and Brooklyn’s Soren Well.

mp3: Bellman Barker – Charles Kil
mp3: The Courtesy Line – Make It Up
mp3: The Caribbean – The Go From Tactical
mp3: Soren Well – Black Transmissions

Thursday

It’s very light on Thursday. Other than Bon Iver/Bowerbirds, Philly’s own The Extraordinaires are playing Johnny Brendas.

mp3: The Extraordinaires – The Chicken The Egg or The Song

Friday

The Duke Spirit is playing a Free at Noon at the World Cafe before their performance Saturday at the Download Festival. Also, Hello Tokyo are performing at The Fire.

mp3: Hello Tokyo – Kiss Me Good-bye (remix)

Saturday

The World Cafe seems to be the happening place this weekend, this time with The Apples In Stereo.

Down in DC at the Black Cat, Virgin Records artist We Are Scientists are touring in support of their new album Brain Thrust Mastery. They are joined by Oxford Collapse, who also have a new album BITS coming out Tuesday.

mp3: The Apples in Stereo – Energy
mp3: We Are Scientists – Chick Lit (remix)
mp3: Oxford Collapse – The Birthday Wars

Sunday

Finishing off the weekend is Philly’s The Bee Team. In the midst of a I-95 tour with DC’s Deleted Scenes and The Never, they are at Millcreek Tavern, then start the week off in DC at Black Cat.

Across the river at IOTA, catch locals Prabir & The Substitutes and Greenland.

mp3: Deleted Scenes – Fake IDs
mp3: The Never – Cavity
mp3: Prabir & The Substitutes – Slow
mp3: Greenland – Shipwreck on the Watery Eye

Noah and the Whale claim themselves to be “a magical band hailing from London, who find inspiration in the films of Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach and sound a little like Neutral Milk Hotel, The Kinks and Belle and Sebastian.” Surprisingly, they’ve summed themselves up perfectly and I won’t mess around with a less apt description, except to say that their latest album, Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down, comes out September 16th and it’s a simple, catchy mix of everything a listener could want from a minimalistic British collective. They’ve thankfully moved up from playing in the corners of tiny bars to touring all across Britain, which makes me wish I was a little bit less in Washington, D.C. and a little bit more in London.

mp3: 5 Years Time

Jeff Hanson releases his third album, Madam Owl, on Kill Rock Stars this August. The record, like its two predecessors, contains a smooth set of pop-music symphonies so catchy it seems that each one could be the record’s single. I confess that I first thought Jeff Hanson was merely the musician and writer on a project sung by The Weepies’ Deb Talan (compare the vocals), but I’m both wrong and ashamed. His consistent voice has a handcrafted quality that perfectly matches his choice in acoustic guitars.

mp3: If Only I Knew

Highrises In Brooklyn, the new album from Brooklyn’s neighborhood belle, Kelley McRae, drops August 19th. Resonating with the twang of Brandi Carlisle and the sweet spirituality of Mindy Smith, McRae does a pretty good job of standing on her own two feet thanks to her honest lyrics, believable voice, and touch of classical composition. She tours her songs of burden, homesickness, birds and Johnny Cash, through our area this summer.

7/26: The Wonderland Ballroom, Washington, DC
7/27: House Concert (check website, Baltimore, MD
7/30: Circle of Hope, Philadelphia, PA
8/23: Jammin Java, Vienna, VA

mp3: Highrises In Brooklyn

After years of getting drips and drabs – albeit those drips and drabs were wonderful nuggets of goodness – fans of PAS/CAL finally got to add a full length release to their collection when I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke and Laura dropped last week.

Long-time fans will be pleased with the continuing evolution of their sound, balancing the poppy sweetness of You Were Too Old for Me with an unabashedly ambitious move towards an even more epic, arty, and occasionally weird sound.

I’m still working out whether I like the album as a whole, but I’ll let you decide for yourself.

mp3: Glorious Ballad of the Ignored

It’s a fine line between clever and stupid, but an even finer line between disturbing and catchy (all thanks to David St. Hubbins for the quote). XX Teens seem to have carefully toed both of these lines on “Darlin’,” the first single from their debut Welcome to Goon Island.

It took me three spins, but on that third try, the scary combination of accordians, fuzzed-out bass, and surf rock guitars all came together for me. I won’t even attempt to throw out the usual comparisons with other bands, as I’ve got no easy ones to make. Suffice to say, it rocks.

Give a listen and book your tickets to Goon Island (and check out the Maurice Sendak on a bad acid trip graphics, just for an added kick to the head).

mp3: Darlin’