The Northern Liberties Winter Music Festival at The Fire is finishing up this weekend with two big shows tonight, another tomorrow night, and the climactic Radiohead Tribute Sunday night. It all sounds awesome to us, but we wanted to give a particular heads up to you guys about one of the many bands playing Saturday night: Peasant. Peasant is actually less a band and more a guy: Damien DeRose of Doylestown. We've been listening to......

Ah, it's a bad photograph of a car! And that can mean only one thing: the Philadelphia International Auto Show is almost here! We're finding it hard to believe that it's already that time again, but it must be true, because whenever we go within a four block radius of the Convention Center, we see dozens of large trucks full of cars. And we snapped this shot this morning of one classic specimen already......

They may not actually save your soul, but the Soulsavers (MySpace) - an English production and remix team comprised of members Rich Machin and Ian Glover - do have a spiritual (though not so spiritual agnostics, like this Phillyist, can't enjoy it) new album out now (It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land, their second) which will at least entertain you, and they're coming to the mighty North Star tonight to......

This Sunday, a music legend comes to the World Cafe Live. And he's not just coming to play. Bob Mould (MySpace) will take part in a special Q&A session before performing an intimate acoustic set. Then he'll step aside for a screening of his first concert DVD, Circle of Friends. If that doesn't sound cool, there's something wrong with you. Bob Mould is, of course, the mastermind behind punk/college rock band Hüsker Dü and......

Enon Tickets
11/5/07-11/9/07...

We weren't familiar with Jennifer O'Connor (MySpace) when we recently received a copy of her latest release, Over The Mountain, Across The Valley And Back To The Stars. But with an album title like that, we assumed her music would turn out to be the worst kind of touchy-feely singer-songwriter crap. Luckily, we were entirely wrong. Yes, it is low-key pop from a singer/songwriter/guitarist. But it's really high quality low-key pop with fantastic vocals, clever......

We can't say we're entirely proud of ourselves for this, but we have to admit we're totally loving Black Fingernails, Red Wine, the third album and latest release from Australian trio Eskimo Joe (MySpace). Sure, it's pop. But it's also totally fun (one might even say irresistible), infectious, danceable pop rock with a New Wave (sometimes almost Depeche Mode-ish) flavor, and a piano often tinkling in the background. Download two of our favorite tracks off......

It's rare that we get to talk about an indie rock show that features more than one band that we're familiar with and impressed by, but we're getting that chance today. Tonight at Johnny Brenda's both Film School (MySpace) and Eulogies will be playing, along with Cloud Minder and Minipop. Eulogies, on their self-titled release, plays a melancholy (but fun) alterna-pop that one might describe as emo - although we'd rather not, since emo has......

Country is usually a musical genre we studiously ignore, but Castanets do country that's something else. It's a strange, eerie, sad, atmospheric alt-country, with singer-songwriter and central member Raymond Raposa contributing intriguing, froggy vocals reminiscent of Bob Dylan's, and music that's deep and slow and thoughtful. In the Vines, the latest album from Castanets, is what we're basing these comments on, and it's a pretty interesting album, as it's partially "based on a Hindu......

We've been listening to a couple of releases by Norwegian post-rock band Syme—a relatively short album called Swing Swing, and an EP of remixes and covers called Modern Love—and we've been enjoying both of them. Their music varies from the dreamy, eerie, and contemplative to the roaring, bouncing, silly, and super-fun. Their best track is probably "Ad Kosmos!" which hits both of those extremes during its four minutes of run time. Syme have been compared......

The Cave Singers are a new trio out of Seattle, and their music is being described as "haunting," as "folk music approached by way of punk rock," and as "sparse, melodic, and simultaneously creepy and alluring." Those last two quotes are from Brian Barr of Seattle Weekly, and we have to agree with him pretty much 100%. We've been listening to their debut full length, Invitation Songs, and we're pretty impressed. Particular favorites of......

We'll make this short and sweet: Voxtrot (MySpace) is a good band. Their self-titled full-length release is a super-fun disc, full of catchy pop rock. Download a great track from the album ("Kid Gloves" - wherein vocalist Ramesh Srivastava cries, "Cheer me up, cheer me up, I'm a miserable fuck") right here. They're playing an all ages show at the First Unitarian Church this Sunday with 1990s and The Little Ones. Check out the R5......

Fionn Regan Giveaway
10/1/2007-10/5/2007...

He's saying Goodbye, and you might not even know him yet. He's Ulrich Schnauss (MySpace), and he's got some shoe-gazing electro-pop he'd like you to hear. That's why he's coming to World Cafe Live tomorrow night, accompanied by Soundpool and Brooklyn dream pop band Mahogany. Schnauss' latest release, Goodbye, is a complexly layered, sweeping, dramatic, romantic piece of music. What it reminds us of the most is soundtracks: Tangerine Dream's original soundtrack to Legend; Vangelis'......

Some album titles really grab you and stick in your head, and Moo, You Bloody Choir is one of those. It's the latest release from Australian band Augie March (MySpace), and happily, the music on it will really grab you, too. Their lyrics, courtesy of singer-songwriter Glenn Richards, are clever poetry, and their music is pleasant indie rock, with a bounce, a jangle, and even the occasional banjo. Favorites of ours include the whirling, enveloping,......

The National Giveaway
8/29/07-9/2/07...

Mink CD, Shirt, Ticket Giveaway
8/27/07-8/31/07...

Benzos Ticket Giveaway
8/16/07-8/20/07...

Pterodactyl, besides being one of our favorite dinosaurs, is also a pretty kick-ass noise rock trio out of Brooklyn. We've been listening to their self-titled release (which came out near the end of April), and although it's a bit uneven, its slight dips are compensated for by its soaring highs. By which we mean, it can occasionally drift so far into discordance that it's just annoying. But at other times it rocks your socks......

So You Think You Can Dance Giveaway
8/11/07-8/18/07...

Portugal The Man isn't a country or a person; it's a classic 3-piece band from Alaska whose latest album, Church Mouth, is a collection of indie music with a rich classic rock flavor. Their website says that bands referenced on the disc include the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the White Stripes, the Mars Volta and Santana, and... yep, we can hear all of those in there. Especially the White Stripes, since lead singer John Baldwin Gourley......

We'll probably feature this again in tomorrow's CinePhillyist column, but we wanted to give it a quick mention today because it starts tonight: it's the International House's three-day double feature program, Beyond Leone – Lost Spaghetti Western Classics! "Spaghetti Western" is a term used to describe the series of low-budget Westerns shot in other countries - usually Italy - during the '60s and '70s. The most popular and well known entries in the genre are......

This is going to be a short post. We basically just wanted to tell you that there exists in the world an all-girl Led Zeppelin tribute band called Lez Zeppelin, and that they're playing World Cafe Live tomorrow night. If you don't already want to see them, we're not sure we understand you. Lez Zeppelin may be one of the best band names ever, especially given the fact that it's being applied to four women......

All the way from Glasgow, UK, The Twilight Sad (myspace) bring their brand of loud guitar rock to Johnny Brenda’s tonight. With tracks like ‘Walking For Two Hours’ and ‘Talking With Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed’ you’ll be taken down hallways hearing echoes of Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai (if either produced tracks with discernible lyrics). These four blokes combine effects pedals, tape loops from old films, guitar, bass, toy keyboards, saws and Voltron action......

Scout Niblett (that's her with the monkey) is a woman who sings and plays guitar, and we like her 3-song EP Dinosaur Egg, released back in May. The title track is about really hoping your dinosaur egg hatches and your robot slave springs to life in time for that party on Friday, so of course we love it. There's also a neat cover of The Cars' classic "Just What I Needed," and a slower,......

The Decemberists Giveaway
7/2/07-7/6/07...

We'll be honest. The main reason we want to see The Polyphonic Spree is to see how they logistically put together a concert with their twenty-four-plus-member band. Promoting peace with energized anthems and thoughtful ballads, The Polyphonic Spree will impress you with their music and symbolic clothing choices: this time, it's black military-style fatigues, replacing their well-known robes. Tim DeLaughter, the musical director and co-leader, Julie Doyle fuse strings, brass, choir into an exuberant......

This is just a quick note to let you know that Ben + Vesper are playing Johnny Brenda's tomorrow night, as part of a packed bill of indie rock that also includes MV & EE, Greg Weeks, and Festival. We can't speak from firsthand about all the bands, but we've been listening to Ben + Vesper's recently released full-length All This Could Kill You, and we find it to be a lovely little recording,......

It's Thursday. That means, you have to start thinking about what you are doing for this weekend. We are going to be at Johnny Brenda's this Friday night to catch Califone. Honestly we didn't know a lot about this band, but we checked out their MySpace page and dug their music. With a couple of Google searches and downloads off of iTunes, we learned that Califone is an experimental post-rock band from Chicago that released......

The Sea and Cake is one of those rare bands that is totally consistent and reliable in terms of style and quality. For years they've been putting out ten track-long CDs full of excellent, mellow indie pop. Pop any one of their discs in the player and you are guaranteed a good time. Their latest album, Everybody, which came out in May, over four years since their last full-length release, is no exception. How can......