When Pavement played in Philly at the Khyber Pass in 1992

A few months after the release of their now genius landmark record Slanted And Enchanted in 1992 Pavement played in Philly at the Khyber Pass on July 30th. Freedom Has No Bounds recently posted this show that you can download here.

Tags: Pavement

fun.’s some nights is some fun.

one & 1/2 months in to the 1-2, and fun.’s new album – some nights is one of my favorite records of the year so far. never mind the fact that it’s got the ridiculously catchy-ready to explode “we are young” on it; from start to finish it sits like a proper album and for a tad over 45 minutes you can’t but fall in to deep musical wonder at the band’s crafty use of both modern day and traditional pop song structure, melody and arrangement and technique (i dig the autotune). hey, we all love queen and jellyfish and the format and steel train. so it’s only natural we love fun. below, listen to the record (i suggest headphones). buy it when it comes out on february 21st.

Tags: fun.

Listen to Alabama Shakes cover Led Zep on World Cafe/NPR Music w/ David Dye

From a recent World Cafe session the Alabama Shakes did with Cafe host David Dye, check out their cover of Led Zep’s “How Many More Times.” The band release their debut album on April 9th/10th.

Tags: Alabama Shakes

conner youngblood returns with a gorgeous mixtape/collection of songs

I’ve been a fan of Conner Youngblood since back in december 2010 when I first discovered his music. The singer-songwriter just released a new mixtape/collection of gorgeous songs called Sketches, Pt. 1 that he’s offering as a free download <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ue0rt8tsdj6o8qf"here. The songs are ambient, soulful, delicate, no-musical-boundaries kinds of gems that stretch the notion of what a “singer-songwriter” is capable of. He’s got a wonderful reworking of Michael Jackson’s “WIll You Be There” on it, as well as the song “Monsters” which is a tune that introduced a lot of fans to his music. It’s great having this collection from him and look forward to hearing more, and soon. #realdeal

Tags: Conner Youngblood

Download: “I’d Like To Know” by Filthybird; the latest Shaking Through

The latest episode of Shaking Through features North Carolina’s Filthybird. The band includes singer Renee Mendoza, her husband and guitarist Brian Haran, and the rhythm section of Chris Girard, Nick Jaegar, and drummer James Wallace. The song was recorded in November at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia and was produced by Brian McTear. The episode was curated by Grayson Currin of Independent Weekly, IFC, and Pitchfork.

Tags: Filthybird, Shaking Through

download: justin townes earle covers the boss; “racing in the streets”

download below: justin townes earle covers Bruce Springsteen’s “Racing In The Streets” from a live show at the Six Strings Lounge/February 11, 2011, Bloomington, Illinois. justin’s new album, nothing’s gonna change the way you feel about me now is out on march 27th on bloodshot records.

download: Racing In The Streets by Justin Townes Earle

download the title song to justin’s forthcoming album via rollingstone.com Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now – Justin Townes Earle

Tags: Justin Townes Earle

welcome to team me

welcome to team me, a six piece norwegian pop band who are releasing their debut album called to the treetops in the states in march on propeller records. i missed the blogfamous buzz around the band on the ep they put out last year, however now they’ve hit my radar i’ve got a crush. the songs that team me craft are quite impressive; it’s joyous reach-for-the-skies indie-pop at it’s most melodic, with warm instrumentation and classic pop drive. think prefab sprout, the la’s, fanfarlo, deacon blue…i could go on, but i won’t cause really it’s about a unique voice that team me have as a band. listen/watch below.

Show Me – Team Me

With My Hands Covering Both of My Eyes I Am Too Scared To Have a Look At You Now

Team Me – Show Me from APPARATET on Vimeo.

Tags: Team Me

stream the new rodrigo y gabriela album via npr music

Rodrigo y Gabriela are releasing their new album Area 52 next Tuesday, January 24th. The album, recorded mostly in Havana with a 13 piece Cuban orchestra is streaming now in its entirety at NPR Music here.

i’ll tumbl for ya at somevelvetblog.2

maybe it’s that the interwebs have just turned my brain into having no attention span, or maybe i just dig the nimbleness of tumblr, but i’ve been finding myself posting alot to my tumblr recently and i’m feeling the way it handles. i started my some velvet blog.2 tumblr to post about some of my non-musical interests but i soon found i would resort back to the music since it’s mostly my life. and as i started posting music to my tumblr i would ask myself, should i post this to my wordpress blog or my tumblr. ultimately it came down to my being able to post stuff to tumblr almost immediately. no fuss no muss. so, for now that’s where i’ll be hanging with the occasional post here, where it all started in december 2004.

if you’ve yet to follow my musical hijinx on my tumblr, please follow me on somevelvetblog.2 tumblr here

The Best Of Philly Music 2011, Part 2

In case you missed it: The Best Of Philly Music 2011, Part 1 is here featuring The Roots, The War On Drugs, Work Drugs, Purling Hiss, Lushlife, Hezekiah Jones, Chill Moody, Vintage Kicks and Gracie. Now, on to The Best Of Philly Music 2011, Part 2.
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Cough Cool
Cough Cool’s Dan Svizeny has two very cool things going for him: he loves lo-fi blissed out jams as much as he loves Philly sports teams. CC’s new album, Lately is on Bathetic Records and has 13 mind expanding tracks of MBV-styled shoegaze wax.

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White Birds
This past summer Drink Up Buttercup morphed into White Birds featuring three of the Buttercups; James Harvey, Farzad Houshiarnejad, and Mike Cammarata. The White Birds’ ambient sun kissed four song debut EP on Grizzly Records is a gorgeous, reminiscent-of-the-Fleet-Foxes-meets-Beach-Boys-Surf’s-Up collection of breezy pop songs. The band recorded a Key Studio Session for WXPN’s local music web site, The Key back in November that you should check out here.

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Zilla Rocca
Rapper, producer, storyteller, hip-hop provocateur Zilla Rocca has got a very cool self-contained little cottage industry going on working with the likes of Curly Castro and Has-Lo as The Wrecking Crew and working with producers like the Small Professor and Dr. Quandary. Rocca had a busy 2011 busting out singles, EP’s, various videos and is currently at work on a Wu-Tang remix tribute project (check out the track below). Listen to one of Rocca’s highlights of 2011 below, the Nights & Weekends EP.

Zilla Rocca x Curly Castro x Has-Lo – Scallops (prod by Y?Arcka) WU-TANG PULP

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Photo by Michael "Kraus Phade" Béon | krausphade.com

Saturn Never Sleeps
Long time DJ/musician/producer/global musical entrepreneur King Britt collaborated with Rucyl on Yesterday’s Machine, a collection of mellowtronica with R&B, silky soul and post-dubstep flourishes. You can download the album for free here. Rucyl’s voice has that sexy-as-Sade vibe to it and the album from start to finish feels like a distant cousin to Massive Attack. Smooth as silk.

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Lantern
Lantern is a three piece fronted by Zachary Devereux Fairbroter and features Emily Robb on bass and vocals and Sophie White on Drums. The band first caught my attention with this cover of “I Just Want To Make Love To You,” written by the legendary Willie Dixon. Since landing in Philly last year the band has put out a series of EP’s, singles, etc that capture early blues with some hot indie-rock lo-fi punk-rock psychosauce urgency. They’re a little bit Capt. Beefheart, a little bit early Stones, a little bit Jon Spencer, a little bit Charlie Christian and now that’s he’s come to his senses, a little bit Elvis P. The band’s latest jawn is a live EP they released with Dirty Beaches that you can grab here. This cat and kittens can really distill the jams.

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Scot Sax
Scot Sax is a one man rock and roll classic rock machine. “Classic” not so much in the sense of the same 250 songs we hear on classic rock radio (although you can feel that) but classic in the sense that since his days in Wanderlust, Sax has a sense of classic pop/rock songwriting that is just sort of off the charts. Whether it’s power pop, glam, indie rock or yes, “classic” classic rock, Sax just never sits still musically and this year put together Queen Electric, a power trio featuring Phil D’Agostino on bass and Mike Pietrusko on drums. With Queen Electric, Sax continues to showcase his versatility as a musician who is an excellent songwriter, player and pop craftsman. And yes, a massive Bowie fan. You can QE’s album for a “name your price” price below.

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The Wurx
You may not be familiar with rap duo The Wurx but that’s all about to change real soon. G. Moolah & Trons are coming up quick, with some high profile joints and an even higher profile moment they had recently with The Roots’ Black Thought when they dropped by Tony Touch’s radio show that you can check out here. Keep your eyes (and ears) on these guys; listen to a couple jawns below. It’s like 1995 all over again. I am definitely looking forward to hearing more from these guys.

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Arches
With each new release, these dreamgazers keep getting better and better. Daytrotter’s Sean Moeller said it best about this band: “Arches music straddles that fine line between the beautiful lull of the undulating waves of an ocean and the part of the scene where you feel a tug on your leg from below.”

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Nicos Gun
With a string of singles, lots of hard work and now their debut full length debut (download below), Nicos Gun are about as fun a band that you can experience live. Prince, Bowie, Robert Palmer and LCD influences abound however these guys have found the rock flavor in the funk and push it push it push it.

Tags: Arches, Cough Cool, Lantern, Nicos Gun, Queen Electric, Saturn Never Sleeps, The Wurx, White Birds, Zilla Rocca