Illinois in the weeds

Some of you Weeds watchers may have recognized one of the songs during "The Brick Dance," and if not, it was Philly's very own Illinois. Check out the scene and then grab some tunes from one of Philly's finest.

The Brick Dance


Along Again - Illinois
Screendoor - Illinois

George Stanford

The name George Stanford may be familiar to fans of the band he formed in Philly called Townhall. After the band split up, Stanford went to LA, City of Dreamers and Rock Stars in search of the elusive deal. Well, he deservedly got one. He signed an initial deal with Epic Records however, the corporate record company world being as fucked up as it is, a shake-up took him to the revitalized Mercury Records. Good news is that George has an EP out on Smash Records (I think they're an indie-in-disguise-as-a-major) with a record coming either by the end of this year or early next.

Stanford's always been a soul-singer at heart who can sound a little like Paul Simon and the songs on his EP are outstanding. Here's one of them from his myspace page and one from his old days with Townhall.

Let's Stay Here - George Stanford

Night Patrol - Townhall

Tickley Feather

I'm intriqued by Tickley Feather (real name: Annie Sachs) whose electronica is hypnotic and lush and gorgeous and all the other things hipsterindieposeur bloggers would say about some new band from Iceland or Scandanavia somewhere only that Tickley's from Philly which is about as close to Ice as we'll ever get to Iceland and we're darn proud of it. But I will tell you that Tickley's got much more than just ice. The girl's got vision and some twisted beats inside her cold cold heart.

You may have seen Tickley open for Panda Bear here in Philly and she's about to head out on the road opening for Animal Collective. Right now, Ms Feather has a limited, yet excellent amount of music avaialble including a split 7-inch single on Badmaster Records, a couple of songs on another split single on CNP Records

Natural - Tickley Feather

The Python - Tickley Feathers

Tickley - "Sex Face"

Philebrity has a foggy notion

It's a candy. It's a gum. It's a party. It's Philebrity's Foggy Notion. Phileb's Joey Sweeney has got on the surface what looks like a cool idea in a 24 hour party people kind of way - DJ's and livemusichipsterindierock.

Tonight (hey, that's tonight!), the Notion throws down at Silk City with Dark Horse And The Carousels and on Sept 13th it's the newly signed to XL Records New York indierock sensations Vampire Weekend. WOW!

Foggy Notion Party Trailer No. 1 from Philebrity and Vimeo.

The Break Up - The Trouble With Sweeney

Lima Research Society

Thankfully, without the aid of any drug-induced personality change enhancers, I have fallen giddily in love with the Lima Research Society. LRS are a four piece from New Jersey (Lima, Ellen, Michael and Chris) which is close enough to Philly for Blogadelphonic. They remind me of a cross between Schoolhouse Rock, The Flaming Lips, The Banana Splits, Animal Collective, the lighter side of Paul McCartney and are playful, hyper-melodic and just plain fun.

If you like this song, you'll love their new EP which you should buy here. I promise you'll want to cuddle up with this along with your webkinz at night.

Magic Juice Box - Lima Research Society



LRS's myspace

Unlikely Cowboy

Unlikely Cowboy are Daniel Schwartz, Alison Wadsworth, Andrew Vick, along with Peter Burton, Eric Hickey and Damien Mason. Their altcountryrock is pretty darn solid stuff; harmonies that remind me of John Doe and Exene with The Knitters and catchy songs. The band are currently working on (and perhaps almost done recording) their second album.

What Am I To Do? - Unlikely Cowboy
You're The First - Unlikely Cowboy
Out Of The City - Unlikely Cowboy

Dan also has a very cool solo project called The Ground Became A Church and you can download some songs from his myspace site. It's well worth the visit.

UC's myspace

Joe Jack Talcum

I used to love love love The Dead Milkmen. The band included Joe Jack Talcum on guitar & vocals, Dave Blood on bass, Dean Clean on drums, and lead vocalist Rodney Anonymous. Saw 'em dozens of times back in the day. Sadly, Dave Blood committed suicide in 2004. The band were funny, stupid, irreverent, topical, satirical, insightful and astute and wacky observers of pop culture and trends. They'd make fun of almost anything and anybody. And they were punk rock. I once went to one of their record release parties in a bowling alley somewhere in Pennsauken, New Jersey and Rodney stuffed crudite vegetables in the holes in the bowling balls and bowled a game like that. It was one of the funniest nights in my rock and roll life. And I'll still dance to anything by Depeche Mode.

On Monday, September 3rd Joe Jack Talcum is playing a show at Johnny Brendas and couldn't help but link over to his site where he's got some cool audio posted. Here's some selections from his site.

Girl Hunt - The Dead Milkmen
Wisconsin - Ornamental Wigwam (side project with Joe and Dave)
Autumn Leaves - Buttefly Joe (another Joe side project)
Ask Me To Dance - The Dead Milkmen
Goodnight Moon - The Cheesies (Joe and Brian Sprenger lo-fi project)

Much much much much more audio here

Yo Phillytubeization

Here's some Philly through the ages videos I found while looking around the tube....

Bruce "Streets Of Philadelphia"


The Spinners "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love"


Robert Hazard "Escalator Of Life"


Chubby Checker "Let's Twist Again"


The Dead Milkmen "Punk Rock Girl"


The Hooters "Man In The Streets"


Billy Paul "Me & Mrs. Jones"

The Swimmers

There's plen-tea of reasons why we love The Swimmers. For starters they've made one of the best albums of 07 that hasn't come out yet (soon come, they say), and they're going to open for Camera Obscura at their Philly show at the TLA on August 22, plus they're rocking Johnny Brendas this Friday night. And for all you fans and soon to be fans they're giving up a six song EP of five live songs and a studio outtake. How about that!? Here's a taste:

Heaven - The Swimmers

All The New Sounds - The Swimmers

The Ocean Lifts Her Dress - The Swimmers

You can download the full EP here

And here's a bonus live cover of ELO's Mr. Blue Sky
Mr. Blue Sky - The Swimmers

Catch the band on tour in a city near you:
Aug 20 Pete’s Candy Store/NYC
Sept 3 Schubas/Chicago
Sept 14 Tritone/Philadelphia
Sept 15 Mercury Lounge/NYC
Sept 22 PA’s/Boston

The Swimmers myspace

Swivel Chairs

If you long for the daze of 80's college radio rock ala The Feelies, Miracle Legion, Guadalcanal Diary and The Verlaines (I will not include IRS-era REM cause that would be so lazy of me) then look no farther than Swivel Chairs. They've got some super melodic jangly jingly goodness going on.

The Swivel Chairs have mostly been Jason Brown and Jeremy Grites with an assortment of their talented friends over their decade plus of performing together. While they have a Philly/Brooklyn dual citizenship thing going on, we'll keep them as ours.

This Saturday, August 11th they celebrate the release of their new album at Johnny Brendas along with some other Philly hotness like The Novenas, Walker Lundee and Canadian Invasion.

Here's a couple of tunes from their excellent new album The Slow Transmission on the Philly based Transit Of Venus records.

Here Out Of Reach - Swivel Chairs

Easy Now - Swivel Chairs

Candy Night - Swivel Chairs

Swivel Chairs' myspace