Unknown Mortal Orchestra / Makeness at Union Transfer - Philadelphia 4/28

Visit Facebook Event Get Directions (Google Maps) Get Tickets

*SOLD OUT*
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard / Amyl And The Sniffers at Union Transfer

UT Newsletter: http://ticketf.ly/1RqX4bJ
Event Feed: http://on.fb.me/1Xjri0B

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Just when you think you have King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard sussed they throw a curveball. Australia?s finest and most productive rock band have done this before, of course: while the world was still reeling from their 2014 breakthrough psych-punk masterpiece I?m In Your Mind Fuzz (2014) they casually released 2015?s expectation-confounding Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (2015), a pastoral, sun-drenched acid-folk album.

And now in the wake of two albums released in 2017 already, including most recently the dystopian end-times concept album Murder Of The Universe, which tackled in no uncertain terms the rise of robots and the downfall of mankind (and as such was the best since Jeff Wayne?s War Of The Worlds), comes an entirely altered beast. Sketches Of Brunswick East is a collaboration between King Gizzard and Mild High Club, the Los Angeles based tripster troupe led by Alex Brettin, who put out one of 2016?s deepest listens, Skiptracing. The two bands formed a strong friendship touring together throughout the USA, Europe, and Australia.

?I think we hit it off because our approaches are very different?yet similar,? laughs Stu. ?Alex has studied music, whereas my approach is to fling shit at the wall and see what sticks. I can?t read sheet music at all. But we?re like the two ends of a horseshoe coming to meet in the middle. We always talked about working together and after Gizzfest last year I said to Alex ?Why not stick around and make a record?? So he stayed at my house for three weeks and most days were spent in the studio making music with the rest of the guys. Jazz seeped into it, and we were listening to compilations of Ethiopian music form the 1960s and 70s a lot. It was in no way thought-out though. If Murder Of The Universe was our most conceptual and arranged album ? then Sketches? is the exact opposite.?
Sketches Of Brunswick East is a soothing balm of a record; an aural salve to be tenderly applied to the world?s damaged collective psyche. It is a chance to show their sunny, playful side. Where previous albums have slipped down sonic worm-holes to explore distant galaxies, this one is an examination of (and homage to) the Melbourne suburb in which King Gizzard write and record in their own studio, and from where they run their planetspanning psychedelic operation.

?We?re always walking up and down the street all the time. Going to get coffee, lugging amps, just constantly wandering Lygon Street and spending a lot of time looking out into the distance, seeing the terrain change as new apartment buildings are erected, watching the cranes build bigger cranes. In that respect perhaps it represents greater changes that are happening in the wider world, and this is our attempt to find beauty within a place that we spend so much time.?

The title could be perceived as both a knowing nod towards Miles Davis?s Sketches Of Spain (whose fusion of American jazz, European classical and Spanish song structures gave us one of the 20th century?s most important albums), and the sketchy on-the-hop, improvised nature of its creation by these gnarly and feral Aussie dudes. It also sees the band further exploring the Tropicalia element only ever previously hinted at. Stu explains that a change of pace and tempo was necessary after ?a concurrent period of productivity, a ball of energy and ideas?. Logistically, its creation saw the sifting through ?piles of ideas? previously laid down during intense periods of creation that their frontman confesses he barely remembers having taken place. Truly this is impulsive music, sketches of time and place reworked and pieced together, akin to, says Stu ?sampling-culture, in which old ideas are reshaped and suddenly things make sense. It was like we were continually jamming with ourselves.?

Centre piece ?Dawn To Dusk On Lygon Street? is a blissful work, where the sounds of the street ? cicadas, engines, barking dogs ? are captured as the sun sets on another glorious day, while ?Tezeta? recalls Brazilian pioneers Os Mutantes. The warm tones of Gilberto Gil resonate through tracks such as ?The Spider And Me? and elsewhere they shift between bossa nova, samba, the waltz and jazz tones with masterful ease, and all filtered through The Gizz?s ever-turning Antipodean kaleidoscope.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are a true music head?s dream. Previous releases have seen a cyclical album sequenced to play on an infinite loop, a four-part album of pieces exactly 10 minutes and 10 seconds in length and older riffs and refrains continually resurfacing in new forms. Their music forms a sonic mosaic, to be pieced together across an array of amazing packaging that might include scratch and sniff stickers, retina-bothering coloured vinyl (glow in the dark, ?vomit splatter? or ?blue toxic mustard? anyone?) translucent cassettes, giant wall-filling posters and so much more.

Sketches Of Brunswick East is the third of five projected albums to be released in 2017. ?We don?t expect everyone to like everything that we release, but I hope people can view these five records as one body of work,? says Stu of this grand creative undertaking. ?They?ve been made at the same time, by the same people, in the same place, and they all overlap."

Amyl and The Sniffers

Amyl and the Sniffers are a grimy pub rock band from Melbourne, Australia. Amy Taylor (vocals), Bryce Wilson (drums) and Declan Martens (guitar) are former housemates who formed the band, wrote a handful of tunes and released their debut EP, Giddy Up, all in a span of twelve hours. Completing their line up with Gus Romer on bass, Amyl and the Sniffers took their cues from a diverse mix of genres including pub rock, Aussie punk, country and western and rap rave. They set out to have as much fun as possible and scared up a whole lot of fans along the way.

Amyl and the Sniffers? second EP, Big Attraction, was released by cult US label Burger Records in February 2017, kicking off a stellar year. Growing buzz made them a hot tip at Bigsound, while the band was added to cult Victorian festival line-ups including Meredith Music Festival, Cherry Rock and Boogie. In November, the band joined the legendary Cosmic Psychos on a national tour before capping things off with a sell-out NYE show at legendary Melbourne venue, The Tote.

2018 kicked off with a bang, with the band invited to support Foo Fighters on a leg of their Australian tour. The Music named Amyl and the Sniffers a ?Band to Watch in 2018? and put them on the cover, while rival publication Beat Magazine made them a limited-edition centerfold poster. In late January, Giddy Up/Big Attraction was rereleased on vinyl through Homeless Records, selling out the first pressing in preorders. Both PBS FM and Triple R FM made the record ?Album of the Week? and the band sold out multiple headline shows on the east coast.

Meanwhile, the Amyl buzz started to travel. Limited edition vinyl copies of Giddy Up/Big Attraction flew out the door London?s hallowed Rough Trade Records, pushing Amyl & the Sniffers into the Top 40 of the UK Vinyl Charts. The band will make its international debut at The Great Escape festival in May, followed by headline shows in London that are already selling fast, before flying out to the Los Angeles to join King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard on a 20-date tour of the United States.

Amyl and the Sniffers debut album is due out later this year.

VENUE INFORMATION:
Union Transfer
1026 Spring Garden St.
Philadelphia, PA, 19123

Cold Cave / Black Marble / Choir Boy at Union Transfer

UT Newsletter: http://ticketf.ly/1RqX4bJ
Event Feed: http://on.fb.me/1Xjri0B

COLD CAVE

Cold Cave is the electronic music of acclaimed musician, writer and artist Wesley Eisold. Beginning in 2007, Cold Cave has become a name synonymous with the contemporary resurgence of Darkwave and Synth Pop sub-genres, propelling Cold Cave to perform at world class museums The Getty and the Guggenheim, as well as performances with legends Sonic Youth, The Jesus and Mary Chain, among others. The sound has spanned from experimental industrial noise to rock?n?roll influenced electronic music.

According to the Guardian, ?Wesley Eisold is an absolutely new, young god of nihilism and despair ? he brilliantly captures Cold Cave?s aesthetic: the Morrissey of How Soon Is Now wailing over Nitzer Ebb beats and New Order melodies.?

According to Eisold, if anything, his music reflects what it feels like to live in the present. Eisold, whose baritone is as rich and resonating as that of Phil Oakey, Nick Cave or Iggy Pop, says ?Of course we love the lineage of the genre, early experiments with machines to convey human emotion; the marriage between pop and industrial music. At the time it was documenting the early stages of a new world, and we are recording what it feels like to be alive in that world.?

Black Marble

On September 30, 2016 Black Marble will release their second full-length, It?s Immaterial. Their first for Ghostly, It?s Immaterial follows up their EP Weight Against the Door (Hardly Art) and highly acclaimed debut full-length A Different Arrangement (Hardly Art). Still featuring Chris Stewart at the helm along with select collaborators as supplementation, the project's recent shift in locale from East Coast to West Coast lends a great deal to the overall feel of the new album: the light and dark elements of shadows, the salt and sting of evening?s high tide sea spray, a beautiful thing left on a shelf too high to maintain. The general mood is that of creating something new, but going back in time to do it. Like attempting to flesh out a song that you woke up humming but can?t find because it doesn?t exist yet.

With the end of the East Coast chapter of Stewart?s life on the horizon, It?s Immaterial was recorded in a period of mental and physical transition, trapped between spaces and unable to move on until the snow globe flurry of ideas floating around him settled just right. It?s Immaterial is soaring and muted all at once. It's a collection of songs pieced together from perfect seeming snippets heard while passing open doors. It's a framework in which your imagination creates its own version of what you need to hear but didn?t have a way to describe - like a favorite song heard on an unlabeled mixtape by a band you can?t uncover.

With both early releases the band followed a familiar path stomped down in the late 70's and early 80's by a kindred assemblage of synth acts whose gauzy tape sounds and DIY ethics paved the way for other likeminded artists. Pulling from the handmade approach of late 70's synth wave pioneers like Silicon Teens, Iron Curtain, Lives of Angels, and Solid Space, Black Marble dialed in on a clear understanding of its own specific sound, which has since evolved. Channeling Robert Palmer's early Island years, vocals have been pushed forward - their delivery more desperate. The result is a feeling more immediate yet claustrophobic.

?It's a lot of psychic turmoil about time, place, and the dissatisfaction that comes with being young and not having control over place, or being old and not having control over time,? Stewart says about the album. ?The record is filled with characters trying to convince themselves, and others, to change or to see things differently or to come along with them somewhere. It?s that moment of wanting between knowing and doing but frozen in time.?

It?s Immaterial is a further evolution in Black Marble's sound. Where the songs featured on their debut full-length seemed to hiss from a vent in the floor, the new tracks seem to be coming from the next room. Written, recorded, mixed, and performed entirely by Stewart, the new songs are a unified vision - one person?s attempt to patchwork together bits of vapor and the most subtle gleanings of preference to make something wholly new. It's an endless drive in the passenger seat of a car while listening to everything you?ve ever loved, but lasting only 40 minutes.

Choir Boy

?Choir Boy? was what the kids called singer/songwriter Adam Klopp in his early teens when he fronted punk cover bands in Cleveland, Ohio. An intended insult, the label seemed fair and fitting in a way, given Klopp?s religious upbringing and angelic voice. After high school, Adam left Ohio for college in Utah. While his career as a student would prove short-lived, he integrated into Provo and SLC?s underground music and art scene, left religion behind, and called his new band ?Choir Boy?.

?It seemed funny to me as sort of a comical reclamation of the mocking title I received from ?punk? peers as a teen. While serving as a weird reflection of my childhood and musical heritage.?

Since Choir Boy?s gorgeous debut LP on Team Love Records in 2016, the dream-pop outfit has gained a cult following online and in underground circles. Adam?s stunning vocal range, layered compositions, and heartbreaking melodies are backed by musical partner Chaz Costello on bass (Fossil Arms, Sculpture Club, Human Leather) - and along with a rotating cast of players, create the perfect blend of nostalgia-laced romantic pop music we?ve been waiting years to hear.

Dais is proud to announce the new single ?Sunday Light? b/w ?Madeline?. The new songs are a continuation of the strong compositions and songwriting evident on last year?s album, and a showcase of Choir Boy?s musical talent.

?Sunday Light? is a coming of age story, and touches on the frightening aspects of religion, ritual, and secrecy through the eyes of someone discovering the truth behind the door for the first time. Strong vocals soar throughout the composition, reaching dizzying heights and diving into low and commanding tones, backed with strings and reverbed keys ? it makes for majestic, but haunted nostalgia.

?Madeline? is the quintessential B-side heartbreaker ? ??a pessimistic commentary to an accumulative experience with love and romance. Ranging from memories of young love to hopelessness in adult relationships?, this ballad impresses with beautiful and delicate arrangements, the slow motion soundtrack for a hopeless young romance.

VENUE INFORMATION:
Union Transfer
1026 Spring Garden St.
Philadelphia, PA, 19123

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die / Pianos Become The Teeth / Teenage Wrist at Union Transfer

UT Newsletter: http://ticketf.ly/1RqX4bJ
Event Feed: http://on.fb.me/1Xjri0B

The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die

The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid To Die have announced the forthcoming release of their third full-length, Always Foreign. Due out September 29 on Epitaph, Always Foreign follows the Connecticut-bred collective?s acclaimed 2015 album Harmlessness.

Produced by TWIABP guitarist Christopher Teti, Always Foreign confronts everything from the opioid epidemic to xenophobia to emotional abuse in relationships. Throughout the album, TWIABP match their sprawling arrangements and layered lyricism with a raw emotionality.

?When we started writing we were fresh off Trump being elected, so there?s an anger to the album that?s different from what we?ve done in the past,? says TWIABP vocalist David F Bello. ?There?s a lot more resistance thinking throughout the songs?not in a way that?s strictly anti-Trump, but also addressing things like white supremacy and controlling elements of the state.?

Along with Bello, Cyr, and Teti, the TWIABP lineup includes Tyler Bussey (guitar, banjo, synth, vocals), Dylan Balliett (guitar, vocals), Katie Dvorak (synth, vocals), and Steven K Buttery (percussion, vocals). Formed in Connecticut in 2009, TWIABP made their full-length debut with Whenever, If Ever (a 2013 release hailed as ?revolutionary? by Pitchfork) and later delivered Harmlessness (praised as ?bold and complex and dazzling? by Noisey and ?grandiose and dramatic? by NPR).

Pianos Become The Teeth

Pianos Become The Teeth have never been the kind of band who are easy to distill into a simple soundbite and that?s more evident than ever on the band's fourth full-length Wait For Love, an album that sees the Baltimore-based act reconciling their aggressive past with the atmospheric turns of 2014's Keep You. The result is a collection of songs that eschews stylistic traps in order to focus on songwriting and feels like a full-realization of what the band have only hinted at in the past. The players?vocalist Kyle Durfey, guitarists Mike York and Chad McDonald, bassist Zac Sewell and drummer David Haik?may be the same this time around but their lives have continued to unravel and that journey lies at the emotional core of Wait For Love, which is a creative collaboration in the truest sense of the term.

?For Wait For Love my goal was just to write really interesting songs that pushed us forward as a band and allowed us to do something different than we had ever done in the past,? York explains. In order to get out of their comfort zone, the group isolated themselves in a cabin on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for extended writing excursions and ended up with a windfall of 30 songs by the time they entered the studio. Although Durfey?whose wife had recently had a child?was absent at some of these sessions, ultimately that event allowed the vocalist to approach Wait For Love from a different perspective. ?I had so much more time to sit and ponder these songs and how I wanted to approach them,? he recalls. ?I think that changed by approach to vocals because it wasn't this immediate thing, it was more thought out.?

In order to capture their vision the group once again joined forces with Keep You's producer Will Yip (Title Fight, Circa Survive) who acted like a sixth member when it came to shaping these songs. ?Working with Will made us a better band as a whole because I think it helped us refine who we are and think about how to approach this record in a different way than we would have on our own,? York explains. That isn't to say that Wait For Love didn't have its share of setbacks?mainly the fact that Haik experienced a mysterious back injury a few days into the recording session?but even those unexpected events ultimately contributed to the overall sound of the album. ?I think a goal of both of us and Will was to write solid songs and not be afraid of being catchy while still sounding like Pianos Become The Teeth,? Durfey explains.

Correspondingly the album opens with ?Fake Lightning,? a transcendent musical meditation that pairs ambient guitars with impassioned vocals and Haik's driving drumming. Seamlessly that song gives way to ?Charisma,? which features fuzzed-out bass and melodies that hang in the air long after the moment has passed. ?I really wanted this to be an album where things weren't neatly defined and there were moments where you couldn't tell what was a guitar and what was a keyboard or sample,? York explains. This is exemplified on ?Bitter Red? a song that's cinematic in scope yet nuanced enough to fit perfectly in the band?s catalog. In a similar spirit, Durfey's lyrics are still just as poetic but see him shifting his perspective from the loss of his father to what it feels like to be one himself.

?This album all ties into the idea of love and how love comes to you during different times in life in good and bad ways,? Durfey explains, adding that it was refreshing to further stretch out stylistically on this record after he transitioned from screaming to singing on Keep You. ?To me this everything on this record is incredibly personal and as specific as it has been on every record but it's not solely based on one specific figure the way it has been in the past and I'm happy about that,? Durfey explains. That said, those familiar concepts of loss are present on the album's closing song ?Blue,? which approaches the topic from a more hopeful perspective as a new father imagines the endless ways his own son's life will play out.

Pianos Become The Teeth could have easily remade a screamo-inspired album reminiscent of 2009's Old Pride or 2011's The Lack Long After and no one would fault them for it. But Wait For Love is a rare example of a band still discovering their sound over a decade into their career, a fact that?s present in every note of this expansive album. From the haunting ?Dry Spells? to the experimentally minded ?Bay Of Dreams,? there are moments on Wait For Love that are so dreamy they?re otherworldly, whether the catalyst is a sample or a single note. ?This album has some of our most interesting guitar work but also some of the most pulled back ideas of what the record should be,? York adds.

?I think we all made an effort to be open to things and see what came out especially in the studio with this album, ?Durfey summarizes when asked about the ambitious nature of Wait For Love. ?When you've been playing music together for as long as we have it's easy to get in a rut,? he continues. ?Wait For Love still sounds like us but there are different kinds of songs here and I don't think that would have happened if it weren't for making records like Keep You and being open to pushing forward into that uncharted territory. I?m just really excited for people to have their own experience with the album.?

Teenage Wrist

Teenage Wrist's debut album Chrome Neon Jesus is available now. Signed to Epitaph Records last fall, the L.A.-based garage-rock trio molds elements of shoegaze, punk, and alt-rock into a timeless yet modern-edged sound.

Recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer Carlos De La Garza (Paramore, Jimmy Eat World), Chrome Neon Jesus combines dreamy vocals with distorted guitars and massive dynamics. Throughout the album, bassist/vocalist Kamtin Mohager, guitarist/vocalist Marshall Gallagher, and drummer Anthony Salazar explore emotional terrain that Gallagher describes as ?realiz[ing] the world is bigger, brighter and more terrifying then you ever imagined.?

VENUE INFORMATION:
Union Transfer
1026 Spring Garden St.
Philadelphia, PA, 19123

First Time's the Charm is back! What started in 2013 and happened again in 2016 will be held for a third time this summer.

The idea is simple: as members of the DIY music community we need to do everything we can to make our scenes less homogeneously white, straight, and male. To that end we are holding a two day concert made up of entirely new bands that must include women, people of color, queer, trans and gender non-conforming people, and those with disabilities.

While events like this are always important, we feel that within the current political climate they are even more necessary in order to provide a space for those who are most often pushed to the margins.

The event will be held at PhilaMOCA on July 6th and 7th. More information about that soon.

BAND CRITERIA

Your band must be able to say YES to two of the following:

(1) Are one or more members female-identified, queer, someone with a disability, trans or gender non-conforming, or a person of color?

(2) Are one or more members playing in a band for the very first time?

(3) Are one or more members playing an instrument that they have never played before?

On the day of the show you and your bandmates will go up there and play a 15 minute set. You don?t have to be perfect but you do need to give a shit. This is for you.

This year?s event will be a benefit for Beyond The Bars, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that teaches music to incarcerated youth as well as those impacted by the criminal justice system. More information about them can be found at: beyondthebarsmusic.org/

The submission form can be found here: https://goo.gl/A44CWc

Frequently Asked Questions:

* How do I participate?

Anyone can form a band and sign up to play this show, but the group must fulfill at least two of the above requirements.

Submissions will open on April 1st. On that date, we will post a form for prospective bands to fill out. Before you sign up, make sure that you can commit to forming a band, practicing, and playing the show.

Selected bands will be notified by April 10th, giving you three months to work toward your show.

*Selected? Does that mean not everyone will get to play? How will you choose bands?

Last time First Time?s The Charm was capped within a few days. We expect the same enthusiasm this time around and want to make sure there is room for as many people as possible.
We will close submissions on April 9th, or when we reach 50 band submissions, whichever comes first. From there, we will decide which bands will participate based on the quality of the submissions. We will have a short waiting list which will be used to fill spots in case of cancellations.

*How many bands will play the show? How long will each band play?

Sixteen (16) bands will be selected to play FTTC. Eight (8) bands will play each night.

Each band will play three songs or for approximately 15 minutes.

* I?m in a band and we?ve only played one or two shows. Can we play?

FTTC is meant for people who want to but have not yet had the means to form a band. This is an event for brand new bands only.

* I?ve been playing in bands for years and I think this is important and want to be involved. What can I do?

Consider grabbing some friends who have not had the same opportunities and encouraging them to play in a band with you. You can be a great resource for them.

Loan out your extra gear and instruments to people. Help them figure out guitar tone, figure out a way to teach them how to take an idea from their head to reality. Let them make noise in your basement/practice space.

Come to the show! Promote it! Contact us if you?d like to play a benefit.

*Where is the show going to be? When is it?

PhilaMOCA, located at 531 North 12th Street, just north of Spring Garden. The venue is wheelchair accessible. Please let us know ahead of time if you'll need any assistance. The shows will be Friday and Saturday, July 6th and 7th, giving you three months to get ready!

*What will the money from this show go to?

The proceeds from this event will benefit Beyond the Bars. Beyond The Bars is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to opening creative, musical spaces to youth who have been impacted by the incarceration system.

???????????
FTTC is a microcosm of the change we want to see in our scene, our community, and our city. We are using our privilege to create space for people who have historically been shut out of making music. This is something that anyone can and should do, especially if you are involved with booking shows or playing in bands. Be part of the solution, not the problem.

Want to know the answer to something we didn?t address here?
Email us at: phillyischarming@gmail.com

Following a recent string of sold out shows in NYC, PhilaMOCA presents the Philadelphia Premiere of HANDMAID'S TALE: THE MUSICAL, a comical and cathartic parody of the Margaret Atwood novel and Hulu original series. Set in 2028 Brooklyn, the show depicts modern millennials in a dystopian near future and the phoneless perils they endure.

Book & Lyrics by Marcia Belsky and Melissa Stokoski
Arranged and Accompanied by Fernanda Douglas

Cast:
Marcia Belsky (Offred)
Melissa Stokoski (Rory Gilmore)
Eudora Peterson (Aunt Betsy DeVos)
Drew Anderson (Extremely Hot Nick)
Farah Brook (Serena Joy)
Tim Platt (Commander Fred)
Karolena Theresa (Jax/OfJax)
Arti Gollapudi (Janine the One Eyed Bitch)
Isabel Martin Jr. (Gavroche)

Doors 7:00 PM / $15 advance / $18 day-of

PhilaMOCA
531 N. 12th Street
http://www.philamoca.org

Get tickets: https://ticketf.ly/2JlLsXc

Kevin Krauter

Useful Solitude.

That?s the phrase Kevin Krauter uses to describe Toss Up, his upcoming full-length debut on Bayonet Records?both the conditions in which it was created and the prevailing theme of these nine iridescent indie-pop songs. In between tours, the Indiana musician spent long hours in his basement, guitars and vintage keyboards his only company, and tested out ideas, explored new sonic avenues, savored new sounds, and taught himself how to play a few instruments.

?I would wake up and have a cup of coffee, then I?d come up with a song or a melody and just sit and play it literally for three or four hours straight. Then I?d try to find new ways to play it, or do it with different notes or on different instruments. I don?t want to call it meditating, but it was pretty meditative to sit there by myself and play the same thing over and over and over and over.? The riffs and melodies became mantras, repeated back to himself until they became the rhythmically intricate, melodically bold, and emotionally complex songs on Toss Up. An insightful songwriter with a lyrical style that is both economical and evocative, Krauter crafts unique soundscapes that scramble a range of influences: ?60s flower pop, ?70s easy listening, ?80s New Wave, ?90s alt-radio, ?00s indie rock.

A gentle melancholy pervades the album, but it?s far too imaginative to sound morose or mopey. ?You?re singing all alone and you?re dancing all alone,? he sings on ?Who Do You Know,? as the guitars crackle and the synths fizz around him. As Toss Up proceeds, Krauter fills the songs with more and more people: a lover in the unabashedly sweet ?Keep Falling in Love;? a friend in the album-closing title track who becomes an audience of one. Music becomes the bond between Krauter and the world: ?Take my hand ?cause we?re really alone in this world,? he sings on ?Toss Up,? but adds a poignant promise: ?I can carry you home.?

Best known as one of several guitar players, songwriters, and vocalists in the Hoosier indie-rock band Hoops, Krauter has been making music all by his lonesome for much longer. He grew up in a family heavily involved in local musical theater, even appearing in three productions of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He played in high school bands, but didn?t get serious about writing and recording until he enrolled at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. His first efforts -- recorded in his dorm room -- weren?t intended for any kind of audience, but a friend asked him to record a few tracks for a class project. Eventually those sessions became 2015?s Magnolia EP, a short collection of gentle, gauzy songs that reveal his early obsession with one of his first musical heroes, Vashti Bunyan.

It was his first taste of the music business, and the experience left a huge impression. ?I?d never put any music out under my name. I?d never put out a tape before. It all came together quickly.? Krauter began recording and releasing music prolifically, first with Hoops and then on his own. The Changes EP, released in late 2016, showcases his deft guitar playing, mixing soul-baring songwriting with bossa nova rhythms and intimately lo-fi production. It was supposed to be a low-key release, but Changes became a word-of-mouth hit that amassed a small but avid cult behind it. ?I didn?t think it was going to make any huge waves for me, but a lot of people told me they were still listening to it a year or more later. They were living with it, and I thought that was cool.?

Those first two EPs were mostly acoustic, just Krauter, his guitar, and occasionally a brushed snare drum or a textural electric guitar. ?I was cool with it for a while, but I wanted to make something that sounded a little more pop.? Recorded at Russian Recording in Bloomington, Indiana, Toss Up builds on the sonic worlds of his first releases, conveying a similar mood with a greater array of instruments and influences. Still, he worked with what he had around him. ?I found this old two-stack organ at Goodwill and set it up on top of an old Yamaha teach-yourself keyboard that my mom had. I was playing those over and over.?

You can hear those vintage keyboards merging on ?Keep Falling in Love,? which recalls R&B organist Timmy Thomas and West Coast marina pop artists Ned Doheny while showing off Krauter?s strong falsetto. ?Rollerskate? audaciously marries a hypnotic keyboard theme to a loping drumbeat based on a popular ?90s alt-rock hit. (See if you can guess which one. Answer below*.) ?I had been working on that guitar part and it sounded like another pretty folk song, so I thought, What if I put this weird funky beat on top of it? Most of these songs are very groove heavy.?

That is the secret tension on Toss Up, the engine that drives these songs: melody propelled by rhythm, melancholy fended off by the exuberance of simply creating art. ?A lot of the songs are about solitude in a very healthy sense, about trying to make it something useful and productive. It was good to center myself in that experience. I was able to get to a place where I was not afraid to be really stoked by what I was doing.? Or, as he declares on ?Lonely Boogie?: ?I?m all alone and I?m having a good time.?

+++++++

* ?Someday? by Sugar Ray. ?I would listen to that song and think, these drums sound so fucking sick,? says Krauter. ?I wanted to steal the isolated drum track, but it was too slow for ?Rollerskate.??

Venue Information:
PhilaMOCA
531 North 12th St.
Philadelphia, PA, 19123
http://www.philamoca.org/

Dates are locked
Lets do it all over again

What is FamFest?
A multiple day event to bring the outcasts together. A weekend to prove that supporting bands in your scene makes a difference. When you are in a room with half bands and half show goers hopefully you will be able to see what supporting other bands in your scene can do for concerts in general. Network, make connections, and push your band to the next step, FamFest is that first stepping stone. It's not Warped Tour, its not Loud Fest, this is FamFest.

Day 1: The Fire $10
Day 2 :Voltage Lounge Day : 25
Day 3:Voltage Lounge Day : 25

(Limited to 75 3-day passes comes with swag) $40

https://www.ticketfly.com/event/1658768


Stargazer
Median
Bad Vibes
Jynx
Heroes
Portals
Newcomer
Ruminate
Short Leash
Promise Breaker
Better Machines
Irae
Depreciator
GAL
Flowercrown
Aw Shucks
Monument of a Memory
Grievance
Repressed
Feverwar
Moral Code
Illusionist
The Hearkening
Your Persona
Boundaries
Refuge
P slur
Bloodbather
Last Minute Hero
Roseblood
Hollow VIsions
The Emtila Strain
Second Death

Sponsored By
Grandaire Booking
DaniDesign Art
Black Venom Promotions
Creep Records
goPuff
DIscmakers
Philly Hxc Shows

a collaboration w/ Hostile City Class War Productions

presents:
GBH
w/ Pinata Protest, NY REL-X, Thunder & Glory

Doors: 7:30 PM
Show: 8:30 PM
18 and over
$20 - $25

Tickets on sale NOW

**Physical tickets available for sale at Creep Records Store**