Philadelphia Bands

the espers

G Love! *goes back to David Goodis novel*

An Albatross

First, Jim's Cheesesteaks are terrible, you need Pat's, Rick's, or Tony Luke's.

Bands: Mandela Strikeforce (Sean and Don from Ink & Dagger), Flagman, Frail.

Beer store: The Foodery on 10th & Pine.

note: I don't live 'nere no more.

Agreed. Jim's is just trashy trash that tastes like trash that someone found in the trash can. Is ishkabibble's still there? They had the best chicken steak.

Man, I miss Philly.

I miss 'nem wooder oices up'ere.

Holy shit did I just read someone giving props to Scram! Damn, that takes me far into the way back machine.

Does anybody know what is up with MantaRay? Do they still gig at all?

And that act The Low Numbers from like 6 years ago? I thought they were going to be huge, saw them at The Balcony right when it opened and never heard anything about them after that night.

And what ever happened to those guys in the Interpreters. Man, they were huge for about 6 minutes back in the 90s, weren't they. I'll throw out props for Lefty's Deceiver and defunct acts Haywood and Moped.

got buds in these:
excelsior
amen booze rooster
aspera

and who is king god and why does my ex bandmate who now lives in philly think he's so great?

andrew says:

"got buds in these:
excelsior
amen booze rooster
aspera"

search: excelsior
destroy: amen booze rooster, aspera.

blast of static:

And that act The Low Numbers from like 6 years ago? I thought they were going to be huge, saw them at The Balcony right when it opened and never heard anything about them after that night.

the low numbers changed their name to the hi soft. i havent seen them since the name change, but i do remember them being really really good.

more on hi soft: afaik, they have no formal releases but do have a track on the "hoags" compilation.

Thanks for the info Maria -- I googled "the hi soft" and "the high soft" and got nothing -- does anybody know if they ever released anything else, under any name?

i would rather eat my sweaty foot than a pat's cheesesteak

fingernail, bill ricchini, collette carter, accelera deck(i think?).

NEWTON.

and good call on Espers; they just played a few minute ago, here.

pink got her start in philadelphia, if memory serves me right.

i'd cut ween some slack on the "mannequin" thing ... they are actually from new hope, you know. and we all know how those new hopers are ...

keith m: bill riccini is definately goes in the "destroy" category.

Tourdates for Hail Social:

9/21 - DC - DC9 w/renee heartfelt (ex-count me out)
9/23 - Richmond, VA - Chopstix w/renee heartfelt
9/27 - NYC - Rothko w/Hollertronix DJs Diplo and Low budget
9/29 - Philadelphia, PA - Khyber w/panthers, renee heartfelt
10/7 - NYC - North Six w/ Joan of Arc
10/8 - Boston, MA - Middle East w/explosions in the sky
10/10 - Philadelphia, PA - North Star Bar w/ calvin johnson

All following dates are with INTERPOL:

10/11 - Boston - Avalon
10/12 - Montreal - Metropolis
10/13 - Toronto - The Docks
10/15 - Detroit - State Theater
10/16 - Columbus - Newport Music Hall
10/17 - Chicago - Riviera Theatre
10/19 - Minneapolis - First Avenue
10/22 - Seattle - Paramount Theatre
10/23 - Vancouver - Commodore Ballroom
10/24 - Portland - Crystal Ballroom
10/25 - San Francisco - Warfield Theatre
10/27 - Los Angeles - The Wiltern

To revisit my much earlier point, does anyone have any additional information about Hisoft/The Low Numbers and leads on any recordings besides the LN song on the Chunklet #14 comp and the Hisoft song on the Hot Dog City records comp? I have the former track but don't want to by the whole HDC comp just to hear the latter. Is there anything else out there? Anybody want to drop that HDC comp track in my gee-mail acct [jay dot breitling at gee mail dot kom]?

there are no other hisoft releases. whatever you've heard is all that has been released. a crying shame! theyre so good!

Oh well. I'll have to fixate on something else this afternoon. Thanks MTS.

no destroying bill ricchini.

destroy - philadelphia?

keith, i have my reasons for destroying bill ricchini.

have any philly folks ever heard of thinking machines? they're from my neck of the woods, central pa. a now-defunct record store (besides records, mechanicsburg) put out a 7" almost two years ago and i haven't heard a thing from them since. besides' owner told me all but one of the band members moved to philly. also i spotted one of them at a yo la tengo show in lancaster last september but was too lame to talk to him and ask him what was up with the band (even though i think we may have been introduced before, iirc).

The delta 72's rocked it back in my high school days and still do on occasion

thinking machines -- ive heard the name and i think theyve contacted us about a show in recent past.

Buried Beds and Like Moving Insects are both great.

thinking machines headline the khyber tomorrow night

AMCIK GÖT

siltbreeze is revived? thats what the word on the street is:

http://citypaper.net/articles/2005-12-08/music4.shtml

I was just listening to M&z&rin and started to wonder if there isn't a bit of a Philly malaise that affects the bands there -- a lot of them sound like they don't try hard enough. I'd like to hear a little more energy, a little more tightness, etc. from a lot of them.

i think that problem is called "INDEPENDENT ROCK MUSIC", not unique to philly, but to any culture that plays to and for itself

Well yeah, and it also comes out of a bullshit "punk" aesthetic of not being able to play well (except that most of the relatively few good punk bands really played much better than people say they did). To make things worse, the angst of punk is replaced with lethargy and boredom -- only the inability to play remains. Practicing is stupid, dude.

i haven't sampled enough of the bands, lots of thier stuff, etc to have strong insight on this, but the mazarin records do sound sort of thrown togeter and lazy, especially this recent one. but that's what i really like about them, too. really good songs with a loose and breezy feeling. the espers records so far are really top notch in terms of musicianship, playing, skill. they are so together and precise, but not falling into any boring math rocky or over-technical stuff. they seem to be the most complete band i have heard from the area. i do like that moving insects stuff a lot, though it sounds like a lot of other bands. still really great.

LMI is definitely a skilled, tight band. Sometimes I don't think they play to their strengths enough because they do so many of those slow, weepy songs that sound like lots of other bands. When they do mid and up-tempo stuff it usually sounds great.

really good songs played lackadasically /= lazy

just saw this on the british folk thread. philadelphia again represented at all tomorrow's parties:

DEVENDRA BANHART DAY -- BANDS CONFIRMED SO FAR
DEVENDRA BANHART
VASHTI BUNYAN
VETIVER
ESPERS
BAT FOR LASHES
JANA HUNTER
THE METALLIC FALCONS
DANIELLE STECH-HOMSY
BERT JANSCH

Anybody remember King Carcass?

Reviving this *not* because it's a Philadelphia band but it is a Philadelphia incident and folks there might be able to help -- this is from the band Film School:

Sorry for the multiple bulletins, but we're just about ready lose our minds.

To recap, our van was stolen this morning around 8am from the Comfort Inn on Delaware Ave in Philadelphia. It was a white, 2003 Ford E-350, California license plates. ALL of our gear was taken. Here's a list of what's missing:

- 1966 Ludwig drum kit, blue sparkle
- 23" Paiste ride cymbal
- 1976 Fender P-bass, no finish, beat down, Bartolini pick-up
- 1993 Gibson SG, black
- 1973 Fender Telecaster Deluxe, cream, with marble pickguard, humbuckers
- Fender Twin Reverb amp, 70's silverface, master volume
- Fender Deville guitar amp
- early 70's Ampeg SVT bass head with 2 massive metal handles on the sides
- Ampeg SVT 410HLF bass cabinet
- Peavey keyboard amp
- 3 boxes of effects: 2 Line 6 delay pedals, Memory Man Deluxe, Big Muff, SansAmp Bass DI, Rat, MXR distortion, Cry Baby wah, 2 Boss EQ pedals, Boss Digital Delay, 2 Boss Tuners. These were in 3 different suitcases.
- Kurzweil K2000 keyboard
- Boss Dr. Sample

If anyone in the Philadelphia area has any info where this stuff might surface we'd really appreciate it. Or, if you find our van or our gear we can pay you handsome reward. Seriously.

As for the rest of the tour, here's what's happening:

Wed-DC - cancelled
Thur-Providence - cancelled
Friday-Wellesely College - cancelled
Sat-Mercury Lounge - still on
Sun-Mercury Lounge - still on
Monday- Memphis - ???
all SXSW shows are still on.

If anything changes or the equipment fairy makes a special delivery I'll post a bulletin here to let everyone know. Thanks to everyone who wrote to us. It really means a lot. Thanks again.

-Justin
Film School

thanks ned. word is out and about already. philly folks should contact local pawn shops & music stores with info.

fuckin electric love muffin, man!

i always think of that sharpling and wurster sketch with philly boy roy where he names off about 800 philly bands.

That totally sucks. Gear should never be left in the van at the hotel though.

things you can do to prevent horrible situations such as this, especially if you're uninsured:

- bring your guitars with you whereever you're crashing
- make one bandmate sleep in the van [extra blankets in the winter!]

What's the deal with Pissed Jeans?

Film School just posted an update:

Hello. As many of you have already heard, our van, the van we bought two days before we left for tour, was stolen with all our equipment in Philadelphia. Our van was parked in a 24-hour attended secured lot with bright lighting and a club on the steering wheel. Even though we did everything we could to keep this van safe and secured, the thieves sawed through the club, hotwired the van and drove it through the parking lot checkout fence. Pretty unbelievable. Unfortunately our van insurance does not cover theft and while some of our insurance might cover some of the gear, it will most likely be minimal.

Thanks so much to all the support we've been getting from our fans. Emails, myspace posts and articles, it's wonderful to feel like we're not alone in this. Also, because we'll be the ones getting hit with these costs we've set up a PayPal account for donations. If you are able to donate anything at all, we'd be extremely appreciative. Everything and anything at this point helps. Please head over to our website http://www.filmschoolmusic.com to make a donation.

Here are the dates we'll still be able to play:

3/10: Massachusetts, Welleseley College w/ Cloud Room
3/11: New York, Mercury Lounge w/ Cloud Room
3/12: New York, Mercury Lounge (second show added!)
3/14: Memphis, Hi Tone w/ Cloud Room
3/16: Austin, SXSW Beggars Banquet showcase at Club Deville (6th & Red River), 9pm
3/17: Austin, SXSW Jane magazine party at Beauty Bar (7th & Red River), time TBA w/Nada Surf, Mates of State, Of Montreal, Film School, The M's, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Tiny Steps
3/18: Austin, SXSW Hi Dive party at Gallery Lombardi (910 3rd at N.Lamar), 3:45pm w/Dressy Bessy, the M's, Ester Drang, Paul Jenkins (of Black Heart Procession), Bright Channel and more
3/31: San Francisco, Noise Pop Festival at Slim's
4/1: Los Angeles, The Troubadour w/Cloud Room

Again, thanks for your support and we hope to see you at the shows.

pissed jeans = teh awesome

I'd like to hear them. Are they recent Sub Pop signees?

Some (but only some) good news!

Hi. Sorry for the multiple bulletins, but I wanted to let everyone know the Philadelphia PD just located our van. YESSSSS! They couldn't tell us anything about the condition other than that "it looks fine". Unfortunately, none of our gear was still inside. NOOOO!

For those of you in the Philadelphia/Trenton area please keep spreading the word about our gear. If anybody needs pictures of our guitars, amps, serial numbers, etc. please get in touch. Here's the list of what's missing again:

Amps:

Fender Deville guitar amp
1970's Fender Twin Reverb silverface, master volume
1970's Ampeg SVT Bass amplifier head
Ampeg SVT 410HLF cabinet

Guitars:

1993 Gibson SG guitar black
1973 Fender Telecaster Deluxe w/humbuckers white w/marble pickguard
1976 Fender Precision Bass Serial ..629010 no finish/natural

Effects Pedals:

2 Line 6 Delay DL-4 pedals
Electro-Harmonix Memory Man Deluxe pedal
MXR Distortion pedal
Cry Baby Wah-wah pedal
2 Boss GE-7 Equalizer pedal
1 Boss TU-2 tuner pedal
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz pedal
Boss TU-12 tuner
Pro-Co Rat distortion pedal
SansAmp Bass DI box
Core One Pedal board
Pedal Pad pedal board

Keyboards:

Kurzweil K2VX keyboard w/sampling option
Boss SP-303 sampler w/power adapter
ART powermix 4 minimixer
Yamaha sustain pedal

Drums:

1966 Ludwig blue sparkle 13", 16", 22"
1964 Ludwig supralite snare 14"
14" Zildjan A series hi-hats
20" Zildjan A series crash
24" Paiste 2002 Dark ride
1 SKB 22" bass drum case
1 SKB 16" floor tom case
1 SKB 14" snare drum case
1 SKB 13" tom case
22" SKB cymbal case
2 Pearl stronglight stands
1 Pearl hi-hat stand
1 Pearl Bass drum pedal

Thanks again to everyone coming together to help us out like this. We really touched.

I'll post another update if/when we get any new info.