Candy ravers everywhere will hate me for saying this, but Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want album In Rainbows isn’t that progressive. A band of millionaires released their seventh record as a free download - so what?
Fishtown’s Eric Harms has been doing that for years. Since 2005, he has provided hundreds of free digital albums on apolloaudio.com.
His Web site [...]

If I had known Internet stardom was as easy as being overweight and wearing a spandex gold suit, I would have video-taped my typical Friday night much sooner.
Unfortunately, Leslie Hall, frontwoman of electro-dance rap group Leslie and the LY’s beat me to the punch. Leslie and the ladies of Leslie and the LY’s are making [...]

REVIEW - The 15-year-old in me is not enthused with the new Jimmy Eat World album. And they used to be my favorite band. Chase This Light, due out Oct. 16, is an 11-song mess of contemporary pop ideas that don’t come close to Clarity or the self-titled Jimmy Eat World. But I certainly don’t [...]

Put on your dancing shoes and get ready to shake your butt - !!! plays the Fillmore at the TLA in South Philadelphia tomorrow night.
!!!, commonly pronounced “chk chk chk,” is an explosive mix of funky grooves, infectious dance beats and raw attitude. Guitar, percussion, bass, synthesizer, saxophone and vocals compose the Sacramento octet’s idiosyncratic [...]

REVIEW - Philly’s live music scene triggered my latest existential crisis Saturday. Two psych-rock patriarchs played the same night: Devendra Banhart at the Fillmore at the TLA and Animal Collective at the Starlight Ballroom. As a sucker for any music of the New Age folk, tripped out, changes-my-brain-waves persuasion, it was a tough call.
Plus, both [...]

Nine years. More than 1,000 shows. The Yonder Mountain String Band have been there and back again and still have something new to say to each other and their devoted fans.
The Temple News recently talked with Jeff Austin, mandolin player and a founding member of the band.
The Yonder Mountain String Band plays traditional bluegrass music, [...]

There is a deceptively small store wedged between Food Way and City View Pizza on Cecil B. Moore Avenue. Its modest storefront does it little justice. Phenomenal Records is one of the best underground record stores in Philly.
The store has been in operation since June 2003 and carries a diverse collection of old school albums.
The [...]

REVIEW - For one day last week, hip-hop music was similar to the 2004 presidential election. But instead of Bush vs. Kerry, it was 50 vs. Kanye. Sure, the results did not affect an entire country, but there were other stakes on the line.
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson declared that he would not drop another solo [...]

More music festivals should take place in the fall.
It seems obvious, but organizers at Coachella, Pitchfork and hundreds of jazz festivals warp our Summer Ale-addled minds into thinking that it’s hip to dehydrate. Thankfully, Philly’s Flava Fest coordinators picked a weekend Farmer’s Almanac scholars would approve of.
The festival, which runs from Sept. 20-22, formed out [...]

REVIEW - Up until the Rent generation began to take over the world, musicals brought corny music and jazz hands to mind. They certainly were not “cool” and most people did not want to admit that they were fans.
Thanks to the popularity of Rent, a new genre known as the rock opera came to life [...]