Mincemeat or Tenspeed: As recently as the Strange Gods CD, Philly expat Davey Harms’ releases all proudly declaimed “No synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, musical instruments” as if to remind listeners that no matter how coherent his music got, you’re still listening to (adroit) feedback and pedal manipulations. He then moved to Providence, started using a sampler, and his music doesn’t sound too different from before despite the more conventional instrumentation. If anything, it’s only gotten more abstract and ambitious while retaining the pulsating noise and melodic fragments that make it so distinctive. His first Philly appearance since moving took place as part of a Pew-funded academic music festival and this gig marks his return to the beer-drenched, partied-out scene from which he emerged.

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Mutwawa: Project of Richmond underground heads Gary Stevens (Head Molt) and Jason Hodges (Bermuda Triangles, Amoeba Men) with sounds ranging from gabber fit for inclusion on the next Thunderdome comp to futurist reggaeton emanating from the windows of undercarriage-lit ancient alien spacecraft hovering through the cyber jungle. Mutwawa anticipated the current post-noise techno zeitgeist by a few years, all the while maintaining a unique and inscrutable weirdness even in the midst of the throbbing 4-on-the-floor beats that propel their music.

Web Solutions

Joe Lentini: Philly’s techno/house great. A Lentini set could be anything from an erudite Max/MSP improvisation to an acidic live jam on vintage Roland gear to simply DJ-ing out studio tracks that he produced to perfection. Regardless of the technical means employed, Joe’s music exudes a palpable sleaziness that keeps asses on the dancefloor shakin’.

Drums Like Machine Guns: Brian Morsberger recently admitted that he wants Drums to physically prevent the audience from thinking. Philly party noise staple DLMG brings the weird good times and force you to feel it.

8pm at Pageant Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge. $7.

DJ’s attempting to sing “Happy Birthday” to Joe, Kate, and Alex with mouths full of food from Blackbird.

  1:31 pm  |   April 13 2012  

Skoal Kodiak: Pull your pants down and shake your flabby cheeks, flail your hideous limbs, whatever it is you do Skoal will have you doing it. A hearty, solid chunk of rhythm section basted in a tangy skronk and squeal synth/vocals sauce Skoal Kodiak delivers like no other. Noise Funk? Freak Dance Rock? none of these things are sufficient to convey the true shape of the beast, you must bear witness in the flesh to comprehend.

Cars Will Burn: Back for his second Govt-List rip Mark Price continues to compel the fist pump while simultaneously inducing a strange trance. Methodically dissecting the fetid corpse of Top 40 club hip-hop, Mark reanimates his morgue of samples into a new mesmerizing, pulsing sonic golem.

Drums Like Machine Guns: Brian Morsberger recently admitted that he wants Drums to physically prevent the audience from thinking. Philly party noise staple DLMG bring the weird good times and force you to feel it.

8pm at Pageant Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge. $7.

DJ’s DJ’s DJ’s, eating eating eating.

  4:52 pm  |   November 3 2011  

Bee Mask (Philly, Spectrum Spools/eMego): Megarare local outing from West Philly studio recluse Chris Madak, pushing the latest in ecstatic, fractured sampler-concrète and throbbing, iridescent, and deeply psychedelic trunk bass deconstructions that hit like pressurized gas from behind the eyes of the beholder.

TRIP.

Drainolith (Montreal, Psychic Handshake): Ultrawarped medieval jazzrock and distended/sublimated Quebecois NRG from AIDS Wolf guitarist Alex Moskos, also of bonkers units Alterity Problem, Thames, and The Medecine Rocks, rendered live via synthesizers and extended disco electronics amid a fog of profound confusion.

ZONK.

Autre Ne Veut (Brooklyn, Olde English Spelling Bee/Hippos in Tanks): First-ever Philly appearance of a true diva for the end times. ANV weaves R&B/synthpop tropes and alternately soaring/grimy post-Prince falsetto vox into confounding, oblique, asignifying knots. Lush and hook-oriented in the vein of, say, Erasure, Talk Talk, or even Annie Lennox, albeit IMMENSELY more fucked up.

EMOTE.

Night Burger (Philly): The deepest Philly jams going in 2011! Noah Anthony (Social Junk, Form a Log, Mirror Men) bends the whole damn curve, getting bleak and exhilarating in equal measure via organ, tapes, voice, and ultracorroded electronics.

BELIEVE.

8pm at Pageant Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge. $7.

DJ’s gripping caesar salads and garlic bread from Blackbird and staring down the weird, quarter-sized hole into the basement while an iPod on shuffle plays every possible freestyle joint about being ambivalent w/r/t taking this relationship to the next level. See also: writing something illegible on your hand.

  9:16 pm  |   August 31 2011   |  2 notes  

Black Pus (Providence RI, Load Recs): Pummelling/hypnotic solo sounds from Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt and Mindflayer. Black Pus’s immense discography (culminating in this year’s ultrazonked “Primordial Pus” LP) and visceral live performances are as absurd a rosetta stone of fistpumping/teethgrinding scribblepop as anyone could hope for.

Hooks, sweat, and damage.



M AX NOI MACH (Philly): Rob Francisco brings the crude, fractured electronics, punishing, bottomheavy beats, and terrifyingly claustrophobic vocal exhortations. Bleak, vulgar, and seething with stripped down intensity in the vein of early industralists such as Esplendor Geometrico. 

Obsession, depravity, and grime.



Cars Will Burn (Philly): CWB is the enigmatic and genuinely unpredictable sound-mangling arm of lifestyle wizard and 1026 head Mark Price. Scummy, decadent, saying “yes, but…” to the world in the finest sampler abuse tradition, and shattering the surface of the eternal champagne room.

Inscrutability, joy, strictly for the bone rollerz.



Max Lawrence (Philly): Max, _1026 co-founder and old head weirdo offers a presentation of his handmade, self wrought animatronics/e-lectronics outside of the “fine art” gallery setting, inside the gallery (as showspace) setting.

Mad scientist? Visionary? Junk horder/magician?

8pm at Space 1026, 1026 Arch St. $7.
DJ Psychic Franklin basting “slime” on the ones and the halves all night long. Spinning hits, misses, and “other.”

  7:52 pm  |   August 5 2011   |  2 notes  

White Suns: These New Yorkers use drums, guitar, vocals and busted electronics to sculpt sound masses of almost physical heft. Omar once lectured them at length about why they should quit music. With their recent turn toward the long-form compositions and increased rhythmic intricacy of their “Walking in the Reservoir” LP (ugEXPLODE), we couldn’t disagree more!

Birth Noise: Highly effected guitar sludge and powerful, heavy drumming create a seasick atmosphere, variously evocative of Krautrock and black metal. Some of the most compelling sounds in the Philly underground.

Mirror Men: Brand new duo of Lance Simmons (aka Dick Neff) and Noah Anthony (Night Burger, Social Junk), armed with a fresh technical/sartorial clone aesthetic and pushing crumbling bass electronics with lush, shimmering vocals. Best new project of 2011.

8PM at Pageant Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge.  $7.

DJ’s eating Tofu Cubano sandwiches from Blackbird while an iPod on shuffle plays Hi-NRG hits between bands.

  10:45 am  |   June 10 2011  

Skin Graft: From Cleveland.  A true head, a contemporary master of glowering harsh noise and desiccated free electronics, and a veteran of mind-frying collabs with heavyweights from Emeralds to Andrew Coltrane to Aaron Dilloway.  There’s gotta be something warped about any mug who’ll stick up for EVERY Flag rec.  (No joke; ask him about it at the gig!)

Greenlander: Youngstown, OH hyperbleak trash electronics frozen postgrind.

The Others: OH/WV synth creep from OH/WV synth creeps.  Featuring Andrew Kirschner of Relentless Corpse.

Newton: The King of the Delaware Valley.  Always heavy, always a head-scratcher.

Mindless Attack: New Philly unit featuring members of Social Junk.  X+1 jams in X-2 minutes.

8PM at The Marvelous Records, 208 S. 40th.  $5.

DJ’s eating your favorite slices of Colonial Pizza and drinking your favorite 40s from Pasqually’s between bands.

  6:31 pm  |   March 29 2011  

AIDS Wolf: Montreal’s polarizing noise rock institution. Now with one less member and a lot more electronics.

Satanized: Philly sickos. Now with more blast beats and shredding.

Drums Like Machine Guns: Philly industrial noise bros. Fresh off their indie rock pilgrimage to SXSW. #embarrassing

Cat Vet: Philly Bath House denizens. Playing all your favorites from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

8PM at Pageant Soloveev, 607 Bainbridge.  $7.

DJ’s spinning your favorite Hi-NRG hits between bands.

  9:36 pm  |   March 23 2011   |  1 note