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written by Maria Arroyo

This past Friday, June’s Landing and The Great Enough opened for the rock/indie outfit, Brother Starling, who just released their latest album, The Weight of Change.

We ran into The Great Enough at Philly’s very own Orlieb’s where they opened for PHNTMS! We chatted and they told us about their upcoming show at MilkBoy. I immediately jumped at the chance to see them again. Their stage presence and the way they captivated that room was memorizing. I knew it would make for an incredible show.

Prior to the show, I had the most unique time interviewing the band in the esteemed area of MilkBoy’s very own bathroom. Although completely out of the ordinary, it made for the best time! I got to see them truly transform into this incredible group of musicians that would truly steal the show.

The first band up was New Jersey’s own June’s Landing. You could tell they had a devoted fan-base that followed them to MilkBoy for the show. Throughout their set, they flaunt everything from funk, alternative, indie, and even reggae to tie together this very interesting sound. The band also performed some new songs for us; to have a sneak peek into some of their upcoming material was a nice experience.

The lead singer had a great vocal range that raised the bar that he constantly hit every time. While I loved their music and his vocals, the stage presence didn’t match the music. I expected some more laughs and smiles and overall a higher amount of energy for their music, but it didn’t happen. Sometimes there were a few hiccups, as there are for all shows, but the singer showed it extensively all over his face which only made us notice it more. Their fans really helped to pull them out of that funk but it is definitely something I hope they keep in mind for future shows.

Next to take the stage was the eclectic Philly band, The Great Enough. This band truly has become one of my favorites to listen to. Lead singer, Bright Kelly, continues to astonish me with his wide vocal ability and adaption to his surroundings. All of the band members communicated with each other and let each other shine in the spotlight. Their extensive knowledge of music theory and how to incorporate that into music is evident in their songs. I learned that almost all of them are currently teaching music, but all of them have had music as a massive part of their lives.

My favorite moment of the entire show came from their stripped-down performance where Bright stood at the edge of the stage and truly sang from his heart. It felt like he was individually singing this song to every person in the room. They left everything they had on that stage and left me utterly and completely speechless.

They are able to create such a smooth and unique sound that is edgy and catchy. They ranged from genres of soft and alternative rock, to contemporary and even some metal as well. As their set went on, the room became fuller and the applause only got louder. They managed to keep me captivated from beginning to end and I tip my hat to them. They even shared their new single “Never Run Away” that will be coming out February 14th so please be sure to keep an eye out for it!

Closing out the show is rock and Americana inspired band, Brother Starling, for their new album release! Originally from Philadelphia, the crowd was no stranger to their music as people filled every square inch of that room. They had so many elements going on throughout the show, but it never felt overdone. They had an incredible sense of how important a strong song structure is and they worked well to balance their sound out between all of them. They ended up playing their new album from beginning to end. Then, ending the show with some classics of their earlier music.

Their music is all technically brilliant and their melodies and relatable lyrics were so catchy. They all had solid stage presence that matched their music and the harmonies between them were all was amazing! I truly believe they were completely submerged in their music and they believed in the performance they were giving us. The crowd was so supportive and interacted with the band through their show banter as well.

Their album as a whole is a mix of different emotions and influences that are strung together to create one cohesive end product. Their album release show stuck with the crowd and me and the overall show was one for the books!

written by Jordyn Lyric

The Black Parade will be rolling down Broad street again this autumn: My Chemical Romance have announced a North American tour, as was long-awaited and speculated by fans, and they’ll be returning to Philly in September. 

The news comes after the announcement of several dates across the globe, including Download Fest in both Australia and Japan, a three-night run at Stadium MK (what was originally a one-night performance saw additional dates tacked on after each sold out in just minutes) in the UK, and one-offs and fest performances in Ireland, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, and Russia. 

The news came via short film, directed by Kris Mercado and starring Marcos Garcia, who plays a My Chem Fan willing to lift the veil between worlds just to get a shot at another performance. Garcia wields an ouija board, sliding a copy of the band’s debut album You Gave Me Your Bullets, I Gave You My Love into the record player and assembling copies of their CD releases around a pentagram constructed on what appears to be his bedroom floor. As the summoning begins, the young man’s house begins to shake, rattling the “NJ DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS” mug, a homage to the band’s New Jersey roots, to the floor, and the ouija board spells out an ominous command: “RUN.” 

Three masked figures begin to pound on the bedroom door, forcing themselves in as the character runs through a ghostly door, appeared from nowhere and lit by the band’s recently teased symbols, and transports into a vampire nightclub that signifies the band’s first release, which featured fan-favorite track “Vampires Will Never Hurt You.” The figures follow suit, chasing the character through another scene, where we see two hallmark symbols of the beloved Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge era: the blood-spattered Demolition Lovers and the ballerina from the “Helena” music video. 

The young man escapes the scene yet again, through another door, this time into a hospital, a nod to The Black Parade era, where a gasping patient lays beneath a blanket on a gurney. When the character lifts the blanket, the patient is gone and a flatline rings out as the masked figures enter. 

The next ghostly door leads to the desert, which brings us to the band’s final LP, Danger Days, a Camaro whipping around in the sand and narrowly missing the protagonist. As he flees the figures for the last time a mushroom cloud erupts behind them, and we see their bodies next to that of the famous skeleton in Black Parade gear. 

Finally, our protagonist finds himself in the middle of a circle of figures in hoods and cloaks, and as he stumbles down a path lit with candles, he finds his ouija board. In an iconic answer to the pleas of adoring fans, the planchette glides over the word “YES,” the lights come on, and the character sees that he is in the Forum in Los Angeles, and all of a sudden, the tour dates appear. The film was, in fact, inspired by one fan’s comedic attempt to “summon MCR back” with a pentagram topped by each of the band’s CDs — it must have worked!

My Chemical Romance will be visiting Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on September 18th. Tickets go on sale Friday, 1/31, at 12 PM. Stick with us for recurring coverage up to the day; we’ve been patiently awaiting their return and we’re ready to keep you up to date with all that’s happening now that My Chem is back in the land of the living.

If you’re a fan of alternative/indie pop music, the Foundry was the place to be this past Saturday. Bringing to you from opposite ends of the country were the Miami-based the Magic City Hippies and Oakland-born, Los Angeles-based, Tim Atlas. To come together in Philadelphia is a feat all on its own, and their affinitive sound made them the perfect match.

Before we can get deep into the night, opening the show promptly at 9 pm was Tim Atlas, bringing their west coast unique style of R&B and indie pop, warming the crowd with overlaying electronic instrumentals, a smooth and comforting voice, accompanied with bass, guitar, and drums. Making their vibe become contagious, the crowd was into it and so was I.

Atlas played tracks from EPs, All Talk, and Together Lonely, mixing in single releases as well. As they played through the first hour, they were able to connect with the audience. As the band closed their set, people cheered for more. But it just made the crowd more eager, ready, and talkative for the Magic City Hippies.

During intermission, it gave the people a chance to refresh their beverages, form a line for sighs of relief, and go out for a smoke all while conversing about Tim Atlas‘ performance and the excitement of the Magic City Hippies.

The Foundry was in a stir after I returned from a smoke break. People were lounging on couches, sitting at tables, and private booths in the back. Everyone seemed to be as if they were as comfortable and as if they were in their own homes. The 30-minute intermission made the crowd very comfortable, but people began to become restless, as the intermission worn on. Some were thinking something was wrong or the band was having possible technical difficulties, but none of that was true. When the Magic City Hippies took the stage, the crowd roared as they took the stage. Everyone was front and center, drinks in hand, and smiles on their faces.

The Magic City Hippies kicked off their set with the track “Franny“ from their Modern Animals album. They immediately had everyone movin’ and groovin’. As they continued with their setlist, the fired one hit after another including “BRNT” and “Bull Ride.” The Foundry became what seemed like a sardine can. The crowd filled the entire room, from the front of the stage all the way back to the bar, and bleeding even closer to the back near the private booth seating. This place was on fire!

There wasn’t a soul in the sea of patrons who weren’t bopping their heads, hands held high, loving, dancing, just plain getting down, intently enjoying themselves. All bodies were in some type of motion, Everybody was feeling it.

The band closed their set with the song “Fanfare” and left the crowd wanting more as they exited from the stage. The noise, the morale and the onslaught of cheers were enough to bring them back to the stage for an encore, not just any encore, but a 6-song encore! Their instrumental build-ups and stage presence were priceless, bringing with them the warmth of Miami in their colorful Miami-style Hawaiian shirts. I applaud you both Magic City Hippies and Tim Atlas. They came, delivered and gave the people exactly what they came for with an unbelievably awesome time.

I had the most unreal opportunity to do my first in-person interview with singer/songwriter, Ron Pope, while also sticking around for one of his first shows back for his Stuck On The Moon tour at the Foundry Thursday night.

Opening the show was a good friend of his, Nashville singer/songwriter, Caroline Spence. As her performance began, it was evident that Spence had a special way with her voice and her heart-filled songs. She has been traveling with them for the tour because, frankly, Pope was not okay with the possibility of Spence running off the road in her car. He highly suggested that she just come with them.

Spence is such a talented musician and really captivated everyone in that venue with her music. She was so interactive with the audience and really set the stage for an unforgettable show.

We began the interview with Pope explaining his musical timeline from the beginning up to the present moment. He explained that, in the early 2000s, he had been in a band called The District, where he was the frontman and lead guitarist (which is about as far as he wanted to go for a solo career). As time passed, he began writing songs, but they didn’t fit with the band’s sound. He eventually recorded a handful of them with an old roommate who was studying recording at the time.

“We gradually started building this fanbase of a 100 people of the day listening, and they spread it like wildfire. The first Monday in October 2007, I got 100 plays. The following Monday, 1,000 plays, then 10,000 plays, etc. Then I  became the most popular unsigned artist, so that was pretty striking… it’s just started rumbling down the mountain from there.”

Pope talked more about his experience as an unsigned artist and how he was able to push his music out so fast. A friend of his was one of the first interns at TuneCore and showed Pope how to distribute his music digitally to create revenue. This led him to create a record label to offer these services to other musicians.

“In early 2011, my wife Blair and I created a label that offered the services of a traditional record label, but without taking ownership of their songs,” Pope explained. “Owning people’s recordings felt antithetical to the reason we started this whole thing in the first place and we want to continue to offer people help.”

We then switched over to talking about his new album, Bone Structure, due out on March 6. He said that initially, this was supposed to be a fun and carefree album, but didn’t go as planned.

“We went to London and had this really scary experience where two men in masks attacked the driver of the car I was in,” Pope explained. “The driver called me thinking they were trying to get me, but in that short period of time, I was terrified and it started making me think about how short and fragile life is. Anything can happen and being a new parent, that was really striking. My daughter was a few months old. I shifted directions and decided to make an entire record where every song is either me speaking to her directly on my experience of me being her father [“My Wildest Dreams”, “Practice What I Preach”] or they are a narrative from my own life that I feel have a moral that may be of use to her and use as life insurance.”

Pope continues, “This experience really shook me up and I was really scared of her growing up and not having a father or not having guidance in life. Maybe I should be censoring myself to some degree, but it actually allowed me to be the most honest that I’ve ever been… since I just made this for her without considering anyone else, that made me think I could say whatever I wanted to say without considering anyone else because I didn’t care if other people didn’t like it. I could speak very honestly and openly because I’m just sharing it with her.”

Pope continued on and talked about more of life in the music business. “My journey is not sanitized, some parts were really dark. Stuck On The Moon is about a guy that used to sell me cocaine,” he admits. “Someone that I always think about is Keith Richards. He was not great because he took drugs, he was great in spite of the fact he took those drugs, and that was a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I always thought that you had to live a certain way in order to be a musician and live very recklessly. All of those things that I was doing in order to live the life I thought I was supposed to be living, were holding me back.”

So why music and songwriting?

“Well, I don’t have any other skills and they put you in jail if you sell drugs… so totally why I still do it,” He joked.

As the whole room continued to laugh on through this question he elaborated some more.

“I was writing poem and later I started creating music and then I started mushing those things together,” Pope explained. “Songwriting is a way I can talk about things because I’m not good at talking about myself. I can work out how I feel about lots of things and it helps me to connect with other people. I was very lonely as a kid and listening to music made me feel a lot less alone. It has been very powerful to watch my music go out and attached to people in that same way… a little piece of me and becomes a part of their life.”

That’s really inspiring to me. I imagine being able to go to all of these new places while on tour is very exciting!

“Well I’m always busy with sound checks and rehearsals and the actual show that I never get to see any of it!” Pope exclaimed. “I remember I took a run one morning and ended up forgetting I had a sound check to be at and saying see?? I knew it!!! I knew I couldn’t sightsee… I’ve gone everywhere and I’ve seen NOTHING… so at a certain point, it just becomes hard.”

We talked some more about his touring experiences and he said he loves to be on stage and play, but at this point, the touring is a lot of work and isn’t nearly as fun as just being on stage.

Being able to see how much he interacts with his fellow musicians was something so special. He was very one-on-one with them, and as he introduced them to the crowd, he told a story of how they met and that he just cares about them so much. To see that is just something that I will hold onto forever. Even in our interview, he spoke about one of the perks of being a musician is being able to meet new people and becoming friends. He had met Spence while in Nashville and they really hit it off and he has become a huge fan of hers. He also met Ted Young, who was also there for the interview, and he’s been a huge contributor to this album as well. As Pope so gracefully put it, “I find musicians that I really like and then I make them my friends.”