Scene Report Philadelphia DIY Stays Great (and Nifty) By Sims Hardin · July 3, 2024
Was it a bad idea to agree to write a field report for a city like Philadelphia? During the 1968 Eagles halftime show, a season of poor coaching led Santa Claus to drop hundreds of snowflakes. It’s the home of sports fans who throw balls around and laugh like stoned teenagers while some poor bastard cowers in fear behind the sled. Jaycee Webster, owner of the Philadelphia Record Exchange, also claimed that at a Dead Boys show in Kensington, a drunk Cheetah Krom showed off his junk to punks and tried to solicit sexual favors. I also remember when he told me that he ended up kicking him. He repeated it over and over again with his unsheathed body while he lay there screaming in agony. Or the windows of the tenement house where Bauhaus were to play were broken by the neighbors who saw all the Goths standing outside smoking, and Peter Murphy and his friends had to sneak out of the alley. Even when it didn’t happen.
However, this city is also the city that gave me the best time of my life. I listened and smiled as Philadelphians soaked in the drunken afterglow of Mammer’s Parade as blue-collar workers in drugs and gold shoes worked on intricate group choreography. Or when the Eagles won the Super Bowl and I watched a group of senior citizens drop seven shots of Irish whiskey from their hockey sticks in unison, and it was a sight to behold. Gobers! Let’s go to the Phillies, the city where I fell in love and broke my heart.
Philadelphia is a tough city full of resilient, salt-of-the-earth people with no time for crap. These are the same guys that make up the great bands here. They are an amazing band with unparalleled talent and guts. People gathered to participate in music festivals like Something to Talk About, Couple Ghouls Fest, and Julia’s War Fest. People come together to help their friends receive life-saving care and to raise mutual aid for those suffering around the world. Philadelphia has a rich history of bands and musicians that bring us great pride, including Pure Hell, The Stick Men, The Heathens, The Lillies, and Jack Rose, but this scene is still just as I believe that we have produced many great bands. Crowdsurfing to Cousin Danny’s bathroom and giving him a swally would have been worth it.
If I had the courage to criticize one aspect of the Philadelphia music scene, it would be that many sub-scenes and the people within them are criminally ignorant of each other. They are often separated by neighborhoods, primarily North Philadelphia, South Philadelphia, and West Philadelphia. There’s a lot of great music happening under the phallic shadow that William Penn accidentally cast on a bunch of punks smoking e-cigs outside a show around town. The beautiful punks of West Philadelphia happily stomp their feet, oblivious to the wall-rattling noise show at Jerry’s. North Philadelphia’s art rockers are witnessing packed, sweaty D-beat gigs in West’s house basement. It’s sometimes painful to see this groove. You don’t really connect to any of the scenes, so you get the feeling that you can love them all equally, but you’ll probably never truly embrace any of them. This is a love letter to the bands I’ve had the pleasure of watching and listening to. Rather than distinguishing between them, I will put them side by side as things that exist in my small music-loving brain. And maybe they will read this and meet me. You probably already know big artists like Spirit of The Beehive, Mannquin Pussy, Sheer Mag, Poison Ruïn, TAGABOW…but these are the ones to watch.
Punk/Hardcore/No Wave
phantom
7 song demo
Phantom gave me back my faith in live hardcore. This completely unique and absolutely wild band blew my mind in a packed upstairs room at the Photo Club in North Philadelphia. With access to every riff under the sun and pissing into the wind, they’re unique freaks. Fast, raw, and calculating.
negative situation in the world
Negative world status demo
Negative World Status shows off their boots on their heads in their debut demo. Their sound is raw and punchy, incorporating eggy/synth-ish tricks, but the music is much more guttural and far less goofy. A square, stomping punk who karate kicks his boss into a cooler.
Kinetic Orbital Strike
real disaster
Kinetic Orbital Strike sounds like a nuclear explosion. This is heavy, intense, raw punk that fans of 80s Japanese D-beat and Swedish hardcore will appreciate. Noisy guitars, fast, choppy beats, and neolithic vocals will get your head pumping.
sweeper
demonstration
There are no wave lockers to clean the streets here. The Sweepers access panicking, rocking riffs and fast-paced, varied rhythms to create a completely singular sound. Armed with a microphone attached to a push broom, the singer pushes his way through the busy show as the audience cheers in delight. For James Chance and other New York schronkers, lovers of Windex bottles and paper towels.
Z pack
15 minutes with Z-Pak
If ever there was a band that would make you huff your groove and touch your eyeballs in amusement, it would be Z-Pak. Fast and spastic, it’s also a total weirdo jam, lyrically packed with twisted humor and social commentary that’s also incredibly heady.
Indie/Art Rock/Shoegaze
fibromuscular
fibromuscular
. 00:10 / 00:58
Fib is a transplant from Portland and, well, it’s been over a year. And what a year it has been! “What if Gangs of Four and Television were a four-track indie rock band that used amphetamines and basically every other drug at the same time?” It’s a really exciting mix of jangly jungle and well-sung, memorable hooks.
golden apple
banana sugar fire
If you want to hear lush jungle and big, well-crafted songs, Golden Apples is for you. There’s a lot of great 90s pop vibes from the US and New Zealand, like K Records and Flying Nun. The recording is extremely detailed and rich, swirling with layers of percussion, acoustic guitar, and harmonious sounds.
Menu
push pin
DIY Wizard ME NU is a great bag of insane pop, angular jungle, and 90’s rock. In a packed basement, the members of ME NU, dressed as South Park characters, can be seen belting out a bunch of speedy, weird riffs while the world around them moves in slow motion.
country western
life on the lawn
No, this is not an Alan Jackson cover band. If you can believe it, that’s even better. They use their own unstable, unsettled vision to deliver memorable country-western-like songs taken from bands like Codeine, Pavement, and Pinback. This could be the next Philadelphia band to really explode.
rock’n’roll/power pop
Writhing square
mythology
This veteran duo has been making waves on the Philadelphia scene for years as members of bands like Purling Hiss and Spacin’. But Writhing Squares continue on a unique, strange and fruitful journey into their own, modulated, powerful riff-like krautrock madness.
mopar stars
burning question
Members of heavy bands Zone and Poison Ruin show off their softer side in Mopar Stars, which fuses Big Star-style power pop with junky ’90s rock. These rippers exercise self-control, focus on a song, and belt out the craziest guitar solos imaginable until it’s gone, and most of them are great songs.
blues ambush
S/T
All hail the crazy doctors of the psychedelic boogie. Blues Ambush is an artist who delivers fuzzy, intertwined, guitar-driven instrumental frenzy. The trio produces over eight minutes of no-frills, deconstructed, loud blues attacks aimed at killing hippies and members of the establishment.
label
world gone mad records
World Gone Mad, run by Aaron Muchanich, has been releasing great Philadelphia punk records for years, along with hidden treasures from around the world. WGM’s discography includes some of Philadelphia’s craziest bands, including Dridge, S-21, and Blank Spell.
strange thing
Strange Mono has been releasing punk, hardcore, noise and unconventional pop over the past few years, with all proceeds going to a mutual aid fund of the band’s choosing. Not only is this a great mission, but they’ve released some really great Philadelphia bands like TrueCurrent, Webb Chappell, and Concrete Caveman.
give up all records
Abandon Everything Records continues to do well, releasing one Philadelphia hit after another. Some of their great records include Drill and Positronix.
We’ve only scratched the surface here, but this will likely lead you down a deep rabbit hole that is Philadelphia’s DIY scene. If you love music, check out the festivals I book every year. This year it’s called U3 Fest and will be held at Underground Arts on October 5th. Some of these bands expect to play there along with many touring bands from around the world. At the very least, come to Philadelphia, eat a cheesesteak, see a murder show, and hopefully avoid getting kicked in the groin. Just in case, pack a leather studded cup for style and protection. And who knows! Maybe I’ll be right there with you, fist in the air, singing along to the song like my head is a toilet. See you in the pit.
