Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Atlas Sound in the Sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church(PHOTOS + words)
Below are the long lost(but found) Atlas Sound photos and words from the First Unitarian Church on December 16, 2011…
Atlas Sound(aka Bradford Cox, the frontman of Deerhunter) released four volumes of bedroom recordings titled “Bedroom Databank” in November of 2010. They were recorded over a few month period where Cox holed up in his room with his guitars, loop and effect pedals
On Friday night, Atlas Sound’s show was kind of like his bedroom albums. Cox was just hanging out with the people who were packed into the Sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church and played his music. He was in a very upbeat mood and hung out for nearly two hours, playing songs off his new record Parallax and older stuff as well. The night was a special treat for those in attendance that only a handful of cities got to experience. Luckily, Philly was one of them.
The Roots Picnic 2011 in photos(via Pitchfork)
The 4th annual Roots Picnic went down this past Saturday at the Festival Pier. The Legendary Roots Crew called on hip-hop and indie artists to play the one-day festival including Nas, Ariel Pink, Wiz Khalifa, Esperanza Spalding, Nicos Gun, and more. The photo below is an outtake of a bunch of photos I shot for Pitchfork. Check out the live and portrait shows I did for them HERE.
Sun Hotel portraits
Rarely do you hear about an indie band from the South, but Sun Hotel is exactly that. The band comprises of five guys who met while attending college in New Orleans. They don’t have southern accents, but their music does have a southern twang to it. At first, you would think they’re from Brooklyn or Philly; after a few listens though, you begin to hear the southern style.
They played The Station in South Philly last week so I snapped a few portraits of the band. Check them out below and head over to their bandcamp to check out their tunes.
Bright Eyes, Junip played NonCommvention 2011 @ World Cafe Live Wilmington 05/20/2011(photos)
This past weekend WXPN held their 11th annual NonCommvention in Wilmington, Delaware at the brand new World Cafe Live. The venue used to be the old Queen Theatre which first opened in 1915 and closed in 1959. The people at WCL really did a fanastic job renovating the building and turning it into a wonderful venue/restaurant.
NonComm featured several panels about the music industry and music journalism as well as dozens of musical acts. Unfortunately, I only had enough time to catch two acts on Friday night– Junip and Bright Eyes. Both artists provided the perfect balance of musical styles for the evening. Junip brought a more up-beat, danceable twist while Bright Eyes, playing as a duo, brought a more laid back, folk approach. The highlight of the night for me was when Conor Oberst and Nat Walcott preformed “First Day Of My Life”, that song always hits the spot for me so it was nice to hear live for the first time. Below are a few photos from the evening.
The Antlers @ the Sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church w/ Little Scream 05/18/2011 (photos + setlist)
The Antlers played in the Sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church on Wednesday night with Little Scream. It was the absolute perfect venue for their music.
Having just released Burst Apart last week, the Brooklyn band played a majority of the new album as well as a few oldies from Hospice. They kicked off the night with Burst Apart opener “I Don’t Want Love”, which was a great way to open the night, but the set lacked energy until the band went into the third song of the night– “Parentheses”. That song alone set the tone for the rest of the night. It’s loud drums, crazy synthesizer sounds and killer bass line on top of Peter Silberman’s vocals and guitar instilled so much energy into the crowd.
“Bear” was the only song from Hospice in the main set and it was fantastic as always. It would have been nice to hear more from the album, but it’s understandable that they focused mostly on Burst Apart since they just released it. However, the Antlers did treat the crowd to a four song encore with three of them being from Hospice.
All in all, the Antlers put on a fantastic, emotion-filled show as expected. Hopefully they’ll be back again soon. Photos below.
Photos of PIFA’s Broad Street Fair
This past Saturday marked the end of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts which was celebrated with an enormous street fair on South Broad Street. Everything you could imagine from street performers to live music to Ferris wheels were there. It was a beautiful day that was enjoyed by all and you could tell just from the atmosphere of the event. Everyone there just seemed so happy. Below are bunch of photos from the afternoon.
Foster The People, Grouplove, We Barbarians @ Kung Fu Necktie 04/10/2011 (photos)
I had no idea I was going to this show until about an hour before it started. It had been sold out for months, but luckily for me, I happened to check Twitter at the right time. We Barbarians had tweeted earlier on in the day that whoever sent them a photo of a Philly mural would be placed on the guest list. Just by chance, I live within a block or two of at least three or four murals so I simply went outside, snapped a photo and tweeted back to them with the photo attached. And that was that.
Overall it was a great show. Foster The People, Grouplove and We Barbarians all brought something different to the show and the crowd really fed off that. Below are a bunch of photos…
We Barbarians
Black Lips @ the Trocadero Theatre 04/09/2011 (photos)
The first time I ever saw the Black Lips was two years ago at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City. I had never heard of them, but I was in NYC for a few days so my friends and I decided to check them out. We definitely were not prepared for the craziness that went down that night: band members giving crowd members beers, band members walking on the hands of the crowd and the guitarist whipping his dick out and playing guitar with it. Needless to say, it was wild.
Last night the Atlanta band played the Trocadero and it was crazy, but not THAT crazy. They played an hour set with some new songs off their upcoming record Arabia Mountain mixed with old songs. The band and crowd were on the same energy level all night, in particular guitarist Cole Alexander(the one who whipped his dick out in NYC). He even threw a Coor Light into the crowd but the security guard quickly took it away. That caused the band to go on a hilarious rant about how they and the crowd were allowed to drink whenever they wanted to. All in all, the Black Lips put on a great show in their signature rowdy fashion. Check out the photos below..
Sun Airway at the OX – 02/05/2011(photos)
Sun Airway played a sold-out hometown show at the rising DIY venue the OX on Friday night. It was a long music filled night which ended with an hour long set by Sun Airway. These guys are on the rise so keep an eye for them in 2011. Photos below.
Photos by Michael James Murray
Sun Airway
Ratatat @ Electric Factory – 10/06/2010 (review + photos)
Words and photos by Claire Fishkow
Ratatat played to a packed house at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia last Wednesday night. As soon as the NYC electro duo took the stage, it was clear it was going to be a good show. Trippy sound effects built as guitarist Mike Stroud and bassist/producer Evan Mast emerged from the dark. As lights came up, Stroud’s signature swooning guitar lead signaled that it was time to get down.
The second the duo hit their first bridge, they fell into an instant groove that immediately had the whole crowd dancing. The set material that ensued was well chosen. There was just enough of their newest LP4, as well as plenty of classics, including a version of ‘Wilcat’ that people went nuts for. It was actually really entertaining to see the entire factory try to sing along to a song with no words. Needless to say, the crowd was a huge asset to the show. It’s not that Ratatat wasn’t good, they absolutely were, but the performance just wouldn’t have been the same without everyone dancing together to every rhythm they played.
Have a look at some pictures from the show below.
