Give Thanks For Music!

11-8- Banned Books-Dreamcastle (South Philly)

11-9 The Blow- FUC

11-11 The Morning Benders- FUC

11-12 Maserati- KNT

11-16- Azure Ray/ Tim Fite/ James Husband- JB

11-17- Bear In Heaven-JB

11-21 Terror/ Mindset/ Wrong Answer- BARB

11-26- Kurt Vile and The Violators- JB

A Little Bling!

Diamond Rings aka John O’Regan is FINALLY releasing his debut album entitled Special Affections with Secret City Records.  On October 26th get ready for the irresistible indie pop of Diamon Rings.  You have probably already heard the track “All Yr Songs” and now you can snag another little glimps into this up-coming album with the track “Something Else”.

Great Shows Coming Our Way!

9/26- Envy @ FUC

9/28-Swans @ TROC

9/29-The Books and Black Heart Procession @ TROC

9/30-Stars and Wild Nothing @ TROC

9/30-Margot and The Nuclear So and Sos@ FUC

10/3-Born Ruffians @ JB

10/4-The XX, Warpaint and Zola Jesus @ MT

10/7-Octopus Project and Starfucker @ KFN

10/12-The Thermals, Cymbals Eat Guitars and Post Post @ FUC

10/13-Deerhunter @ SB

10/15-The Extraordinaires @ JB

10/16-Samiam and The Casting Out @ BARB

10/22-Making Time with The Drums and Surfer Blood @ VN

10/24-Matt and Kim @ SB

10/25- Marnie Stern @ KFN

10/27-Crocodiles @ JB

10/27-Local Natives @ TROC

10/30-Phantogram @ JB

Key

FUC-First Unitarian Church

TROC-Trocadero

BARB-The Barbary

VN-Voyeur NIghtclub

MT-Merriam Theater

JB-Johnny Brenda’s

KFN-Kungfu Necktie

SB-Starlight Ballroom

Married To The Church

For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health I go to shows at The Church. I go when I am broke. I go when I don’t even have tickets. I go when I feel like shit. But there is nothing in those vows that says anything about enduring the ungodly sweltering hell of a church basement.

I get it. It’s punk. It’s cool. No air conditioning. Sweaty, hipster-punks moshing to Blacklisted or bopping to Passion Pit (before they got too cool and moved to the Mann Center). But sometimes I wonder if I will come out of the show alive. I think it might be a legitimate health risk to not have air conditioning in The Church. Maybe only a health risk for us elderly folks but a risk all the same.

The fact that I have yet to see someone pass out at a summer show at The Church is quite miraculous. I’ve seen fights, making out, drugs, weird dudes in weird hats and half naked girls but never heatstroke. I might be the first.

The fans, they so kindly provide, just don’t cut it. Sure, if you are lucky enough to stand directly in front of it you can catch a soft breeze but the people around you will give you dirty looks for hogging the breathable air. Otherwise, the fans just stir the oppressive air around.

Maybe I’m just not punk enough. Maybe I’m too old. But a vow is a vow, and till death do us apart. And death might just do The Church and I apart when I sweat my skin off at the next show.

New Music for You!

One of our favorite Philly bands, Banned Books has just put out some new tracks for your listening pleasure!  HEFF is already enjoying these tunes.  Check them out!

Latest tracks by bannedbooks

Bad Band Names

For Your Ears

Your ears deserve a treat.  Our good friends, Banned Books are playing this Sat. May 15th with none other than Grand Buffet.  So, come out to Danger! Danger! Gallery 8:00pm and support awesome music.

Pitchfork Takes Over My World

Pitchfork, I love you. I really do. Sometimes I find myself reading you for hours on end. But you seem to have this creepy 1984-like ability to see and know about everything. You know all the bands I like, you interview all the bands I like and just when I think I am responsible for discovering a brand new band, I find you have already discovered them. A friend of a friend of a friend’s band who play in a dingy basement in the suburbs and have yet to release an album or even an EP, yup you know about them.

It is like we live in this dictatorship and Pitchfork is our Stalin. Telling us who to listen to, what music to like, and informing us of when a band is no longer cool. I tend to agree with most of Pitchfork’s rulings, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I wish one day Pitchfork, you would make an enormous mistake and support a band that sucked. That would be the end of you! I could finally say to myself, I don’t agree with you Pitchfork! Take that!

I’d like to think I like the music I like because I think it’s great not because Pitchfork tells me so. Maybe it just so happens that Pitchfork likes the same music as me? Maybe I am the one dictating what is cool! Yeah, I think that’s better.

You know who else carries a pitchfork, Pitchfork? That’s right, the devil!

Creeps, Perverts and Weirdos: Creepoid!

Although I had not heard of them until hours before I went to interview them, Creepoid was worth the time and gas. I went to their Manayunk home/rehearsal space to catch up with the creeps and hear them play some tunes. I was impressed by their professional sound and the amount of weed consumed in one hour. Creepoid will be playing a show this Sat 4/17 with Kurt Vile at Beautiful World Syndicate. Should be an awesome show!

HEFF: So tell me a little bit about the band. To be honest I had’nt really heard of

you guys until very recently.

P: Well, Anna and I are married and we are in another band called The G. Pete used to play in it too and he ended up leaving the band. There was a really bad snowstorm this year where we were stuck inside for a couple days and Sean slept over and got real drunk and we had this 1956 reel to reel tape machine and we recorded some songs as like a two-piece and then Anna joined in and Pete after that. We recorded this 7” EP that we just released at our first show last week.

HEFF: Brand spankin’ new! The name, Creepoid?

P: Um… well I mean he’s a pervert (points to Petejoe) and he’s a weirdo (points to Sean) so, like we just figured Creepoid.

HEFF: It works. Very literal.

P: Everybody used to call Petejoe, like all the girls in Austin, called him Creepjoe

HEFF: So, what do you do that is particularly creepy or pervy?

S: You’ll find out (laughs).

P: In high school he used to ask girls out and then drive to an industrial park and be like, “so what’s up?” and just park. And even if they just hung out and talked he is still that creepy guy who took them to the industrial park.

HEFF: Do you have anything to say in your defense?

PJ: I am not denying… I’m just saying the details may have been altered.

A: Slightly.

PJ: I am really not that creepy!

P: It was a long time ago. That’s why we can joke about it.

HEFF: Directed to Sean: So they said you’re creepy too?

P: No No No just a weirdo!

HEFF: My bad. A weirdo.

S: See you don’t have to be worried about me. I am just weird.

A: Well you have to be a little worried.

S: Nah. I don’t know how I am weird. Of course I don’t. If I did I wouldn’t do it.

P: He has a weird collection of photos… animal books. You know he is like in his mid-twenties.

HEFF: Like children’s books?

**They all begin disputing whether or not they are children’s books.

P: He is just a weird dude. Like he was always in those advanced classes in high school.

HEFF: So he is smart?

P: Uh yeah.

A: Sean is weird because everyday at dinner time we go “Sean do you want some dinner?” And he goes, “Nah….well ALRIGHT!” Then we’ll all be eating and he’ll come up and take a little plate and be like, “Is this cool, is this cool?”

HEFF: So, so far you are smart and polite and like animals (laughs)?

PJ: (Laughs) It’s the worst!

S: Oh and I wear glasses!

P: And he plays bass with his fingers… weird!

All: (Laugh)

HEFF: Creepy! What do you label your sound as?

P: We think of a really cool part of a song and then try to play it as slooooow as we can. Slower than as slow as we can and it still comes out…

A: It’s pretty fast.

PJ: Plus it’s easy to grasp the idea of something if it’s slowed down anyway… No matter what we did with computers we always started with these reel to reels that he said.

P: So, I don’t know what those kids in California… like the garage, bedroom pop or whatever the fuck they are calling it now but like we do it with old ass tape machines in dirty basements in the east coast.

PJ: The tapes themselves are old tapes that had been previously recorded on.

P: Like old Christmas music.

PJ: The more you record on a tape… it lessens the quality of it.

A: Everything is supposed to be dirtier.

PJ: We were really careful about how we used the tape that was available first.

P: I wouldn’t say we go out of our way to sound dirty it’s just been shown to us in a way that works well.

HEFF: Cheap and efficient. But it worked out and sounds cool.

P/PJ: Right… yeah.

HEFF: So, say you got signed by a label and they wanted you to make a real recording that didn’t sound so lo-fi, would you do it?

P: We would be so happy because we wouldn’t be paying for it!

PJ: I would like just not have to pay for such an expensive hobby.

P: I would love to mass-produce our music. You know, this has only been our first 7” and we sold out of the test presses, all thirty of them. We just got 300 in the mail and those are already starting to go. It’s all moving so fast. I’d really like to have a label pick it up so they could be like “yo, lets do a whole record of all the singles you have.” They are all home recorded and then from there I would look into going into the studio. I’ll take what I can get.

PJ: Even if we just continued ourselves, and then they paid for the tour.

P: Well touring is kind of a problem because Anna is a college professor at two different schools in the city and Sean has a good job… a real job (graphic designer) and I am a private contractor.

HEFF: How do you guys write the songs?

P: It is collaborative. We do everything together since the band has been a band but the original couple songs on the EP… when Sean was in his louder, more aggressive, guitar rock, noise rock band he would eat mushrooms and lock himself in his bedroom and record songs by himself…

HEFF: Maybe this is why you’re weird?

P: (Laughs) Yeah! But those actually became the really good like hooks and changes on the EP. I am excited to see how the new stuff will turn out. So it’s cool when you have even more people doing mushrooms!

HEFF: What do you guys think if the Philly music scene?

P: It’s so all over the place right now and everyone is in their own little world and especially still being in our other band The G. We play so many different shows. We’ll play at The Ox or something like that and then Kung Fu Necktie. Two weeks ago we played a show at the Barbary with Best Coast and it was sold out but a couple days before that The G played a sold out show with Love Is All and Japandroids. So, it’s like we are still playing the same shows but a little different.

HEFF: Is The G similar sounding?

P: It’s like a complete Sonic Youth worship band.

PJ: It is not to be confused with like a side project though.

P: But the Philly scene is awesome. I know I like that band Far-Out Fangtooth.

HEFF: What are you guys listening to now?

S: Reigning Sound.

PJ: I’ve been listening to Heavy Hands LP.

P: The Strange Boys. They’re friends of ours from Austin but I just picked up their LP. They are a really great band. I’m psyched they are touring with Spoon and shit… Dinosaur Jr. is always on the turntable. I just got a Nintendo…two Nintendo top loaders at a thrift store. It was twenty-five bucks, came with the power glove and 38 games. It’s the shit. Lately, before I go to work and climb on scary roofs and shit I’ll take a bong rip and play Nintendo and listen to Dinosaur Jr. Mario three… I still can’t beat that fucking thing.

HEFF: You could upgrade to a Wii.

S: Oh no, too many buttons.

P: No, we play horseshoes outside.

HEFF: Outdoor kids. What do you guys think of the term Hipster?

PJ: My grandmother told me I was (0ne) a couple years ago. But this was the same lady that wouldn’t let me inside of her house on my sixteenth birthday because I had a Dead Kennedys shirt on and she was like, “that’s a disgrace to our Irish heritage.” She freaked the fuck out and kicked me out.

A: That is such a hipster thing to say. You are such a hipster (laughs).

HEFF: Generally negative feelings toward the term then?

A: (Totally joking) Well I lived in Brooklyn so like yeah. I think everyone doesn’t want to say they’re a hipster but then at the same time doesn’t want other people to NOT think of them as a hipster.

PJ: My drug dealer from Austin, used to call me a hipster. He was like well you’re always downtown and you’re always doing shit. What the fuck does that mean, man? I work downtown!

Friend of Band: Do you like how they never actually answer your questions?

HEFF: It’s true but it’s okay.

Another Friend: I always think about how on Seinfeld, Elaine called Kramer a hipster doofus and I don’t want to be that guy!

P: It is a problem if you are perpetually a hipster.

S: You can only be a hipster for a certain amount of time.

A: We are leaving that time. On our way out.

P: You know how I know I am getting old? I no longer own any His Hero Is Gone records…

A: And you don’t drink 40s anymore.

P: Yeah I don’t drink those anymore. I drink New Castle. It’s my jam! And since I’ve gotten older I don’t collect noise tapes any more.

A: Yes you do! What are you talking about?

P: (Laughs) Eh whatever.

HEFF: So then you’re not that old yet.

A: He just turned 27.

P: Yeah my birthday was yesterday.

HEFF: Happy Birthday!

All: No! It was Monday.

P: I don’t remember!

A: Getting old.

HEFF: Then I retract my Happy Birthday.

PJ: Ohhh retracted.

HEFF: Any last words?

S: Well I am curious. Is it safe to say you haven’t really heard us?

HEFF: Oh no I have… But like a few hours before I came here. I liked what I heard though!

P: Tell everyone to come to our show! Tell them to check out Phonographic Arts, shop at Beautiful World Syndicate and try to get the new Creepoid record, Yellow Life Giver and we’ll have a new tape and or 7” out soon! We will be heading out on tour at the end of May, East Coast tour with Sore Eros from Boston.

HEFF: Anything else?

P: Smoke weed everyday.

Do That Do This

Friends, Fans, Hipsters, Music Lovers,

This Saturday the Philly indie, lo-fi band, Creepoid will be playing with Kurt Vile!  This is going to be an awesome show that you will regret missing, if you miss it!  So, don’t be a square and go listen to fuzzy, dreamy, rockin’ tunes!

4/17/2010 4:00 PM at @Beautiful World Syndicate Records (RECORD STORE DAY) KURT VILE/ CREEPOID

Also, stay tuned for an interview with Creepoid!

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