Root Down in the Shadow

Somehow Sofar Sounds : Philadelphia is hitting their 4th Anniversary. The now world-wide phenomenon was a few shy of twenty cities world-wide when Philadelphia joined the ranks. These days, the shows are all over the globe and it seems like there are just shy of twenty dates in NYC alone each month. It all started in London, back in 2009, and slowly spread during the next two years to New York, Paris, DC, Los Angeles, Pune India, Houston, Brighton, Seattle, New Dehli, Sydney, Madrid, Berlin, Toronto, Dallas-Forth Worth, and Glasgow before hitting the City of Brotherly Love.  During the next 10 days I'm going to look back at four years of Sofar Sounds: Philadelphia trying to give my version of the best videos. Please comment and share what were your favorites. 14. The Lawsuits - You Won't Love Me If You Don't Sofar Sounds shows are typically stripped down to fit the room.  For this living room / office, it was a perfect fit.  "You Won't Love Me...

"From the Notebook" is a new series at Root Down In The Shadow, that will explore great experiences with bands and events that didn't make it to the web within a normal deadline, but were too good not to share.  If all goes well we'll let that original moment simmer and provide some additional insight beyond our first take.  Our first subject: Dirty Dollhouse. Chelsea Mitchell All Photos by Lindsey Borgman unless noted  Chelsea Mitchell Dirty Dollhouse Who is Dirty Dollhouse ? Who is Dirty Dollhouse ?  Officially Dirty Dollhouse is the all-beautiful, all-female Chelsea Mitchell-Amber Twait-Vanessa Winters trio.  The lush harmonies of these long-time friends are the crux of any Dirty Dollhouse tune.  But which band is really Dirty Dollhouse?  Is it only the trio? Or, is it a full-band extravaganza?  Chelsea Mitchell Some fans already caught their first glimpse of Dirty Dollhouse at one of their rare shows in 2014. ...

This Friday, Mat Burke will be gracing the Kung Fu Necktie stage for the Still Bleeding EP release show.  Joined by some of the most exciting rockers in Philly: The Rivals, Penrose , and August John Lutz II of Levee Drivers ; it stands to be a wild night of music.   Mat Burke - Photo by Elizabeth Thorpe If the album title is any indication, Philadelphia's Mat Burke will be ready to bleed for us.  With his new EP Still Bleeding he's visiting a theme he's been capturing for some time.  According to Mat, "everyone bleeds not only in a physical sense but a singer bleeds every time he steps on stage, a teacher bleeds every time she talks to a class, an artist bleeds with every stroke of a brush."  Burke normally plays solo so this makes total sense that he's "still bleeding," sharing his stories as he takes the full brunt of talkative crowds without support of band mates. Theme aside, on his new EP his music is taken to new heights. ...

Earlier this week we released the raw and intimate Ron Gallo version of the Lawsuits ' 'Anybody's Girl' for #COVERCLUB !  The softer rendition gave ample pause to the heartfelt Brian Strouse lyrics as Gallo sang them on a cold December day in West Philly. It was this type of reflective day that Ron had back in Chicago a recently while on tour with Toy Soldiers, when the lyrics for his original 'Expensive Hair' started forming in his head.  The brand new song, part of an upcoming project, a kind of a concept album of sorts focuses on the humor of the American lifestyle. Cover Club | Ron Gallo "Expensive Hair" This new project is not to be confused with a just finished solo record that should be released sometime this spring,  his previous solo work Live at Ortlieb's released last spring or the impressive Toy Soldiers album The Maybe Boys released last fall.  'Expensive Hair' is an example of the most recent songs Ron has been writi...

Photo by Jeff Coon This week, the session of the new Philadelphia-centric music series #CoverClub, features Brian Strouse & Vanessa Winters at Break Neck Studios where the members of Philadelphia band, the Lawsuits, covered Ween !  Ironically, just as I lamented here are week ago, that 'Fine Quality' covered by Chelsea Mitchell was being rescued from the growing stack of incredible songs by the Lawsuits on the new album Cool Cool Cool .  Brian and Vanessa dug further into the Lawsuits catalog for this week's original session track! 'Dancing In Church' is a Lawsuits throwback.  In fact, it's technically on a solo Brian Dale Allen Strouse album, 18 South Main.   The 2010 album was early tinder for Strouse, as several tracks made it onto other releases.  Two songs became tracks on the subsequent Lawsuits album Darleen ('Hot Water Blues' and 'Mermaid').  The dark 'Hurricane Blues' a lament of a broken relationship, became a ste...

Earlier this year here at the indie Philly blog, Root Down In The Shadow, we started the fun series #Philly Presents , ...bands writing about other bands. The most common reaction from bands to this project: "Wait? Are we covering other bands?" And so #CoverClub was born!  This week, the featured #CoverClub artists are Brian Strouse and Vanessa Winters of  The Lawsuits .  On a very chill afternoon in October, Brian and Vanessa came in to Breakneck Studio for their session.  Coincidentially they came in right as Chelsea Mitchell was recording her version of the Lawsuits' 'Fine Quality'. The band Brian Strouse chose cover was Ween.  Ween ?   Ween is just one of those bands.  You'll never hear them on the radio.  You didn't see them on MTV or VH1, but maybe once in their lengthy career.  Someone had to introduce you to Ween.  For Brian Strouse it was his older brother.  My experience was through an older brother too...

Saturday night, October 5th, something truly magical is going to happen.  The self titled  Ali Wadsworth album is going to be released in grand fashion.  We're talking G R A N D !  Cocktail hour, a secret band, a roving party, and the much anticipated release of the most #EPIC album of all time! The Ali Wadsworth band itself, is made up of members of Good Old War , the Lawsuits , Hezekiah Jones , Chris Kasper , and more! We're not talking epic as in my favorite over-used adjective, but epic as in over 50 potential writers contributing to a project!  The cross-section of the Philadelphia scene involved with this project is huge.  We're not even talking 6 degrees of separation or 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon or whatever.  The number of artists directly writing for or playing on the album is staggering.  Don't confuse things though.  This is not some weak celebrity all-star album or some vanity project.  This is a full on collaboration wi...

#PhillyPresents: by Brian Dale Allen Strouse Your band name:   The Lawsuits Style: Rock & Roll   Years on the Scene : 3 Current Project: We just wrapped our first full-length album called Cool Cool Cool that will be released sometime this year. Members : Brian Dale Allen Strouse - Guitar/Vocals Brendan Cunningham - Bass Vanessa Winters - Vocals Josh Friedman - Drums Noah Skaroff - Banjo, Guitar, Slide, Sax, etc.. Music info/source site for Philly : The Key XPN Unique Show : Caravan 2012 was one of the most unique and fun experiences we’ve ever had as a band. It’s put on by the Murphy brothers (of Penrose ) along with their manager Lynne Krohn and friend Matt Manser. Last year we joined Penrose, Cheers Elephant , TJ Kong and the Atomic Bomb , Juston Stens and the Get Real Gang , Levee Drivers , and about 2 dozen other Philly artists. The festival spans 3 days on Matt’s family’s property on the Belgrade Lakes in Maine. We are excited to be jo...