Root Down in the Shadow

Wooo Hooooo It's XPoNential Fest Time!!!!  Every year WXPN brings a ton of great bands and artists to the Wiggins Park shore in Camden, NJ.  With so many bands on the line-up it's daunting to figure out which bands to see.  Fortunately, the way WXPN does the line-ups you CAN make it to every band should you choose.  However, we all know it's going to be hot as hell.  Not quite as hot as 2011 with the 100 degree days, but still super hot.   Luckily for us, some of the festival performers have put in their two cents for which bands they are excited about. Rosemary Fiki   starts the fest at 4pm today on the JerseyArts.Com Marina Stage. Let's see what she's recommending: Band Most Excited to Share the Festival Stage with : This is our first time time performing at XPoNential so to be completely honest, I'm super stoked to share the Festival stage with everyone! If I absolutely had to choose, I would say The Districts. We actually share...

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 o8 f the best videos. Please comment and share what were your favorites. #18 Beans On Toast - "Fuck You Nashville" The great thing about Sofar Sounds is you don't know the bands before you arrive.  I still remember a friend telling me about this band Beans On Toas...

Welcome to Season Two of Philly-centric video series, Cover Club.  Cover Club is best conceptualized as “A special brand of Philly covers”, akin to The Onion’s AV Undercover series but with one caveat: the song being covered must originally be from a Philly artist. Ali Wadsworth - Photo by Bob Sweeney Satellite Hearts - Photo by Bob Sweeney Ali Wadsworth + Satellite Hearts are two names that were all over the Philly map in recent years.  Ali Wadsworth most recently put out an album ( Ali Wadsworth ) of songs written by her friends and has contributed vocals for countless others including Kalob Griffin Band , Aaron & the Spell , Kuf Knotz , and Small House.  Satellite Hearts just dropped a new single to tease their upcoming album, but spent most of 2014 backing Kuf Knotz, Ali Wadsworth, Ron Gallo & others.  Meanwhile they're up for the Indie Rock Band of the Year and will be a featured performer for the 4th Annual TriState Indie Awards ....

It's our favorite time of the year: XPoNential Festival time!  Like most things here at Root Down In The Shadow we're going to take a band-centric view of the festival and let them tell you who to go see this year at the 2014 XPoNential Music Festival Presented by Subaru, brought to you by WXPN . SATURDAY - RIVER STAGE - 12:30 PM-1:00 PM Davis Howley - Vox/Guitar - Commonwealth Choir Band Most Excited to Share the Festival Stage with : " Jenny Lewis & Dawes are both really significant to the band.  Rilo Kiley (Jenny Lewis' former band) was sort of the cross over artist for us, as teenagers moving from punk & hardcore to a new genre, they exposed us to country & folk in a modern way, but still bad-ass & sexy.  It's really expertly crafted music." Band Most Excited to see live at #XPNFest :   "We all became obsessed with Dawes .  Individually we started going to see them at shows, covering them at parties, drawin...

Your band name : I'm not in a band but I work with a bunch of them. My name is Marley McNamara , manager at Levee Drivers , The Districts and Ali Wadsworth , booker/promoter (independent and for World Cafe Live ) Style : whatever sounds great. Years on the Scene : 4.5 years Current Project and/or Members : Managing The Districts, Levee Drivers and I recently took on Ali Wadsworth. Also, President of For The Record Management . Recent and/or most unique/exciting show : I would have to say it's a toss-up between the Levon Helm Tribute that Ron Gallo ( Toy Soldiers) and I put together last summer downstairs at World Cafe Live, which featured about 17 locals artists who all joined together to commemorate the life and work of Levon Helm and The Band (including Eric Slick of Dr. Dog assisting almost everyone on drums) and the Beck Song Reader show I organized this past January. I asked 20 local bands of all different genres to learn one song out of Beck...