Root Down in the Shadow

Last Friday at Johnny Brenda's it was The Freeman Tour , bringing Aaron Freeman 's new band Freeman back to Philadelphia with Providence, RI buzz-band Arc Iris.  The sold-out crowd was completely amped, with local hero Aaron Freeman a.k.a. Gene Ween making his return to the hip Fishtown neighborhood venue.  With his new self titled album dropping just over a month ago, the excitement of his return was electric.  Many fans arrived dejected to find out the show was sold out, but the hardcore fans were ready with tickets in hand, ready for the show. Loading @arcirismusic #amazeballs #FreemanTour #JocieAdams #SoldOut View on Instagram After what seemed to be a long delay to get upstairs, Arc Iris went on stage on time to start the show.  It has been a great year for Arc Iris, releasing their eponymous debut album earlier this year, getting major buzz on the SXSW circuit and major coverage all year round.   The Freeman tour would be an exciting one with keyboa

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!   The first sessions for #CoverClub were recorded in October, at the intimate Break Neck Studio under the sonic helm of Peter Joseph!   With the excitement over the series we couldn't contain ourselves, but couldn't continuously steal Peter.  Nomad Recording Studio graciously offered to be our alternate studio for the series and we quickly lined up more bands.  With Rob Swift and Tom Williamson of Nomad Recording Studio, the Session 1.0 includes Aaron Brown of Aaron & The Spell, Ron Gallo of Toy Soldiers, The Rivals and the Fleeting Ends!  The posts here at Root Down In The Shadow have been a blast to do, featuring the excellent videos by director Bob Sweeney assisted by Paul Lo

Earlier this week we released the incredible recreation of  Ween 's 'Tried and True' by the Fleeting Ends for #COVERCLUB !  The gritty version, done at Nomad Recording Studio, was a wonderful reminder that they are more than just alt-pop-rock wizards, but that they can seriously rock! Cover Club | The FleetingEnds "I Feel Cursed" To complete the #CoverClub session one of the many hits from Our Eyes Are Peeled , 'I Feel Cursed' was captured.  This Cover Club session recorded in December was the wrap of a really killer year for the band.  "2013 was a big year for us only because of Our Eyes Are Peeled . It landed us fantastic publications in Magent Magazine , Modern Drummer and many more.  Took us out on the road and got us into gear for future touring.  Local support has been fantastic.  Especially from WXPN .  We played this summers Xponential fest and it was by far the best day the band has ever had. Our Eyes Are Peeled   shot us into not o

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! The final Nomad Studios Session 1.0 band for the #CoverClub series are the hardworking fellas from West Philadelphia, none other than the Fleeting Ends !  When the series was in the planning stages, it was clear that these energetic dudes had to be involved.  Seeing them back in August, at the Sofar Sounds: Philadelphia show, I realized that if their live show was such a close reproduction to their album intensity, then they would also be incredible for a studio session.  Turns out, instincts were correct and these guys brought their A game.  Never even considering a stripped down session, the Fleeting Ends came to Nomad Recording Studio ready to rock out. The Fleeting Ends selection 'Trie

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!   The first sessions for #CoverClub were recorded in October, at the intimate Break Neck Studios under the sonic helm of Peter Joseph!  The posts here at Root Down In The Shadow have featured the excellent videos by director Bob Sweeney with Paul Lorenz and Jeff Coon also behind the lens. Since the audio tracks are soooo good, it was decided they had to be shared!  Now at SoundCloud with permission from the bands we have switched the audio files to be a free download !!   Download them and share them.  Make sure all your friends hear them.  All we ask of you is to listen, watch, and share!  The Lawsuits members Brian Strouse & Vanessa Winters - photo by Jeff Coon

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, not mine, but my frien

Back when I was in college, my mom and I didn't see eye to eye on music.  She was an Oldies turned Country fan.  I was a top 40 turned Alternative fan.  We had a little quid pro quo arrangement, whereas I could tell the difference between the famous Garth Brook s and the less than famous Radney Foster .  She in turn could tell me which fruit or vegetable I was listening to between, Smashing Pumpkins, Cranberries, Red Hot Chili Peppers , or Blind Melon ; she could even tell the difference between Reel Big Fish and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones !   If we road tripped we went back and forth between each other's c.d.'s.  However, we didn't necessarily like each other's music. For some reason my mother didn't trust that her young adult knew good music?  Ironically, when I was heavy into Eric Clapton' s Unplugged album, she just thought I was depressed as I listened to it over and over again.  I guess I did give her plenty of reason to doubt as I was constantly

In a continuing series, I have been exploring music that I love, that is also fitting for my young daughter.  I have looked at adult songs that she also loves , kids songs that I don't want to slit my wrist listening to , and as was the case with 'Boy with a Coin' , a track that can calm the child down. Today's selection is an adult track that can calm a child down, and is an excellent lullaby.  However, it has a short shelf life.  I wouldn't recommend playing this beyond three years of age, as it has some dark and possibly nightmare inducing lyrics.   If you ever tried to locate some lullabies in your music collection, good luck!  Try searching the word lullaby in your collection.  Counting Crow's 'Mrs. Potter's Lullaby' is much too loud, as is the jazz ' Lullaby of Birdland' .  Coltrane 's ' Russian Lullaby ' will do one better than caffeine.  ' Disenchanted Lullaby ' from the Foo Fighters might work for Dave Groh

Back in High School, once I left the realm of being a top 40 listener, I started filling out my music collection.  My mom had the Beatles ' 1962-1966' on vinyl, which I kindly adopted and have held for the next approximately 20 years.  I added ' 1967-1970'  on compact disc, and I was as relatively complete as I could afford.  I wasn't as much of an archivist at the time to realize I needed full albums to get such gems as 'I've Got A Feeling ', 'I've Just Seen A Face', or 'Glass Onion '. When I was old enough to hit the bars, I loved finding great songs in the jukebox.  Gooski's in Polish Hill, had my favorite collection with Ween 's The Mollusk and Chemical Brother's Dig Your Own Hole amongst their discs .  We normally found ourselves at a few bars in Pittsburgh's South Side, where Kopy's, and  Smokin' Joe's each had respectable collections as well. It was often in a semi lucid state at these locatio

In preparation for this blog, I was trying to figure out who I went to Homecoming with my Junior & Senior years of High School, at good ol' Gateway Sr. High.  It's absolutely amazing to me, that I can't remember my dates, but I can remember vividly what music I was listening to at the time.  It could just mean I was a self centered a-hole, but since this is a music blog, we'll talk about that instead. On one of those occasions I partnered up with my great friend Bud.  Bud, had asked out the Lovely Laura, and I asked my good buddy Megan.  I ranged from friend, teammate, and sometime tormentor to Megan, but in this case she was my date to the dance.  Of course, Laura and Megan were also good friends, and were chatting it up in the back.   Bud and I realized we had realistically ZERO chance for anything else to happen that night (and my fuzzy memory tells me we were all going as friends anyway) so we did what we would do, without two beautiful young ladies in the ba