August 03, 2016
Shervin Lainez/for PhillyVoice
Field Mouse celebrates the release of "Episodic" at The Boot & Saddle on Thursday.
A couple of years removed from their debut full-length “Hold Still Life,” five-piece indie outfit Field Mouse — now based in Philly and New York — is back with “Episodic,” a cathartic record inspired by a cancer diagnosis and an angry breakup. “Episodic” will get full play a day ahead of its release tonight at Boot & Saddle.
Doors 7:30 p.m. / Show 8 p.m. | with Swanning and Missing Earth | $10 | 21+
More than 20 years into her career, Erykah Badu’s R&B experimentalism continues its trickle-down effect among younger artists today. Most recently the Dallas singer interpolated a Drake hit to wondrous effect, flipping “Hotline Bling” into a more sincere, nuanced and hilarious exploration. That success inspired an entire mixtape of cover songs and interpretations about telephones, an unsurprisingly genius project with track titles like “Phone Down,” “Hello It’s Me,” and “Dial’Afreaq.”
Doors 7 p.m. / Show 8 p.m. | with Gallant | $89 | all ages
After years of artistic meandering, California singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy’s harnessed her zeal into a wonderful debut album “Emotions and Math.” The record is powered by the 27-year old’s equal talents as a vulnerable folk lyricist and savvy guitarist. The lead singles, released in January, run the gamut: “You and I” carries peppy grunge with an irresistibly petty and snarling vocal track. “Somebody to Anybody” on the other hand offers a more subdued and folky bit of existential isolation. Either way, she serves it, Glaspy has a knack for relatable, gut-wrenching introspection.
Show noon | free | all ages
Brooklyn’s Bells≥ bill their style matter-of-factly as “mostly non-improvised instrumental music.” Put another way by drummer/inverted frontman Zach Barocas, the group with that weird and silent “≥” symbol makes “it-is-what-it-is art.” That reluctance to being pinned down makes sense when you listen to Bells≥’ most recent album, 2013’s “Solutions, Silence, Or Affirmations,” which is anchored by Barocas’ masterful drumming and some of the most dynamic instrumental interplay of any recent post-rock, sometimes pitting a cello against the group’s conventional line-up.
Doors 7:30 p.m. / Show 8 p.m. | with Callowhill, The Effects and Friendship Commanders | $10 | all ages
Never before have album anniversaries been as fetishized as they are right now. And while there’s a rote quality to much coverage surrounding these milestones, a decade (or two or three) can obviously help calcify a record’s significance and relevance. Such is the case for the splendid, mid-career offering from Japanese metal trio Boris, whose 2006 masterpiece “Pink” is getting some much-deserved 10th anniversary love this year in the form of a reissue and matching tour. Boris is still active, so the “Pink” celebration isn’t a reunion excuse, but they’ve never quite summited the creative peak of this fidgeting opus. This weekend they revisit their experimental 20-track highpoint in full at Union Transfer.
Doors 7:30 p.m. / Show 8:30 p.m. | with Earth | $20 | all ages
Nu metal wasn’t meant to last, but for about a decade it reigned. Korn, Linkin Park, Staind, and Limp Bizkit were the obvious front-runners in the rap-rock race, but Sacramento’s Deftones — 20 years after their debut album and more than a decade past the genre’s mainstream relevance — may be the most genuinely perseverant band of the bunch. Where the other groups might sometimes seem like a corny flash in the pan in retrospect, The Deftones have long shown a willingness to reinvent themselves and experiment with new sounds. So when the band’s eighth album “ Gore” hit shelves earlier this year, it was rightfully met with curiosity instead of groans. And while their original fans are surely their most devoted, it’s not hard to imagine that they’ve been gaining some new ones in 2016.
Doors 6:30 p.m. / Show 7:30 p.m. | with Refused | $43.75
Formerly known as This Town Needs Guns, Oxford band TTNG is still packing the same punch they have since they formed more than a decade ago. But along with their 2013 name change, TTNG’s latest album “Disappointment Island” is also their most accessible. A few months ago the band’s bassist/vocalist Henry Tremain cast aside their traditional billing as a “math-rock” group, calling the label “really elitist” in an interview with Noisey. “We never embraced that title!” he said. Regardless, “Disappointment Island” melds the band’s affinity for complex and shifting time signatures with a newfound approachability.
Show 6:30 p.m. | with Lite | $19 | all ages
