June 22, 2016
A couple years ago, NAILS frontman Todd Jones explained why the California hardcore group will always be a bit of a side-project. “I have a family, I have a wife and two kids, and that takes up all my time,” he told Converse. The band, he said, will never tour or record full-time as a result, but their recent album “You Will Never Be One of Us” nonetheless shows a gripping commitment to the music: angry and pounding death metal. The album’s title is a forceful rebuke to anyone that can’t relate to the pain expressed therein.
With Full Of Hell, God’s Hate, Eternal Sleep, Malice at the Palace, Justified Defiance | Doors 7 p.m., show 7:30 p.m. | $15 | all ages
There’s a whole category of hip-hop fans who ride high on the cache of their AZ fandom. Despite his singular talent, the Brooklyn rapper born Anthony Cruz is celebratedly underappreciated. On Nas’ debut album “Illmatic,” a hip-hop record revered to the point of boring dogma, Cruz was the only featured artist and his miraculously dense lyricism upstaged Nas himself. That featured verse on “Life’s A Bitch” has propelled a career full of quiet classics. He might not climb the charts or carry the social media pizazz of his contemporaries, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a ’90s hip-hop fan who can’t conjure up an AZ verse or two.
With 30 & Over League, Apollo Ali, Stevie Franks and Slaughter Rico | Show 8 p.m. | $20-$22 | 21+
With her just-released fourth album, the 25-year old Brooklyn singer-songwriter Mitski has finally broken through. Her previous record, “Bury Me at Makeout Creek,” was an early inkling of the ambitions she’s crystallized on “Puberty 2,” an irresistibly smart indie rock album recorded by the artist herself and producer Patrick Hyland. Following the release of the album’s lead single, “Your Best American Girl,” Mitski, who is Japanese-American, snapped back at critics who pigeonholed her perspective. “A lot of reviews have agreed on a narrative that she wrote this song to stick it to 'the white boy indie rock world'! but I wasn't thinking about any of that when I was writing it, I wasn't trying to send a message,” she posted on Facebook. “I was in love. I loved somebody so much, but I also realized I can never be what would fit into their life.” Her music is similarly forceful and vulnerable at once, and the praise is catching up with her. In town for a pair of sold-out shows this weekend, in-the-know-fans can catch a free World Cafe Live show tomorrow afternoon.
Show noon | free | all ages
Just over two decades after the group formed in San Francisco in the 1990s, Deerhoof remains legitimately experimental. In this way the quartet has charted a perilous career course: Never do the same thing twice. More than a dozen albums later, Deerhoof still has a knack for keeping fans guessing. Already in 2016, they’ve collaborated with the Chicago-based classical music collective Ensemble Dal Niente on a splendid full-length record. Just a couple months after that release, Deerhoof is back on their own with an album called “The Magic,” which releases tomorrow. Philly fans will be some of the first to catch the band’s supporting tour, which runs into August.
With Kill Alters & Blank Spell | Doors 7:30 p.m., show 8 p.m. | $15 | all ages
At this point in his career, it’d be easy to forgive Paul Simon for coasting: The guy has been writing songs for 60 years. All the way back in 1986, after decades of sentimental hits both with and independent from Art Garfunkel, Simon seemed on the edge of a career cliff. Instead of falling off, he looked to a troupe of South African musicians to reinvigorate his songs. In many ways “Graceland” clearly distinguishes the second half of Simon’s career; the album was a surprise critical and commercial hit that has made it easier to come to terms with the stalwart singer-songwriter’s consistency in the years since. There aren’t many 74-year old artists who keep fans clamoring for new songs, and his daring, witty songwriting is on full display with yet another late-career album, “Stranger To Stranger.”
Show 8 p.m. | $34.50-$144.50 | all ages
Never mind the name, Philly locals Pissed Jeans make measured and mature punk rock. More than a decade after the band began releasing singles, the quartet tours rarely and releases music sporadically but remains intact, popping up on East Coast bills several times a year. In 2013, around the time “Honey” dropped, frontman Matt Korvette told Stereogum : “I can’t relate to indie rock release scheduling and the music industry in that way.” He just loves playing music.
With Lydia Lunch Retrovirus & Taiwan Housing Project | Doors 8 p.m., show 9 p.m. | $18 | 21+
Over the last year, Philly’s hip-hop scene has graduated a small group of unexpected rappers to national prominence. No one would blame you for overlooking Lil Uzi Vert in 2015, but a few weeks ago he came off like a crowd-favorite at the packed and eclectic Roots Picnic festival. Another North Philly come-up, PnB Rock, has charted a more tempered rise: collabs with Fetty Wap, requisite beats from high-profile Atlanta producers, a label signing. Last year’s “RNB 3,” his official debut, polished some of the edges off Rock’s warbling sing-song style and confirmed his mainstream appeal.
With Good Girl, Reese Rel & DJ Ben-Aire | Doors 6 p.m., show 7 p.m. | free | all ages
