by Bryan Culver
I know we live in a moderately large city—one that knows how to pack a music venue—but it’s easy to forget that Philly is often an auto-include on any band’s touring itinerary.
Johnny Brenda’s—for the unacquainted, you’ve been missing out. The rowdy Phishtown establishment has a cozy stage, ideal for slurping craft beers and enjoying underground bands on the cusp of catching on like wildfire. They’ve got a loaded roster of performers on the docket, be sure to take a look.
On the evening of Friday, July 1st, I found myself at what first appeared to be a bill of unknowns, but was in fact a spring-loaded dynamite performance. Can’t beat discovering new artists by catching them live first.
Mercury Girls, Puro Instinct, and Fear of Men: three up and coming acts, each hailing from a different geographic locale, each flurrying with momentum and buzz, each offering up their own veritable twist on the elusively defined dream pop.
The evening kicked off with Mercury Girls, a local Philly band just getting on their feet. It was a quick set—partially because I completely lost track of the time. As such, I did manage to catch two songs—approximately the sum length of their total recorded material so far. What can I say? Excuses. What I can tell you is Mercury Girls have cute, melancholy guitar pop down cold. Their music is deep and immersive. It would sound fantastic on an old vintage cassette player (oh wait, you can do that! via limited-run-merch-smith endlessdaze)—incidentally I couldn’t help but notice while scanning over their bandcamp page that they tagged their music as both “jangle pop” and “c86”. They’re not the first contemporary band to worship at the shrine of The Mighty Lemon Drops. But who’s counting? Also—at least on this particular evening—several of the band members had an impromptu uniform: generic baseball caps and tucked-in raggedy t-shirts. haute fashion, lo-fidelity.
Next up were Puro Instinct—easily the most idiosyncratic of the evening. Skylar and Piper Kaplan are a sister act that hail from LA, bringing with them an unfathomable coolness and hip style dripping with irony—the proof is in the pudding, look at their blog. Their shoegazy debut Headbangers in Ecstasy was one of the several records that helped cement Mexican Summer as indie’s center of gravity back in 2011. They also performed alongside Aerial Pink’s Haunted Graffiti—talk about attracting buzz.
This time Puro Instinct are found touring in support of their latest album Autodrama.
The elements come together like left over Thai and mint chocolate chip. Synthesizers bleed outlandish samples of an unremembered department store back-catalog. Layered over top are two oddly registered vocal ranges: a raspy low end, and a prickly sharp falsetto. Cocteau Twins featuring resurrected Jim Morrison in neon aerobic instructional video. It’s an oddly evocative marriage that somehow manages work.
London’s Fear of Men capped the evening off—sleek, elegant, pastoral soundscapes that could just as easily entrance you into dance on a Friday evening amongst friends, as it could zonk you out on the couch clutching a good summer read. Jess Weiss’ voice projected into the venue and engulfs you in a warm, lush, marshmallow. Guitarist Daniel Falvey’s intense posture makes it impossible not to get lost in their world. Their latest album Fall Forever came out this past June, and it’s worth a listen—though the dynamics of this band feels much more substantial live, so definitely try catching Fear of Men if you can. The band is in the midst of a substantial North American tour, mainly focused on the west coast—then they’re Europe-bound.
