A-Sides featured on Daytrotter

Recently interviewed band, The A-Sides, were featured on Daytrotter's website (www.daytrotter.com) where they showcase songs from their newest album, Silver Storms.  The session songs are available free for download from the side.  

I highly recommend picking them up.

Interview w/ The Canon Logic

I've long awaited the time when I could interview Tim Kiely, lead singer of perhaps one of the most refreshing sounding bands I've heard to date, The Canon Logic.  If asked to describe the effect of the Canon Logic's sound, most would agree the best answer would be simply "infectious".  From upbeat piano power-ballads on songs such as "The Run" to catchy hooks on "The System" where you'll really feel it "in your bones", The Canon Logic strikes a chord as one of the best new bands across various genres of music.  Garnering critical acclaim from a number of sources including MTVU and performing at The Warped Tour this past summer in Philadelphia.  

Pass & Stowe was fortunate enough to catch up with lead singer Tim Kiely amidst the bands conquering of NYC for a discussion of the band's roots, future plans, and favorite Philly meal.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

P&S: What's the story behind The Canon Logic?  How did you guys meet/come together?

TK: The Canon Logic True Hollywood Story cannot be told without being preceded by "THS: The Rise and Fall of Greenfront", the former title for our project that was put to rest before the release of our first EP.  We had gone through multiple drummer changes and we needed a name that would define us.  What brought this group together was a philosophy of music that we all shared...wait for the True Hollywood Story to tell you the full, behind-the-scenes version.

P&S   

P&S: How did you guys go about practicing and making songs throughout college?

TK: College is a great time to be in a band.  There is an endless pool of listeners, and it's relatively simple to spread the word about one's band.  Personally, it was a four-year musical epiphany.  Writing became an unavoidable daily practice.

P&S: Being the primary song writer for the band, where do you pull your influences from?  

TK: Influence is literally everywhere: memories, strangers, sounds, and skies...the list is endless.

P&S: Your songs have been known to stray from the conventional topics of songs we hear on the mainstream music industry today.  What is it that you really go for when you write them?  Does it have anything to do with a message you're trying to convey to your audience?

TK: Personally, I have found no formula for writing a song.  Writing begins with a momentary inspiration and I try to hold on to that moment until I finish...I've written a pile of ditties that have no ending.  Holding the moment is the difficulty.

P&S: What did playing your first show feel like?

TK: Well, our first show was at the high school of our drummer-at-the-time.  We played as part of a talent show and if I remember correctly we lost to a group of 8 year old girls who were dancing to the Nutcracker.  The contest was rigged!

P&S: If you could play a huge show with any band or musician, who would it be?  

TK: Excluding Britney Spears circa 1999...I'd love to be watching Radiohead from backstage.

P&S: The majority of your shows lately have been up in NYC, when can we expect to see the Canon Logic playing shows back in Philly?

TK: Philadelphia is a trip we continue to discuss.  Once we've settled ourselves in the Big Apple, I am sure we will be ready for the short ride "home".

P&S: So what's next for the Canon Logic?  Two EPs into the game, are there any plans for a full length album?

TK: We are preparing a trip to Austin, Texas for the week of South by Southwest (SXSW).  We've talked about a lot of different record release concepts (LPs, EPs, etc.).  I hope to release something by May.

P&S: Favorite venue played to date?

TK: Arlene's Grocery (NYC).

P&S: And finally for the cherry on top, favorite cheese steak?

TK: Geno's, but far more importantly: John's Roast Pork.

Interview w/ The Trolleyvox

Critically acclaimed grass roots/indie folk band, The Trolleyvox, have recently released their double album Your Secret Safe/Luzerne.  The electric powered Your Secret Safe is an album reminiscent to the feeling of running through the grass barefoot.  Despite the strong musical sounds, its natural appeal holds true to Trolleyvox's roots and is a further testament to the bands ability to truly embody their genre of music. Luzerne on the other hand, is songwriter Andrew Chalfen's work stripped bare and expressed through the powerful voice of lead singer Beth Filla as an acoustic tribute to trolleys (how appropriate).

Pass & Stowe recently got to discuss the new albums with Andrew Chalfen.  Here is what he had to say:

*P&S (Pass & Stowe)*

*AC (Andrew Chalfen)*

------------------------------------------------------------------------

P&S: Where does the name Trolleyvox come from?

AC: The name derives from 1.  Early English "trollee", which means rail transit vehicle, with the regional Boston, Massachusetts variant, the street car.  Other variants include the interurban, the high speed line, the subway, surface car, and the slightly irritating "heritage line"; 2. The Latin root "vox", which roughly translates as "early and mid 1960's British amplifier and electric guitar products."  Some have claimed the compound word came from the meaning "voice of the trolley", but this claim has been shown by scholars to be false and unsubstantiated by any reasonable evidence.

P&S: With the release of your new double disk album, we can only wonder what aided in the production.  What influences (music/literature/art) helped in the process of making the new albums?

AC: First off, writer's block.  Several of the songs were written in a week-long writer's block-busting exercise whereby I gave myself permission to write lyrics based more or less exclusively on the rhythms and sounds of the words without much regard to their meaning, figuring the meanings would reveal themselves later on as I fine tuned the initial word bursts.   Lot's of pilfering from random phrases copied over from napkins and bits of scrap paper.  Also, I limited myself to guitar music created using only standard tuning.  So a mix of freedoms and restraints.  Lyric sets for "I Call On You," "Reading," "It's Not Real," "Cricket In Euphoria," as well as two tunes off of our previous record were written this way.  "Jean Jacket" too, though not in the same session.

"I Call On You"- Trolleyvox

The results are a bit more trippy and stream-of-conscience than usual, so that, along with the more epic spaced out sounds on some of the new tunes kind of sparked off ideas for the Your Secret Safe artwork.  Again, working with a restriction, in this case of using only photographs as source material, I kind of went crazy with the Photoshop wrap tool to create a kind of parallel psychedelic visual companion with the music within.

Luzerne is a more intimate, introspective record.  For years I've had a cassette of Nick Drake's Pink Moon in my car stereo and I've always wanted to attempt to make a record that held together like that, like a well-worn, comforting photo album of a particular time and emotional state.  Luzerne was our first attempt at recording something like that.  We've always had that hushed side--so it's cool that we finally get a chance to shine a light on our mellow.  The instrumentals needed titles, so they got names of long-extinct features of now-paved over Philadelphia transit lines.  Sort of little soundtracks to the long lost city.

P&S: You mention the importance of appreciating the hard copy of an album in today's world of digital media.  With the aesthetically pleasing packaging and presentation on the double disk set of Your Secret Safe/Luzerne, your work clearly embodies this mentality.  Were there any influences of outside artists that found their way onto the beautiful packaging of the new albums?

AC: Glad you liked it.  It took like three months to put together the art, partially because I was a novice at using the InDesign program.  No specific model in mind for the artwork.  I'd been taking lots of digital photos over the past few years, as have some of the other band members, so it was with messing around with some of them that I hit upon the idea of little planet worlds for the Your Secret Safe art.  The rest of it sort of grew out of that.

Luzerne is named after the late great Philadelphia Traction Company car depot in North Philadelphia, so I thought that each song could have a picture of some now vanish trolley.  I guess I was trying to evoke a kind of wistful look back and worried look forward at our world.  Finishing the music and artwork is such a satisfying moment, like we created these neat parallel worlds, nifty little album beasts that we know will soon be released into the wild.

P&S: Your lyrics on "Rabbit In The Sun" evokes a sort of light-hearted/poetic feeling.  Were there any influences from perhaps nursery rhymes involved in the writing of the song?  Any other poems or writings?

AC: It does have a bit of a nursery rhyme thing going on doesn't it?  Most of our tunes emerge with a melody line for the vocal prior to any words.  The rhythm of the melody line will hopefully suggest a direction for the lyrics, and "Rabbit" definitely has a bit of that kiddy playground sing song lilt.  So that's a great base to write from, especially for lyrics about pregnancy, baby-crazed women, sex-crazed rocker men, and the inevitable collision.  Great opportunities for ironic juxtaposition and word play.

P&S: One of the songs on the album Your Secret Safe is a cover of Pete Townshend's "Our Love Was."  With your musical stylings, the song seems to fit just right.  What was it about this song that made you realize you wanted to do it the Trolleyvox way?

AC: Drummer Ken Buono and I have always loved that songs and The Who Sell Out album in general, and I'd always wanted to add it to our live set.  Recently I read that the Who never performed "Our Love Was" live.  It's one of Beth's favorite songs to sing.  She really belts it out nicely.  It worked out so well live that we recorded it during the initial Present The Karaoke Meltdowns sessions.  We were going to use it for a compilation or a single, but it really seemed to fit in somehow with the current batch of songs, so we included it.  To our ears our version is pretty faithful to the original.

P&S: Perhaps the most interesting song on the album is the eleven minute long "Crickets In Euphoria."  It's during these eleven minutes that you really feel the band jam out and let the instruments to the work.  The title is an appropriate description of what the song exudes.  This leads to the questions of which do you feel has more power-- the words or the music?

AC: Thanks for the kudos.  Short answer: the music.  Long answer: It's definitely the most experimental thing that we've done.  The lyrics don;t really have an obvious meaning (to me, anyway).  They have an air of menace and brooding, I guess.  It was really a vocal melody line that needed words and had neat sounds.  "Cricket" was more or less a studio concoction.  It started out as a two-minute song fragment that we rehearsed briefly at band practice, and then developed in the studio.  We don't normally work this way.  Studio time is expensive, so we typically have most of the arrangements worked out in advance.  Bout our recording engineer, Brian McTear, is very into deconstructing and reconfiguring multiple takes once they're in the computer, so that's what we did.

We did a few takes to get a vibe going, improvising with dynamics and groove, and then cut up the basic tracks and put them back together on the computer.  Once we got the framework down, then we could overdub onto that as we would on a typical recording.  The main riff definitely suggested a shoegaze-y "My Bloody Valentine" vibe in the loud sections and a more hushed "Yo La Tengo" vibe in the quiet section, so we tried all sorts of things with the Roland Space Echo, a vintage tape delay machine that Brian would sometimes play like an instrument as I tracked my guitar.  The song functions almost like an instrumental with the lyrics.

P&S: On the acoustic album, Luzerne, we find a clear reference to a number of railroads and train/trolley imagery (based on the album art).  Why was it that you wanted to pay tribute to this mode of transportation?

AC: With a name like the Trolleyvox, there must be something going off the rails and over the wires, right?  In the past I've kind of shied away from the transit references.  It's pretty darn geeky being a rail fan, probably the diametric opposite of the power and glory of rock.  So probably not a wise career move to shove this boring extracurricular interest of mine down people's throats, but it just seemed to fit with the mood of Luzerne.  

The record is very similar to a series of bedroom recordings I made and compiled under the same title then gave away to a few friends, folks who I knew wouldn't be turned off by the goofy old transit references.  Most of these tuners were just written for myself, not Trolleyvox tunes as such.  Several are in a lower register than Beth usually sings.  It's a testament to her versatility and ability as a singer that she was able to make these her own.

P&S: There is a clear difference in the genre of music that Your Secret Safe and Luzerne fall into.  Why the decision to package them together?

AC: We weren't sure if Luzerne would get noticed on its own.  We're known as a guitar pop band, and suddenly here comes this really mellow acoustic record out of nowhere.  We really thought it would get lost as a single release, that more band-oriented listeners would be like, "eh, what's this?"  Putting the two records together was kind of a marketing gimmick, a talking point.  The plan seems to have worked so far!  I find I tend to listen to records based on my mood, so with the dual release, hopefully we give the listener some options.  So far, people seem to like one over the other, which is kind of what we expected.  Though we really love hearing from folks who dig both.

P&S: What's the next stop for the Trolleyvox?  Tour news?

AC: Back to writing more songs for the next record!  Touring would be lovely, and we've done a bit of it already.  Availability is a perennial problem for us.  It'd be cool if we made a living at this, but except for our bassist Owen, we don't.  We've all got day jobs (and sometimes night jobs), and Owen plays with the Roots, and that's got the time commitment of a day job, so getting everyone together has always been like herding cats.  But cool gigs always seem to come up.  Maybe the touring gods will smile upon us soon!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The double disk release is most certainly worth picking up.  Digital copies are available online, however I highly recommend scoring the hard copy for the beautiful design and work put into making it.  We look forward to hearing more from the Trolleyvox and wish them the best of luck with the upcoming process of preparing a new album!

For More Info/Song Samples Visit:

Official Trolleyvox Site/MySpace

Exploring The Past To Get Through The Present

I often wonder what it must have been like to have an experience similar to that of Cameron Crowe's as shown in his semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous.  He reveals the darkest sides of a dying genre of music through a series of intimate recollections he had shared among some of the most popular rock and roll bands of all time.

The first time I saw the film, I was immediately driven to obtain similar moments as those experienced by Crowe's character William, however the more I thought about it, I realized that today's music industry isn't conducive to achieving such moments.  

Today's music industry is a completely different era.  How many modern bands can we hold to the standards of Led Zeppelin, The Who, or dare I even say The Beatles?

We're spoon-fed what the mainstream music industry has on the menu and often are under exposed to the really good stuff that's out there.  I don't want to be misinterpreted as another "stick it to the man" opinionated person.  I do, however, believe that it is our responsibility to properly expand our musical palates.

I spend a lot of time looking for new bands and music from a large number of genres (and I do have to say that these efforts have resulting in a number of treasures).  But after a recent revisit to Crowe's coming-of-age tale, I developed a sudden urge to plunge into the realm of past music.

With the recent tour and release of a greatest hits compilation, Mothership, Led Zeppelin has resuscitated the excitement in old fans and garnered younger audiences as well.  I don't feel it's necessary to expand into the enormity of the band's success or greatness for that matter, but rather express an appreciation I have for such a revival.  Among the music I spent my afternoon purchasing, Mothership was only one of what ended up being a six-album spree.

I also purchased Then And Now, a collection of songs from The Who, Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon, Boston: Greatest Hits, Lynyrd Skynyrd: Thyrty, and Pearl Jam: Rearviewmirror (what can you say?  Vedder is a modern musical genius so it works out.).

The past offers up a great deal of noteworthy music that really deserves a more appropriate title than "oldies."  "Classics" only touches on the value such music has had on our culture.

If you share my opinions to some degree than I can assuage you assuring that great music does exist and will continue to be made, you just have to dig a little.  And if you ever find yourself stuck in a rut (due to the inability to enjoy the music made readily available by the overpowering spoon) fear not, just look to the past.

So for now, thank you Robert Plant.

Happy New Year's Eve/New Year!!!

Just wanted to apologize for the low postage these past few days.  The holidays are so busy, but Pass & Stowe will return in the New Year with a fury.  Looking forward to unfinished resolutions and high hopes in the new year haha! 

Happy New Year!

* I also wanted to make a correction that the High School Musical on Ice will be playing through January 6th.  I went this weekend and it was a fun time.  Definitely a great family show.

Also mark it down on your calender that on January 12th, the Capitol Steps, a political satire musical group will be performing at the Sellersville Theater for 2 performances (3pm and 7:30pm).  I saw these guys before and they're pretty funny.  

For More Info Click This.

High School Musical On Ice and Smorgasbord of Bands

Coming up this Friday, December 28th, Disney's High School Musical will be performing on ice.  Disney's past "ice" shows have been quite a success and with the popularity of the High School Musical phenomenon, Disney's presentation is sure to be enjoyable.  The show starts at 7pm and I'd pretty much recommend it for all ages.  Great family show.

For more info/tickets click this.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Saturday night, the World Cafe Live will be hosting a number of bands for a great price (5 bands-14 bucks).  The Adam Monaco band will be headlining, with four other acts including:

-Trevor Gordon Hall, a strictly instrumental acoustic guitarist whose words are spoken through each strum of his guitar (check back for more coverage on Trevor soon!)

-Mouth of Wilson, an up and coming band from New Jersey with a great sound that includes a strong guitar presence accompanied by catchy beats and piano solos (check back for more info on M.O.W. soon!)

-Jerzy Jung, a powerful singer/pianist who recently reinvented her sound to a solo music act where her strong vocals (reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan, Dido, etc.) do the work

-Jukebox the Ghost, one of my favorite new bands hailing from the DC area, this three man band reals you in with their catchy piano rock and funky lyrics.  These guys really bring the energy to the stage and will most certainly leave you wanting more.  Be sure to check out their stuff and stay tuned for the release of their full length album this coming January.

For more info/tickets click this

Overall this show packs a variety of music into a single evening.  Should be a nice time and appeal to some at least some of your musical tastes.  You can't beat the price either!

Atlantic City Weekend: Philly's Heavy Hitters 12/30

Atlantic City is a shore point that's considerably close to Philadelphia.  The big time casinos manage to pull in some big names and this holiday season is hosting two of the biggest musical all-stars to ever emerge from the Philadelphia area:

The Roots @ House of Blues 12/30

The House of Blues, a chain concert venue, will be rocked by the South Philly natives The Roots on December 30th.  The hip/hop-jazz fusion, most notably recognized by drummer "?uestlove" has achieved wide spread acclaim as one of the most musically illuminating live shows out there.  

For More Info Click This.

The Roots Def Jam Site

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

G. Love & Special Sauce @ Music Box 12/30

On the same night, the Music Box, located in the Borgata, will host G. Love and Special Sauce.  Fusing blues with rock and roll, G. Love and Special Sauce are now 7 albums into their career (including 2 solo G. Love albums) and perhaps the best sounding they have been to date.  G. Love's most recent album, Lemonade, even boasts a "Product of Philly" on the cover.  To date I have seen 4 G. Love concerts and each have been phenomenal.  Be sure to check out this show, it's well worth the drive.  

For More Info Click This.

Tough choice over which show to go to.  Both will be phenomenal.  With G. Love's upcoming tour around the country (with no scheduled shows in Philadelphia) and Europe, it might be a good idea to see him while you can, however the Roots are a great live act.  The decision is yours.  

G. Love MySpace

Philadelphonic