A Brief Interview With Eric Oblivian

If you ever have the pleasure of traveling through Memphis there are three things you absolutely must see before you leave: Sun Studios, The Stax Museum of American Soul Music, and the world famous Goner Records. Continue reading “A Brief Interview With Eric Oblivian” →

Weekend Megapost w/ Creepoid, Young Adults (08/19-08/20)

Over this past weekend I had the privilege of traveling up north with Philadelphia’s own grunge-rockers CREEPOID. Two stops were made on this part of their short tour, which (for Creepoid) began in Baltimore on August 16th. The following night they played Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia and then set out on the road Friday the 19th. The first stop was in Brooklyn, NY at Lulu’s, where they played with Michigan tour-mates SHORES and Brooklynite FLETCHER C. JOHNSON. It was Fletcher’s birthday celebration which only meant good times and friendly vibes, which is exactly how the night went down – a combination of that and endless free pizza. Continue reading “Weekend Megapost w/ Creepoid, Young Adults (08/19-08/20)” →

Titus Andronicus – New Video/ New Song

As some of you might already be aware, TITUS ANDRONICUS just unveiled a brand new music video at midnight last night. It’s for their song “No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future”, which comes from their monstrous 2010 album “The Monitor.” The video features a day-long trip through New Jersey, with the band playing in five different locations along the Jersey coast, ranging from Asbury Park to Jersey City and everything in between. You can view the video right below with all of it’s outstanding production. Word on the street is that the roof caved in during the last leg of the video, during the Jersey City segment. We find that hilarious, but the owners of that bar probably did not…

No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future

However! That is not all we have for you guys today. Titus Andronicus made their stop in Philadelphia last night on their spring tour, which happens to be winding down by the end of the weekend. During their sweat-lodge-like set at the First Unitarian Church, Titus and the gang graced our virgin ears with a brand new and unreleased track that has yet to be titled. At this point there’s not really anything else to find out about the song, but you’ve got a golden opportunity to view all five minutes of the madness right below. Just remember to tell your friends where you saw it first, then be sure to catch TA on their final two nights of the tour – April 29th in Hoboken, NJ and Brooklyn, NY on the 30th.

No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future –

And just in case you were wondering, this track here is “No Future Part Three: Escape from No Future” taken directly from the Monitor. That is all.

Record Store Day w/ PURLING HISS

Who?: Purling Hiss
Where?: AKA Music in Philadelphia, PA
When?: Record Store Day, April 16th, 2011

As many of you were probably aware, yesterday was the fourth annual Record Store Day. Hopefully you made it out to your local record shop and snatched up all the releases you wanted. That picture above shows the mob-scene that took place in Repo Records early on at about 10am. People were lined up out the door and around the corner and shortly after even some tempers began to flare, which is easily imaginable considering the madness (or because the releases people wanted weren’t available). Another big part of Record Store Day means live music and free shows, which is the other reason I’m here today. Later that day Phildephia’s own PURLING HISS melted faces for a mediocre-sized crowd at AKA Music, which immediately made me regret ever missing any past Purling Hiss shows. Hopefully after viewing the entire thirty minute performance below, you will be thinking the same exact thing.

Space Roots/ Limerence – This first song starts with a quick two minute intro before they really get down to business. These live recordings sound drastically different than the stuff on the albums, but I’m pretty sure this is “Space Roots/ Limerence” (if that’s wrong leave a comment below). However, right away this shows just how well these guys play together – everybody is on time and nobody misses a beat no matter how ridiculous things get.

Beautiful Earth Creature – This was the first track from the 2010 effort “Public Service Announcement” that they played, whose brilliance you can find in our “Top 25 Albums of 2010” list. They build it up with a nice minute long intro before the song really starts.

Almost Washed My Hair – This is the opening track to their 2009 s/t release from Permanent Records. And for anybody who may have missed it, Permanent Records also just graced our ears with this radioactive madness right here, exclusively for Record Store Day (which you can also hear at the bottom of this post!).

-Here’s another that I wasn’t sure of the name, so if someone out there has a pointer leave us a comment below. It’s a bit shorter than the rest, but nonetheless face melting. At one point I was hoping to hear “Walking Down the Street” from their RSD split – witnessing that live would have been lethal.

Don’t Even Try It – Another from “Public Service Announcement” right here. It’s more poppy and slower paced than the usual intensity, but if anything is clear, there’s nothing this dude can’t solo over. It just goes to show how dynamic this trio can be and if I have anything to say about it these guys are just getting started in their time as a band.

Run From the City – The jaw-dropping opener from “Public Service Announcement”, there’s really nothing else I can say about Polizze’s skills that hasn’t been said yet, so we’ll spare you this time. Just watch the video in bewilderment and wonder just how the fuck he does that, but you’ll probably never get the answers you’re looking for. But this video proves a ton. This is some signature guitar shred, and I think it’s safe to say there’s not another band out there right now with skills like this.

That’s all for today. I know somebody noticed last week, but we haven’t posted on Sundays since the summer time here, and now this marks two in a row. What does that mean for next Sunday? I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Enjoy these videos and once again, go check out your local record store because most of them probably still have some exclusive releases lingering around. See ya tomorrow.

Walking Down the Street –

BUY “Public Service Announcement” directly from Insound
Purling Hiss – Public Service Announcement previously posted on the Drone
Purling Hiss – RSD Split 12″ (w/ Puffy Areolas) previously posted on the Drone
Find Purling Hiss in our Top 25 Albums from 2010

Interview and performance with CREEPOID

As some of you may already know, the record release show for the brand new CREEPOID album “Horse Heaven” is tomorrow night. The show takes place at Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia, starting promptly at 8pm.

Creepoid will be joined on stage by some of the most prominent Philadelphia bands storming the scene, including Party Photographers, Pet Milk, and Nothing. If you couldn’t already tell, it’s going to be a hell of a night for the Philadelphia music scene. Not only are all those bands from the city, but even the record label releasing the Creepoid album is Philadelphia based – the one and only Ian Records – who (to sweeten the deal even further) exclusively releases music from Philadelphia bands. So yes – all things Philadelphia at the show on Thursday. We at the Styrofoam Drone will be very upset if we don’t see you. Look for the dude up front with the annoying camcorder and come say hi – but that’s not all we have for you today…

Before their album was officially released, the good people of Creepoid were nice enough to sit down and have an enlightening chat about their brand new album with the Styrofoam Drone. We were lucky enough to catch most of the interview right on video. They graciously invited me into their cozy home in Philadelphia, offered far-from cheap beer (the best some might say), watched some hockey, and even set their equipment up to perform a song from the new album exclusively for the blog. Can you say awesome? I hope so. If not, just watch below and see for yourself.

And then the interview.

Cozy home? Check. Awesomely loud snoring dog? Check. Good beer? Check. The four band members Pete, Sean, Anna and Pat talk about various things ranging from the origins of Creepoid to their first 7″, and then a ton of stuff that encapsulates their process of the new album, including artwork, working with others, record labels, and the like. Hopefully you’ll learn something new from watching these videos, and we only hope that we’ll see you at the show tomorrow night – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie, 8pm. See you there.

And don’t forget to check out the review of their new album “Horse Heaven”, which was the latest edition to our “Still Spinnin'” feature. Thank you and enjoy…see ya tomorrow 😉

PS – Another good show happening this week, featuring another one of our favorite Philly bands MOON WOMEN. If you’ve got nothing better to do the next two days and yr from Philly, well now yr in luck. Enjoy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE STYROFOAM DRONE!

Hello all. In case people were not aware, today the Styrofoam Drone is officially one year old. So much has changed and so much has happened since the first day this blog has started, and since I’m bored, let’s go take a look back through the year and see just how much everything has changed. Along with that, we’ll look at some of what made this year so special as well.

The Styrofoam Drone came into existence on December 17th, 2009.
– THIS was the first post ever made
– The funny thing is, this right here wasn’t our original blog. THIS WAS.
– That’s right, I originally started with a Blogspot blog, but I moved to WordPress a day later. I forget why. All in all, I think it was a good choice.

Before making this post:
– There were 290 unique posts on the Drone this year (and still more to come)
– There were 434 comments on posts from this year
– We have covered 11 different categories of musical formats
– We have used 106 different tags to put on music of all genre’s
– Our busiest day resulted in 619 blog hits, happening on Oct. 16th from this post about Panda Bear
– Overall, since Dec. 17th, 2009, the Drone has seen 74,549 total viewers, and I hope this will only continue to grow thanks to all yr support

Other things that took place throughout the year include…
– A look back on the year of 2009…
– Every show from the year can be found right here, and every video from any show can be found right here
– And how about that day I gave out a bunch of free record downloads? That was actually my birthday. Believe it or not, I still have a ton of them to share with you…

– Don’t forget that post about Record Store Day 2010, that subsequently happened after the (original) busiest day on this blog…
– I speak of nothing other than our feature on Pitchfork that happened last April after a Titus Andronicus show in Philadelphia.
– It was cool to see that video get some viral love
– And who could forget the Drone sponsored VERMILLION SANDS SHOW that took place at the Drone Duplex in Philadelphia? Here’s two other posts about the show – one and two
– See both of the show posters we made here and here

– And how about that chunk of time I spent reviewing for Indiescreet?
– Believe it or not, one of those posts actually (indirectly) ended up on The Guardian in the UK
– And I still think it’s funny that Insound used our review of the Tennis Baltimore 7″ for their description of the record on Insound
– Oh, and please don’t forget to check the cover of our “magazine”

– How could you forget the StyroDrone Guestmix we put together for the Tropical Daze Blog? You can still download that comp. RIGHT HERE – and here’s the original post introducing it.
– There was that day we spent with DOOMSTAR!…
– And we were also lucky enough to catch this once in a lifetime event
– Make that TWO once in a lifetime events…
– Make that THREE. In terms of reuniting, I guess this is a once in a lifetime event as well (noticing this now – what a great year for band revival!)

So as far as special moments on the blog go, I think that’s about it. Anything else I come across or remember I will certainly add to this list. Now it’s time for me to thank everybody out there reading this one more time, because without all of you, none of the stuff above would have happened. I want to thank you all for making it a hell of a fun year, (friends and family alike, you know who you are) and I hope you’ll continue to come back. Some things you should be looking forward to now include: the best 7″ records of 2010, the best full lengths of 2010, a few more posts of new music before 2011 is here, and a highly exclusive post about Philly’s own CREEPOID regarding their forthcoming full length album, which will include video and some other goodies…until then, I must say “see you tomorrow”.

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THANK YOU ALL!

New Twin Sister Video – All Around and Away We Go

Twin Sister have had quite a busy year in 2010. They’ve toured extensively, released their “Color Your Life” EP which came out on Infinite Best back earlier this year, and they even put out this nifty little cassette tape through the Curatorial Club, amongst other things. Now they’re currently about to go play some more shows over in Europe, but before they left for the trip, Twin Sister put out a brand new video for their song “All Around and Away We Go” from their EP. It’s a colorfully dazzling mix of carefully choreographed dance moves and all-too-serious but totally awesome hand jives. Check it out with the link below, and then I’ll see you guys next week.

Follow the link here to watch the video: All Around and Away We Go

Twin Sister – Official Website – see their show dates in Europe
Twin Sister performing in Philadelphia back in May – Videos

VERMILLION SANDS! TONIGHT IN PHILLY (10/2)!!!

I hope you all didn’t forget about today! I can’t believe how quickly it crept up on us either! Italy’s own VERMILLION SANDS are probably on their way to Philadelphia as you read this, and they’re coming to play tonight with local Philly bands Omar, Factors of Four, and recently added guests Slutever! (If you haven’t guessed it yourself, the theme/trend for the bands tonight is definitely female singers.)

The show is taking place tonight (Oct. 2nd) in North Philadelphia, around 8-8:30 pm in the Temple U. area, at Park Ave. and Dauphin Streets. The show costs $5, and there are arrangements for people who would like to drink beer! If you’re from the Temple area, just follow Liacouras Walk up the street (to Park Ave.) that leads you behind the McDonalds across from White Hall. Continue walking down Park Ave. until you cross over Dauphin St., and then look for the house with the loud shit going on on your left hand side. If you’re coming from a bit further away in the city, take the Broad Street subway line up the North Philly direction until you reach the Susquehanna/ Dauphin station. Follow the street behind the Rite Aid (which is Park Ave.) until you cross over Dauphin. Then “look for the house with the loud shit going on on your left hand side.” Hopefully nobody has any trouble, but you can get more details right here on the Facebook event page. Hopefully you’ll all come out tonight and witness the madness that will be taking place in my very basement. But just in case you can’t, I’m going to capture a good amount of the show on video for y’all to see sometime next week. So come on out, don’t forget yr $5, drink some beer, and have a great night. See you then.

PS – If you think yr coming, please RSVP on the Facebook event page!

Mary –

I’m a Little Mixed Up –

Wake Me When I Die –

Facebook Event Page for the show
Past Vermillion Sands Posts:
Mary 7″
Miss My Gun EP
In the Wood 7″
Something Wrong 7″
and their full-length, Vermillion Sands
OMAR on Bandcamp
FACTORS OF FOUR on Myspace
SLUTEVER on Bandcamp

Free Music Downloads for YOU!!!

YO!!! Today is my 21st birthday!! You know what that means? Free music downloads for all you folks out there!!! And I get to see Pavement tonight!!!

As you can probably guess, I buy a lot of records. Most of those records come with free downloads of the entire record. Instead of using those, I normally rip the records myself (don’t ask why), so I went through my record collection the other day and gathered up all the free download coupons that have been wasting away in my record sleeves (30+). Now I want to pass those downloads on to you readers! Somebody’s gotta make use of them, right? I’m pretty sure most of you guys will, and I’ve got a lot of them to share, so check out the rest of this post for a good bunch of them.

I’m also going to let some of these go via my two Twitter accounts (1 and 2), and my Tumblr account. So if you’re looking for some new music to download, these are the places to check. Just about every last download will be of a record that has been featured here on the Styrofoam Drone, ranging from the most popular bands to the ones that haven’t quite taken the world by storm just yet. Oh yes, also keep in mind that many of these downloads can be download multiple times (usually up to 3), so don’t bail on them because you think you’re too late! Just copy & paste the ‘go to’ link in your browser, and use the codes provided for each individual download! Here’s the first batch:

JEFF the Brotherhood – Mellow Out 7″
go to: http://www.suicidesqueeze.net/mp3download/
ID: JEFFTB
code: DS8R3OPY

Surfer Blood – Astro Coast
go to: http://kaninerecords.com/soundcard
code: s6Aes27K – you’ll need to enter an e-mail address

Pavement – Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement (Record Store Day 2010 Exclusive)
go to: http://www.matadorrecords.com/mp3promotion.php
UPC: 744861093312
code: BEST2722S543 – you’ll need to enter an e-mail address

Happy Birthday – Happy Birthday
go to: http://www.subpop.com/download_code
code: i5trqzx2xn26

Cap’n Jazz – Analphabetapolothology
go to: http://www.download.jadetree.com/
code: 35714987696

Magic Bullets – Magic Bullets
go to: http://www.dropcards.com/magicbulletssf/content/index.php
code: WS9N4FRCJ3

Mi Ami – Steal Your Face
go to: http://www.thrilljockey.com/dlcode
code: 6jncxrvm6zd2

Animal Collective – Fall Be Kind EP
go to: http://digital.dominorecordco.com/coupon/
code: 9NRQWCVH – this download requires a Domino Digital account, they tell you what to do

Twin Sister – Color Your Life EP
go to: http://www.bwscd.com/digital/
code: BEST003LP.1MALqcbsRmg – you’ll need to enter an e-mail address

Double Dagger – More
go to: http://www.thrilljockey.com/dlcode
code: hj2sqxvbtb43

That’s all the codes I’m going to list on this post, but like I said, there’s PLENTY more. Keep checking my Twitter accounts (1 and 2) and my Tumblr account for even more downloads. If you encounter a problem with any of the codes or anything else above, send me an e-mail and we’ll work something out, styrofoamdrone AT gmail DOT com. Also try talking to me on AIM (yes, people still do that), I’ll probably answer quickest there – IM: StyrofoamDrone.

Talk to ya soon. I’ll try and get some good pics/videos of Pavement tonight @ the Mann, but I don’t think they allow cameras. That usually doesn’t stop me though. See ya!

Styrofoam Drone presents: the VERMILLION SANDS (In Philly!)

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! I am absolutely ecstatic to reveal to you that thee VERMILLION SANDS will be coming to tour these United States in the coming days at the end of September and the beginning of October, and their stop in Philadelphia on October 2nd will be presented to you by no other than the Styrofoam Drone – along with some awesome friends who are also helping to put the show together. That’s right. They’re coming out here initially for the Gonerfest in Memphis, and then they will be coming to the East coast to play some dates. They needed one more show between their NYC date and their Baltimore date, so what better place to play then Philadelphia?

So I’ll just repeat that one more time. On October 2nd @ the Drone Duplex (Park Ave. & Dauphin St. in North Philly) Italy’s own VERMILLION SANDS will be playing along with local Philly favorites OMAR and FACTORS OF FOUR. “THIS IS KIND OF A BIG DEAL.” Everyone in the area should definitely come out and support, as well as people who aren’t from the area! The show will begin promptly at 8pm, and the cover charge won’t be any more than $5.00 – but please understand, these guys need to get back to Italy a few days after the show, so no bullshit when it comes to the price. Seriously though, this is happening, and you really should come. This is the first of shows we’re presenting here at the Styrofoam Drone, and hopefully this won’t be the last. So please come out. October 2nd, Park Ave. & Dauphin St. in North Philadelphia, about two blocks off Temple’s campus. In case you’re not sure about who the Vermillion Sands are, check out the songs and all VS posts from the past right below. Thanks! See you at the show!

Mary –