With winter holidays approaching and its promise of strumming Mummers on the streets, it’s nice to know that local artists are making fresh music beyond the golden slippers. Here is a roundup of new Philly-born-and-bred songs and albums to check out this winter.
The Philly Specials, ‘It’s Christmas Time (in Cleveland Heights)’
It’s time to shout to the reindeer-run rooftops about Jason Kelce’s newly-released track with his brother, Travis Kelce, penned by The Philly Specials’ alum Zach Miller (Dr. Dog) and featuring this city’s most famous R&B vocal trio, Boyz II Men. ‘It’s Christmas Time (in Cleveland Heights)‘ is a handsomely ruminative, deeply moving, biographical soul song about what might’ve been for Jason had he turned left rather than right, with a killer groove and smooth singing.
Nick Millevoi, ‘This is BASIC’ and ‘Moon Pulses’
One of the best albums comes from Philadelphia’s prolific punk-jazz guitarist Nick Millevoi in the guise of ‘This is BASIC‘ from the trio he shares with fellow six-string slinger Chris Forsyth and percussionist Mikel Patrick Avery. Before this gets too confusing, Forsyth, Avery and Millevoi (here, playing roaring baritone guitar and executing polyrhythmic drum programs), the trio’s first album is based on Lou Reed collaborator Robert Quine’s classic ‘Basic’ from 1984, but is a wholly original and mightily angular, loud rock record whose complexity is as righteous as it is unsteadying and unparalleled. With such unique innovation, ‘This is BASIC’ is one of 2024’s best albums. If that isn’t enough, the always-improvising Millevoi additionally released an October surprise in ‘Moon Pulses’, a quietly interplanetary, ambient yet textured guitar work that is shockingly warm and dedicated to the cinematic power of water.
Sharing Contest, ‘Lucky You!’
It’s always great to hear a new project from Alex Fichera, the Philly multi-tasking singing, songwriting producer and album cover art maker. This time out, his main vehicle Sharing Contest, with Sam Ansa, Neil Mancuso and Zach Babat, splits the difference between Fichera’s twin passions with a clever soulful pop sound whose lyrics are profoundly humorous and humorously profound on tracks such as ‘You’ll Get to Heaven, I’ll Get to Go Home,’ ‘Style’ and ‘Fax Machine.’
Immanuel Wilkins, ‘Blues Blood’
Alto saxophone colossus and composer Immanuel Wilkins may have moved to Brooklyn, but his brand of free, melodic Coltrane-inspired jazz sounds as soulful, self-devised and baked-in-Philadelphia as soft pretzels. For his third full length album, Wilkins expanded his all-original song palate with a vocal-based storyline about childhood, bloodlines and ancestry, a new producer in Meshell Ndegeocello, and deeply intense shifts in rhythm and pace that border on hardcore.
Athensville, ‘Crossed with Lightning’
The Ardmore-to-Philly alt-ensemble Athensville have been making genuinely muscular hard rock since its self-penned 2021 debut ‘Undressing Minds for Show’. With its just-released EP ‘Crossed with Lightning’, however, there is a greater sense of space and a warmer wall of ambience (courtesy of longtime producer Derek Chafin) swelling around guitarist Dave Perry and vocalist Matt Taglang’s thick conversational tones. Athensville has also brought the influence of David Bowie (the ‘Heroes’-like bass line of ‘Floating Over Floodwaters’) and a lean toward the political ‘Desiderata (Free Tyree Wallace)’ into their newest work. Check out Athenville’s ‘Crossed with Lightning’ release party on Nov. 15 at 118 North in Wayne.
Skrilla, ‘Underworld’
Philadelphia rapper and producer Skrilla’s new album, ‘Underworld‘, came out a few months ago. Ok, but his stuff has always been a style free from the usuals of hip hop with lyrics rich with his take on being of African-American and Mexican heritage, with stories of finding his way through the world with religion (Santeria) and street smarts as his guide. Skrilla’s melodies too — though raging and rough-edged—have something swift and soulful about them, perhaps connected to Gamble & Huff’s Sound of Philadelphia.
Pep Rally, ‘Roll Around’ and ‘Clubbing on The Moon (Staring at the Sun)’
If Pep Rally’s singing, electronic-music making multi-instrumentalist Tommy Joyner looks familiar, it’s because he is the co-owner of all things MilkBoy – bar, studio, live venue. With whatever free time he has left, Joyner and his drumming, singing Pep Rally partner Emily Roane have forged a unique, harmony-driven, hi-NRG, high school glee club drum-line inspired brand of contagious raging pop, and now, with its new singles, ‘Roll Around‘ and ‘Clubbing on The Moon (Staring at the Sun)’ have taken it to video. There’s real excitement to Pep Rally’s brand of racing pop that comes through, haughtily in its onscreen display.
