WXPN Welcomes
Nicos Gun
Grandchildren, Prowler, DRGN KING, Ed Blammo
Wed, November 23, 2011
8:00 pm
The Blockley$9.00 - $12.00
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Nicos Gun
"If #sxsw is where the world meets the future, then we'd like to introduce the future to Nicos Gun." - Spinner
"With oodles of talent, an incredible live show and a super-sized love for Prince many things rhythmic, Nicos Gun brings together elements of New Wave with electronic dance music. File under: not afraid to entertain." - Paste Magazine
"If you could distill the feverish intensity of an all-night rager and alchemize it into a musical form, then you'd get a sense of what to expect from Philly-based foursome Nicos Gun...Fusing punk rock energy with a genre-jumping eclectic mix of psych-pop, funk and glam rock, Nicos Gun wants their fans to have fun enjoying their sound." - Relix
"Nicos Gun mine the musical territory of electronic dance rock. Though the sound of the band recalls elements of the past, they are a band of the moment. The full-force funk of songs like "Dirty Girl," and "Soldier" bring to mind the R&B music of Prince, with its funky rhythmic bottom and slinky, chicken-scratch guitar riffs. On songs like "Control," the sinewy synthesizer lines drive the beat bring to mind the lock-step electronic grooves of LCD Soundsystem." - WXPN
"Nicos Gun got the crowd energized with their own bounce and raucousness. More streamlined then their tour mates, the Philadelphia based band seesawed between electro-tinged dance floor anthems and Velvet-Underground inspired hazy rockers.... The polish of the dance numbers were dirtied up with a surprisingly non plagiarized rock attitude and the guitar freak outs of lead singer/guitarist Barney Cortez........" - Brooklyn Vegan
"Nicos Gun didn't start out as a band at all. Producer Harry Zelnick, Barney Cortez (singer/guitar player), and Nick Bockrath (guitarist/keyboardist) initially met to produce "a track that Lil Wayne would want to use". Having won a Grammy for work that he did with Ludacris when he was just 17 ("War With God"), Zelnick has worked with everyone from Kelly Clarkson to 50 Cent. "Harry is trained to just crank beats out. We started to write fast and combine every type of music we like from the Velvet Underground to Lil B. Next thing we know we had over 40 songs."
Cortez has cut guitar tracks for The Roots before, Bockrath has done time with American Babies and Elevator Fight (with Zoe Kravitz), and the two previously performed together as Philly Indie darlings Cortez, Cortez. But when they combined forces with Zelnick, the pieces started falling into place and they realized they didn't have a group -- they had a gang.
With a laptop studio set up in the loft apartment they all share -- and a permanent practice space they frequent daily -- Nicos Gun doesn't take a day off. When they're not recording a new song, they're making a video for the new song they recorded yesterday. "I want people to know that we're experimenting and doing a lot of work," says Cortez. "We're just trying to do something new and cool everyday, whether it fits into this box or that box."
"A big part of it, too, is that we want to bring people into our world," says Nicos Gun. "We want to show people how we live in Philly. Making a video is as fun as making a new song. And especially just to be able to write a song, make a video, put it on the net, and have people respond to it is awesome. Friends will tell friends who will tell friends and you can gain a fan one at a time. We like writing songs, we like getting them to people, and we like playing live. It's a pretty simplistic idea."
-- Benjy Eisen (AOL Music / Spinner); San Francisco
"With oodles of talent, an incredible live show and a super-sized love for Prince many things rhythmic, Nicos Gun brings together elements of New Wave with electronic dance music. File under: not afraid to entertain." - Paste Magazine
"If you could distill the feverish intensity of an all-night rager and alchemize it into a musical form, then you'd get a sense of what to expect from Philly-based foursome Nicos Gun...Fusing punk rock energy with a genre-jumping eclectic mix of psych-pop, funk and glam rock, Nicos Gun wants their fans to have fun enjoying their sound." - Relix
"Nicos Gun mine the musical territory of electronic dance rock. Though the sound of the band recalls elements of the past, they are a band of the moment. The full-force funk of songs like "Dirty Girl," and "Soldier" bring to mind the R&B music of Prince, with its funky rhythmic bottom and slinky, chicken-scratch guitar riffs. On songs like "Control," the sinewy synthesizer lines drive the beat bring to mind the lock-step electronic grooves of LCD Soundsystem." - WXPN
"Nicos Gun got the crowd energized with their own bounce and raucousness. More streamlined then their tour mates, the Philadelphia based band seesawed between electro-tinged dance floor anthems and Velvet-Underground inspired hazy rockers.... The polish of the dance numbers were dirtied up with a surprisingly non plagiarized rock attitude and the guitar freak outs of lead singer/guitarist Barney Cortez........" - Brooklyn Vegan
"Nicos Gun didn't start out as a band at all. Producer Harry Zelnick, Barney Cortez (singer/guitar player), and Nick Bockrath (guitarist/keyboardist) initially met to produce "a track that Lil Wayne would want to use". Having won a Grammy for work that he did with Ludacris when he was just 17 ("War With God"), Zelnick has worked with everyone from Kelly Clarkson to 50 Cent. "Harry is trained to just crank beats out. We started to write fast and combine every type of music we like from the Velvet Underground to Lil B. Next thing we know we had over 40 songs."
Cortez has cut guitar tracks for The Roots before, Bockrath has done time with American Babies and Elevator Fight (with Zoe Kravitz), and the two previously performed together as Philly Indie darlings Cortez, Cortez. But when they combined forces with Zelnick, the pieces started falling into place and they realized they didn't have a group -- they had a gang.
With a laptop studio set up in the loft apartment they all share -- and a permanent practice space they frequent daily -- Nicos Gun doesn't take a day off. When they're not recording a new song, they're making a video for the new song they recorded yesterday. "I want people to know that we're experimenting and doing a lot of work," says Cortez. "We're just trying to do something new and cool everyday, whether it fits into this box or that box."
"A big part of it, too, is that we want to bring people into our world," says Nicos Gun. "We want to show people how we live in Philly. Making a video is as fun as making a new song. And especially just to be able to write a song, make a video, put it on the net, and have people respond to it is awesome. Friends will tell friends who will tell friends and you can gain a fan one at a time. We like writing songs, we like getting them to people, and we like playing live. It's a pretty simplistic idea."
-- Benjy Eisen (AOL Music / Spinner); San Francisco
Grandchildren
Grandchildren’s debut album, Everlasting, feels like a culmination of all that restlessness. A sonic collage of the sentimental and the confrontational- the album is a safe haven for multiple realities- fusing tribal beats, frayed electronics, fireside folk melodies, richly-woven orchestral-pop flourishes and even field recordings from Martray’s journeys across Central America, the Caribbean and Africa.
“The project began during my nomadic mid-20’s. I was split between Baltimore, Philadelphia, NY, DC, and travels abroad. I think the music is a reflection of a young person processing their own coming of age through constant self inflicted culture shock. The textures of the final album span time and space,” he says. “And yet, it comes across as one seamless reality. You can feel the influences but you can’t put your finger on them.”
During this time Martray’s closest thing to home was a small 3rd floor bedroom in a dilapidated Victorian house in west Philadelphia known as Danger Danger. At the height of its illegal phase, this notorious underground venue hosted everything from IDM-infused metal (Genghis Tron) to frantic free-jazz (Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra). These eclectic sounds billowed up towards Martray’s make-shift bedroom recording studio, taking what began as a solo experimentation in dizzying new directions.
“The songs evolved through the recording process,” explains Martray, “they were so layered that when I went to play them live, so much had to be sampled. That’s when I realized this wasn’t a solo project. It’s music for a small orchestra.”
With that in mind, Martray brought his fellow housemates—a motley crew of instrument-swapping misfits—into the fold one by one. This included drummer Roman Salcic, a Croatian transplant reared on American rock music; jack of all trades Tristan Palazzolo; math-thrash guitarist Adam Katz; bassist/percussionist Russell Brodie; and classical-pianist-turned-synth-slinger John Vogel. Over the course of one daunting year, the group developed Grandchildren’s 10-song album into a live set that’s as seamless and widescreen as the recordings.
“It looks spontaneous to people,” explains Katz, “but everything’s carefully choreographed on our end.”
A lot of that stems from a two-month North American tour in 2008, one that was plagued by chicken pox, blizzards, border patrols, and van break-ins. This not only brought them closer together; it gave Grandchildren the chance to perfect the ebb and flow of their live set.
“And now that everything’s down to a science,” says Martray, “it becomes a form of art in and of itself. As full and layered as the album is, it rests on the backbone of those early bedroom recordings. Kind of like with a car, where you keep replacing parts until the whole thing is new. By the end you can’t even remember what came from where. The process hides within the sound.”
He pauses and adds, “We want people to feel the music first, and ask questions later.”
“The project began during my nomadic mid-20’s. I was split between Baltimore, Philadelphia, NY, DC, and travels abroad. I think the music is a reflection of a young person processing their own coming of age through constant self inflicted culture shock. The textures of the final album span time and space,” he says. “And yet, it comes across as one seamless reality. You can feel the influences but you can’t put your finger on them.”
During this time Martray’s closest thing to home was a small 3rd floor bedroom in a dilapidated Victorian house in west Philadelphia known as Danger Danger. At the height of its illegal phase, this notorious underground venue hosted everything from IDM-infused metal (Genghis Tron) to frantic free-jazz (Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra). These eclectic sounds billowed up towards Martray’s make-shift bedroom recording studio, taking what began as a solo experimentation in dizzying new directions.
“The songs evolved through the recording process,” explains Martray, “they were so layered that when I went to play them live, so much had to be sampled. That’s when I realized this wasn’t a solo project. It’s music for a small orchestra.”
With that in mind, Martray brought his fellow housemates—a motley crew of instrument-swapping misfits—into the fold one by one. This included drummer Roman Salcic, a Croatian transplant reared on American rock music; jack of all trades Tristan Palazzolo; math-thrash guitarist Adam Katz; bassist/percussionist Russell Brodie; and classical-pianist-turned-synth-slinger John Vogel. Over the course of one daunting year, the group developed Grandchildren’s 10-song album into a live set that’s as seamless and widescreen as the recordings.
“It looks spontaneous to people,” explains Katz, “but everything’s carefully choreographed on our end.”
A lot of that stems from a two-month North American tour in 2008, one that was plagued by chicken pox, blizzards, border patrols, and van break-ins. This not only brought them closer together; it gave Grandchildren the chance to perfect the ebb and flow of their live set.
“And now that everything’s down to a science,” says Martray, “it becomes a form of art in and of itself. As full and layered as the album is, it rests on the backbone of those early bedroom recordings. Kind of like with a car, where you keep replacing parts until the whole thing is new. By the end you can’t even remember what came from where. The process hides within the sound.”
He pauses and adds, “We want people to feel the music first, and ask questions later.”
Prowler
Prowler is a dance-heavy, gigantic big beat, scowling guitar jam and heat band from Philadelphia.
DRGN KING
Dragon King began as the studio project of Philly songwriter Dominic Angelella and producer Ritz Reynolds. The project began as an exercise in collaboration and experimentation, and evolved into a 4 piece in late 2010
