Is Philadelphia Stealing NYC's Bands?
Josh emails to ask: are The Walkmen moving to Philly?
my band, the walkmen, is looking for a place to rehearse in philly. manayunk, germantown, mt. airy, west philly and center city are preferable. we are looking for a place with secure parking as well.Well, there is a Paul (Maroon) in the band. And they do like secure parking...but then, who doesn't?if you have anything like this, please give me a ring at [redacted]. my name is paul. we are into infidels-era dylan.
thanks!
New York has always been an expensive place to start a band, but is it finally pricing out established ones?
Posted at 9:20 PM
half of walkmen has lived in philly ever since they moved from DC.
DC REPRESENT!!
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I did hear that Philly is the sixth borough of NY (http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10B1FFC3A580C778DDDA10894DD404482).
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This is old news. Paul and Matt both moved to Philly. Walt, Ham, and Peter still live in New York.
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After what happened to Film School, I guess you can't blame a band for wanting secure parking in Philly.
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Well since Philadelphia gets skipped quite frequently by touring bands who go to NYC and/or DC and/or Boston, it doesn't sound like too bad of a trade off.
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Infidels-era Dylan? Really? Why not pick a better era, like Highway 61/Blonde on Blonde-era Dylan? Or Basement Tapes/John Wesley Harding-era Dylan? Or even Blood on the Tracks/Desire/Street Legal-era Dylan? Strange to focus on a rather mediocre album/era in a great artist's life.
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Thanks for reading my email! I found this on philebrity, a great blog for philly people.
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Tommy - I think saying that one is into Infidels-era Dylan is more of a statement than saying one is into Highway 61-era Dylan, I mean, who isn't. If someone enjoys Infidels-era Dylan, it's probably safe to assume they enjoy pretty much everything the man has done. Not to mention that Infidels and Empire Burlesque are great albums on their own.
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Well there was that recent NYT article about Philly being the new NJ, or Brooklyn or whatever.
Apparently the rent is still pretty cheap for much nicer apartments.
Me, I always preferred Pittsburgh.
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Pittsburgh? Blech.
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Plus, the Philly indie music scene has been improving over the last couple of years.
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Brendawg,
I certainly agree that Dylan, even at his most mediocre, is better than most artists at their best (as the famous saying goes, "Dylan's put out 42 albums. Everyone else is playing for #43 on the 'Greatest of All Time' List."). However, what I find hilarious is the insistence by an indie/hipster band like The Walkmen on picking a more "obscure" album by a popular artist to show off/preserve their cred. It would be similar to "Generic Band" claiming to be big fans of "Yield"-era Pearl Jam, or "October"-era U2, or "Undercover of the Night"-era Rolling Stones. I mean, one could say that these are fine albums, but wishing to emulate them? Moreover, count me out as wanting to hear Hamilton Leithauser warble out a version of "Neighborhood Bully." Though I'd love to see what they could do with a more "Knocked Out Loaded" sound!
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Agreed.
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Columbia U bought out their lease in NY to put up more buildings that look old, so why not move?
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The Walkmen/JF*E are/were comprised of trust-fund kids who got a major signing bonus from Dreamworks. I don't think they're hurting for cash.
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I heard that Philly was up-and-coming. It's affordable to live there and there are some neighborhoods "with potential". Brooklyn is pretty priced out these days and the commutes are a drag. I dont know much about the current music scene in Philly, I have not lived there in 10 years, but it has probably gotten a lot better.
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I remember reading about their move quite a while ago--it was in an interview where they were talking about the overhead of their NYC studio and why they're selling it and moving.
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ahhh, all very interesting points, but i believe you confused that "famous quote" about bob dylan. how could you? you know how the old saying goes, "the ying yang twins have released two albums and everybody else is playing for #3 on the Greatest of All Time List" silly rabbit!
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There are plenty of reasons to want to emulate Infidels-era Dylan, especially if they like Dylan but have given up on Indie Rock's five-or-ten-year trend of glorifying old-style recording techniques in favor of a 'produced' version of Dylan's sound. Plus, the Hwy 61 sound has been copied, borrowed from, or has influenced so many bands that it's pretty ubiquitous.
And, half of the tracks on Infidels plus the outtakes are awesome.
Or maybe they're just Dire Straits fans in disguise.
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philadelphia has a great scene right now, with bands like dr. dog, national eye, and bamshire. i think a big part of it is that most of the venues have opened their doors to the 18+ crowd (thanks to R5).
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Philly has really changed a lot for the better in the past 5-10 years. It is 1000x more affordable than Boston/NYC/DC etc. There are a lot of new venues in the last 2 years are so also.
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Philly has really changed a lot for the better in the past 5-10 years. It is 1000x more affordable than Boston/NYC/DC etc. There are a lot of new venues in the last 2 years or so also.
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thank you very much for your help. You guys 75601 rock, thanks again.
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Social networking site MySpace is to block users from uploading copyrighted music to its pages...
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