Album Notes

Philadelphia is well known for its great soul, jazz and hip-hop scene- De Gamble & Huff, Sun Ra and The Roots being great examples. Usually when you talk about the Philadelphia sound you think of elegant soul. However what about rock bands? Nirvana were from Seattle and REM are based in Athens. Headbangers…even Aerosmith were from Boston! What other options does ‘Phili’ have then? Cinderella, Hall & Oates? Come on! The city is crowded by dozens of rock and indie bands which deserve to be considered. That is why Houston Party’s good vibrations detector went off and as a result ‘A Tale Of The City’ has been born.
Eighteen underground bands make up an addictive compilation with a brilliant start. The enthusiastic A-Sides and their psychedelic ‘Sidewalk Chalk’ is very Kinks-like. They’re the new sensation, ones to watch out for… The second track gets into spacey sounds with the Flaming Lips -probably thanks to National Eye. Track three is coming from deep in the basement -The Capitol Years sound as if the Velvet Underground were playing without Lou Reed.
Our aim really, is to keep you guessing with every track, while you think ‘how the hell I was missing all that?!’ There are bands like Buried Beds and their self-released album, as well as alternatives options such as Dr. Dog or Mazarin, the latter with an unreleased demo. In fact, ten of the tracks are exclusive tunes.
The Spinto Band shows how the Beatles would sound in the 21st century. The Webb Brothers have recently been doing brilliantly internationally and Marah with their ‘Formula, Cola, Dollar Draft’ -well beloved by underdogs- take part in this initiative as well. Let’s go on: Kurt Vile with his psych-folk, Guided By Voices who supported the Strokes, dreamy melodies by Hi-Soft -whose leader was in the former Lilys- and finally a good example of psych-pop with Mad Action.
Maybe it’s a bit of an exaggeration to say that Philadelphia is the new Brooklyn. However ‘The New York Times’ pointed out that the city is becoming so cool that it could be the sixth district in New York. Obviously this is their opinion, and who are we to argue…