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') You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. WXPN 88.5 Home WXPN 88.5 Home Listen Live The XPN Concert Calendar Playlist DONATE The Key Ready Or Not, Here Concerts Come! As fans vax up, in-person shows make a hopeful return to 2021 calendars Will Yip launches a #StopAsianHate raffle to benefit AAPI Community Fund with help from Circa Survive, The Menzingers, Mannequin Pussy and more Ali Awan will release his new Moon Mode EP on Born Losers Records Toggle navigation News LATEST POSTS Listen to Leon Bridges' smooth new single "Motorbike," get details on his third album Gold-Diggers Sound St. Vincent puts out "Down" ahead of Daddy's Home release Lucinda Williams opens up about her stroke in a new Rolling Stone interview Phoebe Bridgers, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem and more collaborate with British bicycle company Brompton to support venue crew workers Ready Or Not, Here Concerts Come! As fans vax up, in-person shows make a hopeful return to 2021 calendars Lovelorn's full-length debut What's Yr Damage will release this summer via 6131 Questlove announces his new book, Music is History Watch part one of Another Word For Paradise , a documentary on the hip-hop scene in India featuring Lushlife and the Serious Rap Shit team RELATED TOPICS Leon Bridges St. Vincent Lucinda Williams Brompton Phoebe Bridgers Radiohead Ardmore Music Hall concert news Artists LATEST POSTS Mannequin Pussy's Missy Dabice talks rolling with change, chasing your vision, and the pandemic pressure that led to Perfect How RVA band Downhaul's 'dirt emo' took root in Philly Chestnut Grove talk change, growth, the return of live music, and their upcoming album Music + Art: King Britt on his collaboration with Joshua Mays, Dreams, Diaspora, and Destiny Kississippi reflects on youth and growth on new single "Big Dipper"; new album Mood Ring due out in August The imagery of Ben O'Neill's "After All" video is simple but strong Sleater-Kinney announces new album and shares single “Worry With You” Watch Ani DiFranco's Tiny Desk (Home) Concert RELATED TOPICS Mannequin Pussy Downhaul Chestnut Grove King Britt Music + Art Kississippi Scene LATEST POSTS The Skeleton Key: May ends with a slew of outside events, new music from Mesh and HIRS, punk markets, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, and a World/Inferno remembrance The Skeleton Key: Get weird and stay weird this May with new death metal and noise rock, a Palberta record release stream, some socially-distanced jazz, and a choral sound installation on the Rail Park The Craft of the Microaggression: Non-men in the Philadelphia music scene share their experiences The Adolescentia Project celebrates our formative music experiences one Instagram post at a time Music+Art: Karl Blau on Nomad The Skeleton Key: Join in the chant with these Bandcamp Friday recs, a Philly punk gigography, gospel and hardcore livestreams, jazz lectures, and a Moor Mother dance party How Dirty Dollhouse's Chelsea Mitchell found herself running the show at Newtown Book and Record Exchange BL Shirelle speaks on Die Jim Crow records, post-pandemic plans, and the Philly scene RELATED TOPICS The Skeleton Key Highnoon janna Remember Sports The Adolescentia Project Karl Blau Music + Art Events LATEST POSTS Arooj Aftab will play World Cafe Live in October Girl in Red brings her bedroom-pop to Union Transfer Ben Folds will kick off his 2021 tour with a solo piano show at York's Appell Center City Winery opens up their patio for live music happy hours curated by REC Philly Watch John Gilbride and Friends' benefit livestream for South Camden Theatre Company Drive-By Truckers' rescheduled Whitaker Center show happens on August 31 My Morning Jacket and Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard will play The Mann in September Kevin Morby and Hamilton Leithauser's Fall Mixer brings them to Union Transfer RELATED TOPICS concert news Arooj Aftab Union Transfer Ben Folds City Winery John Gilbride South Camden Theatre Company Recordings LATEST POSTS PRESS PLAY: 9 New Albums out May 21st Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen collaborate on new single "Like I Used To" Five essential beat tapes from the Philadelphia scene Hurry searches for reality on their latest single "A Fake Idea" Japanese Breakfast turns glamour gory in "Savage Good Boy" Kingsley Ibeneche releases moving, kinetic video for "So Kind" Dell-P is lost in love on new single "Here For It" Khemist pays homage to Dylan in his new "Upright" video RELATED TOPICS press play Angel Olsen Sharon Van Etten beat tapes Small Professor Hurry Japanese Breakfast Reddit Feedly -- RSS Feed Facebook Twitter Don't miss Concert News The Key Studio Sessions Unprecedented Sessions Music + Art The Skeleton Key Press Play Free at Noon Archives May 21st, 2021 | 12:27PM | By John Vettese -- Brett Dennen will bring his first album in five years to next week’s Free at Noon Before you set sail into your Memorial Day Weekend, make sure to tune in on Friday for a virtual Free at Noon with Brett Dennen . Continue reading → -- May 21st, 2021 | 10:33AM | By Sarah Hojsak -- Arooj Aftab will play World Cafe Live in October Arooj Aftab | photo by Diana Markosian Pakistani composer Arooj Aftab will play a show at World Cafe Live on Wednesday, October 20. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, the now Brooklyn-based artist’s unique sound is inspired by jazz, new age, and classical minimalism, as well as Sufi devotional poetry. Continue reading → -- May 21st, 2021 | 9:21AM | By Sam Kesler -- Mannequin Pussy’s Missy Dabice talks rolling with change, chasing your vision, and the pandemic pressure that led to Perfect Mannequin Pussy | photo by Morgan Smith | courtesy of the artist The world missed Mannequin Pussy . Their breakout 2019 album Patience captured the place between anger and longing that characterized the past few years, shifting between tight hardcore anthems like “F.U.CA.W.” and more pop-adjacent tracks like “Drunk II.” The Perfect EP, out today, nails that balance once again, within five tracks getting at the most carnal of emotions that feels so difficult to convey most times; something that made their live shows so much more gratifying to attend was the ability to let that all go in a crowd of shared intensity. Continue reading → -- May 21st, 2021 | 8:59AM | By Meghin Moore -- How RVA band Downhaul’s ‘dirt emo’ took root in Philly Downhaul | photo courtesy of the artist Roughly four hours and a large stretch of Interstate 95 are all that stands between Richmond, Va. and Philadelphia. “It’s like a joke that tells itself,” said Gordon Phillips, singer-guitarist of the band Downhaul . “Everybody in Philadelphia is moving to Richmond and everybody in Richmond is moving to Philadelphia.” Even though Phillips and his crew have not made that move outright, they spent a lot of time at Headroom Studios in the Fishtown section of Philly, working on their second LP, PROOF , with a team of friends from various cities in the Northeast. “Everything’s connected. On the East Coast especially,” Phillips said, when talking about the connection between the two cities. Continue reading → -- May 21st, 2021 | 12:00AM | By Eric Schuman -- PRESS PLAY: 9 New Albums out May 21st Lord Huron | photo by Anthony Wilson, courtesy of the artist This week’s crop of new releases features introductions, re-inventions and just about everything in between. Longtime XPN favorites Lord Huron continue their descent into dusty noir-rock with Long Lost . Built around the apocryphal entity “Mr. Tubbs Tarbell,” a persona that could be characterized as Wolfman Jack’s Black Lodge doppelgänger. Boston trio Lula Wiles showcase their sharp songwriting and deft harmonies on Shame and Sedition . Wink is the Sub Pop debut for Tokyo-based neon-pop combo CHAI , and it’s an uncompromisingly lively listen. Local faves Low Cut Connie offer up Tough Cookies: The Best of The Quarantine Broadcasts ; nearly two dozen covers culled from over a year’s worth of livestream performances. Tuareg g...