Communiqué – The Official Blog of WKDU Philadelphia 91.7 FM

Featured

Fifteen Years of Radiator Hospital: Sam Cook-Parrot on Outlaw Ancestors, Tape Decks, & Distorting Time

By Gabby McIlhinney

Sam Cook-Parrott has been Radiator Hospital for almost fifteen years. And while playing with the same full band for about a decade of that, he showed up to WKDU wielding only a cassette deck a day after dropping his sixth album, Distorting Time. Come for the tape machine, stay for the story about a possible outlaw ancestor whose skin reportedly became a pair of shoes.

Featured

Zest Pop’s One and Only: Mustard Service on Their “Paradise” Tour

Miami’s “Mustard Service” stopped in Philadelphia on August 28th, as part of their 28 city Paradise tour, where I had the chance to ask them a few questions. Mustard Service lit up the Foundry Stage in Fishtown, playing a mix of vibes from their discography and giving fans a show they wouldn’t forget. Mustard Service, made up of Marco on guitar and vocals, Leo on keys, Adam on drums, and Yucky on bass, released their fifth-studio album, Paradise, on August 21st.

Featured

Atta Boy Resurface Like Sediment, as Silt Emerges for the World

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

Atta Boy has been a band since its members were, in our collective own words, “wee teens,” and in that time they’ve built a small, devoted discography around a comforting, aching blend of pop Americana. Fans of a certain age (mine, apparently) know theam best through Saccharine, the album that soundtracked a lot of pandemic bedrooms and hasn’t left rotation since. The band doesn’t move fast, as new music from Atta Boy tends to resurface like sediment, stirring back to the surface every so often, and well formed upon arrival. Their newest album, Silt, just came out, and the tour behind it brought Dashel on keys, Freddie on guitar, Eden on vocals and guitar, and Louis on drums, into the WKDU studio, crammed onto whatever chairs we could find for their first radio interview ever.

Featured

Makeout Reef: 12 Shows Into Their First East Coast Tour, & Still No Hacky Sack

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

*Makeout Reef | From the WKDU Prod Room*

It’s nautical night at WKDU: Fish Food and Makeout Reef, back to back, and I promise I didn’t plan it that way. The Los Angeles four-piece, who blend reverb-drenched shoegaze haze with catchy 2000s NYC indie rock, squeezed into the studio straight off a support slot at Ukie Club, Philly’s beloved, occasionally-Ukrainian-social-hall DIY venue. “We heard it’s a pretty legendary Philly spot,” bassist Kyle said. Drummer Liam went further, comparing it to the anything-goes, all-the-lights-on shows Title Fight used to throw in random rooms around here. In Philly terms, that’s some high praise.

Featured

“If You Don’t Love Me at My Worst, You Don’t Deserve Me”: Mirriam’s Book of Lore

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

Second half of the night, same studio, new lineup: Maddie Ruhoy, who performs and records under the pseudonym Mirriam, came in right behind Sunbather Die with her guitarist and producer, also named Henry, in tow. Two Henrys in one night. The DIY music scene apparently has a cast of six people and everyone’s named Henry. Not the last coincidence of the evening, either.

Featured

Sunbather Die on Basements, Bourdain, and the DI Box That Started It All

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

*Sunbather Die | From the WKDU Vinyl Archives*

“This is one of the coolest stops we’re ever gonna have,” says bassist Dom, minutes after Sunbather Die finished ripping through a live set on WKDU. Henry, Dom, and Gabe, all the way from a Ballard basement in Seattle, take the cake for the furthest band I’ve ever had play the station. Possibly ever, in the history of the station. I can’t prove that. But it felt that way.

Tonight was history for another reason: a back-to-back in-studio, Sunbather Die played straight into a set from Philly’s own Mirriam. A pairing nobody planned so much as manifested, since Mirriam knew Sunbather Die from home in Seattle and managed to help snag them during their east coast tour.

By their own description, Sunbather Die makes “tragic noises and cannabis and pessimistic loudness.” Having now heard it in person, I can confirm.

Featured

Cold Court’s ‘Frankensteined’ EP Is Finally Leaving the LAN Basement

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel
Photos by Seven Finckel

DJ Gabby Mack, host of Fish Food, sat down with Cold Court after their live studio session at WKDU Philadelphia to talk about their debut EP, \ (^_^) / (aka: HANDS UP), their constantly evolving writing process, Minecraft nostalgia, and their first tour kickoff.

Featured

Lowertown Are Ready to Let “Ugly Duckling Union” Go

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

DJ Gabby Mack, host of Fish Food, sat down with rock duo Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg from Lowertown.

Avsha Weinberg (left) & Olivia Osby (right)

After nearly three years in the making, Lowertown’s new album Ugly Duckling Union comes out May 22, and if you ask them, it’s more than ready to exist outside of their heads.

Featured

DJ Meow On Next Eras

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

If you were tuned into WKDU recently, or packed into the studio, you may have caught DJ Meow’s boiler room-style set. Which, for the blog’s record, we do not usually do here at WKDU, though maybe we should start…

“I only prepared half of that,” she told me right after, also visibly overheating. “The other half was just vibes.”

With only about a year into DJing, DJ Meow, aka Jess Urwiler, is weirdly natural on the decks. Originally, Jess was supposed to come in for an acoustic Fish Food set to spotlight her debut EP Roots, which dropped back on September 26 (and is available on all streaming platforms, nudge, nudge). That project lives firmly in the singer-songwriter world, with acoustic guitar and intimate lyrics from songs she’s been sitting on since high school.

Featured

Interview with Cassie Ramone

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

Cassie Ramone is a songwriter, musician, and visual artist who first came onto a lot of people’s radars as a founding member of Vivian Girls, starting in the late 2000s, and later with The Babies, as well as through her solo work. She grew up in New Jersey, moved to Brooklyn in the early 2000s, and has spent years moving between different scenes, projects, and ways of making music.

Her most recent record, Sweetheart, has felt like a really reflective moment in that long arc. Cassie was able to stop by WKDU ahead of her show at Philly Style Pizza with Colleen Green and Jess Urwiler, so we caught her for a quick in-studio and interview!

Featured

A Chat with Shallow Alcove at WKDU Philadelphia 91.7FM

By Gabby McIlhinney – Host of Fish Food

Shallow Alcove

Fresh off of their in-studio performance at WKDU presented by Fish Food, the indie folk darlings from Shallow Alcove joined us for a conversation about sleepovers, nostalgia, and various tour tales in promotion for their upcoming EP Doggy Paddle out May 21st. Currently on their “Slumber Party Tour,” the band has been embracing comfort on stage, performing in pajamas and encouraging that same sleepover intimacy among fans.

Featured

An album review of idialedyournumber’s Mourning Glow by Gio Padovano (Spilt Milk)

A Home Video in Flames: The Sounds of Nostalgia and Decay

Perhaps one of the most difficult experiences in life is the simple act of growing up. With the power of reminiscing comes the responsibility of reflection, and in turn, we are met with an all-too-familiar sense of loss. The loss of what we once had as children, perhaps the loss of what could have been, or most devastatingly, the loss of what we should have had entirely. Regardless, early adulthood grants us the ability to look back on our childhoods without nostalgia’s rosy tint, allowing us to do something once thought impossible- understand and empathize with our past in all of its beauty and ugliness.

Canadian synth-laden emo act idialedyournumber captures this complex emotion with excruciating precision in their newest album, Mourning Glow. Thematically framed as a home video viewing experience, the album presents the past caught on tape- validating the joy of early childhood while simultaneously exposing the reality of the environment in which we were raised. The first and last tracks, Authenticating… and Deactivating…, bookend the album with the nostalgic hum of VHS playback, grounding you the listener in a space of memory and reflection, while the middle section serves as chapters in our growth and understanding of how we were raised and how that affects our lives to this day.

**Personal Favorite Tracks from Mourning Glow:**

Featured

Interview with hey i’m outside

Noah Kossowsky: Hello, my name is Noah Kossowsky, and this is a very special interview with the band hey i’m outside. Hey, hey i’m outside.

Patrick: How you doing?

Hannah: Hey.

Noah Kossowsky: I’m inside. Yup. I’m surprised by that. I thought by the name that you guys would be outside. But yea, you guys just put out an awesome album, self-titled, and when I heard it, it quickly became one of my favorites of the year. So, I was like, I need to track these guys down, talk to them about it, you know. So, very excited we’re doing that now. So, do you just want to introduce yourselves for the folks that are listening?

Hannah: Yeah, so my name’s Hannah. I play bass in the band.

Patrick: I’m Patrick and I sing and play guitar.

Noah: And I’m Noah and I play the drums.

Noah Kossowsky: Awesome, I’m Noah as well. So, first question, I guess this is a good starting question. What is your band origin story? How did you start, when did you start, where? Give me the tale.

Featured

Interview with Scott Hermo Jr. of Boyscott

DJ LSD: Hello everyone, I’m here with Scott from Boyscott, this is DJ LSD, interviewing Scott for WKDU 91.7 fm Drexel university’s free format non-commercial radio station. Scott, how are you?

Scott: I am doing well, technically, I am very good.

DJ LSD: That’s good! That’s good to hear, so I wanted to get your formal apology for eight years of us waiting for this album. Do you have any form of an apology for that?

Scott: I just, I am an anxious person and it took me a long time to write these songs and uhh let me tell you, I was well aware it was taking so long.

Featured

Boyscott’s Spellbound: Nearly a decade in the making, but well worth the wait

By Lukas Da Silva

I remember when I first listened to Boyscott when Goosebumps lead single “Nova Scotia 500” popped up on my Discover Weekly playlist. As a 14 year old boy still getting into indie music, this track helped me begin my journey into the scene. Nearly a decade later, the band has returned to drop their Sophomore LP, a worthy successor to Goosebumps. Filled with tracks from deep in the vault,, Spellbound offers an experience similar to getting a group of old friends together to go on a pleasant road trip down the coast.

Opener “Rocky Road”, sees the band quickly hit their stride. With their ability to quickly recapture the whimsical nature of their sound, Boyscott transports the listener to a nice scenic drive down the mountainside. “Rocky Road” manages to deliver in the same vein as “Nova Scotia 500” with its upbeat percussion and stunning vocal harmonies.

Featured

Interview with Kenny Boothby of Little Kid

Noah: Alright so we are here at WKDU interviewing Kenny Boothby of Little Kid. My name is Noah.

Trent: My name is Trent.

N: Alright let’s get this started. So do you have a first question you want to ask?

T: Sure, yeah. So I guess as a good introductory question, when did you first realize that you had a knack for music?

Featured

Hovvdy Sets the Bar for Modern Indie Folk at an Insane Height

By Lukas Da Silva

Folk rock has become a mainstay within the indie scene and it’s become bittersweet in a way. The fact that there are so many people enjoying the genre and looking for artists within this field of music makes me so happy. However the overabundance of artists working in the genre has led to a lower standard of quality within the genre of music. Many acts feel paper thin and can feel lifeless within their music. But Hovvdy proves that the standard we should be striving for is higher than I could have anticipated.

While I was originally introduced to Hovvdy on their album Heavy Weight, it took me till their record True Love to begin to fall in love with the folk group. The lush vocals, soothing guitars, and steady drumming made the music from this band reverberate inside of me. It’s this feeling of resonance that is something unique I believe in the folk genre and this album proves that my experience with the band wasn’t a fluke.

Featured

Body Farm by The Angies

by Emily Fedon

The Angies, a local Philly alternative band, released yet another amazing EP this year, titled “Body Farm.” This is their second EP, following 2021’s “Civil Dusk.” At only fourteen minutes, it’s a quick yet potent listen that leaves you with a strong desire to seek out more of their work. It’s unknown when they’ll release their first album, but their current catalog of music makes it a highly anticipated announcement. However, we’re not there yet, so let’s get into “Body Farm.”

The EP starts off with their single “Killing is a Bore” that gives a punchy intro to “Body Farm.” The singing style reminded me of some of the heavier Mannequin Pussy songs, and the constant and fast drums give you a rush as you listen. There’s also a sick guitar solo in the middle with fast shreds that match the quick pace of the song. The next song, “Squeal,” follows with a similar sound and features cathartic yelling reminiscent of 90’s riot grrrl and classic punk acts, which act as clear influences on the band.

Featured

Only God Was Above Us by Vampire Weekend

by Noah Kossowsky

Photo by Michael Schmelling, Instagram @Michael_Schmelling

It’s been five years since NYC indie golden boys Vampire Weekend released their fourth album, Father of The Bride. FOTB deviated a bit in the sound and atmosphere fans and critics were used to and wound up being received with the most mixed reception of their careers so far. While it was mostly positive, part of me thinks Ezra Koenig and Co. missed the near-unanimous praise their original trilogy was lauded with when making their fifth record, Only God Was Above Us.

It’s remarkable how Vampire Weekend has managed to recapture the sound of their best work. They even find the time to make call backs to the classics (catch the “Mansard Roof” groove on “Connect”). They’ve always had one of the more unconventional and creative combinations of pop genres and elements from across music so I’m glad to see them return to and continue to expand upon it here. Cycling, busy drum grooves, winding guitar riffs and intricate layers of pianos and strings underscore pristine pop melodies in a display that shows the band’s understanding and mastery over their unique sound.

Featured

Essential Albums: Q1 2024

Hello everyone! After a 2 year hiatus, we’re finally bringing Communiqué back. YAY!!! For our first entry, we’ve asked a few of our DJs to share their favorite albums of Q1 of 2024. Keep reading to see what DJs Noah, Leah, and Lukas have been loving 🙂

Noah’s Picks

100% Prod I.V. by Lucy (Cooper B. Handy)

Massachusetts-based artist Lucy drunkenly delivers consistently catchy hooks over quirky, minimal and unconventional plugg and trap style beats. His very matter-of-fact lyrical style ranges from cutesy to achingly honest. Some might be thrown off by the whiny, mumbled vocals but if you can appreciate their uniqueness, you’ll be rewarded by a record that shines in its simplicity and boyish charm.

Recommended track: Substance