Weekend Picks: Trombone Shorty, The Kopecky Family Band, Hop Along, The Roots Picnic, JBM and the Appel Farm Arts & Music Festival
In case you missed this article on Pitchfork this week about the 20 Essential Festivals of Summer 2012, of the ten they chose for North America, two are right here in Philly. While we need to actually make it through their choice of the Jay-Z curated Labor Day Made In America festival to see whether or not it will turn out to be “essential,” one thing we know for sure: their choice of The Roots Picnic tomorrow and Sunday is right on target. For the last four years The Roots have thrown one of the best festivals in town and this year, they’ve expanded the picnic to two days (Saturday, June 2nd and Sunday, June 3rd) at the Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing. The lineup features The Roots, De La Soul, Rakim, Danny Brown, St. Vincent, James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem), Diplo, Major Lazer, Kid Cudi, Chill Moody, OCD: Moosh & Twist, tUnE-yArDs, Shabazz Palaces and more. Two day and single day passes are available here. You can find the complete lineup here.
FRIDAY, June 1st
One of our favorite new Philly band record releases is the album from Hop Along called Get Disowned. The band is having its record release party and is headlining the First Unitarian Church tonight with Band Name, Little Big League and Mary Lattimore. (Doors: 8:00 p.m / Show: 8:30 p.m.; all ages; $10). Also playing: The Kopecky Family Band play at today’s Free At Noon and perform tonight at Milkboy Philly at 8:30 p.m. with The National Rifle and MyNameIsJohnMichael. Tickets to the 21+ show are $10-$12.
SATURDAY, June 2nd
WXPN Welcomes the Appel Farm Arts & Music Festival featuring Dawes, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Rodney Crowell, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Sara Watkins, Jukebox The Ghost, Cheryl Wheeler, Mason Porter and more. (11:30 a.m.; all ages, $5.00 for kids ages 3-12; $40.00-$50.00 for adults).
WXPN Welcomes Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue to the Keswick Theatre. (8:00 p.m., all-ages show, the show is sold out).
SUNDAY, June 3rd
Singer-songwriter JBM returns to town and plays Milkboy Philly with Tim Rogers of YOU AM I. JBM (real name: Jesse Merchant) JBM’s new album, Stray Ashes, is a gorgeous and haunting collection of songs that recalls the sparse beauty of records by Jose Gonzalez. (Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm; tickets to the 21+ show are $12). Below, watch the video produced by Philly’s Out Of Town Films they did with Jesse when he played at Jonny Brenda’s several weeks ago.