DiPinto Guitars’ Chris DiPinto is a Renaissance man in this week’s Ears We Trust

DiPinto Guitars on Girard Avenue in Fishtown is hard to walk by without craning your neck to catch glimpses of owner Chris DiPinto‘s handmade retro-futuristic axes. Not to mention the killer vintage gear he offers.

For more than three decades, DiPinto has been making guitars under the eponymous brand, and counts big names such as Adam Granduciel, Kurt Vile, Rick Nielsen, J Mascis, Richie Havens, Conan O’Brien, Earl Slick, Adam Sandler, Dick Dale, and Jack White among fans of his work. He founded, fronts, and shreds guitar in glitter rock outfit Creem Circus, which dropped a new album in March 2025.

So what does the man who makes instruments listen to? Find out below in this week’s Ears We Trust!

The Bug Club

I came home one night and noticed my wife Sophy was listening to something I had never heard before. What? A new band? As I listened I realized this was no “in one ear out the other” music. This music was full of male/female-harmony vocals with gritty guitars, driving creative bass lines, and tight drums to match. Their lyrics were weird and fun and smart and stupid all at the same time. Their accents were clearly British. At the time I didn’t know it, but I would become somewhat of an expert of the Welsh dialect. Because this band would become my favorite band. This band was called The Bug Club! Six albums, all out on Sub Pop (I believe) and every song on every side is amazing! Always interesting and melodic, words tend to be conversational—not between the two singers to each other, but together and in harmony. This gives it that Bowie/Eno word-mix-up sound but in a whole new way. Trying to describe The Bug Club is like trying to describe The Clash or Joy Division. You’d probably think they both sucked if I tried. So just go check it out!

Lyric teaser: “Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla something about books.” From the song “We Don’t Care About That.”

Langan, Frost & Wane

I’ve always been drawn to the sounds and melodies of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Whether it be the medieval melodies of “Greensleeves” or the intricate multi-tracked electric guitars of Ritchie Blackmore on Deep Purple’s “Highway Star,” those sounds resonate with me. So when I found out about the Philly band Langan, Frost & Wane, I was hooked immediately. It’s not just that the music is played predominantly on acoustic instruments—including 12 string guitars and mandolins—but the melodies themselves are so heart-felt that the instruments cry out to you from and bygone time, full of wizards and fair maidens. Their hearts and minds are really into this. One needs to look no further than the cover art of their albums or the stage presence of their live shows; hand tailored Renaissance tunics, long bushy hair, flickering candles. And, if you look real closely on stage you will see set lists written in runes!

This is beautiful and mournful Sunday-morning breakfast music for sure. Lyrics like “know the nightshade from the blueberry and live to see tomorrow,” from “Learn the Names of the Plants.” Genius!

Watch the “King Laughter” video and you’ll get the picture.