Digital Leather Penetrates Philadelphia in All the Wrong Ways

Digital Leather Live in Memphis 2005 photo by <a href=
Digital Leather Live in Memphis 2005 photo by Sherry Cardino
posted Wednesday Apr 23rd, 2008

Monday night in historic Philadelphia at the M Room, kick the week off with an absurd and pulverizing show, baring the ugly underbelly of the electronic punk noise movement, and implementing what looks like an official FDH Records showcase. Digital Leather is one of America's most underrated, yet prolific shape-shifting bands who seem to be endlessly releasing interesting new material, along with a heap of bizarrely great side projects to fill in the gaps. With a wide range of synthesized tone bending capabilities and a nasty disposition, Digital Leather make it all look so easy, and piece together impossibly simple pop songs out of thin air. Check out their latest LP, Blow Machine on FDH for the most recent dose of their eerily undulating, throbbing message of self-deprecation, and don't miss the chance to soak in this morally bankrupt unit in a live setting. Local Philadelphia hellraisers, Women, bring back a snotty and fresh twist on the lightning punk formula, but they might stick out as the odd band of the night, as the staccato post punk ass shakers Faux Slang proudly show how effortlessly they can construct catchy pop in an off-center world primed for aural conformity. Either end of the spectrum that suits you, it's two great examples of why all the bands shouldn't sound the same, and it's the variety that really makes a show like this work.

Openers el Diablos Bloncos from Omaha, Nebraska obviously drill their own holes and string up a sound so minimal and blown out, it makes Digital Leather sound like Sparks. With a Big Black influence gutted from the inside out and an incessant vexation as their strong points, these guys could just be the next junk-punk band to blow your socks off. Check out their releases on FDH and Loveskull for more mind bending spewage of the wandering glue-wave nature, and don't be late as they kick off Monday's show at the M Room.

check out a clip of Digital Leather performing in NYC 2006, courtesy of shatteredrecords.com, right here..