Photo courtesy of PlattenbauBubonic Bear was and still is one of my favorite bands to have come out of the West Philly DIY scene. Back during the 2006-2010 years when I was constantly going to basement gigs and booking shows between college classes, I always knew I had a 50/50 shot of seeing the Bubears either causing a racket onstage or off, and when the news finally came that they were calling it quits several years after I'd left the city, my heart broke a bit. Both members have stayed plenty busy, though; former drummer Dustin Khebzou left Philly, too, only he landed in the more welcoming climes of Northern California and promptly started another band.Plattenbau (another duo, this time comprised of Khebzou and Megan Biscieglia of Bad Braids and Black Magic Family Band) marries hypnotic industrial beats, droning noise, and heaps of distortion with dreamy, throaty vocals that slide between the euphoric and the damned in the space of a note. They describe their sound as "starving to death in a 24-hour discotheque," which is so far up my alley I think it just smashed in my kitchen windows.Their first EP, Body Of Desire, is out soon Glowing Dagger Records; the digital version will be available on Bandcamp come October 16, with a limited cassette pressing to follow on November 20. Stream the whole thing below.
Kim Kelly misses basement shows, black label Sparks, and Lorenzo's pizza; she's on Twitter.