Words and Photo by Carolina Carmo and Tilly Sandmeyer
The portal to the Crafted Sounds Special was the scariest door of all time. A cigarette smoking musician had to point it out to us. It was snowing and the gray graffitied door with a lock didn’t seem right, for a second we thought the gig was gonna be in the side yard of the house because of the huge “COUSIN DANNY’S” poster hanging outside.
Friend of the Blog, Crafted Sounds label runner Connor Murray (more like Connor Beanie), threw together a label special show at Cousin Danny’s in Philadelphia on Feb. 20. Tilly here. This place smelled fucking weird. Max said it smelled like ancient grains? The bands, in order, were forty winks, Buddie, Puddled, and A Country Western.
We were pretty much the first ones there and got to talk to Connor for a second while he manned the door. After we checked out the merch table and Max bought the limited edition baseball trading card that Connor had made of each band, we hung out awkwardly until the show started. The room was still shrouded in Super Bowl decor, green tinsel hanging everywhere. Tilly here. Carolina just asked me why there are so many men in this room. It’s because of the music.
By the fourth song in forty winks’ set the floor was thumping (fun fact: the phrase “forty winks” dates back to the 1820s from a medical self-help journal. It means a short nap. Woah awesome). Yes the music was loud, but the kid stomping with his whole body near the front was the catalyst. He stepped on Max’s foot and elbowed Tilly and I all in one go. He was excited, and hey, I respect that. I also love local music. As the newest outfit in the Crafted Sounds lineup, forty winks sounds metallic and chaotic, a band sonically born out of the post-feeble-little-horse generation. The running thread through the set was a distinctive feedback through their crafty, collaged approach to music. The vocals were often drowned in the screaming guitars and frenzied drums, creating an amorphous cloud of noise. They were the band on stage who gave me that teenager-y jealousy feeling of knowing they are way cooler than me. Tilly here again. I can tell they’re good, will probably never listen again. Also why were they playing TikTok remixes in between songs? Weird.
Second band, this is for me. Buddie, performing as their original Philadelphia lineup (the band has a current *evil* reiteration in Vancouver), played a solid set of easy-listening indie rock. They mostly stuck to songs from their 2020 album Diving, top and tailing the set with tracks off of 2023’s Agitator. The songs moved like a canoe lazing down a river, lacking tension or a catchy turn of phrase. Not quite bedroom indie, but you can tell they are into that stuff. I was discography-stalking in a futile attempt to prepare for a show of all new to me bands. After one listen, “In Aquamarine” became my favorite song that week. Hearing it live was the highlight of my night. When he screams “singing Elliott Smith?” Track.
I introduced myself to Naomi from Puddled before the show, just to put a face to a name (I interviewed her a few months back over the phone). She told me her parents were coming to the show that night—guessing they were the old couple to my right, the man taking just about a billion flash, zoomed in phone photos and videos. Their set of familiar alternative rock was my surprise favorite of the night. The guitarist said he’s full sending this set, no-glasses. I’m also not wearing my glasses. They get me. Some of their songs sounded pretty similar to each other, but I think that’s because they layer their vocals in a really cool way that makes it sound flexible and like it’s oozing into every corner of the song. The drums were tight and the bassist was playing a Hofner (Beatles) bass that added a charming twang to the set.
Stars of the show, A Country Western, took the stage. They played “Great is the Grip of the Hawk,” it was awesome. They played “For the Voter,” it was awesome. Then they announced the rest of the set was gonna be all new music. Max and I locked eyes and made a face. This wasn’t so awesome. The thing about it being mostly new music is that it’s all new music to me. The new songs were great, the dudes just weren’t in the mood to be playing a set that late. They’d just rocked in New York City the week before, it seemed like playing this show was more like a favor. The room was sort of empty at this point, and they sluggishly chugged from song to song. It was a sleepy set that ended early and ignored cheers for an encore, shouting “We have work tomorrow!” while breaking down. I’m unemployed. Play more.
We all had different favorites at the end of the night, and none of us picked the set from the band we made the drive for. We headed back to D.C. I got shotgun.
