Made In America - DARK BLUE, "Just Another Night With The Boys" 7" (2014)

John Sharkey III (Clockcleaner, Puerto Rico Flowers) has a velvety-smooth baritone voice that could easily find itself in a golden age smokey Las Vegas lounge pumping out American standards until the wee hours. Instead, Sharkey, joined by Andrew Mackie Nelson (Ceremony, Paint it Black, Puerto Rico Flowers) and Mike Sneeringer (formerly from Purling Hiss, Puerto Rico Flowers) make up Philadelphia's Dark Blue. 

Dark Blue, together less than a year, have been touring and making preparations for their second 7" single release Just Another Night With The Boys, out July 15th via Jade Tree Records. The A Side, "Just Another Night With The Boys", will hit you from a post-punk angle that will transport you back to the days of Joy Division with the late great Ian Curtis or Dave Vanian of The Damned only smoother. The B Side is a respectable cover of John Cale's "Hungry For Love".

Made In America - BEACH SLANG "Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken?" EP (2014)

It's not easy to define what an anthem is but you usually know one when you hear it. An anthem reaches down into the pit of your stomach by way of your ear holes, rips out your insides and exposes them for everyone to see. At that point you no longer care who's looking at you, you just belt out the lyrics at the top of your lungs to the point of exhaustion and pray for the song to go on forever.

A few names instantly come to mind when I think of bands that have, in my opinion, perfected the art of writing the anthem. The Replacements, The Gaslight Anthem, and Superchunk have all, at one time or another, gotten me to that point where I'm no longer just listening to the song, I'm now living inside of the song. Eye's closed, mouth open, fist's in the air living inside of the song. Philadelphia's Beach Slang has gotten me to that point with their new EP Who Would Ever Want Anything So Broken?, out now on Dead Broke Rekerds.