It is no mistake that mewithoutYou have become one of today’s most fascinating experimental rock acts. The last 15 years have borne witness to the Philadelphia five-piece exercising stylistic evolutions and aerial dynamics with humbling dexterity and untamed ambition. At their roots may be a theatrical progressive punk/post-hardcore band, but they’ve never been content to remain comfortably within a familiar genre. Their continuous multi-directional movements have left them increasingly difficult to classify, the growth of their branches impossible to predict. The group’s sixth full-length album, Pale Horses, is the best evidence to date of their eclectic agility.

The one constant in mewithoutYou’s storied career has been lead singer Aaron Weiss’ ability to sketch ornate, thought-provoking narratives. Seamlessly weaving his signature holler amidst whispered storytelling and stream-of-consciousness outpourings, his latest offerings vacillate between the emotionally wracked, vibrantly symbolic, and ambiguously metaphysical. His meandering, technicolor vision of a world apocalyptic—populated with werewolves and vulturemen, shape-shifters and apparitions, android whales and an Idaho bride—combines the fantastic opulence of the group’s recent albums with the vulnerable personal confessions of their earliest work.

Longtime band-mates Mike Weiss, Rickie Mazzotta and Greg Jehanian continue to craft dramatic, nightmare soundscapes which lavishly complement their singer’s ecstatic hallucinations. The addition of Brandon Beaver (of Buried Beds, the Silver Ages) allows the group as a 5-piece to revisit its earlier intricate, layered fretwork, while adding new depths of vocal harmonies and ever-peculiar arrangements. Musically, the group hearkens boldly to the raw intensity of 2004’s Catch for Us the Foxes, while building on the rich imagery of 2006’s Brother, Sister. Epic in scope, Pale Horses is mewithoutYou at their best, breathing fresh life into the end times, gloriously terrifying and hauntingly iconic.

Their latest album also marks a new beginning for the band, as it’s their first to be released on Run for Cover Records. Teaming with the rising Boston independent label was the outgrowth of their partnership with Will Yip, whose masterful production transforms the band’s transcendental musings into a widescreen experience. Drums and bass lines quake with the faults of the earth, as an army of guitars and multi-instrumental nuances ring in the paranoia, mass hysteria and peaceful exaltation. The result is a stunning collage—fitfully disturbing, steadily bizarre, uniquely celebratory—undoubtedly the grandest musical adventure yet conceived within mewithoutYou’s expanding tapestry.

DOMINIC ANGELELLA
Philadelphia, PA
https://dominicangelella.bandcamp.com/
Dominic Angelella has built up an impressive resume as a musician: he has recorded as a session musician for artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Tinashe, Mac Miller, and Juicy J; he has toured the world with songwriters Lucy Dacus and Natalie Prass; and has toured and recorded as a full fledged member of Hop Along and mewithoutYou. Though he has kept busy as a side musician, Dominic has also made time to flourish as a songwriter, fronting the bands Dragonzord and DRGN KING, and forming Lithuania with fellow songwriter/Dr. Dog drummer Eric Slick. It is in his solo music, however, that Dominic has found his own prolific voice. 2017’s Goodnight, Doggies. and 2018’s Road Movie found him treading through the territory of music that has inspired him throughout his life, mixing the confessional songwriting of Harry Nilsson and Conor Oberst with the psychedelic studio experimentation of Prince and The Olivia Tremor Control. In 2020, Dominic released Poison River, his most ambitious and fully realized work yet.
 

***

COVID Policy

In order to attend this event at the Black Cat we now require either proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, or proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within the prior 48 hours. Patrons who wish to attend an event must show either a completed COVID-19 vaccination card or proof of a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours of the event. As members of the community it is our responsibility to help minimize the spread and risk of COVID and to protect the safety of our patrons, our performers, and our staff.

Accepted forms of proof include
1. A physical vaccination card that matches the patron’s photo ID
2. A  photo of a vaccination card that matches the patron’s photo ID,
3. A negative PCR test taken within the prior 48 hours that matches a 
patron’s photo ID. The negative PCR test may be digital or printed.

Patrons who do not have proof of vaccination may attend a show if proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 48 hours is presented at the door.