Tag: Philly Weekly

Suffocation (Philly Weekly, 3/24/09)

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NORTHERN LIBERTIES

It’s a grand plan: Release a limited-edition, 200-copy run of a vinyl album that features one song and then play that song/album in its entirety, “Thick As a Brick”-style. Northern Liberties say they will only play the piece, titled “Suffocation”, live twice, once in Bethlehem, Pa., and once at Johnny Brenda’s. What will it sound like? Only a select few know, but the band describes it as “somber – essentially a ‘winter song’ dealing with problems inherent to existence in a physical dimension.” If “Suffocation” is anything like the early 90’s DIY/grunge/postpunk vibe blended with off-kilter, avant-garde jazz rhythms the band is normally known for, it could be epic.

— Katherine Silkaitis, Philadelphia Weekly, March 18-24, 2009

Northern Liberties – Ghost Mind Electricity (Philadelphia Weekly, 2007)

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Northern Liberties are like a mini goth-punk cottage industry, spanning comps and 7-inches, live EPs and a DVD limited to 23 copies. Their third album Ghost Mind Electricity is a thudding, low-end-heavy journey through sorcery, unborn children, cremation and dead deer made all the more unsettling by the trio’s guitar-less setup and drummer/singer Justin Duerr’s half-detached, half-crazed missives, akin to those of Wilderness’ James Johnson. If there are metal tinges to “Silver Fire,” “Changing” is quiet and even pretty. This may be their best showing yet, but the way to experience Northern Liberties is live, where the crunching and munching of bone is right in your face.

(Doug Wallen) – Philadelphia Weekly