Suit Supply Has Arrived In Rittenhouse, Philly Dandies Have A New Headquarters

Suit Supply just landed in Philadelphia on the corner of Locust and 16th, and dandies with a healthy income should be totally pumped. The Amsterdam-born brand is now 13 years old with 44 locations internationally, but only five in the U. S. of A: Atlanta, Chicago, D.C., SoHo and now Philly. At the grand opening, dandies were everywhere. SuitSupply (they like to play with capitalization and title spacing) definitely skews preppy and/or Ivy League. They encourage suiting mixed with casual wear and sell everything from wingtips and desert boots to tuxedoes and weekend bags. They definitely want dudes to walk in and be able to walk out with an entire outfit (not sure about underwear, though) and at a modest to high-end pricing scale. The store manager I spoke to explained that his whole outfit costs about $700. And the handsome staff should hopefully style and size you right.

Adding significantly to the menswear shopping situation in Center City, SuitSupply will provide a lot of style to our city’s fairly grim (for dudes, at least) fashion sense. With the departure of Club Monaco’s men’s section, we don’t have a lot of places to pick up some high-end product that can be worn for years and in a ton of different situations. We’ve got Barney’s, naturally, and that’s great and all, but you’re probably looking at a much steeper price tag on a designer suit. And while we’d love to be able to afford a Philip Lim or Theory suit, it’ll probably be a little bit of a moment in time; a suit you’ll take out in 10 years and think I can’t wear this anymore. While we’ve got a nice handful of boutiques and shops that nail casual and stylish staples (like Ps & Qs and Sugarcube), SuitSupply’s a great international brand for a little more luxe. And until we get a rumored Uniglo, the more international fashion we can get in Center City, the better.

The two-floor story also prominently features an on-site tailor. There’s a fee associated with each specific service, but, depending on volume and timing, they want you to get your suit tailored while you shop. That being said, the silhouette of the SuitSupply man is slim. The fit of these clothes is a modern, fairly skinny cut — not so sure how the big boys’ll do in this store. The suit room, downstairs, is wild, and blazers line the wall, with sizing from 30s to 50s. But beyond Macy’s and heading out to King of Prussia, men have a great new option for event suiting. Meaning, you need an interview suit? A wedding or graduation suit? You can start your search with $500 in Center City and probably find a great, quality, well-constructed suit that’ll cover you—maybe for the rest of your life.

Crush Balls In Cages Soon: Everybody Hits Philadelphia’s Opening Any Day Now

Exciting things are happening in this weird little pocket of Northern Liberties that, three years ago, I would have never imagined possible. At 529 W Girard Avenue, David Gavigan’s opening up a really cool new business called Everybody Hits – a humble batting cages enterprise for folks to go get some softball and baseball in their lives, all year round. We’re not breaking any stories here; Gavigan’s gotten love from Naked Philly, Hidden City and Philebrity, getting our mouths watering for the grand opening. And he’s so so close to opening up his doors for the greater good of Philadelphia. He’s just waiting on the city. It make take a few more minutes.

There’s nothing quite like getting in that batter’s box, making contact and sending that fat golf ball flying. Yeah, there’s everything from slow pitch softball to 75 mph baseball. And even if you don’t play on a slow pitch softball team, you might want to start here and get some good contact goin’. Even when it’s meatballed to you, it takes a few pitches to get your eyes and your arms talkin’. If you’ve been waiting for this convenience to come closer to Philly, and plenty are waiting impatient because the closest cages to Center City are a solid 15-minute DRIVE, get pumped. Forget tryin’ to public transit it out there. Now loads of Philadelphians can walk, bus, and bike to some indoor athletic leisure times.

Alright, some nitty gritty: food and drink, hours, prices and rates. Food’s going to be on the minimum but he’s got a handful of picnic tables and the concession’ll keep it to dry goods and soft drinks; pretzels, gum, popcorny stuff and non-alcoholic beverages. Of course, if and when you rent out the place, you can do whatever you want as long as you act like an adult human being. One round of 16 pitches is $2.25; 5 rounds is $10; a 30-minute rental in one cage is $35 and an hour’s $60; an hour of all three cages, and essentially the whole place, is $125. On weekdays, he’ll open doors from 3p-8p with longer hours on the weekend, opening at noon with lights out at 8p. However, being on a team himself, Gavigan’s looking forward to working with teams all over the area, extending hours for facility rentouts earlier and later than hours – get a team together and you can rent any weekday from 9a-noon and on the weekends from 8-10p. Schedule four hours and you get an hour for free.

But you know what? The sky’s the limit with this space. Wanna throw a big ole’ baseball party? Rent it out, get a keg, order a dozen pizza pies, screen some Phillies and don’t get hit by a pitching machine (helmets required for everything faster than slow pitch softball hitting). I’d go to that party. Think about all the cute dates you can go on here, or birthday parties you can have for your kid. The space is all ages, so during business hours, if the space isn’t rented, you can expect family friendliness all the way. Can’t wait to start crushing balls here all summer and hitting up the area attractions that aren’t far, either: Borderline Records, the impending Third Ward, shoot, maybe we’ll work up a sweat and go for a swim at the pool on 321 Fairmount and get a beer at North Third. Gavigan’s single-handedly making Summer 2013 a little more awesome.

Let’s Talk About Major Lazer

Once upon a time, I fell in love with Major Lazer and, by default, Diplo. But that feels like AGES ago. I had only been in Philadelphia for about six months when I moved to Northern Liberties, to Wildey Street just west of Front Street. The night before I moved in, I walked around with my new roommate and we strolled through a newly-finished Ghost Town that was the nascent Piazza at the time. There was not yet a Swift Half, a Fabric Horse, a PYT or any of the other businesses that rushed in. But what DID hit me like a ton of bricks that summer, was “Pon de Floor.” I vividly remember bringing Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do down to our DVD player, our default CD player in the house, and spinning it for my roommate’s girlfriend and proclaiming (admittedly, with a beer buzz on) “This is going to be the song of the summer!” I twerked and twerked and twerked.

Turns out, I was pretty much right. That record, perhaps not coincidentally carrying the momentum built by the stunning success of a local-gone-to-Brooklyn’s debut, Santogold, became a massive success. “Hold the Line,” a collab with her and Mr. Lexx, was technically the first single. But Guns was full of sleeper classics: “Bruk Out” is a humble but bangin’ dark gem of a story about a stripper love affair, “When You Hear the Bassline” boldly introduces the album’s tones of the Caribbean and herb, “Mary Jane” employs killer snares and goofball good times for an irresistably high-enducing hit, and “Keep It Goin’ Louder” satisfies that nightclubbing, fist-pumping dancefloor banger you didn’t even realize the record needed.

Today, you can give a listen to the highly-anticipated and highly-awaited sophomore. However, things are different. First of all, the two primary co-conspirators that Diplo had in his charge for Guns are gone: Swith and Skerrit Bwoy have left (for creative and religious reasons). The 5.7 Pitchfork review that landed today isn’t terribly kind and yet sees hope in the highs and credits the lows with missteps in judgement. In are “Trinidad-born Jillionaire and Black Chiney’s Miami-via-Jamaica sound system member Walshy Fire,” plus a bazillion guests. See, the guests on the debut were just much more of a thing you had to hunt for in the liner notes. And they were way more obscure. These guests on Free the Universe, save for a few tracks, seem to be why we’re supposed to buy the record. But some of em’ just don’t work.

It’s pretty easy to get into the tracks we’ve already heard that feature big indie names: Amber from Dirty Projectors on the super-chill and vacation-y “Get Free,” and Ezra Koenig on the romantic “Jessica.” Meanwhile, there are a few downright near-catastrophes: the Peaches and Timberlee joint, “Scare Me,” could be so much better (love for Peaches but she doesn’t belong here), Shaggy and Wynter Gordon sounds like it could be a cool combo, but “Keep Cool” is not a success story, and neither is the garbage that was conjured up when they invited Wyclef Jean into the brotherhood of dancehall cool with the atrocious “Reach for the Stars.” And then there’s that obvious trend-grabbing on the dubsteppy and house-friendly “Jet Blue Jet,” which seems practically built to be remixed but not to stand on its own as an original track. Flux Pavillion’s moment, “Jah No Partial,” cashes in on the Skrillex craze, too; brutal ear pollution skronkshit. However, my clear favorite is the bizarre team-up of Bruno Mars, Tyga and Mystic on the immediately smile-creating “Bubble Butt.”

There isn’t a single song like “Pon de Floor,” the way it jumps out of speakers and heaphones and screams ‘You’ll never get tired of me!’ Diplo’s elevated status, due to the unbelievable success of Guns, may have allowed him to reach into his wallet and shell out for some big names, but he wasn’t able to capitalize on the underground infectiousness and energy that bursts forth from the collective’s debut effort. It actually seems to stand as a landmark for the Philadelphia producer’s climb to international acclaim. But this new one doesn’t do him any favors (or half of the guests at his employ). But I will twerk to “Bubble Butt” at the club if it comes on. Yes I will.

What’s Wrong With You, Stacey Dash?

You may’ve heard about Jay-Z and Beyonce’s fifth wedding anniversary trip to Cuba and the ensuing mini-scandal brought on by two Republicans calling for an investigation into the legality of the trip. We know that tourism and traveling to the Communist island’s restricted for Americans, but why The First Couple of Hip-Hop are being questioned for their sponsored and planned-out trip is pretty weird. Then, this morning, on SoundCloud, Jay-Z unleased a friggen’ nasty response called “Open Letter” and It. Is. Sick.

And maybe it was Stacey Dash’s dumbass tweet that sent Jay over the edge (probably not). But Dash’s used her Twitter to express lame views in the past, including a Mitt Romney endorsement and other inane conservative tidbits in 140 characters or less (often with less-than-savory grammatical attention to detail, one of the many dangerous pitfalls of trying to communicate something serious via Tweets).

Here’s what she tweeted:

Here are some of they lyrics from Hova’s venomous track addressing many different kinds of haters:

“Politicians never did shit for me/ Except lie to me, distort history/ They wanna give me jail time and a fine– Fine, let me commit a real crime/ Obama said, ‘Chill, you’re going to get me impeached’/ You don’t need this shit anyway, chill with me on the beach,” and “I woulda moved the Nets to Brooklyn for free/ Except I made millions off you fucking dweebs/ I still own the building, I’m keeping my seats/ You buy that bullshit, you better keep your receipts.”

The Swizz Beats and Timbaland-produced track is pretty much straight-up fire. And the fact that it seems like he whipped it up in a matter of days is an even more impressive feat. Let’s hope it slays a thousands-strong crowd in Philly this summer with it if he decides to get on the mic at his Made In America festival on the Parkway.

The 2013 Made In America Lineup Is Being Announced This Afternoon Via Spotify And, Well, It’s Not Bad

Sweet baby Jesus, Nine Inch Nails. Beyonce. Kendrick. Phoenix. BEYONCE. Wait, Public Enemy!?!

We knew the lineup was being unveiled today, but didn’t realize that it was painfully slowly via a Spotify playlist. Interesting technique, Jay. Not mad. By tomorrow, I’m sure all the deets will be solidified.

Wanna get mad? Read Dan McQuade’s PhillyMag blog post entitled “The Made in America Festival Is Going to Be Lame Again: It’s a Big Corporate Music Fest, but it doesn’t have to feel that way. Here’s how to make it fun for Philadelphians.” It’s one really maddening piece of. Something.

Nine Inch Nails
Solange
The Gaslight Anthem
Emeli Sande
Schoolboy Q (and maybe A$AP Rocky)*
Walk the Moon
Jesse Rose
Kendrick Lamar (and maybe Drake)
Fitz and the Tantrums
Wolfgang Gartner
AlunaGeorge
Haim
Wiz Khalifa
Nero
Ab Soul
Feed Me
GTA
3Lau
Imagine Dragons
Calvin Harris
Rudimental
Redlight
Phoenix
Skrillex
2 Chainz
Miguel
Macklemore
TJR
Queens of the Stone Age
Public Enemy
DeadMau5
Beyonce

The Exciting Record Releases Of April

Hey friends. Today’s a good day for Spotifying. I’m currently checking out the new Tyga, Hotel California (look at that ridiculous album cover), which is equal parts hilarious and funky. After the doldrums of winter, where maybe two or three notable records come out on a Tuesday, here we are on an 80+ degree day with a slew of new records to blast with open windows from home systems, car stereos and in your earbuds. Here are a handful of titles we’re particularly pumped about:

TODAY, Tuesday, April 9th

- Villagers‘ have a lovely and pretty new one with {Awayland} that you can see reviewed in On The Record tomorrow morning.
- The new Knife record’s a real mindfuck. Seriously, I love them but Shaking the Habitual is an almost challenging listen.
- Local hero Kurt Vile’s is a little weirder than we thought it’d be, and that’s a good thing; Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze will get many spins.
- James Blake’s much-anticipated follow-up, Overgrown, isn’t as immediately hooky as his debut. But RZA is on a track.
- Brighton’s British Sea Power deliver on their sixth, Machineries of Joy, via Rough Trade and they nail very direct and straight-up classic rock-inspired indie rock.
- Paramore’s fourth, a self-titled affair, is supposed to be way better than you’d imagine.

Tuesday, April 16th

- Charlie XCX’s got some fab new pop comin’ with True Romance.
- Let’s see how horrible Fall Out Boy’s new one, Save Rock And Roll, is.
- Ooh, Ghostface Killah’s got a new collaboration with Adrian Younge comin’ called Twelve Reasons To Die.
- Iron & Wine’s new one’s up on NPR called Ghost On Ghost and it’s grand.
- A new Flaming Lips is due called The Terror, also streaming on NPR.
- Betchya this new Thermals, Desperate Ground, isn’t going to be as awesome as The Body, The Blood, The Machine.
- This new Yeah Yeah Yeahs record, Mosquito, is probably going to be friggen’ rad.

Tuesday, April 23rd

- YES! New Junip and it’s called Junip.
- Totally weed-headed Kid Cudi’s got one called Indicud. Get it?
- Finally a new Phoenix! S’called Bankrupt! but they’re not at all.
- Slava’s Raw Solutions will be heady dancefloor house.
- Yup, Will.i.am’s new record title has a hashtag – #willpower.
- Bet that new Young Galaxy, Ultramarine, will be worth a few spins.

Tuesday, April 30th

!!! [Chk Chk Chk] – Thr!!!er
Akron/Family – Sub Verses
Guided By Voices – English Little League
HIM – Tears on Tape
LL Cool J – Authentic
Os Mutantes – Fool Metal Jack

Announcement: Made In America Is Coming Back To Philadelphia

Yup, let’s brace ourselves for another Jay-Z and Budweiser moment on the Parkway Labor Day weekend. August 31st and September 1st will see the city swell and sweat. More news and more details are slated to be relased on Wednesday, and we’ll check back in with you on those deets. Remember all those blog posts I did about the festival last summer and wrote that cover story? Good times. For now, check out this slick trailer of footage from last summer’s festival: