For everyone out there who’s going to be in the Philly area this weekend, go and check out the Kia Soul Collective. It’s a free three-day music festival that will feature a number of great acts, including Popo, Amanda Blank, The Drums, Francis and the Lights, and MGMT. When was the last time you went to a free music festival that actually had a decent lineup? There will also be a number of DJs there including Paul Devro, Sammy Slice, DJ Sega, Nick The V, Dirty Joe South, and Dave P.

The festival will be held over near center city at the 23rd Street Armory. Oh, and don’t worry if you’re in Boston and can’t make it, because the festival is making its way up here in a few weeks. I’ll keep you posted on that once they finalize the lineup.

Just stumbled across this creative piece not too long ago. Conceptual artist Brian Rushton Phillips has made public a sequel to his recent series “The Conceptual Representation of Extortion in the Mind of Someone Canadian” ‹which is a comment upon Canada’s federal and Ontario provincial governments’ US$9.5 billion bailout package for General Motors Corp.

Entitled “The Conceptual Representation of Extortion in the Mind of One of 16,865,766 Canadians”, Brian Rushton Phillips’ project juxtaposes 96 of his personal checks with the GM brand and Rich Uncle Pennybags, a familiar metaphor for capitalist failure. Like Phillips’ previous work, the prevailing outcome is a satirical reminder to taxpayers and citizens of their corporate victimization.

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[caption id=”attachment_2416” align=”aligncenter” width=”565” caption=”The UK's Friendly Fires”][/caption]

In keeping with the Phoenix theme of late, I figured that I’d throw up this hot new remix of them by Friendly Fires, a British indie/electro-pop group. The song is “Fences,” which is the third track on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

With all the cowbell, snare drum, and piano in the beginning of the remix, for a second I thought I was listening to an early 90’s rap song— something like Boyz II Men’s “Motown Philly” or even Bell Biv Devoe’s “Poison.” Alright, on second thought maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. (I forgot how awesome of a song “Poison” is — I’m totally gonna blast it at the next dance party I go to.) But seriously, take a listen to Friendly Fires’ killer rendition of “Fences” and let us know what you think.

[audio:Phoenix - Fences (Friendly Fires Remix).mp3]

DOWNLOAD: Phoenix - Fences (Friendly Fires Remix)

Last night, French alt rock band Phoenix made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and performed their hit song “1901.” I was glad they finally stopped by The Tonight Show to play for Conan and Andy, because lately it seems like they’ve been popping up everywhere else.

Earlier in the summer, the group was seen touting Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix on shows like Late Night with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and even Saturday Night Live. And just the other day I saw that they’ve been featured in a Cadillac commercial. Have they sold out? Maybe. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that “1901” is an awesome song. Besides, if Santogold (aka Santigold) can be featured in a crappy light beer commercial and still retain her credibility, then Phoenix has nothing to worry about.

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Brooklyn-based indie rock foursome Grizzly Bear just released their latest music video for their song “While You Wait for the Others.” The video was directed by Sean Pecknold, perhaps best known for creating Fleet Foxes’ “White Winter Hymnal” music video. Fun fact: his brother is the bushy-bearded Robin Pecknold, frontman of Fleet Foxes.

Sean Pecknold’s filming style is definitely one of the more distinct ones out there, since he makes heavy use of stop motion and overall weirdness (Is that even a valid technique?). I mean, in this video alone there is a masked fencer interacting with alarm clocks, parakeets, bunnies, elephants, kickballs, fake dogs, and creepy-looking naked dolls. Let’s not even get into the clay-mation, nightmare-inducing video for “White Winter Hymnal.”

Anyway, watch Grizzly Bear’s music video and let us know what you think.

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