This week in Philly music: ‘Asian American Pie,’ Sheer Mag, and the return to big concert season with Neil Young and Morgan Wallen
John Faye, Judah Kim, Moonroof, Alyssa Garcia, and Beau Frères will each serve up a piece of the musical pie. Also, Morgan Wallen and Neil Young play this weekend.
Back in the 1990s when John Faye led the Caulfields, the Delaware native was one of a precious few Asian American artists fronting a prominent major label rock band.
“If you want to use the word representation, there’s so much more of it now,” said Faye, who’s the author of the 2023 memoir The Yin and the Yang of It All — Rock ‘n’ Roll Memories from the Cusp as Told by a Mixed-up Mixed-Race Kid, which is credited to his full name, John Kim Faye.
“When I was given the chance in the broader spotlight in the ‘90s, it was real scarce. It was like me and Big Head Todd” — of the Colorado band Big Head Todd and the Monsters.
“If you look at the landscape now, and you see Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, and even those girls in [teenage punk band] the Linda Lindas, that’s been nothing but inspiring to me. I wanted to see a little more of it right around here. And I can only have an impact in my little community,” Faye said in an interview.
He taught songwriting at Drexel University from 2005 to 2021. His 2024 single “Sell Your Soul For An NFT,” from his forthcoming album The Long Game, is a smart, funny power pop take on the challenges of surviving in an ever changing music business.
Last fall, Faye, who lives in Jenkintown, had lunch with fellow Philly songwriter and front man Judah Kim. The pair came up with the idea for what they’re calling “Asian American Pie,” timed to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders Month.
Along with Faye and Kim, it features Kim’s brother Joseph Kim (who leads the band Beau Frères), Dave Kim of Moonroof (who is not related to Judah and Joseph), and Alyssa Garcia, a former student of Faye’s at Drexel who is a piano playing singer-songwriter.
The idea, said Faye, is to show that Asian American rock and roll “is as American as apple pie.”
“Judah and I were talking, and we thought that every May you see events for AANHPI Heritage Month that are like ‘Come on out, and we’ll do something really cultural that is real educational.’ And we want to normalize it that people who look like us can be doing fun rock music that people would come out to see and have a good time.
“I don’t want to make the idea that I’m an Asian American rock musician some kind of didactic exercise for people. I just want them to enjoy the music. I want it to be an accepted and normal place for somebody like me — or any of the artists on the bill who make very different music from me — to just exist. That’s really my personal view of it.”
Asian American Pie at The Lounge at World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St. at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $20. worldcafelive.com.
It’s a busy concert weekend. On Friday, Tina Halliday-fronted Philly hard rock heroes Sheer Mag come home to headline the First Unitarian Church in support of Playing Favorites, their debut on Third Man Records.
In Manayunk, super prolific Philly songwriter Dave Cope and his band the Sass headline Dawson Street Pub. Also that evening, Laufey, the Icelandic jazz singer and songwriter who broke big with last year’s Bewitched, plays the Met Philly.
Stadium concert season is already upon us. Country star Morgan Wallen — whose One Thing At A Time was the album most streamed in the U.S. in 2023, topping Taylor Swift — plays Citizens Bank Park on Saturday in a show rescheduled from last year.
On a smaller scale, Fishtown guitar hero Mike Polizze headlines Johnny Brenda’s on Saturday in support of last year’s fuzzed out Drag On Girard. It’s a three-band bill of acts on the Drag City label, including Axis: Sova and Full Size. Down the street at the Foundry at the Fillmore, Philly songwriter Julia Pratt — who paired with Mt. Joy last year on “A Little Love” is celebrating her new EP, Family Feud.
» READ MORE: Philly’s Coca Leaves & Pearls plays Neil Young’s music. But they’re not your average tribute band.
It’s also outdoor concert season in New Jersey. Neil Young & Crazy Horse make their first Philadelphia appearance in 12 years at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden. For all you fans of classic, late ‘60s early ‘70s Neil, the set lists so far on the Love Earth Tour have looked epic. Keep an eye out and see if you can spot guitarists Chris Forsyth and Nick Millevoi from the Neil Young tribute band, Coca Leaves & Pearls, in the crowd.
Also Sunday: East Los Angeles psychedelic band Chicano Batman is at Union Transfer with Colombian Canadian singer Lido Pimienta opening. Upper Darby’s Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Todd Rudgren is at the Keswick Theatre. And the group with one of the most inspiring names on the planet — The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die — plays Johnny Brenda’s.