When David Horton featured The Miners on his blog, Popa’s Tunes, he needed only to say two words to grab my attention: alt-country and Philadelphia.
As A&T favorites The Sparklers and The Tressels have shown, there’s something in the mighty Schuylkill that breeds gritty, lived-in alt-country bar bands. In reality, it’s not the water. It’s the subliminal messages flashed from the PECO building’s LED display. This hypothesis is based on Science.
The Miners continue to prove my theory correct. The Miners’ Rebellion is a stunning EP. Together, the songs tell that familiar American story, the one that began as soon as Columbus’s boots hit the dirt: exploitation, redemption, nostalgia for a past that may not have existed. Taken separately, they’re six extraordinarily hard-hitting songs packet with lyrical genius.
Philly, get your asses out to see these gents. Gents, get your butts over to NYC soon. We may not have the PECO building’s mystique or Wawa, but at least we’ll let you buy beer and food in the same establishment. But if Philly keeps pumping out bands like The Miners, that’s really the only thing NYC will have on the City of Brotherly Love.
You will see this album again at the end of the year.
The Miners — Official, Facebook, Bandcamp
(PS — Unrelated note: click the image to the right to check out Couch by Couchwest, the indie music festival for the rest of us!)