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There aren't many 90-degree days in Indiana, so the question is fair:  What the heck is creating all that heat in the Hoosier state?

The six guys in Philpot-keyboard player A.J. Boone, drummer Arthur Ready, bassist Tyler Evans, lead guitarist Caleb Smith, rhythm guitarist Josh Kennedy,  and lead singer Kentz Ward-would probably say that they were running the Fahrenheit up the flagpole, so for amateur scientists looking for new ways to fry an egg, well, here's your chance to whip up an omelet on the face of a couple of big honking amps and experience firsthand the next big musical thing, a thing which gets lots of nourishment and tender loving care inside the confines of a flower shop, in this case the one in which Ward works.

Which makes perfect sense when you coddle this analogy: Flowers, when nurtured with caring hands and just the right amount of plant food and light, grow into healthy specimens whose very presence injects a sense of life in everything they come in contact with. Ditto Philpot, whose name comes from  an orange shirt Ward's grandmother picked up at a Democratic convention in Hammond, Indiana; the word "philpot" was emblazoned on the shirt in big, bold, blue letters.

The word "philpot" has no meaning, per se, but a quick Google search will net a plurality of hits leading to sites about various people with the last name Philpot, and the Lyme Regis Philpot Museum in Lyme, England, which might be worth a trip someday, but not when there's so much work to do in the here and now, spreading the word about Philpot the band, formed in the rocking year of 2000.

In a flower shop disguised as a musical laboratory, situated in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it Indianapolis suburb of Dugger (around 1,000 residents strong),  Ward toils by day among the blossoms and, by night, is joined by his five compatriots who grow their, by turns, rocking, bluesy, and emotive music from germinating ideas to full-fledged songs which they then offer proudly to the masses. In other words, they rehearse in the flower shop, a really rock 'n' roll thing to do.

With buzz for Philpot being generated in the primordial New York City club scene, on the much-vaunted garageband.com (where the band is highly rated), and at its electrifying shows, it is only a matter of time before the band breaks big, which, really, is the point of all of this, and is their destiny.

Philpot's songs, all passionately sung and played, from the jaunty rocker "Drips" and the reggae-fied undercurrent of the bluesy "Every Monday," which has a lyrical keyboard at its core; to the noisy, feedback-bolstered Nirvana-meets-Oasis workout of "Shuffle" and the anthemic ballad-and-thrasher-in-equal-measures honesty of "So Blue," hit squarely in the sweet spot, meaning they meet their targets head on with passion and moxie to spare.

Sounding like a cross between Liam Gallagher and Kurt Cobain, Ward invests his soul and makes every note of these songs count. Smith's lead guitar works in tandem with Kennedy's rhythm patterns to give the songs shape and a space in which to breathe. Boone's keyboards instill a sense of ambiance, and Ready and Evans provide the propulsive beat. This one-of-a-kind combination, now playing in venues around the world including England, Australia and New Zealand, as well as here in the States, is now onto its second album, recorded at Hempstead, New York's Music Palace.

The safety of the world firmly in mind, Philpot has hooked up with the Social Groove Collective, a coming-together of community-minded music folks and business types (both for- and not-for-profit), to be a part of their Tsunami relief efforts, and the Social Groove tour. Philpot has opened for none other than Days of the New after meeting that band at a church benefit, a rite of passage which rightly sits right with Ward and his mates.

These are indeed the days of the new, the days of the new sounds, and from that little flower shop in Dugger, Indiana comes one such group of sounds, written and played by six musicianly types, brought together through a combination of circumstances (including the raiding of a couple of rival bands), and they are going to conquer the world, or at least their part of it, and that, friends, is the thing, the one and only thing that matters.  

~Alan Haber
  WEBR, Fairfax, Virginia