Philly Plain Dealer

This week’s Philly Plain Dealer Song of the Week is Rock and a Hard Place by Matt Deangelis. Deangelis is a multi-instrumentalist and a singer for The Loop Band, he performs throughout Philadelphia and has played at The Princeton in Avalon, Bottle and Cork in Dewey Beach DE, and Fager’s Island in Ocean City MD. 

We chose Rock and a Hard Place because it’s great car music, perfect for the weather warming up. If you simply heard this song on the radio or out at a bar, you would never guess that it’s from 2025. Matt Deangelis has created a throwback power-ballad reminiscent of Elton John with some dramatic electric guitar.

Deangelis’s most streamed song on Spotify is a cover of Kansas’s Dust in the Wind, which suits his voice incredibly well. Rock and a Hard Place is not trendy, it is not poppy or glamorous, but it is a great song with a timeless quality. The way Deangelis shouts “ROOOOOOOOOOooooooCK” makes you want to shout it the next time he shouts it. 

The original version of the song was released in January, but then in March Deangelis released a stripped-down, acoustic version of the song that has a similar feel to his Dust in the Wind cover. In the acoustic version, the lyrics come to the forefront of the track and Deangelis’s vocal range has more of a chance to shine. 

The sound and stylings of Deangelis’s music is not stereotypically “Philly” which is why we felt he deserved some shine, his sound is unexpected and familiar at the same time. Deangelis has roots in South Jersey and Philly, and his Instagram bio says “Diehard Philly for Life,” so he’s good people as far as we’re concerned.