By Helen Chen Photos by Jeeyoon Kim The moment I saw the sleek, sale black and minimalist flyer for the James Blake and Nosaj Thing tour, I told my roommate that we just had to go. I was amped to be spending a night in the swirling splendor of such chill and beautiful musicians, with […]
By Joe Sansone Photos by Christine Varriale While the nature of experimental music is supposed to free musicians from a defined genre, ed it often comes with its own limitations and pretensions. How often have you had to sit through a basement show watching someone loop themselves make animal noises while banging on a Casio […]
Since playing Boston Calling just a few months ago, Boston natives You Won’t have been steadily touring the US in their old Subaru, or at least that’s what they told the crowd at T.T. the Bear’s Place on Friday night.
I feel like folk shows are getting the short end of the stick. It takes an extra push to convince my friends that they really can be fun and worthwhile because in their minds these shows are exclusively comprised of dads and their banjos. Of course, it certainly didn’t used to be that way–think Woodstock of the Last Waltz. Somewhere along the line, it seems there’s was a paradigmatic role reversal and gradually, nobody thought folk music was cool or exciting anymore. But anyone at the Sinclair on Friday night can say with conviction that those dupes are missing out.
Chloe Gomez gives the low down on funk punkers King Khan and the Shrines at Brighton Music Hall in Boston October 29th.
By Joe Sansone Psychedelic rock reigned supreme at the Middle East Upstairs on Tuesday. Upon entering the club, order I could hear drone music blasting through the speakers. Vivid colored patterns shooting through an overhead projector onto the stage previewed what was in store for the night. While some familiar Boston based bands were here to […]
By Mark Zurlo Back when I was growing up, shop bands that sound similar to Fitz and The Tantrums were on the radio all the time. In fact, you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing the classic Motown sounds of the Supremes, the Temptations, the Four Tops, or the Commodores. No, I didn’t grow up in […]
One might think, as I had, that a review of Justin Townes Earle would write itself. Because he’s a guy who is a reincarnation of two of the greatest ever—Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt. Because he is a young, volatile and talented musician with such a turbulent past that you’d need your toes in counting his rehab visits (13, so three toes). And anybody who knows anything about JTE certainly knows this because he’s never been one to conceal his history; if he’s not explicitly telling you on the stage or in an interview, he’s telling you in his lyrics.
Fiona Apple’s extended absence from the public eye between 2005’s Extraordinary Machine and last year’s The Idler Wheel… was nothing out of the ordinary for the beloved singer-songwriter. Her career, which now spans nearly two decades, has produced just four studio albums; a leisurely working pace to say the least…
I’ve heard many a tale about Kevin Barnes, of Montreal’s enigmatic front man… that once, he performed nude on a horse in Brooklyn.