Music
by James Heflin | Jul 28, 2015 | Arts, Music, News
Near the back door of Mark Herschler’s Northampton house and studio sits a group of boulders. “I think there might be Native American spirits in there,” Herschler says with a smile. “I think it’s helping with the recording.” Sitting inside, we can hear a commotion...
by Gary Carra | Jul 28, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
From “Knights In White Satin” to Pomeranians with problem foot pads: welcome to a day in the life of Russell Brooks. “I just opened my own dog grooming salon in Northampton,” the music scene stalwart explains, “and I’ve been busier than ever with my life and work. And...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jul 22, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Goodbye, Kool Thing Standing inches away from me moaning her iconic voice into the mic for soundcheck stood Kim Gordon. The longtime Northampton resident is bidding farewell to the Pioneer Valley, and she picked the perfect place to say goodbye. On top of the historic...
by Gary Carra | Jul 22, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Nightcrawler
In an industry in more upheaval than the Athens Stock Exchange, Rob “The Leprechaun” Allen’s aluminum anniversary at Lazer 99.3 FM would probably be more accurately accounted for utilizing dog-year calculations. The Crawler recently checked in with the veteran jock....
by Gary Carra | Jul 14, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
The Northampton Summer Concert Series kicks off its freebie Friday shows July 17. And while event producer Jamie Kent notes that he and his Collective Music Group are certainly looking to uphold the established tradition of offering fresh, new acts, he is quick to...
by James Heflin | Jul 14, 2015 | Arts, Music
Moonlapse Conscious (independent) When you hear the name Moonlapse, you may well figure this is an earthy-crunchy folk group. In fact, this New York City one-man project is cashing in on the spacier connotations of that name. Though the music that directly inspires...
by Amanda Drane | Jul 8, 2015 | Arts, Music, Uncategorized
Mikey Sweet The North King (Independent) Mikey Sweet may have grown up in the Valley, but his debut album, The North King, tells us he’s been places. Songs like “Driftwood” illicit images of a boy and his guitar and the road, and song titles like “Oklahoma Wind” show...
by Hunter
Styles | Jul 14, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, Music, News
How do a city’s business owners create a nightlife that is not only lively, but built to last? The short answer: by dreaming big. Running an entertainment venue takes daily stamina and quick thinking, of course. But it also requires a deeper, grander feeling to fuel...
by Gary Carra | Jul 8, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
You name it, The Reverend Tor Band is celebrating it this weekend — s seventh CD, a first DVD, and then there’s the 20-year milestone of cranking out some of the most consistent groove-oriented rock in the area. “It’s been an amazing journey, and I’m really happy...
by Amanda Drane | Jul 14, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
I just wanna dance. The itch comes in the form of a restlessness you’d think I could scratch with a good run, but I’ve tried and it doesn’t quite work. The need to dance comes from the soul as much as from the body. It’s like a primordial drive to shake and sway to...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 14, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
Julia Child said it best: people who love to eat are always the best people. That’s the springboard for our new occasional series @lunch, in which we sit down for a quick and candid midday meal with interesting locals, ready to chew the fat. For our inaugural lunch we...
by Gary Carra | Jun 30, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Others can light up the skies this Independence Day weekend. Big E Talent Buyer John Juliano says he’s hoping to light up the ticket purchase phone lines when he announces a “major country act” who will join his 2015 roster “on or around” July 4. In the meantime,...
by Jack Brown | Jul 8, 2015 | Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Music
Director Asif Kapadia’s 2010 documentary Senna managed to do what many might have considered impossible: it got the art-house crowd interested in the life of a race car driver. Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian driver at the heart of the story, lived to push the envelope —...
by Kristin Palpini | Jun 30, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Leisure, Music, News
Thank you to everyone who nominated a band for the 2015 Grand Band Slam. Below is a list of the top 25 vote-getters. The bands are a good mix of the Valley’s musical scene featuring rock, country, hip-hop, reggae, dub, heavy metal, folk, industrial, and “other.” The...
by James Heflin | Jun 30, 2015 | Arts, Music
Rebirth This World Of Ours (independent) Valley band Rebirth has one of the most unusual origin stories you’ll hear: the band formed a few years ago when its members lost a friend, activist Julius Ford. Bassist/guitarist/vocalist Cinamon Blair told the Advocate in...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 23, 2015 | Arts, Music
Of Monsters and Men Beneath the Skin (Republic Records) The anthemic pop rock Of Monsters and Men pounds out is destined for Coldplay-sized stadium crowds. The band’s songs lean on thundering drums, huge hooks, and wholehearted harmonies, and the formula has been...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 23, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News, Stage
Bernice Kwade lives in two worlds at the same time. “When I’m at home, it’s a totally different environment than when I go out,” she said. “My parents are trying to instill traditional African values in me, but we live in America now. I want to have a more liberal...
by Gary Carra | Jun 23, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
From country to crooners, Wilbraham’s free Fountain Park concert series springs nocturnal, offering all of this and more on Thursdays 6:30-8 p.m. Kicking things off June 25 are Margaritaville-inspired Buffett mimics Changes In Latitudes. Country rockers Whiskey &...
by Gary Carra | Jun 16, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler, Stage
Magician Criss Angel recently appeared at a special press conference at Connecticut’s Foxwoods casino to reveal his latest trick. “My goal is to redefine magic touring like Cirque du Soleil did for the circus,” Angel said of his upcoming Supernaturalist show, an...
by James Heflin | Jun 16, 2015 | Arts, Music
Haelos Earth Not Above (Matador) London trio Haelos often manages an unusual feat: the group takes the sterile sounds of electronic instruments and creates from them music that’s drenched with emotion. A couple of minutes into the EP Earth Not Above, there’s a...
by Amanda Drane | Jun 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
At the Waterfront Tavern in Holyoke, a rap battle between Hoodie Cruger, who is black, and Petey Mitch, who is white, turns racist. “I got rap sheets to rival my rap sheets,” spits Petey. “For your life, somewhere someway, had to pay two cents a day. That’s not what I...
by Gary Carra | Jun 10, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Nightcrawler
Noho’s And The Kids are more than allright. In fact, they’ve been called everything from “fearless and entertaining” to one of “Western Massachusetts’ indie scene’s brightest creative lights,” depending on whom you ask. The observations cited just happened to come...
by James Heflin | Jun 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Blogs, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Music, News, Nightcrawler
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by James Heflin | Jun 2, 2015 | Arts, Music
Sasha Siem Most of the Boys (Blue Plum) Somewhere or other, there’s a line of demarcation between “singer/songwriter” and “composer.” London-based Sasha Siem may be a crafter of unusual pop, but she nonetheless seems to have crossed into composer territory, winning a...
by James Heflin | Jun 2, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Leisure, Music, Stage
Summertime, and the livin’ is greatly enhanced by a calendar ripe with performances. In a Valley that comes alive with music, theater, and every other incarnation of the arts, it can be tough to know where to turn. We’ve compiled a short list of highlights from the...
by Kristin Palpini | Jun 2, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, Music
Like anyone who loves going to music festivals, I cannot tell you how many I’ve attended: 50, 75, 10 — After a while they all run together into a single hot, soggy time dancing under open skies marked by torrential downpours, mind-blowing sets, and epic antics. Make...
by Gary Carra | Jun 2, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Two celebrations of area agriculture and audio sprout up on the local landscape this week. The first, Watermelon Wednesdays in Whately (watermelonwednesdays.com), began its 16th season May 28 with singer/songwriters Pat Alger, Jim Rooney, and Chris Brashear....
by James Heflin | May 27, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Early 20th-century Modernist literature, at its worst, is uninviting and impenetrable. Take the work of Ezra Pound — at one extreme is his beautiful and accessible imagist poem “In A Station of the Metro”: The apparition of these faces in the crowd; petals on a wet,...
by Gary Carra | May 27, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Nightcrawler
We knew that the powers that be were reverting back to the old name. Then we found out that they were getting a new logo. In fact, until recently, the only thing we didn’t know about Springfield’s Cityblock-turned-Bike Nite-back-to-Cityblock was who would be gracing...
by Jack Brown | May 27, 2015 | Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Music
Jazz and film have a great history together. In the early days, jazz was a boon to the young film industry, providing a seemingly endless collection of tunes for hit musicals. Indeed, in those days a great soundtrack was not merely something to sing; in many cases the...
by James Heflin | May 12, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Between the Lines, Blogs, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Music, News, Nightcrawler
Back in the final year of the 1900s, I stood, guitar in hand, on the steps of Northampton’s old courthouse at the main intersection. The occasion was the (then new) Valley Advocate Grand Band Slam. My bandmates and I had won top honors in the...
by James Heflin | May 12, 2015 | Arts, Blogs, Music, News
Usually, it’s a happy occasion that puts a band in the paper. This week, it’s tragic news. As you may have heard, The Alchemystics recently lost two of their circle. Drummer Demse Zullo and his longtime friend Brian White were killed when the van they were travelling...
by Gary Carra | May 12, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
After the band’s successful East Coast mini-tour, Colorway’s May 14 Iron Horse engagement certainly has all the hallmarks of a homecoming show. It’s also a CD release party, celebrating the band’s recently completed sophomore studio effort, The Black Sky Sequined....
by Hunter Styles | May 12, 2015 | Arts, Music, Uncategorized
My Morning Jacket The Waterfall (ATO Records) The sunny and spirited seventh record from My Morning Jacket is the closest thing the band has ever recorded to a summer road album. The Waterfall is a bright distillation of some of the group’s signature trappings, and it...
by James Heflin | May 6, 2015 | Arts, Music
by James Heflin | May 20, 2015 | Arts, Music
The Replacements The Complete Studio Albums 1981-1990 (Rhino) The ’80s dealt some major blows to rock ’n’ roll. Not only did the synth gain a measure of ascendancy in a genre that had, ’til then, been primarily about the ragged tones of the electric guitar, something...
by Kristin Palpini | May 6, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Music, News, Scene Here, Stage
It’s the final performance of the 2015 Springfield Symphony Orchestra season and the 71-year-old group has put together a timely show, The Rite of Spring with Spencer Myer on piano. Buses for retired living communities line the street outside. Inside Symphony Hall,...
by Gary Carra | May 20, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Last year, local musician/promoter Thomas Kielbania Jr. believed there was enough interest to resurrect the fabled “Kielbasa Fest” in his hometown of Chicopee after it lay dormant for nearly two decades. Gate totals of nearly 20,000 meat-seekers at the city’s Szot...
by Gary Carra | May 6, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Nightcrawler
Just when you thought it was safe to put your wallet away, out trots another apple product. But with more than two dozen bands cranking out more than 32 hours of music Aug. 21-23, Gary Phelps’ Apple Jam Roots Music Festival is a relative bargain, with three-day...
by Amanda Drane | May 12, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
Max Shea had been a part of UMass Amherst radio station WMUA 91.1 starting in 1993 — when he was an undergraduate student at UMass — until April 21, when he was escorted from campus by UMass police, banned from returning, and his beloved show, Martian Gardens, was...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 28, 2015 | Arts, Music
Jack Simons The Ballad of John Simons Todd Rundgren, Prince, Stevie Wonder, R. Stevie Moore, Adam Elk of the Mommyheads in his “Swiss Army Knife” phase, Ray Mason in his ’80s, homespun days, XTC’s Andy Partridge out in his demo-writing shed — they’re all one-stop pop...
by Gary Carra | Apr 28, 2015 | Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Normally, when looking to tinker with the formula on a time-tested venture, feasibility studies are conducted. Will the target population support the change? Do current trends indicate the potential for growth? In the case of the 29th annual Green River Festival and...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 21, 2015 | Arts, Music
April Verch The Newpart (Slab Town) The title track of April Verch’s new album refers to the family room her parents added in the 1970s, where she learned and honed her fiddle, step dance, and vocal skills. It and “Belle Election” are rooted in the Ontario countryside...
by Gary Carra | Apr 21, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Living By The Stars, Music, Nightcrawler
In its earliest form back in Ireland and Scotland circa the 15th century, the distilled spirit we now call whiskey was commonly referred to as “aqua vitae.” Curiously, the word “vitae” means “blameless in life; innocent.” But as history has well chronicled, aqua vitae...
by Gary Carra | Apr 14, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
There’s certainly nobody waiting in line any given Tuesday to grab the latest CD from their favorite group at the local record store. Heck, there are barely any local record stores left. (Except for in the Valley, it seems.) The exit of record stores has seen the...
by Gary Carra | Apr 8, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Leisure, Music, Nightcrawler
Perhaps it’s only appropriate — given the state of area roadways after this relentless winter — that the new Robin Lane documentary will be screened at Pothole Pictures this weekend. Certainly makes sense that it’s occurring in Shelburne Fall, as the subject of said...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 1, 2015 | Arts, Music
Rani Arbo & Daisy Mayhem Violets are Blue (Signature Sounds) Rani Arbo’s gorgeous “Sweet and Bitter” is a heartbreakingly lovely composition about love tinged with uncertainty. It’s the final track of daisy mayhem’s new album, Violets are Blue, but it could serve...
by Gary Carra | Apr 1, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Fans looking to wet their beaks on new Crowrider material may want to venture out to one of the many live engagements the band has lined up for the coming months. Guitarist Dino Bambino reports that they are laying down tracks for a forthcoming disc and the chemistry...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 24, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, Music, News
It’s mid-morning at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction. Eight inmates are gathered around an electric keyboard in the visiting room, laughing and talking quietly. Keyboard player Ken Maiuri hits middle C, and together they warm up with some scales. Up...
by Gary Carra | Mar 24, 2015 | Arts, Blogs, Columns, Leisure, Music, Nightcrawler
She’s seen fire. She’s seen (freezing) rain. But Kristy Librera Chapman remains undaunted in her quest to aid her family and her community. A cousin to one of the families affected by a tragic Christmas Eve fire in Southwick, Chapman says that she knew she needed to...
by James Heflin | Mar 18, 2015 | Arts, Music
Bill Fay Who Is The Sender? (Dead Oceans) It’s hard to imagine a quiet explosion, but that’s the only fitting description of the tune “Underneath the Sun,” from English pianist/songwriter Bill Fay’s new album Who Is The Sender? The song drifts along, but it drifts in...
by Gary Carra | Mar 18, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
He’s been a bona fide member of King Crimson’s court for more than three decades. Prior to securing his status as a veritable prog-rock deity, Brookline’s Tony Levin was trading licks with the likes of Chuck Mangione and Buddy Rich. Now 68, Levin is revisiting his...
by Kristin Palpini | Mar 10, 2015 | Music
Liz Longley Liz Longley (Sugar Hill) Liz Longley came out of Boston’s Berklee College of Music a few years back, and immediately began drawing comparisons to Shawn Colvin, Natalie Cole, and Nanci Griffith. She doesn’t really sound like any of them, and that will be...
by Gary Carra | Mar 10, 2015 | Music, Nightcrawler
They recently retooled their lineup, and they are juggling live shows with the recording of their highly anticipated sophomore studio effort. Despite such distractions, guitarist Tom Hamel maintains that Odds of Eden are always a safe bet when it comes to delivering...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 3, 2015 | Arts, Music
The Juliana Hatfield Three Whatever, My Love (American Laundromat) Two decades after the first Juliana Hatfield Three record, Hatfield, drummer Todd Philips and bassist Dean Fisher have reunited to make a sophomore release. By her own admission, Hatfield hasn’t tried...
by Gary Carra | Mar 3, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music
There’s an old line about the issue label types often dub the “sophomore jinx.” And that is, “You have your whole lifetime to write your first album, a matter of months for the follow up.” One need only pick up Dead Ringer, the successor to Meatloaf’s epic Bat Out Of...
by Gary Carra | Feb 25, 2015 | Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Nancy Sinatra’s boots may have been made for walkin’, but the way Ludlow Firefighter Dan McKenney sees it, his Rock The Boot Winter Jam — slated for Feb. 28 in the town’s Gremio Lusitano Club — will serve two decidedly different purposes. For starters, music fans...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 25, 2015 | Arts, Music
Bob Dylan and The Band The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Complete Basement Tapes (Columbia/Legacy) It’s about time. Ever since Columbia launched this series over 20 years ago, the release of Bob Dylan’s most famous bootleg has been eagerly anticipated. A 24-song...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 25, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, Music, Stage
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by James Heflin | Feb 18, 2015 | Arts, Music
Brothers Born Knife Wounds (Nine Mile) Brothers Born is the new, Easthampton-based project of Joel Stroetzel of Killswitch Engage and Michael Wyzik, who’s been part of Red Door Exchange and Storm The Ohio. It’s worth noting up front that Brothers Born sounds pretty...
