Music
by Pete Redington | Jan 1, 2015 | Music
Eight Track (Strikezone Records) In 1975, guitarist Dave Stryker writes in the liner notes to his recent release Eight Track, he had a 1969 GMC van outfitted with an eight-track player that often required the assistance of a jammed-in matchbook to work. But...
by Rob Weir | Jan 1, 2015 | Music
Rivers Roads & Bridges (independent) Country music long ago jettisoned the Western swing half of its moniker and it has pretty much left its rural roots as well. These days, much of it is really just middle-of-the-road rock and roll fronted by dudes and...
by Gary Carra | Dec 24, 2014 | Blogs, Music, Nightcrawler
How do you start an interview with a 59-year-old actor who is coming off a year that included (literally) anchoring one of television’s most critically acclaimed series and co-starring in a flatulence-laden, sophomoric smash hit box office comedy weeks before...
by Gary Carra | Jan 1, 2015 | Blogs, Music, Nightcrawler
In no particular order and assembled for reasons no loftier than your enjoyment plus the Crawler’s pressing need to hurry over to the holiday party before the open bar closes… here are your 2014 Nightcrawler Notable Awards: The You Never Sausage A...
by Michael Cimaomo | Jan 14, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
Welcome to the underground, the Northeast Underground that is, and yes, I just started my first blog post with a “Beverly Hillbillies” reference. And, much like a hidden cache of “Texas tea” I am here to bubble up from the depths from time to...
by Michael Cimaomo | Mar 10, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
In honor of the Northeast Underground’s upcoming trip to California, I thought I would create a special blog post honoring a selection of some of the Golden State’s finest musical treasures. However, the more I contemplated tackling such a piece I soon...
by Michael Cimaomo | Mar 15, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
The world of grunge lost another family member Wednesday as former Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr (see photo, far right) unexpectedly passed away at the age of 44. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Starr’s body was found in a house in Salt...
by Michael Cimaomo | Mar 16, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
One week ago today, as my plane touched down in Hartford, Conn., I felt exhausted. Taking a redeye flight out of Los Angeles International Airport at 11:30 p.m. was partially to blame for my tiredness, and so too was a mid-trip emergency that required a nervous flight...
by Michael Cimaomo | Mar 30, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
From his early beginnings as one of hardcore music’s most intense vocalists to his current role as a documentary filmmaker, actor, world traveler and spoken word performer, Henry Rollins has carved a lifetime out of doing and saying things that others only dream...
by Michael Cimaomo | Apr 12, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
Mere minutes before my recent conversation with Dinosaur Jr bassist and Sebadoh founder Lou Barlow (see photo, second from left), I briefly pondered breaking one of the cardinal rules of journalism: Be professional. Though our interview took place the day after St....
by Michael Cimaomo | Jun 23, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
Mere minutes into his first encore Saturday night famed singer and songwriter Garland Jeffreys turned the clock at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Mass. backwards to the 1960s. By segueing briefly from his impassioned rendition of the ? and the Mysterians...
by Michael Cimaomo | Jun 27, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
This wasn’t your parents’ charity show. Eschewing any “We are the world” or Bob Geldof-penned Live Aid platitudes, the Calvin Theatre in Northampton, Mass. more closely resembled a gathering of indie all-stars Tuesday night as the lineup for...
by Michael Cimaomo | Jun 29, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
Fresh on the heels of news that the documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke will see a long-awaited debut on DVD this fall, Nirvana fans have an additional reason to be excited as the band plans another special release to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their...
by Michael Cimaomo | Jul 6, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
Well, so much for running down this particular dream. Adding yet another chapter to the history of disputes between musicians and politicians, Rolling Stone magazine has confirmed reports that Minnesota congresswoman and 2012 presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann...
by Michael Cimaomo | Apr 27, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
As promised, here is part one of my recent interview with roots rocker Stephen Kellogg (see picture, middle) as he checked in with the Northeast Underground on the eve of his first-ever solo headlining tour. Underground: So, what have you been up to lately? I know the...
by Michael Cimaomo | Jul 8, 2011 | Articles, Arts, Music, Northeast Underground
One of the many highlights of the Whole Children benefit concert held at the Calvin Theatre on June 21 was the appearance of area resident and Sonic Youth co-founder Thurston Moore. Performing with his band Demolished Thoughts (titled after his recent solo album of...
by Rob Weir | Jun 21, 2007 | Music
Remember your 18th birthday? Zoë Darrow will remember hers when she reaches that landmark next month. Not only will she have a brand new CD, Fiddle Me This, hitting the streets, she'll be honing her skills at an august location: Willie Clancy's...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 21, 2007 | Music
Pete Seeger American Favorite Ballads (Smithsonian Folkways) When Bruce Springsteen released We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions in 2006, he joined a long list of performers inspired by Pete Seeger. Seeger is now an elder spokesman and cultural icon, but this...
by Gary Carra | Jun 28, 2007 | Blogs, Music, Nightcrawler
Forgive Group Deville's Rick Murnane if he's not quite as bubbly as you'd expect him to be when he performs this Saturday, June 30 at Bishop's Lounge in Noho. Sure, that's the night he and his Group troupe will be celebrating their first release in...
by Gary Carra | Jun 28, 2007 | Blogs, Music, Nightcrawler
When the need arises, the folks at the Springfield Business Improvement District (SBID) can break out market projections, Powerpoint presentations and trend analyses with the best of them. In addressing the desires of Springfield restaurateurs and club owners to...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2007 | Music
BattlesMirrored(Warp) Battles is a 22nd-century groove band combining electronics, loops, and samples with instrumental virtuosity. That may not be radically new, but Battles takes it to a deeper level. Anyone who's witnessed the band's sweaty, ecstatic live...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2007 | Music
Various ArtistsClassic Old-Time Fiddle(Smithsonian Folkways)Many contemporary fiddle albums are as slick as steam-pressed polyester and as authentic as a hothouse tomato. This collection turns back the clock to the days when Appalachian soloists and string bands plied...
by Gary Carra | Jul 12, 2007 | Blogs, Music, Nightcrawler
It started as an opportunity for locals to sample savories from various area eateries and soak in the sounds of a few of the region's bigger bands. Since that summer of 1985, however, Committee President Scott Crosson says that his Enfield, Connecticut Fourth of...
by Gary Carra | Jul 19, 2007 | Music
Considering that Drew Hickum claims to have listened to Live At Folsom Prison until the grooves wore out, your friendly neighborhood Nightcrawler was expecting to hear some parallels to the late, great man in black and the line he so famously walked. As the West...
by Gary Carra | Jul 26, 2007 | Music
Platinum-haired and platinum-selling by the age of 14, singer/six-stringer Daniel Johns was sharing stages with the Smashing Pumpkins and the Chili Peppers while most his age were studying actual botany.Some 13 years later, your friendly neighborhood Nightcrawler...
by Gary Carra | Jul 26, 2007 | Music
After more than a decade of silence, the Springfield Department of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management resurrected its Sounds of Summer concerts last year. The sonic resuscitation was a success, with hundreds of concert-goers coming out to all six shows cranked...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 15, 2007 | Music
Various ArtistsProtest Songs!(Smithsonian-Folkways)I'm generally a fan of Smithsonian-Folkways compilations, and we could use some good protest songs, but this collection isn't the answer. Its 23 tracks are a mismatched assortment from well-known artists such...
by Gary Carra | Aug 16, 2007 | Music
Like most promoters/organizers, Dan Overton says that he and partner Pat Brennan are always looking to fine tune their Maple Street Music Festival. The second annual installment of their event rolls into Holyoke’s Veteran’s Park this Friday, Aug. 17 and...
by Valley Editorial | Aug 23, 2007 | Music
Abra Moore On the Way (Sarathan Records)In 1997, Abra Moore scored a Grammy nomination for Strangest Places. Neither a Grammy nor fame was forthcoming, so she's charted an independent course. On the Way suggests the journey will be worthwhile but rocky. When Moore...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 23, 2007 | Music
Angels of LightWe Are Him(Young Gods)Music fans of a certain age may recognize Michael Gira's singing as the foreboding voice behind Swans. A whole new generation of indie rockers has Gira and his label Young Gods to thank for introducing the world to artists like...
by Advocate staff | Aug 30, 2007 | Music
Blaqk AudioCexcells(Interscope)Sometimes a record comes out that redefines mediocrity. Cexcells, the debut album from AFI electro pop side project Blaqk Audio, is just such a record. Davey Havok and Jade Puget, the duo behind this electro-turd, are evidently allergic...
by Tom Sturm | Aug 30, 2007 | Music
Since it became a petri dish of musical cross-pollination, the Valley has seen its share of bands rise to confront the challenge of the national stage. From Amherst/Westfield indie-rock to Northampton alt-country to Springfield metal, occasionally a part of the scene...
by Adam Bulger | Aug 30, 2007 | Music
I think it's important that the world remember GG Allin, but I'm not exactly sure why. As the recently re-released 1994 documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies attests, the self-proclaimed "scum rocker" was vile, violent and, arguably,...
by Gary Carra | Aug 30, 2007 | Music
It is rooted in one beloved musician's untimely passing. Yet somehow, as NickoDemos concert participant/committee member Matt Kim explains, the annual benefit in honor of Nick Demos, who was killed on I-91 in 2003, seems to have taken on a life of its...
by Valley Editorial | Sep 6, 2007 | Music
Goodnight LovingCrooked Lake(Dusty Medical)When I first listened to this record, I knew what I was hearing was familiar, but couldn't quite place it. Thank God I now know that the music of Goodnight Loving is generally referred to as "cow punk," a hybrid...
by Gary Carra | Sep 6, 2007 | Music
He may front one of the nation's most popular tributes to one of the so-called slacker generation's greatest heroes, but when Negative Creep's Josh Enemy noticed a disturbing trend among his students at Performance Music in Westfield, the Cobain clone says...
by Advocate staff | Sep 13, 2007 | Music
M.I.A.Kala(Interscope Records)M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam) fled Sri Lanka with her family at age 11, and, at 28, has found her way onto the dance charts. Kala, her sophomore album (whose Technicolor insert looks like a Tokyo Times Square), injects Third World rhythms...
by Gary Carra | Sep 13, 2007 | Music
Traditionally, the notion of housekeeping is associated with the advent of spring. Before we get to this week's news proper—and considering the steady stream of Justin Timberlake merchandise and fan club applications that have found their way into my P.O....
by Valley Editorial | Sep 20, 2007 | Music
Bobby BareLullabys, Legends and Lies(RCA)Every song on this 1973 record (reissued here with extras) was written or co-written by Shel Silverstein, known to many as the author of such classic children's books as Where the Sidewalk Ends, and as the writer of classic...
by Gary Carra | Sep 20, 2007 | Music
Not sure about the hills, but the Valley will certainly be alive with the sound of music this weekend. Since there hasn't been so much to report in recent history, Nightcrawler forgoes the usual introductory pleasantries and dives right in this week.Wiggle room in...
by Gary Carra | Sep 27, 2007 | Music
Josh Thayer can still recall the first time he took out the Trash. He and Fancy Trash bandmates Dave Houghton and Jason Smith took a local gig in August of 2002 with all of two weeks to rehearse."At the show, it definitely felt like the train was coming off the...
by Gary Carra | Sep 27, 2007 | Music
She prefers club jams to dad Hulk Hogan's body slams. Dance floors to his "figure fours." Grown up and pursuing the music career she's always dreamed of, the legendary grappler's girl, Brooke, recently enlightened the Nightcrawler on her...
by Valley Advocate Editorial | Oct 3, 2007 | Music
MarKamusicAcoustic Ancestor(independent release)If zampoña—the traditional panpipe given a bad name by Zamfir's late night TV album offerings—is your bag, MarKamusic has just what you need. This local six-member band plays music steeped in Latin...
by Tom Vannah | Oct 4, 2007 | Music
Full House, bassist Danny Klein's tribute to the J. Geils Band—a band that Klein, a member of the original J. Geils Blues Band (the band before Peter Wolf and Steven Jo Bladd got into the act) helped to start in the 1960s—is not like any cover band...
by Valley Advocate Editorial | Oct 4, 2007 | Music
Richard ThompsonSweet Warrior(Shout Factory)After four years of side projects (a film score, cover albums and an acoustic album), Thompson returns with his strongest band-backed album since Rumor & Sigh. The sabbatical helped him deliver an album that’s one...
by James Heflin | Oct 11, 2007 | Music
As a Southerner who's lived in Texas, Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta, I am guilty of blues snobbery. The Valley is not a hotbed of blistering blues. It's a wonderful place, but the blues does not often flourish in the shadow of yoga studios. My first...
by Valley Advocate Editorial | Oct 11, 2007 | Music
CaribouAndorra(Merge)Bliss is one of the hardest emotions to conjure in music, but Andorra has it in spades. The brilliant opening track "Melody Day" sets the tone, mixing 1960s sunshine pop with loops, beats, and a dense wall of sound production. Caribou...
by Gary Carra | Oct 11, 2007 | Music
They started as strictly a tribute band. A couple of years in, they found themselves paying tribute to one of their own, drummer Michelle Smith, whose premature death spurred the penning of the 2005 EP Never Broken in her honor.Now, with John Myslinksi of AC/DC apers...
by James Heflin | Oct 18, 2007 | Music
Say "big band," and most people, fairly or not, think of the oatmeal sounds of Glenn Miller wafting out over the nursing home cafeteria P.A. But David Sanford's Pittsburgh Collective proves that the big band need not be relegated to the pre-rock past nor...
by James Heflin | Oct 18, 2007 | Music
Valley guitarist Charlie Apicella (pictured above, far left) is a busy guy. You can catch him most Sunday mornings at the Cushman Village store in North Amherst, where, with bassist and violinist, he plays Latin music and tangos on acoustic guitar as Cidade (which is,...
by Valley Advocate Editorial | Oct 18, 2007 | Music
Art BrutIt's A Bit Complicated(Downtown)That second album—it's indeed a complicated affair. Especially when your debut was such a pitch-perfect confection of cheeky wit and barbed riffs. What's left to say? Art Brut have found some new wrinkles to...
by Gary Carra | Oct 18, 2007 | Music
It's been some 22 years since Van Halen's founding members first bid each other "Happy Trails." It's been more than a decade since its frenetic frontman, "Diamond" David Lee Roth, proudly proclaimed, "This is the first time...
by Gary Carra | Oct 18, 2007 | Music
The first one may not be free. But whether it's studio time or rental of a P.A. and a lightshow, Dave Westbrook and his PDP Productions strive to deliver major-artist levels of service at bargain basement prices.The business plan, particularly when coupled with an...
by Kendra Thurlow | Oct 24, 2007 | Music
Downtown Northampton was a little noisier than normal this summer. While it's not uncommon to see lone musicians playing on the city streets during the warmer months, it is a strange occurrence to see a full band setting up shop and playing tunes for passersby....
by Valley Advocate Editorial | Oct 24, 2007 | Music
Kate RusbyAwkward Annie(Pure Records)You pretty much know what to expect from a Kate Rusby album: traditional folk songs, a few originals, the occasional cover. Awkward Annie is her latest. It sports five originals, including the whimsical title track, but they are so...
by James Heflin | Oct 24, 2007 | Music
It’s a terrible addendum to a concert for a good cause: last month, Viva Quetzal member Jon Weeks lost his son, Ari D. Brown-Weeks, a paratrooper, to the war in Iraq. Viva Quetzal (pictured) will play with the world music ensemble Mawwal this week to do their...
by Gary Carra | Oct 25, 2007 | Music
Ah, autumn in New England, the Nightcrawler’s favorite era of the annum, awash in spooks and kooks masquerading as things they are not in the never-ending quest for bags of loot.And that’s just the election process.Prior to the big Nov. 6 poll dance, of...
by Kendra Thurlow | Oct 31, 2007 | Music
A pumpkin takes three to four days to carve, according to Flo and Rich Newman, and remains intact for a week at the most before it begins to rot. While it's unfortunate that their pumpkin artworks have such a short shelf life, occasionally the inevitable rotting...
by Valley Advocate Editorial | Oct 31, 2007 | Music
As Cities BurnCome Now Sleep(Solid State/Tooth and Nail)Listening to this, I was initially apprehensive, then cautiously optimistic. Then I was impressed. These guys took the best aspects from three problematic genres—hardcore, emo, post-rock—and made an...
by Kendra Thurlow | Nov 1, 2007 | Music
The Rendezvous opened the year after Prohibition was repealed, in 1934. A smallish bar located in Turners Falls, The Rendezvous kept its doors open and the suds flowing for almost 70 more years. Shortly after the turn of the century, The Rendezvous changed hands and...
