Music
by Matthew Dube | Nov 5, 2009 | Music
University of Massachusetts-Amherst graduate and music fanatic Kembrew McLeod has long been fascinated by the intersection of art and commerce. Now an associate professor of media studies at the University of Iowa—after earning his Ph.D in communication from...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 5, 2009 | Music
The Fiery FurnacesI'm Going Away(Thrill Jockey)Throughout their career, The Fiery Furnaces have made a sport of frustrating expectations. They've released a series of defiantly complex and eccentric albums, including one sung by their grandmother and a live...
by Michael Cimaomo | Nov 5, 2009 | Music
Calling themselves a "hybridized version of the gypsy sound laced with cabaret, Celtic, and neo-medieval flavor," The Gypsy Nomads appear to cover as many bases as they can in the musical ballpark. Their show is a lively and theatrical tribute to the...
by Matthew Dube | Nov 12, 2009 | Music
This year has been revelatory for Northampton band Bunny's A Swine. The indie rock trio played copious local shows, wrote and recorded a slew of songs, and embarked on its first expanded tour, a "geographically inefficient road trip adventure" that took...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 12, 2009 | Music
Jim O'RourkeThe Visitor(Drag City)Several years ago Jim O'Rourke left Sonic Youth, moved to Japan and announced he was quitting music. Unsurprisingly, the esteemed producer, mixer, and player barely stayed retired as long as Jay-Z. Enter his fascinating new...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 12, 2009 | Music
Singer/songwriter Amanda Palmer embraced the idea of Brechtian punk cabaret along with Brian Viglione in the duo The Dresden Dolls. In 2008, Palmer released a solo album called Who Killed Amanda Palmer, produced by Ben Folds. She plays Northampton this week. Nov. 13,...
by Amy Littlefield | Nov 12, 2009 | Music
Naia Kete and Heather Maloney both write evocative music that urges peace and harmony. Both are under 25 and both boast full-bodied, knock-you-dead vocals. Both have Western Massachusetts roots. And most importantly, both have CD release parties coming up this...
by Gary Carra | Nov 12, 2009 | Music
Were Bangles frontwoman Susanna Hoffs and '90s alt-rock darling Matthew Sweet destined to work together? Who knows… but there was definitely something written in the tea leaves with this duo.Ming Tea Leaves, that is.Hit the pause button at any given Austin...
by Michael Cimaomo | Nov 12, 2009 | Music
Golden Bloom frontman and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Fogel is an optimist at heart. While in the past, he admits, he largely wrote songs about turbulent personal relationships, he has since shifted to tackle issues of more global appeal. "These new songs are...
by James Heflin | Nov 19, 2009 | Music
There's a song on Tagyerit's latest album, Shimmer, that gets to the heart of many of Rich and Flo Newman's favorite things. It's called "Neat Junk," and it's a musical manifestation of, as they say, "the collecting...
by Tom Sturm | Nov 19, 2009 | Music
Few communities have shown such persistent motivation to rehabilitate themselves in the last few years as the potential-infused Turners Falls. Street fairs, the re-invigoration of the Hallmark photography school and a proliferation of programs at the Great Falls...
by Gary Carra | Nov 19, 2009 | Music
When we last chronicled the exploits of South Hadley native Brian Chartrand, the former Flying Lessons frontman had flown the proverbial coop, heading west to seek his sonic fortunes. And, considering the critical praise and high profile opening slots (including...
by Amy Littlefield | Nov 19, 2009 | Music
Symphony Hall hosts a star violinist and a night of varied classical music this week. The evening opens with Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture and finishes with Tchaikovsky's energetic Symphony No. 3 (The Polish). In between, celebrated young violin...
by James Heflin | Nov 19, 2009 | Music
In late 2000, I stood in Boston's Orpheum Theater, jostling up against countless guys in bowlers, tattoos and sideburns. It is rather hard to fathom that someone as un-pop as Tom Waits has groupies who look the part, but there they were, milling around like...
by James Heflin | Nov 26, 2009 | Music
Merrick Section is a new band hailing from West Springfield (and named after part of that town). The members include Jim Walsh, Tom Doherty and Jeff Burch. Merrick Section's music is a roomy brand of Americana rock, easygoing but polished. It's got pop hooks...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 26, 2009 | Music
Mark Adams sings, acts and charms an audience just like the real Rat Pack icon in That's Amore: Dean Martin and Friends Holiday Special at Springfield's Symphony Hall. With classic hits such as "Volare" and, of course, "That's Amore,"...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 26, 2009 | Music
R.E.M.Live at the Olympia(Warner Bros.)Dublin is a place where the thoughts and imagination of people from James Joyce to Sinead O'Connor have flourished, so where better to coax the oft-reclusive creativity of Michael Stipe out of hiding? This July 2007 concert,...
by Gary Carra | Nov 26, 2009 | Music
Cornucopias brimming with pumpkins, apples and grapes; canned cranberries; of course, chestnuts roasting over an open fire; these are a few of the top culinary images of the season, at least in the traditional sense.Cut to the area club scene, however, and the coming...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 26, 2009 | Music
When most of the 20-something hipsters of today's Northampton were still caring for their Tamagotchis and begging to watch Nick at Night, the culturally historic Baystate Hotel was hosting rock bands of every stripe nightly in its unlikely dining room setting....
by James Heflin | Dec 3, 2009 | Music
It's very hard to determine whether Fall River's Daniel Ouellette (formerly a Florence resident) is the Orson Welles or the Ed Wood of electronic music. In one Youtube video, a dancing, eyelinered Ouellette croons (and he really does croon, with a swampy voice...
by Gary Carra | Dec 3, 2009 | Music
There are 88 keys on a standard piano, 10 fingers on a standard human. This is undisputed.Now, assuming, for purposes of this discussion, that said digits were made of rubber and could reach any given key, there are no less than 3.0948 times 10 to the 26th power...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 3, 2009 | Music
Local record label Rub Wrongways recently formed an indie super-group of sorts with its Rub Wrongways Caravan of Stars. The impressive collaboration is made up of Brian Marchese, Henning Ohlenbusch, Jason Bourgeois, Lesa Bezo, Max Germer and Ryan Quinn.Dec. 9, 7 p.m.,...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 3, 2009 | Music
Truth and Salvage Co.Truth and Salvage Co.(Silver Arrow/Megaforce)As the first new artists to be released on the Black Crowes' Silver Arrow label, Los Angeles-based rockers Truth and Salvage Co. have delivered a debut EP that bears strong resemblance to its...
by Amy Littlefield | Dec 10, 2009 | Music
Wildcat O'Halloran is back in business, and while he is operating under the same name that first captured Valley hearts and souls some 25 years ago, his eponymous band has reinvented itself with a mixture of old and young blood.The local legend—partly famous...
by Gary Carra | Dec 10, 2009 | Music
The guest of honor for the birthday bash slated for Friday, Dec. 11 at Club Meadows may not exactly be a household name.But in many ways, that's precisely the point.For many is the band that knows the name Crystal Willard—or at least her former on-air...
by James Heflin | Dec 10, 2009 | Music
When Ray Guillemette, Jr. takes the stage, people get excited. Guillemette may in part be known for overcoming the loss of a leg (his website is BionicElvis.com), but that becomes a very minor detail in light of how good he is at performing songs as the king of rock...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 10, 2009 | Music
My Latest NovelDeaths and Entrances(101 Distribution) My Latest Novel, comprised of five members from Greenock, Scotland, has come a long way since its gem of a debut album, Wolves. Deaths and Entrances seems to showcase confidence in their already established melodic...
by Gary Carra | Dec 17, 2009 | Music
It's shameless, really—the way all these so-called journalists in all mediums resurrect, recycle and otherwise regurgitate old stories each December under the guise of some sort of Year End Review or Top 10 poll just so they can cut out early and hit the...
by Tom Sturm | Dec 17, 2009 | Music
You can hear hints of delicious mid-'60s blues-pop in Mambo Sons' music, with obvious influential injections from The Kinks and the Rolling Stones, Elton John and others, but it's also obvious that the band was awake during the '70s and '80s. Its...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 17, 2009 | Music
Tony Vacca and World Rhythms EnsembleRhythm and Flow(World Rhythms)This local legend eats, sleeps and breathes musical fusion, and the latest release from Tony Vacca and World Rhythms Ensemble doesn't disappoint those accustomed to his varied blend of West African...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 17, 2009 | Music
Hot Buttered RumLimbs Akimbo(Hot Buttered Rum)Hot Buttered Rum are the kind of band that could drum up a toe-tapping, head-bobbing crowd in no time, just through the sheer magnitude of their enthusiasm. It sounds like all five of these guys (and their various talented...
by Tom Sturm | Dec 24, 2009 | Music
The first time I really talked with Ray Neades, I think we must have been bonding over The Who. It was in the early to mid-'90s, when I had just moved here, very young and intimidated by what I perceived as the impenetrable Western Mass. rock star scene, led at...
by Mark Roessler | Dec 24, 2009 | Music
In the beginning, there was pleasure, and it was good. And four bars and seven drinks ago, in order to form a more perfect Las Vegas, We, the weird, mushroom-gobbling army of insanity with one nation under Tito, Do solemnly pledge:I pledge allegiance to Tom Jones,...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 24, 2009 | Music
Mojo NixonWhiskey Rebellion(Mojo Nixon)Psychobilly and roots rocker Mojo Nixon came out of musical retirement this fall with Whiskey Rebellion, a collection of outtakes, experiments, soundtrack songs and sports anthems. As he explained in a press release, "While...
by Tom Sturm | Dec 24, 2009 | Music
The Equalites have shaken the derrieres of Valley audiences for more than two decades now, and continue to live out a history that's been written in clubs and studios from Cambridge to Conway to Kingston, Jamaica, with frequent summer stops on Cape Cod (to beat...
by James Heflin | Dec 31, 2009 | Music
On Unit7's website, a curious collision of fonts occurs. "Unit7" sleekly scrawls across the top with that arcade/skating rink style that rose to prominence around the late '70s. Right next to it, however, you'll find a bunch of Art Nouveau...
by Gary Carra | Dec 31, 2009 | Music
Many is the act eager to lend a hand—or the sounds of its band—to the area's preeminent New Year's eve gala, First Night Northampton. And with more than 100 performance slots to fill at no less than 17 venues over the course of 12 hours,...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 31, 2009 | Music
The Black CrowesBefore the Frost… Until the Freeze(Silver Arrow)The newest release from the brothers Robinson is an experiment combining technology with down-home boogie rock. It's really a double album. Included with disc one is a download code that lets...
by Gary Carra | Dec 31, 2009 | Music
If all you want for Christmas is to ride a mechanical bull for 2.2 seconds or dance atop the bar with one little person and two bra-clad beauties and get your ass paddled three times… you still can. But for Western Mass. residents, obtaining a taste of the Salty...
by Gary Carra | Jan 7, 2010 | Music
Sure, some of its membership may be guilty of mounting farewell tours that never end or putting out thinly-veiled cash-grab CDs as "greatest hits" packages. But by and large, the musical community is a reliable lot—particularly in times of need,...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 7, 2010 | Music
String SistersLive(Compass)Irish-American stars Liz Carroll and Liz Knowles throw their considerable talents and energies into a mix that also includes the folk/industrial rock licks and strongly accented vocals of Sweden's Emma H?rdelin (Garmarna), the eerie...
by Matthew Dube | Jan 7, 2010 | Music
Valley band Kobra Kai lives–musically, at least–in the '80s, when solos wailed, hair was plentiful and debauchery was king. The group named itself after the "bad dojo" in The Karate Kid, one of that decade's archetypal movies, and their...
by Tom Sturm | Jan 7, 2010 | Music
Zack Danziger's debut CD Sun Is All We Need often gives you the urge run playfully around a department store chasing a boyfriend or girlfriend as if you were in a made-for-TV montage. You picture the two of you sliding down escalator railings past startled old...
by Gary Carra | Jan 7, 2010 | Music
After a studio silence of nearly two years, guitarist Chris Regan recently checked in to report that his Fear Nuttin Band will be dropping a little “sumptin'” on record store shelves this spring. As chronicled in previous installments of this very column,...
by James Heflin | Jan 7, 2010 | Music
By the time I was five, I’d made one of my first important decisions. I’d weighed my options and figured out that Creedence Clearwater Revival was the best band on earth. (Such choices are fickle things at five, of course—in only a couple of years,...
by Matthew Dube | Jan 7, 2010 | Music
Not many bands take their name from the wacky world of statistics, but Amherst’s Missing Data is one of the few and the proud. “I was using the social science statistics program STATA a lot in my first year of grad school,” explains drummer Donny...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 14, 2010 | Music
Debra CowanFond Desire Farewell(Falling Mountain Music)This gorgeous album is reminiscent of mature projects from the likes of Judy Collins, Anne Hills or Sandy Denny. Cowan covers songs by musicians ranging from bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley ("The Darkest...
by James Heflin | Jan 14, 2010 | Music
If you prefer your live music to address the political, you'd be wise to drop by the St. James Church in Greenfield on Martin Luther King Day. There you'll find two duos who've devoted themselves to social activism as well as making music. Valley residents...
by Gary Carra | Jan 14, 2010 | Music
Their name itself may evoke overtly violent imagery, but according to guitarist Ryan Morin (aka Dino Bambino), his time spent with seminal Springfield-area rockers Shoot The Dancing Bear was all love. An almost disturbingly comprehensive kind of love, as it turns...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 14, 2010 | Music
Olof ArnaldsInnundir Skinni(One Little Indian) Part of the Icelandic music scene for a good decade already, Olof Arnalds is just appearing on U.S. radar, maybe thanks to Bjork, who appears on one track of this sophomore album. Evident here are melodies and phrasings...
by Gary Carra | Jan 14, 2010 | Music
They’ve whetted their fans’ collective appetite with countless live performances, titillated them with an EP in 2006. Now, after more than half a decade of existence, the melodic alt-rockers of Pridefalls deliver the goods in Heat, a stunning studio effort...
by Matthew Dube | Jan 14, 2010 | Music
Northampton’s Tasha Yar likes putting on a show. The band, named after the chief of security aboard the USS Enterprise-D on television show Star Trek: The Next Generation, is partial to costumes and props and Aldenccharine pop music designed to get bodies...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 14, 2010 | Music
Sidi ToureSahel Folk(Thrill Jockey) Each song on Sahel Folk was recorded in just two takes at Toure’s sister’s house in Mali, after a day spent talking and playing with a friend and musical collaborator over a glass of tea. That relaxed, intimate setting...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 21, 2010 | Music
Carrie RodriquezLive in Louisville(Luz Music)Some celebs put on cowboy boots because they're working on their image. When Carrie Rodriguez slips them on, it's because she's ready to kick serious musical butt. Born in Brooklyn but sounding for all the world...
by Matthew Dube | Jan 21, 2010 | Music
Vancouver's Parlour Steps is dedicated to the art of the single, trafficking in three-minute chunks of intelli-pop bliss that have landed the band on radio rotations and iTunes playlists all over North America.The quintet—Caleb Stull on voice and guitar;...
by Michael Cimaomo | Jan 21, 2010 | Music
Described on his website as his "new baby bluegrass band," Lloyd Cole and his Small Ensemble bring acoustic instrumentation to Easthampton for a special warm-up show as part of the launch of a new world tour. Though not technically bluegrass performers, Cole...
by Matthew Dube | Jan 21, 2010 | Music
According to local band Leisure Colony, rock music has become so fragmented that even its subgenres are too nebulous to be defined."Forty years ago, if you said that you were in a rock band, it was clearer, because the genre was newer," says Leisure Colonist...
by Matthew Dube | Jan 22, 2010 | Music
Springfield rock band dogdeck (never capitalized) has only two rules when it comes to the styles of music it will play: no metal, no country. Guitarist and lead vocalist Kevin Berard says that he and band co-founder/drummer Mike Arnold were weaned on ’90s rock...
by Gary Carra | Jan 22, 2010 | Music
We may have said sayonara to the holidays proper, but at least five area musicians are still trying to “jingle” all the way… to a new car. “I heard about the contest on the radio, and went for a Motley Crue-inspired theme,” Scott Lawson...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 22, 2010 | Music
Munly and the LupercaliansPetr and the Wolf(Alternative Tentacles) Listed in press materials as “the first installment in a multi-album set describing The Kinnery of Lupercalia,” the newest album from Gothic-Americana artist Jay Munly is a retelling of...
