Music
by Advocate Staff | Aug 29, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Smith College Museum of Art // TUESDAY-SATURDAY The Smith College Museum of Art has just opened a new exhibit on the late Japanese-Amercan poet and printmaker Munio Makuuch, who with his family spent much of World War II in an internment camp in Idaho for Japanese...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Lush Honey is a group that makes funky soul and progressive rock ‘n’ roll. The band performed live at the Summit View in Holyoke during the 2019 Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll party this past June. Listen to Lush Honey’s extended, 40-plus minute set,...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is Jake Kulak & The Lowdown, which brings blues rock with soulful virtuoso guitar and electrifying jams to the Sessions stage. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Jake Kulak & The...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music
The Mary Jane Jones at Theodore’s // THURSDAY Vintage-influenced jazzy soul band The Mary Jane Jones returns to Springfield’s iconic blues club, Theodore’s, this Thursday. If you’ve never seen the Mary Jane Jones’ live performance before, now would be the time. The...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Podcast
Home Body is an electro fever-pop, new wave and experimental pop duo. They recently released their new record, Spiritus, which can be found on their website. For the video version of this performance, go to sessions.valleyadvocate.com. Listen here: You can hear more...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 16, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Among The Acres combine folk-rock, pop, and Americana with lush vocal harmonies. Check out the band’s Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Among The Acres:
by Jonathan Kermah | Aug 14, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Review
Twenty-one-year-old Shutesbury rapper and University of Massachusetts Amherst student Christopher Franklin, known as Chris Focus, sprouted his love for hip-hop by accident. At the age of 11, behind the back of his parents, Focus covertly scrolled through YouTube until...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 9, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is North Adams-based band Quincy, which combines Americana with bluesy roots rock, and indie folk. Check out the band’s full performance in the video below. Interview with Quincy:
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 6, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
The end of Summer is near, but there are still more opportunities to rock out at a music fest this month. From jazz to reggae, Woodstock to metal, I guarantee you there’s at least one you’ll wanna attend. Or all of them! They are evenly spread out over the course of...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 2, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is explosively high-energy post-hardcore art punk Perennial. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Perennial:
by Advocate Staff | Jul 26, 2019 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Featured, Music
Each week, the Valley Advocate publishes music videos of local musicians performing live in the Advocate offices, a project we call Advocate Sessions. We do this in collaboration with Northampton Community TV, who shoots the videos, and Signature Sounds, which takes...
by Will Meyer | Jul 25, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
When The New York Times profiled Kurt Vile in the fall, they titled their piece “Kurt Vile, Indie Rock’s Charming Riddle.” The implication, of course, was that the long-haired indie rocker had a Rubik’s Cube to decode, something to latch onto underneath the...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
Half a century ago, humanity took its first step outward into the greater universe around us during the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. In celebration of that achievement, Bandella, a Houston, Texas-based folk-rock and world acoustic group made up of retired astronauts,...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 19, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is bluesy indie rock and soul pop group Bad Tenants. Interview with Bad Tenants:
by Gary Carra | Jul 17, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
When he’s not aboard Iron Maiden’s private jet en route to a 50,000-plus stadium gig in South America or Europe, Anthrax guitarist Jonathan Donais says there’s no place he’d rather be than his Easthampton home and “triangle.” “‘The Triangle’ is what I call this little...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jul 16, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
From concerts to theatrical plays, from art galleries to a bistro and even co-working spaces and drag queen bingo. Holyoke’s Gateway City Arts has something for everyone. Located on Race Street in a beautiful old industrial building, it has been reinvented into an...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is Hevvi Synthia, a Greenfield-based band that combines heavy rock ‘n’ roll with synth, swagger, and grooves. Check out the band’s Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with...
by Jonathan Kermah | Jul 11, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music
Twenty-three-year-old Springfield rapper Championxiii, has garnered quite the Internet following nearly overnight. In what started out as a part of his video series “rappers be like” on the short video sharing app Tick Tock, Championxiii’s hit single “Becky” now has...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jul 11, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
Ever have a project you are so excited about doing — then mid-way, you get road-blocked and you can’t finish it at that time? Then boom, for real! Another artistic idea pops in your head and you get all excited, and that project takes flight. The never-ending shelf of...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 9, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
In October of 1991, guitarist and singer-songwriter F. Alex Johnson moved to the Pioneer Valley from Fall River to be part of the strong musical community. In the here and now, almost three decades later, Johnson is a mainstay in the Valley music scene. He’s played...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2019 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Featured, Music
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is singer-songwriter Pamela Means, who writes politically conscious roots music and jazz. Check out her full performance in the video below. Interview with Pamela Means:
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Brazilian folk-pop with Sessa at Historic Northampton // SATURDAY Historic Northampton will kick off its Parsons Lawn Concert Series with Brazilian folk-pop artist Sessa this Saturday, who will be accompanied with three vocalists and a percussionist. Sessa is a...
by Will Meyer | Jul 2, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
Deerhoof has been making topsy-turvy, explosive rock music for over 25 years. Founded in the ‘90s, the group is still at it. They have released 15 albums, collaborated with countless musicians, and have inspired many more (myself included). The band will play Hawks...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 28, 2019 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Featured, Music
Lush Honey is a and that makes funky soul and progressive rock ‘n’ roll. The band performed live at the Summit View in Holyoke during the 2019 Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll party.
by Jennifer Levesque | Jun 25, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
“Hey Levesque,” I was greeted while walking up to the entrance. “Hey Levesque,” I replied. Not too many people share my last name, but it just so happens one of the bartenders at the Tank in my hometown of Agawam, does. The Cheers in Hampden County, where everyone...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Ch’Chunk! blends together swing, gypsy jazz, and Americana to create its own modern take on jazz and roots music. The band performed live at the Summit View in Holyoke during the 2019 Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll party.
by Will Meyer | Jun 18, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, guitarist for acclaimed punk band Downtown Boys, also performs as La Neve. While La Neve is a project that certainly shares the political concerns of Downtown Boys, it is stylistically different all together. Drawing on house, industrial, and...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 14, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is rapper Big Sav, who performs auto-biographical rap that turns the pains of life into music. Check out his performance in the video below. Advocate Sessions interview with Big Sav: This week also featured an audio...
by Jonathan Kermah | Jun 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Review
Twenty-one-year-old Amherst rapper Tyson Burnett, known as Big Sav, has turned his previous encounters with the law into a promising future. His catchy melodies over upbeat trap piano keys disguise the pain-filled lyrics like “I been lonely hoping that my light ain’t...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 13, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Drag Brunch with Hors and Friends for Franklin County Pride at Hawks & Reed // SATURDAY You can support Franklin County Pride and your local drag queens on Saturday morning in downtown Greenfield with a special drag brunch featuring the always magnificent and...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jun 11, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
When I opened the press release for this upcoming album release that was accompanied by a live set at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA, there was one word that caught my interest: Mellotron. The instrument is similar in artistry and the complicatedness of a...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 7, 2019 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Featured, Music
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is Jon Carroll & BraveSoul, who is a two-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter making R&B with soulful melodies and an inventive spirit. Interview with Jon Carroll:
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 5, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Review
The work of two artists are on display now through June 30 at Easthampton’s Elusie Gallery in an exhibit titled “Daydreaming,” which features surrealistic illustrated pieces by Samson E. King with images of nature and everyday objects colliding in a kaleidoscope...
by Will Meyer | Jun 4, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
Imagine it’s the year 2020 and you get invited by a friend to a local house show. The catch: you don’t know who the performers will be and you don’t know where it will be located until the day of the show. You must apply in advance to even purchase a ticket and then...
by Advocate Staff | May 31, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is folk-rock singer-songwriter Lady Jane, who combines melancholic melodies with lyrics that pull on your heart strings. Interview with Lady Jane:
by Jennifer Levesque | May 31, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
Festival season is among us! The Valley is chock full of them all summer long and into fall. There is a new one, however, that has hopes of becoming a bi-annual festival in Downtown Northampton, The STRONG and Pleasant Music Festival. Carla Racine, the woman behind...
by Jonathan Kermah | May 30, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music
Rappers T’Swan and Fabeyon are hoping to mold a hip-hop music scene in their hometown of Springfield. Their sound — potent lyrics over soulful boom bap instrumentals — is more comparable to that of New York legends like Fat Joe than more simplistic trap artists...
by Advocate Staff | May 24, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is Wild Bill and the Flying Sparks, which combines classic country and roots rock n’ roll with a Cajun groove. Check out the band’s full performance in the video below. Interview with Wild Bill and the Flying...
by Will Meyer | May 24, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
As the weather warms up and the sun comes out, musicians flock to Main Street, opening their cases to busk. I have lived many downtown Northampton lives — as a busker, in food service, as a journalist for The Shoestring reporting on Northampton politics, to name a...
by Advocate Staff | May 17, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is singer-songwriter Jake Klar, who plays poetic folk and blues that stirs the soul. Check out his performance in the video below.
by Dave Eisenstadter & Chris Goudreau | May 15, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
It can be hard to remember it based on the cold, rainy weather we’ve had recently, but the middle of May is here. That means being outside, enjoying the flowers, and looking ahead to months more of being out and about before the temperature inevitably drops again and...
by Jennifer Levesque | May 14, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
Western Mass’s Weege and The Wondertwins turn it to 11 on the jazzometer and when listening to them, they send you to the nearest time machine. You emerge in a time where jazz was all around you and the speakeasy lounges were a dime a dozen. Do I Seem Weird Lately? is...
by Advocate Staff | May 10, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Fighting Giants is an alt-rock band that combines soaring vocals with intricate songwriting. Check out the band’s Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Fighting Giants:
by Will Meyer | May 10, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
Before prisons became the inevitable institutions they are today, believe it or not, they were introduced as a reform; a humane alternative to torture or death. In 1790, English common law condemned those guilty of “petty treason” to the punishment of being burned...
by Advocate Staff | May 9, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Weege & The Wondertwins Album Release Show // FRIDAY, 5/10 Weege & The Wondertwins’ sophomore album “Do I Seem Weird Lately?” is a gem to your ears. It’s strong and sophisticated and one of those albums you can put on to instantly change your mood. On Friday,...
by Chris Goudreau | May 9, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News
This summer at the Pines Theater at Look Memorial Park in Northampton is shaping up to an eventful one with half a dozen shows featuring big name acts such as grungey alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. with indie folk-rocker Kurt Vile as well as jam rock acts Moe. and...
by Advocate Staff | May 3, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Ed Bentley performs open mic-honed folk music with a sweet crooner voice. Check out his Advocate Sessions set in the video below. Interview with Ed Bentley:
by Advocate Staff | May 2, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Motherhood Out Loud at STCC // FRIDAY-SATURDAY Stagestruck columnist Chris Rohmann recently wrote about this production and described this play as 14 vignettes that “traverse the full terrain of the mom experience, from the throes of labor to the empty nest.” While...
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 30, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
The last time Deer Tick had a headlining show in the Valley, it was canceled the day of because guitarist/singer John McCauley was too sick to perform. Wahhh! I was set to cover the show so I told myself the next time they had a headlining show here, I was going to...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 26, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is electro fever-pop, new wave and experimental pop duo Home Body. The duo just released their new record, Spiritus, and will be performing at their release show on Friday, May 3 at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls. Check out...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 25, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Opal Canyon album release @ The Parlor Room // FRIDAY, 4/26 A little bit country, a little bit psychedelic rock and a lot of heart and soul. Valley supergroup Opal Canyon are releasing their debut album, “Beauty and Loss,” this Friday at The Parlor Room. The group is...
by Will Meyer | Apr 25, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
Recently, on a Saturday morning, I was lying in bed trying to muster the will to get up when a man dressed in all black, who seemed vaguely familiar, started poking around — letting himself into my room unannounced — and generally scoping out my personal dwelling...
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music
Louisville, Kentucky’s Murder By Death are bringing their indie Americana rock to us here in Western Mass, and I’m super stoked! Their sound is strong and hearty, dark and transformative. There are hints of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash and Modest Mouse if you needed...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 19, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is Jennifer Stuart who play talking folk music about love, life, and poetry. Interview with Jennifer Stuart:
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 18, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Review
The artwork of Zitong (Ann) Xu blends myth, magic, and the fantastical together to tell human stories about sorrow for “Lost Girls” at the Barnes Gallery at Leverett Crafts & Arts through the month of April. With lifelike haunting faces of women combined with...
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 16, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
A little bit country, a little bit psychedelic rock and a lot of heart and soul. Valley supergroup Opal Canyon debut their album Beauty and Loss this month. Valley veteran musicians Debra DeMuth, Dave Houghton, Ray Mason, Bob Hennessy, and Jason Smith joined forces to...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 12, 2019 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Featured, Music
Dave Dersham is a wordsmith who performs ambient folk and Americana songs. Check out his music on this week’s Advocate Sessions video. Interview with Dave Dersham:
by Will Meyer | Apr 12, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
The Flywheel celebrates its 20th birthday this month. In 1999, the Flywheel launched in a former cabinet shop in Easthampton — hosting shows and rousing rabble. The thought that the all-volunteer collective show space would enter a second decade, let alone a third,...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Julian Sherwood performs jazzy acoustic indie folk-rock with psychedelic riffs. Check out his music on this week’s Advocate Sessions video. Interview with Julian Sherwood:
by Roxann Wedegertner | Apr 4, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Review
Born a red diaper baby in, of all places, Liberty, N.Y., and raised on a hardscrabble poultry farm owned by his American Communist parents, Royalston resident Allen Young’s life as it’s portrayed in his new autobiography, Left, Gay & Green: A Writer’s Life, has...