Music
by Advocate Staff | Nov 11, 2010 | Music
Various ArtistsG.I. Disco(BBE Music) Somehow I never thought of disco as being a major U.S. export to Germany. But G.I. Disco: The History of the Cold War’s hottest ’80s club music in West Germany, an entertaining and informative collection compiled by two...
by James Heflin | Nov 11, 2010 | Music
Goshen’s Institute for Musical Arts seems a modest place. It consists of just a house and outbuildings. Enter one of those buildings—the big red barn—however, and it becomes clear that what’s inside is much larger than the building’s...
by Gary Carra | Nov 11, 2010 | Music
The recent recession was enough to force Connecticut-based Skipping Stone Records (skippingstonerecords.com) to skip what would have been its sixth annual Popfest showcase last fall. And while the popular series will resume again this weekend at The Elevens in...
by Matthew Dube | Nov 11, 2010 | Music
We’re not giving her back. Now that Eilen Jewell has settled in Massachusetts, she’s one of ours. The singer/songwriter has now lived in the Commonwealth for the better part of the last decade after a spate of roaming, and she’s carved out a nice...
by Matthew Dube | Nov 11, 2010 | Music
Multi-instrumentalist Matt Weston is a hard guy to pin down. One night you might see him ripping guitar riffs for Thrillpillow, and the next he might be scraping cymbals solo or with experimental outfit Barn Owl. He’s worked with legends like composer Bill Dixon...
by Gary Carra | Nov 18, 2010 | Music
When it comes to organizational skills, graphic design, even dee-jaying—Noel Ramos’ credentials are impeccable. From a strictly marketing perspective, however, one cannot help but at least raise an eyebrow at an independent music conference that prides...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 18, 2010 | Music
Nu Shooz OrchestraPandora’s Box(independent) Nu Shooz was a footnote in ’80s dance-pop music, but more than 20 years later, the husband and wife team of John Smith and Valerie Day have remade themselves as a small-scale jazz orchestra, crossing classical,...
by Jeffrey Siegel | Nov 18, 2010 | Music
When pianist and composer Randy Weston takes the bandstand, people look up to him. This is not just because he stands six feet eight inches tall and often dresses flamboyantly in the bright colors of the African continent. It’s also because, at 84 years old,...
by Matthew Dube | Nov 18, 2010 | Music
This week: part two of an interview with percussionist Matt Weston, who’s releasing a new CD, The Last of the Six Cylinders. You’ve played with a great many amazing musicians and composers. How has your wide-ranging experience affected you?...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 25, 2010 | Music
Walter Jr.Standing on the Word(independent) Standing on the Word, an unapologetically Christian CD that comes in a booklet-fold cover that looks like a Bible, sat on my desk for months, pinned there by my bad childhood experience with organized religion and general...
by Matthew Dube | Nov 25, 2010 | Music
The Who have Tommy. The Kinks have Arthur. The Pretty Things have S.F. Sorrow. Northampton’s TRUCKS have Glacier Man: “Glacier Man is about a cave man who sees his lady cave man kissing another dude,” says I-Truck, nom de rock of artist and musician...
by Matthew Dube | Nov 25, 2010 | Music
Lord Jeff—aka Lord Jeffery Amherst—is most certainly the only Valley band to lose members to Scientology, a drive-by shooting, and Katy Perry. The group has been a working concern for almost a decade, playing countless shows and releasing a string of...
by Matthew Dube | Nov 25, 2010 | Music
Springfield-based rock outfit Thirty Stones were a scant few months away from securing over a million dollars when technology interceded. At the dawn of 2004, after steadily building a following and critical buzz, the group were on the precipice of signing a...
by Gary Carra | Nov 25, 2010 | Music
Many is the music exec who has sat a band down and imparted some version of the following: “You gotta find your sound, your niche, and run with it. You simply can’t be all things to all people.” When it comes to the curious case of Buru Style,...
by Gary Carra | Dec 2, 2010 | Music
They’ve been the darlings of the cover circuit for nearly a decade, played college campuses the country over, and opened for more national acts than there were teenagers dressed as Snookie this past Halloween. So just what is the next frontier for...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 2, 2010 | Music
No AgeEverything In Between(Sub Pop) No Age’s third album picks up where the acclaimed Nouns left off, continuing the mix of punk riffs and gauzy textures. What’s new is how the Los Angeles duo pushes its sound in different directions simultaneously. The...
by Tom Sturm | Dec 2, 2010 | Music
Christmas has become many things to many people: a 30-pound ham, a claymation snowman, a Dora the Explorer backpack, an excuse to sing randomly at people’s doorsteps or get some Chinese food and hit the megaplex for some serious escapism. Perhaps no other...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 9, 2010 | Music
Marnie SternMarnie Stern(Kill Rock Stars) Marnie Stern’s third album offers plenty of her dazzling guitar technique, kinetic interplay with drummer Zach Hill, and songs bursting at the seams with ideas. This time she’s also focused on crafting more...
by Gary Carra | Dec 9, 2010 | Music
Is the enemy of Josh Enemy a friend? And if so, what does that make the erstwhile enemy in the rare instances when the local rock veteran performs as his alter ego, Josh Friend? Friend, foe or fence-sitter, the man who has outlived Kurt Cobain, the icon he so...
by Matthew Dube | Dec 9, 2010 | Music
It’s hard to separate fact from fiction with Dom, both the man and the band of the same name, but a few things are true for sure. The man and band—Dom on vocals, guitars, and keys; Bobby K. on drums; Cosmo on guitar; and Erik on bass and...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 16, 2010 | Music
The Method ActorsThis Is Still It(Acute) The Method Actors were a key band of the fertile Athens rock scene in the 1980s, but they’ve long been overshadowed by more famous peers like R.E.M., The B-52s and Pylon. This guitar-and-drums duo were a curious band, but...
by Matthew Dube | Dec 16, 2010 | Music
Some bands have songs longer than the running time of Vaccine’s entire body of work. The Western Mass quartet—bassist Will Killingsworth, vocalist Matt McKeown, drummer Joe Shumsky and guitarist Matt Swift—has composed 20 songs that clock in at a...
by Matthew Dube | Dec 16, 2010 | Music
Valley musician, artist, and record shop proprietor Joshua Burkett believes in parallel universes, aliens, other dimensions and ghosts. He also believes that dreams are more important than reality. And he fervently believes in the power of Western Mass. “I live...
by Matthew Dube | Dec 23, 2010 | Music
Local band Motel Mattress used to be called Motel Matches (after the Elvis Costello tune), before another outfit of same name threatened legal action. No matter. The two—drummer Jacob Gaulin and guitarist Zach Peckham—have decided they prefer the new...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 23, 2010 | Music
Ryan Montbleau BandHeavy on the Vine(BMI) Eastern Mass. native Ryan Montbleau started out as an acoustic soloist, but since forming his six-member band, he has branched out to other genres. On Heavy on the Vine Montbleau and crew switch between string-laden love...
by Gary Carra | Dec 23, 2010 | Music
Talk about the power of suggestive thinking. When local party band Orange Crush learned that a new show set to air on Cartoon Network was seeking 1980s-esque tunes for its soundtrack, they promptly sent off their studio calling card, 80s All Over Again, for...
by Gary Carra | Dec 30, 2010 | Music
Be silent on Christmas Eve night if you want. But when it comes to the last square on the calendar—Dec. 31 and the New Year’s festivities associated with it—Penny Burke and her Northampton Center For the Arts (NFCA) organization are bringing the...
by Matthew Dube | Dec 30, 2010 | Music
It’s telling that local band Deceivers’ dream lineup would be the 1991 Reading Festival. Unencumbered by time and space, the indie rock trio—guitarist and vocalist Jason Vachula, bassist Girshwin Chapdelaine, and drummer Eric Outhuse—would add...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 30, 2010 | Music
Miles DavisBitches Brew Legacy Edition(Columbia) Columbia can be shameless about repackaging Davis’ catalogue, but this edition of jazz-fusion masterpiece Bitches Brew offers genuine excitement. There’s an insightful essay by Greg Tate, newly discovered...
by Gary Carra | Dec 30, 2010 | Music
Forget about the crackling Yule logs, li’l ones practically yanking your nightshirt off at 4 a.m. as they shriek, “Come on, come on, wake up!” or late-afternoon, fully contented catnaps on the couch after a copious meal. For your friendly...
by Gary Carra | Feb 3, 2011 | Music
As alluded to in a previous installment, your friendly neighborhood Nightcrawler participated in a back-to-back Brit fest in Northampton Jan. 22—catching an early set of Beatlemania Again at the Academy of Music, then high-tailing it over to The Calvin for the...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 3, 2011 | Music
On the Turntable Our Local Spins space tracks top-selling local recordings, and the list is astonishing for the sheer number of local recordings that have surfaced this year. Among those local top sellers were many that ended up in the rotation of CDs and vinyl that...
by Matthew Dube | Feb 3, 2011 | Music
John Peter Wentworth (pictured), known to many area musicians and music fans as John Peter, or, more often, JP, started his latest project out of a need to keep busy after the dissolution of his marriage. The longtime Northampton scene stalwart—booker of...
by Matthew Dube | Feb 10, 2011 | Music
Joe Andreoli and Ken Topham both grew up here–Agawam and Ludlow, respectively–but it wasn’t until both moved to New Hampshire that they began collaborating musically. The duo now rocks as Giraffes? Giraffes! and, after a couple of years on the West...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 10, 2011 | Music
Iggy Pop & James WilliamsonKill City(Alive/Bomp) Kill City is the great lost Iggy Pop album. Recorded for a tiny label in the desperate post-Stooges days, it was saddled with weedy sound that compromised a superb set. This reissue radically remixes the original...
by Tom Sturm | Feb 10, 2011 | Music
Haven, Northampton’s “dark alternative club night,” sounds witchy and diabolical enough to suggest that its weekly gatherings must have some sinister purpose, especially in light of the fact that its trappings are rife with symbolism that’s...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 10, 2011 | Music
Black Francis The Golem (The Bureau) Of late, the man who most recently has performed as Frank Black has been trying on his former moniker, Black Francis, which he wore in days of yore when he was the Pixies frontman. As Francis, he writes edgier, punkier, and...
by Gary Carra | Feb 17, 2011 | Music
Many is the band that would love to throw journeyman/utility musician Kevin Bias into the mix. Best known in recent years for his six-string prowess with quirk-rock kings Pallet, Bias confided to your friendly neighborhood Crawler that it was actually a certain bias...
by Matthew Dube | Feb 17, 2011 | Music
Early in 2010, local musician IdiotSavant—real name withheld by request—was listening to hip-hop records by beats-and-samples legends like Madlib and DJ Shadow, and decided it was time to take action. “Outside of playing in bands [like the John...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 17, 2011 | Music
TreeFortTalking to the Dogs(Glacial) One of the finest 45 minutes of 2010 for me happened as I was driving home from vacation. My five-year-old had awakened from a nap, and with miles of Maine Turnpike ahead of us, he demanded something we could all sing to. I had...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 24, 2011 | Music
OFF!First Four EPs(Vice) Based on the description, there’s no way this band should sound so good. OFF! unites a quartet of punk veterans from Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Red Kross and Hot Snakes to bang out some old school hardcore tunes and relive their glory...
by Gary Carra | Feb 24, 2011 | Music
In an industry in which longevity should be measured in dog years, a decade and a half of existence is no small accomplishment. As Tor Krautter made the media rounds in anticipation of reaching that coveted musical milestone—an achievement he will officially...
by Gary Carra | Feb 24, 2011 | Music
The heck with Christmas… Easter is coming early to the Valley this year. Friday, Feb. 18, to be exact. And music scene staple Henning Ohlenbusch, for one, couldn’t be more excited about it. “Even though I’ve produced and recorded a lot of music...
by Rachel Lears | Mar 3, 2011 | Music
Under the banner of the 2010 CMJ (College Music Journal) Music Marathon, the annual New York City music festival, a Madison Square Garden concert last fall featured two bands that dissolve the distinction between “indie” and “mainstream.”...
by Matthew Dube | Mar 3, 2011 | Music
Radiohead is not the only band offering fans a “pay-what-you-like” business model. Local rockers Magna Mater have joined the revolution within the music revolution, bypassing things like labels and traditional retail outlets by offering their tunes via...
by Gary Carra | Mar 3, 2011 | Music
T he March 5 show slated for The Elevens in Noho may be officially billed as the Superkart CD release party, but according to show opener Jim Armenti, he’ll be “piling on,” courtesy of a spankin’ new CD of his own. “It all started with...
by Matthew Dube | Mar 3, 2011 | Music
Valley collective Mountain Interval named itself for a collection of poetry by the inimitable Robert Frost. “I think the idea is that it’s supposed to just be another way of saying ‘valley,'” says drummer Mike Benoit. “I’ve always...
by Matthew Dube | Mar 10, 2011 | Music
Whenever musician Alecia Chakour returns to our Happy Valley, there are always two things on her to-do list: catching up with The Golden Girls and grabbing a Dr. Chang’s Schizandra Berry juice from Amherst Chinese Food. Chakour grew up in Amherst, immersed in a...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 10, 2011 | Music
GirlsBroken Dreams Club EP(True Panther Sounds) Though lasting only a sliver over half an hour, this end-of-the year release by songwriter Christopher Owens and company managed to make many critics’ Best Of lists for 2010. It’s easy to see why. Whether by...
by Gary Carra | Mar 10, 2011 | Music
Hardcore fans who have watched the nearly decade-long ascent of Danny Pease & The Regulators from bars to ballrooms and house parties to hallowed festival slots should consider the band’s March 11 performance at Chicopee’s Maximum Capacity as...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 10, 2011 | Music
DestroyerKaputt(Merge) After two exceptional left-field EPs of songs with elements of ambient disco (Bay of Pigs) and abstract electronica (Archer on the Beach), Destroyer keeps the curveballs coming. Their latest delivers smooth soft rock brimming with fruity horn...
by James Heflin | Mar 18, 2011 | Music
As a former citizen of the punk-tinged fringe of the Celtic music world, I’ve come to regard this time of year as simultaneously bountiful and terrifying. Irish music abounds. Bands like The Big Bad Bollocks and the Yankcelt Band who haven’t been seen...
by Matthew Dube | Mar 18, 2011 | Music
Northampton’s Darlingside combines so many elements in its musical stew that a new descriptor is needed. The quintet came up with “string-rock,” and quickly realized there was an added benefit to existing in a genre of one: it would be easier to...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 18, 2011 | Music
David Wax MuseumEverything is Saved(independent) Everything is Saved, from Boston’s David Wax Museum, starts bubbly, despite the first track’s title, “Born with a Broken Heart.” The tune is a poppy, upbeat strum of a song. Things continue in a...
by Gary Carra | Mar 22, 2011 | Music
The joys of being a working musician… you don’t get paid if you don’t draw crowds, and even if you do draw, you sometimes don’t get paid what you thought you would. But advice? That’s everywhere—as free as it is unsolicited. Over...
by Michael Cimaomo | Apr 7, 2011 | Music
After a January appearance at the Happy Valley Showdown in Northampton, the Easthampton-based band Ipomoea has developed a fondness for that event’s organizer. “We love Mark Sheehan. We would play any show he booked. Even Rick Santorum’s Family...
by Gary Carra | Apr 7, 2011 | Music
Two Kevins from Tinseltown make their way to the area in the span of less than two weeks. And neither appearance involves anything that would enhance their already vast IMDB catalogs. Rather, Kevin Costner and Kevin Bacon trade in their movie scripts for six-strings...
by Matthew Dube | Apr 7, 2011 | Music
Not many contemporary musicians cite Cab Calloway as a main influence, but you can count Jamie Kent as one of the few and the proud: “His stage presence and audience control is second to none,” says the young Valley musician. “And it’s...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 25, 2011 | Music
Mindless Self-IndulgenceTighter(The End) NYC-based electro-punk four-piece Mindless Self-Indulgence projects such a frantic intensity that most of the songs clock in under two minutes. Ultra-distorted guitar pads, synths and sound effects are layered over crazed...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 10, 2011 | Music
Carrie Rodriguez and Ben KyleWe Still Love Our Country(North Street Opus) Carrie Rodriguez bends the boundaries between country, folk, and rock. She also performs songs so sexy that they’re what Barry White would have done if he had worn a skirt and sung with a...
