Music
by Gary Carra | Sep 20, 2012 | Music
It’s tough trying to compete for editorial space against chocolate-covered bacon and deep-fried Kool Aid balls—just two of the artery cloggers offered at the 2012 Eastern States Exposition. But with the likes of Alan Jackson, Jeff Dunham and Bill Medley on...
by Gary Carra | Sep 20, 2012 | Music
Steve Vai recently spoke with your friendly neighborhood Nightcrawler. Here are the results. Crawler: Hi, Steve. I’m a big fan and excited to see you coming back to our neck of the woods. I actually spoke to you not too long ago, too, when you were teaching a...
by Gary Carra | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
If there were such a thing as a musical equivalent to a Grand Band Slam Halley’s Comet, the Donut Kings would be it. The quirky, post-punk quartet last orbited into GBS circles in the year 2000. And with the 2012 nod for Best Noise/Experimental, founding Donut...
by Jack Brown | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
Goat Boy—this year’s winner for Best Pop Band—has already made a sizable splash in its short existence. Just a few years old, the band, made up of current and former students of the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts school, started out with a well...
by Michael Cimaomo | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
Rising from the ashes of the band FiveAcrossTheEyes in 2008, Holyoke rock group The Stereo State didn’t start out under the best of circumstances. While core members Gabe Griffin (lead guitar, vocals), Brandon Spence (drums) and Matthew Spence (rhythm guitar)...
by Michael Cimaomo | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
Though he only took to the stage two years ago, Northampton electronic artist Sojourner (aka Nur Habib Tiven) has been preparing for a career in music almost his entire life. “According to my parents, I started beat-boxing as a little baby in my...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
MawwalHigh Hills in the Creaving Road(Ancient) On High Hills in the Creaving Road, Mawwal’s music is a fusion of sound that is enchanting and transporting. This is an album you can enjoy as dance music or as atmosphere on a winter night. It is the heartfelt...
by Tom Sturm | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
For years, countless live sound engineers struggled to keep up with not only the growing sizes of audiences and performance venues, but also the broad range of acoustic and sonic challenges that such performances present. The Beatles famously opened their 1965 tour of...
by Michael Cimaomo | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
Just by walking through the door at Sonelab recording studio and rehearsal space in Easthampton, a visitor has already won half the battle. Tucked inside the former Yankee Plastics Building on Pleasant Street, Sonelab isn’t a particularly easy place to find. For...
by Mark Roessler | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
Writing about the group that wins the Best New Band category isn’t always easy. Since the group is chosen by our readers—who collectively hear much more live music than any one person could hope to—the chosen ensemble can be a relative unknown. Such,...
by Advocate staff | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
The AlchemysticsHip-hop Demse Zullo (drums, percussion), Force (vocals), Ras Jahn (vocals), Jay Metcalf (keyboards), Ian-I (vocals, guitar), Matthew King (percussion, back ground vocals), David Rivera ( bass) “Against a percussive backbeat The Alchemystics mix...
by Tom Sturm | Sep 27, 2012 | Music
Katelyn Richards has been an incendiary new presence on the Valley’s music scene in the past year. Her energy isn’t the kind of explosive blast you might experience from a leather-clad rock band screaming in your face, or even a growling Hammond organ...
by Gary Carra | Oct 4, 2012 | Music
They wore more makeup than your mother, possessed more firepower than most third-world countries. Or, as Tommy Lee so succinctly put it while exiting his drum throne to tickle the ivories of a diamond-crusted piano on an orchestrated version of “Home Sweet...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 4, 2012 | Music
Silver JewsEarly Times(Drag City) Before Stephen Malkmus and David Berman became indie rock elder statesmen, they were college friends and roommates who kicked around song ideas when they weren’t at work. Then Malkmus hit it big with Pavement and Berman enrolled...
by James Heflin | Oct 4, 2012 | Music
During a recent show at the Luthier’s Co-op in Easthampton, the stage got pretty full. Across the front, three Co-op employees displayed their considerable musical talents. Jane Hamel bowed a violin; Louis Freilicher plucked a banjo; and Greg Silveira sang and...
by Advocate staff | Oct 11, 2012 | Music
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti Mature Themes (4AD) Despite the title, Ariel Pink’s new album revels in its juvenile impulses. It’s filled with choruses of “Who sank my battleship?”, references to video games, and odes to schnitzel,...
by Michael Cimaomo | Oct 11, 2012 | Music
There’s something very natural about bands that feature multiple members of the same family. Maybe growing up in the vicinity of a sibling who also enjoys playing music makes starting a group, if not easier, at least a logical progression. If two such musically...
by Michael Cimaomo | Oct 11, 2012 | Music
After picking up his father’s acoustic guitar at the age of 10, Northampton singer and songwriter Seth Newton knew right away that making music was for him. In fact, after making his professional live debut only two years later at age 12, Newton has never...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 18, 2012 | Music
Allah-LasAllah-Las(Innovative Leisure) The debut from Los Angeles’ Allah-Las can be safely slotted into the current retromania craze. The band expertly mixes sleek garage rock with traces of pop, surf, and gentle psychedelica. In a blindfold test, most listeners...
by Michael Cimaomo | Oct 18, 2012 | Music
Citing their home base as “Space, Mass.—hovering in orbit over Amherst and South Hadley,” the members of Valley band Mass Air Flow clearly have no qualms about portraying themselves as a little out there. However, the story of how the band got its...
by Gary Carra | Oct 18, 2012 | Music
It may be situated in Connecticut’s so-called “quiet corner,” but since opening its doors in 2008, Norfolk’s Infinity Music Hall and Bistro (infinityhall.com) has made quite a stir in the region, delivering more than 900 shows to more than...
by Gary Carra | Oct 23, 2012 | Music
Hard to believe it’s that time again. But here they come—an assorted mix of spooks and kooks masquerading as things they are not in the never-ending quest to procure bags of loot. But enough about Election Day. We have All Hallows Eve to contend with...
by Michael CImaomo | Oct 23, 2012 | Music
The difficult truth about band names is that sometimes, no matter how mysterious or thought-provoking a group’s moniker may appear, it’s also quite possible that the story behind the name is pretty simple. Take for example, the tale behind the name of...
by Gary Carra | Oct 23, 2012 | Music
Given the combined actual ages of the current 34 members on the “active roster,” the Young@Heart Chorus would need close to 3,000 candles to celebrate its collective birthday in the traditional way. But the group of seasoned citizen singers is marking its...
by Tom Sturm | Oct 30, 2012 | Music
The last time the band Swillmerchants was interviewed by the Advocate (“Selling Swill,” April 30, 2009), it was a pretty contentious affair. Then-contributor Rebecca Everett followed the rockers back to their lair from a prearranged interview at a local...
by Michael Cimaomo | Oct 30, 2012 | Music
The story of the band Casual Sax begins, as many interesting stories do, with the answering of a Craigslist ad. On July 7, 2011, saxophonist Jonas Cain saw an ad on the popular classifieds website posted by The Hill, an old church/ arts venue located on Chestnut...
by Gary Carra | Oct 30, 2012 | Music
Ironically, FAT frontman Peter Newland recalls coming up with the bright idea of Jam 4 Springfield while sitting in his darkened Springfield home just over a year ago. “The tornado had just hit, and it occurred to me that, as destructive as it was,...
by Tom Sturm | Oct 30, 2012 | Music
The ’90s wouldn’t have been nearly as cool without the frenetic, blues-punk heart attack music of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Already a veteran of seminal punk-rock bands Pussy Galore and Boss Hog (both with dangerously attractive wife/guitarist...
by Michael Cimaomo | Nov 5, 2012 | Music
Though it’s only taken to area stages under its current name since the spring of 2012, Valley band Empty Banks has a history that extends back to 2006. That was the year when Dan Vaccari (drums), Joel Cameron (electric and upright bass) and Dan Babineau...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 5, 2012 | Music
Chris DanielsBetter Days(Moon Voyage) Does the name Chris Daniels ring any bells? How about Sam Bush? Daniels has been in bands with him. Lloyd Maines? Check. Richie Furay? Yep. Béla Fleck? Uh-huh. He hangs with half the bluegrass, folk and country pantheon,...
by Gary Carra | Nov 6, 2012 | Music
In baseball, if you manage to maintain a .300-plus average, amass in excess of 3,000 hits and/or sock 500 round-trippers, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be getting a call from Cooperstown some day. Local folk-rock trio Fancy Trash will be the first to...
by Gary Carra | Nov 12, 2012 | Music
Jim Olsen has long since established himself as a man with an uncanny knack for finding local talent. When it comes to the latest project his Signature Sounds has lent its support to, the label pres admits it was actually a knock at the door that led to a...
by Kathleen Broadhurst | Nov 12, 2012 | Music
Spend the night traveling “across the pond” with the Windham Orchestra when director Hugh Keelan brings you the best of his homeland with British Jubilee. You can explore the nocturnal moods of the music of Benjamin Britten, bend your mind around Edward...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 12, 2012 | Music
Friends of YoursWhat You’re After(Senselessly Complicated Music)This exceptionally original Northampton duo seems to have added a bass player named Kate since its last full-length release, Contagious. Her parts blend so well into the overall sound that the...
by Michael Cimaomo | Nov 13, 2012 | Music
Though he’s not a Bible thumper in the traditional sense, Valley musician Daniel Richards (aka Reverend Dan) still wants to help others find the path to enlightenment. Instead of spreading his gospel from behind the pulpit in a church, Richards does his...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 19, 2012 | Music
Laetitia SadierSilencio(Drag City) Best known as the singer for ‘90s indie band Stereolab, Sadier sticks to her guns on her second solo album. Where her 2010 solo debut The Trip focused on more personal issues, most notably her sister’s suicide, which took...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 19, 2012 | Music
Local rock alt-heroes Dinosaur Jr. perform this week in support of their new album, I Bet On Sky. Nov. 28, 8 p.m., Pearl Street Night Club, 10 Pearl St., Northampton, (413) 586-8686, www.iheg.com.
by Gary Carra | Nov 19, 2012 | Music
They traveled down to Memphis to participate in the International Folk Alliance, showcased at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance and hit D.C., New York and other destinations in recent months. Now Katie Clarke says that her Boxcar Lillies are setting a course home...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 19, 2012 | Music
The WhoQuadrophenia [Deluxe Edition](Geffen) In addition to a remastered version of the 1973 album, the deluxe edition of Quadrophenia includes Pete Townsend’s original demo for his epic work. Coming after his ground-breaking rock opera Tommy and the...
by Kathleen Broadhurst | Nov 27, 2012 | Music
Musical talent abounds in the Pioneer Valley, something that’s easy to forget amid the clutter of the everyday. Valley Rising is here to remind us how much good music comes out of our own back yard. A long list of bands entered to be part of the compilation;...
by Michael Cimaomo | Nov 27, 2012 | Music
Route 116, familiar to many a Valley resident, spans four different counties and connects Springfield, South Hadley, Amherst and other towns. Commuters and college students alike frequently use the highway, and often joining them in their travels are the members of...
by James Heflin | Nov 27, 2012 | Music
In the liner notes to the new Legacy box set of Louis Armstrong’s Okeh recordings, Armstrong House Museum archivist Ricky Riccardi declares the discs “the most important recordings of the 20th century.” Riccardi may be a slightly biased observer, but...
by Gary Carra | Nov 27, 2012 | Music
A sonic paleontologist studying the career and habits of the Valley’s own Dinosaur Jr. should find this week a fascinating case study. This Wednesday, Nov. 28, the Amherst-spawned alt-rock icons return to their old stomping grounds—Pearl Street in...
by Tom Sturm | Nov 27, 2012 | Music
It’s been nearly two decades since Jim Olsen founded Signature Sounds, the Valley-based record label that’s grown from a DIY, spare-room labor of love into a successful business with two full-time and two part-time employees. Now, finally, it’s got...
by Michael Cimaomo | Nov 27, 2012 | Music
Featuring members Cameron Moretti (vocals), James Scuderi (guitar), Sean Harrington (guitar), Josh Matte (guitar), Andy Tamulonis (bass) and Joey Barthlette (drums), the New England band Foreign Tongues has been on a tear since it formed in the fall of 2011. The group...
by Michael Cimaomo | Dec 3, 2012 | Music
After a cursory glance at the Facebook page for Holyoke band Hot Dirt, one is taken by the group’s lack of prejudice when it comes to musical influences and artists it likes to listen to. John Coltrane, Tool and The Wu-Tang Clan are just a few of the choices...
by Tom Sturm | Dec 3, 2012 | Music
If you haven’t heard of The Sun Parade, it may be because they’ve been out of town lately on a multi-city tour of the U.S., from upstate New York to Southern California, where they opened several shows for fellow Valley recording artist Martin Sexton. The...
by Gary Carra | Dec 3, 2012 | Music
From its intimate shows at the People’s Pint to sprawling, multi-day/multi-band affairs at Energy Park, Greenfield has been making other entertainment districts green with envy when it comes to both the quantity and quality of musical shows it plays host to...
by Kathleen Broadhurst | Dec 3, 2012 | Music
New Years’s Eve turns into a summertime party as Zach Deputy brings his self-styled “island–infused drum-and-bass gospel ninja soul” to Pearl Street to heat up the evening and ring in 2013 with some seriously good vibes. Deputy is popular on...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 3, 2012 | Music
Ari HestThe Fire Plays(Project 4) Ari Hest is the best thing to happen to baritones since the emergence of John Gorka. Maybe it’s the harbor waters—Gorka is from metro New Jersey and Hest from the Bronx. And Paul Simon, whose pen prowess Hest sometimes...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 10, 2012 | Music
Equarox is the merging of two words into one idea: equality rocks. The organization is dedicated to “empowering communities locally and abroad,” according to its founder, John Lewis. Our Children’s World, an international concert this weekend, is the...
by Gary Carra | Dec 10, 2012 | Music
It’s not uncommon for folks to have Charles Dickens on their minds this time of year. But while most are conjuring images of the author’s famed Christmas Carol, Joe Urban checked in to share A Tale of Two Cities. Quite simply, it is literally the best and...
by Michael Cimaomo | Dec 10, 2012 | Music
For many, talk of all-female rock bands begins and ends with such punk-inspired groups as the Slits and the Raincoats, ’90s Riot Grrrl acts like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, or maybe the Valley-connected Fanny, among others. Now music fans can add to that...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 10, 2012 | Music
Laetitia SadierSilencio(Drag City) Best known as the singer for ’90s indie band Stereolab, Sadier sticks to her guns on her second solo album. Where her 2010 solo debut The Trip focused on more personal issues, most notably her sister’s suicide, which took...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 17, 2012 | Music
Ella Longpre’s noir folk project Dust Savior plays the Valley this week. Dec. 20. 9 p.m., Flying Object, 42 West St., Hadley, (413) 387-0333.
by Advocate Staff | Dec 17, 2012 | Music
Detroit harmonica legend James Montgomery blows some end-of-the-world blues in Northampton this week. Dec. 21, 7 p.m., $17.50/advance, $20/door, Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St., Northampton, (413) 586-8686, www.iheg.com.
by Gary Carra | Dec 17, 2012 | Music
A new image was added to The Gallery this year: the face—and axe-playing skills—of one Ben Lozano. On The Gallery’s horizon is a new audio exhibit in the form of a full-length produced by Warren Huart of Aerosmith/The Fray infamy. In between, the...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 17, 2012 | Music
Swans The Seer (Young God) Bands commonly reunite, but they rarely create new music that rivals their original output. Swans are an exception. Almost 30 years after their debut, The Seer could be their magnum opus, a two-hour culmination that also carves out new...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 17, 2012 | Music
Dylan LeBlanc Cast the Same Old Shadow (Rough Trade) Two years ago, LeBlanc asked listeners to follow him as he explored the darker side of Southern history on his debut, Paupers Field. Now, still a youthful 22, the singer and songwriter crafts a mature follow-up...
by Gary Carra | Jan 21, 2013 | Music
A little more than a month after the grisly shootings in Sandy Hook, some four dozen of the region’s top bands are descending upon the Connecticut state capital to raise capital for the victims’ families. Titled Downtown For Newton and involving nine...
