Music
Farewell to Ronnie Kwon
Longtime DJ, record store owner and general social facilitator Ronnie Kwon passed away unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm on the night of April 11 in New York City. He was 38 years old. A New York native, Kwon had recently moved back to the city after many years in the...About Time: Antigone Rising
All-female band Antigone Rising recently got a boost of national visibility when bassist Kristen Ellis-Henderson appeared on the cover of Time magazine for a story about gay marriage. This week, the band brings its rocking brand of revelry to Northampton’s Pride...
Behind the Beat: No Looking Back
“We’re not a quiet band,” says Bryan Forbes, bassist and backup vocalist for Palmer band The Blue Veins. Instead, together with fellow members Jacob Watson (guitar, lead vocals), Jamieson Goodwin (lead guitar, backup vocals) and Matt Skowyra (drums,...
Nightcrawler: Good For What Ales Ya
Let’s see… they are known as one of the biggest party bands on the circuit, their biggest hit is called “BEER!”, and they are playing Southbridge’s Mill Street Brews this Friday, May 10. Don’t think we need a crystal ball to guess...
Behind the Beat: Radical Shift
One of the defining characteristics of the Western Massachusetts music scene is its status as a melting pot. Bands that spring up in the Valley often share members. And frequently, when one group forms, many others will be created as members split their time between...
Behind the Beat: Energy and Emotion
“Like a lot of bands, we were initially a pack of friends before even playing one note together,” says Dennis Crommett, guitarist and vocalist for Spanish For Hitchhiking. “Max Germer [bass], Dave Hower [drums] and I started playing my songs under...
CD Shorts
Brown Bird Fits of Reason (Supply & Demand Music) Connecting the dots between folk, blues and Eastern music, the latest record from this Rhode Island duo is a refreshing update of old sounds. Trading in his trusty acoustic guitar for an electric,...
CD Shorts
Paula Cole Raven (675 Records/United For Opportunity) I love Paula Cole’s voice, but not her latest record. It’s an independent, Kickstarter-funded project billed as a return to her Americana roots, but it really shows how far she’s strayed. Take the...
Behind the Beat: Risk Takers
Formed in 2008 by a quartet of Hartt School of Music students, the New England band Brotherhood of Thieves, featuring members Jacob Wardwell (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Nicholas Cole (guitar), Jack Reynolds (bass) and Tim Jangl (drums), is a group whose moniker...Top 10 Valley Band Names: Colors
1) Pink Sharpie Express 2) The Silver Jews 3) Goldwater 4) Long Green Hair 5) Hot Black 6) Gray Skull 7) Orange Television 8) Red Door Exchange 9) The Bluestockings 10) Colorway
Nightcrawler: Parlor Tricks
Local folk-rock trio Rusty Belle rang in the New Year writing and recording tunes for a new record they hope to release this fall. “We spared no expense, but spent everything we had in the studio,” reports drummer/guitarist Zak Trojano of the impending...
Nightcrawler: They?re Crafty
King Crimson fretboarder Robert Fripp is officially credited with creating and overseeing The Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists (OCG). As the 100-member plus collective makes its way through the Bay State with a May 24 Beantown engagement at the First Church of Cambridge...
Hampshire Choral Society at 60
Plenty of folks remember the early days of the Hampshire Choral Society. Marietta Pritchard was too young to sing at its first concert in 1952, but spent a year with the group in 1958-9 under its first director, Henry Mishkin. She still recalls the dinginess of the...
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I.B. Sometimes Out On the Prairie (Rancid Coyote Music) In a foul-smelling puddle somewhere behind San Francisco’s Filmore theater where the bitter, politically charged tobacco spit of Country Joe McDonald mingled with the hallucinogenic urine of the...
Nightcrawler: Prose and Fawns
Shape & Nature Press’ (shapeandnature.com) anniversary gathering at Bishop’s Lounge June 2 is shaping up to be an impressive collection of area authors and fine audio. Founded in 2011 with the mission of printing the best contemporary literature, the...Outer Limits
A neo-psychedelic funk/rock band that recalls Parliament Funkadelic and the Mothers of Invention, the Sunderland-based freakazoids of Outer Stylie are on the move this summer. Outer Stylie is the resident act at Snowzee’s, and its members also host regular open...
There is No Spoon
Jim Matus’ Hadley studio is as impressive in its technological advancement as his musical engagement is the opposite—which is to say, his music is organic and often improvisational-sounding, and performed on a custom instrument he’s been perfecting...
Behind the Beat: Brings Good News
It’s ironic in a town with such an estro-centric reputation as Northampton that it’s actually pretty rare to find a band like Avedis—a five-piece, all-female rock unit. The band sounds pretty awesome for only having existed (in its current form) for...
Behind the Beat: Truth Seekers
According to the popular ’90s science fiction series The X-Files, “the truth is out there.” The only stumbling block, as that show’s Special Agent Mulder might say, is an individual’s ability to believe. Fortunately for music fans in the...
Nightcrawler: What Goes Around
Like her fellow Rotarians the globe over, West Springfield Rotary Club member Stella Kalamarkis exemplifies the organization’s motto, “service over self.” In fact, in her other role as entertainment chair for the upcoming West Side’s Taste of...
CD Shorts
Iceage You’re Nothing (Matador) Denmark’s Iceage burst onto the scene two years ago with the full-throttle assault of New Brigade. The quartet of 19-year-olds offered a fresh take on hardcore, injected shards of New Wave synths, springy rhythms, and...
Behind the Beat: Heartfelt Aggression
“I started The Prozacs in September, 2001,” says band vocalist and guitarist Jay Gauvin (aka J Prozac). “I was playing in The GrandPrixx, my first band, and things were on a steady decline. I initially wanted to just have some fun, write some...
Nightcrawler: Smells Like Community Spirit
He may very well, as the lyrics to his hit song say, “carry contraband across state lines.” When it comes to the annual benefit concert for his It Takes A Community(ITAC) Foundation, however, hometown hero Aaron Lewis will not have to leave the confines of...
Behind the Beat: Local Heroes
Hometown pride has always been an inspirational force for Sakara. Featuring members Joe Rogers (bass), Cody Bryden (electric guitar), Dan O’Brien (vocals, acoustic guitar) and Mike Bilodeau (drums), the band grew up watching Valley acts like Staind, Shadows...
Summer Arts Preview: Our Picks
In a region as abundant in cultural events as the Pioneer Valley, it would take far more pages than we have available to highlight all of this summer’s offerings. That said, the writers and editors at the Valley Advocate have sifted through the crowded events...
Second Helping
You can always count on Northampton’s Thane Thomsen to put the brakes on your thought process, no matter how scatterbrained or over-committed you might be in your daily reality. The material on the singer/songwriter’s latest project, Goldwater The Second,...
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Supervision Telekinetic (Pretty Lights Music) There’s a weird, futuristic exuberance in the wild sampling and squidgy electronic sounds of Texan producer/musicmaker Supervision. Supervision says he’s after “futuristic electronic hip-hop beats. The...
Keifer Quells Critics
“I scream my heart out just to make a dime,” Tom Keifer famously sang in Cinderella’s 1986 breakthrough hit “Nobody’s Fool.” Considering that the house was filled to the rafters on a recent rain-soaked Friday night at the Palace...
CD Shorts
The Source Family The Source Family (Drag City) The Source Family is the soundtrack of the same-titled documentary about the followers of Father Yod, a spiritual leader of the early 1970s. Father Yod describes himself as “the father you always wanted but never...
10 Years of Django
Since 2003, Northampton has hosted an event that is, by the standards of the musical subculture involved, major. It’s become major outside that world, too. Andrew Lawrence, who heads up Community Guitar, started Django in June back in ‘03, when a concert...
Nightcrawler: Fruits of His Labor
Prince Spaghetti may have a lock on the country’s proverbial work week “hump day.” But West Whately’s Paul Newlin is once again banking on area residents to favor his watermelons and outdoor music offerings over hot pasta for at least a few...
CD Shorts
Bambi Lee Savage Darkness Overshadowed (Bambi Lee Savage Music) Bambi Lee Savage has an interesting musical pedigree—as a recording engineer, she has credits with the likes of Nick Cave and U2. As a musician, she’s been championed by, among others,...
Nightcrawler: Cents-less Acts of Audio
They may put the squeeze on you at the pump again this summer, but here are at least three cents-less acts of audio, on tap this month to please the most ardent of penny pinchers. In addition to boasting one of the largest fireworks displays in the region (on Sunday,...
CD Shorts
Ten KensNamesake(Fat Cat Records)Brett Paulin and Dan Workman (Ten Kens) may have minted their most profound and poignant record to date in Namesake. Over the course of a year, the Toronto-based songwriting duo produced the album in complete isolation—as is...
Nightcrawler
Drunk Stuntmen frontman Steve Sanderson still remembers the phone call that gave birth to band’s now-annual performance at Bourne Scenic Park. “It was 13 years ago, the band was on the road, and my dad calls,” he explains. “So he says he wants...
Behind the Beat: King?s Ex
Most Valley-ites and at least a healthy chunk of New Yorkers probably remember Peyton Pinkerton as one of the principal members of the Hampshire College-spawned New Radiant Storm King, and much of that band’s 1990s indie rock feel is carried over onto the...
Still Smells Like Diesel
I couldn’t help but smile when I received the latest Lonesome Brothers CD with a handwritten note from Ray Mason and enclosed in an envelope that had been sent to my old address—from six years ago. Perhaps a good metaphor for the Lonesome Brothers...
Behind the Beat
Local duo The Demographic have rocked the Valley for more than a few years now, slinging energetic beats and sludge-laden guitar riffage in a passionate and fitful but still rather nerdy way, the musical equivalent of trashing a hotel room with a light saber. The...
Nightcrawler
Since its inception, Greenfield’s Green River Festival (taking place July 20-21 this year) has amassed music lineups with enough nationally known names to make sister celebrations, well, green with envy. While entertainment scheduler Jim Olsen believes that this...
CD Shorts
Andy Kaufman Andy and his Grandmother (Drag City) It’s long been difficult for many people to relate to the bizarre antics of comedian/performance artist Andy Kaufman, a man who created major alternate identities for himself, including a professional...CD Shorts
Savages Silence Yourself (Matador) This ferocious debut may evoke both Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division, but unlike many of today’s backward-looking bands, Savages aren’t remotely interested in nostalgia. There’s a feral urgency and...
Nightcrawler: Non-Cents in Noho
Like many folks the region over, members of Northampton’s Business Improvement District (BID) knew that their city had a storied, robust music scene. Unlike many of its neighbors, however, Paradise City had somehow ceased to put forth a series of free outdoor...CD Shorts
Purson The Circle and the Blue Door (Metal Blade/ Rise Above) According to demonology, the creature “Purson” is a “Great King of Hell,” often accompanied by 22 legions of demons that do his bidding. On its debut album, the London band...
Ever Green
Franklin County’s Green River Festival has grown over the years into an annual tradition of increasing distinction. While its family-friendly weekend schedule continues to feed, entertain, and even clothe visitors of all ages via local food and merchandise...
Nightcrawler: All That Jazz
The Crawler caught up with axe master Eric Johnson just prior to the “Cliffs of Dover” creator’s impending tour with Mike Sterns of Miles Davis infamy. Here’s some of what went down. Crawler: With so much material for you to choose from,...
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Robin Nolan Gypsy Blue (H.O.T.) Robin Nolan is an odd fit in the pantheon of Gypsy jazz guitarists—he’s British, not Gypsy or even French. Though the genre has now become an international phenomenon, Nolan is hardly a newcomer. He’s long...
Brood II
It’s been 17 years since the 1996 release of Massachusetts, the Scud Mountain Boys’ last studio album for SubPop—basically the entire lifespan of a medium-sized dog. Eerily in sync with (but much quieter than) the emergence of Brood II, the East...
Nightcrawler: Shucks and Yuks
It may be famous for its oxen draws, sheep shows and garden tractor pulls, but as evidenced by this year’s crop of musical talent, the 2013 Heath Fair (heathfair.org) has sown a healthy dose of high quality audio into the agricultural mix this year. Signature...
CD Shorts
Hot Club of Cowtown Rendezvous in Rhythm (Gold Strike) Austin, Tex. trio Hot Club of Cowtown is renowned for both its deft instrumental virtuosity and the sheer energy level of its performers. Blending 1930s-era old-time song sensibility with bursts of Gypsy...
Behind the Beat: Triangulation Station
Spouse’s Jose Ayerve has long been a wanderer, touring extensively and, even at his most rooted, bi-locating himself in two states. Though he’s a bit older and wiser now, he’s nonetheless formulated what most people might call an odd recipe for...
Behind the Beat: Watch This
Doug Ratner isn’t what you’d call a poet. His lyrics are often filled with somewhat clichéd, stereotypical tropes about girls, conformity and rebellion, and reside inside songs with less than thought-provoking titles like “If You Wanna,”...
Salloom Promise
On Wednesday, Aug. 14, “America’s Best Unknown Songwriter” hosts the “most well-attended, longest-running free concert in Northampton” when seasoned singer/songwriter Roger Salloom (rogersalloom.com) takes to the Pines Theater stage in...
Graylight Savings
With members sporting stage names like Snaxx, V-Chip, Murder, Tal Vez and Shorty, Easthampton Savings Band sounds more like a loose association of neighborhood thugs than a musical group—the kind of folks who’d sucker you into a game of three-card Monte or...
Nightcrawler: Not So Humble Beginnings
Luckily for any who have shared a Battle of the Bands stage with them, Springfield’s Humble Patients are also gracious winners. In just under two years of existence, the funky foursome that features three lefties (band member AJ Del Negro has his bass strung...CD Shorts
The Dodos Carrier (Polyvinyl) Carrier is an odd sort of album in that its skeleton is straightforward songwriting, melody-centered, quiet and a touch wistful, but its vibe is thoroughly contemporary, mixing that deliberate, closely examined songwriting with...
CD Shorts
Steph Casey Whisper and Holler (independent) Steph Casey, a New Zealand-based singer/songwriter, sure has a lot of American muses. Among those whose influences you’ll hear are Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, and Joy Williams of The Civil Wars, whose...
CD Shorts
A Severe Joy cinematesque part 1 (Nine Mile Recordings) A Severe Joy is the latest musical incarnation of the muy prolifica Jose Ayerve (Spouse, Nuclear Watse Management Club), who’s basically played, sang and produced everything on the disc. The grooves,...
Nightcrawler: Cool Customer
The recent passing of literary legend Elmore Leonard has very local implications. The famed author of such gritty crime novels cum silver screen features as Get Shorty and Be Cool had actually worked with—and befriended—the Valley’s own Stone Coyotes...
Behind the Beat: Mr. Roboto
Few people have had their fingers in as many musical pies in the Valley as Rob Ives, aka Robo and/or Robert American, a multi-instrumentalist who’s proven a highly energetic, hardworking journeyman. He’s also gained a reputation as a creative force in both...E-Edition
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