Music
by Advocate staff | Oct 15, 2013 | Music
Speedy Ortiz Major Arcana (Carpark) Northampton’s Speedy Ortiz began as the vehicle for the songwriting of Sadie Dupuis, who came to the Valley to study poetry at UMass-Amherst. Now the band is a quartet, and the four create some major noise. This is...
by James Heflin | Dec 10, 2013 | Music
Mutual Benefit Love’s Crushing Diamond (Other Music Recording Co.) Mutual Benefit is primarily a one-man operation. That one man, Jordan Lee, has wandered from Austin, Texas, to Ohio, Boston and Brooklyn, collecting collaborators in the process....
by Gary Carra | Dec 17, 2013 | Music
Iconic singer/songwriter Neil Young has announced that he will follow up his four-show stand at Carnegie Hall early next year with four more aimed at clamping down on oil pipelines and production in his native Canada. Dubbed the “Honor The Treaties”...
by Gary Carra | Dec 17, 2013 | Music
Super Typhoon Haiyan may have unleashed its deadly winds and surging tides some 8,000-plus miles away last month. But as the Valley’s own Jennifer Matias explains, the devastation the tropical cyclone literally rained down on the people of Southeast Asia a month...
by James Heflin | Dec 24, 2013 | Music
If you never use the “shuffle” setting on your audio player and you really like to dig into recordings, it’s a fine time of year. That’s because record companies tend to go after your holiday wallet with their most spectacular Hail Mary, the...
by Gary Carra | Dec 24, 2013 | Music
Submitted in no particular order—and created for no particular reason, for that matter—here are the winners in installment number one of the 2013 Nightcrawler Notables awards. The “If You Can’t Be Him, Join Him” Award: Michael...
by Rob Weir | Dec 24, 2013 | Music
History: The First 25 Years (Borealis) Twenty-three years ago I interviewed, for this publication, an up-and-coming Canadian musician. The flowing locks are gone, but everything else about James Keelaghan confirms my initial impression that he is among folk...
by Jack Brown | Dec 31, 2013 | Music
Spend a few minutes in the Northampton home of Bruce Kriviskey and it quickly becomes apparent that the he’s got a lot of talent in his hands. Just to the left of the entryway is an intricate and wonderfully detailed ship in a bottle that the one-time architect...
by Gary Carra | Dec 31, 2013 | Music
Swapping out calendars for the new annum, the Crawler would be remiss not to mention the early Xmas present he and other card-carrying members of the KISS Army received earlier this month. Much like the plight suffered by fellow multi-platinum rockers Rush that was...
by Ben Lambert | Dec 31, 2013 | Music
Carrie Ferguson makes music in her garage, a small, pleasantly cluttered building that’s withdrawn slightly from the side of the road. It’s a creative, homey space, well-lived in, full of instruments in various states of repair, concert posters, and...
by Rob Weir | Dec 31, 2013 | Music
Embers & Ashes (independent) The term “folk rock” has been around for a long time, but there are performers such as Richard Thompson, Ellis Paul, Stephen Stills, and Ray Lamontagne whose cadences, sensibilities, and musical souls are such that...
by James Heflin | Jan 7, 2014 | Music
The Callas Am I Vertical? (Inner Ear) From the first strains of The Callas’ Am I Vertical?, there’s an air of confident, weird cool. This is a band that seems to be saying, “We wear better shoes than you, and we always will.” Brothers Lakis and...
by by Pete Redington | Jan 7, 2014 | Music
If Afrika Bambaataa was looking for the perfect beat and Kinks singer Ray Davies was searching for the perfect riff, then Northampton’s noise-pop trio The True Jacqueline continues to explore some combination of both with their latest EP Like Way Out, which...
by Gary Carra | Mar 4, 2014 | Music
Many is the unsigned act that has tried to ingratiate itself with a national notable by stroking said national’s ego. When it comes to the curious case of Last Laugh singer Devin Cordeiro and his newfound kinship with Godsmack mouthpiece Sully Erna, however,...
by James Heflin | Jan 8, 2014 | Music
It’s a good time to be a Pixies fan. The last year brought the first new music in ages from the seminal late ‘80s alternative rockers, and now the band is embarking on a tour to bring the music to live audiences. That would be good enough news alone, but...
by James Heflin | Mar 4, 2014 | Music
Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes (Music Maker) Leyla McCalla sounds like an emissary from an alternate history. Even when her music is familiar in its chord progressions or melody, she’s prone to using her cello to send her sounds for a spin...
by Gary Carra | Jan 14, 2014 | Music
A Green Mountain State-based Americana band is looking to raise some greenbacks for a dear friend in a dire situation. And anyone even remotely familiar with the Vermont quartet The Joinery wouldn’t bet against them in their quest to pack Putney’s 160-seat...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 14, 2014 | Music
It’s a fact that the Velvet Underground’s first release only sold in the thousands. It’s widely rumored that nearly everyone who did buy that fateful 1967 full-length, The Velvet Underground and Nico, was so inspired by what they heard that they...
by Jennifer Levesque | Mar 4, 2014 | Music
The Glass Coffin (independent) The Glass Coffin is the four-song debut EP from a “heavy transcendental” rock band out of Holyoke. Ben Reigle (guitarist/vocals) and Hans Dalhaus (drums) formed Oxen originally to “channel their influences.” They...
by Gary Carra | Jan 21, 2014 | Music
St. Louis-based roots rockers The Bottle Rockets have recently replenished the stock of their long-out-of-print first two albums, Bottle Rockets and The Brooklyn Side. And to celebrate the completion of the remastered two-disc set, the Bottle Rockets...
by Jack Brown | Mar 12, 2014 | Music
A quarter-century is, by any marker, a milestone. But for a music series—a phenomenon which seems so often born of good will but raised by bad parents—to last 25 years is a testament to something deeper than just survival. To last in that arena, a series...
by by Pete Redington | Jan 21, 2014 | Music
Holyoke’s Waterfront Tavern becomes the site of a full-fledged dance exposition this weekend when it hosts Beatdown Productions’ Ice Breaker 3: Ascen dance. Three custom stages—featuring breaks, electro, techno; house, jungle, dub, and drum...
by James Heflin | Mar 12, 2014 | Music
Even when electronics weighed as much as boulders and glowed with vacuum tubes, concocting strange instruments capable of new sounds was the province of Frankensteinian basement tinkerers. Though it seems unlikely, electronic sound experimentation arose far earlier...
by James Heflin | Jan 21, 2014 | Music
Rusty Belle Common Courtesy (independent) On Rusty Belle’s latest offering, the music is folky, but only kind of. The instrumentation is often acoustic (though there’s a bell-toned electric guitar in evidence, too) and the vocals are softly...
by Rob Weir | Mar 12, 2014 | Music
Exit 1 (independent) Mix the lonesome sounds of Mark O’Connor, the majestic sweeps of Alasdair Fraser, and the classical precision of Yehudi Menuhin, and you’re still be a few elements short of Nistha Raj. To reach Exit 1 you also need to transpose...
by Gary Carra | Jan 29, 2014 | Music
After a decade-plus of tackling the works of Tool with machine-like precision, drummer Rob Solomon says it’s time to re-tool his band, Intolerance, with a new frontman. But in true Intolerance fashion, the retro-fit will not occur until after one last bash with...
by by Pete Redington | Mar 19, 2014 | Music
Bright and Dark (BETTYRules Music (BMI)) Throughout their career, irreverent all-female pop rock trio BETTY have been driven by their desire to empower women and girls and end bullying and gender violence. This has led to singing educational songs for the HBO series...
by Jeff Jackson | Jan 29, 2014 | Music
The Clean Vehicle (Captured Tracks) New Zealand’s answer to the Velvet Underground, The Clean was the prime mover in the fertile Flying Nun scene of the 1980s. The trio was well served by a Merge compilation a few years back, but their actual releases...
by by Gary Carra | Mar 19, 2014 | Music
For three decades and counting, Anthrax axe man Scott Ian has brought “the noize”—and helped pioneer the thrash metal movement in the process. Last week, however, the veteran metal-meister took to Boston’s Cavern Club armed only with his voice...
by by Pete Redington | Jan 29, 2014 | Music
Volume One (BaldHill Records) It was Jimmy Buffet‘s alter ego Frank Bama who once suggested that the best navigators don’t necessarily know where they are going until they get there. Few assessments have so accurately (albeit unintentionally)...
by Rob Weir | Mar 26, 2014 | Music
Are the ’60s back? That would be fine with Heather Maloney. Though just 28, she doesn’t feel connected to her own generation. “Hipster detachment is so not me,” she says. “I’m a raw person affected by everything [and] sensitive to a...
by Gary Carra | Feb 5, 2014 | Music
With a career that spanned some seven decades and brought him everywhere from the top 10 charts to labor rallies, a conviction for contempt of Congress and the steps of Lincoln Memorial to perform at President Obama’s inaugural, it comes as a surprise to exactly...
by by Pete Redington | Mar 26, 2014 | Music
Sometimes a pun can be taken too far. Far too far. But other times, said adventurous pun is surprisingly appropriate, as is the case with Dark Side of the Moonshine, the San Francisco-based Poor Man’s Whiskey bluegrass band’s performance of Pink...
by by Pete Redington | Feb 5, 2014 | Music
The gypsy brass rock music circus comes to town New Orleans-style this week, when the Dirty Bourbon River Show plays Northampton in support of the new album Accordion Anthology. The evening promises to be at least as much show as music concert, but the Dirty Bourbon...
by Gary Carra | Mar 26, 2014 | Music
S cott Lawson Pomeroy and his Orange Crush band have appealed to our inner ’80s for more than a decade. And they’ll do it again at Noho’s City Sports Grille this Saturday, March 29. In his never-ending quest to push the pop envelope, however, Pomeroy...
by Rob Weir | Feb 5, 2014 | Music
Denial. That’s what I felt when I heard that Pete Seeger died in the waning hours of January 27. Pete Seeger can’t die. Pete, like your childhood home, was always supposed to be there. Forever. Pete reminded us we’re “just passing...
by Gary Carra | Mar 26, 2014 | Music
Last week, your friendly neighborhood Crawler caught up with Anthrax axe-man Scott Ian for an exclusive interview with bona fide, thrash-metal royalty. The focus then was on Ian’s upcoming Speaking Words show, a one-man monologue tour he debuted in Europe in...
by James Heflin | Feb 5, 2014 | Music
Soul singer Charles Bradley may sound like he should have been making hit records 40 years ago, but that’s simply because he really should have been—he was around back then. Bradley’s story is one of incredible perseverance: he was abandoned and...
by Pete Redington | Apr 2, 2014 | Music
Despite living in the greater Boston city of Somerville for a mere four years, folk singer and songwriter Peter Mulvey maintains many Massachusetts connections. He records on local label Signature Sounds, plays a regular Harvard Square summer stint at Club Passim as...
by James Heflin | Feb 12, 2014 | Music
Faya (Cumbancha) A lot of times, genres get mashed up willy-nilly, and the mashers of those genres count on novelty to propel them. On Faya, the genre-mashing feels natural. In this case, two musicians with quite different styles were asked to collaborate as part of a...
by James Heflin | Apr 2, 2014 | Music
Greg Smith and The Broken English Ramblin’ Road (independent) Greg Smith and The Broken English are a New York City band, but if one of the members looks familiar, that may well be because Greg Smith is a native of Charlemont who says he “never let...
by Gary Carra | Feb 12, 2014 | Music
Many is the venue that screens its acts before allowing them to grace the main stage. But a band taking to a stage to help procure a new screen for a venue is surely a first, as far as the Crawler can recall. “Shelburne Falls Memorial Hall is quite a special...
by James Heflin | Apr 2, 2014 | Music
Dreaming for Hours (independent) Dreaming for Hours starts with a repetitive loop of electronic percussion, and soon builds layers of electric guitar, bass and sweeps of synthesizer noise. Jeff Steblea, also part of the Valley band Fiesta Brava, is the main...
by Ben Lambert | Feb 12, 2014 | Music
The founding members of Stillbridge, Robbie Douglas and Laura Mustard—yes, the latter is a stage name, although it is her mother’s maiden name—connected at a theme party a few years back, during which partygoers assumed other personas and busied...
by Gary Carra | Apr 9, 2014 | Music
In the latest news from the Valley music world, Gone By Daylight’s Eric Paquette checked in to report that while recording their latest single, “Anywhere Away From You,” at L.A.’s infamous Village Studios, he inadvertently gave the cold...
by Gary Carra | Feb 19, 2014 | Music
Since opening the doors at School Street in Chicopee, General Manager Donald Robert, Jr. and his Maximum Capacity nightclub have hosted national rockers like Vince Neil, Men in Motion, ladies’ nights… even midget wrestling. But never before has the venue...
by Gary Carra | Apr 16, 2014 | Music
Mike Tramp, the voice of ’80s rockers White Lion, will bring his solo acoustic show to Stafford, Conn.’s Palace Theater (thestaffordpalacetheater.com) this Saturday, April 19. Look out for next week’s installment for the Nightcrawler’s...
by Rob Weir | Feb 19, 2014 | Music
Devil’s Tale (Asphalt Tango) A bat-flocked Gothic background fronts a lady of no discernible virtue and a guitar-packing Old Nick sits astride a cigar-smoking skeleton holding a trumpet. Pictures tell stories, and Devil’s Tale is so hellishly good...
by Gary Carra | Apr 16, 2014 | Music
Trio de Pumpkintown may be rooted in fiction—it’s the supposed house band for New England’s “most musically rich imaginary village.” But when asked to chronicle the series of events that led to its members’ coming together for the...
by James Heflin | Feb 26, 2014 | Music
Two (Polyvinyl) Owls’ new effort, Two, starts with a loping, off-kilter drum part and buzzing, infectious guitar and bass. The feel is open and airy, yet the sounds are propulsive. The multi-voice vocals arrive in call-and-response fashion, high parts...
by Pete Redington | Apr 23, 2014 | Music
A wintertime session at a recording studio in the town of Parsonsfield, Maine—which sits on the New Hampshire border west of Sebago Lake and east of Lake Winnipesaukee—may not bring to mind folk music from the sun-drenched climes of southern Mexico....
by Gary Carra | Feb 26, 2014 | Music
Considering the competition, it wasn’t difficult for Sean McDaniel’s posts to swiftly catch the Crawler’s cornea as he scrolled though his Facebook Newsfeed during one of the recent thrice-weekly storms. Let’s see… there’s...
by James Heflin | Apr 23, 2014 | Music
Cycles (Take This to Heart) Traditions might seem like an unusual name for a band adhering to the punk/hardcore genre, but its members have clearly thought out their choice. According to singer Randy Burlingame, the Westfield band intends to be “more than just a...
by Gary Carra | Apr 30, 2014 | Music
The Crawler recently caught up with platinum-haired, platinum-selling White Lion frontman Mike Tramp at his recent solo acoustic show at The Palace Theater in Stafford, Conn. Here’s some of what went down: Crawler: I understand you just got off the Monsters of...
by Gary Carra | May 7, 2014 | Music
Frontman Bill Gaines isn’t sure if, after a 14-year run on the local circuit, his Johnny Sixgun has reached the proverbial musical mountaintop in its career. But he does know that the band has secured a coveted spot at the Summit View...
by Gary Carra | May 7, 2014 | Music
With more than 80 Youtube videos garnering more than 2.5 million views to date, Kranj, Slovenia-born drummer Zack Bevelacqua is as prolific as he is popular. But he also likes to peep out other progressive musicians on the popular video platform. And in 2006, he...
by Pete Redington | May 14, 2014 | Music
Live At The Arts Block (independent) The cover of Juke Joint Jazz’s album Live At The Arts Block features a watercolor painting by Barbara Levine titled “Musical Landscape.” Which is fitting, as the recording’s nine tracks form a sort of...
by James Heflin | May 21, 2014 | Music
Message of Love (independent) Take a look at the cover of Greenfield musician Russ Kaback’s debut EP, and you might think you know what kind of music awaits. It’s an entrant in the unusual subgenre of musician photos featuring bare feet and acoustic...
by Gary Carra | May 21, 2014 | Music
He had fond memories of attending the popular local event as a child. And Chicopee’s other festival of note, Fest of All, has decided to become an autumn event, leaving a noticeable void in the spring/summer entertainment calendar. If you ask the man most...
by Gary Carra | May 28, 2014 | Music
The Travelers Golf Championship may not be able to snare Tiger Woods or some of the other higher-profile lords of the links. But for the third year in a row, the powers that be—or, more specifically, Powerstation Events—plan on driving more attendance to...
