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Ostrich Farm's new album, Music for the New American Century
Though I hope to soon fill this space with a fuller review, let’s just start things off by saying this is, as you might expect from an album of outtakes, uneven. I think these guys are extremely talented, and I don’t want or mean to hold an outtake album...Shlockypop
Even though the Dan San Band has aptly titled its album Cockypop, and has clearly spent some amount of hours figuring out Green Day and Blink 182 songs, the effort as a whole is about as inspiring as a plain bagel, or any food item billed as "original...Wild Way, by John Cate & The Van Gogh Brothers
When this one starts up, acoustic strumming is undercut in a subtle fashion with some nice backwards guitar (or is it pedal steel? Hard to say). The texture then thickens with a little bit of tasty Telecaster. From then on, things get pretty darned normal, settling...The Challenge…
Okay, we’ve had a lot going on over here, juggling holidays, people’s vacation time and an upcoming office move to Northampton that’s probably going to be more painful than we think. BUT…don’t think we’ve forgotten about your puny...The Humming Field
Some disjointed notes while listening:This one starts not with humming but with aah-ing. Heh.What we’ve got here is what I would call, (and not in a disparaging fashion), pleasant pop. Most of the album is propelled by medium-tempo acoustic strumming, backed up...Curious Buddies
For all of you impatient little twits out there, please be aware that we just moved our offices to Northampton last weekend and are still ironing out some technological kinks. That being said, it is notable that we have already given quite a bit of coverage already to...Summer's Here Early
Closing my eyes while listening to singer/songwriter Erica Wheeler’s newest offering, Good Summer Rain, I was instantly transported to various outposts in the backcountry of America. “Endless Pines” evokes images of the cold, unforgiving north;...Charlie King and Karen Brandow
It’s hard not to agree with the positions espoused in the lyrics of HIGHER ground by Charlie King and Karen Brandow with Tex LaMountain. This is a crew full of snarky commentary about the political and cultural morass of America under King George W. It’s...Eric Hnatow-Heart Music
When Heflin handed me this CD, he said "It might be a little folky." I’m assuming his impression was taken from the CD’s handmade-looking packaging, some hearty rag paper adorned with an application of actual, multicolored bits of thread–it...The Cheaters Club: QQROFL
Judging by the computer savvy of the composers, I’m guessing that QQROFL is some sort of IM code that I’m too old or analog to grok, though I am curious as to its origins. The album itself is extremely well put-together, drawing much production/thematic...Bell & Cooper: Postcards Out of the Blue
Though this record is composed of some great instrumentation, great lyrics and very fine production, at least half of it seems to suffer from the somehow inorganic "arranged marriage" syndrome. This is likely because lyricist Wyn Cooper, a poet of some...Tal Vez
In my natural curiosity, I searched out the meaning of the word/phrase "Tal Vez," discovering that it is a Spanish adverb, in English: "maybe" or "perhaps." It is also the name of a popular Ricky Martin song. The local version of this...Drew Hickum
No matter you you lick em or stick em, Drew Hickum and the Colonels have a good time. And I’d like to apologize for that statement, but I’m giddy with lack of sleep, and rhymes like that simply cannot be passed up. This crew makes quite fine...Of prodigies and anti-prodigies
Last night I was subjected to part of Dancing With the Stars. I can now confidently report what I'm sure many people already knew–wow, does Miley Cyrus blow. She's got the vocal prowess of a consumptive Mae West, the dance moves of a 4th-grade ballerina,...Valley Musician Releases CD
A local musician, after not releasing CDs, has released a CD. The new effort contains several “songs.”The CD was recorded by a renowned local recording engineer, and is expected to be encased in plastic wrapping. Other local musicians, when asked about the...Valley Musician retracts recently released CD
"It was fundamentally compromised from the get-go," the local musician said. "The track order was all wrong, and the cover art–a picture of me sitting in an outhouse with Abraham Lincoln–just didn't convey my vision. I'm having them...Out of the Bedroom
Local songstress Ella Longpre (full disclosure: she is a former editorial intern here at the Advo) has self-released a CD, Dust Be Your Savior. The CD pleased me before I even stuck it in my CD drive on my Dell: The disc is white with the outline of a horse...Wasted
Woody Pistrich has been a rabid, supportive fan of Valley music since the late ’80s, and his face has been visible at hundreds of shows since then. His house is a veritable museum of flyers that bring back so many awesome memories of local rock shows, and the...Linq: Life Goes On
And so does this CD–popping it in right here and now. Although by the time you read this, it will have been popped in there and then. But anyway.First impressions: burpy bass, slow old-school fingerpicked guitar, earnest lyrics, female folk-style singing....Laura Siersema's Talon of the Blackwater
By Ryan Duffy Currently based out of Greenfield, singer/songwriter Laura Siersema offers her third album. According to her biography, she loved music as a child, attempted nursing school and dropped out, and fell back into music—not exactly the worst move, in...The Prozacs
The Prozacs' Playing the Chords We Love is in for a spin. Straight-up punk, at least in terms of sound–whiney SoCal vocals on top of buzzy Les Paul (and I'm guessing a Marshall?). Have to respect the choice to just embrace the old school, unencumbered by...Ten Dollar Outfit, he Frost Heaves, Justin Pigott
Here's a roundup of recent picks as written by Ryan Duffy and Lee Taylor.-JH Ten Dollar OutfitThe Show Low Sessions Phoenix-based Ten Dollar Outfit features western MA’s own Brian Chartrand on vocals and guitar. Their recent E.P., The Show Low Sessions, has...Nai Kete and Jesse Sterling Harrison
Here are two new reviews by Lee Taylor. -JHNai Keté Sweet Music You can sense Nai Keté'scomfort in front of a microphone–she’s been singing since the age of one. Keté’s barefoot brand of R&B is elusive, weaving through...Swing Caravan, Get It Fresh
This week, we’ve got some short takes on Swing Caravan’s CD Get It Fresh. The band’s rhythm guitarist, Jack Brown, is the author of the Advocate’s Cinema Dope film column. –James HeflinGet It Fresh Swing Caravan's dynamic sounds leap...Random Access Orkestra, Ray Mason
Random Access Orkestra(self-titled)Independent RAO is a miasmal, cut-and-paste smorgasbord of loops, live instruments and vocals, spoken word rants and almost propagandistic, Orwellian samples from old movies, educational videos and the like. The musical bed ranges...Caravan Gogh
If Caravan Gogh doesn't sound like a local band you've heard of, that's 'cause they're not local. The band is the current musical vehicle of Gideon Freudmann, former Valley resident and electric cellist extraordinaire. These days, he lives in...
Nightcrawler: Picture Perfect
Two years ago, Tony Jillson was asked to contribute music for a short film about Cynthia Elbaum — a friend of his who was killed while covering the Chechen/Russian war in 1994 as a photojournalist. “The music was well received, but it was recorded with many computer...
CD Shorts: Katherine First & the Kitchen Party
Dancing Tables & Dancing Chairs (independent) In Ireland, one of the greatest honors a family can bestow upon a visitor is to invite that person into their kitchen. The kitchen is considered the room of greatest physical warmth and personal intimacy; it’s also the...
Traffic and Crime
The site of the Springfield casino won’t look like anything much until 2015, but eight neighboring communities saw a tangible advance this past Friday in the form of cold hard cash. MGM distributed nearly $2 million to nearby communities as the first installment in a...
SceneHere: Signs of Ferguson
As media members from The Republican, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, ABC 40 Springfield, and CBS 3 Springfield waited under a wintry noonday sun, 200 students walked out of class to the applause of a handful of older activists and gathered at the entrance to Amherst...Between the Line: Where’s Wellness?
Mike winced when I winced. “Not good. You’re a mess,” he said, his thumb probing the collection of muscles and tendons that comprise my rotator cuff. After working over my shoulder, decorating the upper right side of my body in blue physio tape, Mike went after my...From Our Readers
Moving to make way for MGM? Don’t forget about Holyoke Very interesting article (Raising the Stakes: Springfield’s South End businesses relocate to make way for MGM, Nov. 8, 2014), but it didn’t go far enough. MGM, the city of Springfield, and the property owners are...
Nightcrawler: Harping on an Unlikely Duo
He’s a percussive dancer from Michigan. She’s a Scottish harpist. So naturally, when the two met at the Shasta Fiddle Camp in Northern California, they decided to take their show on the road. Maeve Gilchrist and Nic Gareiss bring their unique amalgam of dance and harp...
Pick of the Week
A New Nutcracker As Christmastime makes its annual approach, many an audience braces itself for a vigorous regime of Nutcracker watching. Those who’ve grown a touch tired of Tchaikovsky’s ballet have a different choice this year, courtesy of Greenfield’s Celtic Heels...
But Will They Come?
During the ascent to the top of Berkshire East Mountain resort’s new rollercoaster, the Thunderbolt, a man has plenty of time to study the steep incline of the longest alpine coaster track in North America — and the jagged, vertiginous underlying terrain. Jon...
All Over the Place
H eart Light, says dancer/choreographer Billbob Brown, may be “the last piece I’ll ever be doing for University Dancers.” After more than two decades on the UMass Music and Dance faculty, he’s leaving to chair the dance program at the Hong Kong Academy of the...
Season’s Creepings: A John Waters Christmas at the Calvin Theatre
John Waters is a wicked Santa. Each year he pops up around America with a big familiar wink and an avuncular grin. But he wears a thin pencil mustache instead of a big white beard, and his bag of gifts is packed full of demented stories and bizarre anecdotes. The...
A Wintry Queue
If the parents were planets, the kids were mad moons, orbiting and careening as excitement rattled their frames. It’s a phenomenon you can often see at the toy-shop end of South Deerfield’s Yankee Candle. But on a recent Saturday, a line stretched from near the toy...Between the Lines: Why I Hunt
So far this fall, I’ve spent approximately 75 hours in the woods of Maine trying to kill a deer. I spent at least that much time hunting during Maine’s rifle season last year and I came home empty-handed. Starting this week, I’ll spend time in my local woods with my...Peter Kassig’s death Revenge is not the answer
On Sunday, Nov. 16, the U.S. confirmed that Islamic State fighters had beheaded Abdul-Rahman (or Peter, as I knew him) Kassig, my classmate from Butler University. The next day, I returned to work at the Win Without War coalition. One of my peers had been murdered,...
CD Shorts
Nar-ke (independent) A lot of the time, the term “experimental” is code for “unlistenable,” particularly when terms like “challenging” come along for the ride. Pony Bwoy, on the other hand, is decidedly experimental, and is a particularly engrossing, even relaxing...Red Wine Season
As the temperatures have receded, the red wine season is upon us, and one of my favorites is Malbec. It’s a flinty wine, high in tannins, produced from gritty deep purple grapes grown at 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level in sand and gravel soils that make weeds turn...Not So Simple: Comparing medical procedure prices is supposed to be easy under a new law — it isn’t
In the category of: Why wasn’t this already a thing? Massachusetts recently became the first state in the nation to require health care facilities and insurance providers make cost-of-service estimates available to patients in advance of undergoing medical procedures....
Wellness: Stay Well, Alternatively
As winter’s first swells swirl in, you’re likely breaking out the humidifiers and heating pads and thinking about how best to bolster your immune system for the season. We’ve all heard about flu shots and DayQuil, but there’s a lot more you can do when it seems like...Peter Kassig?s Death: Revenge Is Not the Answer
On Sunday, Nov. 16, the U.S. confirmed that Islamic State fighters had beheaded Abdul-Rahman (or Peter, as I knew him) Kassig, my classmate from Butler University. The next day, I returned to work at the Win Without War coalition. One of my peers had been murdered,...E-Edition
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