Greg Townson is worn out. He just got back from a whirlwind weekend with his band, The Hi-Risers, playing shows in New York City and New Haven. Come Monday morning and he’s back at his straight gig, hawking records at The Bop Shop. The Hi-Risers have been on the road, and in the air, touring […]
Frank De Blase
Posted inSpecial Sections
Hear
Yup, it’s DVD, CD, and fireplace weather for the next few months. But if you live alone, you might get a little lonely. If you live with someone, you might wind up killing each other. And it’s hard to dig a grave when the ground’s frozen. There isn’t a ton of shows blowing through town, […]
Posted inMusic
Wake-up call
Chris Beard plays the blues as if his pants were on fire. His fleet fretwork is deadly, often reducing his guitar to five, four, and sometimes three strings before the song is through. His blues have plenty of soul and sweat and show no signs of letting up. Beard is equally relentless. But this past […]
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Isotopocity
For most people, there’s just so much family you can take before you explode. So ’twas a packed Xmas night at the Bug Jar for the debut of The Isotopes’A Very Special Isotopes Christmas Special: How The Isotopes Saved Christmas. This was a low-budget, low-fidelity nugget of nerd-centric hilarity. Similar in acting quality and tone […]
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Rock out, get up, or get down
Heaven didn’t want ’em and Hell was afraid they’d take over, so Christian rockers Wales Road and recovering Christian rockers The Lobster Quadrille piled penitently into the Bug Jar instead last Thursday. Tommy Wales opted for a more jangly tone than usual but the songs still sounded great. His humility on stage is refreshing even […]
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Funky like a Foxxe
Funk is a feeling that’s hard to describe. During a recent basement rehearsal, funkster Andre Foxxe conducted his new backing band with things like “feel it,” “just hang back,” and vague, circular motions. There were no charts. Foxxe doesn’t confuse music theory with the music. That would just clutter the honesty and feel. And funk […]
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The Lindy Limp
Old school hip-hop night got off to a slow start Thursday at The Montage Music Hall (recently re-named and printed on t-shirts ala CBGB’s). The music pumped and jumped nonetheless. And I like this stuff better. Guess I’m just old school. I hope more of these nights start popping up around here. I hip-hopped from […]
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Cocaine blues
Yeah there’s plenty of primo talent here, but it’s nice to get out and see how the rest of ’em get down from time to time. So-Cal roots-rock troubadour Tom Russell’s only area appearance was at Castaways in Ithaca last Friday. And I’ve always loved his Southwest-Mexacali-big-sky-screw-Nashville music. Musically Russell can bring you to tears; […]
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Big rock for a little room
The Riviera Playboys have gone through quite a few lineup changes over the year. Each was cool and varied slightly with whoever was bringing whatever in with them, but never strayed from leader Dave Anderson’s mod vision. My favorite had always been the classic Williams-Frank-Anderson trio, but at the band’s show last Thursday night (warming […]
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Band on the run
When it rains in New York City the water has nowhere to go. And neither do the residents (those who want to stay dry anyway). Folks stay indoors and bands find themselves entertaining the walls of half-filled nightclubs. But hey, that’s the life they chose and them’s the breaks. At a recent rain-soaked Kenny’s Castaways […]
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I ain’t hip
Slinger Francisco swung and sang pretty low for a cat with the nickname Sparrow. Regardless, The Mighty Sparrow — “King of the Calypso World”— enthralled the packed Kilbourn Hall last Tuesday. At 70 (and with 70 albums to his credit) he is still a riveting and majestic presence. His style of hopping around the stage […]
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Bows to the rafters
Dar Williams has always been a tad too pleasant for me. Thoughtful, insightful, and guitar proficient are usually not quite enough. I need grit. I need entropy. I was thrilled when Williams praised New York’s trees for satisfying her need for things deciduous. It was a bit abstract but warmed me to her a little […]
