Most drummers can trace back to when the beat first hit them and latched on. There are umpteen assorted tales of banged up pots and pans or cardboard boxes and fed-up parents and the undeniable urge to hit, to keep time. Eighty-one-year-old Eddie Israel is a jazz legend who has run with some of the […]
Frank De Blase
Posted inMusic
The depths of a shallow cool
It certainly has been the winter of my discontent so far: slim pickins for shows. I’m getting a little stir crazy. The last month was peppered with a few musical highlights. Jazz chanteuse Jane Monheit warbled in front of two sold-out crowds and in front of a killer band whose drummer (Monheit’s ball and chain) […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Best of the wurst
It’s hard to be cool when it’s so cold outside. Monday night and it was snowing sideways. The wind chill had pantsed the thermometer. Nevertheless The White Hots — guitarists Steve Greene and AleksDisljenkovic, bassist Ted Mosher, and harmonica player Tom Hanney — strolled into The Little Theatre Café one at a time with a […]
Posted inMusic
Don’t fear the backbeat
In some narrow circles the backbeat has been given a bad rap. It has been misappropriated into some of the worst music ever — though it shows up in some of the best. It has been frowned upon as lowbrow and pedestrian. Yet the backbeat provides the rhythm for virtually all music. Don’t fear the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Heavy cello thunder
A rock fan sees a cello and is inclined to turn tail and run. A classical music buff hears “heavy metal” and cringes. Break of Reality cellist Erin Keesecker is keenly aware of both reactions. “You have to erase any preconception you have of our music and then listen to us,” Keesecker says. “People are […]
Posted inMusic
Tattooed in A flat
I dug The Franks (is that a cool name or what?) open for The Earl Cram Revue at The Montage a couple of Thursday nights ago (alas, it would turn out to be my last time there). Frontman Dan Frank is another great guitar player here who I’m afraid gets overlooked. It’s the 20th anniversary […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Shovel your blues away
After spending the first few weeks of the new year getting fat and staying warm, you’re gonna wanna go out. I know it’s cold and miserable outside, but don’t pretend this is your first winter either. Things kick off with the Cincinnati white boys gone Mississippi black, Thee Shams, at the Bug Jar on January […]
Posted inMusic
‘It’s Saturday night, it’s you, and it’s them’
Down in the night-life trenches where the real bands slug it out, exposure is the filthy lucre doled out by club owners in lieu of cash — or respect. If you’ve ever ventured into a nightclub clutching an instrument, with a song in your heart, stars in your eyes, and nothing in your pockets, then […]
Posted inMusic
Cash Mattock catharsis
A stranger walked up and handed me a package. It was a standard press kit stuffed with CD, photo, and bio. I waited for the big pitch that usually follows, but it didn’t come. “This is not me,” he said simply. Needless to say, I was intrigued. “This is Cash Mattock,” he said. Cash Mattock […]
Posted inMusic
Lighten up, hippies
The Chesterfield Kings have obviously learned at the feet of the rock ‘n’ roll masters, as they proved once again to about 500 fans at Water Street Music Hall two Saturdays ago. The show was loud and loose as always, with Paul Morabito laying down some fantastic guitar. They’re finally letting the boy shine. And […]
Posted inMusic
‘Follow this, bitches’
I dunno. Maybe rock ‘n’ roll lost its punch with the introduction of grammar. As soon as songwriters got clever, or cleaned up their English, or started straying outside the jungle, the primal urge was lost. So the next time you sit down to bang out the next rockin’ ode to whatever, here’s a good […]
Posted inMusic
Blood of the Democrat
Every style of music you hear today gets a little splash of yesterday. Whether it’s soul, garage rock, blues, jazz, hard rock, swing, old-school hip-hop, metal, or whatever, artists — either out of reverence or because they need a crutch — rely to some extent on music’s ghosts. Hell, I’m doing it myself right now. […]
