The Pro Jam is a well-oiled circus that sets up its tent at alternating venues each Tuesday night. Last week’s hang ‘n’ bang was at Skylark Lounge before a full house. The beauty of this jam is it truly jams musicians together that would never think to play with one another otherwise. The common denominator […]
Music Reviews
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CD REVIEW: Richard Sussman Quintet “Continuum”
If you think they’ve stopped writing jazz standards like they used to in the late 1950s, listen to the new album by the Richard Sussman Quintet. Appropriately titled “Continuum,” the CD is full of tunes that harken back to the best of the hard-bop years while retaining a contemporary feel. The opener, “Spare Change,” is […]
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Eat to the beat
Part of The Public Market Band’s allure is its duct-taped assembly, its rag-tag nonchalance, its Rube Goldberg framework. Bands practice this for years, trying to make their performances all gunfighter cool and dangerous. TPMB is one of the few bands that doesn’t try, and yet it achieves that hipster cool like a swingin’ Frigidaire. Add […]
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Sign of the apocalypse
I can honestly say that I’m not a Loverboy fan. I know all of the band’s songs, though, thanks to the mind-numbing rotation it got on the radio back in the 1980’s. By the time the band hit the bigs, I had discovered punk rock by way of new wave, and was too cool for […]
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Light of day
George Thorogood roared thoroughly bad-ass to almost 8,000 fans at the final installment of the Party in the Park series last Thursday night. At 62, the Delaware Destroyer still has it, switching from lowdown, gutbucket bluesman a la Hound Dog Taylor to a flashy showman reminiscent of Little Richard. Thorogood offers nothing new, but his […]
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CD REVIEW: The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band: Between the Ditches
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is nothing short of an enigma. The three piece combines Reverend Peyton himself on finger style slide guitar, his wife Breezy on washboard, and Aaron Persinger on drums, creating a unique blend of fast and furious stomp-blues that is phenomenal live, still standing as one of, if not the […]
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The sizzle remains
There is no mistaking the power of New York City’s Helmet, the now-legendary heavy outfit fronted by its lone original member, guitarist-vocalist Page Hamilton, and featuring a constantly revolving cast of other members. This in-flux line-up has never been a problem for Page, as I’ve seen Helmet three times now and his attack is still […]
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Smitten by enigmas
It was a dark and stormy night… Well, actually, it was cool and dry when I strolled into a brick wall of heated anticipation and trepidation at Skylark Lounge over yonder on Union Street. The good, the bad, and the ugly had assembled on this otherwise uneventful Thursday evening for the first appearance of Unknown […]
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CD REVIEW: THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM “HANDWRITTEN”
There’s good news and bad news about New Jersey punk rockers The Gaslight Anthem’s major labor debut, “Handwritten.”
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Surf-a-go-go
Over the years I’ve had the pleasure to meet and play with some of my guitar heroes. Some of them are original cats from rock ‘n’ roll’s first wave, like Ike Turner, Ronnie Dawson, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry, Link Wray, and Friday night’s star attraction at Water Street Music Hall, surf-guitar innovator/godfather/legend […]
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Tears to a heathen’s eyes
The Indie Music Channel brought its Indie Music Revolution Festival to Water Street Music Hall this past weekend. The event boasted a cornucopia of young talent, including plenty of stuff from the home team. I caught Methanol Friday as the band blasted its big rock with hooks. This group has really settled into a solid […]
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Dispatches from the Jazz Blog, pt. 2
Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers put on a simply amazing show full of humor and instrumental dexterity. And both the laughs and musical prowess helped to give the sold-out Kodak Hall crowd at the band’s matinee on Wednesday, June 27, a crash course in bluegrass. Purists may balk — and I’m inclined to […]
