Last Wednesday, Delta Spirit rolled into Boston for the final stop of their Fall 2012 tour and since seeing them open for The Shins in New York City back in 2008, they have become one of my absolute favorite bands. Since the release of their second full length album “History From Below,” the band has spent most of their time performing both headlining gigs and major festival shows such as Lollapalooza, South by Southwest, and Austin City Limits. In addition to relentless touring, the band has spent the last four years undergoing a tremendous evolution through the release of their… click headline to Read More
Blog
I discovered Ben Sollee’s, “A Few Honest Words,” almost four years ago, and it has since become the soothing travel companion on many train rides from Boston to Philadelphia. However, seeing Sollee in concert on 10/18 at the Brighton Music Hall put the song in a completely different context. During this exciting election season, Sollee’s acoustic intro of, “if you’re going to lead my country/if you’re gonna say it’s free/I’m gonna need a little honesty,” conjures more than feelings of sleepy relaxation. After Sollee hinted at environmental efforts in his Kentucky Appalachia hometown and unique, community-building “bike tours,” this poignant song beautifully closed… click headline to Read More
Normally, on any other given Halloween, you’d think that the general teenage population would be out partying in Allston or stumbling around the Theater district. But, if you were at TD Garden on October 31st, you’d know that most EDM fans in Halloween costumes were pushed together in General Admission waiting for Pretty Lights to come on and send bass lines vibrating through their bodies. Pretty Lights, also known as Derek Vincent Smith, jumped behind his deck and immediately started playing. He started with a slow yet vibrant beat that got the crowd dancing almost right away, and speedily gave… click headline to Read More
I’ll be honest, my roommate and I sauntered into the Brighton Music Hall on 10/24 already feeling pretty cool- our new apartment is less than a 2 minute walk away and we bought the tickets for Langhorne Slim as a last-minute attempt to procrastinate studying for midterms. We were positioned a little far from the stage, but consoled ourselves by talking through the opener (sorry Last Bison, you were pleasant and imma let you finish, but why did you change your name from Bison to The Last Bison? Are you becoming extinct?) and with pumpkin beer. And we were seeing Langhorne Slim… click headline to Read More
On Saturday, November 3rd, the LA-based indie rock band Grouplove preformed at Royale Boston. They were preceded by the band MS MR (pronounced Miss Mister) who infused the pint size club with synth and pop beats and framed the mood for the ridiculousness that was Hannah Hooper. The wait for Grouplove was tantalizing as I watched the crew string leaves around the microphones, strew suitcases across the stage and test rainbow strobe-lights on splatter painted, fluorescent, hay bail size glass orbs. I knew I was going to like this show, the moment the band walked on stage to “Monster” by… click headline to Read More
In the eight years that they have been a band, Brooklyn-based duo Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino have tinkered with several different sounds and music styles, ranging from simple, drum-heavy pop that sounds like it was recorded in a loft, to more produced tracks appealing to a more top-40 audience. Beginning as somewhat of an experiment during their years at Pratt Institute, Matt & Kim have released three studio albums (Grand, Sidewalks, and Lightning), all beginning with a whirlwind year of performing in Brooklyn art spaces and basements, releasing their LP, To/From, and touring in a van. The band is… click headline to Read More
Although they were in Boston a mere five months ago, Motion City Soundtrack returned to the Paradise Rock Club with a whole lineup of talent to satisfy their dedicated fans. I Was Totally Destroying It, a band from North Carolina that worked with MCS’s Joshua Cain on their latest release, Vexations, opened the show with refreshing female vocals and instant energy. Now, Now – a Minnesota three-piece – turned the energy down in exchange for turning up some deep vibes. They played songs off of their latest album, Threads, as well as older tracks that will hopefully become favorites of… click headline to Read More
I saw Tame Impala a couple years ago at the Paradise, while they were touring for their debut album ‘Innerspeaker’. I loved (and still do love) their sound, a mixture of old and new psychedelia with classic rock and roll structures and cadences. And while that first show was good, it wasn’t great. However two years and a new album later, Tame Impala have come back stronger than ever. I arrived at the Royale just in time for the first song of the headlining set, and recognized immediately that this wasn’t the same band I had seen at the Paradise…. click headline to Read More
Saturday night, while everyone else was out at a party, dressed up as cops and nurses, I spent the night watching Mayday Parade and The Maine absolutely kill it. I was not expecting much from the two bands, to be honest. I thought that the punk- rock phase that I went through was long over, and they couldn’t possibly do anything to change it back. But I was utterly wrong. Both bands played magnificently and sounded just as they did on the album. Mayday Parade was the first headliner to take the stage after The Postelles. Derek Sanders, the lead… click headline to Read More
Yeasayer is known for their psychedelic pop music and their latest album, Fragrant World, introduces a more syth-pop side to their sound. But the Brooklyn-based band is also known for changing up their music. The past two albums, Odd Blood (2010) and All Hour Cymbals (2007) are very different and yet still compose the essence of Yeasayer’s synthesizer-induced electric pop feel. The new album isn’t as ‘pop’ compared to Odd Blood, but it still has the pop hooks that fans are used to, accompanied with their take on what I would describe as 80’s electronic club music. Their lyrics have… click headline to Read More