Aoife O’Donovan (pronounced ee-fah) has girl-next-door good looks, which makes it all the more shocking when she breaks into the opening lines of “Too Repressed,” a song she wrote for her folk trio Sometymes Why. “I wanna fuck you/But I’m too repressed/ I wanna suck you/but I can’t take off my dress,” she breathes on […]
Aoife O’Donovan (pronounced ee-fah) has girl-next-door good looks, which makes it all the more shocking when she breaks into the opening lines of “Too Repressed,” a song she wrote for her folk trio Sometymes Why. “I wanna fuck you/But I’m too repressed/ I wanna suck you/but I can’t take off my dress,” she breathes on […]
Trace the evolution of one of American music’s most influential styles through the expert chops of jazz percussionist Robert Jospé and his music instructor colleagues—who straddle the line between players and professors—in an educational performance reflecting the history of jazz. Jospé and his quartet illuminate the music with works from the musicians and composers who […]
Eleanor Friedberger may be best known as half of the crisp, jangly indie pop duo, Fiery Furnaces (currently on hiatus), but her sophomore solo effort, Personal Record, establishes her vocal prowess within a smooth mix of infectious production and a steady rock beat. Friedberger says that a love of music, and how it connects people, […]
Is it time to miss the ’90s? If so, than it’s time to reconnect with the punky forefathers of grunge. The Meat Puppets are back with a new album, Rat Farm, and it’s filled with the flaunting style that influenced Kurt Cobain and hordes of flannel-sporting Gen Xers. With a few new members, the group […]
Nashville-based band White Animals blazed onto the Southeast music scene in 1980 when Dr. Kevin Gray quit his residency at Vanderbilt Hospital to start a band, and it became one of the hottest rock acts on the college party circuit. The foursome returns to Virginia for the first time in 30 years with its signature […]
A true instrumentalist, Jessica Lurie is an expert saxophone player, accordion player, and vocalist, accounting for the tremendous amount of praise she receives in the jazz community. The New Yorker is a real “jack of all trades” when it comes to her genre, and along with the Megaphone Heart Band, throws a complex melody over […]
Unique folk project Humble Tripe graces local fans with a celebration of its sophomore release, The Giving. The album is a collection of the unique Americana the players are known for, and incorporates odd instruments like the theremin (producing a sound often found in old horror flicks). The soulful, and often tough to categorize, ensemble […]
In 1932, a group of 21 African-American artists and intellectuals, including Langston Hughes, traveled from Harlem to the Soviet Union. The trip was part of an outreach effort by the Meschrabom-Film studio, which hoped to produce a propagandistic feature film, Black and White, criticizing segregation and racism in the U.S. The intention was to forge solidarity […]
It’s been a busy year for Welsh alternative rock trio The Joy Formidable. In addition to touring North America virtually nonstop, they released their sophomore album Wolf’s Law in January, contributed to Record Store Day in April, and released an EP, Silent Treatment, in July. But they wouldn’t have it any other way. Bassist Rhydian Daffyd took […]
Passion Pit’s sophomore album, Gossamer, stitches light-filled pop anthems with grown-up lyrics and a fluid style that shifts from bombastic synth slashing to singer-songwriter slow jams. Consider its lead single, “Take a Walk,” which pairs the story of an émigré’s failing marriage and financial ruin with a dance-worthy, uptempo beat. Get moving—and feeling—when the Boston-based […]