Okee dokee folks… “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” Well, the lyrics of this Beatles’ song went through my head a couple of weeks ago. I turned 64. I don’t celebrate my birthday, haven’t in decades, but this getting old thing is tough. My father turned 90 a […]
This column marks 20 years at the Motif for me so without further adieu, let’s get through as many things ‘till I hit my word limit and hit send. SUMMER JAMS: Throwing Muses — Moonlight Concessions (Fire Records) RI Music Hall of Fame inductees Throwing Muses are celebrating their 44th year with a new album, […]
When Wu-Tang Clan’s debut album Enter the 36 Chambers was released in 1993, I was thirteen years old. I remember it vividly because Theodora, my longtime friend/ crush, had gifted me a bootleg copy of the LP on cassette tape. For those too young to remember, pirated copies of tapes and CDs were the only […]
Mirah’s second full-length, Advisory Committee (K Records, 2002), came out during the spring of my freshman year at Boston University. While the album’s title perhaps suggested some homage to academia, the songwriting mostly revealed a study of contrasts. Spartan and robust, serious and mirthful, soft and assertive, literal and symbolic, the singer-songwriter Mirah Yom Tov […]
Okee dokee folks… I had the pleasure of performing at the Rhode Island Songwriters Association (RISA) Songwriters In The Round (SITR) show a couple of weeks ago. Our theme was “Holding Back.” Because my brain is preoccupied with the ongoing destruction of this country, my contribution wound up being a protest/socially conscious song called “The […]
Give the Drummer Some is a unique event presented by Tune In & Tune Up (T-2), an organization that offers medical and mental health assistance to individuals in the RI music business. Six reputable drummers and one percussionist will be gracing The Met stage on May 4 to celebrate the art of drumming, bring awareness […]
Imagine that you’re walking around the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) on a Wednesday night… everyone you see is wearing tie-dye shirts of some kind, sporting huge smiles on their faces, and smoking one thing or another… it’s a moment that evokes the “if ya know, ya know” expression — if you do, you know […]
Margeaux Lynn – “McCorrie Beach” Margeaux Lynn’s sophomore single is a breezy affair that harkens to the indie rock of the early 2010s, while also drawing from something even further back. The vocal delivery and lyrics are wistful, blending well with the sunny instrumentation buoyed by joyously crunchy guitars. In these cold months, this song […]
In “Big Mood Machine,” her 2018 essay for The Baffler, journalist Liz Pelly honed in on the role of digital music as part of “a burgeoning industry surrounding technology that alleges to mine our emotional states.” Zeroing in on Spotify and its familiar categorizations, ranging from “Chill” and “Focus/Study” to “Commute” and “Girls Night Out,” […]
Okee dokee folks… It’s that time of year once again when the robins return and the buds start appearing on the trees. It’s also when the spectacle of Shen Yun holds its annual performances at The Providence Performing Arts Center. Now I am not here to talk about the Shen Yun show, and I am […]