Folkers rejoice! George Wein and the Newport Foundation are ready to kick off the 56th anniversary of the legendary Newport Folk Festival. In the past half-century, the Folk Festival has provided moments that have shaped not only the music community, but history as a whole, from the Pixies going all-acoustic for their headlining set in […]
I’m willing to bet you’re pretty bummed you didn’t get tickets to the sold-out Newport Folk Fest this year, right? You stay up late nights thinking about how you won’t get to see Roger Waters, The Decemberists, Hozier, Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine and First Aid Kit. You’re not alone — a lot of us […]
Once in a while, a talented and established band will blindside the masses with an unexpected release. It causes a buzz for a few days among the band’s loyal fans. That’s pretty much what happened when Chicago Americana rock act Wilco unexpectedly released Star Wars a few days ago. The release has a fuzzy psychedelic […]
Late July is a bustling time in downtown Newport with the Folk and Jazz fests bookending the last two weekends of the month. With Newport Folk Festival running July 24 – 26 and the Newport Jazz Festival from July 31 – August 2, you’re going to have to pay your babysitter double time on these […]
Twenty years of existence in the music festival circuit is virtually unheard of. Most modern festivals, such as Coachella and Bonnaroo, have been active for hardly a decade, but that barely scratches the surface of the legacy that Gathering of the Vibes has built since its establishment in 1996. What started out as a remembrance for Jerry […]
Jodie Treloar – Voila (75orLess Records) Jodie Treloar’s debut EP Voila features five tunes on the crossroads of indie folk and alt-country. Voila opens with “Marionette,” which reminds me of a stripped-down version of The Cranberries with the breezy guitar style and Treloar’s rich vocals. “Credit Score” is a driving indie folk nugget propelled by […]
Okee dokee folks … I know that I go off topic a lot in my writings, but that is just the way I am — scattered! But sometimes I do try to make a point. I am a huge animal person, and if it wasn’t for music I would probably run an animal shelter. The […]
In an age of music where you have to wade through the absurdly redundant and the painfully generic to discover something that’s truly original, the gratifying feeling when you plug into an album that is both enjoyable and different makes the search worth it. That’s what you get with The Velvet Teen, an alternative rock […]
If you were to ask Brian McLaughlin, lead singer of the Rare Occasions, whether his band would win the WBRU Rock Hunt, the answer would be something like “optimistically unsure.” He previously entered the competition twice: once in his high school band dubbed “The Valar” and once before with the Rare Occasions. McLaughlin finally found […]
With a mix of garage rock and jangle pop, Boston’s Vundabar have a uniquely infectious sound that couldn’t be more evident than with their upcoming release, Gawk, the band’s spectacular follow-up to their debut, Antics, that came out in April 2013. Driving chords, fuzzy riffs and a song structure that alternates between emphatic and soft […]