Processed with VSCO with 6 preset When Steve DelMonico (vocals/guitar) approached John Faraone (drums) with an impossibly unique band name, there was no way of knowing that 10 years later they’d be sitting at Nolan’s with...
Photo: Dave Rezendes. John Faraone: a man of many bands, many instruments, and one poetic voice. While John wouldn’t call himself a poet, I certainly believe that his lyrics are simply stanzas waiting to be printed....
Photo by James Brooks. Okee dokee folks… I have referenced the Jethro Tull song, “Too Old to Rock & Roll, Too Young to Die,” A few times in my 22 years of writing for Motif, and...
(Photo credit: Keith J.G. McCurdy, from the cover art of Vudu Sister’s Adynata; photograph of the art installation LO SGUARDO - Humanitas - Physis by sculptor Igor Mitoraj at the Neopolis Archaeological Park of Siracusa...
Mount Pleasant. Elmhurst. The Valley Arts District. These are all neighborhoods whose offerings I thought I knew well, having worked in and around Providence over the last few years. But you can certainly miss a...
Buddy Mott. Once upon a time, if you wanted a tattoo, one of the things you could do was traipse to Newport from any of the four corners of the world and get yourself a tattoo...
The actual declaration of Independence was first proclaimed to the people of Newport from this building in July 1776. (Photo by Maureen O'Gorman) It doesn't take long for a person new to Rhode Island to find...
The RI Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced a major initiative to repair potholes caused by a harsh winter. A new Pothole Service Requests Dashboard site on the web – https://www.dot.ri.gov/travel/potholes.php – allows the public to...
The tattoo artist who goes by Mish, of Fall River, MA, created this month’s cover. “I got the nickname when I was younger, and it just kinda stuck,” she says. Also, it stirs a little...
On the “Weekend Update” satirical news segment on Saturday Night Live. anchor Colin Jost displayed a snapshot of an unhinged rant laced with profanity in the form of a Donald Trump post to Truth Social,...
Wednesday, May 276 - 10pmMyrtle, East Providence Join us for the 4th annual Motif Spoken Awards! We are excited to be returning to Myrtle to celebrate RI’s spoken word community. Want to see your favorite Rhode Island...
VOTE HERE! "May your tattoo ink never run dry," as the ancient Portlandian blessing goes, has rarely been more applicable. Motif is proud to partner again with Narragansett Brewery to bring you the RI Tattoo Awards,...
By Lillian MK Photography By Olivia Lunger By Izzy Cooke ...
The Music Awards went off without a hitch this year, and over the course of the evening more than 400 local music lovers dropped by to dance, listen, and cheer on fellow musicians. We'll have...
It’s often said (well, I definitely say this), that some of the deepest conversations and connected moments can happen while one is sitting in a car. This is certainly true for the duo, band, sisterhood...
Image: Olivia Lunger. Local Civil War re-enactor Bill Sherman was having trouble recruiting young people into the hobby, so he hit on a novel idea that is perfectly suited to Gen Z. He immediately telephoned his...
The Continental Congress, befooled. April Fool’s Day originated among the French a few years into the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin had been pleading with them for any sort of assistance. The brand...
If you have been a craft beer lover over this past decade, you may remember when the first Rhode Island Brewery Passport was released. It was changed to an app in 2020. Six years later,...
After attending Chalumeau’s release party for their album BLUE at The Met in Pawtucket last August, I wrote that if you ever got the chance to see them perform live, you should jump on it....
On February 28, after 20 years of being a community staple for first dates, Super Tuesday regulars, and movie fanatics alike, CWTheaters (previously called CinemaWorld) was forced to shut its doors for good. The decline...
Last year, I had a blast and a half working on a fun commercial shoot. I landed the gig because the fella producing, Josh Kirk, asked around to find an actor to portray the client’s...
Photo: Jenn Lombari. @jennlombariphotography ssa lin has been making a local splash like a rockin’ rainstorm after a record-setting blizzard, since releasing her first single, “tallboys,” at the end of 2025. The feedback has been good,...
Here are some hot new local tracks to finish melting the ice. The Hopeless Romantics – “Quiet Kind” The third and final single from The Hopeless Romantics’ upcoming debut album, “Quiet Kind” is also a reworked...
Okee dokee folks… PLEASE stop using AI. The more it knows, the more it grows. We are feeding a beast that will someday destroy us. AI is not your friend, though it may pretend to...
Graphic by Olivia Lunger. ...
Hey idiot, why are you and your friends getting high indoors? Don't you know? We have a planet, a whole, big planet filled with trees, rivers, and critters. The outside world doesn't have to start...
Medical marijuana was legalized in Rhode Island in January 2006, and by May 2022 even recreational sales became legal through state-licensed dispensaries and authorized retailers. Yet it still isn’t safe for medical users to come out of the closet....
Cover artist Elliott Italiano of Jamestown is a self-made glass artist. As a young adult, Italiano's interests centered on fashion, inspiring thoughts of pursuing a degree in luxury marketing and design. He relates to his past...
MAD Magazine cover, Feb 2016: Donald Trump and Alfred E. Neuman We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one. We sought physical attrition; our opponents aimed for our psychological exhaustion. In the process...
Cover artist Mina Miki of Providence calls her baby blanket her longest friend. “His name is Blankie, but now he looks less like a blanket and more like a piece of tangled silk,” she says....
Earth has been destroyed, so civilization was moved to another planet. The powers that be turn this into a utopian society that is a little too perfect to be true, but the naïve public thinks nothing of it — too brainwashed and happy to really notice (I’m reminded of Emmet’s obliviousness in The Lego Movie). […]
Fete was temporarily closed as part of the aftermath of a shooting September 27. Sadly, this isn’t a surprise given the propensity of gang activity at hip-hop shows and Fete’s location not being the safest. Fete is no $3 Bar situation. They do value their patrons’ safety. Here’s hoping for a quick recovery for the […]
Okee dokee folks … Very often I am asked about the subject of musicians performing for free. While most of the general public may not know how much money real musicians make and actually have an opinion about it, musicians and folks in the music biz certainly do. First, let me say that very few musicians ever […]
our october centerspread is a scary one, illustrated by Dean Calusdian. Click the image for a larger view, and check out his portfolio here: http://www.dreamswithindreams.com/
Our October 2014 cover is illustrated by Frankie B. Washington click the image for a larger version, and check out his portfolio here : Http://www.frankiebwashington.com
New York indie rockers by way of Berkley, Calif., We Are Scientists are one of those acts that aren’t afraid to push boundaries and try out different things. One song will be a Fugazi-tinged alt-punk scorcher while another can sound like a mainstream pop hit. They’re currently in the midst of “The Splatter Analysis Tour” with Floridian indie […]
He’s King Midas with a curse He’s King Midas in reverse -Graham Nash Like Ovid’s original collection of myths, Mary Zimmerman’s beautifully elegiac Metamorphoses defies categorization. Zimmerman’s series of transformative tales are presented in something of a Reader’s Theater style, but to pigeonhole the work into so narrow a definition is to do the play […]
They say that you should never judge a book by its cover and the same should be said concerning a band’s name. What a group of musicians call themselves can either signify what they represent, what their music is about or maybe it’s just a cool name. An act from London with one of the […]
One cool thing about roots music is that it can be very wide ranged at times. The fusion of folk and blues leaves endless musical possibility and a wonderful example of that is Troy, NY, singer-songwriter Sean Rowe. Sean has put out a gem of an album this year with Madman and he’ll be headlining […]
Editor’s note: As we head into the final three months of 2014, and the heart of another election season, Jim Hummel has significant updates on a handful of his investigations. FBI Focus: The feds are now asking questions after The Hummel Report profiled Andrew Winters, a veteran URI employee working with the Lesbian Gay Transgender […]
