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,...
No Kings 3, Mar 28, 2026 No Kings – nokings.org – is a non-violent protest movement responding to the monarchy-like concentration of power in the hands of the president, to the exclusion of Congress and the...
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...
Boiling in the depths of the Providence music scene is pure intensity. Regardless of genre, nothing is sugarcoated and everything is as real as your senses tell you. A wonderful example of this trademark has to be Sean Murphy. He’s fronted hardcore punk revolutionaries Verse and lo-fi shoegaze punk act Bad Swimmers, and now this […]
Last week I headed to Barrington to profile the new restaurant Crepelicious. To my dismay (and a product of my clear lack of preparation), Crepelicious is nothing more than a “coming soon” sign and a partially empty building. Disappointed, I drove through the town in search of some good eats. As I passed the fairly […]
Some of my earliest music listening memories consist of sitting around the RCA console stereo/color television set in the family room, blindly going through my parents’ record collection. A 5-year-old has a severely limited reference when it comes to musical tastes, so whatever I found in that milk crate instantly became my indelible starting-point. And […]
Former Cool Moose party leader Robert J. Healey, Jr., was approved to appear on the ballot as the Moderate Party nominee for governor of Rhode Island as the State Board of Elections rejected a challenge from the Republican Party at a hearing on Wednesday, September 17. The Moderate Party, recently created in 2009, in order […]
As more new theater companies emerge across the state, particularly in the Providence/Cranston area, diversity and choice clash with opportunity and availability. Audiences and resources are stretched thin and the most immediate practical need – performance space – becomes a literal showstopper. Many theater companies form with a wealth of talent, but no place to […]
Point Judith Pond is one of Rhode Island’s jewels, a four-mile stretch of crystal-clear water bordering Narragansett and South Kingstown. Tucked up in the northeastern side is Champlin Cove, adjacent to a housing development called Briggs Farm. Jeff Maul has lived in Briggs Farm for the past decade and is often out on the water […]
Vintage fashion, formerly a niche interest restricted to punks, goths, celebrities, and other weirdoes, has within the past decade achieved a rapid and overwhelming mainstream acceptance. Those who remember being taunted for wearing secondhand clothes in grade school may smile at the irony of those same garments now being revered as the epitome of cool, […]
If you delve deep enough, you’d be surprised how artistically and musically weird Oklahoma can get. Psychedelic dream punks The Flaming Lips started out there and The Philbrook Museum of Art, located in Tulsa, is one of the finest museums in the country. There’s also an up-and-coming rock ‘n’ roll act coming through the tumbleweeds to […]
My house was built in 1940 and has had virtually no renovations done to it. It was a “handyman special” when I acquired it. I wasn’t a handyman at that time, but I figured like many of my friends I’d grow up to be one. Apparently I figured wrong. I started with the closet in […]
