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Grayson Ty Debuts With 6-Song EP 'Believe'

Grayson Ty Debuts With 6-Song EP ‘Believe’

Photo by Carly Rae Photography. The Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts is known for musicians playing a wide variety of punk and indie-rock styles, but pop with a Top 40 bent doesn’t occupy much of a sonic footprint. Grayson Ty is looking to change that with “Believe,” a 6-song debut EP. (more…)

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Top 10 Albums of 2016: Mitski, Radiohead, Beyonce and More

Top 10 Albums of 2016: Mitski, Radiohead, Beyonce and More

Photo by Ebru Yildiz. Here’s my list of the best albums of 2016, as determined by what I listened to and/or loved the most. (more…)

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Pussy Riot, Um, Grabs Spotlight With 'Straight Outta Vagina'

Pussy Riot, Um, Grabs Spotlight With ‘Straight Outta Vagina’

There’s been a lot of talk about Russian actors working to influence the U.S. presidential election this fall. Finally there’s proof: Pussy Riot is back with a new song, “Straight Outta Vagina,” and a video to match. (more…)

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Mitski's 'Your Best American Girl' Is Obviously a (Turbulent) Love Song

Mitski’s ‘Your Best American Girl’ Is Obviously a (Turbulent) Love Song

Photo by Ebru Yildiz. Song lyrics are always subject to interpretation, but it was surprising (to me, anyway) to learn that Mitski’s stunning tune “Your Best American Girl” has been regarded by some reviewers, in her words, as a song she wrote “to stick it to ‘the white boy indie rock world’!” (more…)

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Pixies Surge Back With 'Um Chagga Lagga': Best New Song of the Week

Pixies Surge Back With ‘Um Chagga Lagga’: Best New Song of the Week

Photo by Travis Shinn. The email subject header was direct: “Pixies Announce New Bass Player, CD, Tour,” all of which are welcome developments. (more…)

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Erin McKeown Gives Love a Straightforward Look on 'Sugar in a Pie'

Erin McKeown Gives Love a Straightforward Look on ‘Sugar in a Pie’

Photo by Izzy Berdan Erin McKeown wrote the songs on her new EP “According to Us” long before “Hamilton” writer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda delivered his “love is love is love is love” sonnet-by-way-of-acceptance-speech at the Tony Awards this month. But the sentiment is the same. (more…)

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Bringing Big Thief's Visceral 'Masterpiece' to The River

Bringing Big Thief’s Visceral ‘Masterpiece’ to The River

Photo by Sasha Arutyunova Joan Holliday first invited me to do the “Best New Song of the Week” spot with her on WRSI-FM (93.9) in early 2012 — our inaugural Best New Song, in fact, was “Show Me the Place” from Leonard Cohen’s “Old Ideas.” We haven’t hit every single week since then, but we’ve done pretty well over the past four and a half years. (more…)

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Debating the Song of the Summer on 'The Colin McEnroe Show'

Debating the Song of the Summer on ‘The Colin McEnroe Show’

Is Justin Timberlake’s “I Got That Feeling!” this year’s song of the summer? Summertime: that blessed stretch of warm-weather freedom, tied together with a season-defining piece of music — the song of the summer. (more…)

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Last Beat Tonight Spoofs Donald Trump With 'Mr. Drumpf'

Last Beat Tonight Spoofs Donald Trump With ‘Mr. Drumpf’

Inspired by John Oliver’s brilliantly constructed takedown of Donald Trump on “Last Week Tonight,” Connecticut musicians Dave Schneider and Tim Walsh called themselves Last Beat Tonight and wrote and recorded “Mr. Drumpf,” a new song mocking the probable Republican nominee for president. (more…)

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More Than a Punny Name: Phonosynthesis Shows Chops on 'Gruvhaus'

More Than a Punny Name: Phonosynthesis Shows Chops on ‘Gruvhaus’

Photo by David Stoltz. Two things that tend not to sit well with me: band names that are puns, and funk-jazz-rock hybrids, which too often signal that the music is mostly just tedious jamming (or is that redundant?). Phonosynthesis, then, comes to the plate with two strikes already: the Hartford quartet is a funk-jazz-rock band with a punny name. (more…)

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Who Better Than Jack White to Advise Kermit the Frog?

Who Better Than Jack White to Advise Kermit the Frog?

There’s something oddly comforting about the news today that Jack White will appear on the season finale of “The Muppets.” Who even knew “The Muppets” had season finales?  (more…)

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Salvation Alley String Band Faces Death in 'Merciless Scythe of Time' Video

Salvation Alley String Band Faces Death in ‘Merciless Scythe of Time’ Video

Sooner or later, Death is coming. We all know it. Matt Silberstein just seems more aware than most in the Salvation Alley String Band’s stylish new video for “The Merciless Scythe of Time.” (more…)

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Miracle Legion Is Coming Home to Connecticut After 20 Years

Miracle Legion Is Coming Home to Connecticut After 20 Years

This one has been a long time in the making: Miracle Legion is coming home. After reuniting to play a handful of U.K. gigs this summer, the New Haven indie legends will warm up for their overseas trek with their first Connecticut show in nearly 20 years July 16 at The Space in Hamden. (more…)

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The Fawns Are Back After a Decade With 'Goodnight, Spacegirl'

The Fawns Are Back After a Decade With ‘Goodnight, Spacegirl’

Photo by Greg Saulmon. Though the Fawns won’t get anywhere near the recognition they deserve, the Northampton band set a high bar for all the new music that will follow in 2016 with the release on Jan. 1 of “Goodnight, Spacegirl,” their first new album in 10 years. (more…)

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Kurt Vile Brings Out J Mascis at Pearl Street in Northampton

Kurt Vile Brings Out J Mascis at Pearl Street in Northampton

Photo by Marina Chavez. When he was first coming up as a solo act, Kurt Vile seemed like the musical embodiment of Gertrude Stein’s famous epigram about visiting her hometown, Oakland, Calif., years after having moved away: there is no there there. Sure, Vile had chops as a guitarist, but his songs meandered and his live shows often verged on dull. Times have changed. (more…)

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The Elusive Lys Guillorn Returns With Two New Songs

The Elusive Lys Guillorn Returns With Two New Songs

Photo by Pete Brunelli. It’s not that Lys Guillorn is a recluse: she’s always playing out around Connecticut, on her own and as part of other bands, and it’s not uncommon to bump into her in record stores or taking in a show where she isn’t playing. But Guillorn has always been elusive as a recording artist. (more…)

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Best Albums of 2015: 'No Cities to Love' by Sleater-Kinney (No. 1)

Best Albums of 2015: ‘No Cities to Love’ by Sleater-Kinney (No. 1)

Photo by Brigitte Sire. With very few exceptions, bands that break up nowadays reunite eventually. So there was an excellent chance that Sleater-Kinney wasn’t finished for good when the band split in 2006. All the same, who would have expected the trio would return with an album as good as “No Cities to Love?” (more…)