Category: Features
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Lately, I’ve been checking out a lot of underground rap. I love the latest albums by Kendrick Lamar and A$AP ROCKY, among others, but there are thousands of insanely talented rappers who’ll never get the attention or accolades that they receive, this even though they well-deserve them. Thus, instead of plugging artists you’ve likely checked…
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I first encountered The Ballroom Thieves’ music when I was preparing to cover the Boston Calling music festival last month, checking out the bands I wasn’t already familiar with on Spotify. I was so impressed with their debut album, A Wolf In The Doorway, that I promptly bought their album from iTunes, as I still believe…
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Recently I reviewed Chungking’s incredible new album, Defender. It was a rave review during which I gave the album very high praise, comparing it to some of the greats, like Goldfrapp and Ladytron. I highly recommend that you read the review before reading the following interview with Chungking’s charismatic lead vocalist, Jessie Banks! But, if you…
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Special thanks to Maia Kennedy, contributing editor, for her excellent photos. Connect with Maia Kennedy Photography: maiakphotography.com facebook.com/maiakphotography instagram/maiakphotography DAY THREE: SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2015 THE BALLROOM THIEVES Boston’s own band The Ballroom Thieves were formed in 2011. On Facebook they describe the genre of their music as “alternative rock & folkin’ roll.” And they really could…
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Special thanks to Maia Kennedy, contributing editor, for her excellent photos. Connect with Maia Kennedy Photography: maiakphotography.com facebook.com/maiakphotography instagram/maiakphotography DAY TWO: SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2015 KRILL: Krill is not a band you can easily describe. On their Bandcamp page they have their latest album, A Distant Fist Unclenching, tagged with “experimental garage krillwave pop rock…
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written by Michael McCarthy If this past weekend’s Boston Calling music festival is any indication, 2015 is going to be another beautiful, summer of love… As with the Boston Calling festival I attended last September, the vibes this May were just as warm and fuzzy. I’ve never been so surrounded by shiny, happy people as…
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by Joshua Day On Thursday, May 14th the blues world lost a legendary iconic talent. Riley B. King ( b. September 16th, 1925 in Itta Benna, Mississippi ) was better known as B.B. King, He was born on a plantation to sharecroppers, and worked at this job from the very early age of 14. After…
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Before The Maine even hit the stage at the House of Blues in Boston on Tuesday, May 5th, 2015 the concert was a big success. There were three opening bands, all young and hungry, bursting with kinetic energy, and they each had plenty of fans in the house. The first up was Technicolors. They were…
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First, I have to admit something here: until a few months ago, the only Spandau Ballet song I knew was the ballad “True.” It was released in 1983, which happened to be the year that I discovered heavy metal, so I probably thought it was garbage. At some point, though, it began to make me…
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I’ve been writing pop culture reviews for a long, long time. In high school, I published a horror zine called The End and did some horror movie reviews there. (I also worked on my high school newspaper, but I was an artist there, not a writer.) Then in 1995, four years after I graduated…
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Last night on February 6, 2015 I caught a big concert dubbed “80’s Extravaganza” in the arena at Mohegan Sun Casino. Some of my Facebook friends were curious about it, so I wrote what now appears below to satisfy their curiosity. I never intended to post it here but a fellow music critic told me…
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It’s possible that more than half the people who’ll read this review have never even heard of Butch Walker. But he’s been one of my favorite artists for as far back as I can remember. When I was just a teenager he was the lead guitarist in a hair band I was really into called…
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Much has already been said about Björk’s new album, Vulnicura. For example, the first half of the title seems to be from the Latin word “vulnific,” meaning to cause injury. The second half seems to be from the Middle English word “cura,” meaning to care or cure. And, no, I’m not extremely smart like that.…
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interview by Michael McCarthy It was only around twenty seconds into Night Demon’s debut full-length, Curse of the Damned, when I fell in love with it and knew it was going to be one of the very best metal albums I’d heard in a long time. The guitars were in the vein of Metallica’s “Whiplash”…
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review and interview by Michael McCarthy previously published on OtakuDX Before we get to our interview with J-Pop’s future stars 4TE, I wanted to present a review of their wonderful double A-side MORE / 一歩ずつ… 4TE — pronounced Forte/for-tay — is a red hot new Japanese pop group based out of the U.S. and if…
