When Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero of Rodrigo y Gabriela were both sixteen years old, they applied to the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City and both were rejected. This may have been the best thing that ever happened to the pair, setting them off on a fiercely independent and largely […]
Live Music
Real Estate celebrated the release of Daniel, their ninth album over 15 years, by dropping by Studio A to play a few tunes. As frontman Martin Courtney explained in my chat with him and bassist Alex Bleeker, Martin’s daughter gave Kacey Musgraves’ album, Golden Hour, a lot of play around the house. Courtney […]
WFUV’s longtime pals Deer Tick celebrated the release of their new album, Emotional Contracts, with a visit to our Bronx studios in June 2023. In this WFUV Live session, American alternative rock-folk band Deer Tick was loose and having a few laughs while warming up and they tore through three […]
The music of Hermanos GutiĂ©rrez brings you to another place. It’s a place of saguaro cacti and miles of sun-baked sand. If you’re a fan of spaghetti Westerns, it may suggest a love of Ennio Morricone and perhaps even evoke images of characters named Blondie, Angel Eyes, and Tuco in […]
American blues, country, and Americana singer, guitarist, and songwriter Charley Crockett is back with a new album, The Man from Waco. It’s a laconic, elegant song cycle that tells the story of a fictional character who has some things in common with the artist but who has a life of […]
The song “Witchoo” explodes right out of the speakers. It’s undeniable and a no-brainer pick for one of my top ten songs of the year. (And now that it’s October I better start pondering what the other nine are.) It turns out the band behind the song have crafted an […]
Sylvan Esso are a wildly crafty and inventive musical duo made up of the golden-throated Amelia Meath and mad sonic scientist Nick Sanborn. They’ve created music that’s long on hooks and not short on style since they got together seven years ago. Along with unleashing their new album — their […]
Enjoy this performance in the WFUV series “Marquee Live at Home” of Kathleen Edwards playing from her homebase in Ottawa, Canada. I interviewed her between songs in this 5-song set. The link to the interview and performances is here.
The Tedeschi Trucks Band is a rare outfit. It’s a group steeped in rock, in blues, in soul, in jazz, in American music, and with the musicianship and spirit to immerse themselves in songs and allow the songs to go where they want to go. It’s tough keeping any band […]
Bettye Lavette put on a typically thrilling show at The Iridium last night. She highlighted songs from her most recent album Things Have Changed which is up for Best Americana (Americana?) Album Grammy later this month. She has also been nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance (that sounds more like […]
The Revivalists, a New Orleans octet, are riding high these days. They’ve got a couple of big hits under their belt with Wish I Knew You and All My Friends and they’ve recently taken the bold musical step of adding a second drummer to their live shows. Vocalist and guitarist David […]
With ties to the Catskills as well as New York, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds have built a reputation as a stomping, brass-soaked, eight-piece live band rooted in traditional rhythm and blues. The band’s new album, Gold, is released as a solo work by Sister Sparrow although The Dirty […]
2018 is now in the rear view mirror (or as us Pearl Jam fans prefer rearviewmirror) but before I say Hey Nineteen, here’s some photos and words – with the benefit of some time to digest – about a couple of my fave experiences from the latest trip around the […]
Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters, evidently with full bellies, will invade the Beacon in less than two hours. Set time is 9p. Opener, and fellow Brit singer/songwriter, Seth Lakeman – who plays fiddle on Plant’s latest album Carry Fire, will take the stage shortly after 8. This show has […]
In their first visit to New York this month as part of Globalfest, Jupiter & Okwess, who hail from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, stole the show with a frenetic, joyful performance that represented the catholic spirit of the annual event put on by its not for profit namesake organization. […]
The video for the new song Roman Cars was released this week following a show by Bill Janovitz and Chris Colbourn in Soho this month that was unusual in a couple of ways. It offered the chance to see Buffalo Tom as a drummer-less duo and do it in the homey, […]
The Bean is back! New York’s own Sunflower Bean released their first new original music in almost two years last month – a single called I Was A Fool. After wrapping up a tour with London’s Wolf Alice recently, they played a headlining show on Thursday night in Brooklyn. Here’s how […]
Oh BORIS! Atsuo, Takeshi, and Wata otherwise known as BORIS shot off sonic swirls of drone defined by neither riff nor fuzz on Wednesdsay, November 1st. Their show, from the lighting to the dry ice to the gestures, is too big for Madison Square Garden so Warsaw, the 1,000 person […]
The death of Tom Petty this week leaves a hole in my heart that only his music can fill. As is always the case when we lose an artist that made the world a better place, I am trying to celebrate the life and the music more than bemoaning the […]
Thievery Corporation kissed off September of ’17 with a spirited performance at the Ford Amphitheater on the Coney Island Boardwalk Saturday night as part of the Temple Of I & I tour. As is the Corporation‘s standard operating procedure, the crew born in DC in the mid 90s had a […]
The only sensible response to The Pixies frequent touring since 2004 is to gluttonously consume all the shows it is possible to attend! The quartet with roots at Umass Amherst added a sequel to their Cap show of 2014 last night and followed up on the three New York shows […]
Catch them if you can at The Capitol Theatre tomorrow night & The Gramercy Theatre on Monday Little Steven (AKA Steven Van Zandt and Silvio Dante among other things) is touring behind the undeniable Soulfire album – his first as a bandleader since ’99. That record, Born Again Savage was garage-y […]
What a band, what a night! Last night Prophets of Rage celebrated the release of their debut album at the Apollo Theater. The self-titled disc will be unleashed on Friday. The video above is the band’s official video for Radical Eyes directed & edited by D.J. Sing. Before the pictures […]
The News: Walter Becker who, along with Donald Fagen, was half of the core duo of Steely Dan, died last week. It was only last October when The Dan played a glorious ten night stand at The Beacon. Footage from the video that reported on those shows was gathered […]
The News: Chuck D and DJ Lord of PE will perform at the Apollo on Tuesday, September 12th as members of Prophets of Rage with support from Living Colour. There’s no one who is more important from what’s come to be known as the golden age of hip hop than […]