Celebrating Community
Now a resident of rural Pennsylvania, Miriam Clancy hails all the way from New Zealand, home of musical luminaries Lorde, Neil Finn, and Flight of the Conchords (and who could forget OMC’s “How Bizarre”?). Clancy has recently released her new album Astronomy after a long creative and geographical journey. While developing a musical career, being the recipient of a major […]
To music aficionados and dedicated album-liner-note-completists, the names Don Dixon and Marti Jones should be instantly recognizable. In the 1980s Dixon produced albums from seminal indie acts Guadalcanal Diary, Dumptruck, New Jersey’s Smithereens and co-produced early albums for R.E.M. with Let’s Active’s Mitch Easter. It’s of note that Dixon was one of several producers considered to produce Nirvana’s breakthrough album […]
Wednesday, September 11, sees Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory host a night of original international synth acts. Co-headliners Parallels (Canada) and Nina (UK) are joined by New York artists Czarina and Bunny X, all of whom are leading female artists in the burgeoning synthwave scene. The term ‘synthwave’ broadly defines several styles of music heavily influenced by 1980s culture, from music to […]
“Stanley John Mitchell And His Band of Buddies” might be a long band name but the man behind it has certainly had a deservedly long career. Originally from New Zealand, Mitchell arrived on the west coast of the US in the late ‘70s with his band Red Alert who had been backing the New Zealand theatre troupe Red Mole. After […]
Hot on the heels of their recent Folk Festival, this June Brooklyn’s Jalopy Theatre and School of Music host the Brooklyn International Music Festival. Now in its fourth year, this slightly more petite festival shines the spotlight on a wide variety of international sounds, all emanating from New York City. Unlike other festivals such as WOMAD where artists from around […]
Girls on Grass are actually only 50% girls but they are indeed smokin’. “Dirty Power” is the Brooklyn band’s second album – their self-titled debut having been released in 2015 with a slightly different lineup. The four-piece features songwriter Barbara Endes on lead vocals and guitar, drummer Nancy Polstein, and “two guys named Dave” (Mandl on bass and on Weiss […]
As the band’s bio explains: “Old-time is the music of square dances and school houses, church picnics and farm potlucks. It is the music heard on front porches while your hands are busy threshing beans or shelling corn. It is the music of the country, before country music was commercial… We are passionate about playing an Ozark music repertoire not just because it’s a local tradition that deserves to be carried on, but also because it’s a vibrant part of an ever-growing community in the Ozarks. Our rich tradition of music goes far beyond the “hillbilly” stereotypes and cultural tourism that often mask our region.”
Led by Martin Phillipps, The Chills are one of New Zealand’s best-known indie rock bands and foundation of the famed ‘Dunedin Sound’ (cited as an influence by the likes of Pavement and R.E.M.). Starting-out out in the early 1980s on the Flying Nun label, the band achieved cult status in Europe and on US college radio, before being signed to […]