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New England Music News

Playing it smart

Black & White stick with it; plus, SoundSession ’06
If you’re a band looking to survive in this frigid social climate, you have to be either really smart or really stupid.

By BOB GULLA | July 11, 2006

Lucky number seven

Jake’s big birthday bash; plus, the Marlowes fade away
To bend a line by Raymond Carver, what do you talk about when you talk about club anniversaries?

By BOB GULLA | July 05, 2006

Fever Dream heats up; Zawadi’s heady soul stew
For many reasons, much great music is created in the darker recesses of the mind, where dreariness, despondence, and desolation rule. Of course, it doesn’t always have to be the case.

By BOB GULLA | June 27, 2006

Homegrown in Newport

The Sunset Music Festival; plus, Someday Providence
Of the many reasons to love Newport, the city in the summertime — with its uncertain drivers, parking nightmares, and stampeding herds — is not one of them.

By BOB GULLA | June 20, 2006

Sonic experiments

Santa Mamba’s Saints and Sinners; plus RiverSing
Santa Mamba's new disc, Saints and Sinners finds the band’s chemicals growing a wee bit stale.

By BOB GULLA | June 15, 2006

Blasting off

Neutral Nation goes south
You might not buy this, given the band’s propensity for reunion gigs, but the Neutral Nation show at the Living Room on Saturday will most likely be their last.

By BOB GULLA | June 06, 2006

Local heroes

Mark Mulcahy, Alec K. Redfearn, and more
Alongside the Feelies, R.E.M., and the Replacements, Mark Mulcahy’s Miracle Legion was one of the most promising of the indie bands of the mid-’80s.

By BOB GULLA | May 30, 2006

Classic meets modern

The Audiocentrix’s ambitious and inspired Suicide Lust
The Audiocentrix just celebrated the release of their second disc last weekend.

By BOB GULLA | May 23, 2006

Parsing the Poll II

The Best Music Poll’s Sex Pistols moment
We had a Sex Pistols moment here at the Phoenix last week.

By BOB GULLA | May 16, 2006

Roxy music

My Invisible: From the sublime to the ridiculous and back again
Put aside your preconceived notions of a chamber-instrument ensemble.

By ANDREA FELDMAN | May 10, 2006

Hearing it out

The Goners, Anomalous, and more
Here are some releases that I’ve been meaning to get to. There’s no time like now.

By BOB GULLA | May 10, 2006

Thumb’s up

Andy Arch and the Latter Day Saints’ masterful EP
When Tom Thumb, aka Andy Arch, last put a record out, it was a solo acoustic outing, bedroom folk music, one guitar and one voice.

By BOB GULLA | May 02, 2006

Good ’n’ Evil

The Stumbleweeds cut loose on their hot new platter
Five years to the month since the Stumbleweeds released their debut, the sassy Boston/Providence hayseeds have at last spit another record out.

By BOB GULLA | April 26, 2006

An aural adventure

Terrastock 6’s psychedelic invasion
The sounds are dark, but sometimes light.

By BOB GULLA | April 18, 2006

Feelin’ groovy

The scene is springing back to life
Maybe it’s the spring sun. Maybe it’s my new chainsaw.

By BOB GULLA | April 11, 2006

Parsing the Poll

Behind the scenes at Best Music Central
Every year at this paper we produce something called the Best Music Poll ballot — you’ve seen it — and every year we encounter a new crop of challenges in putting it together.

By BOB GULLA | April 04, 2006

High-voltage humans

No Wave is new all over again
No musical movement, not even CBGB’s-era first-wave punk, captured the push-and-pull of love/hate about modern city living like No Wave did.

By ANDREA FELDMAN | April 05, 2006

Running the gamut

Johnny Juxo rocks and rolls and swings and . . .
You may have seen him recently sitting in with Black Honey, but didn’t realize it.

By BOB GULLA | March 29, 2006

Local heroes

Rhode Island bands make a good showing at SXSW
The set time, 9 pm, wasn’t ideal, but everything else came together perfectly for Zox as they made their inaugural appearance at the music industry blitzkrieg known as South by Southwest.

By BOB GULLA | March 21, 2006