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In: _Actual Ravings, From the Management
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While we* were at the Newport Folk Festival this past weekend (“we” being actual “we,” not our fond royal “we”), we were pondering something. We’re not exactly sure how to put this, but here’s where the idea was started: during one of the sets, it started raining. Another media-type beside us (most likely, tag hidden under a coat) started texting or tweeting or some sort of thing on his phone. While it was raining. Drops hit on the screen, and still “bip, bop, boop” and all that good stuff.Here then, is the thought: how stupid are we? As in “we, the media,” not people inRead More →

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In: _CD Reviews 2012, Album Reviews
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Michael Kiwanuka – Home AgainInterscope Records-out now3 / 5 The heartfelt Brit has been making quite a splash on the other side of the pond there; his debut full-length has garnered comparisons to soul icons including Bill Withers and vintage vinyl sound. Sonically, these comparisons are fairly accurate: take a warm voice and soft guitar, and maybe you get one of James Talyor’s contemporaries. Maybe. But as much as we like the opener, Taylor’s session-man Kiwanuka is not – if you get that particular grammar. The title track is a fairly run-of-the-mill “gotta be movin’ on” kinda thing, and if you peruse the other titlesRead More →

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In: Dawes - Providence Performing Arts Center 08-06-12
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[Photo © Men’s Journal 2011] So, these guys. Again. They’re hitting up the Newport Folk Festival this year, and afterwards are pulling up their lobster traps in New England the following weekend.So, we aren’t the hugest fans of their sophomore album, we’ll be quite honest, but we are big fans of these guys as musicians and, well, as guys. So much so that we’re erroneously naming their opening for Mumford and Sons on several country-wide dates the “Everything is Dawes Tour, 2012.” Let talent be called out: most of the NE dates are filled up, but we espy an couple openings in Vermont and NYRead More →

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Chris Price – HomesickPTB Music-out now2 / 5 It takes an L.A. weirdo like Chris Price to record his debut entirely on an iPhone, and quite frankly, he made a pro call on it: Price has a kind of a very slight basement glaze over the audio, the kind that small acts pay a ton to get up to, or that big acts pay even more to take their sound down to. We appreciate his ear for the subtle color, and moreso his reasoning behind it – taking the recording process back to old school, via The Beatles and (yes!) The Kinks. Despite the tripRead More →