Posts by Matt Hoffman

It’s been said that in space, no one can hear you scream; but sometimes you can feel the echo of vibration. From the outer reaches of the star Melodious, a spectral sound alchemist known as Blanc du Blanc has partnered with dub pioneer Scientist (a.k.a. Hopeton Overton Brown) to reimagine dub music as an interstellar […]

Ashton Freeman (@souperfruit) and Bugger (a.k.a. Michael Melchiondo @bugg.e.r), the progeny of Gene and Dean Ween, respectively, made headlines last week when they announced a performance on March 28th in Lambertville, New Jersey, at Soupçon Salon, a small art gallery and event space at the back of a coffee bar/ice cream shop and below a […]

On March 14th, the Brant Bjork Trio offered an evening of pure stoner rock to a sold-out crowd at John & Peter’s in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Bjork’s name is synonymous with the Palm Desert Scene, and he tours in a formidable trio that includes Mario Lalli, bassist and co-founder of pioneering bands Yawning Man and […]

Clad in a brown suede tuxedo jacket with a black peak collar and five-button surgeon’s cuffs, the legendary Stanley Jordan graced the stage at 118 North in Wayne, Pennsylvania, on February 2nd, 2025, with a performance that was both a retrospective and a revelation. Forty years after releasing his groundbreaking debut album, Magic Touch, Jordan […]

The Dirk Quinn Band didn’t just play the Beatles’ Abbey Road at the Zlock Performing Arts Center in Newtown, PA on January 31st, 2025; they inhabited it, exploring its hidden corners and presenting a fresh perspective that both honored the original and showcased their own unique musical identity. The show constituted a conversation between generations […]

420 Funk Mob, led by Parliament-Funkadelic’s own Mike “Clip” Payne, is ushering in the next era of Funk with their debut studio album, The Emperor Has No Clones. But while the album is flush with P-Funk veterans, don’t expect a nostalgia trip: it’s a full-fledged funk revolution, a 14-track testament to the power of groove […]

Reed Mathis has built an impressive career and body of work by following his intuition as an instrumentalist and classically trained musician. For over thirty years, this intuition has taken the musical polymath to countless interesting places, from experimental jazz (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey) to jamgrass (Tea Leaf Green), classical music (Electric Beethoven) to the […]

In pre-Internet times, teenagers used to make time capsules in school. (Nowadays, I guess kids just gather ‘round the Wayback Machine?) For the uninitiated, you’d fill a box with items from that moment in time, then bury it with the expectation that somebody would dig it up decades later. At the same time, your class […]

What would the universe look like if DJ Lollipop Man had never taken to the airwaves from the Mothership? Think about it: if not for the Long-Haired Sucker, we’d know nothing of Starchild, the Mothership Connection, or the Thumpasorous. We’d never have learned the history of Dr. Funkenstein and Sir Nose d’Voidoffunk (the Cro-Nasal); of […]

Worldtown Soundsystem has perfected the art of synthesizing global music with EDM and shining the result through the singular lens of Philly soul and hip-hop; and the result is something awesomely unique and uniquely Philly. While the project has served as a platform for each member of the group to spread their individual sets of […]