Posts by Shane Handler

The Tall Pines might not have the back-story that their spooky band music conjures, but the New York City duo’s music itself radiates with enough validity and soul to draw the attention it’s been getting. After all their first names are Christmas and Connie – a name that makes Jack and Meg sound first grade. […]

Woodstock-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Adrien Reju isn’t one to hide her influences on Strange Love and The Secret Language out August 7th. The accessible yet respected harmonies and compositional mode of Fleetwood Mac and Feist is present in this worldly recording of singular love songs that feature A.C Newman, Marco Benevento and also includes covers of artists David […]

“Comparisons are everywhere. I never feel pressured by them. People’s relationship to music is so personal and when someone compares me to an artist, what they’re really doing is comparing me to their experience of that artist,” says musician/songwriter Sara Curtin about being compared to both Sharon Van Etten. But the comparison to Van Etten […]

In each installment of Easy Answers (get the reference?) we will question a different musician or band, ranging from the obvious to the not so obvious, about the importance of Grateful Dead on their own life and musical path. We could easily keep this column within the jam band community – and we will most […]

LA-based duo HONEYHONEY just released their third full-length release, appropriately titled 3, on June 9th via Rounder Records. Recorded in Nashville and produced by Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson), 333delivers golden harmonies with a pure musical vibe that is as country influenced in the Americana realm as Sturgil Simpson, Jamey Johnson and select others. Ben […]

In Vinyl Lives we spotlight and profile record stores around the country who offer music lovers an experience that goes beyond an iTunes purchase or a Spotify playlist. Vinyl has found a new resurgence and the good folks behind independent record stores are on the front line, directly responsible for curating a unique collection of […]

It was June of 2014, Umphrey’s McGee, while overseas for some London Brooklyn Bowl shows, received privileged but pricey time in the famed Abbey Road Studio where the Beatles recorded most of their iconic records as well as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Recorded in 12 hours with little time for breaks or […]

Sun Bones, from Tucson, Arizona might have a seemingly desert themed band name, but don’t consider them “desert rock.” In fact their music has more in common with the stylistic diversity of The Arcade Fire than the sandy lore of Gram Parsons.  The band is comprised of Sam Golden (vocals, guitar), Seth Vietti (drums, vocals), Bob Hanshaw (bass, […]

The raw metallic resonator guitar sound of Charlie Parr registers as a magnet of sorts – in the same way we’re drawn to the curious sounds of Tom Waits and even the indie folk of The Mountain Goats. Over the course of 13 plus albums since 2002, the Minnesota native has developed a catalog of […]

When the McDowell Mountain Festival announces its lineup each December, it becomes a little bleep on the web pages of highly trafficked sites like Pitchfork , which bothers festival organizers very little. Instead a small local community embraces the unveiling – which is the closest thing Arizona has to a national non touring music festival […]

If there ever was a record shop where everybody knows your name, it might be Pure Pop Records in Burlington, VT. In fact it shares a distinctive downstairs entry way, identical to the set of the fabled NBC show Cheers. In the city that gave us Phish and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Pure Pop […]

Seattle, Austin, Portland, Chicago, Nashville….we know what we’re getting at here – all kick ass music cities. Everything from the venues, record stores, local bands gone big and music festivals, there’s no shortage of cool and hip. But what about Phoenix, Arizona? Well, there’s no way Phoenix even dares come close to top tier music […]

Just last Monday on the Facebook page for Thursday Night Asteroid there an shared article from a science website that Asteroid 2004 BL86 will sweep past the Earth at a distance of 1.2 million kilometers with a clever enough remark – “Another near miss. We’ll get you all one of these days.”  If this wasn’t the […]

The period of the late 90s brings up many things for Phish fans: patchwork pants, heady nugs, wooly sweaters, The Clifford Ball, The Great Went, Oswego, lot shirts, Great Woods, Europe, Lemonwheel, cow funk, Worcester, CK5, Andy Gadiel’s Phish page, and the list goes on and on. But perhaps the venue that most purely defined […]

Like most bands with biting names (check, Murder by Death), The Drums’ sound does not reflect what their name brags. In fact its quite the opposite as hooks galore dominate the latest offering from the Brooklyn band founded in 2008.  Where their last album, 2011’s Portamento was short on substance, The Drums have returned with […]

Bass guitar legend Tony Levin has recorded and/or toured with just about every rock icon of the past three decades – from King Crimson to Peter Gabriel to Paul Simon to John Lennon. But the one musician who hadn’t graced that impressive list was especially close to home: With his latest project, Levin Brothers, the […]

For the music fans amongst us that love a good DIY story, look no further than the accomplishments of Alejandro Rose-Garcia. Rose Garcia, (a.k.a. Shakey Graves), who last week (10/7) released his second full length, And The War Came. This follows the artist’s 2011 self-released debut album, Roll the Bones, which brought him national acclaim and, […]

Over the course of two prior full length albums, Rubblebucket has allured listeners with its dynamic horn driven grooves and the joyous voice of lead singer Kalmia Traver. Now based in Brooklyn via Vermont, Rubblebucket hones many of the area’s international influences with scrapes of Afrobeat and the festive island atmosphere not unlike what Arcade […]

In what is now becoming an annual event in the Green Mountain state, the 4th annual Grand Point North Music Festival, curated and presented by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals along with Higher Ground is taking place this Saturday, September 13th and Sunday, September 14th, 2014 at Burlington, Vermont’s picturesque Waterfront Park. In addition to […]

From 2007 to 2012, songwriter Jesse Elliott led acclaimed rockers These United States through five studio albums and nearly 1,000 live performances in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, appearing everywhere from Glastonbury to SXSW, Daytrotter to Lollapalooza. In early 2013, Elliott was stopping over for a month in Denver on his way to a new life in New […]