YUCK’S MAX BLOOM: ‘WE’VE NEVER SOUNDED SO GOOD’
By Michael Lello The second album comes with its own inherent pressures. When you are coming off a critically buzzed-about debut record and the departure of your frontman, you’re dealing with even m...
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HOLIDAY WISDOM FROM CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN
By Nikki M. Mascali For the past 10 years, Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven have instilled a Christmas tradition that’s probably quite a bit different than yours. The two bands hit the road each Chr...
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RIDING HIGH, CLUTCH BRINGS ‘EARTH ROCKER’ TO SHERMAN
By Michael Lello It has been a big year for Clutch. In March, the veteran Maryland band released “Earth Rocker,” its first studio album since 2009 – and quite likely its most critically acclaimed. ...
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DAR WILLIAMS: GREEK MYTHS AND REVISITING ‘THE HONESTY ROOM’
By Michael Lello When Dar Williams hits the stage at New Hope Winery on Sunday, Dec. 22, you can rest assured that she won’t be going through the motions. In fact, from the sound of it, the singer/s...
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GUITARIST’S DREAM COMES TRUE AT PENN’S PEAK
By Michael Lester Mountain Top native Jay Baab spontaneously jumped on stage recently at Penn’s Peak, grabbed an electric guitar from the hand of Robert Randolph, and jammed — quite capably — with Ra...
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THE BEAT STILL BUILDING UPON TWO-TONE LEGACY
By Michael Lello At the forefront of Britain’s two-tone ska movement alongside bands like The Specials and Madness, The Beat – or The English Beat, as they are known in the U.S. due to a San Francisc...
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WOOTEN BROTHERS TAKE FAMILY AFFAIR TO KESWICK
By Michael Lester By the time Joseph Wooten was 8 years old, he and his four musically gifted brothers were already spending weekends on stage as an opening act for bands like War, of “Low Rider,” “W...
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GRETCHEN LOHSE RELEASES ‘PRIMAL’ DEBUT ALBUM
By Michael Lello As a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and arranger, Gretchen Lohse has been a prolific member of the Philadelphia music community for some time. Despite all of that activit...
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IT’S A MIXTAPE LIFE FOR UNTIL THE RIBBON BREAKS
By Michael Lello Pete Lawrie Winfield – who records as Until The Ribbon Breaks – is such a student of American music and film, the Welshman had to see for himself what makes the country tick and move...
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MUSIC, WORDS and PLAYING IN ‘THE BAND’ FOR BENEVENTO
By Michael Lello Of all the eclectic sounds on Marco Benevento’s albums, there was one thing you were guaranteed not to hear: vocals. That changed, however, the keyboardist said, when he was writin...
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