Paul Robicheau
Northlands lacks the infrastructure, diversity, and history of some of New England’s finest music fests, but its two-day debut provided a rustic oasis for jambands.
Solid Sound is like a family picnic for stylistically open-minded musicians and fans alike within the brick-mill infrastructure of MASS MoCA.
Big Thief is a largely somber folk-rock outfit fronted by introspective singer/songwriter Adrianne Lenker that doesn’t care much about showmanship.
This is the quintessential Club d’elf album, smartly arranged and surprisingly accessible without losing any of the group’s improvisational edges or exotic breadth.
Forty years down the line, looking both backward and forward with its latest formation, Gang of Four still knew how to live a bit dangerously.
Both experimental and welcoming, the double album proves more spontaneous in feel and expansive in style than past Big Thief outings.
Canadian singer/songwriter Allison Russell’s Outside Child made two lists. And so did Little Simz’s Sometime I Might Be Introvert.
From the pounded opening bars of “Prove It All Night,” it’s revelatory to see a young, lithe Bruce Springsteen as he prowls his domain, cocks his guitar, and belts his impassioned vignettes of blue-collar struggles and dreams.
Both King Crimson and The Zappa Band made the best of treating old catalogs as historical repertory.
Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein gave Charlie Watts a shout-out, while Wilco’s Glenn Kotche displayed the words “Charlie is my Darling” (the title of a 1966 Stones tour documentary) on the head of his bass drum.
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