Popular Music
Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage. Written and performed by Banana Bag & Bodice. At Oberon, Cambridge, MA, tonight (September 6). Reviewed by Chantal Mendes AF interview with Big Banana & Bodice Oberon is not the kind of place where you think you are going to learn something about what it means to be human.…
Read MoreBy Chantal Mendes This Sunday the enterprising theater troupe Banana Bag & Bodice brings its distinctively modern adaptation of an ancient classic, Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage, to Oberon in Cambridge, MA. For those of us who missed the recent movie version, Beowulf conjures up sleepy times in early English Literature class. Given…
Read MoreEven though it’s the time of year when the T is clogged with wide-eyed college freshman trying to find Faneuil Hall, there are still lots of great shows to go see in Boston. By Thomas Samph This month’s selection of pop music begins with an up-and-coming female pop act from the UK whose Family Jewels…
Read MoreAmbient indie-pop and summery surf sounds take over Boston in the second half of August. By Thomas Samph August 13, Deerhunter at Royale At a Deerhunter show, the sight of frontman Bradford Cox’s skeleton-like figure striding on to the stage through a thick mist (sometimes wearing a dress) is as ethereal and spooky as his…
Read MoreJuly Music/Musica en Julio/Musica em Julho By Thomas Samph With the temperatures peaking into the 90s in New England, here is some pop music that’s meant to be enjoyed in the heat. These acts (with the exception of one) all have their roots in warmer places: Latin music infused with funk and jazz, Spanish electronic…
Read MoreSophie Tucker: The Last of the Red Hot Mamas, By Richard Hopkins, Jack Fournier, and Kathy Halenda. Directed by Kate Warner. Musical Direction by Todd C. Gordon. Staged by New Repertory Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Charles Mosesian Theater, Watertown, MA, through July 11. Reviewed by Alyssa Machado Vaudeville star…
Read MoreJoining snow blowers, the goaltending mask, peanut butter, and Pamela Anderson on the list of indispensable life-saving things from Canada, the New Pornographers have solidified their position on the charts with the release of their latest album. As far as Indie-pop goes, you won’t find another band associated with the label “Supergroup” as often as…
Read MorePerhaps independent music’s biggest “it” band right now, The National have recently released their fifth album, and appear on the brink of crossing the threshold from well-kept secret to mainstream sensation, if their recent back-to-back sold out shows at Boston’s House of Blues are any indication. By Justin Marble In college, I took a comparative…
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