Blog.WBRU

Never before have I seen fans at a concert trade the usual devil horns for sign language symbols of “I love you” and peace signs—that is, until I saw Matisyahu, the Grammy-nominated Jewish reggae-hip hop star, play at Lupo’s Tuesday night.

His show on the 28^th began with Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, an indie folk band from Tufts University who recently released their newest album, Inside the Human Body. The band, who seem like a more listener-friendly version of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, presented the crowd with a good warm-up for the second opener, Flobots. Read the rest » »

As the week goes by, I pride myself on being pretty spontaneous. I keep my days open for whatever comes, and I tend not to commit myself to anything unless it’s crazy important. Last week, however, a huge red circle found its way on the 11^th of October entry in my

never-used schedule book, encircling the robotic wording of TV ON THE RADIO.

My history with the band’s music is somewhat short, only hearing about them a few years ago from a friend whose sole purpose was to feed me new music. After listening to TV on the Radio’s Return to Cookie Mountain, I immediately fell for the crazy, soulful, rockish style. Looking back through their catalogue, it’s pretty hard to tell it’s been the same band throughout the years. They’ve gone from some raw turntablism and hip-hop (their first album, OK Calculator, a not so subtle homage to you-know-who) to the polished newcomer, Dear Science, a waltz into a catchy, slightly electronic sound—still keeping the avant-garde rock approach they’re known for. Read the rest » »

Alanis Morisette’s fans loved her set at the PPAC on September 29th. Her hit songs flowed very well into material from her new album, thanks to her unique and still-great voice and very tight band, which,
near the end of the show, pulled off a country-flavored acoustic performance of “Hand In My Pocket”. Opener Alexi Murdoch played emotional music on acoustic guitar and strummed violin and quipped
that despite being from the United Kingdom, his albums are only out in America.

My love of Tegan and Sara is very well documented. I fell for the pair after picking up their last record, “The Information”, and have spent the better part of the last year trying to get to one of their shows. Needless to say I was super pumped when the stars finally aligned and I was able to see them at the Palladium last Saturday. Also needless to say, I was super bummed after some navigational issues caused us to miss the first couple songs (apparently when google maps said Exit 23 they meant the one in Rhode Island, not Mass.). When we walked in, the girls were halfway through a cover of Rhianna’s “Umbrella”. The song choice seemed so six months ago, but I was willing to let it go because the rest of the set was awesome. I’m not going to lie and say that I’m fully aware of the group’s earlier albums but their performance made me kind of wish I was. The first part of their set (at least the first part that I actually saw) was predominantly older stuff. The girls mixed it up with the crowd in between songs by engaging in discussions on topics such as American politics and which security guard was the most bad ass. Sibling rivalry also arose over which one was the superior piano player growing up. I’m pretty sure that this seems really lame to anyone reading this, but in person it just made them seem even more adorable. The set closed with “The Con”, one of my favorite songs of 2007. The group began an encore with a slowed down version of “The First” featuring Dallas Green of City and Colour. Then they went into “Nineteen” and closed the show with “Back in Your Head”.

I remember one of the sisters commenting how their mother constantly checks the internet for any mention of the band. Mrs. Quin, if you’re reading this, tell your daughters to come back to southern New England real soon.

Sunday’s always seem hectic for me. No work, no commitments… you’d expect it to be relaxing, no? Somehow, though, I always manage to end up with a ton of things to get done on Sundays. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that I found myself sprinting down to Lupo’s two Sundays ago to make it in time to see It Was the Best of Times open for The Kooks. It also isn’t terribly surprising that, due to confusion and other problems, I only managed to get photos of Best of Times. But hey, these things happen, and I’m just glad that I got to see such an awesome show.

For those of you with your fingers far from the pulse of the local music community, there’s been a rumor circulating that IWTBOT is breaking up. Let me dispel your concerns - they are not. Although they’ve lost drummer Jared Smith to college, and guitarist Pete Camera is moving on to new things, they’re still pumping out great music. And, surprisingly, their live act didn’t sound incredibly different without the former band members - you can tell something’s missing, but they’re already well on their way to solidifying their sound with their new lineup. The biggest difference had to be the crowd; nearly 1000 people showed up to catch their set, an impressive feat. And they did a phenomenal job filling the biggest stage I’ve seen them on, and pumping up an enormous crowd. Read the rest » »