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Music Features

Devil Music Ensemble heads to China

"Red Heroine" chic
When Boston's Devil Music Ensemble began their quest to write a live soundtrack to the 1929 Chinese silent film Red Heroine , they never would have guessed that they would end up in Beijing.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | March 07, 2012

Still an angry mob, Kaiser Chiefs get creative

Rock rebellion
Last summer, British pop veterans Kaiser Chiefs came up with a novel way to self-release their fourth full-length, The Future Is Medieval .

By: ANNIE ZALESKI | February 28, 2012

Deflecting feedback with the Dirty Dishes

Structurally sound
As we're all well aware by now, the window of musical-temporal referencing has sped up at an alarming rate.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | February 28, 2012

The Black Keys rise to the arenas

Key bumps
When it was announced that the Black Keys were headlining the TD Garden, it looked like a mistake.

By: MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | February 28, 2012

Getting glitchy with Mindless Self Indulgence

Horror business
I once thought all music that wasn't performed by three-to-five angry dudes with guitars and a drum kit was stupid.

By: BARRY THOMPSON | February 28, 2012

8 new records that will give Boston rock a charge

High voltage
Boston's going through an identity crisis; never has the city's music scene been so diverse, its sonic landscape so eclectic.

By: MICHAEL MAROTTA | March 07, 2012

A Far Cry rocks harder than your favorite band. But can they save classical music from itself?

A young person's guide to the orchestra
Night falls in Jamaica Plain. The drunks are flicking cigarettes on the sidewalk outside the Jeanie Johnston pub; on the corner, Santería devotees are buying candles at the Botanica San Miguel. And in between, in a leased storefront, 17 classical musicians are losing their fucking minds to Haydn.

By: S.I. ROSENBAUM | February 23, 2012

George Clinton takes a victory lap through Boston

Dr. Funkenstein, PhD
We are all George Clinton's babies.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | February 23, 2012

Deciphering beauty in the Life and Times

Into the vast beyond
You're standing at the edge of a vast canyon.

By: LUKE O'NEIL | February 21, 2012

Exploring staged improvisation with Javelin

Ping-pong sounds
In the spicy euphoria following a Valentine's Day dinner date last week (real-deal bibimbap), Javelin's Tom Van Buskirk and his date tried to hold their own in a Los Angeles Korean table-tennis club.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 21, 2012

Boston experiences an indie-label resurgence

DIY or die
Jonah Livingston was a student at Northeastern's Music Industry program when his next-door neighbor told him that his band, Raise the Curtain, had a record but didn't know what to do with it.

By: NINA MASHUROVA | February 21, 2012

Moving on with Stephie Coplan & the Pedestrians

Turning the page
When Stephie Coplan was 14 years old, the empty pages in her first songwriting book were as much an escape as they were a creative outlet.

By: MICHAEL MAROTTA | February 15, 2012

Identifying with the sonic haze of Crocodiles

Psychic reaction
There are loads of bands out there that defy, don't want, and often downright despise categorization.

By: MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | February 15, 2012

In Flames craft an evolving breed of metal

Still spreading
Face it: metal bands are just brands, and to the headbanging hordes, you are only as good as your last breakdown — unless you can concoct a memorable musical identity to stand above the competition.

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 15, 2012

The Overdub Tampering Committee

How a group of Boston musicians exacted their weird price from the world of online music sharing — without actually doing a thing
Armed with an idea, a hastily written manifesto, a press release, and some software to disguise my computer's IP address, I was able to raise the question, "How do you know that what you're illegally downloading is the actual music it claims to be?" This is a story about how my pop-music infatuation led me to fabricating a web of lies I called the Overdub Tampering Committee.

By: RYAN WALSH | February 15, 2012

At home with Sharon Van Etten

Lady and her Tramp
Sharon Van Etten is peeling an orange in her South Brooklyn apartment.

By: LIZ PELLY | February 15, 2012

[in memoriam] Whitney Houston, 1963-2012

"The biggest devil is me," is how Houston famously summed up her life's dilemma
Whitney Houston, who passed away this weekend of still-to-be-determined causes at the too-young age of 48, made an art out of depicting heroic triumph over adversity in her music

By: DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 13, 2012