The Front Bottoms
The Front Bottoms surprise promoters and fans alike with their meteoric rise. Jen Cray jumps in on the action to catch them before they rise too high.
The Front Bottoms surprise promoters and fans alike with their meteoric rise. Jen Cray jumps in on the action to catch them before they rise too high.
Bob Pomeroy beats the Black Friday craziness with an inspired homecoming from the Powell brothers and Nu Sangha in St Petersburg!
Nobunny brings the freak show back to Orlando, but doesn’t break any nudity laws, much to Jen Cray’s relief.
Deafheaven bring together death metal and shoegaze and people lose their minds over it. Jen Cray had to see for herself.
Mac DeMarco and his crew of misfits brought good tunes and a good time to Portland, Oregon. Alexa Harris was all smiles.
You may not expect it from a 3 day punk rock festival over Halloween weekend, but THE FEST – as Jen Cray found out – feels like a gigantic hug!
Gang of Four comes through Orlando, sort of, and Jen Cray is underwhelmed.
It was a night of metal and moshing in the sold-out House of Blues, with Motörhead and Anthrax in town. Carl F Gauze elbowed his way through the madness.
Janet Jackson is pop music royalty and proved it in Orlando. Jen Cray can’t believe she witnessed it!
Jessica Lee Wilkes beat the mid-week odds and pulled off a performance that showcased her rockabilly soul and sweetness for Jen Cray and other Orlando fans.
Veruca Salt resoundingly showed they’re no passing ghost note by moving on from a turbulent past with an emphatically great performance at Webster Hall that wowed May Terry.
Face to Face performs Big Choice live at The Social. You know Jen Cray was there!
Courtney Barnett might think she’s pedestrian at best, but her popularity racing ahead on overdrive with no signs of slowing down. May Terry was left to sit and think after the CB3’s musical pit-stop at Terminal 5.
Shonen Knife’s performance at NYC’s Le Poisson Rouge is a Pop-Rocks fizz of Jap-punk distortions and colorful kitsch. May Terry indulged in the Shonen Knife experience with sushi, Pocky, and some great wok-and-roll music.
Ms. Etheridge is all-out solo in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. May Terry forgoes the Mount Airy Casino slots and blackjack tables to rock out at the great summerstage performance.
Margaret Cho
Jenny Lewis never fails to make Orlando, and Jen Cray, feel like giddy little school kids… especially when she brings Speedy Ortiz along for the ride.
FIDLAR and Metz make their Orlando debuts and inspire the crowd to break all the rules. Jen Cray is in the middle of the beautiful madness.
Tampa’s Big Guava Festival puts itself on the sun & sounds map, and wins the heart of Jen Cray.
After a stubborn illness sidelined the band just as they were about to explode, Screaming Females are back with a killer album and looooong world wide tour. Jen Cray caught their Orlando date.
Bob Pomeroy gets into four Radio Rarities from producer Zev Feldman for Record Store Day with great jazz recordings from Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Cal Tjader, and Ahmad Jamal.
Bob Pomeroy digs into Un “Sung Stories” (1986, Liberation Hall), Blasters’ frontman Phil Alvin’s American Roots collaboration with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and New Orleans saxman Lee Allen.
Roi J. Tamkin reviews A Darker Shade of Noir, fifteen new stories from women writers completely familiar with the horrors of owning a body in a patriarchal society, edited by Joyce Carol Oates.
Mandatory: The Best of The Blasters (Liberation Hall). Review by Bob Pomeroy.
Feeling funky this week, Christopher Long gets his groove on while discovering a well-cared-for used vinyl copy of one of his all-time R&B faves: Ice Cream Castle, the classic 1984 LP from The Time, for just a couple of bucks.
During AFI Fest 2023, Lily and Generoso interviewed director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, whose impressive debut feature, City of Wind, carefully examines the juxtaposition between the identity of place and tradition against the powers of modernity in contemporary Mongolia.
Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO (American Laundromat Records). Review by Laura Pontillo.
Ever-focused on finding (affordable) vinyl treasures, Christopher Long returns this week with his latest gem — a reasonably well-cared-for LP copy of The Glow, the 1979 studio classic from Bonnie Raitt.