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Music Features

Stars aligned

Cult heroes and superstars dot the region's fall concert calendar
The days are growing shorter, the magazines are (well, barely) getting larger and meatier, and the first batch of cider doughnuts is on the way real soon: all sure signs of autumn, as is the bountiful crop of prestigious concerts coming our way this season.

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 16, 2009

Ripple effect

The 10 most influential bands of our first 10 years
The Portland Phoenix launched in 1999, just as the Portland music scene was turning.

By SAM PFEIFLE | September 16, 2009

Off the record?

Ten albums to get . . . while we still have albums
Pity the album. After a half-century of embarrassingly public body issues, our essential rock unit has not entered the new millennium looking very healthy. EPs are way more in vogue, MP3s have intangibility on their side, and 12-inches just sound impressive.

By MICHAEL BRODEUR | September 14, 2009

The Big Hurt: Don't look back in anger

The best of times with the worst of bands
"You don't know what you've got till it's gone," Janet Jackson once famously sampled, and how true it is. Only now that Noel Gallagher has left in a firestorm of brotherly acrimony can I truly take stock of my feelings toward Oasis.

By DAVID THORPE | September 08, 2009

Better all the time

Get these Beatles reissues into your life
In 2006, Apple/EMI released the Beatles-soundtracked Cirque du Soleil companion piece Love , which mashed together songs from the band's repertoire in stunning remastered sound.

By ZETH LUNDY | September 08, 2009

Glorious bastards

Deerhunter's path from divisive buzz band to indie royalty
Few bands could serve as a better case study on the influence of Internet hype on mainstream media and popular acceptance than Deerhunter. Before the band "broke" in early 2007, to a glowing Pitchfork review of their album Cryptograms , the Atlanta four-piece were virtual unknowns nationally.

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | September 02, 2009

The Big Hurt: Checking the Billboard Hot 100

Who charted?
As usual, I won't be able to make it through the full 100, but seven is just as good, right?

By DAVID THORPE | August 25, 2009

Community: served

Solillaquists of Sound spread some Orlando magic
Without Solillaquists of Sound and the holistic hip-hop hamlet that its members cultivate within Orlando, their city would be home to little more than methadone retreats and plastic rodent ears.

By CHRIS FARAONE | August 26, 2009

Swinging blues

Samuel James's stories from the road
On the eve of Samuel James's second CD release on Northern Blues Music, For Rosa, Maeve and Noreen , we needed to catch up on all of his happenings since the release of 2008's Songs Famed for Sorrow and Joy .

By SONYA TOMLINSON | August 19, 2009

Branding Bangor

It's Maine's first large-scale indie music festival
If a big-league indie pop festival falls in Bangor, will anyone hear it?

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | August 12, 2009

The Big Hurt: Pop eroticism, faux sincerity, and sperm motility

Music News in Brief
I am a man who loves a good corporate doofus, and this week's glistening-prize-hog-doofus quote goes to TOM WELCH , Wal-Mart's senior music buyer, who manages to make Foreigner sound even squarer than Foreigner.

By DAVID THORPE | August 05, 2009

Best Music Poll 2009: Anything goes

The underground: saved, salvaged, or savaged?
The underground: saved, salvaged, or savaged?

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | July 30, 2009

Best Music Poll Concert + Winners

The results are in
View the winners to Boston Phoenix's Best Music Poll; then take part in the live concert on August 1, 2009

By PHOENIX STAFF | August 03, 2009

Regardless of the cost

Tony McNaboe testifies on sophomore release
If you were concerned that the return of Rustic Overtones would mean the ends of their various side projects, it’s clear now that was a fruitless worry.

By SAM PFEIFLE | July 22, 2009

Free to be

Hutch Heelan goes solo
Because of Hutch Heelan, I've now heard of EFT, which stands for emotional freedom techniques, and, as far as I can tell, involves tapping on different parts of your body to relieve pain, anxiety, and other bad feelings.

By SAM PFEIFLE | July 22, 2009

Shoot the piano player

Robert Stillman returns with Master Box
Robert Stillman's music is like an anachronistic, sepia-toned spin on the fanciful film scores of Jon Brion (Punch-Drunk Love, I Heart Huckabees). Both make fleet-footed, extremely visual piano songs with trotting melodies, a natural fit for an old silent short.

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | July 22, 2009

Born to rock

Deer Tick take it to the roadhouse
The last time Deer Tick were in Portland, at SPACE Gallery in November 2007, then-21-year-old frontman John McCauley decided to sing the national anthem. He sprung offstage and hit the floor belting the Tony Bennett standard "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" in a nasal voice soaked in equal parts whiskey, battery acid, and gravel.

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | July 15, 2009