Last week, I blogged about Sons of an Illustrious Father, the Nyack teens who were born on a cargo train rumbling through Mississippi in 1910, and then somehow jumped the rails, and ended up with us today in aught eight.  I wasn’t crazy about their new recordings, because of the way the tracks were mixed.  [...]

This guy is all the rage:

The press release for Sloan Wainwright’s upcoming December 13 show at Bedford Presbyterian Church in Bedford teases that there could be some “as yet announced surprise musical guests.”  I guess the implication is that her brother (Loudon), nieces (Martha/Lucy), and nephew (Rufus) might sit in on a song or two, but no official confirmation from [...]

I got an email a while back from Lilah Larson—guitarist, vocalist, and band manager of sorts for Sons of an Illustrious Father—telling me that the group had put together some new recordings.  Rockland Magazine readers probably remember the trio, made up of Larson, banjo player Sofia Albam, and cellist Jake Sokolov, from our April 2008 [...]

On the advice of Aaron Rauch, the singer/guitarist from the bands Blue Was a Bear and History of Lovers, I took a listen to Nyack’s Christian Evans this morning.

What a pleasant way to start a Monday.

Just like History of Lovers, Evans likes to take things slowly and quietly.  Although his songs are often deliberate, you [...]

Yesterday I called up Melanie Rock, who organizes the Sound Bites music series at Riverspace, to shoot the breeze, and learned that her husband, Greg Talenfeld, is planning to open up a recording studio in Nyack this spring.  Talenfeld is a producer who worked with Pavement, The Jon Spenser Blues Explosion, The Walkmen, and a [...]

Whoops.  I mentioned last week that 107.1 The Peak was opening up a charity concert series with Marah, but it looks like the Philly transplants have dropped out, and won’t make it to their January 10 show, which will benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Instead, The Peak is bringing in Jukebox the Ghost (who are based [...]

This just in: you can see The King next at Pumpernickel Restaurant (925 Saw Mill River Rd.,
Ardsley) on January 17 at 9 p.m.

Elvis impersonators are a strange breed.  They’re half-musician, half-Star Wars conventioneer; some of them kind of look like Elvis, some of them kind of look like the plumber down the street.  It’s not just a paycheck for them, either: they seem to enjoy the performance at least as much as the spectators do.

But much like [...]

The accordion.  It’s probably not what you asked for on your sixteenth birthday.  It’s heavier than a week’s worth of groceries, and playing it is akin to milking a woolly mammoth.  Also, why do you need all those buttons?  Are you making music or operating a Cold-War-era submarine?

But despite all these characteristics, the accordion can [...]

Country music is too often defined by commercials for F150s, cut-off tees, and drilling for oil (check out this ditty, if you haven’t heard it already).  I’m not knocking any of that.  I used to drive a pick-up, I have plenty of cut-offs, and if Exxon wanted to engage in some exploratory drilling in my [...]

NEXT, the new music radio program hosted by Chris Bro on 107.1 The Peak, is sponsoring a concert series through 2009 that will benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters.  All the shows will be at Rack ‘n’ Roll Sports Bar and Billiards in Stamford (268 Atlantic St.; Stamford, CT; 203-327-991; racknrollbilliards.com).

First up is Marah on January [...]

I never really thought about getting a tattoo when I was 16, but if I did it probably would have been of the winged Weezer “W.”  After “The Blue Album” and Pinkerton, they were pretty much my guitar-playing Bible for the next seven or eight years.  I couldn’t even count the amount times that I [...]

On Urban Fetch’s 2008 release, Songs with No Names, Purchase resident Danny Golub knocks out chords on the piano with a steadiness that makes you feel like you’re marching along in a half-emo, half-frat-boy parade; heart in one hand, beer in the other. Urban Fetch has the sound of a band that’s coalesced, and one [...]

There was a point back in high school when I traded in all my Dylan CDs.  Not sure why.  Maybe I just got tired Dylan’s persistent drone.  Maybe it was around the time I bought my first electric guitar.  Maybe it was just because I wanted enough credits at the CD store to buy the [...]

Megan Hickey and The Last Town Chorus (based in Brooklyn) come to Riverspace on Friday, October 17, as part of Riverspace’s SoundBites series.  Here’s her MySpace page-

Details: $15; 8 p.m.; Riverspace Arts in Nyack; 119 Main St.; Nyack, NY; 845-348-1880.

Credit: Eric Sutton 

Megan Hickey and The Last Town Chorus (based in Brooklyn) come to Riverspace on Friday, October 17, as part of Riverspace’s SoundBites series.  Here’s her MySpace page.

Details: $15; 8 p.m.; Riverspace Arts in Nyack; 119 Main St.; Nyack, NY; 845-348-1880.

Credit: Eric Sutton 

Credit: Ben Goldstein

Today we get to hear from 27-year-old Sanchia Velez, the reggaetón/Latin singer, who’s getting lots of local gigs lately, as well as some exposure on cable TV.

(Photos courtesy of Sanchia)
The Orange County resident—who grew up in Rockland and graduated from North Rockland High School—put out a new album in mid-September (mp3s from Let the Beat [...]

Megan Hickey and The Last Town Chorus (based in Brooklyn) come to Riverspace on Friday, October 17, as part of Riverspace’s SoundBites series.  Hickey’s feathery vocals and astral slide guitar playing seem like they will really translate well to the Riverspace stage, where intimacy is almost unavoidable.  Here’s her MySpace page.  If you’re interested, I [...]

The emo band  Atlantic Escape will be at Haverstraw King’s Daughters Public Library for “Loud Noises” tomorrow, October 3, at 6 p.m.

Every once in a while, you see a piece of artwork, watch a film, or hear music that reminds you that maybe all the other stuff that you’re always worrying about—work, money, laundry—doesn’t really matter all that much.  At least for a few hours anyway.

That’s how I felt when I saw “Fela!” last week at [...]

This Tuesday, September 30, Marc Farre brings his dream-like songwriting and guitar playing to The Turning Point in Piermont.  Expect some new tunes, as well as songs off Secret Symphony, released earlier this year. $10 cover, and they suggest reservations.  7:30pm start-

The emo band  Atlantic Escape will be at Haverstraw King’s Daughters Public Library for “Loud Noises” on October 3 at 6 p.m.

Confession time: I like emo and I don’t care what the haters say.  The genre tends to play up some personality traits that I really identify with: being a pseudo punk, getting emotional over the silliest things, and then TURNING UP MY NOT VERY TOUGH MUSIC to get it all out of my system.  My [...]

If you follow the bands out in Rockland, especially Nyack, you’ve probably heard of Blue Was a Bear, a sometimes folky, sometimes jazzy, always heartsick quartet that plays with Britney Boras every once and a while.  Well, Blue is still chugging along, but now the members are working with some of their friends and collaborators [...]

I’m really digging La Bruja right now, so even though she’s across county lines in the Bronx, I wanted to write her up.  I came across her music on MySpace a few weeks ago, and I’ve been hooked on “Brujería” (“Witchcraft”) since.  The sample has a jarring, jumpy feel, but that’s what draws you in.  [...]

You’ve got to respect this guy.  Pete Best missed his chance for eternal stardom when he was replaced by Ringo in the early 60s, but he’s still plugging away and making music, even after the other Beatles have passed away or committed themselves to selling grande skim lattes, a la Sir Paul.  Without commenting on [...]

I finally got a chance to ask Scarsdale’s Anthony “AC” Cowen some questions about his music (he’s along the lines of a clean-shaven Justin Timberlake, with some funk influences).  He schools us on the true definition of “boy band,” the strength of his hair gel, and whether or not we will find him cavorting in [...]

This just in from Sanchia: You can hear her song “So What!” on the USA Network’s Burn Notice Thursday at 10 p.m.  Tune and support the local Latin scene (odd to support something by watching TV, but so be it).  As a non-cable subscriber, I hadn’t heard about the show, but it seems like something [...]

Sanchia, a leggy reggaetón singer who lives in Orange, but grew up in Rockland and graduated from North Rockland High School, has a new album coming out Sunday, September 14.  Not the traditional Tuesday release date, but she probably wanted it to coincide with her performance at “Taste of Latin Culture” in Newburgh’s Downing Park, [...]