It's the blankets (tartines, cupcakes) at Frost Me Café and Bakery
Piazza della famiglia finally open in Little Italy
Ed Bedford 3 p.m., April 25
Of Note
Megadeth metalman captivates classical crowd
"Many of us got into classical guitar because we were listening to all kinds of metal bands."
“Andres Segovia on steroids.” Shred metal guitarist and Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine’s own words, when asked to describe bandmate Kiko Loureiro. That would have been back in 2015, following the announcement that Loureiro had ...
Hipsters with guitars
This is likely the future, music that will not go easily into a simple category
Fruition is a five-piece act that is often labeled a bluegrass-alt country-jam band, and depending on one’s point of reference, the band can fit into any or all of those genres. Fruition’s three-piece vocal harmony ...
The California Honeydrops get a little love
For this band, there was no other choice but to make this music
Livin’ for today / singin’ for tomorrow... Is it safe to say that some of the world’s best New Orleans-style funk and soul bands come from the West Coast? Probably no. But our track record ...
Keeping blues out of the Museum of Past Glory
Southern Avenue's name is a nod to Stax Records
The last time the soul band Southern Avenue blew through town, I commented in these pages that maybe a decade on the road would put grit into their sound. Sounds like they’ve done it in ...
Power and bombast gained with age
Dirkschneider never really stopped rocking
As the gods of metal age: the short list includes Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon, Black Sabbath, Udo Dirkschneider, and those other German head-bangers, the Scorpions. Most of these bands have retired, thought better of ...
Hooked on accordion
Flogging Molly's Matt Hensley skated into his unlikely career
You could call this story “Just Being There.” It’s about how Matt Hensley, from Vista, went from pro skater to being a working member of Flogging Molly. “The only odd thing,” he says by phone, ...
You can’t not look at Langhorne Slim
Don’t wait for a yodel. It will not come.
“Life is confused,” Langhorne Slim sings, “and people are insane.” Slim’s a 37-year-old singer/songwriter oft-branded as alt country. “Can we be happy for a while/ Can we just sit down and shut up and smile?” ...
Responsible to the blues
Janiva Magness: “I didn’t want to do it. What if I suck? What if I don’t suck?”
Readying to tour in support of her newest release, Love Is an Army, Janiva Magness checks in from her Culver City digs. We talk about artistic development. Magness is a blues singer. Electric blues at ...
Grails not nearly as shape-shifty as prog rock
Concert experience a bit like trying to learn a foreign language
Right about the point when you’re thinking this is a band that should have never left the garage, Grails delivers. The band has a sound that is its own: in this case, nuanced, shadowy, ominous ...
Pure Prairie League's pop-radio sugar
Cheery bluegrass contrast with hangdog vocals made "Amie" hit
Possibly the most baffling love song ever recorded comes out of Ohio. It was released sometime during the early 1970s, and just about anyone from back then will know these words: “I can see why ...
Each chord as delicate as a prayer
Pianist Mike Wofford's astonishing background
Your basic acoustic piano is a bunch of wires strung at varying degrees of tension across an iron frame sandwiched inside of a wooden box for resonation. One controls said machine via 88 keys laid ...
