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Metro Staff on February 20, 2019
Local indie rockers Bylines officially release their debut album this Friday. Summit Road is a seven-song set of laid-back grooves, echoing open chords and intertwining guitar leads. The record’s lead single, “Easy To Do,” vaults over the kind of self-absorption posturing as sassy self-awareness in the standard down-and-out rock & roll ballad—as…
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Bill Kopp on February 20, 2019
More than a dozen musicians have been members of jazz fusion band the Yellowjackets since the group launched in 1977. But keyboardist and founding member Russell Ferrante says there are common threads woven throughout the band’s ouvre.
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I’ve been saving for a few years now, researching for over six months. I know exactly what kind of car I want. Also, I’m a damn-near middle-age man, despite people telling me I don’t look a day over 25. Oh, and it’s 2019! Why are we still haggling like we’re in a…
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Nick Veronin on February 13, 2019
Anerae Brown is not the only rapper to keep a career afloat from behind bars. However, the dedication and ingenuity Brown demonstrated while serving a 31-year sentence for first degree murder are certainly notable. Over the course of his 26 years in prison, he released 12 albums, recording grainy flows over a…
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Bill Kopp on February 13, 2019
Smooth R&B vocal group The Whispers have been a fixture of the music landscape for 50 years. With a sound that draws from vocal greats like The Temptations, The Whispers’ soothing approach keeps the focus on the vocals. But the enduring act has also applied a solid slow-jam dance groove to its…
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Wallace Baine on February 13, 2019
The Brooklyn-based performance group Half Straddle presents this hybrid show, which is part rock concert and part theatrical production, centered on a live band working through issues such as complicated family dynamics, sexuality and feminism with songs. It’s all based on playwright and Half Straddle artistic director Tina Satter’s real-life estrangement from…
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Bay Area musician Marinero crafts gauzy, laid-back indie rock,inflected with Spanish and island flourishes. His latest single, “Flor de Jamaica,” is a wispy number that sways lightly like a palm tree blown by a mild tropical breeze. The track features bright strokes of bittersweet guitar chords, glittering atop a calm ocean of…
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Mike Huguenor on February 13, 2019
These days, it seems that innovation outpaces our ability to understand what it is doing to us. As Californians, we are used to tectonic shifts, but the ground beneath us is now in a constant state of flux. There are new means of transportation, communication and expression; new ways to meet people,…
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Julia Baum on February 12, 2019
Valentine’s Day has long ditched its historic Roman Empire roots and now simply enriches Hallmark execs, but many people still don’t seem opposed to a day that encourages eating tons of chocolate and having sex (hello, life goals). The anxiety of gift shopping undoubtedly contributes to V-Day’s rep as the most hated holiday…
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Bill Kopp on February 7, 2019
Ask your average fan of Americana and related styles of music what it is that Steep Canyon Rangers play, and the most common answer you’ll hear is bluegrass. But ask a member of the popular, award-winning and long-running band based in western North Carolina the same question, and the answer isn’t quite…
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