Author: Paolo Confino

Green River Festival Announces 2022 Lineup

The Green River Festival in the Western Massachusetts town of Greenfield has announced the lineup for its 2022 installment. The headliners for the June 24-26 festival are Lake Street Dive, Father John Misty, Guster, Waxahatchee, Ripe, Galactic, and Hiss Golden Messenger.

The festival attained a certain level of renown recently, even being considered as one of “fifty essential summer music festivals” by the New York Times. This year they expect to have more than 30 live acts performing over the course of the event’s three days.

“For the first time we were able to host both RV and tent campers on site,” said Green River Festival Director, Jim Olsen “and still have plenty of space for three stages of music and all the other elements that make Green River Festival special. We know it will be even better in 2022.”

The full lineup includes Waxahatchee, Ripe, Galactic featuring Anjelika Jelly Joseph, Hiss Golden Messenger, Allison Russell, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Las Cafeteras, Katie Pruitt, Asleep At The Wheel, The Dip, Cha Wa, Kaleta & Super Yamba Band, Parsonsfield, Brennen Leigh, The Wildmans, Natu Camera, Steve Poltz, Rose & The Bros, MISTER G and the Global Citizen Ensemble, Matthew Fowler, and Oshima Brothers.

The lineup features the band Lake Street Dive (above).

Tickets for the event include both day and weekend passes and feature special rates for students.

“Six Local Heroes” have joined the Green River Music Festival Lineup:

StompBoxTrio explores the multicultural depths of 20th-century American blues, rock, and soul with some 21st-century mojo.

Love Crumbs is a folk-rock, indie, and Americana group based in Massachusetts. Known for blending poignant lyrics with smashing female vocals, their nostalgic, timeless, heart-on-sleeve sound harkens to a bygone era.

The Gaslight Tinkers’ blend of global rhythms creates a joyously danceable sound around a core of traditional New England old time and celtic fiddle music, merging boundless positive energy with melody and song.

Jake Manzi is known for his candid, easy stage presence, the moving stories behind his songs, and lyrics that will break your heart and make it whole again all at once.

The Green Sisters’ sound spans a wide range of bluegrass, barbershop, blues, country, and lots of original songs which fit right into the mix.

Poor Monroe is a New England-based bluegrass collaboration of seasoned players, delivering unmistakably tight vocal harmonies and scorching tempos that are the benchmark of the genre.

January 25, 2022
Goose Announces Second Show at Radio City Music Hall
Indie rock band Goose has announced it add a second night to their previously announced debut show at New York City’s legendary Radio City Music Hall on Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25.

Goose performing at Rockefeller Center, in New York City, for their annual Goosemas holiday concert.

As of now, the Radio City Music Hall dates are one of the final stops on the band’s current tour. Goose’s performance each night will feature a total of three sets with two electric sets and one acoustic set.

Performing at a historic venue like Radio City Music Hall is a dream come true for all of us! I can’t thank our fans enough for getting us here.
Drummer Ben Atkind.

To celebrate the announcement of its upcoming show Goose released a new single “Borne.” The song, which stays true to their jam band roots, details the travails and complexities that comprise the artistic process. It specifically deals with the frustrations one feels at hitting a creative roadblock and the subsequent second guessing it leads to.

“The song is a declaration to oneself to remember to not overthink things and make them more than they should be. It’s a reminder to try to be honest, and to let our work be what it is.
Guitarist Rick Mitarotonda

Tickets will go on sale in three phases:
- Initial Lottery from Tuesday, Jan. 18th at 12 p.m. EST through Wednesday, Jan. 19th at 5 p.m. EST
- Presale for Lottery Winners Thursday, Jan. 20 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Tickets for both shows will be available through a general onsale, beginning Friday, January 28th at 10 AM ET.
January 21, 2022
New Single “Before You Go” from Lupopunk is Vintage Pop Punk

On Jan. 14, Long Island pop punk band, Lupopunk, released its second single, “Before You Go,” from their upcoming untitled EP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa9SudVKJG0
Lupopunk’s previously released single, “Don’t Think I Forgot About You” from their upcoming EP.

On “Before You Go,” Lupopunk delivers a vintage pop punk performance, one that was frozen in ice back in 2003 and made to be thawed out under the blazing studio lights of an MTV stage. Except that MTV doesn’t play music anymore and pop punk turned out to be a fad. Which complicates the whole ordeal. How do you judge a good single from an outdated genre that barely holds any cultural bearing? Or should it not even matter because art should exist for its own sake and not to please, serve, and/or be sold to an audience?

Lupopunk’s recorded their new single “Before You Go” with John Naclerio of Nada Recordings.

If you’re a fan of pop punk Lupopunk’s new single, “Before You Go” is like a fond childhood memory that triggers a rush of emotions and a longing for a time when all the things you loved were at the center of your world. The powerful guitar riffs with the emphatic chords, the angst-ridden vocals, the drums which demand attention all combine to make for a true “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” performance.

When I first started Lupopunk it was going to be just an acoustic project…[but] I started to record that and demo it and realized that I’m going to finally do my pop punk stuff.
Matty Lupinacci, Lupopunk front man

Lupopunk’s lead vocalist, Matty Lupinacci, a long-time staple of the Long Island punk scene, will perform live for the first time in 14 years on Saturday 1/15 at the Massapequa VFW Hall.

January 15, 2022
Peter Stone’s Debut EP “Unlabeled” Delivers Eminently Listenable Artistic Vision

Peter Stone’s debut EP, “Unlabeled“, delivers an eminently listenable and creatively integral album. It’s a work whose influences are clear—R&B vocals, 80’s synthesizers, pop beats—but who’s originality and creative vision are even more evident.

Stone’s work features a knack for melodies that are sonically complex and rich with texture but that are, nonetheless, earworms that stick with you as you listen. Even though he recorded the album in 2020 during lockdown in his native Italy “when he couldn’t have any contact with anyone [which] was a really tough time” his ability to guarantee head-bobbing tunes belies the conditions under which the EP was recorded.

Although his ability to do so appears effortless the quality of the music suggests it likely wasn’t. Rather it was the product of a detailed process of intentional musical choices from his myriad influences. On “Cold,” the album’s likely hit, his mix of R&B crooning and 80’s synthesizers combine to make what is ultimately a pop song of the highest order.

Stone doesn’t have an aversion to pop music. Even if we admits that it’s not one of the guiding inspirations of his musical process.

“Pop is one of the genres I’m up to put myself in even though [I’m not] mainly inspired by it when it comes to the writing and the production of my songs,” acknowledged Stone.

Even if it isn’t his main inspiration there’s no denying that it’s the outcome. On “Lead Me”, the first song on Peter Stone’s debut EP, he sings “She’s dancing on the floor/She’s moving on the floor” over pulsating synths and basses.

His obvious talent for creating uniquely creative, yet accessible music is on delves into new spaces with “Save Me” and “Trust.” The first is an emotional piano ballad, with Stone playing the keys, that while still feeling slightly like a young artist’s imitation of what they think an emotional song should sound like; has lyrics that effectively portray a person that’s fractured and realizing that they have to put themselves back together.

On “Trust” Stone exhibits a mature understanding of song composition that is reflexive of a clear creative vision, executed with purpose. The song is a three-parter but to say more would spoil the mix of delight and intrigue one feels at its transitions. All of which are unlike both each other and the rest of the songs on Unlabeled offering a glimpse into Stone’s multidimensionality as an artist.

His multitude of influences might have created a genre blending debut but ultimately all that matters is that once you listen to Peter Stone’s debut EP…you’ll want to listen to it again.

January 15, 2022