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4 weeks ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
Over the years Kay’s Oasis in Mattapan has been the site of countless reggae concerts, sound system dance nights, and milestone celebrations. Earlier this month, it was Kay’s turn to be celebrated. Owner Kay Chambers held a party to mark her retirement after four decades of owning the nightclub as well as the adjoining Kay’s Oasis Beauty Salon. Chambers opened the salon in 1984 and the nightclub, which was most recently known as Kay’s Lounge, in 1989.
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1 month ago | 
wbur.org | Amelia Mason |Lukas Harnisch |Victoria Wasylak |Noah Schaffer
Left: Cover art for DeevoDaGenius, Kil The Artist and BLUEHILLBILL's "Bleu Magic" (Courtesy Jackson Hallaws and Chop The Head). Center from top: Album art for Kim Perlak and Francisco Mela's "Spaces" (courtesy); Art for Pile's single "Born at Night" (Courtesy Mark Lapriore); and single art for Tuxis Giant's "Last Laugh" (courtesy). Right: Album art for Suriel's "Pressure" (courtesy).
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1 month ago | 
bostonglobe.com | Noah Schaffer
Although Mexican-American musical giants Los Tigres del Norte made their Boch Center Wang Theatre debut in 2022, their return to that venue on Friday will be under very different circumstances for the norteño band and its audience. That’s because Los Tigres have been preeminent musical chroniclers of the immigrant and migrant experience since their 1977 recording, “Vivan los Mojados” (“Long Live the Wetbacks”). Their lyrics tell stories of hard work, family, homesickness, and resilience.
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1 month ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
When Ward Hayden & The Outliers were driving across the Midwest on a tour, they decided to kill time in the van by looking into Aaron Lewis, one of their few Massachusetts country music peers.
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1 month ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
The firing of a famed Berklee College of Music department leader, who for years repeatedly shared antisemitic social media posts, has ignited conversation over hiring practices at the elite school. Berklee College of Music fired its brass department chair, Nicholas Payton, in April, just months after promoting him into the role last fall. Payton confirmed his termination to WBUR last week. A spokesperson for Berklee confirmed he no longer works for the school.
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1 month ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
When the MC known as MaceyOMaze was growing up in Fields Corner, his father would play classic hip-hop in the family van. The lyrics typically detailed life in hip-hop capitals like New York and Los Angeles. But one day, a song called “I Got To Have It” came on and MaceyOMaze, then a 12-year-old aspiring rapper, heard something in the lyrics that astonished him. “At first, I was like ‘Oh, this is dope.’ And then I heard them say ‘Roxbury.’ And I was like, ‘Wait a minute — this rapper's from Boston?
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1 month ago | 
wbur.org | Amelia Mason |Victoria Wasylak |Noah Schaffer |Solon Kelleher |Lukas Harnisch
Clockwise from top left: The cover art for Ali McGuirk's "Where Does All The $ Come From?" (Courtesy); cover art for Daniel Voltaire and HAAWWS' "Stuck in My Ways Remix" (Courtesy Mellow Z Vier); cover art for Bowling Shoes' "FACTORY POP" (Courtesy of Jeremiah Bermel, Jake Lutter and Dimitri Christo); and cover art for Flying Vipers' "Off World" (courtesy). Maybe it’s the bright green foliage outside my window, but this month’s music roundup feels especially fresh.
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2 months ago | 
bostonglobe.com | Noah Schaffer
When the deadly Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, members of Boston’s Puerto Rican community gathered at the Villa Victoria in the South End. “Everyone was so sad, and then someone just decided to sing a song by Haciendo Punto en Otro Son,” remembers Elsa Mosquera-Sterenberg, who helped organize the event for Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, where she worked at the time.
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2 months ago | 
wbur.org | Noah Schaffer
In the 1960s, Jim Kweskin was famous for finding 78 RPM records of early jazz, blues and country. That collection helped fuel the sound and repertoire of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, his influential combo that was a major attraction at Cambridge’s Club 47 and the Newport Folk Festival. The successor to Club 47, Club Passim, still displays in its tiny lobby a framed album that Kweskin recorded live at Club 47 in 1968.
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2 months ago | 
wbur.org | Maddie Browning |Victoria Wasylak |Noah Schaffer
From left, album art for Ghost Girl's "Fragment" (courtesy); Copilot's "Vroom Vroom, etc" (courtesy Julia Paccone); and Roger Clark Miller's "Curiosity for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble" (courtesy). As winter fades into spring, our critics share local music to transition us into this new season. An EP capturing a personal turning point full of snapshots of the artist's life. A Boston stalwart's latest transfixing project inspired by NASA's Mars rover, Curiosity.
