boston

Beantown Jewish Gardens: You Spoke, We Listened

I have had the pleasure of being involved with Beantown Jewish Gardens since moving to Boston in 2012. I wrote the following letter on behalf of the Board of Directors of this nonprofit following the initiation of a strategic planning process. The original version was posted here.

One year ago, Ganei Beantown convened the first meeting of a new board of directors. The creation of this board was necessary to ensure the long term viability of Ganei Beantown. This new board is a group of individuals focused on supporting and sustaining the work of this grassroots organization. (more…)

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REVIEW: The English Beat and Pressure Cooker at Brighton Music Hall

This post originally appeared at Boston Ska (dot) net.

No one was more surprised than me to walk up to the doors of Brighton Music Hall and see that The English Beat show was sold out. Really? The English Beat? In 2017? I was floored. Local support from Pressure Cooker and DJ Panda was added pretty late and the $35 was unlikely to draw in newer fans making a sold out house all the more impressive. (more…)

Alissia and the Funkateers Perform at the 2015 Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival

Alissia Benveniste Funks Me Back to High School

This past Saturday I attended the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival. I first caught this festival back in 2012 when I first moved to Boston but hadn’t been back since. At the last minute, a friend of ours asked if we were attending. Thankfully I had the day free. (more…)

Reinventing the In-store Appearance

Once upon a time, it was fairly standard for a band to appear at a record store while on tour. They might perform in some capacity, they might just sign records. They were typically seen as great opportunities to connect with local fans and obviosuly boost sales for both the artist and the record store. As physical music sales took a dive, so did the frequency of these once common in-store appearances*.

This past April, my band The New Limits was involved in a promotion between Boston Scene Party, a collective of music web sites, and Sound Lion, a high-end audio store in Harvard Square. (more…)

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Celebrating 20 Years of They Might Be Giants Fandom

I can’t tell you the exact moment I became a fan of They Might Be Giants. It would have been 5th or 6th grade. One of my friends at the time had an album or two and I inevitably saw their appearance on Tiny Toons. I do remember that it was in 6th grade, the 1994-1995 school year, that I became obsessed with my cassette of “Flood.” That year, my dad took me to see them perform at the Palace Theatre in New Haven. It was part of their tour in support of the “John Henry” album. I had been to see live music before–my parents made sure of that–but this was my first “rock concert.” (more…)