If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Brandon McClain Last year I was lucky enough to see Mei Semones at The Red Room @ Cafe 939 in Boston, with opener John Roseboro. The pair have teamed up on a new single, "Tooth Fairy." This new single fits in perfectly with everything we've come to love from Semones. It's mainly rooted in jazz, with elements of folk and also the singer-songwriter genre. As much of a jazz song as "Tooth Fairy" is, it could also sneak by music fans who simply can't get into the genre. Semones is adept at weaving styles like folk and jazz into a pop song, which is how many people are going to register this song. Adding John Roseboro to the mix heightens the entire experience, and we're hoping to hear more from the pair down the road. Mei Semones says of her latest single: “This song is about a day I was meeting John Roseboro at his friends’ bookstore. I got off the train in Greenpoint and we happened to have been on the same train, and we ran into each other on...

Photo by Ken Sears One thing I've been loving lately is that musicians aren't stuck working within rigid genres these days. You get artists picking and choosing from multiple styles of music to craft their sounds. One of my favorite recent discoveries is Mei Semones, who blends jazz and pop music along with indie rock and folk. Her new album Animaru is stellar, and when it was announced she was coming to Boston, I knew I wanted to check her out live.  Mei Semones went to Berklee College of Music, so it was fitting that her first headlining show in town was at The Red Room @ Cafe 939, a venue run by the school. The crowd typically seems to be Berklee students, which might be why the audience is always wonderfully attentive at this venue. For Mei Semones' show, they were nearly reverent, and with good reason. Semones is an incredibly captivating performer, and even with a full band, the show seemed intensely intimate as if she was playing solo. The songs off Animaru were the ...