If It's Too Loud...

Coming back to downtown Lowell for the evening portion of The Town and The City Festival, I knew I had to move between The Old Court and Thirst First. I started out at The Old Court just before Escape Durgin took the stage. The Old Court was a showcase for Lowell artists Saturday night, and Escape Durgin started it off with an eclectic set that spanned multiple genres, usually within the same song. The first song started off as more of a 90's second wave grunge power ballad in the vein of Candlebox, and quickly veered off into 70's psychedelia territory. They reminded me of a modern take on the college bands that dominated central Massachusetts in the 90's, and I don't mean that as a bad thing. Gross Girls were up next, and they may end up being my favorite musical discovery of 2025. You know how most music is either happy, angry, or sad? Gross Girls' songs seem more annoyed than anything else. It's like they took the overall vibe of the 90's and recreated i...

The Town and The City Festival is one of our favorite events of the year. Some of our favorite bands play every year, and wandering from venue to venue always reminds me of going to CMJ during my college radio years. Three nights of music can be tricky to navigate, so here are our recommendations of the must see artists for 2025! Thursday April 24 Lady Lamb (9:30 pm) and Ezra Furman (8:15 pm) Taffeta, 122 Western Ave at Western Ave Studios Lady Lamb and Ezra Furman are two of our absolute favorite artists at If It's Too Loud..., so we're thrilled to see them playing together. As The Town and The City Festival expands to three nights, this is the only Thursday night show, but it would be a huge deal no matter when it was. These are two of the most compelling alt-rock/indie singer-songwriters around these days, and two of the most engaging performers I've had the pleasure of seeing. Friday April 25 The Sheila Divine (10:00 pm) Taffeta, 122 Western Ave at Western Ave Studios I...

We love The Town and The City Festival that takes over downtown Lowell annually, and this year's line up has been extra crazy great. Today they announced the individual show line ups, and there are choices to be made. Thursday is easy not only because there's one show, but because it features Lady Lamb, Ezra Furman, and Class President at Taffeta. After that, good luck deciding. Ken will probably be at Zorba Music Hall at 10:15 for The Sheila Divine, but that night also features performances from Jennifer Tefft & The Strange, Twisted Pine, Lovina Falls, The PA's, The Freqs, and many, many more. Saturday is just as crazy with Girl with a Hawk, The Chelsea Curve, Loudon Wainwright III, Hilken Mancini & Melissa Gibbs, Senseless Optimism, Gross Girls, The Ghouls, and many, many more. Good luck deciding! The Town and The City Festival runs April 24-26 all throughout downtown Lowell. Multi-day passes are on sale now. Individual show tickets go on sale this Friday, Februar...

The Town and The City Festival once again takes over downtown Lowell this year, and once again it keeps getting bigger and better. Expanding to three days over April 24 to 26, the festival starts on Thursday with Lady Lamb and Ezra Furman at Taffeta Music Hall. That's enough to get us there front and center, but there are also a ton of our friends and favorites playing the rest of the weekend! Playing this year are indie rock stalwarts The Sheila Divine, Maine/Boston lifers Heretix, bluegrass fusion favorites Twisted Pine, garage rockers The Chelsea Curve, genre busting singer-songwriter Senseless Optimism, Hilken Mancini & Melissa Gibbs, Lowell's new favorites The Ghouls, Lovina Falls, Girl with a Hawk, The Freqs, The PA's, Jennifer Tefft & The Strange, and many, many more! The Town and The City Festival runs April 24 to 26 all over downtown Lowell. Multi-day passes go on sale Friday January 17. For more information, check out the festival's website .

One of the most unique voices in the Boston music scene continues to be senseless optimism. The artist's latest single, "a burden.," keeps Britt Tsewole's tradition of effortlessly melding musical genres into a brand new sound alive. This new song could probably fit into the umbrella category of singer-songwriter, but that barely scrapes what Tsewole is doing here. "a burden." includes this unique funk meets R&B sound, along with pieces of pop, indie rock, folk, and possibly more. It's like folk over a dance beat with indie rock guitar. senseless optimism rarely sounds like anyone else, which helps make her one of our favorites. You can listen to "a burden." below. For more on senseless optimism, check out the artist on Instagram and Facebook .

Photo via Facebook For her first post Boston Calling single, senseless optimism has released "Walk Along." As with virtually every release from senseless optimism, this new single doesn't really follow any particular genre. It starts off kind of folk-adjacent, but as the drum kicks in you realize that "Walk Along" has far too strong of a groove to be folk. The song dabbles in classic rock, blues, soul, and has beats that would be at home in a classic hip hop track. This is the kind of song that could appeal to virtually any music fan with an open mind. Not much can get fans of jam bands, indie rock, hip hop, classic rock, blues, classic rock, etc. to agree, but that is the power of senseless optimism. senseless optimism says of her latest single: "Moving from a suburb to a big city, there’s a lot that surprises you…For me, it was the catcalling. With it being a consistent part of walking to and from my destination, I wrote this song in protest." You ca...

Frank Turner Photo by Taylor Hill Selects Saturday's Boston Calling had a bit of a musical theme. Friday's "I Hate Boston" and "Good Tits, Big Heart" shirts were replaced with tie dye and cowboy hats (especially the free Miller Lite ones being handed out). The day was a bit more mellow with a country/folk/jam band sort of theme with some exceptions to the full day of music. Here are some of our highlights. Senseless Optimism Senseless Optimism had a tough crowd to win over, as she was mostly playing to Frank Turner and Trey Anastasio fans making sure they had a spot up front. She quickly won over the crowd with her unique style, and the fact that she's one of the most engaging live artists in Boston today. Her style encompasses so many different genres to make her sound that it almost works in every setting. It fit it smoothly enough for both the jam band fans and the folk-punkers to get into it. She also busted out a wildly unhinged cover of Led Zeppeli...

Artist: senseless optimism When and where: Saturday 1:45-2:15, Red stage One of the artists I'm most excited to see at this year's Boston Calling is senseless optimism. The main reason is that I've somehow never seen her perform before. Despite her being local and playing out quite a bit, it just hasn't happened yet. Most people I know have seen her perform, and they either speak about it in hushed tones about it being nearly life altering, or in an excited way about how amazing of a performer Brittany Tsewole is. Her sound is this incredibly unique mix of mostly indie rock and soul, but also with pieces of classic rock, R&B, folk, and just about every genre of music out there. It's almost like she's picked up bits of everything she's ever heard and liked and inserted it into her own style. senseless optimism is opening up Boston Calling on Saturday, so make sure you get there early to have your life possibly altered forever.

Ok, so we've probably all seen the line up for Boston Calling this year, and we all feel how we feel about the headliners. But, if you look further down, they absolutely killed it this year for local artists! Friday has hip hop artist Kei (who might legit blow every other artist off the stage this year!), the indie rock/pop hybrid of JVK, and the perfect folk of The Wolff Sisters! Saturday has one of the premier singer/-songwriters in town with Senseless Optimism, the unique hip hop of Cakeswagg, and the country & western meets rock 'n' roll of Ward Hayden & The Outliers! Sunday is no slouch with severely underrated rapper Billy Dean Thomas and the mighty Tysk Tysk Task! Plus, she's not local but Blondshell is back in Boston playing a much larger stage than her headlining set at The Middle East Upstairs over the summer! For more details and to sign up for tickets, head on over to Boston Calling's website .

No one in Boston sounds anything like senseless optimism. Her latest single, "It's You," starts off as this laid back singer-songwriter track mixing folk and R&B in equal parts. Despite being laid back, there is this almost surprising intensity to her vocals, and the song just grooves hard. "It's You" is kind of like a dance song hidden in a folk song. And then there's an indie rock ending that sneaks in out of nowhere, with this glorious burst of noisy guitar. senseless optimism has such a unique sound and, if you haven't previously, you're going to want to check out immediately.  senseless optimism says about her latest song: "This song explores a crumbling relationship, watching it disintegrate one piece at a time, and wondering about how it all began." You can listen to "It's You" below. For more on senseless optimism, check out the artist's website .

We've dropped the ball in telling you about the Bellforge Arts Center's line up this year, and for that we apologize. Located on the former grounds of the Medfield State Hospital (just visiting the site to see the old buildings is highly recommended), Bellforge "... nurtures community, creativity and self-expression through the arts."  August closes out with three upcoming free with RSVP concerts. They have two Summer Sounds shows left: Thursday August 24 with Summer Cult and Senseless Optimism and Thursday August 31 with Dino Gala and Cape Crush! This Saturday is Flow at the 'Forge - Celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hip which features performances from Brandie Blaze, SeeFour, and ExitFame.  In September they switch things over to ticketed events. September 9 sees a performance by alt-rock legends Buffalo Tom. September 16 and 17 is the Commonwealth Fest, a two day festival curated by Cousin Stizz and featuring Supersmashbroz, Michael Christmas, Jiles of Van Buren, and...

One of the most intriguing and exciting Boston artists we've discovered recently is Senseless Optimism. The musical project of Brittany Tsewole, Senseless Optimism is pure indie pop with some strong roots in folk. The latest single, "lost my mind (in yours)," is a two minute song that is endlessly listenable. It combines varying elements of soul, pop, folk, and modern R&B to create a song that is instantly classic and completely modern. It's laid back but demands that you move while listening as intently as you can. Tsewole is the kind of artist that is primed to break out at any time based on pure talent and that certain something that is pure charisma. Plus, a song like "lost my mind (in yours)" can easily appeal to fans of more mainstream pop and indie snobs equally.  You can listen to "lost my mind (in yours)" below. For more on Senseless Optimism, check out the artist on Instagram and Facebook . lost my mind (in yours) by senseless optimi...

"What You Won't Do for Love" is one of those songs you know even if you don't think you do. Bobby Womack's 1978 classic is prime soul/smooth jazz, and it's ne of those songs embedded in all of our consciousnesses. Senseless Optimism has released a version of the song with her own spin on it. It's more of an indie pop meets indie rock version. It's still smooth, but the cover has this unexpected edge to it. There's also a killer indie rock guitar solo unexpectedly in the song. This is a fun DIY cover of a classic that is impossible to resist. You can listen to Senseless Optimism's cover of "What You Won't Do for Love" below. The song is currently available on Bandcamp . For more on the artist, check them out on Facebook and Instagram . What You Won't Do for Love by senseless optimism

It's a cliche when festivals proclaim that this year is their biggest and best line up every single year, but when Nice, a fest does it, they mean it. 2023 marks their third year, and sees the festival expand to four days and seventy four (!!!!) bands. The festival will take place July 20-23 once again between Crystal Ballroom and The Rockwell in Somerville's Davis Square. If you went last year, you know that topping last year's killer line up was damn near impossible, but Get To The Gig Boston pulled it off. Once again Nice, a fest features an all local line up headlined by post-rock/emo legends Karate, indie rock legends Swirlies, dance-punk/neo-psychedelic favorites Guerilla Toss, singer-songwriter Frances Forever, alternative rockers Ovlov, alt-rockers Valleyheart, art rock band Bent Knee, neo-folk artist Izzy Heltai, indie rock/emo artist Dino Gala, and Boston legend Will Dailey. The undercard is equally as impressive, but we obviously can't list every band here, s...

Photo by Pete Pagan Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brittany Tsewole, aka Senseless Optimism, grew up between Lowell, MA, Sri Lanka, and West Africa and is now back in Massachusetts. She has released a new single, "Done," that almost leans quite far into the world of indie pop, but Tsewole has enough charm and pure talent to keep even the pop apprehensive mesmerized. "Done" combines the world of indie pop with Tsewole's West African roots. It never becomes world music, but it injects the song with just enough of a unique element that it's set apart from what you typically hear in a pop song. Senseless Optimism has crafted a beautiful pop song that is planted firmly in that genre while still not sounding like what you're used to. Brittany Tsewole says of her new single: "'Done' is about moving on from bad habits, in this specific case, drug abuse. It's when you look around and see all the people who were close to you move past...