If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Lawton Tellin For some of us, this time of year can be very exciting since it's NPR Tiny Desk Contest Submission Season! This year sees a new song from Tory Silver, "DOGS." (Silver also released a song called "Where's the Dog?" off 2022's excellent Slowly.)  The Boston Music Awards for Singer-Songwriter of the Year's new song is this perfectly wonderful alternative rocker reminiscent of the mid-90s, just as grunge was giving way to a fuzzy version of power pop. "DOGS" has some crunchy guitars pairing with Silver's lilting vocals that combine the slackerdom of Juliana Hatfield and the beautiful power of Tanya Donelly. It's a really fun and creative song, and has us looking forward to new music from Tory Silver in the (hopefully) not too distant future. You can watch Tory Silver's submission for the 2023 NPR Tiny Desk Contest below. For more on Tory Silver, check out the artist's website .

Photo by Tonje Thilesen Wednesday night I saw Paul McCartney play Fenway Park in front of almost forty thousand people, playing some of the most well known and beloved songs of all time. Despite being almost eighty years old, he played for almost three hours and wowed the crowd with fantastic songs, light shows, videos, fireworks, etc. Anything I went to see immediately after should have been a massive disappointment, but when the person you're seeing next is Ezra Furman, being disappointed is impossible. Playing in front of a sold out crowd of five hundred, the show was just Ezra Furman solo with a borrowed guitar. As much love as the crowd showed McCartney the night before, Furman was shown just as much on a smaller scale. The crowd hung on every single word she sang and spoke, completely erasing my fears as they had been quite chatty at times during the openers. Words like enigmatic or captivating or mesmerizing don't do Furman's live show justice. She reminded me of art...