From The Sopranos’ largerthan-life suburban gangsters to Bruce Springsteen’s larger-than-life suburban fight songs, New Jersey often seems less like a state than a state of mind.
The New Pornographers began as a semisupergroup—uniting Canadian popsmiths A. C. Newman and Dan Bejar with alt-country belter Neko Case—but they’ve blossomed into something reliably super.
A century ago—okay, in the 1990s—bands would achieve a modicum of mainstream success only to spurn it with an almost vicious petulance. Forget selling out.
St. Patrick’s Day is Mardi Gras for Boston’s shot-and-a-beer punks Dropkick Murphys: The culty Celts celebrate the drunkest day of the year with an annual weeklong residency in Beantown.