Spanglish for beginners

According to bassist (and Grupo Fantasma founding member) Greg Gonzalez, "We have so many influences, when you come to see us it's a gumbo of sound." An apt metaphor for this pepper pot of a Latin jazz-funk fusion outfit currently boasting 10 members. Gonzales adds that the group's collective experience —and most of a decade […]

Brave new world music

When vocalist and composer Mariam Matossian made the move from her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia to Greenville, S.C., she didn't figure on meeting any fellow Armenian musicians. In fact, for her first year in Greenville, when Matossian performed it was mostly at venues thousands of miles away with her Canadian backing band. Vocalist Mariam […]

Soundtrack

From the opening notes, fuzzy and aggressive through Stella Blue's downstairs sound system, Wooden Toothe plants its feet firmly in the fuzzy-and-aggressive territory between country and punk. Yet this is no country-punk outfit. The quartet, fronted by sprightly bass player Pierce Harmon, nods to both Uncle Tupelo and the Sex Pistols with neither a twang […]

This weekend on a shoestring

Is it just me, or does a weekend that starts with a free festival seem somehow more auspicious than those weekends that don’t? (Even if you’re not a fan of this Friday’s Downtown After Five lineup, you can get your money’s worth—$0—in people-watching alone.) Beyond that, there’s free theater, a CD release and some of the area’s best-loved bands—including the reunion of Pure, on hiatus for the past 18 years. All for five bucks or less.