It seems like in the past, Cincinnati had a reputation for being the kind of place you could move away from for a decade knowing that when you returned, the gas station, grocery store and drinking establishments would be there waiting for you, exactly as you left them.    

So far this year, I haven’t visited any of the New England states. I love it there — being around those small mountains of trees that are close to the ocean. When I’m away from New England too long, I find ways to remind myself that someday maybe I’ll get to live there. For example, my party lights arrived in the mail yesterday — little lighthouses that I now have hanging up in my bedroom area in my studio apartment in Westwood.  

The experiment is over. I’m not a suburban guy. It doesn’t totally surprise me. I grew up in the suburbs, but my heart is in the concrete and noise and combustible nature of an inner city — namely Cincinnati.   

Kinda dark. Kinda a sweet relief. Perspective is tricky. And for Jason Wells of for algernon, although his sound veers toward soothing, then leans into the moody side, a focused, optimistic, artistic view is key.  

Like many Hip Hop outfits, Little Brother is part of a larger collective that releases music under a variety of banners.  

If the words lirone, pardessus and viola da gamba make you quiv ery, you already consider Annalisa Pappano the coolest number in the Classical rolodex.