Freak Scene #118: Jake Manzi's Love Note to Northampton
Plus, Springfield's Donut Kings are about to celebrate a milestone
This week in Freak Scene, we see the new video for “It’s Northampton” by Jake Manzi, and Donut Kings are getting ready to celebrate their 40th annivesary.
Once when a music booker wanted Jake Manzi to play a gig at a local brewery, he left a voicemail giving Manzi the hard sell: “It's Northampton: you know what can happen there.”
Manzi thought the line was funny, and tucked it away for nearly a year before writing “It’s Northampton,” a song from his upcoming third album Getting Somewhere. The Los Angeles transplant today releases a video for the song that follows Manzi as he walks around the Paradise City: there’s Joe’s Pizza, Deals and Steals, Look Park, and the still-boarded-up Pearl Street Night Club.
“I took that line and applied it to Northampton the way I thought of it when I was a kid going up there, like it was this magical sort of city,” says Manzi, who grew up in Longmeadow before attending UMass in Amherst (though he considered playing Division 3 basketball at College of the Elms in Springfield). “That turned it into a bit of a love song.”
After a couple of short-term stints on the West Coast, Manzi moved back to Los Angeles early in 2025, but not before he had spent six weeks in France at a residence for artists, where he wrote many of the songs on Getting Somewhere. When he landed in L.A., he teamed again with producer Gabe Bernini, another Western Mass. native (and a member of the Breadwinners, one of Manzi’s other projects). After taking a more painstaking, piecemeal approach to his previous two albums, Manzi wanted to try something different.
“I wanted it to feel more spirited and loose,” Manzi says.
He recorded most of the tracks live in the studio, with contributions on organ from Bernini and guitar from Breadwinners bandmate Jack DeMeo, along with Shane McCarthy on bass, Charlie Faragher on drums, Connor “Catfish” Gallaher on guitar and Eli Salus-Kleiner on keyboards.
“I wanted to relinquish some control, and have some players that I really trust their taste,” Manzi says.
Manzi plays an album-release show for Getting Somewhere June 13 at the Parlor Room in Northampton with Erin Cassels-Brown (tickets).
Donut Kings Mark 40 Years of Hijinks
Forty years is an impressive run for any band, and that kind of longevity isn’t something that Donut Kings ever imagined when they started out in 1986. All these years later, the band marks its 40th birthday May 23 at Two Weeks Notice Brewing in West Springfield.
“When I look back at our career it’s almost like I’m looking at someone else; a young kid with great hair,” singer and tenor guitarist Rikk Desgres cracks by email. “I still have some of my hair, but nothing like the old days.”
Desgres and drummer Nate Crowell have been playing together since the beginning, most recently with Aaron Brennan on bass and Chapman Stick. As collaborators have come and gone over the years, Donut Kings have dabbled in a wide range of musical styles, from punk and hard rock to pop, folk and novelty music — “just about any style that made us smile,” Desgres says.
Their show at Two Weeks Notice is by no means an end point. “We have enough songs for a new album, so we are not hanging up our instruments,” Desgres says. “Hopefully in 10 years we will be celebrating our 50th!”
Upcoming Concerts
These are new shows announced this week. The full concert calendar is available here for paid subscribers.
Easthampton singer Kimaya Diggs is part of Outlaws Almanac, a compilation spearheaded by Nashville singer Lizzie No as a "new public works project" to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. No, Diggs and contributors Tray Wellington and Kapali Long will perform together on a tour that stops July 20 at the Parlor Room, though tickets aren’t on sale yet.
Tree House Brewery in South Deerfield hosts New Orleans rockers the Revivalists with Rustic Overtones Aug. 4 (tickets) and Guster with Tōth Aug. 11 (tickets).
Indë, Parris and the Ujima Singers mark Juneteenth June 19 at the Iron Horse (tickets). Also coming: Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears July 18 (tickets), prog trio Tu-Ner (Trey Gunn, Pat Mastelotto and Markus Reuter) July 30 (tickets), the great Damien Jurado Sept. 17 with St. Yuma (tickets), Squirrel Flower Sept. 27 with youbet (tickets) and indie-rockers Hovvdy Nov. 7 (tickets).
The Young@Heart Chorus and the Bombyx Brass Collective team up July 7 at the Sanctuary in Look Park (tickets), while Bombyx presents the Etchings Festival there July 10-11, featuring King Klavé Trio, Ecce Ensemble and Surface of Sphere (tickets for day one and day two). The festival concludes July 12 in the Bombyx Sanctuary in Florence with Sonic Translations, an afternoon of new voices in classical concert music (tickets).
The Drake in Amherst hosts "global funk" saxophonist Michael Wilbur June 25 (tickets) and Pokey LaFarge Nov. 11 (tickets).
Indie-pop band Cannons perform Oct. 21 at College Street Music Hall in New Haven (tickets).
The Space Ballroom in Hamden features a solo show by Circa Survive singer Anthony Green Aug. 26 (tickets), Chicago doom-metal band REZN Aug. 28 (tickets), Nashville rock trio Edgehill Sept. 25 (tickets) and Hovvdy Nov. 5 (tickets).
The Budos Band plays Sept. 20 at Infinity Music Hall in Hartford (tickets).
That’s all for now. Thank you for reading! Previous issues are available in the online archive. Freak Scene is free, but donations help make this happen and are gratefully accepted. If you’re able, please consider a paid subscription!
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