I first got introduced to Austin-based band Cotton Mather when 1994’s superb debut, Cotton Is King, hit the streets. Genuine hook-filled opener “Lost My Motto” sounded like ‘80s pop kingpins Squeeze, riding along a nifty guitar beat emulating Matthew Sweet. And leader Robert Harrison’s wonderful pop sensibility guided the troupe through catchy Beatles-esque melodies in a wholly conventional manner.

Strangely taking their woolly name from a 17th Century Puritan preacher supporting the Salem Witch Trials, Cotton Mather received further underground plaudits for 1997’s Kontiki, an eloquently resourceful power pop project utilizing a shimmering production glaze ‘70s rockers Badfinger and…

And that’s no small boast. While the Guild continually educates people on the interesting array of progressive-thinking micro and nano breweries popping up in the last few years, Cuzme and Izett keep developing close relationships with the freshest local eateries…

November 19: Enjoyed 381 Main’s November Winter Fest in Little Falls, NJ, this Saturday, featuring Jersey brewers’ elixirs tapped or bottled. Owner Steve Baskinger’s made this lounge-y hangout the perfect sports bar for craft beer enthusiasts. Alongside New Jersey Beer Co’s Matt Steinberg and Carton co-owner Augie Carton, I consumed three previously untried libations and one wee fave.

“There’ve been a few brewery events like this, but this type serves all Jersey brewers in one spot,” promoter John Fladung boasted.

East Coast Brewery’s Beach House Winter Rental, a dry schwarzbier, benefited from chocolate-malted cola nuttiness and dark-spiced cocoa dusting,…

Queens-born Andy Shernoff grew up yearning to be a rock star just like fellow Kings County natives Johnny Thunders, Gene Simmons, Joey Ramone, the Fleshtones, and New York Dolls’ Syl Sylvain must’ve done. Founding the Dictators in the early ‘70s, he gradually became a key figure in the rudimentary development of primordial protopunk perspicacity. A well-rounded composing musician who wrote for Creem magazine at its height, the revolutionary rapscallion prefigured punk’s bratty juvenilia, hell-bent resolution, and tacky fashion sense. Aligned with screaming henchman, Handsome Dick Montana, searing lead guitarist Ross The Boss, rhythm guitar ace Scott Kempner and rumbling…

An exquisite upscale sports bar, 381 Main sure knows how to throw a great autumnal Saturday beer bash. Inviting every Jersey microbrewery to bring sixtels, kegs or bottles of their finest offerings for a sunny October afternoon shindig proved to be quite successful, as local patrons, eager beer geeks and a host of brewers enjoyed the clean ambience and friendly interaction of this former martini lounge.

During November 2010, owner Steve Baskinger converted his hitherto fluffy white parlor into a sandstone-trimmed, ruddy maroon tavern. He’d already run Woodland Park’s flourishing Bask Bar & Grill for a decade and though…

While various Octoberfests celebrate Germany’s greatest bohemian tradition and the Great American Beer festival boasts enormous participation amongst thousands of beer geeks and hundreds of brewers, the smaller Asbury Park Beerfest took a few steps towards significance in its first annual event. Held at Asbury Park’s Convention Center on Saturday, Oct. 8, the festive affair didn’t need a staunch Octoberfest theme to succeed.

In typical blue collar Jersey fashion, this newfangled beerfest allowed some less exciting traditional macrobrews to compete against more exhilarating new micros with little table space separating the two very divergent classes. As a veritable seaside…

Hailing from the expanding northerly Atlanta suburb of agricultural metropolis Dunwoody, GA, the Black Lips steadily ransack rock and roll’s past to reenergize the here and now. While attending grade school together, the three original members precipitously discovered the joy of music and have since embarked on an enduringly fruitful artistic journey back in time without ever lapsing into idle nostalgic vagrancy. A virtual democratic unit gathering son-of-a-preacher-man bassist Jared Swilley, harmonica-blowing guitarist Cole Alexander and boisterous drummer Joe Bradley (plus auxiliary lead guitarist Ian St. Pé), the thriving combo gained instant local attention mainly due to their rowdily…

An eclectic array of hardened beer enthusiasts converged at popular Park Slope, Brooklyn, music club Southpaw to try some of the best offerings ever available under one roof. From the righteously stylized to the diligently experimental, Freaktoberfest 2011 had something for everyone this breezy Friday evening. Trendy Black IPA’s and sour ales generally took a backseat to prodigious dark ales, autumnal pumpkin-spiced concoctions and some frolicking, fruited fare.

As expected, the real story here at the third annual Freaktoberfest had to be the contagiously incessant do-it-yourself spirit of Shmaltz Brewery host Jeremy Cowan, whose two successful product lines (Shmaltz’s…

The wondrous beer display seems somewhat analogous to the eclectic citizenship walking the boardwalk. There are Stone Pony musicians, young families, alternative life-stylers, and people of every race, creed and color residing at this historic Monmouth County municipality. Recent…

Sometimes the waiting is the hardest part. Cutting through red tape and getting local politicians onboard for a new venture could cost many young entrepreneurs the chance of a lifetime.

It may’ve taken three motivated European immigrants two-and-a-half years to finally get clearance for Hoboken’s first ever biergarten but it has proved to be a resounding success. Fashioned after authentic pre-World War I Austro-Hungarian bistros, yet easily mistaken for a bustling German beer hall, the generically-named Pilsener Haus & Biergarten is anything but pedestrian, taking up 10,000 square feet of a factory warehouse in the underdeveloped and roomy northwest…