Chris Martin warns fans may be on Jumbotron at Coldplay’s Madison show
At the band’s Camp Randall concert on July 19, 2025, Martin alluded to the viral video of a couple trying to hide from the “Kiss Cam” at the previous Coldplay show.
- The Talking Heads formed after members met at the Rhode Island School of Design.
- Throwing Muses started in Newport, Rhode Island and gained recognition in the college music scene.
- Other Rhode Island bands mentioned include Belly, The Cowsills, The Low Anthem, and John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.
Rhode Island has cultivated a well-earned reputation for good food, from fine dining to food trucks. But what about the music scene?
We wondered about bands that got their start in the Ocean State and made it onto the national stage. We found a few with an assist from Andy Smith, who covered Rhode Island’s arts and music scene for 30 years at The Providence Journal. In no particular order, here are a handful of noteworthy names.
The biggest name on the list is the Talking Heads, who trace their roots back to the Rhode Island School of Design, where three members met before officially forming the pioneering artsy punk band in New York City. Frontman David Byrne, dubbed an honorary Rhode Islander, once worked at the Smith Hill New York System, Journal reporter Thomas J. Morgan wrote in 1987.
“David was a very conscientious worker. He had long arms, and you know how they stack the wieners on their arm and put the condiments on?” Rudy Cheeks, musician, columnist and radio personality, recounted at the time. “I believe it was his downfall, because he wanted to be a great grill man, and he had hairy arms, and I think people might have been off put by the fact he did have a lot of hair on his arms. But what can you do? Put on a plastic sleeve?”
If you haven’t caught the Talking Heads’ recent release of the YouTube video featuring Saoirse Ronan for its groundbreaking first song “Psycho Killer,” make sure you do.
Throwing Muses
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The alternative-rock band Throwing Muses got its start in 1981 in Newport (at Rogers High School to be exact), Smith reported in 2017, when the band was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame. Formed by stepsisters Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly, the band released its first self-made EP three years later.
The band moved to Boston and released a demo track that included “Sinkhole,” which made it to number one in the college music scene, according to the Music Museum of New England.
The group went on to debut an acclaimed album as the first-ever American act on the British record label 4AD.
In 1991, Donelly left the band to form the group “Belly,” but the Throwing Muses have released two more albums since 2020: “Sun Racket” and “Moonlight Concessions” via Fire Records. Hersh leads the band and is joined by longtime drummer David Narcizo and bassist Bernard Georges
Belly
Led by Donelly, the alt-rock band Belly released its debut album “Star” in 1993, including the hit song “Feed the Tree.” She was joined at the outset by Fred Abong on bass and old Newport friends, brothers Tom and Chris Gorman on guitar and drums.
Abong left the band after “Star” came out and was replaced by Gail Greenwood, who came from two Rhode Island bands, the Dames and Boneyard.
The Cowsills
In 1968, 9-year-old Susan Cowsill became the youngest person directly involved in a hit record when The Cowsills’ “Indian Lake” landed in the top 10.
The Cowsills – also with Newport roots – became best known for the songs “Hair” and “The Rain, The Park and Other Things,” and were the inspiration for the TV sitcom “The Partridge Family,” according to Journal archives. The group disbanded in 1971.
Deer Tick
The indie rock band Deer Tick boasts Rhode Island origins. Formed in 2004 by John McCauley III, the frontman is joined by guitarist Ian O’Neil, bassist Christopher Dale Ryan and drummer Dennis Ryan.
The band – which draws from roots influences – has hit many of the nation’s most noteworthy stages, including the Newport Folk Festival and SXSW, where it received acclaim from Rolling Stone magazine. They made appearances on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
The band’s latest release is “Emotional Contracts” recorded with Dave Fridmann, famed producer of The Flaming Lips, at Tarbox Road Studios in upstate New York.
The Low Anthem
Providence-based experimental rock band The Low Anthem got its start at Brown University, where founders Ben Knox Miller and Jeffrey Prystowsky met as students while they were late-night DJs at the radio station WBRU.
The Low Anthem formed in 2006 and within five years had released four albums: “The Low Anthem,” “What the Crow Brings,” “Oh My God, Charlie Darwin” and “Smart Flesh,” recorded at a former pasta sauce factory in Central Falls, Smith reported for The Journal in 2016.
They received national notice, including appearances on “The Late Show with David Letterman.” They played gigs at the Newport Folk Festival and opened for Bruce Springsteen in Austin, Texas. They toured with the great singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris.
The current lineup includes Knox Miller, Prystowsky, Bryan Minto and Florence Grace Wallis on strings and vocals. The group’s most recent album, in 2018, is “The Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea.”
Miller, Prystowsky and Minto helped run the former Columbus Theatre in Providence as members of the Columbus Cooperative. The venue, now renamed the Uptown Theater, got new life under the cooperative as a performance space, with two separate theaters.
Beach bars along the East Coast marked the beginnings of the American rock band John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band in the early 1970s. Rhode Island seaside communities provided a backdrop for Cafferty’s musical development, as the band rented beach houses during the wintertime to “make a lot of noise” without disturbing the neighbors, he told The Journal in 2024.
The band – shortened to Beaver Brown – achieved mainstream success in the 1980s opening in big arenas for then big-name groups like Foreigner and the Beach Boys.
They self-released the singles “Wild Summer Nights” and “Tender Years,” which received radio play. They went on to hit it big with the No. 7 hit single “On the Dark Side” on Billboard’s Hot 100 and made guest appearances on “American Bandstand” and earned a spot atop MTV’s charts. Other hits followed, including “Tough All Over,” “C-I-T-Y” and Cafferty’s solo “Hearts On Fire” from the 1985 soundtrack for “Rocky IV.”
