Friday, February 29, 2008
Township, "Sandy" (Flophouse Sessions, Feb 2008)
Jen and Andy, the betrothed Somerville duo behind the fantastic Band in Boston Podcast, have recorded many of our favorite local indie bands for their "Flophouse Sessions" -- a series taped live in the pair's living room, on stripped-down gear, and given away free on teh internets. We loved their podcast so much we decided to be friends. And now, in the first of what we hope are many collaborations to come, we've teamed up with BIB to present the latest Flophouse Session: a live set by hirsute local heroes Township, who play a CD-release gig tonight at T.T. the Bear's Place. Check 'em out, and grab the full Flophouse Session in the ever-poular mp3 format at www.bandinbostonpodcast.com.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
DOWNLOAD: Hooray for Earth, "Warm Out" (mp3)
Hooray for Earth: odd band. Get 'em drunk, and they're liable to belt out a Justin Timberlake hit, or maybe one of Jacko's. Left on his own, their singer has been known to crank out Magnetic Fields covers. In their own right, HFE have carved out a unique niche that's equal parts indie breadth and metal brawn, like a second coming of Queens of the Stone Age. "Warm Out," taken from their new Cellphone EP, staggers forward on a clawing, atavistic, baritone-guitar riff, the rhythm section lurching like mechanized infantry. But the bridge that follows is a thing of beauty: the guitars turn taut, lithe, and synchronous. Clusters of ascending notes flank and overwhelm the main theme; and the lyrics, a short paen to renewal that evokes the majestic/melancholic Mag Fields of "Love Comes Home To Paris in the Spring," turn sad and then frantic, just before the whole thing starts all over again. Grab the mpfree above, check out the video below, then see if you can help yrself from stampeding their EP-release gig on Leap Night -- that's tomorrow -- at the Middle East.
HFE: Warm Out (video)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Black Francis: "I'm MIA!"
"I Sent Away" has been kicking around on YouTube for a few months, but Mr. Frank Black/Black Francis is finally getting around to releasing SVN FNGRS, the sex-and-birth(?!)-obsessed mini-album from whence it comes, on March 7. Not a moment too soon: we were beginning to get bored with trying to pong Frank's head into the bucket over at his fancy new website. And since his press lady was nice enough to send off a very blog-like check-in from Francis himself, we figured we'd just publish it, since it's far weirder than anything we coulda written about it. Suffice to say that "I Sent Away" is pretty damn punk, and so's the video: if we didn't know better, we'd suspect the treatment went something like, "Francis wears a hoodie and pretends to mosh." You think this guy couldn't write another Pixies album? C'mon now.
From the inbox:
Cooking Vinyl has agreed to release my latest session (thank you CV!), which I have called SVN FNGRS, on March 4, 2008 [in the U.S.]. It was written, recorded and mixed in six days, and on the seventh day, Mark Lemhouse did artwork. The band for the session was myself, of course, on guitar, vocals and harmonica, Jason Carter on drums, and Violet Clark on bass. The session was produced by Jason Carter. There are seven (7) songs clocking in at 20 minutes and so I suppose it qualifies as a mini-LP under the old formats. No one seems to know or care what the current format models are (a very weakened LP on compact disc continues to rule the roost by default), which is WONDERFUL; so let's just call it music and pay whatever price your Google research turns up. If you want it for free, you can usually find some tracks for free download on my Myspace page or on my own blackfrancis.net. The production is sparse in terms of the band, which, by the way, seems to be a kind of 'Black Francis' thing that has been developing ever since I went back to the old stage name, but is much more produced in terms of the vocal layering of my own voice, perhaps along the lines of TEENAGER OF THE YEAR. I won't bother you here with what the damn concept is, but let's just say the theme revolves around a lot of NASTY sex, NASTIER death, and beautifully strange birth. It was a coincidence that the whole 'finger' thing turns up again; management asked for a digital b-side for a BLUEFINGER track and what they got was this seven fingered thing which is not related to the HERMAN BROOD concept, although I assure you he would approve of all this nasty business. I have made a video for the song I SENT AWAY (one of the birth songs) and you can see it on YouTube and other places, so I guess that qualifies as the first single as released by the impatient artist. I believe the more pragmatic record company is releasing another song (THE SEUS - Charles Normal re-mix) as ITS first single and I'll make an Internet vid for that one too, as soon as I finish recording the digital b-side for THAT (maybe I'll do a self indulgent symphony - note to myself; symphony wiki - written in 10 minutes); DAMN! That espresso this morning was BLACK and STRONG! BLACK & STRONG & LONG!! MUDDY BLACK WATER! My brain is exploding.....
--Black Francis
Oh, yeah, one more thing: who dat?
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
. . . but will he bring Daft Punk? Y'know, this just might be enough to make up for Bon Jovi at Fenway. From the inbox:
Kanye West: Glow in the Dark Tour
With Rihanna, Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D.
At the Tweeter Center
Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Tickets are $26.00, $36.00, $65.00 and $85.00*
* plus $7.00 venue charge and applicable convenience fees per ticket
Tickets go on-sale Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 10:00 am
Proof that the Devil doesn't have all the good music
At the time of his death, on February 24 at the age of 60, Christian freak-folk luminary Larry Norman was working on an album with guests including Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock and the Pixies' Frank Black, the latter of whom said, upon Norman's passing, "Larry was my door into the music business and the most Christ-like person I ever met." If you read that quote and find yourself re-assesing what kind of a band the Pixies really were, you might want to have a click at the video above: whatever your notions of Christian rock, Norman doesn't fit it. In his prime, he looked like an Allman Brother, sang with voice as piercingly nasal as Axl Rose's, made birdcalls and nonsense words a part of his signature style, and wrote songs that compared Jesus to a UFO. (Before "Come on, Pilgrim" was the name of a Pixies EP, it was one of Norman's catchphrases.) Far closer to Roky Erikson than to politely pious souls like Amy Grant, Norman was among the first to complete a circle that reconnected rock and roll's sanctified, unruly spirit -- which had emerged, in part, from black spirituals and the rhythm-and-blues they spawned in the 1940s and '50s -- with the strain of psychedelic Christianity that emerged in California in the early 1970s. According to Josh Frank's oral history of the Pixies, Fool the World, Norman figured prominently in Frank Black's musical coming-of-age, which for Black transpired in a specific context: the death of the hippie dream. "A lot of people who were older, coming out of the ’60s, ’70s, hedonistic lifestyles, sexually promiscuous or involved in a lot of drugs," Black says in Fool the World, "people that had destroyed their lives, they came out of it clinging onto Jesus Christ." He continued:
Southern California Pentecostal culture, it’s fire and brimstone but it’s more like, success, like, "God wants you to be successful!" I probably discovered Larry Norman when I was 13 because my family had taken up this religious experience, whatever you want to call it. I was going along with it, as my whole family was. I think when you’re 13 or 14 you’re open to a lot of stuff, and if people say, "Hey, Jesus!" you don't go, "Ooh, I’m cynical!" You just kind of go, "Yeah, Jesus, cool!" Larry Norman is a real oddball guy. He's not like what people would think of him. "Ooh, a Christian, what’s that going to be about?" He's totally his own thing.
Larry Norman was born in Texas in 1948, moved with his family to San Francisco a few years later, and performed publicly before the age of 10, often accompanying his father on Christian missions to prisons and hospitals. His band People! recorded two albums for Capitol in the mid-'60s, and performed on bills with the Doors, the Who, and Hendrix. His 1969 solo album Upon This Rock is often mentioned as the first Christian rock album, although Norman bore little resemblance to the genre that followed him. As an outspoken opponent of racism and poverty, he clashed often with conservatives and his music was banned from Christian retailers. In a career spanning 40 years, he released scores of albums and performed to stadium-sized crowds. Norman knew he was near the end on February 23 when he wrote an emotional farewell letter to his fans. "We are not sure of the date when I will die," he wrote, noting that he hoped "to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside." Although he hoped to "push back the darkness with my bravest effort," he was resigned to meet his maker. "I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up," he said.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Lethal Bizzle: loves the Breeders
Wow, it's feeling so 1993 right about now. We lost track of Kim Deal after the last Pixies tour wrapped, and thus were wholly unprepared for the leak, over the weekend, of a brand-spanking-new Breeders album to the internets. Sure, this is the Kelley Deal version and not the Pod-era Tanya Donelly version, but nope, we're not complaining. It will take us at least several weeks to recall how forgettable the last Breeders album and the Amps album were, right? We have high hopes for the new one, not least because "Bam Thwok" was so obviously more of a Breeders tune than a Pixies tune. There's also a showdate: June 5 at the Paradise.
Then there's this: according to Ticketmaster, the Lemonheads -- i.e. Evan Dando and some dudes -- will be performing their landmark It's a Shame About Ray in its entirety at the Paradise. The hitch: it's on April Fool's Day. Which means . . . well, that means it's a joke, right? That was our first thought, too, except that Dando's doing it for real down at SXSW in mid-March, to celebrate the deluxe reissue of the album, and he's also the sort of goofball who would appreciate the irony of providing a little dreamy wish-fullfilment in Boston on April 1. Also, you can actually buy tickets for this thing. So, um, until further notice, LEMONHEADS PERFORMING IT'S SHAME ABOUT RAY ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY attains show-of-the-spring status until proved to be a figment of someone's imagination.
UPDATE: Confirmed by publicist: Lemonheads performing Ray on April Fool's Day is actually happening.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
As expected, Only Living Witness have announced a second reunion show, after their June 14 gig sold out in a weekend. They'll now do a second show June 21, also at the Middle East Downstairs. More on the reunion here and here. Ticketing info TBA.
From the inbox:
From: ejstevenson
Date: February 21, 2008 2:05:52 PM EST
To: XXXXXXXX
Subject: ONLY LIVING WITNESS REUNION
Hi Everyone,
We booked our Only Living Witness reunion show for Saturday June 14th
at the Middle East Downstairs. The tickets went onsale last Friday morning
and were all sold by Sunday evening. This was a nice surprise, except that
most of our relatives and friends missed-out on tickets.
So, we have just booked a 2nd show:
Saturday June 21st at the Middle East Downstairs.
If you are interested in attending this show, please check the
(Once we know who the other bands are , etc.)
We just wanted to give anyone who might be interested in attending
a heads-up this time.
Thanks, Eric
DOWNLOAD: Hallelujah the Hills, "Don't Take the Law Into Your Own Hands But Take Mine In Yours" (mp3)
On the eve of their biggest national tour to date (stops include SXSW and a Daytrotter session), Boston indie heroes Hallelujah the Hills forsook the bedroom and entered an actual studio for the first time ("My 8-track will never forgive me," laments frontman Ryan Walsh), emerging with two brand-new songs to hold us over until they record album no. 2 this spring. "Don't Take The Law" is short but feels longer, or at least bigger, managing to swell from sotto-voce, bee-swarm jangle to an anthemic, junkshop-orchestra sing-along in under two minutes. Walsh calls it "my joking attempt at starting a whole new subgenre of pop music entitled 'Police Officer/Vigilante Love Ballads.' Just like the Wichita Lineman failed at jumpstarting the 'Telephone Line Repairman Love Ballad' genre, we hope to fail in a similar, spectacular manner." Consider it done. Grab the mp3 above, then bid HTH a fond farewell when they play a free show February 24 at the Milky Way with Amoroso and Jersey's Titus Andronicus.
HTH TOUR DATES:
Feb 29 2008 8:00P@ Union Hall, Brooklyn, NY w/ Evangelicals, Headlights
Mar 1 2008 8:00P@ Soundfix, Brooklyn, NY
Mar 2 2008 8:00P@ Garfield Artworks, Pittsburgh , PA
Mar 3 2008 8:00P@ Beachland Tavern (w/ Headlights/Evangelicals) - Cleveland , Ohio
Mar 4 2008 8:00P@ The Elbow Room- Ypsilanti , Michigan
Mar 5 2008 3:00pm Hear Ya Session, Chicago , IL
Mar 5 2008 8:00P@ Abbey Pub - Chicago , Illinois
Mar 6 2008 12:00P@ Daytrotter.com, Rock Island , Illinois
Mar 6 2008 8:00P@ The Annex - Madison, Wisconsin
Mar 7 2008 8:00P@ Nomad World Pub (w/ Ela and Curse Words) - Minneapolis , Minnesota
Mar 8 2008 8:00P@ The Maintenance Shop (w/ Poison Control Center) - Ames , Iowa
Mar 9 2008 5:00P@ Vaudeville Mews **early show** - Des Moines , Iowa
Mar 11 2008 8:00P@ New Deli - Fayetteville , Arkansas
Mar 12 2008 8:00P@ Friends Bar (SXSW Misra Showcase) Austin , Texas
Mar 13 2008 SXSW TBA Austin , Texas
Mar 14 2008 SXSW Friends Bar Berklee SXSW Party (day show) Austin , Texas
Mar 15 2008 8:00P@ Jackrabbit Lounge - Shreveport , Louisiana
Mar 17 2008 Afternoon @ Grimey's Record Shop, Nashville, TN
Mar 17 2008 8:00P @ Springwater, Nashville, TN
Mar 19 2008 8:00P@ The Rudyard Kipling - Louisville , Kentucky
Mar 20 2008 8:00P@ The Venue - Lafayette , Indiana
Mar 21 2008 8:00P@ Café Bourbon Street , Columbus , OH
Mar 22 2008 8:00P@ TBA, New York
(c) Matt Teuten
(c) Rev. Aaron
(c) Matt Teuten
(c) Rev. Aaron
(c) Matt Teuten
(c) Rev. Aaron
(c) Rev. Aaron
No more or less morbid than usual, Stephin Merrit deigned to scowl at our photographer(s) at the Somerville Theater last weekend. Somebody leak the bootleg, already.
REVIEW: Lonely Hearts Night: Magnetic Fields at the Somerville Theater, February 14, 2008.
No video from Somerville yet; but here's "California Girls" three days earlier at the Iron Horse in Northampton
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
All Apologies, 1992, Reading Festival
About a Son: the trailer
Frances: Mama's girl
Happy Birthday, Kurt. Perhaps you've heard: plans for a Universal Studios biopic based on Charles Cross's definitive biography Heavier Than Heaven continue to unfold, apparently without Scarlett Johannsen as the young Courtney Love.
In the meantime, About a Son, the film cobbled together from our old friend Michael Azerrad's interviews with you, is out today on DVD. Sorry, dude: you're still fucking famous.
On the upside, we think Frances Bean is gonna be OK: 15, on the cover of Harpers Bazaar this month, loves Sex and the City, pierced her nose, has "the attention span of a rabbit on cocaine," describes herself as "an attention whore" and a "shoe junkie" (hey, given the genes, there are worse kinds of whores and junkies she could be, yes?), has performed in about 20 high school musicals, and is BFF with Tallulah Willis (yep, Bruce and Demi's kid).
We'd drag out some more Nirvana stuff, but . . . we think we emptied the vault the last time. Here's a few tidbits:
Oh, by the way, any chance you could maybe ghost some new tunes for Dave? He's been rewriting the same three songs for like four albums.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Jonah: basically more awesomer than us.
According to J. Jonah Jenkins, Only Living Witness's reunion show -- news of which was first broken here -- has sold out. For those lucky ticketholders, opening bands for the June 14 gig at MidEast downstairs will be Motherboar, Blacktail, and one more TBA.
For the purposes of the reunion, OLW will be Eric Stevenson (drums), Craig Silverman (guitar), Jonah Jenkins (vocals), and Bob Maloney (bass). Said Jonah on the Noise Board last week:
"We tried to get Chris Crowley in on this (and of course he's still welcome) but he has been way too busy working and traveling to practice...it was a major reason that we waited this long...in addition to folks' health issues, family stuff, and a general lack of time to practice for it. When we started practicing late last year, we hadn't played these songs since 1995, and some we had never played live because we broke up before Innocents was released."
Now the begging begins: Jonah mentions this morning that a bunch of his friends didn't get tix to the June 14 show, and already there's been some Noise Board pleading for a second show. Keep fingers crossed.
PREVIOUSLY: Exclusive: Only Living Witness to play reunion show
Thanks to Tia, our new obsession has a name, and it is LEMUR. Now you and your DJ friends can rock the same ridonculously fantastic super-futuro interface that Daft Punk rocks up in the pyramid, and that Thom Yorke is talking about buying. List price: a mere three grand. One device -- scratch that, one enormously fucking cool device -- that'll handle "sequencers, modular synthesizers, virtual instruments, VJ software, 3D animation tools and light control." Thunderdudes, what's really?
SEE: The Lemur, bitches.
All photos by Carina Mastrocola
Above snaps from last night's rawk show at the DCU Center in Worcester. Bonus snaps: the bottom two show Davey Grohl rocking out for the wife and their kid. Awwwwww. PS: Is it us or is Pat Smear looking a little bloaty?
Bonus track: the FNX dudes talked to Dave before the show. Here's some video:
Talk about burying the lead. In an interview with Billboard devoted to Bon Jovi's near-proximity to the DeKalb shootings, Jon Bon mentions in an aside that his band's current tour does not yet have a final date planned:
"I've got two choices," Bon Jovi says. "We've got the Giants, Soldiers, Fenways (stadiums) on hold or we stay in Europe because of the state of the economy. All these (arena) shows are sold out, but the July dates, I'm not sure where the economy's going to be, so I don't know yet."
Let's get this straight: if the economy is still tanking in July, Bon Jovi will NOT play Fenway? Great. As if we didn't hate Bon Jovi enough, now he's got us rooting for a recession.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Dan Deacon, reigning Prince of Awesomeness, brought both kinds of mayhem to MassArt late last month: the kind that involves long, hypnotic, frontal-lobe-destroying multimedia mindfucks; and then the full-frontal, lights-out, digital body music that turns art students into pole dancers. We've got clips of both below: first, an excerpt from "Ultimate Ryeality," his settings and manipulations of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, which works way better live than on DVD. Then the legendary Dan Deacon experience, captured as close as possibly while being nearly danced off the stage lip by ecstatic 20 year olds in heat.
Dan Deacon: Ultimate Reality (Excerpt) - Live at MassArt, Boston, 01/31/08
