Notes on Dave Tree's latest pursuits, plus Hallelujah the Hills
By JIM SULLIVAN | January 2, 2007
 SuperPower |
DAVE TREE, who took his surname from the band he fronted for 13 years, wears two hats: musician and artist. He’s just returned from the massive Art Basel Miami Beach art fair, where he helped construct a gallery and displayed his work with 62 other artists. He hung eight and sold four, the biggest of which is Dare To Compare, a photo collage-and-silkscreen of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb and New Orleans after Katrina. It went for $350. He’s kept busy on the music front too, fronting the band SUPERPOWER. “I wanted to celebrate the old-school punk hardcore rock of the ’80s where there weren’t all these trendy rules,” says 39-year-old Tree of the band. “Musically, I liked the freedom of the era, where fast punk riffs go into slow Black Sabbath grooves, creating a nice roller coaster. Tension and release.” SuperPower self-released a five-track EP Demo Psalms in October, and they’ve got 16 more songs in the can for a forthcoming full-length, Prey for the World. In the meantime, the Brooklyn-based art collective he works with, Goldmine Shithouse, have a show planned for NYC in February, LA in March, and, hopefully, Boston in April. . . . The local sextet HALLELUJAH THE HILLS are awaiting a $1,000 check from salon.com for finishing third in a Best Unsigned Band Contest. Singer-guitarist Ryan Walsh hopes the money will partially fund a van and tour, but says the best news is, “We’re in talks with a great record label.” They’ve got four songs streaming at myspace.com/hallelujahthehills and a CD, Collective Psychosis Begone, ready for a spring release. They play the Paradise February 9. . . . The death of James Brown on Christmas was bad enough news for everyone, but particularly for PARKER HOUSE AND THE THEORY, a local band led by singer-guitarist Carlos Foglia. Thanks to management connections, they’d scored a number of dates on a tour Brown had scheduled for early 2007. They currently have a four-song EP, Soon, up at myspace.com/parkerhouseandthetheory, a live CD recorded last January 2 at Nectar’s in Burlington, and plans to work with Bryce Goggin (Pavement/Phish) on a studio album later this year. They play the Paradise January 26.On the Web
SuperPower: http://www.superpowermusic.com/
Related:
Snakes and pilgrims, Review: Little Willie John | Nineteen Sixty Six: The David Axelrod & HB Barnum Sessions, Flashbacks, January 27, 2006, More
- Snakes and pilgrims
There’s something classic about a pretty blonde girl in a bikini with a boa constrictor wrapped around her neck.
- Review: Little Willie John | Nineteen Sixty Six: The David Axelrod & HB Barnum Sessions
Rare soul
- Flashbacks, January 27, 2006
The Phoenix has been covering the trends and events that shape our times since 1966.
- Boston, beer, and Bobby Brown
Last weekend at the Orpheum, Bobby Brown was not indicted but inducted.
- The Big Hurt: Another Brown bagged
Ian Brown: lady hitter?
- Dreamgirls
The chorus has been singing for months now: Bill Condon’s can’t-miss adaptation of Tom Eyen & Henry Krieger’s 25-year-old Broadway musical is roaring into theaters to save a lackluster fall. Watch the trailer for Dreamgirls (QuickTime)
- James Brown
Brown was arguably the only rock and roll era performer to equal Elvis Presley in vocal authority, charisma, stage presence, song interpretation, and sexual magnetism.
- O RLY? YA RLY
“It smells like a middle-school dance,” said username andysad at the LemmingTrail message-board holiday party at Great Scott last Friday.
- Dancing queens
Speaking as someone who's always wondered what would've happened if Madonna had stayed in crappy punk bands and never graduated to pop, I always cheer when she picks up a guitar. Slideshow: Madonna at TD Banknorth Garden, July 6, 2006
- Back to the garage
In a perfect world, it would have been Little Steven Van Zandt’s channel, rather than Howard Stern’s, that prompted hundreds of thousands to sign up for Sirius satellite radio.
- The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: 2
Nirvana + Smashing Pumpkins + Bullet LaVolta | Axis | September 23, 1991
- Less

Topics:
New England Music News
, Entertainment, Music, Black Sabbath, More
, Entertainment, Music, Black Sabbath, James Brown, Phish, Less