Previous Article

Next Article

New England Music News

Bring back the flamenco

Olas

• Very pleased with the news that OLAS, the eight-piece flamenco-folk band and performance unit, will reunite for three shows this month after a year-long hiatus. Olas released a sole, self-titled LP before disbanding last year, but their mark had been made by their distinct and innovative approach to songcraft and performance. During their two-year run, the band reimagined the live show of an indie-folk band as a revenant mix of campfire folk aesthetics and formal baile dance, making their act one of the most uniquely physical around. The band prepare a three-song EP and a film(!) in the coming months, and play three shows in the area in mid-September, at Mayo Street Arts (Sep 14), Local Sprouts (Sep 21), and Waterville's Common Street Arts (Sep 22). Visit olasmusicanddance.com for more.

• Few are the dudes who can match the rock and roll spirit and ambition of KURT BAKER, the ex-Leftover turned relentless solo performer. Only took ten years of playing music in this town to start his own label . . . now he's launched Collector's Club Records, a new imprint for like-minded rockers (like New Hampshire's The Connection) and his own steady stream of hook-driven, mod rock and roll. His latest single, Want You Around, is a four-song blast of upbeat, incessantly catchy pop songs (like the impressive arrangements of "Sleeping With the Television On") lighting the path to KB's next full-length, an independently produced record titled Brand New Beat and due out on Collector's Club in October. Visit collectorsclubrecords.bandcamp.com for more info.

•That white-hot blast of heat you felt last weekend was the eruption of the triumphant new full-length by punk rock and roll band WHIP HANDS. The four-piece group just formed at the beginning of the year, but have since made such a fantastic trashmess racket that they've catapulted to Portland's punk rock head of the class, playing searing, malignant rock and roll forms at in-the-red levels without skimping on melody and musicianship. The new self-titled record (on the band's Cassettaint Records, recorded at 131 Washington) updates and obliterates the four songs on March's Supercharged EP, and we recommend it to anything that knows how to howl.