New England Music News

Boston music news: October 19, 2007

Notes on Club D'Elf, Bang Camaro, Gang Green, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones

By JIM SULLIVAN | October 15, 2007

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, back in their early days

CLUB D’ELF, the local electronic-music collective helmed by bassist Mike Rivard, have two new albums in the works. One boasts music by the late Morphine frontman Mark Sandman; the other, which is just being finished now, features oud player Brahim Fribgane, with Rivard playing the three-stringed Moroccan bass known as the sintir. Club d’Elf’s music has always been a heady stew. What links the group’s jazzy improvisations, world-music excursions, and electronic experiments? “It’s the trance aspect,” says Rivard. “I like leaving this world and going somewhere else, ‘traveling the spaceways,’ as Sun Ra said.” Montreal’s “World of Arabic Music Festival” will get a Moroccan-influenced set from Club d’Elf on October 26. “We’re representing the modern sound,” Rivard continues, “on the hip-hop-meets-jazz-meets-Arabic-music tip.” For that date, Fribgane and Rivard will be joined by original Club d’Elf drummer Erik Kerr, guitarist Dave Fiuczynski, and keyboardist Gavin Castleton. And Club d’Elf will be back home at the Lizard Lounge on November 15. The line-up? “TBA,” says Rivard. . . . Boston’s favorite hard-rock-with-multiple-singers band, BANGCAMARO, are on their way back home from a tour of the West and Midwest. They’ll be at the Roxy on October 26. . . . The MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES are reuniting for a “Hometown Throwdown” run of shows at the Middle East downstairs, December 26-30. . . . And GANG GREEN are planning to take at least a year off after playing the Cantab this Friday, October 19.