It's official: Only Living Witness will play a reunion show at the Middle East downstairs on June 14. Support bands are still being finalized. Tickets are not yet onsale, we'll update as soon as more info becomes available. For a comprehensive history of the band, read James Parker's interview with frontman Jonah Jenkins here, on the occasion of Century Media's reissues of OLW's two studio albums.

DOWNLOAD: Only Living Witness, "December" (mp3)

2/6/2008 4:56:26 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

 
Mission of Burma, 1001 Pleasant Dreams (Live at Great Scott, 2008)

Mission of Burma, 2wice (Live at Great Scott, 2008)

Mission of Burma, Academy Fight Song (Live at Great Scott, 2008)

As Justin Timberlake says, what goes around comes around: as the story goes, Mission of Burma took their name off a consulate building they happened to pass in New York. Twenty years or so later, the actual country of Burma is in turmoil. (If you haven't heard about it, that's because it's a particularly crappy time to be a non-oil-producing country in turmoil.) And so, with Roger Miller railing against facism and speakers from the US Campaign for Burma on hand to fill in the blanks, MOB embarked on an actual Mission. Involving Burma. Perfect.

Even perfecter, this one took the form of a fiery, sold-the-hell-out show at Great Scott, the most intimate venue they've played in Boston since reforming (unless you count the unofficial warm-up gig they played in Somerville the night before their proper reunion gig). And to top it off, they debuted at least four new, as-yet-unrecorded songs -- one of which we'll be posting soon. (Asked if there were plans for a new album, Miller said there were not, but didn't rule it out, adding that they hadn't really properly planned anything, ever.) For now, check out these fantastic performances of some recent and classic chunes. And stop by the US Campaign for Burma's website to get the lowdown on Burma. We've sent off our tapes to the Campaign folks, who are planning on clandestinely beaming the full show into Burma sometime soon.

1/28/2008 1:23:11 PM by On the Download | Comments [1] |  

 
Come, "Hurricane" (Live at the Middle East, 11/10/2007)

Sure, it was only two songs. (Turns out they had a third ready to go, but decided against it. What, the applause wasn't loud enough? "Exactly," said Chris Brokaw.) But since this was the first time Come have performed since their 2 1/2-hour farewell gig at the MidEast's downstairs room back in -- what, 1998? -- well, this was pretty fucking rad. Brokaw, on loan from Thurston Moore's band and a zillion other projects, hopped up after Thalia Zedek's band played a more-blistering-than-usual set, providing the pentultimate thrill on the occasion of the Middle East's 20th anniversary as a rock club, which is not coincidentally Billy Ruane's birthday, and is also coincidentally ME booker Kevin Hoskins's B-day. Whew. Yes, Hallelujah the Hills and Helms and IV Diffusion and Drug Rug were great, but dude: Come played a fucking reunion show. And since you weren't there, we brought back this clip. We've got the other song in a holding cell, waiting for an encore, along with some awesome footage of Hallelujah the Hills covering the Beatles, which we haven't asked them for permission to post yet. More anon, then. Many thanks to Leslie McCleave for additional footage.

11/25/2007 4:41:31 PM by On the Download | Comments [1] |  

The Police's mid-afternoon sound check at Fenway park was marred by an hour-and-a-half delay and near-biblical rainstorms, but as the trio took the stage at around 4:30, the inclimate weather afforded the small audience the opportunity to find out that Sting knows most of the first verse to "Singin' in the Rain."

After the crowd was hustled up to the stage, Sting greeted the crowd and said, simply, "We're gonna do 'Message in a Bottle'."  For anyone even passingly aware of the band's turbulent history, (chronicled conveniently by the Phoenix here) hearing Sting say such a mundane sentence had extraordinary significance.

The weather unfortunately cut the soundtrack to just one song.  The star of the brief spectacle, though, had to be Mike.  Citing the possibility of a strained voice, Sting opted not to sing lead vocals on "Message," instead picking singers from the crowd.  First he chose Mike, sporting a backwards hat and a clear enthusiasm for the matter at hand.  Second, Sting called up a girl who immediately informed Gordon and the boys that she did not know the words to the song that was to be performed.

It's been said that large-scale public announcement systems such as the one in use tonight at Fenway use autotuning to ensure tonal integrity.  Regardless of whether that's true, Mike nailed "Message in a Bottle," his voice even occupying the weird quasi-high register that Sting has made his signature.

So, Mike:  Thank you.  Your very brief stint as lead vocalist of the Police could have been something very embarrassing to witness, but your fratboyish enthusiasm proved earned.

As for the Police themselves, they were cordial and didn't seem to phone it in any more (or less) than any other reunited rock act.  They played the song with both the tightness and the weariness of a group that's been playing it for the better part of their lives.  All things considered, the trio looked, sounded, and played like a band who were the biggest band in the world almost thirty years ago.  There are much, much worse things than that.
--Joe Bernardi

Photos by Carina Mastrocola

7/28/2007 6:52:42 PM by onthedownload | Comments [0] |  

The Inside Track -- or some Herald blog or something? -- confirms what MySpace gig calendars have been teasing us with for weeks: the new, improved version of the semi-legendary Allston sleaze-rock dive bar O'Briens is set to re-open within the week. If all goes as planned, dirtbag scum-metal bands will be soaking up the suds in the new space, which has been upgraded to what the Herald describes as "a new interior, cast in copper and plum and complete with two 37-inch plasma televisions." "Copper and plum"? Does Howie Carr know about this?

As much as we'd love to believe that O'Briens will still be the kind of place where singers kick beers out of audience members' hands, throw lunchmeat at the ceiling, and saran-wrap themselves to the support beams, we'll admit that we'll be quite happy if it turns out we're trading that kind of entertainment (which is what PA's was built for, anyway) for an Allston room -- that doesn't totally blow -- with a capacity somewhere between 60 and 225. So cheers. If all else fails, hey: they can always market it as a micro-version of the Kells. Click here for war stories about "dropping a deuce" and pics of Dave Tree on the grill. 

Upcoming gigs at O'Briens:

July 13: Steve Brodsky's post-Octave Museum outfit PET GENIUS? Color us there.
July 27: Drug Rug and Hallelujah the Hills

If anyone knows of more, please post in the comments like now. Our listings department is all freaking out and whatnot.

 

7/6/2007 4:34:30 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

As you’ve probably heard already from a) your co-worker, b) your grandma, c) your five-year-old niece, or d) anyone you’ve come to contact with in the past twenty-four hours, the Spice Girls are, in fact, reuniting. Which seems to have launched an odd spiral effect, wherein any band that Top 40 stations pounded into our heads in the mid-90’s will now attempt to reunite.  Case in point: Gavin Rossdale hinted recently that Bush may reunite. We admit it, “Glycerine” may have touched us on some level as emotionally confused middle schoolers, but we don’t want to go back there. And now for the even worse news: Robert Plant shot down all hopes for a Led Zeppelin reunion. 

But don't swear off the music industry just yet, vent your frustrations on Guitar Hero - or better yet, Airguitar Pro (soon to be released in Japan, no word on the U.S. date yet), which is basically involves the same plastic guitar/video game controller-hybrid, minus a few parts. But doesn't that make it, um, NOT air guitar?

And finally, if you see Danzig or Kraftwerk on your daily Starbucks trip, tell them that SoundExchange owes them some money. And they aren't the only ones.  According to SF Weekly, "The IRS of digital performance royalties, SoundExchange, claims it can't find thousands of often-popular artists to pay them their money. The deadline to contact them passes on June 30 for unclaimed royalties at least three years old; SoundExchange could pocket up to an average of $360 from thousands of the lowest-paid musicians in the world."  Read on here.

--Caitlin E. Curran

6/28/2007 1:50:47 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |