For Tim Luckow, the Grass is Green on Moving Day in Allston
By MICHAEL MAROTTA | September 7, 2011
IN THE HOUSE Grass Is Green barrel toward alternative rock and take a sharp turn at the intersection of hardcore and funk. |
It's nearing midnight on September 1, the local un-holiday of moving day in Allston, where the streets are clogged with brake-light blaring U-Hauls. Apartments vomit their contents across littered sidewalks, and brown cardboard boxes are worth their weight in gold. Tim Luckow clutches a beer, flashes a smile, and watches one of the cornerstones of his GHouse collective on stage at Great Scott.On stage as on record, Grass Is Green are an odd band. They come from the same school of frantic post-everything sound as Dirty Dishes, but with a harder, more explosive edge, barreling toward alternative rock until they make a sharp turn at the intersection of hardcore and funk. Luckow, who spent the day moving from Back Bay to the South End, takes it all in. There may be no more important player in Boston's 2012 rock scene than this dude.
At the head of GHouse, the creative community and record label he started in 2008 while studying music business and management at Berklee (he graduated last year), Luckow has built a network of motivated bands and smart minds. His label roster includes Grass Is Green, Caleb Groh, Dirty Dishes, and Badknight. He’s also doing consulting work with Bad Rabbits, who have a Teddy Riley-produced album set to drop in 2012. On the creative network side, he's hooked up with New York marketing agency Learned Evolution (of Brooklyn Bowl) for festivals and shows, and digital distribution mavens the Orchard to release music with a score of videos and extensive artwork.
"It's a new-age label, kind of like a community," he says of GHouse. "It's about taking way less from artists and helping them develop. It's all about accessibility. Our thing is curating a scene and developing each individual band."
His plan for new-media marketing, promotion, and distribution will be in full effect by March's SXSW interactive conference. In the meantime, Luckow is booking national acts in Boston, adding members of his GHouse community — experimental duo Sonnymoon open for Flying Lotus Friday at Royale. "We're going to release a lot of records that will leave a mark. The shows and festivals will help us move along." Moving day, indeed.
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Live Reviews
, Music, Allston, great Scott, More 
, Music, Allston, great Scott, COLLEGE, university, Grass Is Green, Grass Is Green, moving, Less 
