:: clicky clicky music blog ::

New Music Night DJ Sets | River Gods | 26/27 January

2012-01-28T00:45:00.004-05:00

Here are the songs we played whilst manning the figurative decks last night in the booth at the fabulous River Gods in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Avail yourself of all the relevant linkage; if you have any questions or want to know more, hit us on Twitter or drop a comment. We'll create a Spotify playlist of all the songs we played last night shortly and post a link right here [Edit: HERE IT IS]. Also, please click over to Bradley's Almanac and check out Brad's playlists for the 9PM and 11PM hours, they will move you, and tons of free music to boot.

Set Two/Jay -- 10PM

1. David Newton & Thee Almighty Angels -- "Paint The Town" -- Paint The Town EP
[listen / buy]
2. Lubec -- "You're A Good Idea" -- Rip Tide 7"
[listen / buy]
3. School of Seven Bells -- "The Night" -- Ghostory
[download / pre-order]
4. Night Fruit -- "Dark Horse" -- Dark Horse EP
[blogged / listen / buy]
5. The Big Sleep -- "Ace" -- Nature Experiments
[listen / pre-order]
6. The Blue Dress -- "My Deth Ray" -- These Happy Golden Years EP
[blogged / listen / buy]
7. Satellite Stories -- "Blame The Fireworks" -- Blame The Fireworks single
[blogged / listen / buy]
8. Amity Beach -- "You'll Never Hear That Sound" -- Amity Beach single
[blogged / listen / buy]
9. Earthquake Party! -- "Pretty Little Hand" -- Vs. Pizza cassette
[blogged / download for free / buy Vs. Pizza]
10. Ringo Deathstarr -- "Sailin' On" -- Bad Brains cover, for Esme
[listen / donate to help Esme Barrera's family; Ms. Barrera was murdered Jan. 1]
11. Ovlov -- "The City" -- What's So Great About The City? EP
[listen / name-your-price]
12. Chandeliers -- "Age Sex Location (rough mix)" -- digital single
[blogged / download for free]
13. BDRM Eyes -- "Soggy" -- What Are You Wrong With EP
[listen / buy]
14. White Laces -- "Dissolve Into Color" -- Split 7" with Arches
[blogged / listen / buy]
15. Work Drugs -- "Rolling In The Deep (Adele cover)" -- digital single
[listen / download]
16. The xx -- "Open Eyes (Demo)"
[listen / download link seems to be dead but maybe it'll come back? like Shane?]

Set 4/Jay -- 12AM

1. Occurrence -- "You, Me And Everyone We Know Will Die" -- The Apocalypse Is Postponed
[listen / buy]
2. Johnny Foreigner -- "If I'm The Most Famous (Robot) Boy You've Fucked, Then Honey Yr In (Robot) Trouble" -- You vs. Everything EP
[blogged / listen / buy]

Young Adults, BDRM Eyes, Chandeliers and The Living City | The Box Fort, Allston Rock City | Jan. 28

2012-01-25T23:27:00.001-05:00

While you weren't looking, this coming Saturday night has become totally bonkers, as Clicky Clicky faves are playing out all over the map. There's Night Fruit at the Cambridge YWCA, Guillermo Sexo at the Middle East, and Grass Is Green at O'Brien's Pub as part of Berfest, just to name a few. Hot shows all, but we don't think you'll get more bang for your tango anywhere else other than at the stellar show arranged by the lads in rising noise-pop concern Chandeliers. The trio will perform Saturday night at the Box Fort house in Allston as part of a cataclysmic bill featuring ambient punk heroes Young Adults, rising starrgazers BDRM Eyes and potent emo newcomers The Living City. The show is said to be kicking off early, as early as 8PM, so an enterprising show-goer could potentially make the house party scene on the early and still have time to head to one of those aforementioned venues to see action from those aforementioned acts. We'll be doing a little preview of the big, big show tomorrow night at River Gods, where we plan to include new songs from Chandeliers, BDRM Eyes and The Living City in our DJ sets as part of New Music Night (we as yet don't have any new material to showcase from Young Adults). The Facebook Event page for New Music Night has all the details, check it out.

Chandeliers has just released to the wilds of the Interzizzles a two-song sampler of new jams, "Age Sex Location" and "First Base (At The Model)," which you can stream via the Bandcamp embed below. The first track is an uptempo, dark and stormy rocker that will be familiar to fans. "First Base (At The Model)" is another bracing tune, this one sounds like a nightmare version of Buffalo Tom's "Mountains Of Your Head." Which, of course, means you need to hear it right now. Check the streams below.

TWO-SONG SAMPLER by CHANDELIERS

New Music Night IV: The Dream Master with Brad Almanac + Jay Clicky Clicky | River Gods | 26 Jan.

2012-01-23T23:34:00.000-05:00

Music nerds, Nightmare On Elm Street fans and beer drinkers rejoice! New Music Night returns for the freshly minted year this very Thursday, Jan. 26, at River Gods in Cambridge, Mass. Your DJs are Brad of Bradley's Almanac and Jay of Clicky Clicky. Come nosh all the sweet brooms, from frog rusty sneer, it all happens from 9PM-1AM Thursday. It's not just the place to be, it's the place to listen. Also, beer. For a sense of what you're getting into, check out Brad's playlist from the October event, or our Spotify playlists from the same night (link 1, link 2). Sold? Thinking about it? Here's the Facebook event page. Four more years! Four more years!

River Gods
125 River Street
Cambridge, MA
MAP

Accessible via Red Line at Central Square.

Rock Over Boston: Mission of Burma | 1.20-1.21.2012

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

[Mission of Burma (and Shepherdess) at the Brighton Music Hall, Allston, MA 1/20 and 1/21/2012. Photos by Michael Piantigini.]

Mission of Burma are a national goddamn treasure. When I'm President, I'm going to come up with some medal to give them like the one they gave McCartney where they have to do a Command Performance at the White House.

Ten years, thirteen days, and three albums or so into their reunion, Burma have been back at it for more than twice as long as their original run and, judging by recent interviews are still doing it for all the right reasons. It's true that they were just unpopular enough to make any long-term cash-in a largely fruitless endeavor - I suppose that's what the Pixies are for - but they've always been the kind of band that keeps doin' it 'cause they're feelin' it. Hell, Burma sets where they don't play ANY of their oldies are not terribly uncommon, and people don't even get mad about it or nuthin'. They continue to come up with songs that stand up well to their iron-clad legacy.

Neither of these two sold out Brighton Music Hall shows were one of those shows, though most of their main sets were given over to brand new material filled-in with some of the better stuff from their modern era - I was as happy to hear "The Setup," "The Enthusiast," "Spider's Web," "Man In Decline," "1,2,3 Partyy!," and "Good Cheer" as anything else. That said, when, near the end of each night's set, Clint Conley mumbled the intro to "That's When I Escaped My Certain Fate," the club - and the band - exploded. It was classics from there on out and we were reminded yet again of the band's flexibility and musicianship - for every ponderous "Trem Two" or "Einstein's Day," there's a pure punk blast like "Ballad of Johnny Burma" or the Dils' "Class War." And, sure, let's throw in that obscure Alice Cooper cover ("Reflected" from 1969's Pretties For You) while we're at it.

Everyone was in top form - Roger Miller slashed at his guitar, moving effortlessly between power chords and mind-bending leads, Clint Conley cut a lanky figure, his muscular basslines driving the bus, and Peter Prescott practices understated devastation on drums. Next time you see them, grab a spot with a good view of him - it's amazing to see, and his feral yells show him to be the heart of the operation. Let's not forget Bob Weston's loops here either. If the complexity of the songs wasn't enough, Weston adds another layer of texture that helps set Burma above the rest.

There's still no announced label for the album their finishing up. Will someone please open up their checkbook and get this thing done?

- Michael Piantigini

Mission of Burma: Intertubes

Today's Hotness: Arctic Splash, Black Swan Runners

2012-01-16T09:00:00.002-05:00

>> A world in which Joey Sweeney doesn't have an active band just feels weird. Or at least it feels weird in a different way from a world in which Mr. Sweeney does have an active band. We came up listening to his songs, going to the shows of his various bands (Barnabys, The Joey Sweeney Rock Band, and so forth), and then when he got himself growed up sometime during the last decade it seemed like he had finally put music down after shelving the quasi-eponymous The Trouble With Sweeney. So we were pleased to get a tip a couple months back that Sweeney has quietly bowed another project, Arctic Splash. The Philadelphia-based quintet made its live debut just last summer, and has apparently been at work for quite some time on a debut release, which at least last fall was contemplated as a three-song 12"/download jawn. What's the stuff sound like? It's hard to say: this live clip from the band's first show captures a band at its loosest; the demo "Denim Tuxedo" (someone alert Jon Wurster...) is spare and soulful; and the acoustic demo "Baptised In Vibe" embedded atop this piece is yet more spare, but more reminiscent of Sweeney's later stuff. Long-time readers with superlative memories will recall our occasional rants about Sweeney's unheralded rock period (1994-1996, or thereabouts), and obviously we'd like to see a return to the sweaty, glasses-pushing-up-the-nose Sweeney. Arctic Splash probably won't be that, but we're still quite excited to hear the debut release. Let's get it released, Team Splash, eh?

Denim Tuxedo (Demo) by arcticsplash

>> We're also jazzed for the debut release from Black Swan Runners, a new band from former Retriever and CoCo B's guy Kevin Castillo. We've been a fan of Castillo's music since college, which if you don't know was a long time ago. And we were a bit surprised that CoCo B's didn't have more of a break-out moment with its dazzling rocker "Give Up The Money/1982," from its very solid 2007 self-titled set. Be that as it may, there is new music coming from this new entity Black Swan Runners. Although how different is the new band? The personnel listed at the BSW Facebook page is the same as the personnel in the CoCo B's bio? No matter, we don't really care, so long as the rock is good. And based on some teaser video clips, we think we've got reason to be excited when the band's debut release comes out next month. The as-yet-untitled collection is in the can, after having been mixed by Alex Newport (who we talked about at some length here) and mastered by the seemingly ubiquitous Jeff Lipton. All we know right now is that one jam might be titled "Carolina In A White Coat," and whatever the title is, the tune is awesome. There's a bit more of a synth-and-electronic-beats thing going on in this clip, but the song seems no less affecting. We haven't discerned an official release date yet, but we'll keep you apprised.

Rock Over Boston: Scud Mountain Boys | 1.14.2012

2012-01-15T16:43:00.005-05:00

[Scud Mountain Boys at Brighton Music Hall, January 14, 2012. Photo by Michael Piantigini.]

Joe Pernice: Internets | Management's Twitter

Reissued early Scud Mountain Boys albums available here.

Today's Hotness: Earthquake Party!, Amity Beach, Caspian

2012-01-14T23:05:00.000-05:00

>> We've been way behind. But we're clawing our way back, and one thing that has jazzed us to no end over the last two months is the debut release from Boston's deservedly hyped Earthquake Party! (exclamation point theirs, we suppose a hat tip to post-rock collective Godspeed? No?). We first mentioned the band in a sidelong manner way back in late 2010, when it appeared on the bill for local noise punkers Young Adults' record release party. Well, Earthquake Party! almost a year to the day later issued its own debut, a three-song cassette/digital download of fizzing fuzz-pop, reminiscent of an even peppier version of British upstarts Fanzine (how awesome would THAT double-bill be?). The wholly terrific "Pretty Little Hand" proclaims in its chorus "all I want is a pretty little hand filled with pills and candy," and who doesn't want that? The tune is backed with "Nails & Hammers" and "Brains," and all three tunes were recorded last summer at local facility Esthudio, which you may recall is where Young Adults committed Black Hole to tape. Or maybe you don't recall that. While Young Adults favors power slightly over pop, Earthquake Party! noise pop evidences alliegiances to certain classic sounds. "Brains," for example, bumps and sways like a Motown girl group number (or, we suppose, more accurately like Jesus & Mary Chain-rendered fascimile of same). But the lead-off track will be enough to get you hooked, so go get 'em. No word on what to expect next from the band, but we're hoping to get more acquainted with Earthquake Party! in the '012.

vs. Pizza by earthquake party!

>> Another act whose music has been hanging around rocking us is Amity Beach. The Grand Bend, Ontario-based quintet's self-titled EP on Eternal Bummer delivers copious pop thrills on its recent single, wherein it festoons its own brand of quirk with sounds that fans of Tokyo Police Club will find pleasing. All three songs are strong (and apparently they have been repackaged with some compilation tracks into a weightier, six-song EP), but if we had to pick a winner from the surprisingly young act we'd finger "You'll Never Hear That Sound." The tune's first and final minute features a dizzying arrangement of synth and chime that sounds like a heavenly barrage of typewriter clatter, and bright horn arrangements adorn all three tracks. We're definitely queuing up "You'll Never Hear That Sound" during one of our sets at New Music Night later this month. Stream all three tracks via the embed below.

Amity Beach by Amity Beach

>> Last we saw the mighty Caspian, more than five years ago, they were in an early slot at Great Scott looking and sounding a little out of place. They may as well have had green skin, antennae and bubble helmets, but we expect they deal with that a lot: when you are post-rock knights wielding paranormal slow jams, you're just different from other people. The band's latest release completely does the band's epic stylings justice, as it captures the band performing live on Oct. 22, 2010, in a massive National Historic Landmark, a Northern Italian Gothic church erected in Boston in 1875. Oh, the glorious tumult, oh the passion to be heard in Live at Old South Church. Opener "Last Rites" explodes in its seventh minute, not somber as the title suggests the song might be, but instead intensely passionate, as if it were the soundtrack to Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Five songs in an otherworldly 35 minutes, the collection is pressed to a limited edition of 1000 vinyl circles, including 200 white vinyl copies available in finer record stores right now (the official release date was Jan. 10). If you can't wait to feel the crashing waves and ethereal calm amplified by the relatively vast space of the edifice, the entire collection is streamable via the Soundcloud embed below.

Caspian - Live at Old South Church by The Mylene Sheath

The Ash Gray Proclamation and Clicky Clicky Music present Hallelujah The Hills, Ted Billings, Richard Davies and The Blue Dress | PA's Lounge | 14 Jan.

2012-01-10T23:15:00.000-05:00

We are exceedingly pleased to be presenting this Saturday alongside our friends at The Ash Gray Proclamation a sterling evening of rock and roll music. The bill, as the title of this post makes clear, features local heroes Hallelujah The Hills, Ted Billings of Age Rings, Richard Davies and The Blue Dress. The show is at PA's Lounge, and we are (briefly) coming out of our just-had-a-baby-show-going-hiatus to make the scene because, you know, we love rock and roll music.

Hallelujah The Hills, of course, needs no introduction, but if you gotta start somewhere like Jon Brion, we'd direct you to the recent, wonderful digital-only b-side "Some Of Them We Lost," which is embedded above and was introduced to us by Team AGP. The song, as we have quipped elsewhere, "at 3:11 ... all of sudden comes on like the vertigo of five too many shots of liquor, and you get up off the couch and realize you can't stand at all." The more recent work of Mr. Billings in Age Rings is well-known to readers of this blog; that band's Black Honey was among our favorite records of 2011, and Age Rings promised a follow-up entitled Magnum Love will appear sometime this year. Here's hoping that we get a little preview Saturday.

We're not going to lie: Richard Davies is totally new to us. But his inclusion on the bill definitely tells us that his music is something we'll want to hear. Word is that some of The Blue Dress guys will be backing Mr. Davies up for his set, which may or may not be akin to juggling swordfish or drinking moonshine from a sneaker, we don't know, but the proposition of the unknown is exciting. As for The Blue Dress (whose appearance here is apparently the band's first club show), we first became aware of the band last summer when the words "dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio..." kept wafting out of our IPod in an unusual context. The line, of course, is lifted from Joy Division's epic "Transmission," a song covered by many but perhaps most notably by Low. The Blue Dress tucked it into their demo "House Of The Demon," and that little hook -- mournfully delivered, but with a different vibe than Low's -- got us very interested in the band. The band's dazzling recent EP These Happy Golden Years is something we wish hadn't slept on in late 2011, because it has that perfect -- dare we say Kiwi-esque -- balance of melody and noise (and trumpet! which is sorta both!) that keeps us coming back for more. Check out "My Deth Ray" below:

The Blue Dress - "These Happy Golden Years" - My Deth Ray by The Blue Dress

It's going to be a great night, and we do sincerely hope you will come out and say "hi," it's been a long time since we've been among the indie rockers. See you then.

Today's Hotness: White Laces, Satellite Stories, Allo Darlin'

2012-01-08T00:13:00.001-05:00

>> Noise pop continues to thrive in Richmond, and scene stand-outs White Laces seem poised for a break-out 2012. The quartet has an ambitious slate of releases in the offing, the first of which is a cracking split single with sometimes-tourmates Arches, who operate out of our beloved Philadelphia. Richmond-based label Worthless Junk is taking orders now for "Dissolve Into Color" b/w "Late Last Night" right here. While the official release date is Jan. 24 (a certain blogger's birthday...), you can hear White Laces' A-side via the Soundcloud embed below and watch a video for the Arches jam right here. The single was pressed in a limited edition of 300 grey and blue flat vinyl circles, and all pre-orders will be packaged with a bonus split cassette with demos and outtakes from the two acts. "Dissolve Into Color" opens with shuddering, bending guitar chords characteristic of the White Laces sound, but what comes next points to the band's songwriting becoming more refined and focused. The arrangement is spare, the attitude tough, fronter Landis Wine's singing more confrontational, the surf guitars can't walk a straight line for the cops and the odd time signatures enhance the rush and push of more prominent drumming. White Laces' second release for the year (a full-length is also in the works) will be the long-awaited split 10" with scenemates Snowy Owls (have you heard this awesome jam?) on Harding Street; the 10" is slated to hit racks in February and you can pre-order and access streams at this Bandcamp page. We caught a brief, sweaty White Laces set in Boston last summer when the act came through town with Arches; here are some photos.

Dissolve Into Color by White Laces

>> At this point does anyone even want Bloc Party back? Their role as examplary purveyors of spiky guitar pop has been ably filled many times over by young and hungry acts since the quartet left the sound behind and went on hiatus. One successful aspirant to the silently alarmed throne is Finland's Satellite Stories. The Oulu-based, criminally unsigned foursome show their mettle with the recent digital single "Blame The Fireworks," a jittery guitar pop anthem carrying a forlorn vocal, two great tastes that taste great together. Listen as a bridge bursts into flames under a blistering guitar lead and ensuing mayhem and then And Then AND THEN... back to placid bridge yet again. And the vocal kicker is just too perfect, dropping a phrase to underscore a rendezvous gone awry, a relationship on the rocks. "I know these streets and I thought I knew you, but I got lost..." Satellite Stories plans to release an EP of new material in 2012, and they are definitely ones to watch. We previously wrote about the band here back in November 2010. Stream the new song below.

Satellite Stories - Blame the Fireworks by satellitestories

>> The new Allo Darlin' single takes a minute to wind itself up, a minute during which, let's face it, this sounds like an Indigo Girls song. But, by the time we get a drum build and a chorus, "Capricornia" takes off, higher and higher over its full four-and-a-half minutes of REM jangle and simple harmonies gilding Duritz-esque cascades of words. The whole thing accelerates to a surprisingly noisy, but delicious, conclusion of guitar scribbles and feedback. It's a great breezy pop song that is very comfortable staying within a small conceptual box neatly labeled "breezy pop song' on its firmly placed lid. But if you don't think about the box and just sing along you'll probably find "Capricornia" is an appropriate antidote for grey winter days. The song is the first single from the band's full-length debut Europe; the single is due March 6 and the full-length April 17. Catch the stream below. Allo Darlin' just announced a healthy slate of US tour dates in April and May, although the band has omitted Boston from its current plans, causing many of us to have an indie rock sad. Still, that's months away, and we expect Allo Darlin' will eventually see their way to Boston. And if not, there's always New Haven May 18.

Allo Darlin' - Capricornia by Slumberland Records

Today's Hotness: Mike Quinn, Arc In Round, Young Adults

2012-01-02T23:03:00.000-05:00

>> Mike Quinn was smoking with the boys upstairs when he heard about the whole affair. And then he recorded a warped version of Steely Dan's "My Old School," which seems like a nice way to kick off 2012 here at Ye Olde Blogge. Mr. Quinn's version shuffles slowly, drunkenly, a bit like the title track to Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, slack-key guitar briefly trading spaces with Richardsian licks. It's highly enjoyable. We last heard from Quinn in July, when he issued the charming solo set Magico, which we wrote about right here. Earlier in the current century Quinn captained erstwhile Scranton, PA-based indie rock champions Okay Paddy. That band's 2006 set The Cactus Has A Point [review here] was one of our favorite records of 2006. Around the time Okay Paddy hung up its gloves for the last time, Quinn moved on to the more trad-leaning folk/vaudeville/bluegrass concern ...And The Moneynotes, which put out a couple nifty, sometimes wacky, releases including New Cornucopia!, which we reviewed here in late 2008. Will 2012 bring yet more Steely Dan covers? We shall see.

My Old School [Steely Dan] by Magico

>> Delaware Water Gap, PA-based label La Société Expéditionnaire has signed Philadelphia-based progressive pop quartet Arc In Round; the label (which last year put out the excellent self-titled set by SOARS) expects to issue the band's eponymously titled debut full-length this year. Those anxiously rifling through their records right now are likely grasping for this piece of information: while Arc In Round will technically be the foursome's full-length debut, its precursor entity Relay did in fact issue a long-player of its own, Still Point Of Turning, on Bubble Core in early 2006. Arc In Round self-released two EPs in 2011, Diagonal Fields and II. The new record features guest turns from Kurt Vile and Pattern Is Movement's Chris Ward and will be packaged with oodles of remixes concocted by the likes of A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Ape School, Benoit Pioulard and Lymbyc Systym. That is the dictionary definition of not too shabby, and we eagerly await this one. While you wait, why not chew on this video of Arc In Round covering Can's "Oh Yeah." Yeah?

>> Boston-based ambient punk dynamos Young Adults are promising a new EP sometime in 2012, according to this tweet. The short set would be the trio's first new material since its break-out full-length Black Hole, which was issued in late 2010 on Prague-based Amdiscs (buy! buy! buy!). In the interim the band has changed bass players and played some of the most electrifying live sets to hit Boston stages. Young Adults' next move is hotly anticipated, and, if history can be any guide, the contemplated EP will be a scorchah, dood. Catch the band this Saturday at Gay Gardens with Bambara, Ovlov and Guilty Party. Facebook Event page here. For now, burn your face off one more time with this one, "Wasting Time."

Wasting Time by Young Adults

Clicky Clicky's Top 10s of 2011: MP edition

2011-12-30T15:00:00.008-05:00

[Photo of Shit Horse at Habana Bar, Austin, TX 3/16/2011 during SXSW. Photo by Michael Piantigini.]

Twenty aught-eleven was one of those star-aligning years that gifted me with tons of music I like - This year's list is admittedly pretty heavy on my wheelhouse veterans, but how lucky to still get such strong stuff from bands like Buffalo Tom, Five Eight, and the friggin' Feelies! Having taken to heart The Long Winters' John Roderick's admonitions on top 10 lists (and let's hope he gets that new album out in 2012), I offer these 10 for '11 in alphabetical order. Tune in to Clicky Clicky Radio next Thursday, 8-10 pm eastern, and I'll play lots of stuff from these and other great 2011 releases!

Buffalo Tom Skins (Scrawny)
With guitars big and autumn gentle, these beloved Boston mainstays returned with their strongest album in years, and one that could stand up to the reminiscing of their 25th anniversary celebrations later in the year (reviews: night 1/night 2/night 3). [review/buy]

Eleventh Dream Day Riot Now (Thrill Jockey)
Chicago's legends-in-certain-circles take their time and make records when they're ready. Riot Now turns up after a five year gap and Rick Rizzo's feedback and Janet Beveridge Bean's harmonies were worth every moment of the wait. [buy]

The Feelies Here Before (Bar/None)
This year's lottery of unlikely new albums was won by The Feelies who, speaking of gaps, waited 20 years to make their new one. And it sounds just like The Feelies - and I mean that as high praise. [review/buy]

Five Eight Your God Is Dead To Me Now (Iron Horse)
Long-running Athens, GA stalwarts Five Eight take a stand on their 2011 album. They may offer more grown-up perspectives, but never grew out of a youthful existential dilemma. If we're being honest, who does? They continue to strike a nerve. [buy]

Fucked Up David Comes To Life (Matador)
Huge. Just... HUGE. [buy]

The Rationales The Distance In Between
The debut full-length by these Boston Americana-rockers is a warm, guitar comfort food blanket with pop hooks that keep the songs in your head. [buy]

R.E.M. Collapse Into Now (Warner Brothers)
Admittedly, sentimental reasons might have been reason enough for me to put the final R.E.M. album on the list, but this is legit - Collapse Into Now is great on its own terms and is the best R.E.M. album since at least 1996 (put another way: their best in a generation!). A worthy swan song for a band that spent most of their last 15 years in the wilderness. [buy]

Kurt Vile Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador)
Wherein which Kurt Vile continues to outdo himself with his best batch of songs yet. In the alt-rock (and what-have-you) world, producer John Agnello's credits are untouchable: from Dinosaur Jr to Drive-By Truckers and Sonic Youth to Son Volt (among MANY other greats), he has helped shape the sound of alt rock (and such) for more than a generation. Here, he translates Kurt Vile's stoner daydreams into a lush, earthy headphone cinemascape. [buy]

Wild Flag Wild Flag (Merge)
OK, I'll admit it - if I were numbering the list, this'd likely be number one with a bullet. Has anything so highly anticipated delivered so solidly? Don't see how it would be possible to see them live and not think they're huge rock stars. Now if we can only get people to stop yelling "put a bird on it" at their shows. [buy]

Wussy Strawberry (Shake It)
Wussy's been quietly churning gems out of Cincinatti for a decade (much like co-gutarist/vocalist Chuck Cleaver's band Ass Ponys did for the decade before that), and Strawberry just about snuck out in the last month or so. It's both barnstorming ("Pulverized," for one) and beautiful ("Magnolia," for another). Do your ears and soul a favor and go buy this now and then make your way through the rest of the catalog. [buy]

Bubbling under:
Office of Future Plans - S/T (Dischord)
Obits Moody, Standard and Poor(Sub Pop)
Megafaun - S/T (Hometapes)
And, let's face it - pretty much everything else Merge produced this year, especially Wye Oak's Civilian, Apex Manor's The Year of Magical Drinking, and Mountain Goats' All Eternals Deck [buy]

My 11 favorite shows of '11, in brief and chronological. A bit heavy on the SXSW, as you can see, but it was a fun one:
-Reigning Sound at the Magic Room Gallery - February 17, 2011 [review]
-Shit Horse at Habana Bar - March 16, 2011 (SXSW) [photos]
-Wild Flag at The Parish - March 18, 2011 (SXSW) [photos]
-Eleventh Dream Day at Yard Dog - March 19, 2011 (SXSW) [photos]
-Alejandro Escovedo at The Continental Club - March 20, 2011 (post-SXSW) [review/photos]
-Joe Pernice/Scud Mountain Boys at the Lizard Lounge - August 25, 2011 [review/photos]
-Jeff Mangum at Jordan Hall - September 10, 2011 [review]
-Tommy Keene with Doug Gillard at Church on September 11, 2011 [photos]
-The Low Anthem at Somerville Theatre (and outside) - October 20, 2011 [review]
-The Hush Now/Soccer Mom/Chandeliers at Precinct - October 22, 2011
-Buffalo Tom at Brighton Music Hall - November 25, 2011 (25th Anniversary shows, night 1) [review]

-Michael Piantigini

Varsity Drag with Chin Strap, Suicide Dolls, and 7CS | Church of Boston | 29 Dec.

2011-12-28T20:00:00.006-05:00

You know you want to. Facebook Event pagina right here.

Clicky Clicky's Top Albums Of 2011: Jay Edition

2011-12-28T14:53:00.000-05:00

And here we are at the end of 2011. If you had told us a year ago that the things which transpired this year were coming, we would not have believed you. While for much of the year, and much to our frustration, music had to take a back seat to real life, that only increased its importance to this writer. Cross-country flights soundtracked by Broken Shoulder. Getting up to speed mornings listening to Rival Schools. Quiet weekends with J Mascis, summer vacation with Algernon Cadwallader and The War On Drugs, doing dishes with the The Henry Clay People. And when we could, we saw shows that kept us smiling long after they were over, not the least of which was the seismic bill we co-presented in late October featuring The Hush Now, Soccermom and Chandeliers. We even found time to draft major pieces on favorite acts Haywood (here) and Johnny Foreigner (here). But largely constraints on our time and tons of stress often meant quality over quantity when it came to the blogging life; fortunately in 2011 there was no shortage of exceptional music to keep us sane. Below are our favorite 10 records of the year. We are very excited for what 2012 will bring, even if it only brings a little more time to catch up on everything we didn't have time for in 2011. Thanks for reading. Stick with us, there's a lot more Clicky Clicky where this came from.

1. Johnny Foreigner -- Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything -- Alcopop!
Now that it's here, it's hard not to feel like everything was leading up to it, from the band's very first single in 2007 onward. Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything is a fully DIY proposition that is remarkable in its vivid realization -- especially considering the small amount of money involved in creating it. It's also a defiant statement from a band that has fought for everything it has got, including its continued existence. As fronter Alexei Berrow told us here in October, "It feels like there are a lot of people waiting to be like 'O Johnny Foreigner fucked up, inevitable, how predictable.' Vs. Everything is us making these possibly imaginary folks eat their stupid words." And, man, the record delivers the fire and hope, the desperate melodies and sublime sentiments. If you haven't already, make sure you hear the best record of 2011.
[review / buy / Spotify]

2. Benjamin Shaw -- There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet -- Audio Antihero
While this list of favorite records for the most part illustrates which albums we listened to most in the last 360 or so days, it also speaks loudly about what we value in the music we spend our time with. Benjamin Shaw's There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet is perhaps the best example of what we value most: an artist with a singular personality, a unique vision or world view that is ably and creatively captured in the stereo field. Mr. Shaw's chamber pop showcases a charming dourness and humor, cloaked within deftly arranged guitar, piano, strings and ambient curiosities. His vocal delivery is remarkably personal, and the resulting collection here is as cozy as it is ghostly. Each song presents soft and sharp elements, like a bag full of knitting, while making sure that there are as many melodic hooks as there are noisy cul-de-sacs. It's enchanting, and it is easily one of the best of the year.
[preview / buy / Spotify]

3. Age Rings -- Black Honey -- Midriff Records
The one that almost got away, Black Honey was shelved for more than a year during its difficult gestation. Somehow band fronter Ted Billings was able to gather up inspiration that had sifted through his fingers and complete the collection, some four years on from its inception. It's a marvelous, rootsy rock record with a vast arsenal of hooks supporting Mr. Billings' raw, heart-on-sleeve sentiments and wry sense of humor. Black Honey is a thrilling collection, from the bombastic openers "Rock and Roll Is Dead" and "Black Hole" to the haunting closer "Caught Up In The Sound." It was a real feather in local dynamo Midriff Records' cap to be able to put it out, and it feels like a gift every time we listen to it.
[review / buy / ~~Spotify~~]

4. Destroyer -- Kaputt -- Merge Records
Oh, how we loved this one from the very first time we put it on, perhaps the most obvious sign that even before we climbed all the way up the umbilical noose of '80s MTV, we were immersed irretrievably in early '80s commercial radio. It bothers us that Kaputt is viewed by many as tongue-in-cheek (the video for the album's title track didn't help matters), as we genuinely love the recycled soft-rock sounds and "Miami Vice"-cool found on the record just about as much as all the "critically compliant" Brotherhood vibes. Of course, embossing Destroyer auteur Dan Bejar's characteristic witover top of Kaputt's confections makes it that much more irresistable. Every song on the record is a hit, and it is at the top of mind every time we sit down to put on a record. Another Bejar coup.
[buy / Spotify]

5. The War On Drugs -- Slave Ambient -- Secretly Canadian
We listened to this for hours and hours in the middle of a hot summer, and it reminded us of the boiling South Philadelphia summers of our mid-20s. The city's unbroken mesh of hot brick rowhouses, each one its own oven, windows thrown open to the constant street noise, noise that buzzes like the constant aural din that underpins Slave Ambient. A din, we'd argue, that is like a dialect unique to Philadelphians. We long for our days in that city often, and in a way Drugs fronter Adam Granduciel has given us the gift of hearing a piece of our history again amid his hypnotic, mesmerizing creation. Slave Ambient's icy coctail of Philly FM radio and motorik reverie gets better every time we indulge it. Each time we put the collection on we nudge the volume knob northward to sit back and bathe in a Bartowski-esque Intersect of musical data points, freejacking decades of Petty, U2, the Dead and on and on and on and on...
[review / buy / Spotify]

6. Algernon Cadwallader -- Parrot Flies -- Hot Green/BSM
More Philly, people. This time it's fist-banging anthems, lightning in a bottle, youthful vigor. Few things make us wish we were young again, but Parrot Flies is one of them. Somewhere in all the caterwauling and rocking out, there is a well-spring of positive vibes so potent that it not only has the ability to brighten our days now, but also to inspire in us the strange belief that we could go back and enjoy by-gone days more if only we had had Parrot Flies on one side of a C-90 stuffed in the dashboard tape player. Emo the way it was meant to be written and performed by dudes who do it themselves, from recording to touring to releasing their record. To steal a line from Stars, "when there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire." Algernon Cadwallader live it, and Parrot Flies is so much delicious proof.
[review / buy / Spotify]

7. The Hush Now -- Memos -- Self-Released
They did it. The Hush Now's third record is a triumph of melody, of songwriting, of will. For years the band has been slugging it out in Boston, turning in increasingly dominating live sets, and finally, with Memos, the band released a recording that matched in execution the passion and energy characteristic of their visceralperformances. And beyond Memos just sounding good and feeling good, it touts the best set of songs the quintet has turned out yet, from the jaw-dropping ballad "Sitting On A Slow Clock" (which featured on our year-end songs list here) to the scorching guitar pop anthems that the band has made its stock-in-trade, Memos delivers, and we can't imagine the overground won't come calling for these guys soon enough.
[review / buy / ~~Spotify~~]

8. Ringo Deathstarr -- Colour Trip -- Sonic Unyon
It took four years to get it, but we can't say it wasn't worth the wait. On the tail of an increasingly convoluted string of singles and EPs (different collections in the USA, UK and Japan with different configurations of songs, something of a collector's nightmare), Austin-based noise pop behemoths Ringo Deathstarr finally issued a debut full-length. It's an arresting amalgamation of shoegaze, punk and even dance-pop, and it's awesome. The trio is having better luck in other markets (it just toured supporting Smashing Pumpkins abroad and had a few dates in Japan with Johnny Foreigner), but Colour Trip gained some significant traction for The Deathstarr here. And we ask you, what's not to like? The record is a perfect calling card for the band's power, style and attitude, and listeners that write the band off as a My Bloody Valentine clone are both missing the point and just not listening.
[review / buy / Spotify]

9. Soccer Mom -- You Are Not Going To Heaven -- 100m
...the power and the glory, forever and ever, amen. You Are Not Going To Heaven is an exhilarating collection, from the Sonic Youth-styled buzzsaw of "(A) Natural History" to the blackout bludgeoning of the final 30 seconds of "Southern Bells." All six songs here are dynamite. Perhaps the only thing more exhilarating is experiencing the quartet's firestorm live. We honestly feel bad for any band that has to follow these guys on a bill, because after The 'Mom levels the crowd with its blissful and desperate noise (via Dan Parlin's mad-dog death-grip head shake, the steady cool of guitarist Bill Scales and bassist Danielle Deveau, and drummer Justin Kehoe's octopus arms), that show's over, man. It's just over ("...grab your stuff and go and nobody goes to jail..."). This EP is huge, and we can't wait for the next batch of recordings. Boston's next big thing keeping getting better, if not nextier.
[preview / buy / Spotify]

10. Los Campesinos! -- Hello Sadness -- Arts & Crafts
In some way it is difficult to believe that the band that issued the scruffy Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP in 2007 is the same act that crafted Hello Sadness. But there are a lot easy retorts to that sentiment, too, namely, well, it's just not the same band. The amount of living Tom, Gareth and the rest of Los Campesinos! have crammed into the last five years -- even if measured only by the 75 songs in our ITunes, you know, "band living" -- is quite astonishing. Hello Sadness is so emotionally broad and deep it is like the world's oceans, once you're in the water, it's just water going on forever, amazing songs like "To Tundra" and "Hate For The Island" so breath-taking there's no swimming across. There is a theoretic line between pop and art and this record is perhaps most remarkable for making that theoretic line so wide as one can not be pulled apart from the other at all. Amazing songs, amazing lyrics, so purposefully rendered.
[preview / buy / Spotify]

Out Now: Eldridge Rodriguez | Christmas On The Allston-Brighton Line EP

2011-12-19T23:08:00.001-05:00

We made the coctails strong, we got the fire on... So let us be the latest to add our voice to the chorus of approval for Eldridge Rodriguez's jaunty holiday EP, Christmas On The Allston-Brighton Line. The three-song set -- the first in an annual series envisioned by the Boston-based feel-bad-pop luminary -- is as singular and as exciting as The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping," and as beautifully somber and evocative as Ted Pauly's "Christmas Eve, Molly Pitcher." Christmas On The Allston-Brighton Line caps a big year for Boston- and New York-based Midriff Records, which among other things also issued Eldridge Rodriguez' You Are Released in March. Mr. Rodriguez' live performance of You Are Released's "Run MF Run" was a highlight of the many shows we took in this year.

This new EP is led by the ridiculously catchy incantation "Baby, I'm Alone Tonight," which would be a certifiable hit in the overground were it dropped in the lap of a Top 40 "artist." As it is, the mid-fi production suggests the song was kind of dashed off. This isn't meant as a criticism; on the contrary, it suggests ER can bash out great songs with embarrassing ease. We picture him sunken in a worn, upholstered Bunker chair in his living room, fuzzy bunny slippers up, lazily surfing channels with the remote in one hand while he jots lyrics on the subscription card torn from a magazine and itches at his NicoDerm patch with the other hand. As clever a set of lyrics as ever turned out by Mr. Rodriguez, paired with cascading piano and guitar lines, makes the song a joy to play over and over again, and as we quipped to ER earlier today, the song cries out for a video treatment.

Christmas On The Allston-Brighton Line touts two additional numbers, the bouncing, roller-disco anthem "Christmas Eve (At The Old Country Buffet)" and the mellow gold of the snowy title ballad. The three songs come packaged with downloadable caroling sheets and alternate digital covers for all your desktop wall-papering needs. Buy the whole tomato at the Midriff store for three American clams right here; if you want to screw ER out of a little scratch you can instead buy the thing from any of the major digital music storefronts, which of course will take their cut and plow their record profits into price-checking jerkphone apps that will drive your friends' stores out of business. So, you know, whatever. When you coming back? When you coming back? When you coming back? When you coming back?

Stream "Baby, I'm Alone Tonight" via the embed below.

Baby, I'm Alone Tonight (Christmas Time) by Eldridge Rodriguez

Eldridge Rodriguez: Hahahahaha | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

REPOST*: Clicky Clicky's Top Songs Of 2011: Jay Edition

2011-12-14T08:00:00.072-05:00

[*We accidentally deleted this post from late December; here it is in all of its glory once more. -- Ed.]
Well, rock fans, it was a really strange year, one in which we personally and professionally -- and, yes, even to a certain extent here on the blog -- accomplished a great many big things. And all the ups and downs -- transcendent live sets on local stages, solitary post-midnight walks across frozen parking lots in the midwest -- had their soundtrack. Below are our picks for the 10 best songs of the year. These, as usual, are largely determined by our raw ITunes playcounts, although we also gave a little more weight to recent releases that would have been otherwise penalized by coming along later in the year. The list, most of all, is a chance to point to standout songs, regardless of whether the records they are sourced from garnered a slot on our year-end albums list, which we hope to publish before 2011 is gone.

There is an almost complete Spotify playlist of all the tracks that you can access right here; we say almost complete because for whatever reason Spotify doesn't have or won't recognize The Hush Now's wonderful 2011 set Memos. In the few instances possible, we've augmented our copy with embeddable streams, as well, which among other things affords you the opportunity to listen to a nice live recording of Ringo Deathstarr's superlative dream-pop ode "Kaleidoscope." We're already looking forward to big things in 2012. Thanks for reading,and keep an eye out for our aforementioned year-end albums list -- as well as a list or two from Mr. Piantigini -- in the coming days.

1. Johnny Foreigner -- "You vs. Everything" -- Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything
[listen at Spotify]

We struggled over the decision to make this song our song of the year, as opposed to "Alternate Timelines Piling Up." And what it came down to is that while "Alternate Timelines..." is stunningly beautiful and sad, "You vs. Everything" is a self-empowerment song. It's up-tempo. And we need all the adrenaline we can muster these days. Johnny Foreigner is no stranger to anthems, but here the band has finally gone ahead and pointedly created a break-neck paced, fist-banging anthem for you and me. It's one highlight from their year-topping third full-length Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything, which we reviewed last month right here.

2. Rival Schools -- "The Ghost Is Out There" -- Pedals
[listen at Spotify]

Our love for the chorus of this song is boundless. The melody, the ease with which fronter Walter Schreifels looses the syllables from his lips with his immeasurably emotive (tired/sad/happy/wistful/learned/heartbroken) and scratchy voice, the lyrics: it all kills us every time. Remarkably evocative, and yet we haven't any real idea as to what this song is about. But that is a sure sign of excellent songcraft -- the emotion and melody are extremely potent even if the intent is equally as fuzzy. Sing with us, now: "floating in spaaaaaace, the ghost is out there, so you're not alone." We didn't review Rival Schools' 2011 record Pedals, but it kept us company on a lot of cold winter mornings in a far-off place early this year.

3. Benjamin Shaw -- "Home" -- There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet
[listen at Spotify]

There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet will be lucky if it garners footnotes in the year-end lists of the wider, music-writing masses. But the fact is that as soon as we heard the record we sort of felt like someone had handed us a suitcase stuffed with a massive amount of unmarked bills. Or kittens. Well, ghost kittens. With bloody fur around their mouths. Dressed up as tiny little brides and grooms, top hats and veils, little holes for the tails, the whole bit. But anyway, Benjamin Shaw's record is a massive achievement, one that offers a singular but remarkably whole and detailed world view. That is no more apparent than during this epic song. We've seen other writers discussing Mr. Shaw's record that seem to suggest that the rich sonic appointments get in the way of the presentation, of, presumably, Shaw's voice and acoustic guitar. We vehemently disagree. The production on Cabernet is magically vivid and balanced and perfect, as "Home" perhaps best exemplifies.

4. Los Campesinos! -- "Hate For The Island" -- Hello Sadness
[listen at Spotify]

Gareth Campesinos! continues to decry when necessary the application by misinformed writers of the label "twee" to his band's music. Perhaps if he could get everyone to listen to "Hate For The Island" as many times as we have, he can save his breath and go back to tweeting about football and dames. The song is perhaps the most convincing argument that can be made to support the idea that while Los Campesinos! clearly began it's career as scrappy indie poppers, the band's present and future is more cerebral. This song is almost art rock, and the artfulness with which it is made speaks volumes about the massive talent that is propelling the
collective into a band middle-age that seems more promising with each new record.

5. The Hush Now -- "Sitting On A Slow Clock" -- Memos
[listen at Soundcloud]

The show-stopper from the band's best-of-2011 album isn't a big guitar anthem -- well, there are those, too -- but this bar room ballad, the definitive live version of which the band delivered to open its triumphant tour homecoming show in October. We've written for years about The Hush Now, and have seen them at least a dozen times live, but the band was still able to surprise us with this heart-string tugger. When the horn solo gently nudges itself in the door, it reveals a heretofore unrevealed facet of the band. Fronter Noel Kelly, who provides the horn solo here, probably can't rival Chet Baker on brass, but certainly the vocal performance on "Sitting On A Slow Clock" is worthy of the classic Chet Baker Sings. We reviewed Memos here in September.

6. Ringo Deathstarr -- "Kaleidoscope" -- Colour Trip
[listen at Spotify]

Another of noise-pop phenoms Ringo Deathstarr's perfect pop songs, in the mould of its early gems "Sweet Girl" and "Your Town." As the band broadens its pallet to incorporate more dynamic, electronic rhythms and bassist Alex Gehring's vocal contributions become more prominent, it is nice to hear that fronter Elliot Frazer is still willing and able to return to this creative well, apparently at will. Slowly spiraling guitar chords, yearning vocals, simple but unbeatable melodies. "Have you seen her, she's a kaleidoscope...?" Perfection. Check out this awesome live version from last summer. We reviewed Colour Trip here in May.

Ringo Deathstarr - "Kaliedescope (Live)"

7. Age Rings -- "Caught Up In The Sound" -- Black Honey
[listen at Spotify]

Sadness and beauty and inevitability, this song's packed with all three and sheds chunks of all of them as its spring-loaded trudging drives the tune from behind a curtain at stage left, across the spotlit center stage, only to disappear behind the curtain at stage right, like a four-minute Beckett play. From its recursive opening lyric to the gently twirling backing vocal that carries it out, "Caught Up In The Sound" is a breathtakingly vivid, down-in-the-mouth love song. As we observed in our review, the song is the perfect closing track to the Midriff re-release of Age Rings' Black Honey, which we reviewed here in October.

Age Rings - Caught Up in the Sound

8. Destroyer -- "Kaputt" -- Kaputt
[listen at Spotify]

We were really afraid this record was going to get hated on by the wider critical populace of the Internerds, as we'd seen (and heard, on the Sound Opinions podcast) some express distaste for the latest collection from Dan Bejar's Destroyer. Not because we need to have our love for this validated -- the relative anonymity of certain of our selections are certainly a testament to that. But as we were saying to the Koomdogg during a forthcoming episode of the CompCon podcast, we just found it hard to believe that a songwriter known to be a shapeshifter (in the same vein as our hero Kurt Heasley of Lilys) was going to be penalized for making a record that many would prefer to pigeonhole derisively as "soft rock." Our pal Bill from Soccer Mom actually has a great genre identifier for the smooth sounds of Kaputt -- "errand rock" -- which references the music his mom played in the car during his suburban upbringing. We totally get that. But we also think that there is a sufficient amount of New Order present in Kaputt along with the other smooth sounds to satisfy even the snootiest indie rocker. Either way, the collection is wonderful, and its dreamy chorus immediately wormed its way into our head and has never left. "Sounds, Smash Hits, Melody Maker, NME, all sound like a dream to me..."

9. Algernon Cadwallader -- "Cruisin'" -- Parrot Flies
[listen at Spotify]

All of this song is wonderful, and, indeed, all of Parrot Flies is wonderful. But this song has a moment, a huge, huge moment, that makes it the defining song Algernon Cadwallader's sophomore set. It's when the singer is shouting -- and he's always desperately shouting -- something like "and there's nothing bittersweet about that, and now something, something something something THE CHINATOWN BUS something something something" etc. Having never taken the Chinatown bus, we don't know why we find the reference so evocative, but we do. Something about the freedom to make mistakes, the freedom of being young and unencumbered by Life's Big Things. Something about joy, which is something that pervades not only this song, but the whole of Parrot Flies. We reviewed the record here in August.

Algernon Cadwallader - Cruisin' by bsmrocks

10. The Henry Clay People -- "The Honey Love He Sells" -- This Is A Desert EP
[listen at Spotify]

This is a pretty damn excellent song, life-affirming in its outrageous pacing and punchy delivery. But what perhaps makes this so invigorating, such a breath of fresh air, is that we swear mere months before this EP came out, The Henry Clay People announced something like a hiatus from music. And as we quipped elsewhere, we're glad the hiatus didn't "take," because this song is a barnburner.

Night Fruit "Dark Horse" Single Release Party at The Pill | Great Scott, Boston | 9 December

2011-12-08T18:53:00.000-05:00

The local Internerds are aglow today with talk about Boston dream-pop trio Night Fruit's new single and the release show for it tomorrow night at Great Scott. The buzz is deserved, as the carefully sculpted and beautiful "Dark Horse" is an arresting piece of work. Spiraling and shimmering guitars and big vocal melodies from fronter Amanda Dellevigne make for a winning concoction of blissed, upbeat pop that gracefully decomposes in the song's final minute. A sure sign that the band is firing on all cylinders right now is that the B-sides are equally delicious, even if they employ the same alchemy; any of the tracks could be the lead number. "Paper Thin" succeeds on its strident rhythm and more buoyant, strong singing from Dellevigne, while "Bittersweet" uses a somewhat lighter touch in the verse to set off some squalling guitars in the breaks. Night Fruit previously released the EP Triangles in July 2010, a more gothic, Cocteau-inflected short stack -- highlighted by the tense closer "Lover" -- which you can snatch from Bandcamp for free right here. Night Fruit performs during The Pill dance night at Great Scott tomorrow night. You can stream the entire new single via the Bandcamp embed below, and also purchase the collection at the same link. Pre-orders shipped today, but we bet you all the fake Gingriches you've got that you can get your Romneys on a hard copy tomorrow. Here's the Facebook event page for the show.

Nightfruit: Internerds | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube

Dark Horse 7" by Night Fruit

Rock Over Boston: Dear Leader | Brighton Music Hall | 12.04.2011

2011-12-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

[Dear Leader at Brighton Music Hall. Photo by Michael Piantigini. A few more here.]

Boston rock stalwarts Dear Leader have been laying low for the last little while, apparently gestating or something. What we last saw as a traditional rock and roll four piece has emerged from the cocoon with 4 guitar players, 2 keyboard players (one of them adding some accordion for good measure) and their bass and drum rhythm section.

They already sounded pretty huge. Aaron Perrino's nuclear power plant of a voice and knack for the anthemic is more Dear Leader's (and his other band's, The Sheila Divine, about whom more in a moment) trademark and signature sound than any number of guitars could ever hope to be. Their new songs, sprinkled throughout, gave a hint of what's to come though. Powerful as ever, the wider instrumentation makes a more nuanced bed for The Voice. It will be especially interesting to hear it all on a tape (as it were).

But first, as we were told from the stage, there's a new Sheila Divine album in the pipeline. I don't have an release date for you, but the proliferation of individual tracks available over on their Bandcamp page - several of which are available as freebies - find them as in as fine a form as ever.

The record release party is on the books for February 4th at the Paradise. There seems to be a lot of great rock music plans for the new year already.

-Michael Piantigini

Dear Leader: Facebook | Twitter | MySpace
The Sheila Divine: Bandcamp | Fanpage

Today's Hotness: Fashoda Crisis, The Hush Now, Adamada

2011-12-03T23:49:00.000-05:00

[Photo: Fanny Von Beaverhausen] >> Essex, UK-based smartpunx Fashoda Crisis earlier this evening celebrated the release of their sophomore set Him They Make Learn Read. The official release date for the collection Him They Make Learn Read was 21 Nov., but pre-orders were still being taken up to today; fans who oblige receive an immediate download of the album, the video for "Animals" we posted here in August, and a lyric book. The album touts seven bracing and shouty rockers that lean heavily toward social commentary as declared by the commanding voice of fronter Simeon Ralph. Meaning you can think when you are banging you head, or when you are pointing your finger and singing along, you've got something to point about. We'd have liked to have been in England tonight for this one. If you've not yet availed yourself of the pleasure, stream Him They Make Learn Read right here.

Him Make They Learn Read by Fashoda Crisis

>> The album cycle for Boston guitar-pop luminaries The Hush Now's best-of-2011 Memos [review here] has run its course, and the band's usual, welcome battery of holiday singles are upon us. Fans likely already have laid ears on the quintet's Halloween offering "The Legend Of Dudley Town," but fresh from the fryer is "Happy New Year, Dear." As the title suggests, this is the band's soundtrack for your year-end bubbly popping. Why not pour a drink now and have a listen to get yourself warmed up for the end of the last night of the year?

Happy New Year, Dear by The Hush Now

>> Here's another Hush Now-related item. While recent remarks on the Facebooks suggest that the lads are starting to focus on a fourth full-length, lead guitarist Adam Quane has released an album from "a belated project from a few years back" to the Internets, Adamada. The collection Spilling Upwards is stocked with eminently listenable tunes marked by a grungy psychedelia, but it's not without its pop moments, however: every time "June Tigers" comes on our IPod we think it is a very weird Death Cab For Cutie song. The catchiest moments on Spilling Upwards are likely found in the track "Designed By My Heart," which pairs cooly delivered vocals with spacy guitar leads resulting in a concoction that is as much Alan Parsons Project as it is The Cure. All of this record is quite good, check it out below.

Spilling Upwards by AdamadA

>> Hardcore/post-hardcore journeyman Walter Schreifels plans to finish the follow-up to his amazing solo record An Open Letter To The Scene this month, according to this item at Pun Canoes a couple weeks ago. Mr. Schreifels hopes the collection, which he has been calling Jesus Is My Favorite Beatle, will be ready to release in the spring of 2012. We hope so, too, as Open Letter was our second-favorite record of 2010. Of the planned collection, Schreifels says "It's [a] more rootsy, borderline (don't be scared) country record for me."

Rock Over Boston: Buffalo Tom 25th Anniversary | Night 3

2011-11-28T10:00:00.003-05:00

[Buffalo Tom and guests at the Brighton Music Hall, Allston, MA 11/27/2011. Photos by Michael Piantigini.]

Night 1 coverage here and night 2 is here.

"Did you come here to remember, or to forget?" - Buffalo Tom's "It's You"

And so a terrific weekend of sweaty, feedback-drenched rockstalgia came to a close and Buffalo Tom blew out the candles on 25 years. Night 3 didn't have as many surprises and guests as the first two nights, but the diehards - many of whom were there all weekend - didn't need any gimcrackery. The A-level Buffalo Tom set was plenty great on its own. "Fortune Teller," "Sunday Night" and "Torch Singer" (not "Torch Song," as one drunken, confused punter kept asking for Saturday night) were welcome set additions, as was the rarely played "Porchlight." A popular singalong around my household, its rarity is usually blamed on drummer Tom Maginnis' apparent dislike of playing it. To add insult to injury, Janovitz and Colbourn had a lot of fun at his expense, reminding everyone of Maginnis' being the target of Sassy Magazine's "Cute Drummer Alert" back in 1992 (1991? something like that).

It's worth noting that only a couple of songs from their most recent pair of albums got aired and that's a shame. Three Easy Pieces and Skins are as worthy as anything else in the catalog and, as fun as it is to look back, the present ain't exactly slouching (at least where Buffalo Tom is concerned).

An important element was missing all weekend - especially Sunday, the last night: Billy Ruane. A staple at Buffalo Tom shows since the beginning, he could always be counted on to commandeer the stage to exhort the crowd into calling the band back for another encore. They dedicated "Larry" to him last night, but that there was only one encore was in itself a fitting tribute.

There were some pro-looking cameras around on Friday and Saturday, so here's hoping they'll share all that soon.

Buffalo Tom at Brighton Music Hall 11/27/2011:
Tangerine
Staples
Porchlight
Summer
Clobbered
Arise, Watch - with Mike Gent
Fortune teller - with Mike Gent
Sunday Night
Kitchen Door
Would Not Be Denied - with Chris Keene from Mean Creek
Sodajerk - with Aurore Ounjian from Mean Creek
Torch Singer - with Tanya Donelly
Don't Forget Me - with Tanya Donelly
It's You
Late At Night
Velvet Roof
----
Taillights Fade
Seeker - with Mike O'Malley and Mike Gent
Larry
Frozen Lake - with Tanya Donelly
Treehouse

Buffalo Tom: Tubes | Facebook | Twitter

-Michael Piantigini

Rock Over Boston: Buffalo Tom 25th Anniversary | Night 2

2011-11-27T17:00:00.001-05:00

[Buffalo Tom and guests at the Brighton Music Hall, Allston, MA 11/26/2011. Photos by Michael Piantigini.]

Buffalo Tom's 25th Anniversary celebration rolled on last night with night two of their three game series (night one report here). There was no dip in intensity (25 years? No biggie!) and the band dug out a few more nuggets for us diehards. Can't remember the last time I heard them play "Mountains of Your Head" or "Would Not Be Denied" and they were well worth the wait. In fact, there was relatively few repeats, outside of a couple of their firmly ensconced setlist hits.

Bill Janovitz appeared to be having more fun than ever on guitar - shaking, bending, and flailing his SGs, sending them screaming through his pair of Marshall's. J who?

So, no, there was no repeat visit from J Mascis, but Mission of Burma loop man and Shellac (and former Volcano Suns) bassist Bob Weston handled the low end for "Rachael," freeing up Chris Colbourn to be the frontman we didn't know he had inside him. Ted Leo - fresh from a performance at Occupy Boston - reprised his guest shot on "Reason Why," but not before his surprising cameo on "Crutch" (and did another short opening set). Phil Aiken, who put in some time on keyboards with Buffalo Tom back around their Smitten album, sat in on a few songs where those parts have long been missed. Members of Boston anthem-rockers Mean Creek, who opened the night, helped out on "Would Not Be Denied," and "Sodajerk," and Fuzzy's Chris Toppin and Hilken Mancini came back with their repeat business as well.

TV's Mike O'Malley was back for "The Seeker" too - but this time he was fronting a lineup that had two-time Red Sox World Series GM, newly christened Chicago Cubs GM, and recent Boston ex-pat Theo Epstein on guitar, reportedly just back from his high school reunion ("Oh, those old things? Those are just my World Series rings!"). I tried to get a "let's go Red Sox" chant going, but there were no takers.

Series finale tonight. Whaddaya got?

Buffalo Tom at Brighton Music Hall 11/26/2011:
Staples
Taillights Fade
Rachael - with Bob Weston
Guilty Girls
Would Not Be Denied - with Chris Keene from Mean Creek
Sodajerk - with Aurore Ounjian from Mean Creek
Mountains of Your Head
Your Stripes - with Chris Toppin
Mineral
CC and Callas
Darl - with Hilken Mancini
Crutch - with Ted Leo
Reason Why - with Ted Leo
She's Not Your Thing
Arise, Watch
You'll Never Catch Him
Tangerine
Scottish Windows - with Phil Aiken
Treehouse - with Chris Toppin, Hilken Mancini, and Phil Aiken
--
Wiser - with Chris Toppin and Phil Aiken
The Seeker - with Mike O'Malley and Theo Epstein
Larry
I'm Allowed

Buffalo Tom: Tubes | Facebook | Twitter

-Michael Piantigini

Rock Over Boston: Buffalo Tom 25th Anniversary | Night 1

2011-11-26T14:15:00.001-05:00

[Buffalo Tom and guests at the Brighton Music Hall, Allston, MA 11/25/2011. Photos by Michael Piantigini.]

Tremendous.

I can't claim to have been there quite at the beginning, but I'm in for about 20 of Buffalo Tom's 25 years. At that time, there was no streaming advance blog single and to get ahead of the curve on "alternative" rock, so it really helped if you worked on a college radio station. My first Buffalo Tom memory is eagerly huddling in WXPL's production studio with several cohorts to listen to the just-arrived "Velvet Roof" advance single. We listened to it several times in a row, and Let Me Come Over remains one of my all-time favorite albums.

How perfect, then, that they kicked off their weekend-long celebration of their 25th anniversary with a performance of that song every bit as inspired as it was on that single. Then they barely took a breath for another five songs in what went on to be two hours of the most powerful and energetic show of theirs - and maybe of anyone's - that we've seen in ages.

There was a cavalcade of guest stars, but the clear highlight was the producer of their first two albums, Rolling Stone top guitarist lister, and Dinosaur Jr frontman J. Mascis, who joined them to reprise his leads on the first album's "Impossible" for the first time since that recording session (or thereabouts). He stuck around for "Sunflower Suit" and "Birdbrain" and, with that, the show was elevated to a noisy dual guitar bliss blitz. It's almost automatic that they sounded bigger than ever. And pity the poor guy standing next to me roughly in front of Mascis' stack (he only had one of his usual three) who didn't have earplugs and stuck his fingers in his ears for the entirety of those songs).

How do you carry on from there? By turning around and bringing out Belly/Throwing Muse/Breeder/Rhode Islander Tanya Donelly to add gentle harmonies to Let Me Come Over's "Frozen Lake" and her parts of Skins' "Don't Forget Me," along with Sleepy Eyed's "It's You." Ted Leo joined in on "Reason Why," returning the favor of when Janovitz opened for his show and provided harmonies on his cover of the same back in the spring, and scene colleagues Hilken Mancini and Chris Toppin of the late, great Fuzzy added their harmonies to a few more as the night went on.

Though TV's Mike O'Malley doesn't sing in his role on Glee (or so I'm told), he turned a fun and worthy lead on a cover of The Who's "The Seeker" (along with Figg and Gentleman Mike Gent strumming away on acoustic guitar). J. Mascis returned to close out the night guitar dueling with Janovitz on "Cortez The Killer," the guitar solo(s) he was pretty much born to play.

The packed house lingered afterwards, probably stunned by the sonic weapon that is Mascis' wailing (which I hope no one decides to weaponize).

Openers Eugene Mirman and Ted Leo had to fight a non-enthusiastic, chatterbox crowd. Maybe they were all carb-drunk from the holiday? Both are pros and have been there before. Putting comedians in front of rock club crowds is almost cruel, but Mirman was hilarious and added his studied (not exactly) theremin skills to Leo's finale. Leo said he was struggling with a road-weary voice (treating it with a terrifying-sounding Jameson-hot sauce concoction), but you wouldn't have known it when he started singing. His cover of Uncle Tupelo classic "Whiskey Bottle" was as great as it was unexpected.

What else can I not expect? I guess we'll find out tonight!

Here's the full set list:

Buffalo Tom at Brighton Music Hall 11/25/2011:
Velvet Roof
Summer
Kitchen Door
Larry
I'm Allowed
Three Easy Pieces
Impossible - with J Mascis
Sunflower suit - with J Mascis
Birdbrain - with J Mascis
Frozen Lake - with Tanya Donelly
It's You - with Tanya Donelly
Don't Forget Me - with Tanya Donelly
Reason Why - with Ted Leo
Late at Night
Your Stripes - with Chris Toppin
Darl - with Hilken Mancini
Sparklers
Treehouse with Tanya Donelly, Chris Toppin, and Hilken Mancini
-----
Taillights Fade
Arise, Watch - with Mike Gent
The Seeker - with Mike O'Malley and Mike Gent
Cortez the Killer - with J Mascis

Buffalo Tom: Tubes | Facebook | Twitter

-Michael Piantigini

Johnny Foreigner "You vs. Everything" Single/Poster On Offer Friday, Videos Galore

2011-11-22T23:09:00.001-05:00

After a small delay (the single was originally to be issued 14 November), Birmingham, England-based indie titans Johnny Foreigner have announced the details of its single for the song "You vs. Everything," a song from the band's best-of-2011 mega album Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything [review]. The digital single comes packaged with a "super highly limited" edition, double-sided A3 print (roughly 11x17; image 1; image 2) created by the band's longtime visual media assassin Lewes Herriot. The single includes not only the rah-dee-ohhh edit of "You vs. Everything," but also the b-sides "PS, Not Soon Enough," "Johnny Foreigner Vs The Hipster Garden Party" and "If I'm The Most Famous (Robot) Boy You've Fucked, Then Honey, Yr In (Robot) Trouble." The video for the truly wonderful "PS, Not Soon Enough" is embedded below. That's all very exciting, right? Well, even more exciting is that "Johnny Foreigner Vs The Hipster Garden Party" is an 18-minute live set of the band performing in someone's garden in France on tour earlier in 2011. Surely you recall this video clip? Anyhoozle, the entire "You vs. Everything" package will be on order from the band's trusty label Alcopop! Records beginning Friday, so don't go all crazy Black Friday shopping at midnight or whatnot and space this or we expect the end result will be NO POSTER FOR YOU (/soup nazi voice). So WATCH THIS SPACE Friday, have your music-buying fingers limber, and go get 'em, indie rocker. In case you missed it, we published an extensive interview with Johnny Foreigner's Alexei Berrow, Junior Elvis Washington Laidley and Kelly Southern right here last month.

Clicky Clicky Radio | Playlist and Archive for 11.17.2011

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Stream the archive below, (or download it!):

itsnotyouitsme - it might be time to leave this place and go mingle with our heroes - everybody's pain is magnificent (2011)
Future of the Left - My Wife Is Unhappy - Polymers Are Forever (2011)
Mission of Burma - Forget Yourself - The Sound, The Speed The Light (2009)
Soccer Mom - Unwanted Sounds - You Are Not Going To Heaven (2011)
Modifiers - Favorite Waitress - Show And Tell (1998)
Pete Townshend - Get Inside (demo) - Quadrophenia (2011 Director's Cut Box Set)
Eyesinweasel - To My Beloved Martha - Live in the Middle East (2001)
The Housemartins - The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death - The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death (1987)
Male Bonding - Tame The Sun - Endless Now (2011)
Thee Oh Sees - Contraption/Soul Desert - Carrion Crawler/The Dream (2011)
Lambchop - If Not I'll Just Die - Mr. M (2012)
Imperial Teen - Runaway - Feel The Sound (2012)
Hospitality - Betty Wang - Hospitality (2012)

*** Buffalo Tom Tribute in honor of their 25th Anniversary shows at Brighton Music Hall November 25th, 26th, 27th, 2011!!
Buffalo Tom - Deep In The Ground - Buffalo Tom (also on their original demo, 1986ish)
Buffalo Tom - Birdbrain (live) - Taillights Fade UK extended single (1992)
Buffalo Tom - Porchlight - Let Me Come Over (1992)
Bill Janovitz & Crown Victoria - Revealed - Fireworks on TV (2004)
Hilken Mancini & Chris Colbourn - Situations Count! - Hilken Mancini & Chris Colbourn (2005)
Buffalo Tom - The Big Light - Skins (2011)

Grails - Reincarnation Blues - Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)
Restorations - Val d'Or - Restorations (2011)
Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Teenage Tide - Paper Crush (2011)
Heads on Sticks - Steep Canyons - Brutish & Short (2011)
The Go Round - Angela - Gone (2011)
Caitlin Rose - Shanghai Cigarettes - Own Side Now (2011)
The Wandas - Long Time Running - The Wandas (2011)
R.E.M. - We All Go Back Where We Belong - Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth Part Garbage: The Best of R.E.M. 1982-2011 (2011)

-Michael Piantigini

YouTube Rodeo: Bandoliers' "May"

2011-11-18T22:49:00.000-05:00

We like catchy British guitar pop. This is catchy British guitar pop. Bandoliers is a fledgling trio from Newcastle that released its debut double-A side single "Time" b/w "May" in September; you can download both tracks from Bandcamp right here.

Age Rings and Eldridge Rodriguez | Piano's and Public Assembly | 19-20 Nov.

2011-11-16T10:00:00.005-05:00

New York! The monsters of Boston indie rock are coming for you: two bands, two boroughs, two nights. That would be Eldridge Rodriguez and Age Rings, neither of which include any members of Van Hagar, Saturday the 19th at Piano's in Manhattan, and Sunday the 20th at Public Assembly in Brooklyn. It's E.R.'s first New York show with a new line-up. That's tantamount to juggling flaming chainsaws! Maybe! And Age Rings just released one of the best records of the year. Full show details at the Facepalm invitilation page right here on the Interzuzzzzes. Listen to songs. Be the ball.

Age Rings by "Caught Up in the Sound"

Eldridge Rodriguez - Miss Me When I'm Gone [Live on WMBR Pipeline April 2011] by scubaix

YouTube Rodeo: Johnny Foreigner Covering "You Are Invited"

2011-11-15T13:32:00.002-05:00

Johnny Foreigner vs. Birmingham vs. The Dismemberment Plan. Live at The Flapper. Nov. 13, 2011. Epic.

Clicky Clicky Radio | Playlist and Archive from 11.10.11.

2011-11-14T13:32:00.002-05:00

Stream the archive below, (or download it!):

Pink Floyd - Raving And Drooling (live) - Wish You Were Here (2011 deluxe reissue)
Johnny Foreigner - Jess, You Got Yr Song, So Leave - Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything (2011)
Witches - Creature of Nature - Forever (2011)
The Jam - In The City - In The City (1977)
Tristen - Baby Drugs - Eager For Your Love 7" (2010)
The Cinema Twin - C'mon Today - C'mon Today (2011)
Elliott BROOD - If I Get Old - Days Into Years (2011)
Matthew Sweet - Divine Intervention - Acoustic & Live NoiseTrade Sampler (2011) Available free here!
John Wesley Harding - There's A Starbucks (Where The Starbucks Used To Be) - The Sound of His Own Voice (2011)
The Mountain Goats - This Year - The Sunset Tree (2005)
The Black Hollies - Benevolent Beacon - S/T 7" (2011)
Obits - I Want Results - Moody, Standard, and Poor (2011)
TV Casualty - Teenagers From Mars - TV Casualty EP (2011)
Waters - For The One - Out In The Light (2011)
Big Troubles - Misery - Romantic Comedy (2011)
Thee Oh Sees - The Dream - Carrion Crawler/The Dream (2011)
Reigning Sound - Everything I Do Is Wrong - Abdication...For Your Love EP (2011) - Get it FREE HERE!
The V-Roys - Sooner Or Later - Sooner Or Later (2011)
The Glands - When I Laugh - The Glands (2000)
Robert Pollard - Perfect This Time (demo) - RobertPollard.net (2011)
Pete Townshend - Joker James (demo) - Quadrophenia (2011 Deluxe Reissue)
Radiation City - Park - The Hands That Take You (2011)
Sleeping Bags - Pehr - Sleeping Bags (2011)
Tom Waits - Tell Me - Bad As Me (Deluxe Edition - 2011)
Ian Humberstone - House on The Hill - 7" (2011)
Bill Callahan - Baby's Breath - Apocalypse (2011)

-Michael Piantigini

Varsity Drag Top-Lining My Own Worst Enemy Release Show | Precinct | 11 Nov.

2011-11-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

To our knowledge, Friday night is your last chance to see Boston's best pop-punk act play before the year is out. See Varsity Drag tomorrow night, before they see you! OPRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH YEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!! Show details at the Facebore Event page here.

Here's The Drag's nod to the late, great Billy Ruane, whose life is being celebrated tonight at Radio in Somerville. Details of that show here.

billy ruane (live WMFO) by varsity drag

Rock Over Boston: Wooden Shjips, Birds of Avalon | TT's | 11.09.11

2011-11-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

[Wooden Shjips and Birds of Avalon at TT the Bear's Place, Cambridge, MA 11/9/11. Photos by Michael Piantigini.]

Review: Johnny Foreigner | Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everything

2011-11-06T22:37:00.000-05:00

Spoiler Alert: The chorus of "You vs. Everything" comes back, and when it does it's the greatest moment of the greatest song of the greatest album of the year. In a just world, the song would roll under the credits of dozens of feature-length teen dramedies by the middle of the decade. Or soundtrack montages of the young and the jilted, ditching soul-killing jobs, driving too fast in cars, smashing mailboxes, dreaming big dreams and proceeding with the business of Getting Over It And Getting On With It. In fact, the entirety of Johnny Foreigner's captivating third LP rides a unifying cinematic arc -- it's even divided into three acts -- from the first syllables of the blitzkrieging opening anthem (with the characteristically clunky name) to the final song's final beats winding down like a stiffening tin man.

The collection's cohesiveness is the product of something so very simple, it is easy to overlook it, that thing that elevates Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everything above the Birmingham, England-based indie titans' prior full lengths, that thing that likely makes the wildly ambitious 17-song set the best record of 2011. At bottom what makes Johnny Foreigner's new long-player so special is that it was created completely on the trio's own terms. No deadlines. No budgets. No producers. No one saying "no." As a result of the time and mental headspace this approach afforded the band, Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everything is not only beautifully conceived, but is also a completely unvarnished collection, in the sense that there is nothing that gets between what the band hears in its heads, and what fans hear on the record. It reminds us (although it occurs to us this may not be a real memory, brain is getting weird) of the reason Pennsylvania-based garage-psych legend Brother JT would strip off his clothes on stage: he didn't want anything inhibiting the transmission of the rock from him to the people.

On Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everything the melodies are grander, the emotions more potent, the texture and subtleties more refined. Sure, the record has a concept, but it needn't be speculated on or sussed out: fronter Alexei Berrow came right out and told fans what it was in one of the first interviews of the album's promotional cycle. As Mr. Berrow told Stereoboard in September, Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everything is less autobiographical than the prior two, and concerns itself with "the alternate universe theory; for every decision you make, there exists a world where you made the opposite. There's also internal monologue in the merits of experiencing stuff versus capturing it for posterity. There's some meta-fiction. The overall story is the world's only happy shipwreck, where, instead of drowning, everyone gains the power of flight."

The beating heart of the record, an amalgamation of harrowingly poignant ballads ("Johnny Foreigner vs. You," "Alternate Timelines Piling Up") and the band's characteristic, spitfire guitar anthems ("If I'm The Most Famous Boy You've Fucked, Then Honey, Yr In Trouble," "What Drummers Get"), is of course the songs. The threesome has continued to refine its songcraft while nodding affirmatively to various influences, resulting in the majesty of the grand piano on the ballad "Johnny Foreigner vs. You;" the melodic, Lali Puna-esque blip-pop of "200X;" the soulful brass appointments on "Jess, You Got Your Song, So Leave;" and the subdued, Album Leaf-y tone-and-groove of "Supermorning."

In a very interesting way, Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everything serves as an effigy for bummers. Early in 2011, the band invited fans to submit spoken-word bits about cursed songs, and many if not all of these were woven into sections of the record, to be celebrated, and to be auto da fe'd. The cliche is time heals all, but perhaps Johnny Foreigner has created a faster route to making the stomach-churning irrelevant by voila!-ing them into art. At the same time the process of incorporating these bits captures them for all time, like an insect in amber. Maybe some shit you never get over, it just gets wall-papered over, and eventually the wallpaper is more useful, more interesting, certainly much nicer than the shit under it. Lex, Kel and Jun had their own use for the bad mojo, turning it into three interstitials -- "Concret1" and "Concret2," as well as "The Swell," which ushers in the thrilling final numbers "Like Neverwhere" and the stunningly beautiful "Alternate Timelines Piling Up" -- that portion the record into digestible chunks for the ADD-addled.

Johnny Foreigner Vs. Everything is released tomorrow in the UK by Alcopop! Records; the collection will be followed by the single for the song "Johnny Foreigner Vs. You" Nov. 14. This coming weekend the band launches the album with shows in London and Birmingham; London appears to be sold out, but remarkably there appear to be Brum tickets yet BUYBUYBUY. If you've not done so already, read our comprehensive interview with Berrow, Junior Elvis Washington Laidley and Kelly Southern right here.

Johnny Foreigner: Internerds | Facepalm | YouTube | SoundCloud

(don't) show us your fangs by johnny foreigner

What Drummers Get by johnny foreigner

Selected Prior Coverage:
That Was The Show That Was: Johnny Foreigner | Bowery Ballroom
Review: Johnny Foreigner | Arcs Across The City EP
Review: Johnny Foreigner | Waited Up 'Til It Was Light
Review: Johnny Foreigner | WeLeftYouSleepingAndGoneNow
Review: Johnny Foreigner | Grace And The Bigger Picture
Review: Johnny Foreigner | You Thought You Saw A Shooting Star But Yr Eyes Were Blurred With Tears And That Lighthouse Can Be Pretty Deceiving...
Review: Johnny Foreigner | Certain Songs Are Cursed EP

YouTube Rodeo: Lefty's Deceiver's "Iselin" From Last Night's Reunion Show

2011-11-06T14:17:00.000-05:00

Murderous. Epic. Astonishing. Breath-taking. Life-affirming. Wonderful. Ass-kicking. A Philly-style ass-kicking. Ladies and gentlemen, Lefty's Deceiver.

Age Rings Record Release Show | Radio, Somerville | 5 Nov.

2011-11-04T23:14:00.000-04:00

So we're fewer than 24 hours away from the big show at this point. We've told you all about the Age Rings record already. Also on the bill is Guillermo Sexo, and we've already told you all about their record, too. You may not know that the band is just recently back from a tour, or that it had intended to -- as the flyer above suggests -- use tomorrow's show to launch a single from the recently released full-length Secret Wild. However, the single -- for Secret Wild's moody and dynamic opening track "Color The Noise" -- hasn't gotten itself together yet. Double However! Guillermo Sexo will have on hand for the show the white vinyl of the aforementioned full-length, which the band hasn't previously had in-hand for a local live date. You want that vinyl. And obviously you want Age Rings' superlative Black Honey. So take an extra baby-sitting shift, or rake an extra yard or two, whatever it takes to make sure you've got your record-buying and liquor-drinking cash tomorrow night. It's the big, big show. Get into it.

Facebook Event Page

YouTube Rodeo: Johnny Foreigner's "(Don't) Show Us Your Fangs" Fan Video

2011-11-03T22:04:00.000-04:00

EVERYTHING IS COMING. FOUR MORE DAYS.

The Grownup Noise November Residency | Toad, Cambridge | 3, 10, 17 Nov.

2011-11-01T22:32:00.002-04:00

Boston indie pop master craftspersons lock in three dates, two sets per night at 10PM and midnight. Full details at the Facebook Event page here. We last saw the band perform at Johnny D's in Somerville, MA in July, and we wrote about that here. How about a song?

The Grownup Noise's "Outside" by clicky clicky music blog

Review: Age Rings | Black Honey (Reissue)

2011-10-31T23:29:00.002-04:00

What about when you lose control of the Adam of your labors? Most everything you read on the Internet about Age Rings fronter and songwriter Ted Billings references his affinity for the work of writer Bret Easton Ellis, but we can't stop thinking about Mary Shelley and her most famous protagonist. If you've not had the privilege of undergraduate instruction in English Literature, then perhaps you're unfamiliar with analysis of "Frankenstein" implicating what it means to create, the relationship between creator and creation, and the ramifications of the former losing control of the latter. Which is what happened to Mr. Billings, who left Age Rings' ambitious monster abandoned and lifeless on a gurney for 18 of the 48 or so months it took to gestate the original, 20-song iteration of the feverishly vivid and ear-burningly beautiful Black Honey.

"When we started the first leg of the recording, we made the moronic decision to play the 'let's release an Internet single!' game. Twice. So any momentum we had was completely stunted by trying to finish (recording, mixing, mastering) a two-song single to try and catch a buzz or whatever. Idiotic, never again," vows Billings, whose bandmates include bass player Andrew McInnes, guitarist Will Spitz, keyboardist Alex Sepe, synth player Peter Baker and drummer Steve Sherwin. "And so when this totally didn't work, it was frustrating and extremely embarrassing. That, coupled with a pretty nasty bout with depression/self doubt, led me to scrap the entire thing. I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder, 'cause a year-and-a-half later, out of the blue, I started thinking about it again... and made the decision to finish it."

We don't have our notes from 20 years ago, and don't recall what would be the important parallels here between Shelley's creation and Mr. Billings' bout with Black Honey. But we wonder whether, between dreaming the plot and agreeing to put her name on the book for its second pressing, Shelley was wracked with the kind of doubt that precipitated Billings walking away from Black Honey for a year-and-a-half. Thankfully, after devoting four years and at least a few thousand dollars of fan donations to finishing the follow up to Age Rings' acclaimed 2006 debut Look... The Dust Is Growing, a double-disc version of Black Honey was self-released May 21. Fortunately for us the record is getting another jolt across the bolts, because we don't know that we ever would have heard Age Rings' astonishing amalgamation of roots grooves, pop hooks and noisy interjections had Midriff Records' top brass not put it in our hands. Which is sort of the point of the Boston label's new, leaner, 14-song version of the record.

"It's like the 'if a tree falls in the woods, but no one hears, did it ever even fall'-type thing," Billings explains.

Midriff's new formulation of Black Honey isn't abridged so much as it is re-imagined and re-sequenced.

"There are little chunks that are in the same order, but the feel of it is definitely different," Billings says. "I actually really like listening to it this way. The interesting thing to me, as a listener, and having lived with this thing for so long, is that you can sort of start anywhere. I spent a long time thinking about how the [two-disc version] would play out. Like a long, long time. But now, listening to it pared down like this, I feel foolish for doing so."

In the final analysis it is likely time well-spent: Black Honey is one of the very best records of 2011. Even so, it's hard to envision a version of the record that doesn't begin with the amusingly self-defeating "Rock And Roll Is Dead" and end with the paralyzingly affecting "Caught Up In The Sound." The former tune bursts open with volleys of discordant notes before charting a verse with a melody that doesn't quite resolve. The chorus establishes a blissfully noisy center amid handclaps and a bed of what sounds like low brass. This one song is so perfectly realized that you start to understand where the months and years went while Age Rings was making the record. But there's still a lot of record to go, and it is all equally as brilliant. Album closer "Caught Up In The Sound" is perhaps Black Honey's biggest treasure. The tune touts a momentum and inevitability -- underlined by the fact that the verses and choruses drone into eachother -- that renders the love-stung vocal even more poignant. It's a devastating final track; it's a huge artistic achievement.

Remarkable moments appear at every turn in Black Honey: the brilliant swerve of the tape slowing the final moments of "Ender" through various keys only to resolve into a slow groove for the final minute; the twisting slur of the lyric "I smoke Parliament menthols /watch Headbangers Ball" in the opening number; the unhinged falsetto at the tail end of "Big Black Hole." The collection can also be vibrantly lucid, particularly the understated and downbeat travelogue "Ups And Downs" that features Gibbardian narration about bad times like "a crowd gathered outside when I got kicked out of The Middle East, I left my car and called a cab, told the driver 'Quincy.'" "Head Up High" has an undeniable chorus studded with a bright piano melody that will never leave you.

Midriff releases its concise Black Honey this Saturday, and Age Rings supports the release with a show the same night at Radio in Somerville, MA, with dreamy standouts Guillermo Sexo supporting. Marconi and The Future Everybodys will also perform. Age Rings is already looking to the future; the band will begin recording a third record tentatively titled Magnum Love in January at Watch City Studios in Waltham, MA, the same studio where Black Honey was tracked.

Age Rings: Interwebs | Facebook | YouTube | Flickr

Rock and Roll Is Dead by Age Rings

Big Black Hole by Age Rings

Important Guy by Age Rings

YouTube Rodeo: Johnny Foreigner's "With Who, Who And What I've Got" Moral Hangover Blog Session

2011-10-30T21:06:00.000-04:00

EVERYTHING IS COMING. EIGHT MORE DAYS.

Rock Over Boston New York: Bambi Kino | Bowery Electric

2011-10-30T00:17:00.003-04:00

The absolutely frickin' horrendous weather led us to abandon our plans to head to Brooklyn to see Obits and new J. Robbins venture Office Of Future Plans, but our worthy consolation prize was Bambi Kino. Doug Gillard, along with members of Nada Surf, and others, fun side project where they essentially play The Beatles' Hamburg repertoire. And, boy, do they know their stuff. A few Buddy Holly, Larry Williams, and Carl Perkins songs later, and we were almost over the drenching soak we walked through to get to the Bowery Electric.

-Michael Piantigini

Rock Over BostonNew York City | Harding's Cabinet of Wonders

2011-10-29T02:19:00.003-04:00

In New York City for the WFMU Record Fair and got to see this fun night. A regular periodic series at City Winery, this night being recorded for NPR for the first time, John Wesley Harding's Cabinet of Wonders pulls in guests from music, comedy, and literature in a way that you can only seem to make happen in New York City.

Harding made for an affable host, performing a few songs now and then with his band, but making ample generous room for his guests John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, who performed a new as-yet-un recorded song and "High Hawk Season" from this year's triumphant All Eternals Deck; The Hold Steady's Craig Finn, who played a pair from his forthcoming solo debut; The Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser, who surely must be the only person to ever cover Beach House and Frank Sinatra; former Coldwater Flat drummer turned Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Paul Harding and Emma Straub giving terrific readings, Eugene Mirman making with the funny, and oh, hey, Roseanne Cash too.

A well-paced continuous variety show-vibe made it feel like an old-timey supper club. 'twas fun, but now to bed. For tomorrow we rise... And buy records!

-Michael Piantigini

Today's Hotness: Travels, Projekt A-ko, The Jonbarr Hinge

2011-10-28T22:21:00.000-04:00

>> Fans of hazy, dreamy minimalist indie rock rejoice! Boston duo Travels will release Dec. 1 a limited edition, 7" vinyl single and download package. The A-side of the single, "The Sun Shines Down On Me," is a Daniel Johnston cover, and the flip is a gently bouncing strummer titled "Stencil." The single comes with a download code to get digital versions of those songs as well as three more, turning the whole shebang into a digital EP, no? But wait, there's more: the physical package also includes a 7" x 7" colored still from an animated video that will be released concurrently with the single. Physical copies are limited to 150 pieces, and fans who pre-order now will get the disc, video still and downloads for $8 or 8 Euros, depending on which currency you rock in your locale. And it appears you can opt for just the digital version for $6, based on the pricing at this Bandcamp page. "The Sun Shines Down On Me" was first released by Johnston on his 1982 collection Don't Be Scared. Travels, you may recall, is comprised of Mona Elliot and Anar Badalov, who previously played with Victory At Sea and Metal Hearts respectively. We reviewed Travels' third full-length Robber On The Run right here in May 2010; the duo released a sophomore long-player The Hot Summer in 2009. Stream both songs from the forthcoming physical single via the embed below.

<p>&amp;lt;a href="http://travels.bandcamp.com/album/7-record-digital-ep"&amp;gt;7&amp;amp;quot; Record/Digital EP by Travels&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;</p>

>> There's some news about -- well, tangentially related to -- the mighty Projekt A-ko. As we reported here in July, the Glaswegian indie trio earlier this year scotched efforts at completing a sophomore full-length, but fronter Fergus Lawrie (formerly of Urusei Yatsura), has been quite busy with other things. For starters, he and two partners have completed a documentary titled "Send/Receive" that chronicles experimental music in Scotland; the entire thing is available to watch at this tumblr. Additionally, Mr. Lawrie has a new band called Angel Of Everyone Murder, which is slated to soon release an album of "lo-fi drone shoegaze noise rock" via the label Kovorox Sound. In an email Lawrie told Clicky Clicky "the new band is entirely improvised," and its music is "mainly long (20 mins) single chord drones, no drums, just bass and [two guitars], but very textural, using specially modified 'halo' guitars I've built." All of the new music is recorded live in a rehearsal room, and Lawrie states its "quite different" from the brilliant indie rock on Projekt A-ko's immaculate 2009 full-length Yoyodyne. We've heard one of the new songs, "Child Of Nameless Time," and can report the fourteen-minute track is mid-tempo and boils like piles of charred snowflakes in hell. Read Lawrie's track-by-track dissection of Yoyodyne right here and watch the Projekt A-ko Facebook page for more information about how you can hear new music from Angel Of Everyone Murder.

>> It has been a year-and-a-half since we've mentioned The Jonbarr Hinge, the relatively new, full-band project that counts among its number Ben Parker, who is likely (hopefully?) better known for his hand in fronting Superman Revenge Squad and the legendary Nosferatu D2. When the last batch of The Jonbarr Hinge songs were released on a relatively unsuspecting world in early 2011, we were too tied up toiling away at an undisclosed location to make mention of it. But several days ago the Hinge unveiled three new songs on its Soundcloud page, "Limp Heart," "Spinning Rocks" and "Body vs. Brain." Each presents an exciting new face for the fledgling act, which despite our prior speculation remains unsigned (to our knowledge). Perhaps the strongest of the new tracks is the Parker-sung "Body vs. Brain," which boasts wonderful, shimmering guitar melodies in the verse that remind us of John Squire's guitar work in "Waterfall," among other Stone Roses tunes. The newer Hinge material introduces a bit more of a swinging feel to the proceedings, helped along by some able bass playing by Parker. The verse of "Limp Heart" rocks a bit of a Zombies groove. If you never heard the first three tracks The Jonbarr Hinge posted, you are missing out. Fortunately, all of the tunes are at Soundcloud, and we highly recommend you check out the nervous rocker "Looks Like A Nail." The songs features some of Parker's patented vitriol ("fed up with this city, get out of this city"), but tempers it with some sweet, melodic, mid-tempo passages. And, of course, some "oohs," "ohs" and "la la la la las." We're eager to hear more from these guys. Fans in the UK can catch them tomorrow (or today, if you are actually in the UK) at Oxjam Shepherd's Bush Takeover, which benefits Oxfam. Takeover details right here.

"Body vs. Brain by The Jonbarr Hinge

The Road To Somerville: The Hush Now Memos Tour Diary Dispatch 6 (From Lexington, KY to Boston, MA)

2011-10-26T23:50:00.000-04:00

[You didn't think they were going to leave you hanging, did you? That's not The Hush Now's style. In this episode of the band's Memos Tour Diary, bassist Pat MacDonald recounts the whirlwind of the tour's final days en route to the quintet's triumphant homecoming set at Precinct in Somerville, Mass. last weekend. Billmates Soccer Mom and Chandeliers also turned in jaw-dropping sets, as a result of which we were smiling all night. In case you are just tuning in, we reviewed The Hush Now's new record Memos right here. -- Ed.]

Oh, my old Kentucky home, and the bloody ground... Birthplace of Hunter S. Thompson, the man whose logo is permanently inked into my forearm. I think this is a great metaphor for this tour, something that will be permanently stamped on me until the day I die.

After a fantastic night with old and cherished friends in Nashville, we wake up and head to Lexington, KY and Cosmic Charlie's. It's a really groovy venue which was once called Lynagh's Music Hall, and was quite the place to play. Again the list of bands that have tread the boards at this hallowed institution is daunting. Every one from Del McCoury, The Bottle Rockets, Blue Mountain, Steve Forbert, NRBQ -- fantastic musicians one and all... so cool. Our gig was alright, not one of the best but quite a lot of fun. Joe the bartender at Cosmic Charlie's was a fun cat and Kate next door at the Lynagh's Pub made the whole night enjoyable. They were very nice, full of fun facts about the area, poured a mean drink and showed some fine southern hospitality.

Good morning Bluegrass State! So we got up, showered and shook off the cobwebs. Then it's on to Columbus, OH and Skully's, but first a quick stop at the Kentucky Horse Park which is 1,032 acres of equestrian love. If you are into horses/horse racing -- which some my closest and dearest friends are -- this is four-legged nirvana. Some of us have to deal with stuff back home, so the rest of us head for the paddocks, while still others head for the gift shop. We all walk away with a sack of swag after laying a big kiss on some horse nose. Back on the road. Now let me tell ya’ll, I did not know what to expect when I got to Columbus, but I was really surprised. What a cool burg. Very young, great record store right next to the venue (more on that later), cool bars and chow halls. The folks in the club were top notch, but in this case the old adage "hurry up and wait" was put to the test (at least 5 hours till show time), so we did just that. After some walking around the 'hood, hunting for a pack of smokes, wanting to get back to Boston and throttle my bank manager, and some food: It's show time! Seeing how this was Joel’s birthday, we shall use one of his favorite terms "do the dew" and some dew was done. Happy birthday you handsome man! Now, not to sound like a bitch, but as things were going so well I should have figured our kid Murphy and his damn law would get in on the act and oh my stars did he. Our kid Barry went to see the door man a bit after the set to be told that it was a pay to play gig. Pay to play ? Is this 1987? Now, thanks to the genius of our booker we are down 65 dollars ... WTF!! By the way, next time you are in Columbus and considering yourself a music geek, I implore you to check out Magnolia Thunderpussy, a balls-to-the-wall record store. So, even with it being Joel's birthday things did not get to the STP (Stones Touring Party) level of madness -- actually, not even the NKOTB level (what a bunch of wimps), but fun was had. Wake up, rinse and repeat! Things after this many days and miles are becoming almost second nature. Time to roll to Pittsburgh.

Now after all these days, I would love to give ya’ll the real poop on what happens in the van, but I think the word "boring" suffices. So we end up in Pittsburgh after a fine ride through the mountains; we find the venue the famous Arsenal Lanes (a bowling alley); and then more of the same: hurry up and wait. Jon and I found a fantastic art store with great homemade cards, handmade t-shirts, handmade pins made right in-house, all kinds of ephemera. So Jon and I get to talking to the owners and ask about some good places to eat and whatnot. I must say they were a wonderful road map to Pittsburgh. So me in my wisdom ask "So, where do we play at the lanes?" "LANE 13?!" (like I knew) was the answer... so what could I say other than "thanks" and off to the bar we went. Good meal with Jon, Barry and Noel. Soon to be showtime. There is nothing more surreal than to play a set while some one tries to break that split they are looking at... enough said. We all got to meet some more Marino family members, and kicked the Murphy guy in the jimmy. We got PAID 60 bucks. On to Philly, kids!

Philadelphia! Cheese steaks, soul music, Gamble and Huff, Freedom (thanks Elton), broken bells, liberty city. So after killing a few hours on the road post-gig, and a good night's sleep, we head off to The City of Brotherly Love. We find the club which is called The Raven Lounge, nice place, two floors, really cool owners. But what's this? We head upstairs to find the stage to be the size of a really small cat walk tilted sideways and the cherry on top of this I Scream Soda is right there in the middle... wait for it. A stripper pole? I have seen some strange things in my years but this has to be my favorite. A stripper pole? We gather the troops, have a quick brainstorming session, and decide to do a semi-acoustic set (time for Hanna to earn her keep). So Adam and I play thru our amps, Barry went for the Stray Cats set up (snare drum and one cymbal), Jon went with one keyboard and a stand sitting in front of the stage on the floor and Noel used trusty Hannah.

I have to say it was one of my favorite gigs of the tour. It was great to hear the songs stripped down (no pun intended), we ran through the set we'd be playing the next night at CMJ, and it felt really good. Smiles all around at the end of the set. Had a chance to hang with Adam's folks and their friends. It was now time to find some food/drink and get ready to go take NY by storm. I can’t let Philly go with out geeking on the music side of things that came from this fantastic city. As I mentioned above the word “Soul” is synonymous with this city. I mentioned Gamble and Huff, the architects of the Philly soul sound. Also, let's not forget one of my favorites from this wonderful city, The Nazz, Todd Rundgren's '60s psych/garage band. Not to mention one of Barry's favorites, the mighty Hall and Oates.

New York, New York, big city of dreams. Tonight's the night, in the words of Neil Young. So here we are, day 16 of the tour. The CMJ music marathon is one of the best music industry events in the US next to SXSW, it is only 7 years older that its southern cousin (it was started in 1980). We are all pumped for the Big Picture Media showcase we're playing at Sullivan Hall. But first things first: we have six very hungry men here, so some form of sustenance is on the menu. We head over to the Red Lion Pub and within minutes the owner has us in stitches, what a fantastic pub. I counted at least four different Stones pictures around the bar as well as Zeppelin, U2, Beatles and many more. After tucking into a great plate of fish and chips, with plenty of HP sauce and malt vinegar, we all decide to split up and just wander for a few hours before load-in. Noel and I end up walking down to Arlene's Grocery (once upon a time it was a bodega) to check out the Ryan’s Smashing Life showcase. We bump into Ryan almost immediately, got a chance to meet his bud Adam from Counting Crows (nice fella) and watched a fantastic set from Charleston, South Carolina's Slow Runner. These guys were amazing! Pure pop heaven. The band was spot-on musically, and the singer/piano/casio player had such a crystal voice, I walked away from their set with the biggest smile on my face. Back to the club for load-in. After a bunch of interviews/back-slapping/ glad-handing it was time for some rock. I would love to go into detail about every one of the five bands we played with but that would be a full-on article by itself (check out my Facebook blog for the full report). Let's just say you need to Google these bands: Grygiel, Mercies, Destry, States and Lily And The Parlour Tricks. We played a pretty smoking 25-minute set with a great version of "The Glow." Now the real fun: get in a car with Joel, his missus and Jon and drive five hours back to Boston! There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home. Arrive back at my apartment in Somerville at about 5 in the morning. Sleep!

A full day of rest. No van, no Shoney's breakfast, no Love's truck stops, no feeling like you are traveling in a spacecraft, no smelly feet, no wondering where my winter hat went (find that in the spring), just quiet. I meet the band at Precinct for the Clicky Clicky and Ash Gray Proclamation homecoming show with Chandeliers, Soccer Mom and Cooling Towers. This was a brilliant show, we were on fire (17 days on the road helps), packed club, so many friendly faces. We knew had the crowd with us, so we started with "Sitting On A Slow Clock," lead them in gently... then BAM! "Cameraphone" into "Clouds," "Arkansas," "Thorns," "Memos," "Things Fall Down," "For What It's Worth" and "The Glow."

A few things before I put this to bed. I and the rest of the band would like to thank all the great folks we met on this tour, to all the people that came out on this last night, Jay and Bryan for putting together this bill. Also the one takeaway -- for me at least -- is this: even with some of the set-backs on this tour, the one thing we as a band did was play our asses off every night no matter what. We worked has a team always, a bunch of pirates one and all... Classy pirates, that is! It was a blast and I can not wait to get back out there once again and bring our music to a new batch of humans. Thank you, Jay, for allowing us to ramble on your site for the past few weeks. Cheers! -- Patrick MacDonald

The Hush Now: Internerds | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube

Memos Tour
~~10.06 -- Rochester, NY -- The Bug Jar~~
~~10.07 -- Cleveland, OH -- Roc Bar~~
~~10.08 -- Chicago, IL -- Miskas~~
~~10.09 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Acadia Café~~
~~10.10 -- Northfield, MN -- The Contented Cow~~
~~10.11 -- Milwaukee, WI -- Frank's Powerplant~~
~~10.12 -- Indianapolis, IN -- Melody Inn~~
~~10.13 -- Knoxville, TN -- Preservation Pub~~
~~10.14 -- Asheville, NC -- Fred's Speakeasy CANCELLED~~
~~10.16 -- Greenville, NC -- Tipsy Teapot~~
~~10.16 -- Nashville, TN -- The Muse~~
~~10.17 -- Lexington, KY -- Cosmic Charlie's~~
~~10.18 -- Columbus, OH -- Skully's~~
~~10.19 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Arsenal Lanes~~
~~10.20 -- Philadelphia, PA -- The Raven Lounge~~
~~10.21 -- New York, NY -- Sullivan Hall~~
~~10.22 -- Somerville, MA -- Precinct~~

IT'S DARK NOW, AND I'M DRIVING: An Oral History of Haywood's Heartbreaking We Are Amateurs, You And I On The Occasion Of Its 10th Anniversary

2011-10-23T23:11:00.003-04:00

[ALL BAND PHOTOS COURTESY OF JEFF PARETCHAN]

The tale of Haywood's sparkling and formerly final release We Are Amateurs, You And I -- which was issued 10 years ago today, a milestone somewhat overshadowed by some bullshit doo-dad called an "iPod" -- is so enmeshed with the Brooklyn-via-Philly quartet's demise it is hard to pull the two apart. The elements of the story, of course, are not unique (hope, anger, loss, a white knight in tight trousers, resolve, redemption, an A-Team montage where the "plan comes together"), but they don't occur in an order that accommodates a traditional story arc, as you will see. But against numerous if not all Collinsian odds, We Are Amateurs, You And I was issued by Self Starter Foundation Oct. 23, 2001. This piece marks the tin anniversary of that release, and pays homage to Haywood, not the first but perhaps the last great '90s American indie rock band.

If you know me, you know I love the music of Haywood with just about every fiber of my being (indeed, to such an extent we are uncharacteristically drafting this piece in the first person). Some 15 years before I became hopelessly fixated on the mighty Johnny Foreigner (not to mention all the other acts over the years), I was (and continue to be) embarrassingly fanatical about this band from my hometown. Fronter, guitarist and primary songwriter Ted Pauly was raised in a house blocks from my own, and seeing a proto-version of Haywood performing covers of Lemonheads, Camper Van Beethoven and Psychedelic Furs songs at a house show in late '90 or early '91 sold me completely on the configuration of alternately wry and down-in-the-mouth Mr. Pauly up front and truly gifted drummer and raconteur Rob Viola in the back (at the time of this particular show, I think bassist Jeff Paretchan had already gone off to college, and Haywood lead guitarist Ariel Serbin's future role was still being played by dear friend and veteran drinking buddy Luke Abruzzo).

"Rob, Ted, Ariel and I had played together in high school in [the band] Garden Party," Paretchan recounts. "Haywood started in the summer of 1992. I had finished my sophomore year [of college] and everyone else their freshman year. As I recall it was Rob and I who 'founded' Haywood during a conversation driving around the back streets of Radnor in Rob's blue Subaru station wagon. That summer we recorded four songs at American University with Rob Christiansen of Eggs. The sessions were a marathon 24 hours to record and mix. Two of the songs "Nerf Dreams" and "Trash Park" would appear on our first 7" and then later on [the full-length] Model For A Monument."

Trying to hit fast-forward from that humble, suburban beginning to the end of the band is difficult, because it's hard to determine when Haywood ends and the rest of our lives begin. Did Haywood stop sighing with the turn-of-the-century departure -- for personal reasons -- of Mr. Serbin? Did the quartet's heart stop beating when Pauly declined a long-hoped-for record-and-tour-support deal? Or when Mssrs. Viola and Paretchan quit the band in the wake of Pauly's decision? Did Haywood go the way of the Dodo when it played its final show in December 2000 at Brownie's in Manhattan? Or did Haywood give up the ghost only after the surprise self-release of its second post-humous set, 2006's As Long As There Is Track, I Will Not Go Back? Is Haywood undead? Actually dead?

We're fairly confident the answer to that last question is yes. But Amateurs for five years had the patina of finality in the minds of fans and band members alike, who assumed Haywood's 2001 break-up signaled the end of the band for good. The record was released by Chris Newmyer's delightful Self Starter Foundation label. That Amateurs garnered critical acclaim from chief Mountain Goat and music journalist John Darnielle [link] and even Pitchfork [link] was exciting to long-time fans, but probably a bit sad and frustrating for Haywood. That's because, although from the outside the band appeared to be just at the cusp, or, as Darnielle put it here, "like a magnolia just about to bloom," in fact the band had agreed to call it quits well before the album was even recorded. When the break-up was finally made public, it seemed like a capitulation to the powerfully poignant sense of loss and resignation that drove Haywood's best songs.

"We did keep [the break-up] a bit of a secret," at least from folks who had no need to know, confesses Mr. Newmyer, who we caught by phone in between his scheduled stints managing the current Ra Ra Riot tour. Newmyer is quick to point out that the hush wasn't from any inflated sense of importance of the news, but rather because the band wanted, if possible, to keep album reviews focused on the music.

"It's an excellent work of catchy indie-pop, reminiscent of Built to Spill, with a profoundly personal and sentimental side," observed Pitchfork's Brad Haywood. Really, that was his name.

"What terrible timing," summed up critic Eric Herboth in his review of the record for Lost At Sea.

Over the course of its career, Haywood found incredibly stirring ways to synthesize the desperate power of Midwestern, second-wave emo and the grace of the most genteel indie pop. But as Pitchfork's scribe astutely recognized, Haywood's greatest strength was not necessarily in writing and performing the songs, but in conveying the emotions driving them. I've listened to the song "Plow" from Amateurs about 400 times in the last two years; I still find the lyric "I was hoping I'd catch you out of luck" devastating. Pauly's voice breaking at the end of the line "your words get caught in your throat" from his ode to Viola "Tough Hero" on paper seems calculated, but the recording is terrifically affecting. The tragic finality of "Paper Shirt," the album's denouement, is like a sublime slap across the face. And "Come On Tell The Truth," we could go on and on about how it almost hurts to hear it. The record's not all sad stuff, though: album openers "The Last Days of Baronov" and "Button Up, Buttercup" both soar with exuberance, and "Don't Go Breaking (My Heart)" earns the band all of the Superchunk comparisons. All of We Are Amateurs, You And I is embedded at the foot of this piece; you can stream or download all of the tracks.

When I saw the 10th anniversary of the release approaching, I got in touch with Pauly, Viola, Paretchan, late-period lead guitarist Danny Barria (formerly of Philadelphia's Clock Strikes 13, now of deservedly hyped The Big Sleep, which is about to release its long-awaited sophomore set Nature Experiments on French Kiss Jan. 31), producer Adam "Red" Lasus and Newmyer to see if anyone was willing to talk about the record. Happily, everyone was eager to take some time to think about how the record was made and what it meant in the scheme of Haywood things.

"The record holds up to any indie rock coming out now and is more fully realized than a lot of current indie action," says Mr. Lasus, who -- in addition to recording much of the Haywood catalogue -- also recorded classic indie rock albums including the self-titled Clap Your Hands Say Yeah record, Versus' peerless The Stars Are Insane, Helium's The Dirt Of Luck and Lilys' towering A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns. "In many ways [Amateurs] was the last real indie rock record I made."

Newmyer is similarly effusive. "I got to put out a bunch of good records, but to this day the second Haywood record [released on Self Starter Foundation] is not only one of my favorite Self Starter records, but one of my own favorite records."

Had the band committed to significant touring to support Amateurs, the recording sessions would have been paid for and the album released by a label, although somewhat comically the band members aren't quite certain which one; it may have been Southern Records. Instead, faced with the departure of founding lead guitarist Serbin and dogged by concerns about the practicality of pursuing the rock and roll dream, Haywood disbanded.

"I think it was somewhere around December of 1999 that we had played a couple of shows in New Jersey with Ariel," Paretchan says, "after which he decided to quit the band. Rob, Ted and I met at [the restaurant] Veselka to talk about the deal we were being offered. I don't remember which label [it was], but I thought it was someone other than Southern. It was a cold rainy night -- maybe in February of 2000? Ted expressed a lot of hesitation."

"I remember [Ariel's departure] making me even less hopeful for the future," Pauly concurs.

"I do remember that Ariel quitting the band was a big issue," Paretchan agrees. "We had the offer of money for recording and tour support, but we would have to do real touring. Ted wanted to do other things -- settle down, [and] focus on his work."

"Somehow I felt like it was time for me to do grown-up things, whatever I thought those were at the time," recalls Pauly. "My rationalization was that I thought even Superchunk must've been having a hard time making a living, in Chapel Hill, where the cost of living was probably silly cheap, right? Of course I never called them, so how could I have known? I didn't know Superchunk."

"Yes, we broke up in Veselka," Viola agrees, "...great borscht."

"Rob and I were pretty surprised/disappointed, angry," Paretchan continues. "We had been playing together for a long time and finally were getting a good break after lots of work, and Ted wasn't interested. Rob and I went across the street after we finished at Veselka to some dive bar, ordered some drinks and basically decided to quit Haywood and start another band."

But then something very interesting happened: after being unwilling or unable to accept the record deal, the remaining members of Haywood decided to make a new record anyway. And, ironically, the guys attribute the quality of the performances and recording sessions at least in part to the fact that there was nothing on the line.

"We decided to record album anyway because we all loved the music," according to Viola. "I remember feeling that we could do whatever we wanted when we made this album. The band was a bust and we had nothing to prove."

"There was a total sense of freedom," Paretchan emphasizes. "Nothing to prove, and we could really do whatever we liked, without having to think about what people would think."

The mix of emotions regarding the band's break-up colored the recording sessions, Paretchan suggests. "There may have been some 'anger' about the ending of the band that translated into the rock numbers 'Baronov,' 'Buttercup,' 'Moscow,' [and] 'Don't Go.'"

Of course, at the moment, Haywood had no lead guitarist. This hurdle was soon overcome, however. Mr. Barria -- like the members of Haywood -- had migrated to New York from Philadelphia with hopes of a career in music taking off. He had crossed paths with the Haywood guys while everyone still resided in the City of Brotherly Love, and that early connection proved crucial.

"[W]e found Danny, who tamed his huge guitar enough to sit in the mix, and wrote his own parts for [the songs]," Pauly remembers. "He was a goddamn gift and is largely responsible for the existence of the record and any optimistic notes on [Amateurs]."

"My Haywood memories are always going to start from the fan perspective, because I loved them," says Barria. "Still have my Great Cats Give Chase tape [an early self-release. -- Ed.] somewhere. I saw them [play] at Upstairs At Nick's in '97 (may have been a show with Zumpano), and my very first impression of them, before they'd even played, wasn't a good one. They all wore suits that night (which I subsequently learned isn't really the Haywood way) and seemed a little nerdy to me. I saw Rob making out with a girl and I remember saying to myself 'Alright, Romeo, take it easy.' Anyway, I was [too] quick to judge because once they started playing I also said to myself, "these are really good songs, and dude is an amazing drummer.' I got the Great Cats tape that night, and that was that, hooked."

"I know Ted and I had a bit of an email correspondence going on," Barria continues, "and I remember exactly where I was sitting, sometime around February of '00, when he sent me a message asking if I knew any guitarists because they had just lost theirs. I jumped on it because starting/joining a band was the only reason I'd moved to New York. The deal was that Ariel had just quit but they had written an album's worth of material and they wanted to play some shows and record before calling it a day. Ted was planning to get married and Rob and Jeff were going to continue playing, but [the demise of Haywood] was definitely a done deal going into it, that they'd decided not to continue after the next record. That was kind of sad and weird, but I was just really happy to be playing their songs with them."

"Danny was very important in the different sound of this record," Paretchan offers. "Big hooky guitar parts. [At a] critical moment, when we lost one of our founding members, Danny really stepped in and made a big difference. Ariel and Danny are different types of players. At the time I think that Haywood needed a confidence boost -- and Danny's playing gave it to us. I didn't really realize how great it was to have Danny around until we finished the mixes and I thought 'Wow, this record sounds huge!'"

Barria found his entrée into the band to be a little disconcerting. "I remember taking my Gibson 335 and my Peavey Bandit 65 and my pedals on the subway from the East Village to Rob's (and Ariel's?) place on Grand and Marcy. I had no idea where I was going, and it sucked carrying all that, and I got there and they had a fucking Peavey Bandit 65 in the basement. And then after being nervous about trying out, Ted mentioned he didn't really like my Gibson."

"I remember Ted suggesting Danny to step in as lead guitar for a few remaining shows and to record Amateurs," says Paretchan. "The first practice was at Rob's place in Brooklyn. Danny came in with the Peavey Bandit, a black strat copy and some sort of rackmount echo/delay thingy. My first impression was 'Whoa what is up with all this space guitar stuff?'"

"Anyway," Barria goes on, "my first show with them was at the Continental and I fucked up the first note of the first song I played with them. We played more shows throughout the year and went on a little tour, too, I think Wesleyan and two other spots. My favorite moment was breaking down in Herkimer, NY, on the way to a show in Buffalo and Rob somehow lining up a white limousine to take us the rest of the way."

Haywood then turned its attention to recording its swan song. After a disappointing recording session with Kramer in New York in 1994, Haywood placed a lot of importance on working with a producer it trusted; Lasus had helmed early recordings as well as the sessions for Haywood's brilliant second full-length, 1999's Men Called Him Mister, and choosing him again to record Amateurs was a slam-dunk decision.

"We recorded for the first time with Adam [in 1993]," Paretchan recalls. "We did five songs together [which ended up circulating on a tape fans called Red's House Sessions and included an alternate take of "Nothing Happens" with Barnabys' Joey Sweeney doing backing vocals; the music was eventually compiled onto Model For A Monument]. So the connection with Adam goes back a long time before we ever did Amateurs."

"We had a super comfortable and fun studio dynamic [recording the record]," adds Lasus. "The ideas and concepts were falling into place without really having to talk about them. The sounds were big, but not too big, and the songs were really all brought to their peak."

"Red was a huge part of this album," Paretchan states, "and so was recording at Fireproof [then in Brooklyn, now based in Los Angeles -- Ed.]. Working with Red was so easy, he always understood what we were looking for, we were familiar with the space and the equipment. I remember recording to tape and all of us at the board for mixing which was a big part of the fun."

"There were two nerve-wracking moments for me," Barria remembers, "when the parts I'd come up with didn't work for whatever reason (we hadn't played some of the songs live a lot, think I was just working off of demos on those, might be wrong about that), the intro on 'Tough Hero' and the mid-section on 'Paper Shirt,'and I had to rethink and come up with something else on the spot, which is weird to think about when I hear the songs now, they just seem like the songs they've always been, kind of assured, which I think is more of a testament to how good [Haywood's] songwriting had gotten than anything else."

"Incidentally," Pauly says, "all the songs [for Amateurs] were all written in the Ariel-era, 'Paper Shirt' being the last, written in the last, waning daylight of the last days of Ariel."

"My favorite part of the whole recording, though, was the very last bit of tracking, the end of 'Paper Shirt,'" Barria recalls. "Rob kept telling me to lay down some kind of 'sweet lead' or whatever, and it just wasn't happening, we tried for a while. So Ted said 'Well, let me try,' he sat down with the guitar, and it was the perfect moment, for the song and just as a recording experience, as a witness. It was one take, and it was perfect, it's what's on the album. And it seemed really appropriate that the last guitar part on the last song was recorded by Ted, and the last bit of the song as it winds down is just the four of us keeping it quiet."

"I had forgotten about Ted's solo at the end, but Danny totally has it right." Paretchan agrees. "That's exactly what happened."

Is it the band's greatest album? Sure, what the hell. There are various arguments against the primacy of Haywood's other releases, anyway, although they are fine releases all. The band's full-length debut, Model For A Monument, was actually a comp of a bunch of early material that some fans had had for months if not years. Men Called Him Mister, released in 1999, was the last record to include the founding quartet and it was released once the band had immigrated from Philly to Brooklyn. But while the record is amazing on a lot of levels, it could have been a bit more succinct; a couple songs could have been relegated to b-sides, and the criminally omitted "Empty Car" and "Alpenland" should have been included, in my opinion. Haywood's doubly post-humous surprise 2006 collection As Long As There Is Track, I Will Not Go Back is blindingly brilliant and shockingly ignored, but as it was a studio project only and came so long after the band's original dissolution, it doesn't feel like a perfect fit for top dog status, either.

The rhythm section, anyway, certainly believes Amateurs captures the band at its peak.

"This LP captures the band at the heights of [its] tightness and instrumental powers," Viola agrees. "One could argue that Men Called Him Mister had better hooks [and] writing, but the the playing on Amateurs is confident and massive."

"I agree that Amateurs is more confident and epic," add Paretchan. "Although Amateurs couldn't have happened without Men Called Him Mister, which was where we cut our teeth on various production techniques and sounds which would later show up on Amateurs. We were already familiar with Adam's guitars, amps, pedals, etc. and how Adam worked. This all helped on Amateurs."

"All the Haywood sessions were super important to me," says Lasus, "but this one was one of those 'Wow, this is a great album from top to bottom.'"

"The recording of this record is very much tied for me to the final NYC show at Brownies," Paretchan says. "Both were bittersweet -- pinnacles of recording or live performance, and both signified the end of the band in very real ways. I know that the day after the final NYC show at Brownies, I woke up and listened to Born To Run start to finish sitting in my room. I found out later that Rob had done exactly the same thing."

Viola sums up my feelings, exactly, every time we put on one of Haywood's records: "Fuck, man, I miss this band!"

"We had no idea at the time that we would later record As Long as There is Track... so it was a sad time," Paretchan remembers. "Especially given the strength of the album and the response in the press. There was a sense that we had really hit our stride and were about to get somewhere after so many years of effort. Dashed hopes... Even to this day, nothing has ever been as much fun as writing songs, playing shows and recording with Haywood, because it was always about a group of friends making music that they liked together. Even though Rob and I were pretty pissed about having to bail on the record label offer -- we just couldn't help ourselves from wanting to record those songs. Which is probably why we joined up together to work on As Long As There Is Track, even though we had no future as a band anymore. Just can't resist those songs!"

THE SONGS, IN THE BAND'S OWN WORDS

LAST DAYS OF BARONOV
Pauly: "This song is about my brother and my grandfather's dead Saint Bernard."

BUTTON UP, BUTTERCUP
Pauly: "I felt like there was a lot of sad, impressionistic emo coming out, and I just wanted everyone to look on the bright side."

SIX STARS
Pauly: "I wrote a sad, impressionistic emo song about the lack of stars with all the damn city light pollution. This was a slow dance about my then-future wife. I tried to play it at Rob and Emily's wedding years later, but I always struggled through the solo beginning with the full band; why should it be any different on my own." Paretchan: "Danny and I played the a "four hand" organ part on 'Six Stars' together on a Hammond C-3 in the studio. The falseto vocals... were a tip of the hat to Ariel's vocals on 'Keystone Rag' from Men Called Him Mister."

TOUGH HERO
Pauly: "This song viscerally recalls the feel of an early-'90s night at Fergie's Pub [in Philly] with Rob. Drinking with Rob in Philly in the '90s remains unrivalled for overall end-of-night satisfaction. I also remember that the flangey guitar sound on this one made me feel, every time we played this live, like I was playing "Just the Way You Are" by Billy Joel.

PLOW
Pauly: "This was about my friend Brian [McGrath], who was in Wendyfix, and then co-wrote a song on our second record ("Little Black Dress Club") and then went to Maine and then played in Mantissa and then once we walked around Ground Zero and then he disappeared." Paretchan: "Keyboard parts were usually something we saved for the studio, as we could never do them live. This meant that most of the parts got written/worked out in the studio. I think Rob played the keyboard flute sound on 'Plow' -- this was also our first tune to use drum machine, no? Using a Roland MC 303. And I played the keyboards on the bridge. I remember playing the keyboard part on 'Plow' while Rob was turning the dials on the Korg Toneworks delay pedal."

HOTEL BAR IN MOSCOW
Pauly: "I have never been to Moscow. I think this one was tangentially about breaking up with someone. I liked to steal '80s lyrics for my songs. Here, Aretha Franklin's "Freeway Of Love," except we get off it in a pink hatchback with no one driving. Somehow I thought that was a metaphor for my love life at one time."

COME ON TELL THE TRUTH
Pauly: "I think-- think-- this one had been kicking around for a long time. I feel like I remember playing this fairly early, at a show with Pee Shy? and The Joey Sweeney at Under Acme." Paretchan: "the lyrics 'I wanna be just like my dad / and marry the first real thing I ever had / Everyones busy slipping it into conversation / and I'm patient / but not that patient' always struck me as a painfully personal and honest lyrics. I played the Roland MC303 through a MicroSynth pedal that Rob was messing around with to get the sound -- this part was written in the studio, and really filled in a lot of what I thought was missing with my bass part on this song."

DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART
Pauly: "I just hoped to get a little of the shine from Elton John and Kiki Dee on this one. This felt like our most Rainer Maria song. It was up at the top of my range and felt my most emotive, and I loved to play it and it was also, (duh) about breaking up, very clearly about my college girlfriend. It also features our dubbiest bridge." Paretchan: "Recording 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' was challenging; it was hard to capture the energy and volume of the live performance in the studio."

PAPER SHIRT
Pauly: "I think Ariel gave me paper pajamas from a trip somewhere, or maybe just to Pearl River. This was about being 90 and deciding to go outside for the first time in a long time, and deciding to dress up in my finest paper shirt, which of course would be a bad idea in the rain." Paretchan: "'Paper Shirt' was an after-thought in a way. One of the reasons I think the record sounds better than Men Called Him Mister was simply that we had fewer songs to record. If I'm not mistaken, one of the other issues the band was facing was not only having to decline the offer for recording and tour support - but also that Ted seemed to be having writers block and we weren't able to put together any more songs. 'Paper Shirt' got on because we needed an album's worth of material. I recall doubts about the strength of the tune. Somehow it is a nice post script to the album in the way that it gently disappears at the end."

Haywood - We Are Amateurs, You And I. (2001 album release) by statikluft

Rock Over Boston: The Low Anthem | Somerville Theatre | 10.20.2011

2011-10-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

[The Low Anthem at (and across from) the Somerville Theatre, Somerville, MA 10/20/2011. Photos by Michael Piantigini.]

I've gone on and on and on about the conjuring powers of The Low Anthem so, yeah, I probably don't need belabor the point. So, quickly: this was a rambling and rough-around-the-edges (in a good way) night where the Rhode Islanders closed out their tour spending a full two hours playing clutches of tracks from their three albums in roughly chronological order. They called for an "open stage," insisting that any musician who wanted could join in at any time. The only takers were someone who joined them on singing saw, and, later, a man who materialized out of nowhere with a trombone. These seemed disappointing, so the set closer had the band calling for any musicians in the house to come on stage and play something. This led to a lot of people mostly just hanging out, but it was a blast anyway.

Up against a hard curfew (after which the band would be financially penalized for extending the show), but not ready to quit, lead singer Ben Knox Miller reconvened on the plaza across from the Somerville Theatre, eventually joined by the rest of the band and opener Joe Pug and some of their other guest musicians and played another 40 minutes or so of standards and sing-alongs. It was one of those rare, magic moments. (Though sort of lost on some passers-by: when the band were swapping instruments at one point, the college-agers near me where giggling about how it "so Arcade Fire of them," their friend correcting, "no, how Phish of them.")

Their website was hinting recently at the band making some changes, but I'm not worried - the Low Anthem is clearly full of wonderful surprises.

-Michael Piantigini

The Low Anthem: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything Boston Listening Party Tomorrow Night, Now With Clicky Clicky-Exclusive Schwag!

2011-10-21T22:16:00.000-04:00

We wanted to emphasize the early portion of tomorrow night's excellent program at Precinct Bar in Somerville, MA, which is, of course, the listening party for the forthcoming, triumphant third full-length from Birmingham, England-based indie titans Johnny Foreigner. We've been dubbing this a North American-exclusive, because we are certain that is true. But it may also be true that tomorrow night's listening party is the WORLD PREMIERE OF THE RECORD. We're not 100% certain that's true, but we're certainly treating the event -- which is the first hour of an evening that will also see live sets from a number of Boston's brightest indie rock acts -- as if it is. And so we were super excited to receive a surprise package in the mail this afternoon from none other than Alcopop! Records, the Oxford, England-based label that will officially release Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything in the UK Nov. 7. The photo above displays the contents of the package; if your eyes are failing you, what you are looking at is a Clicky Clicky-exclusive, three-song, Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything album sampler in a numbered edition of 40 pieces. We'll be giving these discs away to fans tomorrow night, so get to Precinct in Somerville, Mass., by 8:20PM sharp to hear the record and get your copy. After we've played the record, stick around for what we predict will be incendiary sets of rock and roll music from The Hush Now, Soccer Mom, Chandeliers and Cooling Towers. Get pumped! Get into it! Facebook Event page right here. Haven't order Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything yet? Pre-order it from the 'Pop store here!

The Hush Now with Soccer Mom, Chandeliers, Cooling Towers, Johnny Foreigner Listening Party | Precinct | 22 Oct.

2011-10-19T22:39:00.002-04:00

Feel the hype cycle! We are proud to present along with our friends at The Ash Gray Proclamation Saturday night's The Hush Now tour homecoming show at Precinct Bar in Somerville, Mass. We hand-picked the majority of the bill ourselves and think that the line-up is not only the very best, but also the Clicky Clicky-est bill we could have mustered. Check out the Facebook Event page right here. The night is centered around the final show of local guitar pop heroes The Hush Now's current tour supporting its superlative third long-player Memos [review here]. The bill also includes the crushing, visceral majesty of Boston noise rockers Soccer Mom, long a favorite of the blog fresh off the release of their spectacular 10" EP You Are Not Going To Heaven, as well as rising rockers Chandeliers. And, as a very, very special treat, we've arranged with Oxford, England-based Alcopop! Records to bring you the North American -- if not world -- premiere listening party for Johnny Foreigner's epic third LP Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything. Cooling Towers are a late addition to the bill and will also perform.

Doors for the event open at 8PM, and the listening party begins promptly at 8:20PM sharp. Punters that enter the club before 9PM will receive a complementary The Hush Now-branded shot glass. We can personally attest to The Hush Now-branded shot glass' powers of conveying small amounts of liquor between a bottle and a mouth [Note: bottle and mouth not included -- Ed.]. The full slate looks like this:

8:00 Doors
8:20 North American premiere of Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything
9:30 Chandeliers
10:30 The Hush Now
11:30 Soccer Mom
12:30 Cooling Towers

With the pending arrival of Clicky Clicky Baby No. 2, we're viewing this event as kind of a finale for our year, and we'd be pleased as punch if you came out and said hello and soaked up the sounds of all five bands along with me, Clicky Clicky Rock, Bryan Proclamation and stalwart Clicky Clicky supporter and podcaster extraordinaire The KoomDogg. It's going to be a big night, so let us know you're coming out. Now how about some songs?

Arkansas by thehushnow

Unwanted Sounds by SOCCER MOM

Chandeliers - Let's Do Brunch by Chandeliers

(don't) show us your fangs by johnny foreigner

COOLING TOWERS - "Song For Apple Martin (Live on WMFO)" by CommodoreVic

The Road To Somerville: The Hush Now Memos Tour Diary Dispatch 5 (Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Knoxville, Asheville, Greenville, Nashville)

2011-10-17T22:39:00.001-04:00

[In this episode of The Hush Now's Memos Tour Diary, fronter Noel Kelly offers his account through gritted teeth of a tour going haywire, with levels of strife that recall Sex Pistols' doomed January 1978 tour of the United States -- well, without the drugs, violence and John Lydon quitting at the end to form PiL. THN has been taking what has become the very long way around, touring a large swath of the U.S. en route to a hotly anticipated homecoming show Saturday at Precinct in Somerville, Mass. Oct. 22 with Soccer Mom and Chandeliers. We reviewed The Hush Now's new record Memos right here. -- Ed.]

After a great day in Northfield, MN, we made the six-hour hump to Milwaukee for a show at Frank's Powerplant. The venue itself was pretty cool. The bartender, originally from south London, poured a stiff drink and provided a certain respite as a couple of jackasses cut their acoustic chops on Duncan Sheik covers open-mic-style, while their girlfriends fawned over the self-indulgences and saccharine sentiments of their "rock star" boyfriends. At one point, one of the gentleman refused to pass his Ibanez acoustic to the other gent and proclaimed, "you have to hear this song," and then proceeded to stumble into "Shimmer" by Fuel. He was wrong. No one needed to hear that. Ahhhh, what to say... Shameel, Shamozzle.

Salvation was only a few hours away as we pulled into Indianapolis to play the historic Melody Inn the next day. I absolutely love the Melody Inn. I remember playing there with Cerulean about 8 years back. It's a place with a long and rich history; from what I understand, a place where Wes Montgomery himself cut his chops back in the day. This is a musician's bar run by owners who not only care about music, but also care about the musicians who play their club. We stopped in early to find one of owners, Rob, was behind the bar scrambling to replace yet another local headliner that had just canceled that day. Kudos to our valiant booking agent for a real bang-up job. It's been one thing after another after another on this tour and "frustration" doesn't begin to capture the feelings of the six guys slogging it out on the road -- another story perhaps for another day, though. We set our minds and hearts on getting some Cajun food down on College Avenue before unloading and preparing for our set.

We shared the bill that night with a terrific act from Asheville, NC, The Stereofidelics, comprised of Melissa, a drummer who also played violin like Itzhak Perlman, and Chris, a guitar virtuoso who played and sang lead, and played bass with his feet. They put on an incredible show and were, honestly, humbling in their approach, proficiency, talent and stage presence. They traveled lightly in a van with two new boxer puppies. If you have a chance to see the Stereofidelics, don't hesitate. Thank you to Rob and staff for making the best of the cancellation: we owe you and the Melody Inn one, and hope to see you in the future.

Back in the van after the show, we high-tailed toward Knoxville for gig at the Preservation Pub. Good pizza, not one of our better shows. But we learn our lessons, pack the van and start towards Asheville. We arrive early in the day and take care of some sundries, check into a hotel, and then head over to the One-Stop for pickled carrots and gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. Then we head to the "other" side of town to Mike’s Side Pocket for our show. Seeing as there was no PA to be found, the stage -- if you could call a four foot by four foot square podium a stage -- was occupied by some locals watching NASCAR who didn’t look all too happy they might have to vacate, there were no supporting acts on the bill, considering that the manager didn't know there was even a show of any kind and the clientele didn't seem all to eager to have their evening interrupted by our style of music, which was completely understandable, we once again thanked our booking agent (best money we never should have spent) and agreed to a PBR on the house before heading back to the hotel to catch up on some rest.

Only six hours to Greenville, NC, to the Tipsy Teapot where, once again, the headlining act canceled and we had an opportunity to play to an empty room with some more bands pilfered from a Craigslist advert for the other supporting acts, one of which included two nice-enough fellas with guitars turned up to 11 hammering through their first metal show ever. I'm starting to find it interesting at this point that not one band we've played with on this tour (if they did actually show) has brought one person out to the show. Hmmmm... interesting indeed. I hope a trend is becoming evident.

We set our sights on CMJ and played our hearts out regardless. We packed up the van and Pat made a Homeric effort, driving through the night on a 12-hour slog passing back through Asheville (would’ve been nice to play Asheville -- oh wait, we were supposed to play Asheville) to Nashville to share a bill on the outskirts of town, behind what was advertised as "The World's Largest Adult Store" with yet another high school band (screamo/hardcore) chaperoned and playing their first show. Another Craigslist gem. We played another slamming set and then headed into town to historic Roberts on Broadway to see what may have been some of the best live country music I've ever seen. Until last night, I thought I knew how to play my telecaster. I was wrong. Well, it gives me something to strive for. I can't remember the name of the band, but they'll be locked in my brain until the day I die.

Tomorrow is Lexington at Cosmic Charlies. A great venue from what I hear, but we definitely have our fingers crossed to see who we'll be playing with this time around. I keep saying, "Well, there's no point in getting mad, it can't get any worse." I was asked to stop saying that last night by the band, because every time I say it, well, you get the idea... fingers crossed and here we go. And we really can’t wait to get back to Boston to play the Clicky Clicky and Ash Gray Proclamation show on the 22nd at Precinct. That and CMJ are the only things keeping the spirits of the band afloat at this point. We're getting scary good on this tour, regardless the setbacks. We will not be deterred. -- Noel Kelly

The Hush Now: Internerds | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube

Memos Tour
~~10.06 -- Rochester, NY -- The Bug Jar~~
~~10.07 -- Cleveland, OH -- Roc Bar~~
~~10.08 -- Chicago, IL -- Miskas~~
~~10.09 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Acadia Café~~
~~10.10 -- Northfield, MN -- The Contented Cow~~
~~10.11 -- Milwaukee, WI -- Frank's Powerplant~~
~~10.12 -- Indianapolis, IN -- Melody Inn~~
~~10.13 -- Knoxville, TN -- Preservation Pub~~
~~10.14 -- Asheville, NC -- Fred's Speakeasy CANCELLED~~
~~10.16 -- Greenville, NC -- Tipsy Teapot~~
~~10.16 -- Nashville, TN -- The Muse~~
10.17 -- Lexington, KY -- Cosmic Charlies
10.18 -- Columbus, OH -- Skully's
10.19 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Arsenal Lanes
10.20 -- Philadelphia, PA -- The Fire
10.21 -- New York, NY -- Sullivan Hall
10.22 -- Somerville, MA -- Precinct

CUT THE ROPE AND JUMP OFF: JOHNNY FOREIGNER ON ALTERNATE TIMELINES, OPTIMISM AND EVERYTHING

2011-10-16T21:29:00.000-04:00

On Nov. 7 Birmingham, England-based indie rock luminaries Johnny Foreigner release their third and finest full-length, the titanic quasi-concept album Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything. As fronter Alexei Berrow told Stereoboard here last month, the hotly anticipated record -- which sold out of deluxe pre-orders in fewer than 12 hours -- is less autobiographical than the prior two, and concerns itself with "the alternate universe theory; for every decision you make, there exists a world where you made the opposite. There's also internal monologue in the merits of experiencing stuff versus capturing it for posterity. There's some meta-fiction. The overall story is the world's only happy shipwreck, where, instead of drowning, everyone gains the power of flight."

Perhaps it was Mr. Berrow partially freeing his songs from the confines of real experience, perhaps it was that the band contrived the entire album from start to finish on its own terms and timetables, but no matter the reason, Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything is an immaculate, career-defining effort. The band circled the wagons and recorded the 17-song magnum opus ("a musical catastrophe in three parts") over the course of five months with longtime friend and collaborator Dom James in bedrooms and a warehouse space and James' studio. In our interview below with all three members of Johnny Foreigner, Berrow plainly states that the album is a put-up-or-shut-up proposition, with the future of the band potentially on the line. We've been wanting to interview the three ever since we initiated our microscopic coverage of their exploits nearly five years ago, and Berrow, drummer Junior Elvis Washington Laidley and bassist Kelly Southern were gracious with their time and did not disappoint. Our full review of the record is forthcoming, but for now enjoy the trio's remarks below. Pre-order Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything from Alcopop! Records right here. A North American exclusive album listening party will occur at Precinct in Somerville, Mass. this coming Saturday, Oct. 22, at 8:30PM sharp; details here.

Clicky Clicky: Interesting that some of the music released ahead of the album wasn't promoted as being part of a record. Was there a conscious decision made to not say something like, "'What Drummers Get' taken from the band's forthcoming record Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything," in promoting Certain Songs Are Cursed, for example? Did you just not know what was going to make the final cut?

Alexei Berrow: A bit of both. Jack's plan was a frisbee lead-off single that'd run with the UK/Europe tour in spring. We thought of it in terms of an album taster, like, whatever two songs we had finished first. When we decided to re-record "Vs. You," it made sense to use the first version [for the EP]. "Certain Songs," the song, happened super-fast, like, I wrote it one night and the next day Dom forgot a flux capacitor and left me in the studio for an hour while he went back to fetch it. By which time we'd realised that "frisbee-ep" sounded better than "frisbingle" [hmmm... maybe not? -- Ed.]. We were prepared to leave them all off the album, which is, like, a weird stupid fantasy I have where we promote an album with completely stand-alone singles like in the '70s. And then Dom re-mixed "What Drummers Get" so it sounded more like the record songs, and everyone else was like, gwaaaaaaaaaan. Also, as much as I ever talk about lyrical specifics, that [song] and "With Who, Who And What I've Got" are kind of about the same situation, which, if this record was a comic book, would be the opening scene. So it kinda felt right.

Junior Elvis Washington Laidley: I was actually torn on leaving "What Drummers Get" off the album and putting "Hand..." on instead. [Our manager] Gareth shot us straight down on that one, though, think it's his favorite song since "Jump" by Van Halen [Bahahahahahahah! -- Ed.]. The final cut did seem to take a while to decide, after first listens our label, manager and press all had different favorites and still do, I think. Good sign.

Kelly Southern: I think I might have been the only one concerned that we'd be criticised for putting songs on the album that had already been released. One [song] I think might have been passable but two... I was kind of with Jun on wanting "The Hand That Slaps You Back" on the album, as well as another that didn't make the final cut. Originally, I thought if we were going to make an album that was 18 songs long, they should be all new songs. Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad "Drummers" and "JF Vs. You" made it on there, because now I know they fit in perfectly with the other songs. I don't think you should take other people's opinions into account when making these kinds of decisions. As cheesy and cliched as it sounds, you have to make the album you want to make, because at the end of the day, you're never going to please everyone all the time. Oh God, that answer was really cheesy and pretentious, urgh. Sorry.

CC: The new album's title itself is interesting. Maybe we're setting up a false dichotomy, but for a band who named its record Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything, the music still retains the optimism of your past releases (well, except where certain affairs of the heart are concerned). It really hits home on the astonishingly wonderful "Alternate Timelines Piling Up" in the lyric "Those nights you say you want your old life back? Let's go get it." If Johnny Foreigner were not optimistic at all, what would the music sound like? Ministry?

AB: Ha. Thas' a really hard question to answer. Cos the optimism, I think, is a big part of who we are as people. I guess, you have to be, to put so much stock into a collection of sounds. I think if we weren't optimistic, we'd just sound like a crap spineless version of us. Even the saddest of our songs still (to me, at least) provide a little warmth. I've never listened to Ministry, rectifying now... [link]. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaaa no.

JEWL: I think the music would sound like self indulgent white noise :o) or dubstep.

KS: I'd say a mix of our 'fake release' album and this (complete with subtitles. I'd like to think we'd retain our sense of humour, if not our optimism).

CC: I had to laugh at your question to Facebook fans over the summer about how long of an album was too long, considering the record was already rumored to be titled Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything. Seems like if you are going to have "everything" in the record title, you should really hit fans with both barrels, yeh?

AB: Yeh, totally. I think that argument stems from quantity vs. quality. And its been a compromise for both previous records, but we (and Dom) decided at the start of this to give ourselves as much time as we needed. It got to the point about a month in and we were still feeding Dom new demos and he was like, fuck it, lets make a double album. It's split into three parts cos we like to be overdramatic and grandiose, and I guess that makes it easier for people to take it in, but yeh, to answer your question, this was always going to be a sprawling huge record.

KS: We did have the big debate about whether we were taking the piss by releasing such a long album (it was supposed to be even longer!). But I know damn well had we cut it down to 12 or whatever songs to keep within the realms of an 'acceptable' release length, then it would have been the wrong decision. I think separating it into 3 parts will help people digest it a little better. To be honest, long or short, we're utterly happy with this album, I'm sure other people will dig it too! (Y'see that, that's optimism. Going back to the previous point, you can't be in a band without it).

CC: Ballads are certainly nothing new for the band, as we know well since one of my all-time favorite songs is "All Mosely Gardens." Each of the Best Before releases included one. But in the last eighteen months or so -- since around the time of the death of Mark Linkous when you released the "The Most Beautiful Widow In Town" download -- you've really been working up a lot of quieter, more subdued material. Is that just because of the places and situations in which you find yourself writing and rehearsing? Did any of the recent, more slow-core numbers start their lives as uptempo guitar pop?

AB: To an extent we're always influenced by the environment; loud fast times = loud fast songs, etc. Also, the happier my personal life, the sadder the songs. No fucking idea. Also, practically speaking, it's way easier to make a song that doesn't require mic-ing up a drum kit or sorting thru distortion sounds. Jun bought this tiny 8-track from Japan, it has these awesome mics built in, and we ended up like, making them in bedrooms when we had time to kill. I'd say the 8-track takes 70% of the blame. And, nah, I think the tempo of it when it appears in my head is the tempo it should stay. And sometimes we naturally speed up or slow a little, but never drastically enough to change the original tone

JEWL: The little 8-track changed my thinking on the ease of bedroom music, I had visions of people literally staring at .wavs and bars and listening to the same loop for hours, I would have rather played in the studio for hours on end, but whilst touring Ireland a while back, I got all tripped out and just literally played around with it, it ended up being the b side ("For The Chains"). That started off way faster then naturally slowed down when I heard Alexei's vocals on it. "(Don't) Show Us Your Fangs" was a similar story, but that started off way slower. Fruity Loops [the software -- Ed.] is the blame for me, now I can literally sit and stare for hours and try and create something usable, something I've had a few years off from since the "Sword Buried" age lol.

KS: Digressing slightly here, but I'm so in love with the idea of doing different versions of songs. I always felt "A King's Heath Story" would be a great fast-pop song. "Sofacore" works well slowed down; "Eyes Wide..." sounds great played as a punk song. To be honest, we needed more ballads for acoustic sessions as we could only play "Sofacore" and "Salt, Peppa...!" It's funny -- we have a plethora of slow songs now but what do we do for acoustic sessions? "Amy-freaking-Winehands." That's how we roll.

CC: You've always had a pronounced sentimentality -- or, in the parlance of our day, "emo"-ness -- in your songs. Do you ever get the urge to write without that sort of attachment, and turn out something like Franz Ferdinand's emotionally detached dance-floor stompers? Are you able to turn off that part of your brain when you guys are writing? Is the sentimentality mostly an Alexei contribution, or do Junior and Kelly get similarly invested in their writing?

AB: It's me wot does most of the initial writing. And, no, I dont want to analyse it less it drives me mad or I lose it, but the emo urge, whatever that gene is, is like the spark at the start of my mental songwriting process, as opposed to something I inject later on. I'm sure I could mechanically go thru and clean up the words and the URGHMYHEARTISBUSTED sequences, but it'd be a horrible technical exercise, even if I did believe it'd lead to better things for the band.

JEWL: I can't write lyrics at all, I've never tried but I'm sure it would be mega cheese with words about hills and shit. I dunno how Lex does it, to be honest, he turns producer with stuff, like "Supermorning," for example, I was stuck for months with this distorted piano repetition, wasn't going anywhere with it, but [add] a few words and it's a song.

KS: Yeah, lyrics have never been my strong point. I used to keep poetry books when I was younger, but it was mostly just pretentious nonsense. One thing I can't stand are generic lyrics with no depth or substance. Lyrical laziness. I need imagery, a story or that sentimentality. I love clever lines that stand out on their own. That is something Lex is great at.

CC: We think an obvious question from interviewers on this album cycle is "how important is Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything?" In case you haven't thought about it yet, your answer should be "well, [interviewer name, make sure you look into the camera after you say her/his name], it's everything." But we think a more probing question about the record is "why is Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything important at this stage of the band's career and given the current state of the (lack of a corporate) music industry?"

AB: I think if we release this record and it does nothing for us, then it proves we're not a good enough band. It's one of the scariest thoughts in my head, but I'm so happy with it. It's not like when people say, 'O I wouldn't change a thing,' I mean, that's true, but this is exactly what I think we should sound like, it's what we sound like in my head. It's us without any adults at the helm and no involvement from the corporate world we so vocally shun. And we try and work outside it as much as possible, but simply put, we can't afford it yet. We're still a few grand in the red, and if this record bombs, then it'll likely take us with it. BUT THAT WON'T HAPPEN COS ITS GREAT. It feels like there are a lot of people waiting to be like 'O Johnny Foreigner fucked up, inevitable, how predictable.' Vs. Everything is us making these possibly imaginary folks eat their stupid words.

JEWL: The most exciting and important thing for me about this album, is that we can do it again. This sounds cheesy, but with a warehouse space from guys we've rented from for years, an engineer/producer we've known for longer, and friends, etc., we've made an album that, in my head, is the best thing we've done and I'm sure when I receive my own copy it will be, personally, my proudest moment. The fact that in a week, we "technically" could start another record with little or no money, and the fact we're in a position where, hopefully, enough people will want it to make it worthwhile, that's the most important for me.

KS: Career-wise, we're not a hyped band with lots of money riding on us. We're just doing what we normally do and what we will do, even if no one really accepts this record. I mean, the first two records didn't sell heaps and yet look at us, here we are talking about our third. I'm not sure we have a career plan; we have our little circle of people that we're really fortunate enough to have believe in us and will buy our records. I don't think this album is an attempt for world domination or commercial or critical success -- at the end of the day, we're 110% happy with this record, and as long as the people that like our band do, too (and our label make enough money from it), that's the main thing. If critics -- be it magazines, fanzines, blogs -- come on board and like the album then ohmygod that's brilliant, but I guess it's always been our way to hope for the best but expect the worse. As Jun says, we can do it all again. And it's something we're proud of, no matter what.

CC: So Lex gave a very succinct summary of the themes of the album to Stereoboard last month that we don't need to re-hash. And I've had the good fortune to see a lof of the art that will be part of the packaging of the record. And in sum, it all makes me wonder whether the alternate timelines, the boats, all of that might have been at all inspired by the American television show LOST? Did any of you see the show? Because of the birth of my daughter I never actually saw the last half of the final season, so hopefully Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything doesn't provide any spoilers...

AB: Heh, I marathoned it last year, but I dont think anything consciously slipped through. I've always been obsessed with branch theory, and I've digested a whole bunch of Warren Ellis and Grant Morrison and Alex Garland. But no polar bears. And boats are just the most romantic way of travelling... For what its worth, I'm the only person I know who thinks the end of LOST is beautiful and perfect.

CC: The preparations for the album release seem burdensome, what with the proactive and concerted effort to outwit pirates on top of everything else you're doing. I saw your note to the Tumblr people, it was rather inspirational, like fans might actually be able to keep a proper leak in abeyance. Assuming a leak is successfully avoided or at least obviated by the current strategy, how does the band define success for the record? More touring opportunities? Bigger recording budget next time around?

AB: It's actually easier for us for once, cos there's no one in the chain screaming OGODWENEEDTHISNOW. The same as making the record; we don't have a competitive budget or industry presence, but cos we're taking so long, we do have the luxury of knowing that everything we do put out, songs, videos, art, whatever, is as good as we could make it. And the anti-piracy thing, which has worked like a charm, took a couple of joints and a half-an-hour clicking internets. Success = fixing Kelly's amp [still? -- Ed.] and being able to tour and not having any debtors to take whatever slim profit we make on it. Getting some tv syncs (if we had owned the rights to "Absolute Balance" like we own all our Alcopop stuff, we would be 100% financially sorted by now...), getting enough exposure that someone pays for us to come back to America, getting more festival offers. Surviving...

JEWL: Success = being comfortable, being able to pay for shirts upfront, being able to go back to part-time work because we the band get a lil' bit o' money lol. Mainly though, travel everywhere that wants us and keep going.

KS: I would say success for this record is the same as it was for the others -- to me success means being able to keep doing this. Simple as. Keep recording, keep releasing, keep touring. The gigs we do where the crowd make the show (Summersonic in Japan, the second show we did in Brooklyn last year, Off The Cuff in Birmingham, for instance), if we have moments like that every so often, that's enough for me to want to keep doing this. Knowing there are people out there ready to invest their time, money, energies in us (our label, manager, press ppl, agent, etc.), and there are people out there that come to our shows, wear our tees, beg us to visit their country... that is success. Especially when we get to visit said countries and play to said people. Smiley faces ahoy.

CC: North American fans, of course, are constantly begging for your presence on our continent, and the band's position (that it's got to be something the band can afford to do) is known well and has been stated repeatedly. So the only question left to ask is, has that bridge been gapped? Can you reveal whether a feasible plan is in the offing that will get you over here for this album cycle without any of you ending up in debtor's prison?

AB: No plans. Sadface. And [American has] tweaked the visa regulations to make it even more impenetrable. I guess, we've never really made more than a drunken late-night pass at any labels, and no one's really got the money or the inclination to risk bringing a band as small as ours over. It's something that bothers us shitloads tbh. We grew up choosing US bands over UK bands, and last year just reinforced our (fairly biased) opinion that there's a whole bunch of people over there who'd be into us if they heard us...

JEWL: I do think if we were debt-less, then we'd have more scope to use money to fund/help towards flights, accommodations to the promised land, etc. One big sync [that's, for those who don't follow the jargon, basically slang for the use of the band's music in exchange for a hopefully tidy fee -- Ed.] and everything could change in that department, were definitely going in the right direction at least, plus the album's awesome, so I see "Fringe" season 5 offering us $50K for 2 seconds of a song...

KS: Jun, big lolz. This album was actually made with syncs for "The O.C." in mind. Is "The O.C." still going? I want to come back so bad. Going through all the footage we took from the Los Camp [US] tour melts my heart. I'm not sure how we can make this happen. Maybe once we've paid our debts, we could move there for six months or something.

CC: Why won't Fat Possum sign you for North America? They've got Yuck and now Fanzine. Should I call them?

AB: I'm sorry, I think Yuck are the anti-us. Dull career musician pastiche that completely misses the spirit/point of all the awesome bands we both pillage from. We actually want to be on Merge so bad; there was a whole string of Superchunk coincidences on our last tour ("Amy Winehands" is mostly set in Chapel Hill) and when we got to chicago our friend Ryan gave me a signed copy of "Our Noise." And I started reading it in the waiting room at [RDU], and finished it as we landed in England. I wrote them a ridiculously (even by my standards) long letter and never sent it. I think, I want them to discover us for themselves, but if anyone feels like nudging the fates for us, please go ahead. ILU MAC + LAURA.

KS: Like what Lex said. We have a toy ghost I'm going to send to Merge the moment Lex gives up on fate and hands me his 'Dear Mac and Laura' love letter to post along with it.

CC: Johnny Foreigner has over the last few years been finding more and more ways to incorporate fans into its releases. There was the Every Cloakroom Ever EP with fan names on the sleeve; then fan photos on the sleeve of You Thought You Saw...; fans helping the band out with live performances (the horn section for the Grace DVD, Veeee playing bass in Paris); and now with fan audio contributions for Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything. I guess my question is is there anything left? Without a fan giving you a kidney or a gall bladder, I can't for the life of me think of a new and different way for you to have fan involvement in future releases. Is that something you sit around and think about?

AB: Every time we do something like these, we have a panic that we won't think of something new. And we always do. To us, it's always been fun but a totally natural process; its relatively rare we sit around brainstorming. To be super cynical, we've effected a sliding scale for our band where the more you're into us, the more you can be involved in us, and it's kind of a reaction against the pledgemusic culture; like, 'hey you like our band, gizza tenner and we'll stick yr name on a list in the cd sleeve.' Or 'give us £100 and we'll invite you round our house.' That shit's savvy and effective but totally soulless; what if you love the band but can only afford the record? why should that put you in a lesser position than someone who has more cash and is doing it for some sense of kudos? We try and be inclusive as possible whilst clinging onto enough financial sense to cling on. Klingon.

KS: It's cool, we'll get everyone to record the next album for us. That's a logical progression, right?

The Road To Somerville: The Hush Now Memos Tour Diary Dispatch 4 (Minneapolis to Northfield)

2011-10-15T20:40:00.000-04:00

[In this episode of The Hush Now's Memos Tour Diary, guitarist Adam Quane offers a sparkling account of a perfect tour day, when the Boston-based indie rock quintet got some time and space to enjoy smaller town America. The picture above this item notwithstanding, we guarantee you aren't going to guess what fronter Noel Kelly bought at an "antique" store. Let us be the first to welcome the new hordes of The Hush Now's tween fans. THN is taking the long way around, touring a large swath of the U.S. over the next week en route to a hotly anticipated homecoming show at Precinct in Somerville, Mass. Oct. 22 with Soccer Mom and Chandeliers. We reviewed The Hush Now's new record Memos right here. -- Ed.]

Day five of tour brought us to Northfield, Minnesota. It was a short trek from the show in Minneapolis the night before. A day free of eating up the great interstates of America was much anticipated, and Northfield was the perfect place to spend such a day. We came into town and found some lunch at a small restaurant in Northfield's modest downtown, a stretch of three or four charming blocks along Division Street. We drank beer, ate sandwiches, and dusted off a game of Uno we found wedged into a bookcase by our table. After several days spent working together, the friendly competition was welcome. We each took pleasure in our secret fortunes, happy to crush each others winning hands with a Wild Card Draw Four just as a win seemed imminent.

After lunch we explored town. Pat found a store full of pins and took a couple souvenirs. Jon found a corncob pipe and some vanilla-flavored tobacco. I found an old bookstore and picked up a rusty old copy of "Franny and Zooey." Noel found a purple Hannah Montana guitar in an antique store. It was meant to be. (It's been nice to have a little female presence in the van.) Afterward we explored the open spaces outside of Northfield, and we came upon a wonderful spot to enjoy the warm gray air. Stewsie Island was no bigger than an Allston apartment, but was home to giant spiders, hundreds of orange and black caterpillars, a small labyrinth whose path was dead grass framed by imaginary walls of ashen brick, and a couple small oak benches overlooking the pond. We took turns serenading Stewsie and the solemn fish that I imagined swimming around us. We sang songs and wasted the warm October afternoon as best we could.

As evening approached, we found a nice hotel in town and got ready for the gig. Barry and me took a quick moment to enjoy the pool and hot tub, and afterward we headed back to Division Street for a radio performance for KYMN's "All Wheel Drive" with host Jessica Paxton. A big thanks to Jessica for a fun interview and for spreading the word about our gig down the street, where we headed next, at The Contented Cow. The Cow opened up the bar to us, gave us open reign on the menu, and was full of Northfield's friendly locals. I drank Shiraz and Alaskan Amber and ate and ate nachos. Everyone met us with big smiles and genuine enthusiasm. The stage was framed by stone walls and a low wooden ceiling. Its long, narrow layout was reminiscent of a ship's den, staggered to create the effect of having several rooms, and its back doors opened up to a beautiful deck overlooking the Cannon River.

We played a long set, challenging ourselves to give the eager ears of Northfield something special. We started with our ballad "For What It's Worth," which was the first we had played it on the tour. We abandoned our usual structured approach to a setlist and just played what came to our hearts and minds. Afterwards we closed the bar with the staff of the Cow and its regulars. Thanks to Northfield for a wonderful day in a small town in middle America. -- Adam Quane

The Hush Now: Internerds | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube

Memos Tour
~~10.06 -- Rochester, NY -- The Bug Jar~~
~~10.07 -- Cleveland, OH -- Roc Bar~~
~~10.08 -- Chicago, IL -- Miskas~~
~~10.09 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Acadia café~~
~~10.11 -- Northfield, MN -- The Contented Cow~~
10.12 -- Indianapolis, IN -- Melody Inn
10.13 -- Knoxville, TN -- Preservation Pub
10.15 -- Asheville, NC -- Fred's Speakeasy
10.16 -- Nashville, TN -- The Muse
10.17 -- Lexington, KY -- Cosmic Charlies
10.18 -- Columbus, OH -- Skully's
10.19 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Arsenal Lanes
10.20 -- Philadelphia, PA -- The Fire
10.21 -- New York, NY -- Sullivan Hall
10.22 -- Somerville, MA -- Precinct

New Music Night DJ Sets | River Gods | 13/14 October

2011-10-14T01:00:00.000-04:00

1. Whirr -- "Junebouvier" -- June 7"
[blogged / buy]
2. Bonjour -- "I Tried It, I Liked It" -- Motivational Suicide EP
[blogged / stream / buy]
3. Johnny Foreigner -- "If I'm The Most Famous Boy You've Fucked, Then Honey, Yr In Trouble" -- Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything
[blogged / released Nov. 7 on Alcopop! in the UK / hear the entire record at an exclusive U.S. listening party in Somerville Oct. 22; details here]
4. Algernon Cadwallader -- "Glenwood Avenue" -- Parrot Flies
[blogged / buy]
5. Chandeliers -- "Let's Do Brunch" -- Demo
[download / playing The Hush Now's tour homecoming show at Precinct, Somerville, Oct. 22; details]
6. Oh Look Out -- "Start Start" -- Alright, Alright, Alright, Alright, Alright
[blogged / download]
7. Los Campesinos! -- "By Your Hand" -- Hello Sadness
[blogged / pre-orders END TOMORROW / album out 15 Nov. in North America on Arts & Crafts]
8. Cookies -- "Wilderness Tips" -- Wilderness Tips single
[blogged / download]
9. Edelweiss -- "(No)" -- Pre-Columbians EP
[blogged / buy]
10. Autochrome -- "Senses"
[download]
11. Under Electric Light -- "Waiting For The Rain To Fall" -- Waiting For The Rain To Fall
[blogged / download]
12. The Snowy Owls -- "Yr Eyes" -- Yr Eyes single
[download / now sounds from Richmond, VA]
13. BDRM Eyes -- "Big Boo" -- Demo
[blogged / download]
14. Moody Gowns -- "Nelson Skills" -- Soundcloud download
[blogged / stream]
15. Little Gold -- "Chainsaw" -- Weird Freedom
[blogged / buy / playing Allston's Halfway House Friday; lack of details]
16. State Champion -- "The Basement" -- Deep Shit
[blogged / watch / buy]
17. The Hush Now -- "The Legend Of Dudley Town" -- Halloween single
[download / catch The Hush Now's tour homecoming show at Precinct in Somerville, MA, Oct. 22; details]

SET FOUR/12AM/Jay

1. Big Deal -- Chair -- Big Deal EP
[blogged / from the Big Deal EP due Oct. 25, which apparently can't be pre-ordered?]
2. The Henry Clay People -- "California Wildfire" -- This Is A Desert EP
[buy / awesomeness]
3. Wild Flag -- "Something Came Over Me" -- Wild Flag
[playing at Paradise Rock Club Friday night; tickets]
4. This Town Needs Guns -- Adventure, Stamina & Anger -- Adventure, Stamina & Anger single
[stream / buy]
5. Screaming Maldini -- "The Silver Mountain" -- Secret Sounds EP
[track exclusive to EP for French label / stream / buy]
6. Saint Solitude -- "Deliverance" -- By Some Great Storm outtake
[blogged / stream / download]
7. Mezzanine Owls -- "Obstacle"-- Obstacle b/w Tethered To The Fountain 7"
[stream / download / buy]
8. Pomegranates -- "Track One, In Which Pomegranates Has A Very Good Dream" -- In Your Face Thieves/Chestnut Attic
[stream / buy]
9. New War -- "Ghostwalking 'Do You Want New Rave Or Do You Want The Truth?' Club Mix By Gossip" -- Ghostwalking 12"
[blogged / stream / download]
10. Cookies -- "The Dream" -- Wilderness Tips single
[blogged / download]
11. Yawn -- "Astral Observatory" -- Open Season
[buy]
12. Cymbals Eat Guitars -- "Wavelengths" -- Lenses Alien
[buy in one of five billion different bundles here]
13. Age Rings -- "Caught Up In The Sound" -- Black Honey
[from the condensed reissue due on Midriff Records Nov. 5]
14. Johnny Foreigner -- "Alternate Timelines Piling Up" -- Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything
[this record is amazing. you should really come to the listening party Oct. 22; details]
15. Benjamin Shaw -- "Home" -- There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet
[blogged / pre-order / seriously, one of the year's best records]

Spanish Prisoners | Yes.Oui.Si, Boston | 14 Oct.

2011-10-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

Remember the middle of the summer? Kind of? Yeah, this past one. That ended Monday, apparently? Right. Well, anyway, in early July we wrote here about the Brooklyn-based psych-pop concern Spanish Prisoners, who were offering a very early tease of their record Gold Fools. The record finally came out last week, and the entire thing can be streamed at the foursome's Bandcamp dojo right here. Spanish Prisoners will be in Boston Friday playing at the Yes.Oui.Si space by the MFA; the show has an early 7:30PM start, so you could conceivably, conceivably mind you, double-up on shows Friday night. Not sure if you can time it out to also see Wild Flag at the Paradise, but for those of you who habitually habituate what us norms call "the edge," we say go for it. Here's the Facebook Event for the Spanish Prisoners show, and in case you have yet to sample their dreamy, psych deliciousness, here is an embed of the song "Rich Blood" from Gold Fools.

Rich Blood by Spanish Prisoners

The Road To Somerville: The Hush Now Memos Tour Diary Dispatch 3 (Cleveland to Chicago to Minneapolis)

2011-10-11T22:18:00.000-04:00

[In this episode of The Hush Now's Memos Tour Diary, bassist Patrick MacDonald recounts the Boston-based indie rock quintet's assaults on Chicago and Minneapolis, storied American rock and roll cities each one. MacDonald's account of communing with the Gods of the Upper Midwest independent rock scene in particular brings a smile to our face. THN is taking the long way around, touring a large swath of the U.S. over the next couple weeks en route to a hotly anticipated homecoming show at Precinct in Somerville, Mass. Oct. 22 with Soccer Mom and Chandeliers. We reviewed The Hush Now's new record Memos right here. -- Ed.]

God almighty! Kids, one thing you must learn is that if one is to be up at 8:00 in the morning one should not stay up after a show until 4:30 in the morning talking and jiving with your sound man and a half bottle of Johnny Walker Black, it just makes for a really bad morning. Trust me.

So we started our morning heading to one of our favorite cities, and that would be Chicago. Jon did the first leg of the trip with me as co-pilot; he clocked about 200 miles, I did 179 miles, and in the process I almost beat the crap out of a tollbooth in Indiana that said we had five axles (count them for any that has driven a van). We sat for 20 hot minutes until we finally got up to the toll booth, and I had to put our money into what looks like a slot machine. So while hanging out the door looking like a complete idiot trying to figure out why it's going to cost the band 30 dollars at a toll, Noel -- the man of reason that he is -- came to my rescue like some dashing knight, and the toll machine walked away unharmed [This time -- Ed.].

We rolled into Chicago and headed straight to the south side and to the HQ of Fearless Radio, where we had the best interview we have had so far on this tour. Kris, the host, was so amazing and spot-on with her questions that it made the whole experience a pleasure, as did the rest of the staff at Fearless. We also had a chance to learn some great history about the building that the station was housed in. It was once home to a car showroom back in the '40s, and has an elevator that is big enough to hold a Packard and can fit three Priuses [Prii? -- Ed.] nowadays (put you head around that). Barry and Noel each did an acoustic track, and they both nailed it. All in all a great way to start our day in the Second City. After the interview we headed to the north side of Chicago and to the Stage Bar. We had some time to kill, so we scouted around for a place to eat and found this fine watering hole. Food was ordered, drinks were drank, and a fun time was had by all. So back to the club we went.

Let me say that -- after all my years playing in bands -- this was the strangest night I have ever had. For one, the club was volcano hot, so throughout the night watching the stream of folk exiting and entering the club was like watching salmon swim upstream. Also, before any music was played (and there were four bands that night), we sat thru 12 comedians. Now don't get me wrong, we all enjoyed the interesting Midwest humor, but after seven hours in a van you just want to PLAY. The one saving grace was the MC of the evening, Mr. Flabby Hoffman. He made everything relaxed and cool and was really funny. In the meantime, we did a lot of swimming upstream with the rest of the patrons, and enjoying the birthday party for a local woman who's name I can not remember. The show went really well, we played great to a packed house, and also had the chance to hang with Adam's folks and that was fantastic, as it had been almost a year to the date that we last saw them.

After a good night sleep for all, and a fine breakfast at the Arrowhead restaurant (dine in-carry out), it was back in the van. Jon and Joel rocked the serious drive to Minneapolis. Now to me, this is almost like driving into Mecca, as this is one of the most hallowed cities for rock in the United States. Just the names of bands that called this burg home reads like a "who's who" of independent rock, before it was tagged with that horrible term "Alternative." We arrived at the club and walk in and I am floored by three things. First thing I hear is the sound of Screaming Trees; second, I look above the bar to see a framed Don't Tell A Soul poster with a broken headstock from one of the band members guitars (I will not hazard a guess whose it was because I don’t have the facts and neither did the man behind the bar); third, there was a Jayhawks hand-painted drum head with a Yo La Tengo drum head with it. So let it be said I was in heaven; this is the 400 Bar, one of the places where so many of these bands (The Replacements, The Suburbs, Husker Du, The Jayhawks) got their start, so it was really cool to stand on that stage.

After setting up the merch, searching to no avail for some grub, and passing Jon and Joel at least twice in the process, it was back to the club to check out the night's line-up. First up were young upstarts Void Of Reality, who made me smile so hard my face hurt. They brought me back to being a young musican; both Barry and I made eye contact more than once and just smiled and for the closing salvo total auto-destruction (as Pete Townsend put it) and bang the guitar is in shatters and the drums are a mess! King Tuesday was next, doing a cross between female-fronted blues-rock and rap... quite cool. Not the most-packed show, but the most enjoyable sets so far. We were in that perfect place where everything just felt right.... played a great version of "Memos." Next up was Dude Worthy, kind of funny, kind of heartfelt -- all around a good band of guitar, accordion and a little stylophone thrown in for good measure. Afterwards we headed down to First Avenue to check out the eponymous club and The 7th Street Entry, and ended the night at O’Donnovans for some fine Grain Belt beer, wings, cheese plate, football and laughs all around! Thanks again Minneapolis! -- Patrick MacDonald

The Hush Now: Internerds | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube

Memos Tour
~~10.06 -- Rochester, NY -- The Bug Jar~~
~~10.07 -- Cleveland, OH -- Roc Bar~~
~~10.08 -- Chicago, IL -- Miskas~~
~~10.09 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Acadia café~~
10.11 -- Milwaukee, WI -- Frank's Powerplant
10.12 -- Indianapolis, IN -- Melody Inn
10.13 -- Knoxville, TN -- Preservation Pub
10.15 -- Asheville, NC -- Fred's Speakeasy
10.16 -- Nashville, TN -- The Muse
10.17 -- Lexington, KY -- Cosmic Charlies
10.18 -- Columbus, OH -- Skully's
10.19 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Arsenal Lanes
10.20 -- Philadelphia, PA -- The Fire
10.21 -- New York, NY -- Sullivan Hall
10.22 -- Somerville, MA -- Precinct

Clicky Clicky Radio | 10.06.2011 | Archive

2011-10-11T07:30:00.000-04:00

Here's the archive of the October 6, 2011 show. Stream it below, (or download it!):

Pink Floyd - Sheep - Animals (2011 Reissue)
Boris - Spoon - New Album (2011)
Trips and Falls - This Is All Going To End Badly - People Have To Be Told (2011)
Van Hunt - Eyes Like Pearls - What Were You Hoping For (2011)
The Moor - Warm Winter - The Moor (2010)
The Rationales - Still We Believe - The Distance In Between (2011)
The Organ Beats - Stay The Night - MISHMASH (2011)
John Powidha International Airport - Daddy's The Man- Daddy's The Man (2011)
Nirvana - Here She Comes Now - Nevermind (2011 Deluxe Edition reissue)
Wild Flag - Something Came Over Me - Wild Flag (2011)
Kurt Vile - The Creature - So Outta Reach EP (2011)
Wooden Shjips - Black Smoke Rise - West (2011)
Heavier Than Air Flying Machines - Amphibian Debt March - Siam (2011)
Megafaun - Real Slow - Megafaun (2011)
Yukon Blonde- Fire - Fire//Water (2011)
Comet Gain - Clang Of The Concrete Swans - Howl Of The Lonely Crowd (2011)
Loney Dear - My Heart - Hall Music (2011)
George Harrison - I Live For You (demo) - All Things Must Pass (2001 Reissue)
Wovenhand - His Rest - The Threshingfloor (2010)
We Were Promised Jetpacks - Act of Impulse - In The Pit Of The Stomach (2011)
Johnny Foreigner - (don't) show us your fangs - Johnny Foreigner vs. Everybody (2011)
Soccer Mom - (A) Natural History - You Are Not Going To Heaven (2011)
The Hush Now - A Mother's Lament - Memos (2011)
Radio Moscow - Turtle Back Rider - The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz (2011)

CLICKY CLICKY RADIO is live every Thursday night 8-10 pm eastern on Boston Free Radio!
All of the archives and playlists are in one place over here.

-Michael Piantigini

Real Talk About It's A Shame About Ray

2011-10-10T22:14:00.000-04:00

Lemonheads are one of our original top-five favorite bands, this you may know. But one thing we've never bothered articulating, because, you know, it's not that interesting, is that it took us months to come around on what is perhaps the band's most widely known record, It's A Shame About Ray, which was released in June 1992. Sure, we love the record NOW, but it took some time. It just wasn't the record we were expecting Lemonheads to make. Remember, 1992 is pre-Internet, and pre-"Live With Regis And Kathie Lee" information about the band wasn't all that easy to come by [LOLBOMBZ]. Everything we knew about Lemonheads was based on Lovey and Lick at that point (we hadn't yet purchased the rest of the back catalog). And so, in our minds, the template for the follow-up to Lemonheads' major label debut Lovey was that which, in our estimation, were the album's best tracks: "Ballarat," "Year Of The Cat" and "Stove." Heavier, electric and at times even slightly angular stuff. We perceived the country-tinged "Brass Buttons" and the down-beat "Ride With Me" to be sort of anomalous, not indications of what was to come. We were wrong.

But after we put it down for a while -- and perhaps even more so because we started spending a fair amount of time in New England in the fall, which is the perfect time of year for this record -- we turned on to Ray in a big way. Sure, the distorted and weird sounds of "Year Of The Cat" were not there, but Lovey's familiar, confused haze hung over the recordings, tinted with perhaps a more pronounced melancholy we were becoming more accustomed to in our undergrad years. So Ray eventually did become a favorite. Particularly all the songs with vocals from Juliana Hatfield. And, very specifically, "Rudderless," which features a call-and-response section where Hatfield monotones the line "tired of getting high," which for some reason even now resonates strongly with us. After you've been given the time and space to do everything you want to do and it's still not enough, what do you do? That's what the line conveys to us, anyway.

After enough interest to warrant a couple complete performances of Ray in 2005 at one of the All Tomorrow's Parties events in the UK, it probably seemed a like a good idea to take the record back out. And so Evan Dando and his latest iteration of Lemonheads are doing it this fall; the band plays Boston's Paradise Rock Club Wednesday night with support from The Shining Twins and New York Rivals. If you can believe what you read at Brooklyn Vegan, last night's show at Bowery Ballroom was, ummm, "sub-optimal." The band was slated to perform a second show there this evening, and has roughly two more months of Ray shows, so hopefully the kinks get worked out. As of Sunday night, there were still tickets for the Boston show available. Buy some right here, why don't you? Don't own Ray? Seriously?

The Road To Somerville: The Hush Now Memos Tour Diary Dispatch 2 (Rochester to Cleveland)

2011-10-09T21:56:00.001-04:00

[In this episode of The Hush Now's Memos Tour Diary, drummer Barry Marino recounts the Boston-based indie rock quintet's sojourn to Cleveland. We don't want to give too much away, but we will say what is below is NSFW, if your co-workers are sensitive about hot dogs being served with a sunny-side up egg on top. THN is taking the long way around, touring a large swath of the U.S. over the next couple weeks en route to a hotly anticipated homecoming show at Precinct in Somerville, Mass. Oct. 22 with Soccer Mom and Chandeliers. We reviewed The Hush Now's new record Memos right here. -- Ed.]

When we awoke, we found ourselves in a dark and smelly La Quinta hotel room. We cracked the door immediately. Ater Noel had sauntered in from sleeping in the van, we packed our things and walked the 15 feet to our breakfast destination, a midwest staple: Bob Evans. Our server, Linda, took pride in the turnaround of our orders and we appreciated her overall good-natured mothering. You're a doll, Linda. After breakfast, Pat and I had an impromptu songwriting session in the parking lot while Jenny, an employee of the restaurant, watched from the shade of a tree while enjoying her smoke break.

We arrived in Cleveland with time to spare before load-in. The next hour was free-time for the kiddies. we headed over to local music store to pick up some supplies. Pat, Adam, Joel and Jon found a nondescript bar with a patio out front. Noel chose the darker bar with less patrons (as usual). I was on my own mission. Armed with a smartphone, I located the closest FedEx office so that I could print out our tour itinerary. Having to switch between clipboard, emails and text messages for the previous day proved frustrating, and I finally had the opportunity to put all of our information in one place (for safe-losing later). Once the itinerary was printed and organized into an OCD approved binder, I made my way back to other guys. I arrived just in time to finish off Noel's scotch and cajole the fellas into heading to load-in on time.

The ROC Bar is a cool venue, off a side street and on the river. It has a large main room with a big stage, and with 30 bottles of Jameson lining the top of the bar, we knew we were in a fun place. There's a bar on the back patio with a great view: right on the river and underneath a bridge. Throughout the night you could see debris in the water. I think we saw an entire tree float by, though... in the dark it could have easily been mistaken for the Loch Ness Monster.

We did 2 interviews before our set. one with the Corey King Radio Show and another with IndieNation.FM. Both were great interviews, with great people. We also ran into our friend Jim, who had filmed our set in Cleveland last year. He already had his camera set up for this one! Regarding our show, there were some problems with the sound system for most of the night. Apart from the difficulties though, we managed to have a fun time, get through it happy and make some friends on the other end.

Afterwards, Joel, Pat and Noel headed a couple miles out of the city to get a good night's rest, as we had a long drive in the morning. Jon, Adam and I decided to tempt fate and wander the Cleveland nightlife for a bit. We made our way to Tina's Nite Club, a hole in the wall off Detroit St. A couple of Great Lakes (great beer!) and jello shots later we made our way a couple blocks over to The Happy Dog, which serves gourmet hotdogs (hello: egg, sunny-side up on a hotdog?!) our friends 28 Degrees Taurus had just finished their set there. At the end of the night, it was great to run into our old friends in a different city, and ride out a last call together. We then had to part ways, them finishing up their tour, and us just starting out with ours.

Our friend Carly, who had seen us play Cleveland the year before, was kind enough to give us some floor space to crash on, along with a promise to give us a ride to the hotel in the morning! Some people are so kind! we owe you one, lady. The last thing I remember of the evening was sharing a bag of Doritos with a nine-year-old Golden Labrador. He looked hungry. -- Barry Marino

The Hush Now: Internerds | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube

Memos Tour
~~10.06 -- Rochester, NY -- The Bug Jar~~
~~10.07 -- Cleveland, OH -- Roc Bar~~
10.08 -- Chicago, IL -- Miskas
10.09 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Acadia café
10.11 -- Milwaukee, WI -- Frank's Powerplant
10.12 -- Indianapolis, IN -- Melody Inn
10.13 -- Knoxville, TN -- Preservation Pub
10.15 -- Asheville, NC -- Fred's Speakeasy
10.16 -- Nashville, TN -- The Muse
10.17 -- Lexington, KY -- Cosmic Charlies
10.18 -- Columbus, OH -- Skully's
10.19 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Arsenal Lanes
10.20 -- Philadelphia, PA -- The Fire
10.21 -- New York, NY -- Sullivan Hall
10.22 -- Somerville, MA -- Precinct

Today's Hotness: Big Deal, Los Campesinos!, New War

2011-10-08T23:02:00.000-04:00

>> Regular readers will be familiar with our coverage of London-based indie duo Big Deal. One of the more frustrating things this fall has been our inability to hear the band's new album Lights Out, which was released in the UK Sept. 5. We figured we'd be able to grab the MP3s digitally or stream it on Spotify once it came out, but no dice. Turns out we had completely forgotten that the act comprised of American guy Kacey Underwood and British gal Alice Costelloe had a North American deal in place, which is why there is at present no way to get Lights Out in North America. That will change on Jan. 24, when Mute releases the full-length to our sector of the globe. Lights Out will be preceded Oct. 25 by an eponymous EP that includes one exclusive song, "Mai Joy." The rest of the EP contains the album's main preview track "Chair," which we wrote about here last month, with the Big Star cover "13" from Big Deal's debut 2010 UK single "Homework," as well as the intense brooder "Locked Up," which was an NME-exclusive download a year ago that we wrote about here. If you need more of a Big Deal fix before Oct. 25, stream "Chair" below or watch this live in-store performance of the track, along with the album track "With The World At My Feet," filmed at Rough Trade West last month.

Big Deal - Chair by Big Deal

>> Cardiff-based indie pop titans Los Campesinos! revealed earlier this week that the lead single for its hotly anticipated new album Hello Sadness will be the record's title track; the single will be released Nov. 21. The timing is odd, because singles typically precede an album launch, not trail it, but there you go. The announcement, single art and lyrics were posted here by the band. No information about b-sides was offered, but we expect there'll be at least one, as flat things tend to have two sides. Pre-orders for Hello Sadness close Oct. 14 and the set will be released a month later on Wichita in the UK and Arts & Crafts in North America, as we reported here in August. A preview track "By Your Hand" was pushed out to the Internerds early last month and we wrote about that here.

>> The more we listen to New War's new single, the more we like it; it reminds us of Tones On Tail and Chameleons UK and other goth-tinged '80s musics that captured our attention way back when. The title track is "Ghostwalking," and the original version is wonderfully atmospheric and soporific, with a slow groove that doesn't move so much as it spreads out. Melbourne, Australia-based New War's members include Chris Pugmire and Melissa Lock, formerly of the act Shoplifting, which has released records on Kill Rock Stars. New War has inked to release music with Fast Weapons, a label commissioned by Gossip's Nathan Howdeshell. The band will release a full-length titled Calling From Inside in March 2012, but in the meantime the song "Ghostwalking" is getting the 12" treatment; it was released Sept. 27. Additional music on the platter includes one remix each by Gossip and HTRK. Better still, you can download all three songs at Bandcamp for free. Check them out at the embed below and click through for the sonic goodies. If you want the vinyl, you cany buy that right here, but there apparently aren't too many left so act fast.

Ghostwalking - 12" by New War

Revenge of New Music Night with Brad Almanac + Jay Clicky Clicky | River Gods | 13 Oct.

2011-10-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yes. New Music Night returns Thursday, Oct. 13, at River Gods in Cambridge, Mass. Your DJs are Brad of Bradley's Almanac and Jay of Clicky Clicky. Come garage all the wet zooms, slum clog dusty deer, it all happens from 9PM-1AM Thursday. It's not just the place to be, it's the place to listen. Also, beer. For a sense of what you're getting into, check out our playlist and Brad's playlist from the August event. Sold? Thinking about it? Here's the Facebook event page.

River Gods
125 River Street
Cambridge, MA
MAP

Accessible via Red Line at Central Square.

The Road To Somerville: The Hush Now Memos Tour Diary Dispatch 1 (Boston to Rochester)

2011-10-07T22:30:00.002-04:00

[It is with great pleasure that we present The Hush Now's Memos Tour Diary. The Boston-based indie rock quintet is taking the long way around, touring a large swath of the U.S. over the next couple weeks en route to a hotly anticipated homecoming show at Precinct in Somerville, Mass. Oct. 22 with Soccer Mom and Chandeliers. The first dispatch is penned by Hush Now fronter Noel Kelly, and it is -- knock on wood -- surprisingly devoid of the sort of mishaps and mayhem that typically attempt to confound the band. Let's all keep our fingers crossed, shall we? Memos, last we checked, was charting at No. 25 on the CMJ college radio charts. We reviewed the record right here. -- Ed.]

The day started abruptly at 6 AM. Finish packing, throw out the garbage, one last sanity check and then out the door to make the rounds in Boston to pick up the band. At 7:00 AM I'm idling out front Barry's apartment. The phone rings. "What time is it," Barry groans. "Oh man, I’ll be out in a sec." A long night at All Asia will be cured later with a Dunkin Donuts sausage and egg sandwich. Off across town we whip to Mr. Adam Quane's abode and then backtrack to Somerville where Pat is waiting patiently on his porch steps. Morning Boston traffic has us a little behind schedule.

We meet Jon (new keyboardist) and Joel (sound man extraordinaire) at the rehearsal space and begin the science experiment of trying to squeeze 10 lbs into a 5 lb sack as we strategically survey our gear sprawled across the parking lot in front of the Boston docks. We also find out that Joel has married his girl of 20 years a few days prior. After 20 years, it's about time, I say. He's glowing. 45 minutes later we're on the road, cocooned within our beastly van. A name for our lovely mistress van is not yet decided. With the engine and transmission replaced in the last few months, she's riding nice, if only pulling slightly to the right as we glide through the changing roadside colors of MA and into Upstate NY.

Our first meal finds us at a truck stop eatery by the name of Knuckleheads. A better-suited name was hard to find. Hunched around a table of the log cabin, we plot the course of the next 17 days while Adam settles in on his French dip sandwich and the rest of the band pilfers Barry's fried ravioli.

We pull into Rochester around dusk and find our way to The Bug Jar. The world seems turned upside down…literally. Couches, stoves, sinks, TVs and dressers adorn the ceiling. Barry passes the time throwing THN magnets at the hanging metal objects. We meet Jordan and Adam (also in Doctor Doctor) from AM Static as well who will be playing with us that night. Concerning AM Static, at one point during their show I think I saw a pony and a light saber being wielded like the last great fight of a Sith Lord not to mention their painted monster drummer Freddie (literally a painting as AM Static programs their drums). Awesome!!! We played 9 songs, mostly from the new album. It already feels pretty good at this point. But there are more important issues at hand. First, Bruins opening night against the Broadstreet Bullies. And now, A-Rod is facing a 1-2 count, down a run at the house Steinbrenner built in the bottom of the 9th of the divisional playoffs. Alas, the Mighty Casey strikes out once again. We pack up the van just in time to avoid the throngs of folks there for the DJ dance night. Where were all these people an hour ago? We had a great show regardless and want to thank Tim, Adam and staff from The Bug Jar for being incredibly gracious hosts. We look forward to a return next spring.

After driving and hour we hunker down at a motel somewhere between Rochester and Cleveland and sneak 5 guys into a single room while I take up floor space in the van. I don’t remember it being that cold on previous tours, but then again, the old bones feel the oncoming winter chill a bit more sharply these days. We’ll see you tomorrow, Cleveland. -- Noel Kelly

The Hush Now: Internerds | Facebook | Soundcloud | YouTube

Memos Tour
~~10.06 -- Rochester, NY -- The Bug Jar~~
10.07 -- Cleveland, OH -- Roc Bar
10.08 -- Chicago, IL -- Miskas
10.09 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Acadia café
10.11 -- Milwaukee, WI -- Frank's Powerplant
10.12 -- Indianapolis, IN -- Melody Inn
10.13 -- Knoxville, TN -- Preservation Pub
10.15 -- Asheville, NC -- Fred's Speakeasy
10.16 -- Nashville, TN -- The Muse
10.17 -- Lexington, KY -- Cosmic Charlies
10.18 -- Columbus, OH -- Skully's
10.19 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Arsenal Lanes
10.20 -- Philadelphia, PA -- The Fire
10.21 -- New York, NY -- Sullivan Hall
10.22 -- Somerville, MA -- Precinct

Today's Hotness: Dananananaykroyd, BDRM Eyes, Bonjour

2011-10-05T21:47:00.000-04:00

>> We've been remiss in noting the recently announced break-up of Glaswegian fight pop heroes Dananananaykroyd. The sextet announced last week here it will disband next month after a short farewell tour. The act released the best music of its career earlier this year on the self-released tour de force There Is A Way. Dananananaykroyd will release a final digital single for the barn-burner "Think And Feel" Nov. 7, and its final gig will be in Newcastle, UK on Nov. 12, the final date of a 12-city farewell tour the band is staging. We reviewed There Is A Way right here in July, and in the meantime we greatly enjoyed this Vice web series about the band. We've embedded the video "Black Wax," a standout track from Dananananaykroyd's 2009 full-length debut Hey Everyone! on Best Before, so watch it one more time and think about awesomeness. Dudes seriously did it their way. So long Dana, and thanks for all the rock. Stream There Is A Way via the Soundcloud embed below. Loudly.

Dananananaykroyd - There Is A Way

>> We are in receipt of a particularly hot recommendation from Chris of Young Adults, who last month turned us on to the apparently Southern New Hampshire-based shoegaze upstarts BDRM Eyes. As best as we can tell the quartet has recorded two sets of demos, the more recent of which is at least three songs recorded in early summer at Dead Air Studios in Western Massachusetts. All three of the more recent tracks -- "Big Boo," "Dilution" and "Garmonbozia" -- can be downloaded for free at BDRM Eyes' Bandcamp right here. And we highly recommend you do that, because BDRM Eyes is onto something. Perhaps not something completely new -- at least not yet -- but it is nonetheless quite tasty: big gritty guitars, big melodies, weighty rhythms and impressionistic vocals. We can only imagine what BDRM Eyes could turn out with unlimited resources in the studio. But as it is, all of the latest songs, and particularly "Big Boo," would not sound out of place at all on the absolutely classic 1993 Ten-Cent Fix compilation from Jiffy Boy Records, for example, wedged between Ultra Cindy and China Pig. And that's darn good company. We look forward to learning more about the band and hopefully seeing them sometime soon. Do yourself a favor and stream "Big Boo" below.

Big Boo by BDRM Eyes

>> Another great recommendation came from Johnny Foreigner, who posted this Bandcamp link to a new release by Philadelphia-based emo luminaries Bonjour. The two bands shared a bill during a rare American appearance by Johnny Foreigner, which apparently made quite an impression on the Johnny Foreigner kids. And now Bonjour has finally released some music in the form of its new Motivational Suicide EP. The collection of high-energy guitar pop is available at the aforementioned Bandcamp on a paywhutchalike basis, and the four songs are "I Tried It, I Liked It," "Trenton Makes The World Baked" (which closes with an appropriated bit of chorus from Modern English's "Melt With You" that is somehow even more catchy than the original), "Many Things Are Destroying Me" and "Football Hero." Sinewy guitar leads, shouty sing-along vocals, and bashing percussion means there's a lot to like here. According to this mysterious-seeming tumblr, Bonjour features (former? we don't know!) members of Dangerous Ponies, Airports, Storm The Bastille, Boy Problems, Pirouette, The Sniffles and Harrison Bergeron, none of whom we've heard, but we're certainly a bit interested too now. As with BDRM Eyes above, we look forward to seeing and hearing more from these guys. Hottt with three t's, as we think you'll agree when you stream "I Tried It, I Liked It" and the rest below.

MOTIVATIONAL SUICIDE EP (2011) by Bonjour

J. Robbins with Drew O'Doherty | The Lily Pad | 7 Oct.

2011-10-04T21:53:00.003-04:00

Folks of a certain age likely think of J. Robbins as the guy listed as the recording engineer on a million indie rock CDs from the last decade. But Mr. Robbins' personal history has greater musical import (not to discount his excellent recordings), first as one of the main creative engines (if not *the* main creative engine) in D.C. post-hardcore legends Jawbox, and later as the fronter of Burning Airlines. Jawbox's superlative collection For Your Own Special Sweetheart, released in 1994, practically defined the term post-hardcore, and it contains what may be our favorite 'box jam, "Reel," a blazing live performance of which is embedded above. But if you dig back even further, say to "Paint Out The Light" from 1990's Grippe released on Dischord, you'll see that Robbins has been turning out great music for a startlingly long time. Robbins makes a very rare local appearance Friday night, performing an early, all-ages, acoustic show at The Lily Pad in Cambridge. According to this Facebook event page, Robbins will be performing songs from his older bands as well as some from his latest project Office Of Future Plans. Advance tickets can be obtained through this EventBrite page. Doors at 6:30 and the show starts at 7PM sharp with Drew O'Doherty opening.

Footage: State Champion's Blindingly Sublime "The Basement" and "No Magick"

2011-10-02T22:13:00.000-04:00

Oh to be as drunk and free and blessed with musical genius as the cats in State Champion, who toss off lines like "Lord can't you take the back porch to the front of the house" and "I still smell her hair on the horizon sometimes..." like it's no big thing, like pulling Universal Truths out of your one good pocket, blowing the lint off of them and tossing them on the glass patio table littered with 49 sticky playing cards, empty packs of Winstons, spent spliffs and all the bottle caps up to but not including that one motherfucking bottle cap that chipped your tooth is just something everyone's doing. Watching this video may be the greatest moment in your life, so get comfy and really savor it.

Yeah. Right, State Champion, we wrote about them here two years ago. And we were in the middle of writing about them again this evening when we found the video embedded above and got our minds blown. Where were we, oh right... We like to think about State Champion's new release Deep Shit playing out in real time as a live set in an imaginary nightclub in front of a hundred people or so, and we like to think that the band is already half in the bag to the point of brilliance by the time they hit the stage, and select members of the audience are feeling particularly beautiful as well, and we like to think that when the band gets to the fifth song "No Magick" -- and particularly at the delivery of the fantastic lyric "I found out I was hollering the wrong word / and Jesus lives in the garage" -- that the entire audience achieves complete enlightenment at the same time. The ceiling cracks open and white light pours in like ocean water. The simple answer is the universal truth. You are in that audience, and you are so intoxicated you can't feel your face, but State Champion fronter Ryan Davis is fucking singing RIGHT TO YOU, INSIDE YOUR BRAIN, IT'S LIKE SILENT, BUT IT'S LIKE EVERYWHERE, YOU KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING. Oh man, I understand, I understand, I understand everything. Oh man. Check the Soundcloud embed below.

State Champion's "No Magick"

State Champion's Deep Shit, its second full-length and fifth release depending on how and if you count, was recorded live in an attic on the south side of Chicago at the close of the band's spring tour. The cracking set features both the often-augmented trio's "The Basement" and "No Magick" as well as five other fizzing and punked-up country-rock numbers the likes of which we don't hear often enough. The collection is available as a 12" LP Tuesday distributed by the good people of Drag City (meaning you might be able to walk into your local indie rock purveyor and actually find this). Mr. Davis' Sophomore Lounge label will have stock of the record Oct. 25 and you can buy it through the web site from that date, or, hell, they're taking pre-orders. And State Champion is on tour RIGHT NOW, and coming to play in Allston Rock City this Friday night at some place we never heard of. Full tour dates below. Get into it.

10.03 -- SOUNDLAB -- BUFFALO, NY
10.04 -- THE BUG JAR -- ROCHESTER, NY
10.06 -- THE MONKEY HOUSE -- WINOOSKI, VT
10.07 -- THE SMOKEY BEAR CAVE -- ALLSTON, MA
10.08 -- THE GUTTER -- BROOKLYN, NY
10.10 -- SILK CITY -- PHILADELPHIA, PA
10.11 -- BOHEMIAN -- BALTIMORE, MD
10.12 -- BACKSTREET PUB -- BEAUFORT, NC
10.13 -- THE PINHOOK -- DURHAM, NC
10.14 -- NIGHTLIGHT -- CHAPEL HILL, NC
10.15 -- ROCK BOTTOM HOUSE -- ATLANTA, GA
10.17 -- BURRO BAR -- JACKSONVILLE, FL
10.18 -- LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE -- MEMPHIS, TN
10.20 -- CLUB 21 -- LOUISVILLE, KY
10.22 -- MOVE-TASTIC PIG ROAST -- CHICAGO, IL

Be Prepared: Benjamin Shaw | There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet | 21 Nov.

2011-09-30T22:07:00.000-04:00

Hopelessly beautiful, crumbling chamber pop masterpiece from charming London-based wretch Benjamin Shaw. There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet is sometimes like a blinky star you can't always see directly, and other times like a skeleton in a bridal gown that disintegrates in your arms as you gently waltz it into the surf while the packets of rat poison are kicking in. It's a majestic thing, this record, and each and every one of its songs. There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet is the sound of a man smashed to bits by a hammer and haphazardly reconstructed with clear tape, a mostly-ghost anchored in place by an enlarged heart and necrotic liver thought-bubbling songs so deeply sad you can drop pebbles down in them and wait and wait and never hear the splash. Spectral vocals condense and then decompose between the headphones, static unexplains itself in the foreground, violin patiently loses its mind, guitar and piano and synth take turns at half-heartedly asserting traditional structures.

The record is Mr. Shaw's first full-length, and (as we mentioned here in July) it will be released in the UK by the unwillingly brilliant Audio Antihero label Nov. 21. The collection will be preceded by the laughably un-pop single "Somewhere Over The M6," which Audio Antihero dubs "accidental shoegaze;" it is slated to hit digital storefronts Oct. 17. "Somewhere Over The M6," a stream of which is embedded below, is tied to a rhythm sample that sounds like a boat creaking, or a proto-iron lung wheezing under a cloudy chorus of slowly turning chords. But it is the paralyzingly beautiful "Home" that may be the most stunning song of the collection, a mournful lament that slowly builds a cocoon of noise and melody around itself, twice. Pre-order There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet from Audio Antihero right here. Audio Antihero previously released Shaw's EPs I Got The Pox, The Pox Is What I Got in 2009 and the sinister Rumfucker in 2010; the latter EP is currently available as a pay-what-you-want download here and we can't recommend it highly enough. But not quite as highly as Cabernet, which by rights should dot year-end best-of lists you'll be seeing in the coming months.

There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet by Benjamin Shaw

Be Prepared: Ringo Deathstarr | Shadow EP | 7 November

2011-09-28T23:41:00.000-04:00

Chaotic and brilliant umpteenth EP from Austin, Texas-based punk/shoegaze cyborgs Ringo Deathstarr, perhaps the most dangerous band in American indie rock these days. The title track to Shadow features guest hollering from ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead's Jason Reece (as we reported here earlier this month) paired with bassist Alex Gehring's always affecting, breathy murmur. "Shadow" touts heavier mechanical rhythm tracks as well, and in tandem with Reece's gut-punching vocals the tune may be the most delightfully heavy thing the Texas trio has recorded. Three additional songs comprise the rest of the EP, including the stunningly ethereal "Prisms" and a cover of "Just You" from the massively excellent '90s television series "Twin Peaks." We're not making this up. Shadow will be released in the UK by Club AC30 Nov. 7 and pre-orders will ship a week early; there is as yet no North American release information. The EP is being pressed to 10" Japanese Cherry Blossom scented pink and purple swirly vinyl in what is described as a "very limited edition." Every 10" will be packaged with a card containing instructions for accessing "lots of" extra remixes of "Shadows." Nylon got the exclusive on the Soundcloud stream of the EP so RUN DON'T WALK over to this hyperlinked uniform resource locator and bliss out to the sounds. As if all of that wasn't excitement enough for a late Wednesday night, Club AC30 reports that the EP is a harbinger of a sophomore full length from The Deathstarr to be released in February 2012. Meaning your life has improved dramatically just over the small amount of time it took you to read this paragraph. We reviewed Ringo Deathstarr's July performance in Boston right here, and we reviewed the band's long-awaited full-length debut Colour Trip right here in May. Pre-order Shadow from Club AC30 right here.

Today's Hotness: Fanzine, Yuck, Whirr, Saint Solitude

2011-09-27T22:36:00.001-04:00

>> Fat Possum is doubling down on UK guitar bands, as it disclosed today it will release the debut single from Fanzine, an act vigorously touted by London-based indie phenoms Yuck earlier this year. Yuck, of course, issued its debut self-titled LP via Fat Possum early in 2011. On Nov. 22 Fat Possum will deliver Fanzine's double A-side single "Roman Holiday" b/w "My Stupid Brain" in a limited edition of 500. The single will be available as a traditional vinyl 7" as well as a CD-R packaged with -- surprise, surprise -- an illustrated fanzine. Fanzine's previous self-released EP1 similarly packaged music in a 'zine, although that was distributed as a PDF with an embedded URL pointing to MP3s. "Roman Holiday" has higher production values than the music on EP1, but continues to rely on fuzzy vocals, big guitars and bigger melodic hooks, not unlike the aforementioned Yuck. In case you didn't get a chance to download EP1, it looks like this link is still live. And speaking of Yuck, the quartet continues to ride high on the success of its self-titled debut, and last week launched yet another in a rapid succession of U.S. tours with a stirring performance at TT The Bear's in Cambridge, MA. Yuck has gone over so well that Fat Possum is issuing a special double-CD/vinyl version of the collection whose second disc contains a half-dozen B-sides, including "Soothe Me." The band put the song, recorded a few months ago in London when the band had some down time, up on its Soundcloud earlier this week. Stream the mid-tempo space ballad via the embed below.

Roman Holiday by Fanzine

Soothe Me by Yuck

>> Hat tip to Sonic Masala for bringing to our attention with this item that Northern California-based shoegaze sextet Whirl has re-branded itself as Whirr. The change was apparently due to some sort of legal issue having to do with the use of the name. But more importantly, Whirr has a new single, June, out today on New York-based Tee Pee Records and it is AMAZING. The song "Junebouvier" from the single was premiered elsewhere earlier this summer and we missed it, but we've dropped a Soundcloud embed below so you can bask in the swirling, guitar-y gloriousness. June is available in a limited edition of 250 Coke-bottle green vinyl 7"s, and the single sets the stage for a full-length that Whirr was scheduled to begin recording last month. Back when the band was known as Whirl, it self-released the EP Distressor in 2010, which we wrote about right here. June sounds like a big step beyond Distressor, and we are commensurately beyond-excited to hear the planned full-length; there's no word yet as to when it will be issued.

Whirr-Junebouvier by Not Enough Recognition

>> Today is a big new release day, in case you didn't know. In addition to the Whirr single mentioned supra, The Hush Now's sparkling third record Memos is officially out. Also now available is folk-rock (now-)foursome Saint Solitude's enjoyably breezy sophomore set By Some Great Storm. Think early, more acoustic-oriented Small Factory and you are in the ballpark. Asheville, NC-based Saint Solitude mastermind and one-time sole proprietor Dup Crosson has galvanized a band around him, and, based on a couple listens, it sounds like Mr. Crosson is letting the dynamic of the band take a central role, as opposed to adding sonic flourishes and overdubs like those that filled out 2009's Journal Of Retreat. Crosson mentioned somewhere recently that he'd been feeling a Smashing Pumpkins vibe of late, and we hoped that influence would find its way into By Some Great Storm. The new rocker "Lifted" certainly does lay on the Corgan guitar fuzz and its drums hit a little harder than Crosson's typical jams, but by and large the new record continues Saint Solitude's mapping of rootsier indie pop. Buy By Some Great Storm from Alive And Well Records here or Bandcamp here, and get out to support the band when it comes to your town on tour next month. We wrote about the Saint Solitude's standalone single "Deliverance" right here last month.

Clicky Clicky Radio: the Inevitable R.E.M. Tribute | 9.22.11

2011-09-26T12:03:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday's edition of Clicky Clicky Radio was the Inevitable R.E.M. Tribute! Stream the archive below, (or download it!). Read Jay's tribute, while yer at it.

The playlist:
The Feelies - Slipping (Into Something) - The Good Earth (2010 Remaster) - Produced by Peter Buck

R. E. M. - Green Grow The Rushes (demo) - Fables of The Reconstruction (2010 Deluxe Edition)

Mission of Burma - Academy Fight Song - Signals Calls and Marches (1980)

Oxford Collapse - The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight - Stereogum Presents: DRIVE XV: A Tribute to
Automatic For The People (free download here) (2007)

The Baseball Project - 1976 - Vol. 2: High and Inside (2011) - Peter Buck on guitar

Drivin' n' Cryin' - Honeysuckle Blue (demo) - Archives Vol. 2: Mystery Road Demos - (c. 1990) Produced by Peter Buck

Kevn Kinney - MacDougal Blues - MacDougal Blues (1990)- Produced by Peter Buck, who plays multiple instruments

Michael Stipe - Everything's Come Undone - Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy (2009)

Pavement - Camera - Cut Your Hair (single) (1994)

Pavement - The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence - No Alternative (1993)

fIREHOSE - For The Singer of R.E.M. - If'n (1987)

King Missile - Get Up - Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M. (1992)

Hindu Love Gods - Raspberry Beret - Hindu Love Gods (1990) - Warren Zevon with Buck, Mills, and Berry

R.E.M. - Burning Down - Dead Letter Office (1987)

Pylon - Crazy - Chomp (1983) - Athens contemporaries

Old 97's - Driver 8 - Mimeograph EP

Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Dark Green Energy - Ultra Unbelievable Love (single) (1991) - with Stipe and Buck

Jawbox - Low - Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M. (1992)

The Replacements - Radio Free Europe - The Shit Hits The Fans (1985)

13111 - My Bible Is The Latest TV Guide - 13111 12" single (1989) - solo single by Bill Berry

Tesco Vee's Hate Police - Losing My Religion - Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M. (1992)

Peter Buck - (Untitled Track 5) - Dinner With Friends (2001) - Buck scored this play and released a few tracks for it on the R.E.M. website. Only slightly more info here.

R.E.M. - New Test Leper - New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)

Uncle Tupelo - Shaky Ground - March 16-20 1992 (1992) - Produced by Peter Buck

Bill Janovitz - Wendell Gee - Cover of the Week (2009) - Download it here.

Vic Chestnutt - It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M. (1992)

Vic Chestnutt - Guilty By Association - Is The Actor Happy? (1995) - with Michael Stipe

Billy Bragg - You Woke Up My Neighborhood - Don't Try This At Home (1991) - with Buck and Stipe

Mr. T Experience - Can't Get There From Here - Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M. (1992)

R.E.M. - ÜBerlin - Collapse Into Now (2011)

Listen to Clicky Clicky Radio live on Thursdays from 8-10 pm eastern on Boston Free Radio or saunter on over to the archives and check out a recent show!

-Michael Piantigini

That Was The Show That Was: Soccer Mom Record Release Show | TT The Bear's Place, Cambridge, MA | Sept. 23

2011-09-25T22:55:00.000-04:00

The few inconsequential hiccups during Soccer Mom's striking live set for its You Are Not Going To Heaven EP release show -- a broken string, a false start here and there -- are entirely understandable within the context of the Boston quartet's now reliably cataclysmic live performances. At any given moment Friday evening guitarist/singers Dan Parlin and William Scales were doing all they could to keep their respective streams of colliding positrons blasting from their amps from crossing, which theoretically would have vaporized all of TT The Bear's, as well as much of the northern end of Brookline Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That the mass of humanity present for the show (which show included attendant sets by Autochrome, Marconi and Emergency Music) survived intact, and were treated to Soccer Mom's astonishing serial delivery of squalling noise rock anthems to boot, well, that's just icing, baby. Soccer Mom's performance was highlighted by the increasingly familiar, lights-out bludgeoning of "Southern Bells," the retro-Youth buzzsaw of the Scales-sung "(A) Natural History" and Mr. Parlin's bending, existential wailers "Celebrity Unrest" and "American Shirt (Eagle Flag 911)." The band's energy level was high, and despite its meandering path in the general direction of becoming one of Boston's most-buzzed about bands, it was hard not to feel like Soccer Mom is reaping hard-fought rewards. You Are Not Going To Heaven resolutely establishes Soccer Mom as the real deal, not bad for a foursome whose only other release is a single. The band has another record release show booked for New York Oct. 8 at Party XPO (XPO 929) in Brooklyn, and makes a return to Boston stages Oct. 22 at Precinct in Somerville, MA.