Review: Radiator Hospital | Torch Song

Among rock-and-roll songwriters, there are something like three archetypes: the industrious perfectionist, the chronic over-sharer, and, well, all those other people. Sam Cook-Parrott is most certainly of the over-sharing ilk. A perusal of his indie rock concern Radiator Hospital's Bandcamp page speaks to a prolific bent, and -- more importantly -- a mastery of power-pop that few Cook-Parrot's age can claim. His band's oeuvre presents an embarrassment of riches, with records that shift through various styles while reliably twisting nostalgia and heartbreak into arms-outstretched, sing-alongable anthems. Indeed, the best-of-2013 full length Something Wild [review] found Radiator Hospital equally adept at crafting potent, Hüsker Dü-descended pop-punk and crackly, confessional downer folk. Radiator Hospital's fizzing latest collection Torch Song is perhaps even more lean and refreshing, and ably hoists the act up onto par -- in terms of renown -- with its more-celebrated affiliates.

For many, Something Wild, and particularly its killer songwriting and vital perfomances, served as a proper introduction to Radiator Hospital. The runaway successes of Waxahatchee and Swearin' (certain members of which have contributed and continue to contribute to Radiator Hospital records) definitely cast some reflected glory upon Something Wild, but Radiator Hospital need not ride anyone's coattails. And Torch Song is the definitive proof. The set sparkles with uptempo, Buffalo Tom-styled rockers like "Five & Dime" and "Honeymoon Phase" as well as more pensive acoustic strummers like the bottomlessly poignant "Fireworks (Reprise)" and the concise gem "I’m Alright." All of it is delivered with remarkable economy. Indeed, Cook-Parrott is smart to remain true to the short burst, high reward modus operandi of Something Wild by opening the new set with "Leather & Lace," a thrilling punk ditty punctuated by drummer Jeff Bolt's frenetic rolls and a barn-burning final chorus. Elsewhere, the record's notable guest vocalists provide perfect foils to Cook-Parrott's high and lonesome singing, as both Crutchfield sisters and All Dogs' Maryn Jones each feature prominently on various tracks. However, Torch Song's greatest vocal turns come from Cook-Parrott himself, when he harmonizes his higher register with a laconic, gravel-y monotone. The verses of closer "Midnight Nothing" eschew singing altogether, opting for a sing-speak style conveys well the narrative nature of the song’s evocative lyrics -- before bursting forth once more with life-affirming choruses.

Torch Song is not only the best Radiator Hospital record to date, but it also includes its fair share of outlier ideas. The most intriguing of these is "Sleeping House," a late-album swoon that rests on nothing more than some minimal rhythm work and a droning, repetitive organ lead. In-and-out well before the three-minute mark, the song makes a strong argument for Radiator Hospital as ambient-pop project. Still, its likely just another genre experiment from Cook-Parrott: a guy who succeeds at those sort of things far more than he fails. Preorders for the Torch Song LP are being taken by Detroit-based label Salinas Records here right now. The record is also available as a pay-what-you-like download via Bandcamp; click through the embed below to purchase. -- Dillon Riley

Radiator Hospital: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internerds

Reviewed: Big Dipper, Banquet Hall

Big Dipper Crashes On The Platinum Planets' second track should have been its first. It's a lament, but also a prayer of sorts to activate the muse for this, the first new Big Dipper album in over 20 years (sort of) - hoping for "voices that guide a rising chorus that opens wide!" So goes Gary Waleik's "Robert Pollard," which worries that a classic era of songwriters like namechecked Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Jagger-Richards, and Newmans both Randy and Colin, is coming to end and all hope lies with Guided By Voices oracle Robert Pollard (who also created the album's cover art) may be the last man standing to carry the torch. The merits of that argument are called into question by its very existence as "Robert Pollard" is catchy as hell.

But maybe not as catchy as "Princess Warrior," drummer Jeff Oliphant's highly hummable tribute to cancer recovery. The refrain's plead "help me get back on my knees, I'm begging you, begging you please" is as big a hook as they make 'em. The album covers some wider ground too: Goffrier's "Joke Outfit" has biting guitar and smiting lyrics, and his "Hurricane Bill," "Pitbull Cruiser," and "Happy New Year" are grand, smooth pop. Waleik's "Sarah and Monica" recalls Dipper's longtime (and perhaps over-estimated) association with scientific and extra-terrestrial imagery (c.f. "Lunar Module," among others), but is as much a memory of summers past spent under "constellations in summer skies," though it does ask "is memory matter, in that it can be destroyed?"

Big Dipper Crashes On The Platinum Planet is everything we'd hoped it would be. Full of catchy hooks, idiosyncratic playful guitar jousting, and that essential silliness that make the band what it is. That latter bit may be the most important. Whether it's oddball characters called Lord Scrumptious, or the way Bill Goffrier hesitates while reaching for a high note in your face, or the way his guitar jabs in response to Gary Waleik's, Big Dipper continues to remind us that this whole music thing is supposed to be fun.

The self-recorded album out this week (very limited blue vinyl available here and signed CDs here) is their first since their 1990 major label debut (and finale) and their 1992 breakup. This reunion run started in 2008, when Merge, doing a great public service, reissued the band's Homestead catalog (an EP and two nearly perfect albums), along with a revelatory collection of an album's worth of material recorded but never released after the band's very short major label tenure. That collection, and the band's joyous reunion shows, hinted at what they were still capable of. Now we know for sure.




This is just the latest in a great classic Boston rock renaissance that I've talked a lot about in this space. These last few weeks alone have seen reunions of legends Human Sexual Response (who played literally every song they released in their short 80's run) and 90's indie pop favorites Fuzzy, who played a birthday show for one of their guitarist-singers, along with Tanya Donnelly playing a few Belly hits with Buffalo Tom as her backing band, along with the latter running through a few of their biggies as well.

This isn't just about reunions, though. I always closely associated Big Dipper with their contemporaries The Cavedogs as they trod the same boards around town and were in the same rough neighborhood of 'pop,' but the latter with their own bent and a bigger rock sound and more 12-string jangle. Like Big Dipper, the Cavedogs had their own flirt with the majors that led to their downfall. Their guitarist, Todd Spahr, spent the 90's leading greats Merang and then The Gravy before pulling up stakes and moving to Los Angeles. Save a couple of Cavedogs reunions (like this one a couple of summers ago), we haven't heard from him in awhile.

He finally resurfaces as a member of Banquet Hall, along with a couple of other Boston transplants. Rick Shaw, a criminally under-appreciated songwriter that some called the Godfather of the Northern Worcester County post-punk scene (by 'some' I mean I called him that) when he fronted his early band, Navy Blue Nuns (grab their great compilation here) before leading a couple of quality Boston bands like The Meltaways and Krebstar, handles the other guitar and Paula Kelly, who cut her teeth in cult legends Drop Nineteens and remained a prominent scene figure throughout the late 90's and early aughts, plays the bass and does some arranging as well.

After grinding it out in L.A. clubs for a few years now, the band has just released their debut album, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, which is the sum of its great parts. Right off the top of it feels so great to hear Spahr's playful jittery guitar chords on leadoff track "Stars After Stars" and Shaw's pop classicist approach to "Puppets," with warm lounge harmonies from the Watson Twins. Later, Spahr's "Urban Renewal" betrays an Elvis Costello influence wrapped in a cozy acoustic guitar, Shaw's "Bells On" is the kind of heart-on-your-sleeve pop song that Boston songwriters (like, say, Buffalo Tom) seem to do so well, and the band resurrects an old Merang single to great effect with lost classic "Drunk and Quartered."

Here, have a listen:


-Michael Piantigini


Big Dipper: Facebook | Twitter 
Banquet Hall: Facebook | Bandcamp

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

[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

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

[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

[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

[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

Review: Buffalo Tom | Skins

Thankfully, we haven't had to wait as long for Skins (out tomorrow on the band's own imprint, Scrawny Records) as we did for Three Easy Pieces, the album Buffalo Tom returned with in 2007 after a nine-year semi-hiatus. Better still, the new set is a stronger album. Where Three Easy Pieces felt sort of self-conscious in trying to figure out what the band means in the new century, Skins finds the band on more confident footing.

Its sound is layered and textured, with pianos and acoustic guitars and mandolins alongside some big SG/Marshall power chords. It breathes. That much of it was recorded with Paul Q. Kolderie at Camp Street Studios, with whom and where the band last worked with on its watershed 1992 album, Let Me Come Over (Camp Street being in what used to be the legendary Fort Apache studios) is probably no coincidence.

It's real, just as Buffalo Tom always have been. They've always been a band that's wears its heart on its sleeve, but in ways we can all relate to and with a sound to match. It's as if the Stones, Van Morrison, and The Who weren't Ivory Tower rock stars, but rather guys that grew up on your block or that you went to school with.

Skins' foundation lies in tracks 3-5. I don't think I'm out of line suggesting that guitarist Bill Janovitz has a trademark chord progression style out of which he's somehow managed, with subtle variances, to wrangle a couple of the band's biggest songs, "Taillights Fade" and "I'm Allowed." Here, it yields "Down" and its infectious titular refrain, and it feels as timeless a Buffalo Tom track as this all suggests. "Don't Forget Me" doesn't even need its lyrics to make you run your whole life through your mind and Tanya Donnelly's harmonies seal the deal; its follow-up "Guilty Girls" should be the feel-good rocker hit of the summer.

Meanwhile, bassist Chris Colbourn's songs here are still disarmingly simple in structure, but there's a lot to unpack. Where he recalled Maria Callas on Three Easy Pieces (on "CC and Callas"), here, "Miss Barren Brooks" remembers silent film actress Louise Brooks. Yes, I had to Google that.

Skins all comes down to the album's central broken heart, "The Big Light," Janovitz's dedication to his beloved uncle (he related the devastating story on his blog in 2009). It's a soaring rush of a racing mind trying to process a tragedy. Two-chord songs have rarely been more powerful.

The album's solo demos -- included on a deluxe edition -- are a must. There's not necessarily many major revelations of lost verses and nixed middle eights -- their arrangements are more or less the same. But the spare sound gives the songs even more heft. They sound like they were recorded after a long night of pouring hearts into song. Those pure moments of creation. Special mention to Colbourn's demo of "The Hawks & The Sparrows," which is a charming mix of his cracking, ill-sounding voice over a background of playing children.

Buffalo Tom has always meant autumn and back-to-school and flannel and melancholy reminiscence and the mental steeling for a bleak New England winter. Skins is not so different, but the end-of-winter release puts it in a different perspective. It breathes with that cool breeze from the first pre-Spring open window. It's still a bit dark and dreary outside, but we're turning that calendar page.

They're on tour in Europe right now, but return for a hometown gig at the Paradise on April 8th and play 2 for New Hampshire Public Radio in Portsmouth just before that on April 2nd. More US dates follow.

Their full schedule:
March 7, 2011: Melkweg, Amsterdam, Holland
March 8, 2011: Luxor, Cologne, Germany
March 10, 2011: Dingwalls, London, England
March 11, 2011: Sound Control, Manchester, England
March 12, 2011: Oran Mor, Glasgow, Scotland

April 2, 2011: The Music Hall, Portsmouth, NH (2 shows)
April 8, 2011: The Paradise, Boston, MA
April 13, 2011: Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN
April 14, 2011: Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL
April 28, 2011: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
April 29, 2011: M Room, Philadelphia, PA
April 30, 2011: The Black Cat, Washington, D.C.

May 17, 2011: Slim's, San Francisco, CA
May 18, 2011: Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA
May 19, 2011: Doug Fir, Portland, OR
May 20, 2011: Chop Suey, Seattle, WA

-Michael Piantigini

BUFFALO TOM: Intertubes | Twitter | Facebook | MySpace | Fan Reference

BILL JANOVITZ: Blog | Intertubes | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

Today's Hotness: Buffalo Tom tonight at the Paradise

[Last year's Buffalo Tom show at the Paradise, Boston MA 6/26/2009. Photo by Michael Piantigini]

In this post-millenial era, it may not be so obvious what are the side projects and what are the main gigs for self-described “part time man of rock” Bill Janovitz and his cohorts in Boston-via-UMASS local heroes Buffalo Tom. The reality is that it's all side project at this point, the band having long settled into domestic life and day jobs - er, make that careers - that involve an actual paycheck.

But that’s ok – so has the fan base that have been following them since their self-titled debut album from 1989 or even the ones that they picked up on the bigger commercial breakthrough that their 4th album, 1993’s Big Red Letter Day and its exposure on TV’s My So Called Life. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with having a day job and making music – that’s what most bands do, right? Buffalo Tom always had sort of a band-next-door-made-good kind of quality to them – they’re like us, we’re like them. They sing about day-to-day stuff we know about. There was never any phony rock star mystique. There still isn’t. Now, we may be a bit older, wiser, busier, but we still like to crank up Let Me Come Over whenever we can.

After supporting 1998’s Smitten, the band layed low but never really broke up, even though many thought they had - there was a particular Somerville Theatre gig in 2001 that, for no specific reason, everyone in attendance seemed to be assuming was their last. Thankfully it wasn't, but the band layed pretty low for a several years, usually playing one or two local gigs a year. Janovitz, in particular, kept pretty busy during this time by playing residencies, making solo albums, making Beatles albums with Graham Parker, writing books, etc.

Finally in 2007, the layoff ended and the band released the excellent Three Easy Pieces, which both felt informed by the influence of the intervening years and also like they never left. Clusters of tour dates followed, including a SXSW set that felt like a comeback event. Us Bostonians in the crowd may have known better, but it felt great anyway. The return to playing with regularity had them sounding as great as ever.

Tonight, they play the Paradise with Yep Roc-ers Peggy Sue just a couple of weeks shy of a year since they last played there. This could be just a warm up for another period of sustained activity, too – as Janovitz has been reporting on his blog (and Colbourn on the band’s message board), they’ve finished another new album, so we will anxiously be hoping to hear lots of new stuff interspersed with classics like "Taillights Fade" and "Birdbrain." Hey, how about “Your Stripes” while you’re at it?

-Michael Piantigini

Buffalo Tom: Intertubes | MySpace | Facebook | YouTube | Kitchen Door (exhaustive fan chronicle)
Bill Janovitz: Intertubes | Blog | MySpace | Facebook | YouTube

For Amie: A Breast Cancer Awareness Benefit | Oct. 17

All the info is there in the poster. Interesting fact: we've never seen Bill Janovitz perform, not solo, not with Buffalo Tom, not with Crown Victoria. So we're actually really looking forward to this for more than just a chance to get out and support friends and a good cause. We've never seen Ms. Hersh either, although her bands don't loom nearly as large in our musical past as does Buffalo Tom. That band's "For All To See" from the No Alternative comp is as perfect an indie rock number as has been recorded, and there are tons of great songs spread across albums like Big Red Letter Day, Sleepy Eyed and Smitten. If you haven't been keeping up with Mr. Janovitz lately, his blog is always interesting and entertaining. Even better, he has been recording and posting cover tunes for about a year, if not more. We're posting a couple of our favorites below. We'll note for the record that right after Palace released Hope we stole the opening line for "Agnes..." for one of our own songs, brazenly, blatantly. And we'd do it again. See you Saturday afternoon at the Middle East.

Bill Janovitz -- "Agnes, Queen of Sorrow (Palace Music cover)" -- Cover of the Week
Bill Janovitz -- "Johnsburg, Illinois (Tom Waits cover)" -- Cover of the Week
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[buy Buffalo Tom records from Newbury Comics right here]

Today's Hotness: Algernon Cadwallader, Bill Janovitz

>> Be Happy Records has reissued the debut "demo" 7" from Philly-based emo superlatives Algernon Cadwallader, and so we are finally initiating coverage of the act with an emphatic "buy" rating. A 2008 re-pressing of the release, originally issued in 2006, sold out briskly. The disc includes four tracks, "Second Rate Machines," "Breath Wish," "Look Down..." and "Sailor Set Sell." Those unfamiliar with the act(which in the excellent video clip above is a four-piece, but at its MySpace lists itself as a trio?) will be surprised to learn it sounds very convincingly like the fabled Kinsella-led second-wave emo goliath Cap'n Jazz. Which is a long way of saying that Algernon Cadwallader is awesome. Be Happy also sells a full-length from the band titled Some Kind Of Cadwallader, which sold out of its initial April 2008 pressing of 1,096 units (uh, random) and is now available via a second tranche of 1,100 made available last August. A 7" for "Hot Green" is expected soon, although not so soon that you can pre-order it anywhere. That piece of vinyl will be packaged with a CD of the tracks and other unspecified "extras." Who doesn't love extras? Anyhoo, the band makes a return to live playing later this month; Algernon Cadwallader had been sidelined since early November, when drummer Tank broke his ankle 12 days into what was to have been a nine-week U.S. tour. Check out the awesome clip of the band playing "Serial Killer Status" in Amherst, Mass. last June. We've posted the confirmed forthcoming dates below. We're actually hoping to get the band on-board for a Show Us Yours feature, but so far every time we've tried to message them via MySpace News Corp.'s awesome web site blocks my message because it considers it Spam. Awesome web site you got there, Rupert...

02/21 -- Lingerie Room -- Harrisburg, PA
03/11 -- Danger Danger -- Philadelphia, PA
03/14 -- Stomping Grounds -- Lancaster, PA

>> If you have yet to catch on to what Bill Janovitz -- who you may know better as the guitarist and singer in Buffalo Tom or the fronter of Crown Victoria -- is up to, it is time to seize the day. Mr. Janovitz has been posting at his blog a dazzling selection of acoustic covers over the last few months as part of his series Cover Of The Week. If anything the cuts are amazing because he has selected some of our favorite songs, including The Replacements' "Little Mascara," Palace Music's "Agnes, Queen Of Sorrow," Tom Waits' "Johnsburg, Ill." and, most recently, The Clash's "Straight To Hell." Get thee to this link and start following along or RSSing or whatever it is the kids do these days. We recall listening to a pre-release version of "Agnes, Queen Of Sorrow" in our dog Matt's mother's driveway in Amherst, Mass. when we were still in college together, and the song has been a favorite since Oldham uttered that first line. Janovitz most certainly does the song justice, so we're posting it below. Janovitz has a residency at Toad in Cambridge, Mass. every Saturday night of this month, and we're holding out hope that we'll actually make it to one. All those dates are in our sidebar, which in case you haven't noticed has had a little something called Clicky Clicky Club Picks in it since the beginning of the year.

Bill Janovitz -- "Agnes, Queen Of Sorrow" -- Cover Of The Week
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[buy Buffalo Tom records from Newbury Comics here]
[buy Bill Janovitz and Crown Victoria records from Newbury Comics here]
[buy Palace Brothers records from Newbury Comics here]

>> We can report that one additional 2009 vinyl release alluded to by Austin, Texas-based indie juggernauts Ringo Deathstarr last week will be issued by UK-based SVC Records; it remains unclear whether there will be others. SVC, which originally issued the band's exceptional 2007 self-titled EP, will offer this spring or summer a two-song 7" from The Deathstarr. The band is said to have plans to finish recording the tracks sometime soon. Notably, the single will be SVC's first vinyl release. The label expects to offer records from Sky Drops and The Vandelles prior to the single hitting racks. As we reported here last week, Maryland-based indie label Fan Death will reissue (and issue on vinyl for the very first time) Ringo Deathstarr's excellent Ringo Deathstarr EP as a hot pink 12" in a limited edition of 500.

Today's Hotness: Spoon, Fugazi, Christie Front Drive

>> Have you been saving your shekels (or Koomzles) for the big new release day tomorrow? We'll likely step out for the new Interpol set, hoping that Newbury Comics is offering it at a good discount. In our estimation, however, the biggest release is the new Spoon set, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which we've been listening to daily since the promo arrived. A truly superlative effort, wall-to-wall, song for song, with typically tight, deconstructed pop songs and really engaging production. Our pre-order arrived Saturday. It was packaged with the bonus disc Get Nice, which we can report is almost as forgettable as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is unforgettable (sorry guys). It's certainly an interesting listen, but the only track we imagine we'll be returning to is the demo version of "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb." Anyway, as far as other new releases, we imagine we'll grab the new Buffalo Tom after reading a lot of good things, and maybe the new They Might Be Giants because it was produced by Jon Brion and is supposedly a bit of a rock record. And that'll be that.

Spoon -- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga [album stream]

>> Pre-orders are now being taken for Glen Friedman's very promising book of Fugazi photos titled "Keep Your Eyes Open." The hardcover streets Sept. 3, costs $30 and includes about 200 images spread across 112 pages. Perhaps equally as exciting is noted raconteur and former Nation Of Ulysses and Make Up fronter Ian Svenonious has penned a 6,000-word essay included in the book. There's more info here.

>> Although the news broke last week, we feel it is worth noting that superlative second-wave emo giants Christie Front Drive will reunite for a single, all-ages performance Sept. 1 at DenverFest III. Needless to say, kids on the message boards are going nuts, and prepping for long drives. The Denver-based quartet broke up in 1998. Its split 10" with Boys Life, released on Crank! in April 1996, is among the best 10" records ever released. The record is out of print -- not sure if that goes for the CD version we picked up several years ago, too. But in the event you've never heard Christie Front Drive, this is our favorite jam of theirs, as we'll throw in Boys Life's obliterating "Two Wheeled Train" from the flipside to boot:

Christie Front Drive -- "Valentine" -- Christie Front Drive/Boys Life split 10"
Boys Life -- "Two Wheeled Train" -- Christie Front Drive/Boys Life split 10"
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>> A local note for Bostonians. After an interminable renovation, one-time dive live venue O'Brien's in Allston Rock City is set to re-open. The only venue we've ever played at twice. More details at The Phoenix here.

Review: Auto Interiors | Let's Agree To Deceive Our Best Friends [MP3]

The name Auto Interiors sounds like the title to a late '80s Rush album or a Gary Numan cover band. But no, it is the moniker of an arresting power-pop quartet operating out of Cambridge, Mass. After being contacted by a friendly Rykodisc rep about the nearly decade-old band and checking them out, we were easily sold by its hooky compositions. Still, it took a while to quantify what we enjoy about the band. Part of it is obvious: the vocals of Eric Waxwood and the chunky guitars are aurally similar to those of another important Boston act -- Buffalo Tom (incidentally, Stereogum has information about the forthcoming Buffalo Tom set and an MP3 here). But there is another element pervading Auto Interior's hummable tunes, and after some consideration we think we can name it: it is a detached, vaudeville tunefulness (check out "Small Death") of the sort prominent in the songwriting of Franklin Bruno, he best known for his work in Nothing Painted Blue. Based on the band's MySpace dojo, we think Auto Interiors would argue its compositions are more Beatles and Kinks homage (check those "ahhhhhs" on "I Suppose," which is available for download at the band's MySpace hizzy) than Tin Pan Alley-tinged.

Either way, we're talking about eminently listenable music -- we're just embarrassed someone had to point out something to us that has been right under our proverbial noses as long as we've lived in Boston. Let's Agree To Deceive Our Best Friends, the band's sophomore set, is packed tightly with catchy tunes, 11 in a mere 34 minutes, so make sure to hit the repeat button on your IPod as it blows by all too quickly. The band will be performing live on Boston radio station WBCN Sunday May 6 at 10PM, for those of you who still quaintly adhere to terrestrial radio. To catch AI live any time soon, your best best is a gig at Piano's in Manhattan May 10. Auto Interiors' Let's Agree... was released by Rykodisc March 13. The set ends big with the uncharacteristically dark and dense strummer "Green Arrow," a bracing psych-rock amalgamation that sounds like equal parts Yo La Tengo and The Cult, which we're posting for a limited time below.

Auto Interiors -- "Green Arrow" -- Let's Agree to Deceive Our Best Friends
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[buy Auto Interiors music from Newbury Comics here and Rykodisc here]

Auto Interiors: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr