Boston: Here's Your Weekend, By Dillon, You're Welcome

After perusing the Internerds, weighing intently various social media invites/life surveillance checkpoints and surveying the websites of the many reputable rock clubs about town, we have determined that -- rain notwithstanding -- this weekend will truly be one of the greats. Yes, there have been many good weekends of rock music thus far in 2014. But this coming weekend, good people of Boston, this weekend has a seemingly endless slate of hot-shit rock shows lined up across the various stages and neighborhoods that make up our blessed little scene. One may be so bold as to call this weekend a real humdinger, although you didn’t hear it from us. Wait, scratch that, do tell people, we like the attention. And so we decree that this weekend shall be known as The First Great Rock Weekend Of 2014. To support our argument, below you will find compiled into a tidy list of all the cool, hip, and perhaps even fun goings on around town this weekend. Below that are selected new rock sounds of the season from the hitmakers of the day. New, elegiac grunge from Boston destroyers Pile? Check. Dark, thumping jangle from The Hub's Fat Creeps? Check again. New fuzz-and-reverb sandwich from Philly nugaze combo Creepoid's forthcoming Record Store Day 12"? That's an affirmative. Is our list comprehensive? Absolutely not. Should you go to these shows? Why, yes, yes you should. -- Dillon Riley

Saturday, March 29

Applejam Productions Presents: Ovlov, Disco Doom (Switzerland!), LVL UP and Indian Twin @ The Crane Room (Tufts University) 8:30PM / FREE >> Facebook Event

Creepoid, Bong Wish, Reformer and Headmaster @ Lilypad 9 PM >> Facebook Event

Sunday, March 30

Pile "Special Snowflakes" 7" Release Show @ Great Scott with Ovlov, Disco Doom (Seriously, Switzerland!!), LVL UP, Krill and, of course, the almighty Pile 8:30PM / $10 >> Facebook Event

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead performing Source Tags & Codes in full @ TT The Bear's with La Femme, Midnight Masses 8:30PM / $20 >> Facebook Event

Eye Design Presents: Dead Rider, Guerilla Toss, Horsehands and Bunnies @ Middlesex Lounge 9PM / $8 >> Facebook Event

Fast Apple Presents: Fat Creeps, Tacocat, Miami Doritos and Dylan Ewan @ The Womb (Ask A Punk!) 7PM / $5 Suggested Donation >> Facebook Event

As we stated above, the Creepoid tune is from the act's planned Record Store Day release, which means you need to drop into a with-it retailer April 19 to score it. Fat Creeps' "Comes In Loudly" is from a full-length expected to be released by Portland, Ore.'s Gnar Tapes on a cassette (surprise, surprise) later this spring. Pile's absolute DEVESTATOR "Special Snowflakes" b/w "Mama's Lipstick" will be on sale at Great Scott Sunday, we reckon, but you may also pre-order it using your Interpants right here. In the meantime, embrace with your ears the secular rockulidge:

Review: Krill | Steve Hears Pile In Malden And Bursts Into Tears

Goddamn album title too long to fit on single headline. Motherfucker, that line just fit on a single line. Various publications stupidly parroting "failed concept album" talking point. This vs. "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - S.B. Jonah Furman -- un/reliable narrator? [Would be interesting to good cop/bad cop entire band in separate interrogation rooms and see if the other cats agree to this "failure" bullshit. Should we call Furman on this?] Failure as a positive, as a measure of distance [integers greater than zero, yadda yadda. must listen to The Power Of Failing sometime soon. must not let people see me cry in car while listening to The Power Of Failing. beauty hurts more. subtweet], the metaphoric distance between the purity of the envisioned / hoped-for / anticipated and the reality, no matter how alabaster-white, tidy and well-executed that realized reality is. The idea in your head doesn't smell unless the idea is a smell. And even then it doesn't smell. [FUCK. Look for notes to PHIL 103/Bucknell University/Fall 1993] IMPORTANT: Can music fail anyone besides the person/group of persons whose intent it is supposed to express? Steve : Mouth :: "Failure" of philosophical exercise that is Steve : incredibly satisfying music for fans, underpinned by the kind of stark honesty of an internal monologue. Whose desires are more important? Steve : Mouth :: Furman's ideas : Fan's love of Krill's music [Q: ANALOGIES REVERSED? / should probably mention band name earlier in piece]. Intended unintended consequences oooh that's good. Save. Preview. Save. Preview. Save. Save.

Music as trojan horse, honesty as trojans. Honesty as trojan horse, sentiment freed from melodrama/irony as trojans. [Possible prophylactic endorsement deal?] Real emotional [trash] honesty true hallmark of Mr. Furman's lyrics/singing. Maybe not cool to acknowledge. As much as the trio's music is underpinned in part by Furman's deep thoughts about existence, it is not the academic piece of Krill that makes them so compelling, it's the emotion, so unmediated it is extraordinarily powerful, and the instrumentation is part and parcel of that. Music as trojan horse, music as trojans.

Pile story line superfluous, a red herring. Imposes a framework on projections of pure thought. [SUGAR PILL? or simply just a Krill-esque big ups/high five to Rick and posse] Perhaps music is also a red herring? Music as delivery device for honesty-with-self. Know thyself/beast within. Self-knowledge provides parameters [kinda like in literal/visceral/physical sense as well hahahaha], actual true framework, skeleton on which happiness can be hung like (too-)wet plaster. Refer to Furman's remarks in 2013 interview here. Quote. End quote.

More exposition here: The more we listen to Steve the more the narrative recedes, and the more we just hear the line from "Turd" over and over: "If I could just keep a commitment, maybe I'd be happier?" Fucking majestic guitar work in that song, closing section echoes the opening sturm und drang of the album, that interval between the notes in the guitar memory. That line over and over again. Great hook, but also The Big Idea? It's no secret that Krill fronter Jonah uses a song as a framework to weigh and test philosophical ideas. He sort of said as much in our interview with him. And given the particular area he has concerned himself with (self love), those lines just jump out.

Musical self-reference... The guitar in "Turd" echoes the low/high interval (a fifth?) of the pounding, pulsing opening track, a la Slack Motherfucker or Pedro The Lion's "Never Leave A Job Half Done." Pace is slower than opener. "Turd" is subterfuge, in the titular sense. Yeah, the title gets a laugh, but that is mere deflection from Furman's poking with a sharp stick his own (or, sure, his narrator's) inability to commit, to... what? Happiness? Self-love? Contentment. IMPORTANT: EVERY KRILL RECORD WILL FAIL, AT LEAST AS SOON AS RECORD BUTTON IS PUSHED. OR FIRST PLAYBACK? OR FOLDBACK TO HEADPHONES. FUCK. FIND MUSIC RECORDING AND SOUND DESIGN NOTES / WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, RON KUIVALA (SP?) / FALL 1995

Steve Hears Pile In Malden And Bursts Into Tears will be released by Exploding In Sound Feb. 18 on black-and-white 10" flat vinyl circles with a spiral "groove" cut in both sides; it is also available for sale as a digital download. You can pre-order in either the physical or virtual formats via this link, where you may also purchase some pretty nifty and fashion-forward t-shirts. Krill plays a record release show for the EP at Great Scott in Boston Thursday, after which the trio mounts a five-week U.S. tour with avant pop operation Ava Luna. The tour touts so many dates that reading the list makes us tired. So let's not focus on that. The show Thursday at Great Scott includes sets from the aforementioned Ava Luna, as well as Kal Marks, Bad History Month and Fat Creeps.

Krill: Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud

That Was The Show That Was: Bleeding Rainbow | Wonder Ballroom | Portland, OR | 3 May



[PHOTO: Matt Dressen for Clicky Clicky] Philadelphia noise-pop crew Bleeding Rainbow blasted through a bristling, low-fanfare set at Portland's Wonder Ballroom Friday, visiting town in support of its third record Yeah Right, which was released earlier this year on Kanine Records. Bleeding Rainbow has successfully moved beyond the more traditional pop approach of its past and in the direction of a more calculated guitar band, one evocative of a very specific point in alternative rock history. The strength of the band's more recent approach was on full display Friday.

Opening for the Cave Singers -- a band composed of former members of defunct poppy post-hardcore act Pretty Girls Make Graves -- the group wore their hardened, tour-heavy tightness and passion on their collective sleeve. While Bleeding Rainbow's previous iteration as Reading Rainbow was perhaps a more singular vehicle for bassist Sarah Everton and guitar player Rob Garcia -- due to neat, '80s noise-pop songwriting within a minimal, duo format -- the new four-piece incarnation very enjoyably conjured Friday a jammy, early '90s buzz-rock vibe that was a welcome surprise for those familiar with their previous work. One need not look further than Goo or Dirty-period Sonic Youth to understand Bleeding Rainbow's recent inspiration; indeed, Ms. Everton's neon SY t-shirt left little doubt of this. Just about every song of the Philadelphia foursome's set aimed for the fizzing intensity of the mid-section instrumental segments of classics like "Kool Thing" and "Sugar Kane." Some bands like to evoke the 1960s Brill Building. Others want to sound like NME’s C86 cassette. Bleeding Rainbow seem bent on approximating the treasured "1991: The Year Punk Broke" VHS.

Saddled with an early set time, the quartet confronted a thin crowd that was made all the smaller by the large floor of Wonder Ballroom. Even so, the Rainbow won over the initially unreceptive audience through sheer energy. One could not help but wonder if they could have had an easier time with the audience working within the more cozy confines of one of the smaller, more indie-centric venues around town. These concerns were soon forgotten, though, as the Ballroom's well-crafted sound engineering filled the room with guitars. Bleeding Rainbow's set consisted almost entirely of Yeah Right's thick, pounding chords and loud, simple drum beats from Dominique Montgomery. In particular, opener "Pink Ruff" and "You're Not Alone" crashed through the venue with the power of a tidal wave. Everton and Mr. Garcia pushed the songs vocally with close harmonies that cut across guitarist Al Creedon's single note squeals and bloops. The band closed with a new song, "Monochrome," a stunner with pummeling open chord freak outs that had Everton excitedly rolling around on the floor. Where many bands draw inspiration from indie rock's elder statesperson, Bleeding Rainbow showed Friday they don't aspire to simply remind listeners of the alterna-heyday, they want to live it. The quartet wraps its current tour Friday, then heads back out on the road in June with the hotly tipped Boston indie rock concern Fat Creeps; full dates for that are posted right here. Stream all of Yeah Right via the Bandcamp embed below. -- Edward Charlton.



Bleeding Rainbow: Internerds | Facebook | Bandcamp