Premierage/Previewage: Wheat Heralds Sixth Set With "Hey Eugenio," Gigs With Eldridge Rodriguez Saturday

[Photo: Paul Chiera / remixed by Clicky Clicky] The rituals of summer are nice, but it is bittersweet seeing them come and go after looking forward to them for so long (said the guy who just got back from an annual beach jaunt -- Ed.). And maybe this is how fans of area indie rock veterans Wheat feel: without delving into any hard analysis, drummer Brendan Harney agrees with our observation, that it seems like the band -- makers of shoulda-been hits including 1999's "No One Ever Told Me" or the even older, heart-punching ballad "Soft Polluted Blacks" -- typically plays shows in the summer and then largely uses the cooler months to hole up and write songs, or play Sudoku, or do whatever it is rock luminaries do. Summer inevitably fades, and only the promise that another one's coming makes that kinda OK. So, yeah, Wheat is playing a show this Saturday in Cambridge, Mass. (more on that below), but what can they offer as a salve once the show is but a memory?

Cheer up, Francis: it just so happens the act is closing in on the completion of Blazed, the sixth full-length of a 20-year career during which it has made records with Small Factory's Dave Auchenbach and renowned knob-twiddler and Mercury Rev guy Dave Fridmann and perhaps even another Dave, who knows? The forthcoming set has been under construction for about a year, and Mr. Harney reports the band is "getting into the final stages of getting the vocals down right, and making sure everything is nip and tuck." A final track listing won't be set until the songs are all complete, but two tunes destined for the forthcoming collection are already in the wild. What's more, we're pleased to premiere for you today a third that is said to have made the proverbial cut, namely the little pop wonder "Hey Eugenio," which you can stream via the topmost Soundcloud embed below.

To recap the recent moves, the band released the subdued bouncer "Walking Song" to fans back in February, and followed it up with "Stay Up Late" in May. Newcomer "Hey Eugenio" is a charming and detailed miniature, a simple love song, according to Harney. The deconstructed number's lyrics pour out like sweet and thick syrup among playful electric piano, tastefully understated guitar licks, canned percussion and a rising firmament of synth. Will the band play it and/or other new tunes at the aforementioned rock show? Oh yeah, about that: pay attention. It's this Saturday at the fabled Middle East Rock Club, and it is an early show, with doors at 7 and Wheat performing at 9. So don't show up at the usual time and be caught flat-footed, unrocked and likely mocked. Hitmakers Eldridge Rodriguez will open the show with a full-band set, and we strongly suggest arriving in time to see that foursome turn in what is typically a fiery performance. Perhaps Cam's fabled white suit will even make an appearance? We make no promises. Either way you should get yourself a ticket right now, arrange an Uber, weed your garden, trump your towers, whatever it takes to ensure that you will be at the rock show. Rock show.

Wheat: Facebook | Internerds | Soundcloud

Today's Hotness: Andy Sadoway, Skyjelly, Pastel Colours

>> To a remote observer it may appear as if Boston indie pop heroes Bent Shapes are going through a sort-of wilderness phase, figuratively wandering the desert with one arm thrown over the shoulder of Jesus and the other over the shoulder of Jim Morrison, and, since we're just making shit up now, a superfluous third arm thrown over the shoulder of the equally superfluous Val Kilmer. Anyway, longtime Bent Shapes bassist Supriya Gunda recently (and amicably) left the band to focus on other projects including the whipsmart quartet Lost Twin, and now we have before us a new solo EP from Bent Shapes drummer Andy Sadoway. The good news is that the state of the Bent Shapes union is strong, they continue to play shows (like last week's hotly tipped Bleeding Rainbow gig), and we're told there is new music coming, so everyone just keep your shirts on -- everything is cool. In the meantime, this EP from Mr. Sadoway isn't going to write about itself. The short set certainly sounds like a winner, if its title track is any indication. "Str8 Sh00ter" is built up like a house of cards from flappy acoustic guitar and minimal, tom-centric drumming, with lots of nifty, tremeloed electric guitar sprouting across the stereo field. Its resolutely breezy and somewhat innocent sounding surf-pop reminds Clicky Clicky of both the terrific (but, sadly, perhaps defunct?) Chicago act Distractions and zero-year left coast pop duo Jan And Dean. The Str8 Sh00ter EP also includes the Sadoway-penned and performed "You Kept Things In Tact," "Don't Mind," and "Leave Some Space." The four songs were recorded at Mystic Steamship just outside of Boston. The EP will be released by Father/Daughter Records March 25 as a cassette and digital download, and you can pre-order your very own right here right now. Father/Daughter also released Bent Shapes' full-length debut, which we reviewed right here last August. Stream the tune "Str8 Sh00ter" via the Soundcloud embed below.



>> The music of Boston-based experimental concern Skyjelly rarely, if ever, seems to tread the same ground twice: indeed, unpredictability may be its most distinguishing characteristic. Our unsubstantiated speculation points to this unpredictability being a symptom of the sort of restless pursuit of T+B our college professors advocated in the '90s (that's "Truth and Beauty," to you youngsters not fortunate enough to have been educated by academics who themselves were educated in the 1970s). Or it may be that founding member Skyjelly Jones just gets bored easily (the musical project that carries the Skyjelly brand now also includes Eric Hudson). Whatever the reason, the peripatetic yen of Mr. Jones' songwriting has heretofore come to rest on beautiful, more ambient sounds like "Providence," which we wrote about here in early 2013, and on a new, debut EP, well, it's decidedly weirder. The music on the Skyjelly & Sun EP retains a wide-eyed psychedelia, to be sure, but aspects of the proceedings are surprisingly formalized. Opener "Tea, The Drink" cuts through a funk sample to stride along a solid groove accented by maracas(or some sort of backwards masking that approximates the slanting kiss-kiss of maracas). It's a firm anchor for cooed falsetto vocals and tremeloed rhythm guitar, which dodge gestural, scrawled guitar leads. "Catherine's Rabbi" ups the tempo and the pop ciphering, consolidating a barely there guitar sketch, a canned beat and more weightless falsetto in the four-song set's most conventional composition. "Krilltastic" tantalizes with its Clicky Clicky-friendly title, but the dense rhythm track in the first half of the tune -- which recalls moments of The Cure's Pornography record -- provides an equally strong focal point. Skyjelly & Sun will be self-released March 20, and if you are lucky enough to get a physical copy, it may (or may not) come packaged in a pocket cut from a pair of trousers. The EP will be feted at a release party scheduled for March 15 at the UnchARTed Gallery [boing] in Lowell, Mass. In the meantime, stream the sitar- and WTF-tastic EP closer "Peshawar (Astral)" via the Soundcloud embed below.



>> Pink Floyd never grooved as steadfastly as this, likely because Roger Waters is a rigid bass player. Nonetheless, there is a touch of classic, singles-era Pink Floyd to Pastel Colours' blazing psych-pop nugget "She Can't Decide." Something in the vocals, bass flange, blues foundation, and of course the massive descending chorus echoes Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive." Pastel Colours' smoking psych-rock number is apparently only their second recording; the Falmouth, England-based quintet debuted with the somewhat more restrained but somehow even more psychedelic track "Hands Like Silk" late last year. "She Can't Decide" is the third installment in Art Is Hard Records' 2014 Pizza Club series, with which readers will surely be familiar, because we write about it, and Art Is Hard's knack for finding brilliant music, often. Coincidentally, another Falmouth act, Goddamn Nobody, was featured as the first single in the 2014 Pizza Club series, and we wrote about that right here. Despite having but a brace of tunes released, Pastel Colours has already garnered a not insignificant amount of radio support, and we are eager to hear what else the fivesome can do. Can they stay true to the psych-pop idiom while keeping its music fresh? Time will tell. For now, stream "She Can't Decide" via the Soundcloud embed below, and click through to grab a download of the track for the friendly price of zero anythings. And, of course, music fans would be wise to keep their ears on Art Is Hard.

YouTube Rodeo: Skyjelly Floats Through "Providence"

Long-running experimental/ambient guitar project Skyjelly appears at Cambridge, Mass.'s illustrious All Asia Cafe tomorrow night for the venue's apparently weekly psychedelic program Scooby Snacks. We honestly don't know a whole lot about Skyjelly beyond the nagging memory that the project has some relation to the totally quality veteran indie act Wheat. Which may or may not be true, our mind likes to make up convenient "facts" now and again. Honestly, it's the music that matters: if you want in on some serious vibe music tomorrow night in Cambridge, we think you obviously want to go with a night called Scooby Snacks. Music starts at 9. For a taste of what you're in for, we're posting an appropriately placid video for Skyjelly's stingingly beautiful droner "Providence" above. You can also stream the thing -- which was apparently recorded live at a performance at RISD in October and features accompaniment by Caitlin Strokosch on cello-- at Soundcloud right here, if that's your thing. Things.