The Clicky Clicky Winter Ball featuring Burglary Years, Du Vide and School Shoes | O'Brien's Pub | 13 Jan.

Hey, we made it -- it's 2016! Pat yourself on the back. You know what? You deserve a night out, a real good time with three of the finest bands currently patrolling Boston. It just so happens we can help you with that, as this coming Wednesday, Clicky Clicky's series of rock shows at O'Brien's Pub in Allston Rock City rolls on with a slate so strong it makes us giddy. The evening -- dubbed The Clicky Clicky Winter Ball by The Don of Clicky Clicky Presents -- is top-lined by 'gaze-pop concern Burglary Years, and also includes rising indie pop combo Du Vide and dream-pop upstarts School Shoes.

So what can you expect? Nothing less than hot rock aplenty, mon ami. Burglary Years' 2015 set 100 Roses has been on steady rotation here at HQ for a couple months, and we are very excited to see cuts from the dreamy five's recent record performed live, particularly the uptempo, reverberant jangler "Hey Do You Want To Come Over?" The tune, which hints at a bit of an Echo And The Bunnymen influence, has "hit" written all over it. A second cassette edition of 100 Roses -- limited to 100 pieces that include a lyric booklet, alternate cover and three previously unreleased demos -- is due Feb. 26 from Disposable America; the album had been tipped for a vinyl release via UK-concern Dog Knights Productions, but that has apparently fallen through, so all you label guys out there looking to pick up a hot release, well, you just landed on Boardwalk. Open thy wallet.

As for the supports, we wrote about Du Vide right here in December, not long after the release of the trio's terrific short stack Clutter. The act would seem to have one foot firmly in the Chicago school of '90s indie pop, and strolling through Du Vide's entire catalog is amply rewarding. The recent EP's opener "The Hell It Is" is terrifically affecting, so we suggest you click on the Bandcamp embed below to get familiar if you are not already. Du Vide is nearly finished a debut long-player, and we hope the band will have some new songs in the quiver for us to enjoy Wednesday. For those of you keeping score at home, Wednesday is but the third show since John from Horse Jumper of Love has signed on to play bass for the act, as Du Vide's prior bass player moved south recently. We were fortunate to premiere one of School Shoes' only releases to date, a stellar summer single we wrote about right here in June. Wednesday will be the band's first show in at least a year, so we are especially stoked to see them play. Like Du Vide, School Shoes has been working on a record, but it is unclear how far along the process is. But if you want a bit of perfect sad sunshine, we highly recommend you check out the band's undeniable gem "Cults" via the embed below. What else can we tell you? As the powers that be have dubbed this a Winter Ball, we hope to see some semi-formal garb, although that is certainly not required. What's most important is the gift of your presence. So come on, pilgrim.

Burglary Years: Bandcamp | Facebook
Du Vide: Bandcamp | Facebook
School Shoes: Bandcamp | Facebook

Review: Bedroom Eyes | Honeysuckle

Standard bearers for unyielding, big-guitar shoegaze in Boston would seem to be hard to come by these days, with many of the genre's key regional proponents shutting down, migrating elsewhere, or mutating. The newer school of Boston 'gaze is tempered with pastoral passages, post-rock dynamics and more distinctly American production aesthetics, and the richly melodic, guitar-drenched sound purveyed by now-resuscitated legends RIDE and My Bloody Valentine would seem to have somewhat fallen out of favor. However, that all changes next week, when Bedroom Eyes return with a commanding sophomore set. The Boston foursome's new long-player Honeysuckle -- its first in three years -- places Bedroom Eyes at the vanguard of the city's big-guitar scene, poised for a breakout into the broader American underground on the strength of its moody, sonically aggressive and vividly rendered songs.

Honeysuckle is intoxicating, and its uptempo material particularly so. Buzz-sawing album highlight "Plain Heir" hits like a tsunami of swirling, bending guitars, with deep reverbs elevating the drums and characteristically smeared vocals in the mix. Similarly powerful is "Gypsy," whose churning, distorted guitars and breakneck pace are all blitzkrieg and no ebb. That pacing and surprisingly compact compositions establish a tension with the richness of Honeysuckle's arrangements and production, and this tension is at the core of what makes the set so entrancing. The effect is amplified by the fluidity between tracks; while the album doesn't quite have a continuous mix, songs flow and breathe into each other. Indeed, Honeysuckle employs two beautiful interstitial instrumental compositions to link key tracks like so much edgeless watercolor. First, the arpreggio-led, narcotic revery "(Highsummer)" ties the aforementioned "Plain Heir" to the pretty, mid-tempo anthem "Wild Sins," a tune whose thunderous choruses are set off by dreamy passages of layered guitar leads. The final third of the record is unstoppable; there the interstitial "(Deepwinter)" is sandwiched by the fiery, indefatigable belter "Lorraine" and the tremendous closing title track, which alternates between glimmering verses that call and shuddering choruses that respond.

Part of the narrative pushed with Honeysuckle is that the collection represents a "painstaking reworking" of the Bedroom Eyes sound. Nonetheless, it is striking how our review of the band's spine-tingling 2012 debut could very well apply to the new set. All of the visceral guitars, spectral vocals, saturated emotion and crackling energy the band presented on What Are You Wrong With persist here. Perhaps the production is where the foursome's game feels most stepped-up, particularly the vocal treatments, and a sonic wholeness across the record achieved by a honey-dripping, sub-aquatic ambiance. Despite its familiar building blocks, the new record by any metric is a distinct step forward. Sure, Honeysuckle arrives in the wake of a lineup change and an earlier scrapped LP session, but the painstaking reworking would seem to have rebuilt a reliable foundation, not reconfigure the band's sonic DNA. Whatever; the results speak for themselves.

Honeysuckle is a towering collection, a masterstroke, and so we are very pleased to premiere for you today the entire album via the Soundcloud embed below. Midnight Werewolf Records will release Honeysuckle in a limited edition of 100 cassettes Nov. 24, and the label is already taking pre-orders right here. The release is the first in a series of three cassettes that the label will issue over consecutive months featuring Boston acts (subsequent tapes feature Charles and Pleasure Gap). Honeysuckle will also be available on CD, and the band has already been selling it at shows. Bedroom Eyes just wrapped a short strand of live dates that took it as far south as Richmond; the band's next area show is Dec. 5 at Firebrand Saints in Cambridge, Mass. with Burglary Years, Summer of Aden and Babydriver. Bedroom Eyes also performs the following week with Porches at UNH in Durham, NH, and you can read more about that right here.

Bedroom Eyes: Bandcamp | Facebook



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Review: Bedroom Eyes | What Are You Wrong With
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