Hey have you heard we’ve got a megazord of a show coming up on Sunday July 16 at ONCE Ballroom? It’s with the fine folks of Bellows, Big Ups, Lilith and Hexpet. It’s going to be really special, and you could be lucky and win a pair of tickets to the show! Fill out the form at the bottom to enter to win>>>
Bellows is the project of singer/songwriter Oliver Kalb, who you’ve probably seen in every band you love like Ó (fka Eskimeaux), Told Slant, and Florist. Last year’s Fist & Palm was special 💜
Big Ups haven’t been around Boston in a while, and they always put on one of the hardest and most electric sets. They tweeted that it might be their last Boston show for a while, so don’t miss it. You’ll definitely regret it.
Lilith are our literal buds for life that we have loved for a long time. They play the perfect summer pop jams, and we can’t wait to have them again.
Hexpet is the newest band of this crop and hails from our own fair city. If you love the ’90s bands that most people forgot about, you’ll love them a whole lot like we do.
Bellows with Big Ups, Lilith and Hexpet
ONCE Ballroom
156 Highland Ave.
Somerville, MA 02143
doors 7:30pm / 18+ (under 18 admitted with an adult) / $10 adv, $13 dos
It’s a rare occurrence to walk out of a show and immediately know to bookmark the evening because you’ll bring it up constantly for years to come. On Wednesday night, there’s a case to be made that there is yet another entry into the nostalgia archives with (Sandy) Alex G’s Sinclair Show.
Alex Giannascoli and his band is touring in support of Rocket, a critically acclaimed album that is already showing high marks on 2017 mid-year best-of lists. Fortunately for all of us, the songs that comprise Rocket sound incredible in a live setting.
Molly Germer, who plays violin on the record, joined the band on stage for some songs. Perhaps one of the best runs in the set started with “Poison Root,” with Germer’s violin and drummer Tom Kelly’s frenetic energy. That was followed by “Brick,” the wall of noise where Giannascoli tosses off the line “I know that you’re lying” with a visceral affect. The run concluded with the downbeat piano ballad “Sportstar.”
After playing through a defined setlist that included almost all of Rocket, Giannascoli opened it up to the audience for requests. It is one of the few times where taking requests didn’t seem disingenuous — though all of the songs chosen are obviously in the repertoire, the band seemed to really take the requests, rather than have selective hearing. That’s pretty cool.
(Sandy) Alex G’s set literally ended as it began: with a blisteringly loud recording of “Life Is A Highway” by Rascal Flatts as heard in the motion picture Disney/Pixar’s Cars. There is no real clever hook to go with this, because I’ve been trying to come up with one … all night long.
Japanese Breakfast and Cende are serving as support on the tour. If the term “stacked bill” wasn’t used to such a nauseating degree, I’d call it that.
Japanese Breakfast’s set mixed pop and rock, with cuts from Psychopomp and the forthcoming album Soft Sounds from Another Planet, due out next week. One highlight: “Machinist” with singer Michelle Zauner’s spoken word introduction and spacey instrumentation. Another: “Road Head,” which is its own musical journey. If you missed the set, the Sinclair had you covered – the band returns this fall with a headlining show at the venue.
Brooklyn’s Cende kicked things off with a set of driving rock. Set-opener “Bed” is an earworm of a song; Cameron Wisch’s delivery, with its elongated “I can’t get o-o-o-out” is just begging for singalongs.
When we’re tallying up favorite shows, this lineup will surely be among the top of the list.
(Sandy) Alex G Setlist:
Judge
Forever
Bobby
Proud
Witch
Bug
Kicker
Poison Root
Brick
Horse
Sportstar
County
Alina
Powerful Man
Guilty
Mary
Harvey
Mis
Gnaw
Sarah
Kute
Boy
Icehead
Brite Boy
Watch (Sandy) Alex G’s show from the Music Hall of Williamsburg from 7/6, courtesy of Pitchfork, below:
Last year, collaborative folk band, Woods planned and hosted the festival Woodsist, in California as they gained popularity within the scene. The lineup included many up-and-coming artists, making it apparent that the way the band thinks about music is synergistic. Singer and composer of the band, Jeremy Earl founded indie Brooklyn label, also called Woodsist, where the band releases their music.
This past Sunday, three Northeast bands took on Brighton Music Hall to share intimacy. Cut Worms, a Brooklyn native singer-songwriter started off the bill shrugging over his tiny acoustic – accentuating the high and treble frequencies, to balance his warm tonal voice. Like a folky Beach Boys with Dylan-esque lyricism, Cut Worms’ Max Clark won over listeners as a solo acoustic act with his intoxicating honesty. Keeping simplicity of language and rhyme scheme close to heart, his poetry speaks for itself. To paraphrase some; “oh what a rotten child you’ve turned into, oh what a shame this world should go to you.”
John Andrews & the Yawns were next on the bill, pairing organ-led folk with good pop-sensibility. The sliding guitar, and lazy, sighing vocals make way for the flute to stand out, giving the band a natural, woodsy sound. Andrews himself employs falsetto and gentleness to his vocal style, and often played the organ dry. This made the use of a wah pedal in the final jam even more extraordinary.
When Woods took the stage, they were accompanied by John Andrews, on drums – just another example of the unity of the scene, as well as the band’s own personal artistic vantage point. The set began sounding quite grounded in more folky roots, and then took a psychedelic twist. As they progressed through the high-energy set involving harmonica, saxophone and rhodes keyboard, the sound became progressively more ambient. The group jammed through whirring, dark intermissions that sounded like a desert breeze with surfy, distorted and wah-ing guitar that would shake Link Wray from his grave.
Their live sound is rewarding and more improvisational than their recorded works. The songs themselves were percussion-heavy, with the addition of occasional woodblocks, and a strong rhythm section. The darker half of the set became far less about vocals, and sounded more quizzical, with Santana-like guitar solos. Woods will be on their “Love is Love” North American tour for a few more weeks, hitting cities like Burlington (7/5), DC (7/13), Philly (7/14), and New York (7/15).
In many ways Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit’s new record The Nashville Sound is about confronting storms: the dreadful “son of a bitch” that was 2016, getting older and facing mortality – you get the picture. On an overcast Tuesday evening in June at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, there were more literal storms to face down.
After the Mountain Goats played their set and packs of people sneaked out of the confines of the covered area to get $14 beers (I, for one, remember when the Pavilion was sponsored by Bank of America and the beers cost a paltry $11), the deluge began.
Bolts of lightning led to announcements asking concert-goers to shelter under the tent while the storm passed. The scheduled start time passed and people were left waiting. One big flash of lightning caused a jolt among fans; soon after, the lights went down and Isbell and company came to the stage.
The band launched into its 7-minute epic “Anxiety.” Fortunately, the show went on without any more disruptions. Isbell’s set mixed songs from his solo career along with songs from his time with country band Drive-By Truckers. One early set highlight was his cover of that band’s “Decoration Day.”
Songs from The Nashville Sound also sounded fantastic: “Chaos and Clothes” is a glorious, double-tracked, Eliott Smith-inspired slow burn of a track; “White Man’s World” is a gritty indictment of society; and the heart-wrenching duet with Isbell’s wife, Amanda Shires, “If We Were Vampires,” which was a surprising, but great choice to kick off the encore.
One of the all-time classic Isbell albums will be Southeastern, a beautiful, introspective work of art that is unforgivably without even a Grammy nomination. The album’s opener, the ballad and tale of redemption “Cover Me Up,” shined even brighter.
Isbell is among the best songwriters in music today, sowing deeply personal reflections and expressionistic portraits of the south and the world at large.
Thank goodness the storms finally passed.
The Mountain Goats opened, with the unmistakable vocals of John Darnielle, performing seemingly whimsical, but emotionally intense tunes from a catalog that spans more than two decades. Almost always, the subject matter is dark: The band’s latest album is called Goths, after all. Check out Allston Pudding’s interview with Darnielle.
Though we haven’t gone Hollywood just yet, this is Allston Pudding’s first time using a jib crane (the thing that goes up in the air) for a video session. That said, who is more deserving of a jib crane than Molly Burch.
After deciding on Ringer Park, we were initially a little worried that Molly’s vocals might get drowned out between the construction and children playing on the jungle gym. However, right as Molly began to sing all of those concerns dissipated immediately. Playing us the title track off her latest album, “Please Be Mine“, Molly Burch’s voice cuts right through you with warming yet brutal honestly. Watch our session with her below:
On June 26th, I walked by a group of people snapping selfies in front of David Ortiz’s Lamborghini. I was on my way to watch a humble man sing onstage about how his grandfather worked his fingers to the bone, having fought in WWII and spent the rest of his free years working for next to nothing in order to provide for his family. This man is BJ Barham, a solo artist and the frontman of the Raleigh, NC band American Aquarium.
In 2016, Barham released his first solo album titled, Rockingham. He wrote the record while American Aquarium was on tour in Europe, after shows were cancelled due to the Paris terrorist attacks at The Bataclan. The 8-song-album is an oral history of his family’s relationships and their struggle to survive in an economically challenged region of the US.
I first fell in love with Barham’s song writing after hearing the track, “Burn.Flicker.Die.” In the song, he sings, “It’s nights like this that the drugs don’t work, it’s getting in the way instead of picking me up, I wish my addictions didn’t mean so much, but we all can’t be born with that kind of luck.” My admiration for Barham grew after meeting him at a pre-show in 2012. He was drinking a bottle of St. Peter’s Organic English Ale and commenting on the old school medicine bottle shape of the beer.
Fast forward 5 years to now. Barham just celebrated his third year of sobriety. From the bare stage of The Middle East Upstairs, he made light of the fact that because he’s now sober, writing songs is more of a challenge, saying, “It’s easy to write about being angry, drunk and messed up on drugs. It’s a challenge to write songs about being sober, responsible and caring for your loved ones.”
As my roommate Becky and I approached the Motel 6 late Thursday night, we knew it would be the start of a pretty memorable weekend. Having booked very last minute accommodations, we knew not to expect the penthouse suite, but were also not expecting the small tarantula that would wind up coming (for free!) with our charming two star room.
Taking a quick look back at the week going into Eaux Claires Music & Art Festival, Becky and I were on the fence on whether or not we could make this Midwestern journey happen. We had been super stoked since getting tickets in the spring and had been talking about how it was going to be a great start to Summer 2017. All our excitement must have gotten the best of Becky, however, when she took a tumble riding her bike the weekend before the festival, walking away from the accident with a broken left wrist and right elbow. Cue a brace on one arm, sling on the other.
Thinking we’d have to cancel the trip altogether, the news that she at least wouldn’t need any casts made the Wisconsin trip seem more manageable. And with some pain meds on board, anything seemed possible! So I helped Becky pack her bag, and we were off to America’s Dairyland. Having grown up in nearby Chicago, Wisconsin was always a nice spot for my family to get away from the city and, more importantly, see some cows. So, I had some idea of what we were getting into, but let me tell you, we were definitely not in Allston anymore.
Synth pop’s resurrection is threatening to last longer than its ‘80s heyday thanks in part to our Lorde and saviors (which, depending on your denomination, could be Carly Rae Jepsen, The 1975, Haim, or… uh, whoevermakesthesevideos), but it’s almost blasphemous that teenender remain outliers in our city with their self-proclaimed “Boston underground pop.”
I mean, it goes without saying that Boston has always skewed heavily in favor of guitar rock over synth pop. Sports Coach, one of the city’s most prolific musicians to bring raucous dance parties to basement shows, earned cheeky praise from Vice-offshoot Thump last week for not “sound[ing] like Pavement” or being “your typical Boston bro-fest.” Regardless of how on-the-nose that scene assessment may or may not be, teenender persist, mostly because there’s no way to dial down their unabashed, to-the-rafters synth pop.
Brothers Brian and Chris McKenna began as Video Teeth before shedding the moniker for a sleeker, more produced sound on the t e e n e n d e r EP in 2015. In the two years since, the duo doubled their lineup while quietly releasing two of their best songs to date, stand-alone single “Beat That Invites Me” and the absolutely towering “pen2paper”. Both are absent on Kissed, but teenender’s sophomore EP still serves as a massively catchy reintroduction to the bedroom project-turned-full band effort.
Opener “Not A Dream” dares to craft a sugary chorus that keeps up with singer Brian McKenna’s earnest declarations of rekindled romance (sample line: “oh yeah, under my sheets /cover your head, but not your feet!”) Two songs later, “Speak For Yourself” finds McKenna’s romantic life on the rocks again, but teenender are pretty damn good at masking it with leisurely, borderline-yacht rock guitar work and chants of “feeling good, feeling good, alright.” Kissed is both a reverent shrine to the power of synth pop and, thankfully, proof that a full band can only enhance the brothers McKenna’s vision of a Boston pop underground.
Kissed is streaming below and will be self-released via the band’s Bandcamp.
I cannot get enough of Conor Murphy getting weird outside of the confines of his beloved emo revival band, Foxing. There is something so cathartic about screaming the lyrics to “No One Likes You.” His solo project, Smidley, were the opening act on a month and half long tour with headliners: Tigers Jaw and direct support, Saintseneca. Their full length self titled just recently dropped and I haven’t played an album on repeat so many times since I was in middle school.
Saintseneca are a musicians treat, providing sounds and tones from a wide variety of live instrumentation on stage. The flexibility and talent within this single band is marvelous. Their sound transcends multiple genres taking bits and pieces from folk, world, rock and infusing it with fuzzy bass lines and tasty vocal harmonies.
Tigers Jaw recent major label debut Spin is what summer soundtracks are made of. The production is flawless, and the current lineup executes the new songs perfectly on stage. Tigers Jaw fans are some of the best around, singing loudly with full smiles across their faces. After years of pumping out songs with all the feels, Tigers Jaw is fresh as ever. The band stands strong as a headlining act.
Will Henriksen has found himself in a variety of local projects, from the dreamy sprawls of Harmoos to the thoughtful and zany tunes of Tiffany’s House, but today we are celebrating Henriksen’s solo project. You can check out “Guitar”, the last track of his album, Blue House ahead of its June 29th release.
If you’re feeling “Guitar” you can gear up for album that Henriksen describes as “4 songs about slowing down and staying confused. Feeling love. Looking for what’s next.”
