Fitz Ross Productions does it again with a new Spare Room Sessions video featuring local ~emotional~ outfit Animal Flag. Watch them perform “Angels, viagra 100mgmalady ” and look forward to their upcoming EP bluntly titled Animal Flag EP 2 out on tape and digital formats 11/17 via Broken World Media and 1997 Recordings. You can also celebrate the release of said EP at Great Scott that same night with Dilly Dally. If you live in a nearby city, salve they could be touring through your town too!
Cuisine en Locale was crowded on Wednesday November 4th with a mixed bag of audience members, as well as a good mix of openers for the headlining set, Allison Weiss. An acoustic set from the Northampton-based Dump Him opened the night with a sense of camaraderie and intimacy. At around 7pm, with banter about Canada and cell service, Kid in the Attic, a music project created by Mirah guitarist Maia McDonald (+ friends), set a sweetly edgy tone for the rest of the lineup.
With McDonald’s soft but husky vocals, lush instrumentals from members of the current live lineup (including Krystine Summers on keys and drummer Steph Barker), and a consistently perfect ratio between the two, the amount of dedication and focus put into this music easily translated. But the band also just naturally emitted this silly, enthusiastic atmosphere. Maybe it’s because each member was so into what they were doing. It could’ve been that their set featured a backup dancer— seriously, it was just someone’s friend straight up dancing on stage— quite well might I add. Whatever it was, the energy in that room was transfixing.
Up next, L.A. (and formerly Boston) quartet Winter took the stage and filled it with sultry dream pop and some more enthusiastic stage presence between band members. Slouching vocalist Samira Winter delicately but boldly crooned into the mic while the three bandmates who backed her up, Matt Hogan on guitar, bassist David Yorr, and Garren Orr on drums, created music that could verge on new, hip easy listening, making for a solid middle-man set.
Next to last, Mal Blum (and band) started up, making it glaringly obvious why they were on the same bill as Allison Weiss. Armed with gut-wrenching, first-person narratives about everything from body dysmorphia and depression, to Robert Frost, to kissing and barfing on New Years, and the infamous pop punk accent to pull it all off, Blum’s set was well-prepared and well-received. Blum’s sound is the same vein as folk punk act Theo Hilton, Toby Foster, and Ryan Woods, but with a fuller, more electric sound when played live (especially since dropping their latest record, You Look A Lot Like Me). Sick harmonies from bassist Audrey Zee Whitesides certainly indulged their more developed, but definitely still gritty punk sound. Also, big shout out to drummer Steph Barker, who consistently banged away on the drums for the second round of the night. Towards the end of their set, Blum made a couple of really important comments about media and the music industry, noting how journalists often diminish the value of women’s and non-binary songwriter’s work by claiming it’s all only about love and heartbreak. As if most of Drake, or Brand New, or Bob Dylan’s songs aren’t. As if love and heartbreak and human emotions can’t be taken seriously if it’s not coming from a cis-man. To this, Blum gave some solid advice: “Listen harder, ya dillweeds.” And on that note, the crowd was prepped for the headlining set, for songs all about love and heartbreak and human emotions.
Allison Weiss has been around the block. She made her start in Athens, GA, quickly gained a massive following among pop-punk-loving queers and breeders alike, and after dreaming of making music in the Big Apple, moved there. Then, as if Ilene Chaiken wrote the script herself, the lesbian from the American South got engaged and moved to L.A., where she now walks hand-in-hand with her fiancé down streets lined with palm trees, with Betty’s awful L Word theme playing in the background. Or so I imagine.
Weiss’s new album, New Love, narrates that really difficult process of change in a familiar way. But one thing about her new sound is for sure. The Allison Weiss that you discovered making acoustic covers on Youtube with her brother in 2008 is long gone. With a full band and a full sound, Weiss’s trajectory is much more electronic-fueled pop than punky, raw-fingers-on-streel-strings-fueled pop.
“With a full band and a full sound, Weiss’s trajectory is much more electronic-fueled pop than punky, raw-fingers-on-streel-strings-fueled pop.”
And I can’t help but compare Weiss’s slight transition of sound on New Love to Tegan & Sara’s transformation from folk pop to electronic pop in 2013 with Hearthrob. It’s very much the difference between East Coast and West Coast-made music. Sure, there were nostalgia-filled moments during Weiss’s set, like when she played classics “Fingers Crossed,” her now-famous cover of Robyn’s queer-girl anthem, “Call Your Girlfriend,” “Wait for Me,” and the finale “I Was an Island.” But for the most part, Weiss unsurprisingly stuck to a setlist of songs from New Love.
But what was hasn’t seemed to change is Weiss’s general demeanor. Her banter is still wicked funny. She still shamelessly self-promotes. She’s still writing songs about things she can’t get over. And her fans are still relating to her music. We show up for her tour. We still sing along a little too loudly, with eyes shut, to her over-the-top finale version of “I Was an Island.” And we wait for the next time Allison Weiss comes back around again. And she always does.
Five years is a strange increment of time if you really think about it.
I mean, clinicvialis 40mg five year reunions are far too soon considering 90% of my high school peers are in the same “dangling in the void of post-grad aimlessness”period as I’m in and there’s little chance anyone’s gotten real fat or weird yet. At the same time, buy who was I five years ago? I was a very sad college freshman, malady consuming as much Nick Drake-informed sad boi folk as I could while wearing the same cardigan daily. Also, I think I bought a mandolin around this point, so it’s a divine miracle I wasn’t pushed into a pit of flames and gravel for my Mumford-approved sins.
Looking at a band like You Can Be A Wesley though, I can’t tell if five years has had considerable effect or not. Yes, they were guitar worshippers of the DIY scene and were one of Allston Pudding’s unanimously adored locals in our newborn stage, but signs of age are as subtle as a copy of the Boston Phoenix popping up in their “Talking Science”video. With a chorus primarily made up of sincerely delivered ‘doot doots’, their poppier intentions weren’t masked under fuzzy guitars or a slacker rock veneer like what dominates our scene currently. That’s not a slight to the bands of now; it was just a different, but not so distant time.
My dad and I discussed “Science”and You Can Be A Wesley this week, additionally meditating on five years of Allston Pudding, age, and my fat childhood.
#13 – “Talking Science” by You Can Be A Wesley
Dad: Okay, first of all, you said this band is no longer in existence?
Tim: Yep. In honor of Allston Pudding being a thing for five years, I asked some of the editors about essential Boston bands that were active when we started, but are no longer together. A lot of names were thrown out, but You Can Be A Wesley was a pretty popular one among everyone’s lists.
Dad: And what is that, a Wesley? What is being a Wesley mean?
Tim: That is a good question to which I have no answer. They were before my time here in Allston, so I guess that’ll remain a mystery.
D: I went on Google for the name’s meaning and lyrics, but could hardly find anything on them. That being said, I think the song was good. It had a great melody and you know how I feel about melody. Good guitar riff. I love the drum beat. I was trying to think what this sounds like and, at first, I thought it’s like U2, but not quite like U2. I don’t know if you noticed, but the guys in the back are doing harmonies. Like, you wouldn’t get that sophisticated in a garage band.
T: [laughs] Yeah, I guess you got me there.
D: But yeah, I would definitely categorize this as a toe-tapping song.
T: Okay, where on your scale does “toe-tapper” rank? Somewhere between “bar song” and “driving on the beach song”?
D: Hmm, that’s a good question. Toe-tappers could be a universal thing like saying “cheers”; it’s varied what makes a toe-tapper. It’s gotta be a feel-good song for sure. You can listen to it in the car or in the background, but it has to be instinctive that you get into it.
T: I agree; it can be in multiple settings. I know you’re itching to talk about the video, so what’s your comment?
D: You want my comment? First of all, wtf was up with the creature?
T: [laughs] Oh my god, when did you pick up “wtf”?
D: I dunno, but that thing was the most raggedy-looking…that’s like some leftover toy from twenty years ago you find at a yard sale. I couldn’t understand it; it was able to kill three people just by looking at them, but then it looked at the bartender and all he did was cut his arm off! What’s up with that? And if it could kill the other three people, how come he couldn’t kill the band when it looked at them?
T:Well, I think the band would have to last until the end because it’s, like, their song. Maybe they had the power of harmonies behind them?
D: Yeah, but at the end, they’re wrestling the creature and one guy is just making out and smiling with it. It was kinda perverted. Also, it has to be a pretty stupid creature because it walks right by the band and all they’re doing is hiding behind copies of the Phoenix! And there was an adult magazine too!
T: I noticed that! It’s wild that the video’s already showing a bit of age too since the Phoenix is no more.
D: It’s not?! I didn’t know that.
T: Yep, I think it stopped in 2013. The neighborhoods still look the same; they went running up a road where we went Allston Christmas hunting, but a lot’s changed. Do you think five years is a lot of time as a 50-something year old?
D: Yeah, because in five years, I’ll be close to 60. Holy cow.
“WTF was up with the creature?”
T: Jeez, I’ll be almost 30.
D: Wow. Ouch.
T: Okay, let’s not talk about that anymore. How would you describe me as a five year old? Try to keep it to three words… and go easy on me.
D: [Laughs] You at five? The picture you use for the blog is actually you around five years old, so I guess you were…uh, fat. Funny. Hold on, lemme think of another…
T: You’re already having too much fun with this, but continue.
D: Hmm…if it had to be an “f-word”, I’d say fat, funny, and freaky. No, wait, I’ll swap the last one and go with fun. Fat, funny, and…wait, “fun”is basically “funny”. I guess inquisitive works. It was always fun to hear you talk; you asked a lot of questions and had quite an imagination. You used to want to “give us haircuts”with your mother’s salad tongs all the time. You’d finish “cutting hair”and always say, “you look gawwwgeous!”
T: I remember that! Does Mom have any word suggestion other than, y’know, fat?
D: Oh boy, she’s laughing. She said “intense”…you used to get so worked up, you’d hyperventilate! I don’t remember that actually.
T: [laughs] You just remember all the fun dad stuff because you went to work all day! I guess the last five-centric question I have though is your business advice. How do you think Allston Pudding should go into the next five years? Like, what strategies would you offer?
D: Stay relevant! Don’t dwell on certain genres. If, like, country music becomes everyone’s favorite, then transition.
T: Oh god, it already is everyone’s favorite.
D: I know, I was watching the music awards last night. I won’t say you should do anything like that specifically, but all I’ll say is stay relevant. Don’t go the way of rotary phones or Atari or Pac-Man.
T: Hey, don’t knock Pac-Man! If we did go that way, we might have a retro comeback. Alright, final thoughts on five year things and Wesley?
D: I like that band! They should make a reunion. Send the note out!
T: We did get Phil Collins back after all, so I’ll put my name to this petition. Wesley, come back!
It has never been uncommon to find musicians at the forefront of social and political commentary. Today marks the day another vibrant avenue for artists to create dialogue within the community has been created. Alongside the national political activist group Demand Progress, Victoria Ruiz and Joey La Neve DeFrancesco of the Providence-based punk band Downtown Boys launched a new webzine called Spark Mag this morning.
The webzine’s goal is to “highlight and financially support artists and musicians who are promoting progressive and radical ideals through their work”. Its first issue features artists like Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz tackling social issues such as gender in music. Definitely a worthwhile endeavor and an exciting new enterprise to say the least for those of the progressive mindset within the musical community. Maybe not so much for those not. (Sorry I’m not sorry Ted Nugent.)
Dylan Ewen is constantly reinventing himself through his music: from his sad bummer tunes of yester-years to Sulk Scouts poppiness to now. We’re excited to present to you his new video for “Magician of Submission” from his EP Gender Mountain, out today. The EP finds Ewen navigating sexuality, gender, and a little bit of marijuana. At sometimes uncomfortable levels, he embraces his differences, his interests and even a love of Hentai, covering all sorts of subjects in a mere four song EP. Dylan Ewen heads on tour with Shytalk this month, and he’s playing his last Boston show ever on 11/24 before he moves away. Watch the video for the first single “Magician of Submission,” and read through tour dates below.
A common thread between the three similar, treat but disparate sets from The Districts, Lady Lamb and Sun Club might have been intensity.
At a sold-out Sinclair on Tuesday night,The Districts made their return to the area, touring in support of A Flourish and a Spoil. The Philadelphia-based band is quite strong in a live setting. Rob Grote’s gravely voice evokes rockers of a bygone era.
The band’s willingness to let songs unspool themselves on the stage, with polished, extended jams, is a very welcome antidote to four-minute, radio-ready hits. “Young Blood” verges on nine minutes on the record, and it is a rollicking tune to close out a set.
Supporting The Districts on tour is Lady Lamb, a band tha recently headlined The Sinclair for the release After.
When I first saw Lady Lamb, songwriter Aly Spaltro performed solo at Afterhours, a Northeastern club/Starbucks, supporting The Antlers. Hearing “Bird Balloons,” the song I’m positive she opened with, was nothing short of incredible. The winding, nearly structure-less, tune alone was enough to make me a fan.
I wonder how many unassuming Districts fans had that experience on Tuesday night – I’m sure there were at least a few who did.
Touring as a three-piece band, Lady Lamb played songs from After and the debut, Ripely Pine. “Bird Balloons” had an unparalleled intensity to that night at Afterhours, with harmonies from bassist TJ Metcalfe.
It’s such a fortunate circumstance to get to see Lady Lamb perform in an intimate venue like the Sinclair, especially as support. The band is poised to headline bigger venues in the future, I would expect — and perhaps score slots at a certain area festival (please, please, please).
Baltimore’s Sun Club opened up the evening — well, a pair of scantily clad people emerged and danced without explanation. Then Sun Club emerged, and I have very little explanation for what I heard. The five-piece band is probably best described as psychedelic rock, with discordant vocals and fuzzy, reverb-soaked guitars.
Commercial success as an “art rock” band is tricky, store but so far Django Django have been pulling it off. The four-piece, thumb formed at Edinburgh College of Art before relocating to London, have been cultivating a following since 2009, but were genuinely taken aback by the success of their debut record in 2012. The self-titled album, recorded on a shoestring budget in producer/drummer David Maclean’s bedroom, caught the attention of the NME crowd, providing a fresh take on psychedelic music that was rooted in a breezy surf-rock vibe with familiar elements of 60s pop. The album went UK Platinum and even earned the lads a coveted Mercury nomination. The band has been touring since, gaining plenty of international attention (with an opening slot on Tame Impala’s tour certainly not hurting).
Earlier this year, Django Django released their second album, Born Under Saturn. Where the debut often felt stripped-down by necessity, the band have clearly made the most of the their improved equipment here, producing a much denser, heavily layered sound. While there are still touches of the first album’s surfy vibe, the band dive far deeper into psychedelia with experimental electronics and divergent rhythm elements. Things still stay centered on their trademark harmonized vocals though, with the band focusing on a more literary approach to their lyrics, particularly on the standout gangster epic “Shot Down”. While divisive amongst fans, Born is the work of a band refusing to repeat themselves, exploring new sounds to often-spectacular result.
Django Django will be playing Middle East Downstairs this Sunday, 11/8, and we talked to Maclean ahead of the show. He told us about the band’s live set, organic sampling and his ideas for a third album.
Allston Pudding: The first album was recorded very affordably (I believe the thing people mentioned most was that you used a £50 pound mic). Was it, in some ways, liberating to have some money behind you and access to more equipment on the second?
David Maclean: Yes and no. I guess it was a little bit daunting to have to do the follow-up and figure out how to push things forward. It was kind of tentatively moved from the bedroom into a studio space, but actually the process and sensibilities didn’t change too much. Although we had drums set up and did things “properly,” it was still recorded and treated in the same way, really. It had its up and downs, the whole process.
AP: So you’d say the critical anticipation of the album didn’t affect the writing and recording process?
DM: No, because I guess you can’t second guess what people want or what they’ll think of something. With the second album there’s always going to be those types of people; if you change it too much you’ve changed it too much, if you stick to the same thing you’re being boring. I guess we just didn’t bother worrying too much about what people were going to think or what people wanted or what the right thing to do was. We just kind of set out to make the album we wanted to make and hoped the fans would enjoy it.
AP: There are a lot of very different styles of music being balanced on the album- some 60s pop, some Caribbean influence, some more experimental electronic. When you’re putting a song together are you ever conscious about not letting any particular sound overpower the others?
DM: No, I’m okay with that. It’s kind of whatever suits the song. Yes, I don’t want something to be genre specific, so I would never make a track that sounded like a punk song or sounded like an acid house record. To me that’s just following genre rules; it’s been done before. I don’t want to just stick on an 808 drum and make something that sounds like a 1988 Chicago house record. I don’t want to blast out guitar to sound like punk music. It’s about shifting these ideas around and deconstructing them and trying to use bits and bobs. I guess it’s a bit of a magpie approach of taking what I like from surf music and rockabilly and what I like from hip-hop production; borrowing these things to give the song the best chance it has. I don’t mind if something is pushed more towards electronic or dance or more towards the rockabilly side, it’s about what the song is shouting out for and what needs to be done in that respect.
AP: I read that the lyrics are the last thing you guys write and everyone in the band contributes. With four people writing, how do you decide which lyrics get used and which don’t?
DM: Usually there’s just a general kind of consensus over what’s sounding a bit gammy and what’s sounding a bit cliche. If one person likes it and three people don’t then it goes out the window; it’s kind of democratic like that. If someone’s really passionate about something and everyone else hates it then it might skate through but I guess it’s generally just kind of a democracy. I tend to get final say just because I’m the producer and it comes to down me recording what I want to record. If I really want a line I’ll just make them sing it and then cut it in later! If one of them is the main songwriter I’ll try to stick to what they want, but it all comes out in the wash because the democracy thing kind of works for us.
AP: Given how intricate a lot of the arrangements are on the new record, was there any difficulty transitioning them to a live show?
DM: Yeah, a million difficulties! (chuckles) It’s an ongoing problem. I remember seeing an interview with Ringo Starr talking about how they could never play the later Beatles albums live because they’d need a hundred people on the stage. I guess back then they didn’t have samplers; they were using tape decks or primitive sampling technology.
It’s a similar problem, though. If you layer up ten string sounds, then how do you get ten string sounds live? You’ve gotta kind of strip it back. I guess what we do is go back to the hip-hop sensibility of sampling and drum machines. That works for us. We’d never play anything off of a laptop; we use old-school samplers that have quite a beefy organic sound and we trigger the loops live to keep them fresh-sounding. It’s about stripping it back and making it a bit more simple and bombastic and pushing everything up. Pushing the tempo up, making it a bit more bassey, making everything a bit more instant and a bit more gratifying for the audience.
AP: I know you have a pretty notable background in electronic music. Do you have any ambitions to put out a solo producer-centric project?
DM: Yeah, definitely. I’m producing things for other people all week and last week. Maybe not an album of me producing but I definitely have a lot of things in the pipeline. Remixes too. I’d also love to work with Africa Express again, Damon Albarn and that gang, and do something with them in Africa again, maybe. I’d love to produce a whole soundtrack. I get a lot of offers and requests to do these things, but it’s a matter of fitting them in around Django Django, since that’s always the priority.
AP: What artists have you been listening to lately?
DM: I’m listening to Jimmy Edgar’s new EP a lot. He’s got a label called Ultramajic and I’ve got some friends on it. The EP is fantastic and really up my street. It’s kind of experimental with roots in Chicago. Unknown Mortal Orchestra– I’m really enjoying their new album and seeing them live. I’ve seen them a lot this summer. There’s a Scottish band called Man of Moon that I’m really into at the moment, a Welsh band called Gulp, L-VIS 1990. Loads of bits and bobs. A lot of unsigned stuff and demos people are sending me that I’m listening to a lot. There’s a rapper in London called Barney Artist who I’ve been working with. I’m listening to music constantly in a work context, so I’ve been discovering new music through that and hearing a lot of good stuff at the moment.
AP: What’s next for Django Django after the US tour?
DM: We have a big UK tour and then some dates in Europe and then a big Australian tour. On boxing day we fly to Australia for a quite extensive tour of festivals and side shows. Then I’m producing KT Tunstall’s album in LA so I’ll go there to do that while the band start writing the third Django Django album. So that’s us planned out ‘til almost this time next year!
AP: In regards to the third album, was there anything you learned while making the Born Under Saturn that you think inform the next one?
DM: Yeah. I think for me, what I want to do with the third album is make it very live-sounding. Rely less on loops and samples and rely more on playing. We’ve got some ideas; listening to a lot of early funk rock and people like Dr. John and The Politicians and The James Gang. I want to get into making a slumpy kind of rock record with live playing and live sounds on it.
Django Django will be playing Middle East Downstairs (relocated from Royale) this Sunday, 11/8, with Wild Belle. Tickets are still available here.
Bedroom Eyes beautifully toss themselves between shoegaze and punk creating an air of noise, whirrs and crashes you’d expect from Boston-area veterans in the scene. We’re happy to premiere, “Lorraine,” the first single from the band’s upcoming album Honeysuckle, out November 24th on Midnight Werewolf Records as part of our triple threat series with them. From their press release,
“Their 2012 debut album What Are You Wrong With captured the ambition of their early experimentation, and the years since have included a scrapped LP session, a lineup change, and a painstaking reworking of their sound. 2015 finds a more refined and cohesive Bedroom Eyes with their second album.”
Stream “Lorraine” below, and check out their upcoming tour dates. Pre-orders for the album are up now on the Midnight Werewolf Records bandcamp.
11/13 – BOSTON @ The ER w/ Fucko + Brown
11/15 – BROOKLYN @ Shea Stadium w/ No One and the Sombodies, Nonsense (presented by Gimme Tinnitus)
11/16 – RICHMOND @ Unicorn Gardens Retirement Center w/ Doubtfire, Magnus Lush
Located at POP Allston, 89 Brighton Ave, Allston MA 02134
Hosted by Vivant Vintage, Oliver Best Vintage Market and Deep Thoughts JP
Cash Bar, All Ages, Free Admission
Vivant Vintage & Deep Thoughts JP present Oliver Best Vinyl Fest- A FREE one day exhibition of the best vinyl New England has to offer. Featuring local record labels, distros and dealers, record stores and collectors. They’ll be spinning records and serving up cheap beers all day! For more info you can check out the Facebook event here.
The Oliver Best Vintage Market and Bit Fest Arcade, located in the basement, will also be open!
We first found out about Detroit’s Jamaican Queens a few years back, after their debut album “Wormfood” fell into our inbox, and we in turn fell in love w the record (it ranked 2nd on our 2013 year end list!). Shortly after the record came out, their name appeared on Great Scott’s calendar, and we were fortunate enough to meet up with them a few weeks later when they came to town. We took the guys to one of our favorite spots, In Your Ear Records on Comm Ave., and filmed an episode of “Total Nuggets”.
Since then, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the band, and have continually been impressed by their captivating live shows, and their insane (usually pretty f’d up) music videos. Earlier this year we caught them at SXSW, and got a stiff dose of some new tracks from their latest album “Downers”, which dropped a few months later, and features some of the best album art work we’ve seen (cover design by Sweet Dick Will):
After diving into the album, it quickly became clear that this thing was a masterpiece. It was everything we loved about Wormfood, and then some. They’ve taken their sound to new heights, and beefed up their range by sprinkling in some different genres like the reggae infused “If You Really Loved Me”, and the industrial banger “Emo + Poor”. Lyrically, the album is just as bizarre and weird as we’ve come to expect from front man Ryan Spencer, yet the darkness that weighs on most verses, is often compliment by beauty, take “Love is Impossible” for instance:
Like a bird tricked by a pain of glass / I smashed through the window of your love
The band hit the road this summer in support of the record, including a stop in Boston for a show at The Sinclair. We kidnapped them in Providence the previous night, and kept them tied up in our basement until they played a few songs for us. Lucky for you, we filmed it all (not the kidnapping part)! Check out “Joe”, the first song from the session below:
Up next, L.A. (and formerly Boston) quartet Winter took the stage and filled it with sultry dream pop and some more enthusiastic stage presence between band members. Slouching vocalist Samira Winter delicately but boldly crooned into the mic while the three bandmates who backed her up, Matt Hogan on guitar, bassist David Yorr, and Garren Orr on drums, created music that could verge on new, hip easy listening, making for a solid middle-man set.
Weiss’s new album, New Love, narrates that really difficult process of change in a familiar way. But one thing about her new sound is for sure. The Allison Weiss that you discovered making acoustic covers on Youtube with her brother in 2008 is long gone. With a full band and a full sound, Weiss’s trajectory is much more electronic-fueled pop than punky, raw-fingers-on-streel-strings-fueled pop.
