SZA, 21 Savage, Post Malone and More to Excite at Governors Ball 2024

Posted on 05/24/2024 by Harry Gustafson

With the arrival of summer comes the promise of endless music festivals. As much as these events are about seeing some of the current hit makers and critical darlings of the music scene, they’re even more about spending time with close friends in the sun, sampling delicious food, and immersing yourself in the environment that the festival creates.

Governor’s Ball consistently delivers year to year as New York City’s main event, with a lineup that includes some of the biggest names on the scene of pop, hip-hop, and R&BG, plus a decent helping of indie rock to round out the bill. Held in Queen’s Flushing Meadows Corona Park (the setting of the climax of the first Men In Black movie) from June 7th to 9th, this year’s iteration looks to deliver an unforgettable experience for attendees.

While here in Boston we have our own pop-oriented festival going down, Gov Ball has a little bit more to offer especially for fans of hip-hop and R&B. The two festivals share a number of performers, including Saturday headliners the Killers, new pop sensation Chappell Roan, Mean Girls star Reneé Rapp, plus a handful of lower line bands like the Thing and Blondshell.

The highlights on Friday include Teezo Touchdown, Euphoria composer Labrinth, reggaeton star Rauw Alejandro, indie darling Alex G, plus Magic: The Gathering enthusiast Post Malone as the main headliner.

On Saturday, the can’t miss sets include British singer-songwriter Bakar, rapper Sexxy Red (fresh off a new album release), “Espresso” singer Sabrina Carpenter, pop idol Carly Rae Jepsen, plus 21 Savage and the Killers at the top of the bill. New face Jessie Murph will also perform, an interesting pick on this year’s festival circuit given her limited amount of releases, which to this point seems just to be a few singles.

On Sunday, headliner SZA will get most of the attention, but the day will be rounded out with performances from Brockhampton lead Kevin Abstract, singer-songwriter Faye Webster, R&B crooner Don Toliver, plus the previously mentioned Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp.

Though the performers get most of the hype, the festival experience is nothing without the other amenities and activities available. some of the food options that look particularly enticing are Gotham Burger, Walter’s Hot Dogs (it’s not summer without a few glizzies!), Dank Nugs, Cafe Habana, plus a collab between Stella and beloved internet talk show Hot Ones. Check the festival’s website for a full list of food and beverage options.

If anyone in attendance needs a break from the pits, they can head to a number of activity areas that are of interest. Red Bull promises a secret warehouse party through a red door. Stella Artois is putting up a social drinking area with limited-edition swag. There’s an arcade hosted by Rakuten, a Forever 21 style shop, and an area to watch the NBA Finals. It will be very fun to watch the Boston Celtics win the finals at a festival in Nww York City, which for being a basketball Mecca, has two completely irrelevant NBA franchises.

Tickets are almost gone so if you haven’t gotten around to purchasing yours, get on it ASAP!

Reporting for Duty at Julia’s War Fest

Posted on 05/24/2024 by Dillon Riley

By Dillon Riley

Julia’s War Fest stacked higher than a hoagie

So I was getting jokes off on the Allston Pudding Twitter account for sure, but the truth of the matter is I love the city of Philadelphia (it’s still fuck the Sixers though). There is a certain laid-back, community-oriented vibe to that Philly that sets me at ease the moment I step into the various sandwich joints, dive bars, or Ukranian-American Citizen’s Associations that dot the Brotherly Tunnel of Love or whatever Springsteen was singing about. One thing I love about Philly is that it’s still a place where the freaks and meeks shall inherit the turf, an increasingly rare feat in whatever fucking stage of late capitalism we’re in. Cheap rents, cheap beer, an abundance of spaces to play: these are the tools that helped build a thousand Bandcamp success stories. And yet for a city with such a rich (if somewhat recent) history of explosive indie rock happenings, the general vibe around town does not reek of careerism or ambition so much as mutual love, respect, and admiration. Everyone seems to share band members if not also a similar artistic sensibility, and despite the report to the contrary: not everyone is playing shoegaze.

Julia’s War Recordings, the label headed by They Are Gutting A Body of Water‘s Doug Dulgarian and friends, is a neat snapshot of the moment right now in Philly. Though far from a figurehead (in fact spend virtually any time in the Julia’s War orbit and you’ll hear shouts to literally everyone else doing the work in deference to the greater good), his label and close partnership with the 4333 Collective promotion team has birthed its own kinda in-scene within a scene. The kind of scene where hundreds of heads pop out to a two-day fest at a rec hall from doors til curfew and are hype the entire damn time, throwing shapes and pit moves to feedback for six hours straight. Yes, there were plenty of bands playing loud-ass indie rock with pedals and big cabs (and you’ll read about some below), but Julia’s War has also found headspace for things like warped electronica, haunted trap, free jazz, and bedroom folk (among others) beside all those glider guitars and drum and bass interludes. They have amassed quite the discography in just 3 years of operation, putting the spotlight on their native city, but also reaching out beyond to the Midwest, the South, the West Coast, hell even Boston in support of inventive expression and a belief in doing things outside the margins. The label has sewn camaraderie between nominally disparate scenes at a time when that is needed most.

Having attended last year’s Julia’s War Fest simply as a fan, I returned with just my phone (sorry for the bad pictures I forgot to pack a camera lol) with the goal of trying to document why this little pocket of indie rock activity has become such a beacon of positivity and inspiration for me specifically, some 300 odd miles away, and I think I found it. The truth is that being fiercely DIY has forever been an often thankless and futile measure, but being in rooms like the Ukie Club last weekend, surrounded by people who share similar values (at the very least when it comes to art)? Well that shit is life-affirming.

Wanted to highlight a few sets each day below, but really everyone slayed so go check ’em all out!

Her New Knife (Friday)

Her New Knife exploded onto my radar at last year’s Julia’s War Fest fresh off a move to Philly from Florida with their blend of squalling guitar noise and drowsily aching slowcore. The quartet’s latest 3-tracker for JWar folds in some dance influence too, especially in the twin guitar interplay that favors intricately layered lines over the typical droning din of their chosen genre hallmarks. Her New Knife are absolute killers live, and they kicked off this year’s fest with a set leaning heavy on new material for what’s been teased as their debut LP. Her New Knife’s bass player was away so they added a friend on harp to fill in which made for a nice dynamic and some interesting textures on their otherwise gleefully punishing live set. By my estimation they are the young band to watch in Philly right now.

Joyer (Friday)

Of course I was gonna tip the sole Boston-ish group of the weekend. Joyer put out one of the best indie rock records of this year so far by any metric per my estimation just three weeks ago, and their set at Julia’s War Fest ran exclusively from it. Fronted by brothers Shane and Nick Sullivan, each have their own tendencies as songwriters that compliments the other well. As a live unit they are relentless on the heavier and slower material, but just as capably light and airy on the popier numbers. This and their record release show in Boston both felt like event horizons. This will be a big band I guarantee it. That said, being a 50/50 Boston New York split members wise means I have to take a side and I’m choosing Beantown every time, baby. Just playing it’s all love, go peep Night Songs if you haven’t already.

Mormon Toasterhead (Friday)

Mormon Toasterhead, the formerly Chicago-based solo vehicle of one Ben Klawans has become something of a local fixture since their relocation to Philly and round out into a four-piece band. Once known for eclectic releases that spanned genres and recording fidelities, the group has know zeroed-in on a (still plenty off-kilter) side of slacker-y indie rock that looks plenty good on ’em. I use that term loosely though, as their drummer hits so hard they broke a snare drum on like the third song of their set on Friday. Pulling mostly from last year’s Julia’s War issued Free Wheel LP, Klawans and co. inspired some of the most raucous push pits I saw all weekend.

Nabeel (Saturday)

Harrisonburg, Virginia’s Nabeel is a relatively new project with just a single EP on Julia’s War out thus far, though you wouldn’t know it from their confidently cracking set on the earlier side of Day 2. Fronted by Yasir Nabeel Razak, the group is very explicit in their Iraqi roots, combining some Arabic influence with their thick heaving distortion and head-nodding pop hooks . Someone in the crowd behind me sited Pavement as an influenced by their loose-limbed but sturdy attack, and while I can’t entirely disagree I think there’s something even headier and more contemporary going on underneath the hood of a Nabeel song. Very curious to hear the finishing touches on the handful of new tracks they worked through as well.

Hooky (Saturday)

Hooky just blew me away, man. The Philly two-piece slots somewhere between like smoked-out instrumental hip-hop, big beat, shoegaze, Soundcloud rap, and ambient and if that sounds like a mess it sorta is, but in a completely thrilling sorta way. Armed with a card table-filling rack of analog synths and vocal pedals, Hooky ran through a breathless set, playing scraps of new stuff and full songs and teasers alike. Sequenced more like a beat set than a rock band, the duo warp their beats-and-guitar set up in real time, woozily tripping up the dancers and themselves alike. All their vocals are draped in oozing auto-tune, and that combined with heavily processed and tremelo’d to hell guitars makes for a thick haze of noise that’s just purely intoxicating. Saddles between so many different underground approaches to music-making, Hooky feels kinda like the ultimate Julia’s War band. Peep their record from last year for a survey, but know that the live set is a different animal entirely in the best sorta way.

Feeble Little Horse (Saturday)

Feeble Little Horse‘s festival closing set felt like a coronation. The crowd greeted the Pittsburgh-based four-piece like they returned from war (heh), all screams and heaving swells of body movement from the very jump. I saw at least six of the weekend’s only crowdsurfers during their tightly wound set, with many more onlookers perched on the sides absolutely transfixed by their warped noise-and-pop tandem. Having seen Feeble slay an absolutely packed Allston basement a few years back, they are somehow a far more casually confident and air-tight operation as a live entity these days, just crushing the tossed-off brilliance of their records with glee. Having taken some time away for personal reasons, sets like these are a hopeful sign that we will indeed be getting more tunes from the Horse.

I also wanna shout out long-time friend of the Pudding Jasmine who catered all of the fest with some insane Sicilian/Algerian fusion cuisine that everyone was gushing about all weekend. Her coffeeshop Lombard Cafe in Philly’s Queen Village neighborhood has been dealing with hate crimes and some really vile bullshit from zionists lately and could use your support!

Esh & The Isolations Break Out Of Isolation On Inspired Sophomore Album

Posted on 05/24/2024 by Andrew McNally

By Andrew McNally

It’s been a long few years since Esh & The Isolations released his debut album, 2020’s Idiot Fingerz. The world has changed dramatically, as has the life of Boston’s hybrid artist Esh. But Esh, like the world, is still here, and on his sophomore album Nowhere, to Be Found, he’s got a lot to reflect on. We’re proud to be premiering his new record, a uniquely inspired blend of hip-hop and indie.

It’s a miracle that the songs on this album are able to be heard at all. Early versions of these songs were rescued from a hard drive that survived an otherwise devastating house fire. And as tragic as the situation was, it’s metaphorical for the album; perseverance, be it willing or unwilling, is a theme that permeates the whole release. The album’s lyrical content is melancholic and introspective, though some songs swap out despondence for wit. Esh has said of the album, “[it] is about longing for a fading connection and ultimately finding solace in embracing life’s inevitable changes. It reflects on aging, the pursuit of authenticity, and the complex, bittersweet nature of love.” These themes come through on every track, often in ways that are harshly honest or reflectively balanced.

Songs like “No Shame On My Shadow” and the closing title track peel the curtain way back, with Esh getting direct and honest in the detailing of his life and thoughts. “Looking for a crisis so I can write shit,” Esh raps on “Shadow,” an eerie mission statement for the album’s general tone. “Flower Girl” and “Lost Balloon (The Anxious Attachment Blues)” are proto-love songs, but they come complete with the similar self-doubt and brutal honesty of the other tracks. On the flipside, lead single “2 Late 2 Die Young” is a tongue-in-cheek bemoaning from Esh, who didn’t get to join the 27 Club. This kind of dark comedy peeks through at times and helps keep the album from becoming a fully downtrodden affair.

Esh has made a name for himself as a rapper, but he’s always had streaks of other genres throughout his music. Take the Isolations for instance: not a true backing band but Esh’s occasional collaborators. This wide-ranging sound has grown increasingly true on this album, which often strays outside of the hip-hop world. Part of this is due to a full-album collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Jesse Mark Russell, who helps guide these songs through a number of influences and ideas. Esh’s desire to ignore genre barriers is always apparent and seemingly always works to his favor.

“Something Real” is the truest rap song on the album, and is smartly placed right at the album’s midpoint. It’s an old-school sounding track, heavy on flow and percussion. It’s also the only song on the album that feels squarely centered on hip-hop. The opener “Bad Muse” and late-album track “Come Home” are both assisted with pop verses from Peryle, with the latter sounding like a true pop ballad. “Culture of Comparison” sounds close to a rock song, with a droning guitar line and sung vocals. And the aforementioned “Lost Balloon (The Anxious Attachment Blues)” is one of the standouts musically, a ballad with rapped verses and horns that somehow results in a winding alternative song. On the whole, the album tends more towards ballads and tender songs. But there’s a healthy mix of nearly everything across the record, a triumph of Esh’s multi-genre mastery.

Just like Idiot Fingerz, this album serves as a full-scale exercise in genre blending and self-meditation. Lyrically and musically, it hits points of both exasperation and cleanliness, points of both heavy hip-hop and peaceful indie. There’s something for nearly everyone here, an invitation for all to come into Esh’s world and choose the musings that are personally relevant. The record is, above all else, human.

Nowhere, to Be Found is officially out today and can be streamed below in full. Esh & the Isolations will be playing a release show on June 15^th at Warehouse XI in Somerville.

<a href="https://eshandtheisolations.bandcamp.com/album/nowhere-to-be-found">Nowhere, to Be Found by Esh & The Isolations</a>

Here is the video for “Nowhere, to Be Found”:

Buck Meek Brings the Haunted Mountain to Crystal Ballroom

Posted on 05/23/2024 by Ben Bonadies

By Ben Bonadies

Photo by Harry Gustafson

“Buck and I did this weird thing,” the singer Jolie Holland said, on stage at Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom. She explained how it came to be that she and Buck Meek, best known as the guitar player for Big Thief, both recorded and released a song Holland started called “Haunted Mountain,” which then became the title tracks for both her and Meek’s new albums, both released within two months of each other. Weird indeed, but Meek’s decision to bring Holland on tour with him gave the whole enterprise a familial feeling.

Holland’s version leans heavier into the “haunted” thing more than Meek’s jaunty take. It’s considerably slower, statelier and she sings it with her voice aimed directly through the bottom of her jaw.

If there is a Buck Meek sound it rests with guitarist Adam Brisbin. The mileage he gets out of his instrument is frankly incredible. He’ll use lots of delay to sound like a chorus of guitars or add distortion to get a meaty honky-tonk squawk. Other times his guitar will sound like the high chimes of a xylophone or a mournful saxophone. I still don’t know how he did that.

Tim Carr’s drumming eschewed sticks at every opportunity. Mallets, brushes and the open hand were used liberally and it gave the rhythm section a feeling of “closeness”—texture and feel given priority over sheer driving force.

Before a few early songs, Buck would call for this one to be “just a little bit faster,” prompting (friendly) sighs from his band. But it’s what kept this crowd moving through his meat-and-potatoes Americana. “Thank you for dancing. It really helps us out,” Meek said before taking a sip of his Narragansett tallboy.

Meek himself was rarely still. His head bobbed and swiveled atop his neck, his leather booted feet doing a little soft-shoe like he was grinding something into the stage with his toe. He appears elfin with sharp facial features that would not seem out of place in Rivendell.

Late in the set, Meek got a big jolt for the Big Thief cut “Certainty,” a song Meek introduced as one he wrote with his friend Adrianne Lenker. He told a story about how the pair met at a house show in Jamaica Plain, prompting another big whoop from the crowd. I conjured images of Meek and Lenker as a crunchy JP couple (Meek and Lenker were married for a few years and they divorced in 2018), not yet famous, still honing their songcraft. Egged on, he told another story about how his old landlord threatened to cut his throat if the heater broke during a cold Somerville winter.

Meek ended his encore on new tune “Outta Body” that’s as close to disco as he may ever come. As he walked off stage, Meek was beaming. He said it was a very special show, one of his favorites he’s ever played. It was a tough compliment to take knowing his resume includes some of the nation’s premiere concert venues, television programs, and a concert film with Bob Dylan. But given Meek’s history in Boston, it must have felt like a homecoming for him.

Check out the rest of Harry’s photos, unless yer too yella.

Boston Calling Preview: Paper Lady

Posted on 05/23/2024 by Dan Moffat

Paper Lady (photo by Greg Wong)

by Dan Moffat

As the Allston Pudding machine winds down its preview of Boston Calling artists, and transitions to festival coverage, we wanted to spotlight one final local band ahead of Memorial Day weekend. Five-piece dreampop n’ shoegaze group Paper Lady are making their Boston Calling debut this Saturday. We think you should take your festival schedule and star Paper Lady’s set, cut it out with scissors, and tape it to your wristband so you don’t forget.

How do they sound? Singer Alli Raina glides through clouds of reverb akin to The Sundays and Cocteau Twins. There’s an edge underneath the pillowy surface where driving beats and scratchy instrumentals poke through, keys and guitars rain down hard. A propensity for the occult bolts and crackles around them, but in a tongue-in-cheek way, like I can imagine them performing in the cult comedy “Hot Fuzz.” It all sounds so far away, as festival-ready echoes drench melodies to make everything bigger, so playing the Orange stage at Boston Calling should suit them well.

Best enjoyed up close to the stage, we’ll be nodding along to Paper Lady’s poppy cacophony at their 5:20 set on Saturday, over at the Harvard Athletic Complex.

Zola Simone on Chappell Roan, Boston Summers and Being Yourself

Posted on 05/22/2024 by Andrew Bourque

By Andrew Bourque

Zola Simone photographed by Yazi Ferrufino

The 13th edition of Boston Calling is this weekend and Allston Pudding will have all the artist interviews, pics, live coverage and behind-the-scenes scoops that you need whether you’re dancing alongside us or enjoying from home. We’re continuing our preview coverage for the weekend with Cambridge’s own Zola Simone. Ahead of their set this Sunday, we got to chat with the Gen-Z hitmaker about their recent single “Boston”, obsessing over Chappell Roan and being your most authentic self.

Allston Pudding: How did Boston Calling come about for you? What was the booking process like?

Zola Simone: I messaged the booker around November of last year, “hey, I would love to play Boston Calling, I don’t know how I could make that happen.” I don’t have a booking agent right now but they were like, “Oh, we’ve already had our eye on you, so we’ll just get a contract sent over.” and that was kind of it. A lot of the biggest things that have happened to me are because I asked. A lot of people are afraid to ask but my advice, that no one asked for, is just to be your own biggest advocate and put yourself out there. The worst thing people can say is “no.”

AP: How are you feeling ahead of the show?

ZS: I’m so excited, but I’m also really sad. I’m already sad that it’s gonna be over. It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for years as a festival goer. It’s a full circle moment. I’m ecstatic. I’m playing my favorite day of the weekend, in terms of the lineup. I get to play with people that I really look up to, a bunch of amazing local artists and I’m thrilled to meet new bands that I haven’t heard of before.

AP: Being from Boston and having recently dropped your single named “Boston”, what does it mean to you to perform at Boston Calling?

ZS: It means everything. I was just driving last night and thinking about growing up here in the summer. I was driving right by the Fresh Pond Mall, where a Blockbuster used to be, and I felt a little old. Everyone has such a unique experience with their hometown, and I would’ve been a completely different person and had a completely different relationship to music if I didn’t grow up here. Boston is such a huge part of who I am, especially the music scene and it’s such a privilege to be a part of it. Being 13 in Dorchester, experiencing hip-hop for the first time and now working with a hip-hop producer. I’ve even managed to convert him to be a little bit of a pop guy, so it’s really amazing. This is my home so this show is kind of like my homecoming.

AP: Which other artists are you excited to see this weekend?

ZS: Chappell Roan. I love her. I feel like every interview I’ve had recently I talk about her. For my final in my music history class we had to write an album review and give some cultural context, so I wrote an in-depth review of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. I’ve loved her since I discovered her music in 2021 with “Pink Pony Club”. I was floored by that song.

AP: It does have an instant classic quality to it.

ZS: Absolutely. She is a star in every sense of the word and I’m so happy she’s getting her flowers. I resonate a lot with her and I would love to have an opportunity to talk to her. I love that her team is made up of her friends. *sighs* I just think she’s just doing it the right way.

AP: For those unfamiliar with your sound, what should they expect from a Zola Simone show?

ZS: I’m gonna play a wide range of everything. There is a song of mine for every person, no matter the demographic or the identity. If you don’t like all of my music, that’s OK, but I feel like people will at least fuck with one of my songs. I feel like a big part of my artistry is versatility and having a diverse sound. I actually coined the term “androgynous pop” because my stuff is a little nonconforming, a little like me.

AP: We love a vers, androgynous, queen-diva in this house.

ZS: You said it, not me! I need to put that on my website. [laughs]

AP: You’re someone who wears your identity proudly, and as a member of a younger generation, do you have any advice for other “Gen-Z”ers trying to be creative while remaining true to themselves?

ZS: Be yourself, everybody else is taken. It’s so cliche, but it’s so true! Why would you live your life being someone else? No one else is going to do you better than you can! Authentically is the best way to live and in this world, that’s a privilege and it shouldn’t be. But, if you are able to, living authentically is the only way to live. You can’t control how others perceive you, but you can control how you perceive yourself.

AP: What would you say is your favorite part of being a musician? Writing, recording, touring, meeting other creatives or something else?

ZS: It’s tied between performing and writing for me. There’s no better feeling than writing, it’s like scratching an itch; like putting together a puzzle. It’s so satisfying, especially when writing about something negative. It’s about having that control and power over something by taking something negative and turning it into a thing that brings you joy and that you’re proud of.

AP: Who is your dream collaboration?

ZS: Probably Chappell Roan, or Remi Wolf. I just wrote a song last night inspired by Remi’s most recent singles. We would make a banger together. She’s so unique, nobody else has that sense of creativity.

Courtesy of Zola Zimone’s IG

AP: Having just released a new single, and with Boston Calling coming this weekend: what’s next for Zola Simone?

ZS: I’m playing another festival that I can’t talk about just yet. I’m also playing a pride show in New York & a pride event in New Jersey at my aunt’s LGBTQ center. Plus, I have a lot of new music coming out, so expect consistent releases from me for a few months. I have a master plan and it will soon be revealed.

AP: What’s your go-to festival fuel? Sparkling water & Tasty Burger? Gold Bond or Gas-X?

ZS: Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and a yellow Red Bull. Caffeine makes me crazy but it’s needed for Friday and Saturday, for sure. But for show day on Sunday, I need to be on my game with throat-coat tea and Vitamin Water.

You can catch Zola Simone at Boston Calling this Sunday, May 26th at 5:10pm on the Orange Stage. For more info on Zola, check out their website here! For more info on Boston Calling, click here!

Cakeswagg on Queen Latifah, Boston Hip-Hop & Drinking Celsius

Posted on 05/21/2024 by Andrew Bourque

By Andrew Bourque

Photo courtesy of Cakeswagg

The 13th edition of Boston Calling is this weekend and Allston Pudding will have all the artist interviews, pics, live coverage and behind-the-scenes scoop that you need whether you’re dancing alongside us or enjoying from home. Next up in our preview coverage for the weekend, we got to talk with Roxbury native Cakeswagg. Ahead of their performance on Saturday, we chatted about their new single “Bad Bitch Link Up”, balancing a teaching career with being a musician and feeling inspired by their mom.

AP: How did Boston Calling come about? What was the booking process like?

Cakeswagg: They sent me a message on Instagram. I was like “this has to be a scam”. There’s no way this is real. Oftentimes what will happen, they’ll say “oh yeah, you can be a part of this festival… if you pay ‘X’ amount of dollars,” but this turned out to be 100% real. It was insane. I was in complete disbelief, like how would they even know who I am?

AP: How are you feeling ahead of the show?

Cakeswagg: Excited! I’m definitely nervous. We’ve ramped up the dance rehearsals. They’re intense, but I’m excited. I’m making sure that I really just live in that moment of excitement and don’t stress about it too much to the point where I’m not enjoying it.

AP: For those unfamiliar with your sound, what can they expect from a Cakeswagg set?

Cakeswagg: I would say: think of a Boston medley of an artist who is influenced by Missy Elliott & Kendrick Lamar. There’s gonna be lots of vibrant, colorful punchlines. I’m doing a medley of my music, so for people who aren’t familiar with my catalog, it’s going to be upbeat, vibrant and quirky, but also have these moments of some pretty serious bars.

AP: What does it mean to be a Boston area artist playing Boston Calling?

Cakeswagg: It means a lot. I remember when I first heard about Boston Calling and thinking, this is amazing that we have this to begin with, a festival that looks for local artists. It’s almost like a luxury that we get a piece of the pie. Like, “Oh you got a pie that we can fight for a piece for?” Fast-forward to this year and there’s like 10 local artists on every single day, every single genre – it’s powerful and it’s necessary. When you think about the history of pop culture, you get glimpses of Massachusetts: The Pixies, Donna Summer, New Edition, New Kids On The Block. You get little sprinkles of us every now and then, so it’s great to see us be a part of the conversation.

AP: Which other Boston Calling acts are you excited to see?

Cakeswagg: Oh my goodness. Obviously excited to see Megan Thee Stallion and Ed Sheeran, but even Hozier. I mean “Take Me to Church,” that is my gym jam. Like, “OK, you can lift today, you can do it.” [laughs] Also, I’m excited to see Billy Dean Thomas and KEI. They’re two phenomenal Boston artists and I’m excited to see their sets. I’m happy that we’re on different days so I actually get to see them.

AP: For the uncultured, can you explain what an ideal bad bitch link up looks like?

Cakeswagg: An ideal bad bitch link up is where all the bad bitches of every orientation can just get together and just chill and have a blast. You know what I mean, like pool parties. It is bad bitches in the soft life. We’re all linking up to enjoy drama-free fun, you know? We can turn up, listen to good music and take shots. Maybe someone goes for the grill.

AP: Where would your ideal bad bitch link up take place?

Cakeswagg: If I could go anywhere, I would say Mykonos. We would all be in our villas and in the water on the floating daybeds. Like, you can turn up over there, I can turn up over here. We can fall asleep, wake up and do it all over again.

AP: I love this alternate definition of “turning up”. Just floating and drinking.

Cakeswagg: Well now that I’ve turned 30, my idea of a turn up is wanting to turn up, but also wanting a comfortable seat nearby, you know?

AP: Exactly, turning up without having to feel it for the next three days.

Cakeswagg: That part. Like, I still have to teach come Monday morning and act like a regular person.

“Bad Bitch Link Up” Artwork

AP: In your words, what makes a bad bitch such a bad bitch?

Cakeswagg: I think a bad bitch is a person who is completely, unapologetically themselves in any way that is. It doesn’t matter if you’re a techie or you’re dropping 16s, love what you do and do it well. Period. I think that’s what makes a bad bitch, a bad bitch.

AP: What shots are you pouring? What’s your ideal summer drink?

Cakeswagg: I’m back on the tequila tour. I call it that because a couple years ago I went to Mexico and we did a couple of tequila tastings. When we came home, we were strategic about finding tequilas that we had never tried before. I’ve had a couple of favorites. I’ve done the whole Casamigos thing, I’ve tried some brands and stuck with them for a season, but it’s the summer and because I won’t be traveling this season, between teaching and taking classes, I’m gonna have my own at-home tequila tour. That’s the plan.

AP: What/who inspires you to perform? Where/how did you find the confidence to stand out?

Cakeswagg: Probably my biggest inspiration now that I’m getting older is my mom. She’s the reason why I started [performing] in the first place. I played Baby Jesus in Langston Hughes’ Nativity because my mom was a soloist in the production. As far as hip-hop goes; Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah and Kendrick Lamar. I love Queen Latifah because she’s such a real lyricist and unapologetically herself. Just because she did one thing didn’t mean she couldn’t do anything else. She produced TV shows, been on Broadway. Like, I wanna be able to do anything that I enjoy and they inspire me to do that. With Kendrick, I love that he’s bringing poetry back into hip-hop. It makes me feel like I can continue to challenge my pen.

AP: What’s next for you? You just had a new single, Boston Calling is coming up,

Courtesy of Cakeswagg’s IG

what’s after that?

Cakeswagg: I’m finishing up my project that I’m probably gonna drop in August. I am curating a festival called Hip-Hop Immersive in July. It’s gonna be Boston area artists performing, but also exhibits on the side to explore the history of Boston hip-hop. We’ll have DJs, MCs and retired B-boys and B-girls who were doing all of this 50 years ago. I’m also still in school to get my degree in theater education. So that’s my summer!

AP: What’s your go to festival fuel? White Claws and Excedrin? Gold Bond and a prayer?

CS: Definitely Celsius, Lord forgive me. I’ve been saying I’m gonna give it up but if they allow us to have a rider, I’m putting Celsius on there. I love a good Celsius to start my day or I’ll have a second one if it’s a real busy day. That’s my go-to fuel. Hopefully they don’t have commercials for us in 20 years like, “If you drank Celsius from 2020-2024 you may be entitled to compensation.” It ain’t ever steered me wrong, yet!

You can catch Cakeswagg performing at Boston Calling on Saturday, May 25th at 4:05pm on the Orange Stage & later on that night at Aeronaut Allston for the (free!) Bad Bitch Link Up show at 7pm. For more info on Cakeswagg click here and for more info on Boston Calling click here!

Mannequin Pussy Uncensored at the Sinclair

Posted on 05/20/2024 by Ben Bonadies

By Ben Bonadies

Photo by Wendy Schiller

Industry rule number four-thousand-and-eighty-one: you’ll never get anywhere with the word “pussy” in your band name. National papers won’t cover you. TV shows won’t feature your music. You’ll play to empty rooms across the country. Clearly, no one clued Mannequin Pussy into this rule. This Tuesday, they played their second show of a two-night, sold-out stand at The Sinclair on the heels of their blockbuster new album, the John Congleton-produced I Got Heaven.

Soul Glo, the Philly hardcore band, kicked off the night with a high-energy set. Frontman Pierce Jordan stalked the stage in socks and slides and screeched like that thing that kills Newman in Jurassic Park. A pit opened shortly after their first song.

If Soul Glo were all volume, Mannequin Pussy embraced dynamic ranges. I Got Heaven expanded the band’s palette to encompass a greater range of tones. Softer, dreamier songs like “Sometimes” end with singer Missy Dabice cooing quieter and quieter until her voice is barely more than breath. “I Don’t Know You” has that spectral, swaying Yo La Tengo feel aided by Maxine Steen’s bubbly synth arpeggios. Even at its harshest, as on harder-edged cuts “Of Her” and “Aching,” Dabice’s voice retains a sweet mellifluousness. She carries a sticky melody through the growling quasi-rapped sections of “I Got Heaven” and mid-set highlight “Loud Bark” fused the two modes in a way that’d make the Pixies proud: a quiet verse steadily rising to a crescendoing climax.

In the end, it was Dabice’s gentleness that stayed with me. She delivered all of her stage banter in a soft ASMR-style whisper as she paraded around the Sinclair’s stage in a flower-accented gown. The effect was spellbinding. Near the end of their set, Dabice gave a long speech about the power of music to induce catharsis amid a world of injustices, namely the ongoing Palestinian genocide and the religious dogmatism underpinning it. It should be noted that Soul Glo opened their set with a scream of “Free Palestine” and the Palestinian flag was draped over the back of MP’s keyboard.

“I know we are called Mannequin Pussy,” Dabice said as she brought her monologue to a close, hitting that plosive P extra hard, “but we actually take ourselves pretty seriously as artists.” On the contrary, I don’t think you give yourself a name that makes publicists and squeaky-clean social media platforms tremble unless you’re a serious artist.

Take a look at the rest of Wendy’s photos below. Scroll and be healed.

Divine Sweater on Boston Calling, Vampires & Kevin Bacon

Posted on 05/20/2024 by Andrew Bourque

By Andrew Bourque

Photo Credit: Ellie Gravitte. From left: Sean Seaver, Chris Southiere, Meghan Kelleher, Stephen Lin and Alex Goldberg.

The 13th edition of Boston Calling is this weekend and Allston Pudding will have all the artist interviews, pics, live coverage and behind-the-scenes scoop that you need whether you’re dancing alongside us, or enjoying from home. Kicking-off our preview coverage, we interviewed local legends Divine Sweater. A group of friends from the Boston area with deep connections reaching back through the years, Divine Sweater always brings a wholesome charm to every show. We recently had the chance to chat with members Alex Goldberg, Meghan Kelleher and Sean Seaver about their recent single “Deep Side”, playing the festival for the first time and being big yearners…

Allston Pudding: How did Boston Calling come about? What was the booking process like?

Sean Seaver: It was a pretty clear trajectory I would say. We got an opening slot of the Sinclair in 2022 and then we sold out the Sinclair with a headline in 2023 and the offer came right after that. I don’t think it was a coincidence… I feel like most of the local bands [on the lineup], they are not necessarily unknown. They’ve played the Sinclair, or they’ve played the Crystal Ballroom. We’ve done that and the email offer just kind of came about. It was very exciting, but it didn’t feel like something that fell out of the sky, really. It felt like something we had been working toward. Just not necessarily with this goal in mind.

Meghan Kelleher: I feel like they do a good job with including local bands in the lineup. A lot of festivals don’t do that at all. But if you are a band in Boston and you want to play, I feel like they do a good job to make sure that local acts get that chance.

Divine Sweater at The Sinclair

AP: How far in advance was that email offering you a spot?

SS: Must’ve been in October because we were opening for Melt at the Royale and there was some anxiety because we heard the Boston Calling booker might be there but we actually got the offer about a week before that gig.

AP: How are you feeling ahead of the show?

MK: I’m so excited. I’m just ready to go to the festival. Obviously playing is going to be the best part, but I’m so excited to see other bands. Bands from Boston, nationally touring acts; I’ve only actually gone to Boston Calling once before so I’m excited to go back.

Alex Goldberg: I feel like it’s really important for us to stay in the moment. The reality is that we’re going to play the set and then it’s gonna be over like that, but this is a pretty significant opportunity for us. So I think it’s very important to just go up there and soak it in as much as possible. I’m really looking forward to it.

AP: You guys are on Friday too-

SS: Yeah, we’re the first set of the whole thing, on the Red Stage at 1:45pm. Grateful for that, grateful to be on the main stage; no one else is playing during that slot. It’s gonna be a real pinch-yourself moment when we’re up there.

AP: Which other BC act are you excited to see?

MK: Definitely most excited to see The Killers, but also Chappell Roan, I’m going to scream along to every song. Also really love Blondshell a ton and Alvvays. Love them so much.

AG: Gotta shout-out my girl Megan Thee Stallion, extremely excited for that, gonna be an awesome show.

AP: I want to get into your recent TikTok fame. Can you describe the moment the clip of Chris [Southiere] went viral? You guys have been working so hard on your social media game, so what was it like to get a comment from Kevin Bacon? When did you all realize it went viral?

SS: We were recording the single “Deep Side” about two days after it was written. It’s just me and Chris in the room and he’s playing and dancing and we had a bit of a troll bit where people would come up to Chris at shows and say that he looked like Anderson .Paak. So once we were done recording, at the end of the day we just had to post something. So I just threw up that video and over the next two days it was just wild.

@divinesweater He crushed it tho #fyp #indie #indieband #andersonpaak #musician #band #indierock #dancing #recording #song #studio #drums #bass #silksonic ♬ original sound – Divine Sweater

MK: I honestly think maybe Kevin Bacon was just scrolling through TikTok and just thought it was a video of Anderson .Paak and was just like “cool man!” and commented.

AG: I do think it’s a testament to the grind of Divine Sweater’s social media presence. Sean will make thousands of videos every day and it just takes one. He’s a real lunch-pail guy, a hard worker. First one in and out the gym when it comes to TikTok.

<a href="https://divinesweater.bandcamp.com/track/deep-side">Deep Side by Divine Sweater</a>

AP: The single “Deep Side” deals with that all consuming infatuation we can experience for another person. Having written the song and thus becoming experts on the subject, do you have any advice for someone going through that?

MK: Oh man, I feel like the song is about being in a very delusional state which everyone has been in whether it’s a crush or just something that you want really bad. But, I think it’s fine to stay in that state for a little bit. Just ride it out. I feel like being a musician is a lot of just being delusional and wanting this thing to happen and convincing yourself that it’s going to. So, I’m all about that.

SS: Great musician tie-in there.

MK: Well, I guess if you have a crush on someone, you should tell them because if you don’t, you’re just gonna be in this wishy-washy place forever and it’s not gonna feel good. But if you do tell them, it could feel good, it could also feel bad, but at least you’ll know.

AG: this one is for all the yearners out there just trying to yearn. If you’re trying to make yearning a part of your lifestyle, this song is for you. If you wanna stay on that yearn-life perpetually, there’s space for that too. #Yearngang!

AP: Was the music video for “Deep Side” conceived just so you could all get back at Alex for his behavior in the “What If They Find Me Out?” video?

MK: Alex is clearly the best actor in our band so we just put him as the main character, but yeah I’m glad that you caught that. Anyone that’s watching our YouTube videos will catch that. But also I feel like there’s some leftover Twilight teen-angst that this came out of, at least for me.

AG: High school theater was a really influential time in my life, you wanna talk about yearning. The amount of yearning going on backstage in a typical high school theater production is off the charts. So it’s really just about tapping into those sources of energy in our own lives & making an authentic performance. We’re all just big yearners.

AP: Who’s your favorite pop culture vampire?

AG: Gary Oldman’s Dracula performance. The most insanely rizzed out vampire you’ve ever seen in your life. He has no reason to be that hot in that performance.

SS: I’d probably go with The Count from Sesame Street.

MK: Oh, I also am obsessed with the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall and they do a Vampire rock opera at the end and, Twilight vampires have to be #1, but after that it’s the rock opera.

AP: What’s next for you after Boston Calling?

SS: Will start dropping some more singles and in the fall we’ll have a new record. Before then we’ll have a couple more shows in the summer.

MK: I’m psyched for Nice, A Fest this year too. Such a good lineup and really cool to see how it’s grown.

AP: What’s your go-to festival fuel? Small plastic cups of wine? Gold bond?

MK: Mine’s definitely going to be a combination of tallboy seltzers, and a burrito.

SS: I think burritos are included for Artists…

AG: That’s huge.

SS: I’m gonna survive on kombucha in the mornings and then dive right back in.

AG: I drink an alarming amount of coffee every day so that’s my go-to, and sunblock.

Catch Divine Sweater as they open the 13th edition of Boston Calling on Friday, May 24th at 1:45pm on the Red Stage. For more information on Divine Sweater head to their website here, and for more information on Boston Calling, click here!

Throwing It Back to Bayside

Posted on 05/17/2024 by Harry Gustafson

Photos & Review by Emily Gardner

It felt like throwback Thursday happened on a Sunday at Roadrunner this week as Bayside closed out their tour with Armor for Sleep and Finch. All bands played a combination of fan favorites and new releases. Although the tour was named after Bayside’s newest record, There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive, the New York natives played songs from all over their discography. Long time fans were pleasantly surprised to hear songs from the band’s first, self-titled record from 2005. With Armor for Sleep and Finch starting off the show, the night felt like a portal into the early 2000s. After 20 years, they’ve all still got it.

Check out Emily Gardner’s photo gallery from the night below.