By Joe Stahl and Mo Kelly
Photo by Mike Poland
Our pals at the Boston Hassle kick off off their sixth annual Hassle Fest tonight! In association with non-profit BRAIN Arts Organization, 40+ bands (including many of our local scene), will take over Cuisine en Locale for one groovy take on the weekend. If you find yourself weighing the options of the long T ride to Somerville, here's a little preview to help you muster up the guts to leave your bedroom or couch, or whatever else suits your Friday and Saturday night. Tickets start at $17, c'mon down to Hassle Fest!
Day 1: FRIDAY
Who: Pile
Hometown: Boston
We’re incredibly excited about this band. If you haven’t heard of Pile, we advise you to take a listen to their e-p-i-c 2012 release, Dripping, and get ready for the sweaty socks to be knocked right from your feet. This outfit has quickly become a staple to our underground scene, and we’re delighted to have them here to stay. That is, if they will for long. Pile is so heavy, so perfectly angry and happily dissonant that we’re certain they’ll hit the big leagues soon. Catch Pile while you can.
Recommended if you like: Getting sent to the principals office, drummers with french braids, Isaac Brock’s yelling voice.
Set time: 7:20 p.m.
Who: Debo Band
Hometown: Boston
This 11-piece band with its masterminds being Ethiopian-American saxophonist Danny Mekonnen and vocalist Bruck Tesfaye have established a reputation for their "not too out there for its hypnotizing Arabic soundscapes infused with classic funk grooves and African drums. Warning: you will want to dance Studio 54 style, but we promise they're not vapid disco.
Recommended if you like: Mulatu Astatke and Alemayehu Eshete, adventurous rhythms, genre mutations.
Set time: 8:30 p.m.
Who: Guerilla Toss
Hometown: Boston
Guerilla Toss are not for the faint of heart. This band will knock you out from first hit to eardrum, singing the songs of freaks, misfits and every irregular in between. With equal parts funk, punk and complete absurdity the band’s sound remains unique through dancey basslines, frantic drums and Kassie Carlson’s cutesy, ass-kicking voice. Guerilla Toss is manic, raving and delightfully inappropriate. We wouldn’t miss them for the world.
Recommended if you like: MIA on crack, the theatrical show “STOMP,” alienating yourself from family with your fantastically eccentric musical taste.
Set time: 10 p.m.
Who: No Joy
Hometown: Montreal
No Joy's debut made a lot more noise than their newer material. They make fuzzy dreamy with soaring feminine vocals that fly over discordant arrangements that get real messy sometimes. Good light show when they opened for Best Coast a few years ago.
Recommended if you like: My Bloody Valentine, Wavves, Vivian Girls, and putting your head down.
Set time: 11 p.m.
After Party/Fest Extension 'Must See' Act
Who: IAN
Hometown: Boston
IAN's here with a rockier side of bedroom pop, a combination of straight faced guitars and Jillian Medford’s often jangley, always youthful voice. These tunes are the kind of thing you’d wish you’d hear in at the malt shop, staring longingly into your ice cream cone while contemplating a recent crush or haphazard heartbreak. IAN gives us happy music for sad boys and girls, which is all us twentysomethings could really ever ask for.
Recommended if you like: 90’s teen movies, lipstick and fog machines, Cindy Wilson's high notes.
Set time: TBD
DAY 2: SATURDAY
Who: Couples Counseling
Hometown: Somerville
Couples Counseling live in the sky. They scour the elements for morning bird chirpings, heavy breathing, and other ambient murmurs that serve as the foundation for their fragile songs.
Recommended if you like: Au Revoir Simone, dreamy teenage diaries
Set time: 3:40 p.m.
Who: Tomboy
Hometown: Boston
These new garage rockers are one of Boston's newest bands and were recently signed to Ride The Snake Records in Boston. Listen to the one Riot Grrl-inspired track they have out now.
Recommended if you like: Kathleen Hanna's wail
Set time: 4:45 p.m.
Who: Tredici Bacci
Hometown: Boston
There's a lot that you can do with 14 musicians, and Tredici Bacci demonstrates this perfectly. At times their music is smooth downtempo fit for a swanky hotel lounge. Other moments they showcase a fuller sound, incorporating violins, a brass section, and piano.
Recommended if you like: Charlotte Gainsbourg, lush arrangements, Stereolab, escapism, french pornography.
Set time: 7:10 p.m.
Who: LE TRASH CAN
Hometown: Montreal
LE TRASH CAN, très chic! Here’s a band that will certainly hit Hasslefest’s minimal side. But not quietly by any means, as we would guess this jam of electronic mishmash will charm like any rock outfit. LE TRASH CAN is certainly avant-garde in their approach, forming beats and hooks with sounds known more to a laptop than guitar and bass. Listening to the band is a lot like being in the rainforest. You’ll hear crickets chirping, birds squawking and the occasional aboriginal tribesmen. Except of course, with LE TRASH CAN, this setting is electronically fantasized.
Recommended if you like: Dial up tones circa 2004, the metaphor of burying your old desktop in the backyard and watching a tree grow in its place, Kid A’s “Treefingers” and dragging metal shopping cart with a faulty wheel.
Set time: 7:50 p.m.
Who: Body/Head
Hometown: Your innermost consciousness
Body/Head is the work of, ahem, Kim Gordon and Bill Nace, a noisy mess of restricted guitars and the monotonous Gordon vocals we know and love so well. After playing for a year or two, the pair released 2013's Coming Apart in the hopes to burrow even deeper into their distorted niche. Like grunge ambience, Body/Head moves from distant echoes to thrashing tones while Gordon explores a palette of more singsongy spoken word. Their work sounds improvised at times, but with a closer look you’ll realize their patterns become concrete, synchronized and even telling.
Recommended if you like: Sonic Youth’s leading lady, climbing up asylum walls, staring into the void.
Set time: 11:35 p.m.
Event Details
Friday, November 7, 6pm - 12:30am
Saturday, November 8, 3pm - 12:30am
@ Cuisine en Locale--156 Highland Ave., Somerville, MA
All ages.
*For all you insatiable music enthusiasts, the FEST EXTENSION after parties will be in full swing with a slew of more acts you can catch until 2am. It all goes down in Central Square's "Secret Location" in Cambridge. The event is all ages.