Review: NAO at Brighton Music Hall (9/15)

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By Tim Gagnon
Photos by George Greenstreet

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“That girl’s been outside watching us this whole time,” Nao exclaimed towards the end of Thursday night’s set, still processing the notion of onlookers waiting avidly outside her first sold out show in Boston.

“Don’t stare! Can we just let her in?”, she asked. The East London-based singer’s speaking voice is as chirpy, but commanding as the entire room swiveled around to Brighton Music Hall’s back doors to the onlooker’s surprise. Within moments, security was outside, ushering the lurking fan in to rapturous applause.

Extending an invitation to the window-shopping fans towards the end of a set is not unheard of, but Nao’s request felt as casual as letting a locked out friend into a party and as unstoppably buoyant as the last block party before the end of summer.

After Thursday night’s set, Nao should prepare for more stateside onlookers and far fewer questions about how to pronounce her name (which, in case you weren’t sure, is “nay-o”)

Her debut full-length, this summer’s For All We Know, is the culmination of two years’ worth of hype (which might’ve been precipitated by BBC Radio 1 catching on to her debut single the day it dropped) and blockbuster features for the likes of Mura Masa and Disclosure. Of course, detraction naturally follows mainstream hype; partnering with Disclosure only propped up the critique that Nao is sonically identical to AlunaGeorge’s Aluna Francis, albeit with shades of FKA Twigs thrown in to make her self-described “wonky funk” subgenre not seem unfounded.

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If anything though, Nao and her formidable backing band used those collagic influences across the R&B spectrum to her advantage. Preceded by local singer Antoine, who impressively dared to cover Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” in a delivery landing closer to Shamir than the Purple One’s, Nao continued the party by opening with the one-two punch of “Happy” and “Get To Know Ya”. The set was largely a celebration of For All We Know’s biggest potential pop crossovers, but slower songs from her initial EPs like “Apple Cherry” and first single “So Good” were welcome inclusions on the strength of Nao’s effortless falsetto.

Still, her strength as a hitmaker in the making was hard to avoid, sending the crowd home belting the slow-burning hit “Bad Blood” before closing with the inescapably catchy Mura Masa collaboration “Firefly”. With the hope that this is only the start of a very promising (and yes, slightly wonky) career ahead of her, there’s sure to be quite a few gatecrashers when Nao makes the assured jump to affable festival headliner in a matter of years.

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PREMIERE: Idiot Genes First LP, ‘Oof Bonk’

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By Lauren Moquin
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Amongst the return of the cocky college students and the darting rats, Idiot Genes takes any chance to shake the humor out of Allston. The band’s wacky, blood boiling persona has taken the full Boston show circuit time after time, but today Allston Pudding has the pleasure of premiering their first LP, Oof Bonk.

“Life is serious and some/most/a lot of the time shitty. It can also be fun, hilarious and stupid which is what we try to focus on. Just take away a feeling of happiness however and whenever you can. If that happiness is from making fun of this record then that is 100% fine.”

You can pre-order Oof Bonk through Midnight Werewolf Records, which will officially be released on September 23rd, and if you need better insight into the definition of “oof bonk”, review the context provided by Idiot Genes, below:

“Hey, can I have a beer?”
“There’s no more beer.”
“Oof bonk.”

09/30 – Pawtucket, RI @ News Cafe w/ Sneeze
10/03 – New York, NY @ Cake Shop w/ No One & The Somebodies
10/05 – Jersey City, NJ @ The Citizen
10/07 – Atlanta, GA @ 97 Estoria
10/10 – Nashville, TN @ Queen Avenue
10/11 – Murray, KY @ Terrapin Station
10/12 – Chicago, IL @ Quenchers
10/14 – Mansfield, OH @ Relax, Its Just Coffee

PREVIEW: Ladyfest Benefit with Wet Nurse, halfsour, Blessed State, and Second Becky

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Next Friday, Sept. 30th a benefit show for Boston Ladyfest, our local iteration of a worldwide arts movement intended to bring female-identifying creatives together, will be held at Trixie’s Palace. In the spirit of the event, this is the second of a series of shows featuring female-centric bands to raise money for the event itself next April.

Wet Nurse will play, making an appearance as a stop on their fall tour. The four-piece from Orlando’s witty garage-rock sound is a perfect fit for the Boston scene. You can familiarize yourself their album from last year,  So It Goes, below:

Boston’s own halfsour will also play, just two weeks before their new album Charm School releases. Their latest single, “Ten Year Tenure”, features Zöe Wyner’s sweetly sardonic voice musing on the increasingly inhospitable climate for creatives. Allston Pudding is presenting their EP release on October 14th!

Blessed State will come in from Western Mass to round out the bill with their gritty, punk-rock sound. If you’re not already familiar, you might remember Brian Frenette’s strong, gravelly vocals from the Late Winter Localz Only mixtape earlier this year.

Closing out the show is Second Becky, whose lack of a web presence shouldn’t deter you from coming out to support them too!

The event has a $5-$10 sliding scale to support Ladyfest in the spring.

Premiere: Edgar Clinks’ “Sea-Shell Choker”

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The air is getting cooler, the B line is jam-packed with students again, and it’s getting harder to avoid those pangs of nostalgia that come with the end of another summer. But as the rest of us have been figuring out how to spend these last few days of warm weather, Providence trio Edgar Clinks has been in the studio working on a track that’s perfect for those of us who aren’t ready to give any of it up just yet. The full tape, i live in a tree these days, is being released via Super Wimpy Punch this Saturday.

“Sea-Shell Choker” combines simple, upbeat vocals and chilled-out guitar to ramble along like a buzzed conversation with a good friend. And that’s what it’s about, at least in part: opening with the lines “Fucked up/ the good kind/ a clambake/ a campfire”, it feels like an ode to a certain kind of New England summer night. Vocalist and songwriter Joe Gaudiana explained that he first pictured the song as a stoned exchange with someone wearing (appropriately) a seashell choker. “I imagined him hanging out with someone equally high and saying, ‘Hey, you have a garden in your kitchen? Sick, i have a tidepool around my throat!’ The title of the album refers to a similar sort of displacement, I suppose.” Whether you’re spending this September on new turf of your own or you’re still riding on summer vibes, “Sea-Shell Choker” will resonate.

Hear it for yourself below, then catch Edgar Clinks along with Poppies, Black Beach, and Derek Knox at the i live in a tree these days tape release show at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island on Saturday, September 17th.

 

 

 

 

 

Song Premiere: Kármán Voh’s “WROTH”

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By Zack Correia

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When Paul Koskins and Charles Perrone came together in 2013, stuff they were set out on creating a partnership that was “dedicated to exchanging local and global music finds, cheap sharing ideas and collaborating over musical pieces and puzzles.” The result was Kármán Voh, thumb a Boston music collective that has gone thru several transformations to arrive to their unique sound.

Their new release “WROTH” has been in the works as early as 2014, when Koskins began writing the song after being inspired by Naomi Klein’s No Logo and The Knife’s Shaking the Habitual. “WROTH” exemplifies the group’s ambitious nature, as a looped sample of Turkish banjo is paired with driving drums and ambient synths to create a track unbound by any specific genre. Their inclusion of Koskins’ haunting vocals and Perrone on the accordion only adds to the depth.

In addition to the stellar production, the song also tackles some important subjects with deft songwriting. “It’s inspired by queer theory and intersectional feminism,” says Kármán Voh, “Lyrics like ‘stepping down from your higher place’ and ‘my city turned highways’ focus on the hierarchical relationship between patriarchy and global economics – a system that structurally disenfranchises non-white/non-male persons and voices while sustaining a practice of poverty equaling profitability.”

Listen to “WROTH” below, and be sure to catch Kármán Voh live when they play alongside St. Nothing and Tristan Allen at ONCE Somerville on Sept. 21st.

Maura to Reunite For One Final Show

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By Tim Gagnon
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A year in a local band’s life can be charted similarly to dog years: a well liked band amongst basement shows can be groomed anywhere from a few months to a few years after forming, a revered staple of the scene develops after 2-5 years, and a permanent spot in the unofficial Local Hall of Fame opens after 5+ years of devoted work.

Unfortunately, that trajectory of relevance post-breakup dips exponentially with each new crop of college kids, but local scene historians and fans alike have kept the memory of local emo outfit Maura lit strongly enough to (sorta) bring the four piece back together.

With only a cryptic tweet to prelude it, the band announced a final show with Ovlov, Donovan Wolfington, and Caddywhompus on October 7th at the Middle East Upstairs. Considering the fact that their last show together was roughly two years ago, the show serves doubly as a brief (albeit satisfying) reunion for the cult favorite band.

Although its members have gone on to form and join equally beloved local bands like Saccharine, Animal Flag, and Teenender, singer Kevin King expressed the importance of this show upon its announcement.

“I just felt weird having never played a last show or even acknowledging the fact that this band didn’t exist anymore, so here’s our chance for closure,” King said via Facebook.

For more information on the show, check out the Facebook page here. The band’s final recordings, entitled Outlier, can be heard below.

PREVIEW: Skinny Bones At Middle East Upstairs

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By Harry Gustafson

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In anticipation of their soon-to-be-released album, local folktronica gurus Skinny Bones will play a show at the Middle East Upstairs on Wednesday 9/14 with support form Yohuna, St. Nothing and Judy Chong.

Because Skinny Bones are gearing up to release their second album, titled “Ponta Delgada,” they promise to play a set with plenty of new music. On top of that, the band’s performance will be entirely guitar-free. This last part is particularly intriguing, as many of the songs from their first album build around airy acoustic guitar parts. The new songs seem largely to break that trend as the band pushes themselves further in an electronic sample-based direction, reminiscent of Arca’s industrial experimentation.

Skinny Bones’ first album, “Noise Floor,” came out in 2014. It’s a chilled out, trippy adventure that conjures up local scenery with songs like ‘Jamaica Plain’ and ‘Blue Hills.’The quality of the band’s songwriting strengths are on full display on songs like ‘Sleep In’ and ‘Sieve.’ A few months after this album dropped, the band released “Noise Floor RMXd,” featuring fascinating re-imaginings of SB’s work from Dinnersss, DRIPKISS, Muddy Wires and more.

The all ages show is $10 and starts at 7PM, and will be presented by Illegally Blind. A new single and corresponding video in anticipation of “Ponta Delgada” are due out soon. Listen to “Noise Floor” below via Soundcloud.

Lower Dens Release “Real Thing” + Video

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By Jackie Swisshelm
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A heavily 80’s-inspired single and music vid are the latest releases from Baltimore band Lower Dens, as of 10:45 this morning. Prepare for plenty of synth-work on the new single, and soft-focused, Sinead-O’Connor-comparison-worthy visuals from lead vocalist Jana Hunter.

According to an interview with NPR, “Real Thing,” (which is the name of the single and the upcoming album from Hunter and Nate Nelson) was co-written with longtime friend Arthur Bates after reading the advice column in an old edition of Oui magazine. And the outcome is a brilliant single with simple, powerful lyrics like ” Everywhere I go/ I’m reporting from the scene/ of somebody’s/ missed opportunity.”

Lower Dens are currently touring the midwest with Texan post-rock band, Explosions in the Sky, but won’t tag along, unfortunately, to the Boston HOB date, where Julianna Barwick will be opening. So until their next time around, listen and watch “Real Thing” below.

VIDEO PREMIERE: ESH & ARC – “Death Doesn’t Want You”

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By Cliff Notez

AR Classic’s Emcee/Producer duo, Esh & Arc continue their relentless campaign for their recent project and release visuals for their title track, “Death Doesn’t Want You,” featuring Radclyffe Hall front-woman, Dhy. Arc lays the musical frame work for Esh while the two paint a haunting story on wax complimented by thematic visuals that further detail the least of promising relationships with a woman called death.

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Director Jordan Gustafson depicts his interpretation of the song’s concept through a visual narrative, explaining, “we tried to capture the essence of death and the artists discussion of it throughout the song. Depicting the story of death and her quest for souls.” Esh & Arc’s full length album, ‘De†ath†Doesn’t†Want†You†‘ is available on all major digital retailers via AR Classic Records. Don’t miss Esh performing this Wednesday, September 14th, at The Middle East Downstairs, supporting Ratking frontman Wiki. Come late October, Esh will be heading out to the West Coast to begin touring.

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IAN SWEET Confirm That “All Skaters Go to Heaven” in New Video

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By Tim Gagnon
Photo by Ruben Alves
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While Ian Sweet have changed up (or, rather, lengthened) their name, signed to Hardly Art, and largely relocated to New York in the last year, there’s something nice about the fact that they’re still making the commute back to Allston to skate.

Directed by our own Andrew Gibson, “All Skaters Go To Heaven” is as much acknowledgment of the trio’s big year (That sound stage! Costume changes!) as it is an homage to the familiar faces and places of Lower Allston. “Skaters” also coincides with the release of the band’s excellent debut full-length, Shapeshifter, and in the middle of their tour with fellow Boston trio Horse Jumper of Love across the East Coast.

Check out the video below and, for more information on Shapeshifter, head to the band’s Bandcamp.