PREMIERE: Haasan Barclay’s Album Heaven is Your Last Dream

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By Becca DeGregorio

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Haasan Barclay is one of those local artists who does it all–plays his instruments, produces his stuff, knows his way around synth–and up to this point has yet to release anything big for himself. He’s produced and collaborated with favorites such as OG Swaggerdick and Michael Christmas, like some sort of unsung friend of Boston hip-hop. That said, we here at the Pudding are extremely excited to present Barclay’s debut album Heaven is Your Last Dream. Not only is it about him, it’s about every genre and every listener’s observation.

“Honestly, I write for anyone who’s listening,” says Barclay, real-life known as Chris Haasan Barclay Rogers. He wrote and self-produced most of the album’s tracks over a two year period, with the exception of “Exorcist” which was written back in 2010. Given the frame, Heaven is Your Last Dream casts a wide net from rock to rap to indie electronic. Barclay says the album’s original concept was to cover the range from heaven to hell, but that idea fell to impressionism. He wants listeners to go their own way with meaning, much like how the songs do the same with sound.“I’ve always been into bending genres,” Barclay says. “The beginning of the album is pretty much dream pop so once you pass through each song you really get into something else.”

And this variety provides a pretty good snapshot of Barclay as an artist. He’s unclassified. With influences from Stevie Wonder to Nine Inch Nails, how could a label even stick? Besides, as he put it “I wouldn’t really consider myself Boston rap. It just doesn’t feel like a rap album to me.”

Stream Heaven is Your Last Dream below.

Kindling’s “Vs. The Police” Gets A Surprise Vinyl Reissue

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By Tim Gagnon

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Armed with a reverent, but never dull take on shoegaze and a severe need to make your skin buzz at the mercy of their amps, Easthampton’s Kindling are the rare kind of basement show act that make you question if a basement can (or should) be able to contain their sound.

2015’s Galaxies EP (which was one of our favorites of the year) acted not only as the band’s strongest offering, but as partial evidence for Massachusetts’s growing status as a hotbed for shoegaze revivalists. With the help of Allston label Disposable America, Kindling continues their reign by dropping a surprise vinyl reissue of last year’s “Hate The Police”, a one-off cover single of The Dicks only previously available online.

With proceeds going towards an anonymous charity (which, according to their Bandcamp, can’t be named “because of the title of the song that we covered”) and only 50 copies printed of the 7″ lathe available, this is certainly an “act now or regret your choice later when the band’s bursting eardrums across the US” kind of decision.

To stream it, scroll below to the band’s Bandcamp or head to Disposable America’s Bandcamp.

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PREVIEW: The Power of Disbelief Show or, F*ck Gender Discrimination in the Boston Music Scene

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by Jackie Swisshelm

Power of Disbelief Flyer PDF (1)

Obviously, we at Allston Pudding love to support women in the music industry. But we’re not the only ones in the city who see the importance in gender representation in Boston’s music scene. Emerging Boston-Area Singer-Songwriters (EBASS, for short) is hosting an event in response to this totally appalling statistic:

“In 2015, fewer than 20% of all performers at Cambridge’s hottest music venues were women,” according to EBASS founder and director, Hailey Magee, who discovered that, by compiling all of the performers/bills/bands that played Cambridge venues during a given month, women only made up 16.6% of the final number. And if you can’t believe that, there’s an upcoming show that aims to counteract the disparity— one female artist at a time.

The Power of Disbelief Show, on March 18th at Lilypad in Inman Square, will feature four local female singer/songwriters: Mary Henriquez, Izy Coffey, Heather Woods, and Hailey Magee herself. But don’t conflate gender with genre, in this case. Each of these artists produces their own specific sound. And each of their sounds are not to be missed.

For example, Northampton-based Izy Coffey makes pure, acoustic, Americana folk music, and her voice is absolutely angelic. Listen below, and be sure to follow up with the sounds of Henriquez, Woods, and Magee.

This event is also sponsored by a whole slew of really upstanding Boston organizations, so really, you can’t go wrong.

Show your support by showing up at 7:30 on Friday, and get your ten-dollar tix here.

PREMIERE: Pleasure Gap “You”

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By Christine Varriale

Pleasure Gap Promo Pic

Pleasure Gap has quietly been gaining notoriety in the New England area, and they’re gearing up for the release of their full-length cassette on Midnight Werewolf Records. As the last of our three in our triple threat series with the label, we present to you their song “You.”

The band says about themselves:

“Pleasure Gap is a rock band formed in southern New Hampshire by Sean Merkle, Ryan Egan, and Andy Pagliuca. In 2013, the band released their first album titled “Tropical Barn” that captured a dense, echoey atmosphere on a brand of folk-infused rock. After multiple member changes, new projects, and wasted time throughout the young bands tenure, P-gap reached it’s current lineup with crucial additions Mike Ralston and Devin Cox.”

Stream “You” below, and read through their upcoming tour dates. Pre-order the album out on 3/29 now through Midnight Werewolf Records.


PLEASURE GAP TOUR DATES

3/11: Scatter listening party at Fuzz Hut
3/16: w/ zanois, du vide & more at Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery & More
3/23: w/ Beverly tender & heavy pockets at Fuzz Hut
4/15: w/ snowplows, sharpest & willow at AS220
4/17: w/ buck gooter, bedroom eyes, & shifty at Wrong Brain HQ
4/23: w/ funeral advantage, burglary years & kitner at O’Brien’s
5/6: w/ bunny boy, cool tara, jargon party & black hatch at Geno’s, Portland, ME
5/7: w/ bunny boy, sleeping in, apartment 3, california x, burglary years, gym shorts & more at Waking Windows
5/8: w/ bunny boy & more at The Tree House Albany, NY
5/9: w/ bunny boy at Palisades
5/29: w/ David Liebe hart, black hatch & more at Fuzz Hut

WATCH: Fleabite’s “Missing Everyone” Video

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By Christine Varriale

fleabite missing everyone

Boston born but Philly bred Fleabite has sussed a video for their song “Missing Everyone” off of last year’s excellent TTYL EP. The video features friends in some of our favorite bands like Perfect Pussy and Aye Nako having a grand ‘ol time at Silent Barn. Paranormal karaoke has never been so appealing jk it’s always been appealing. If you’re missing Fleabite these days as much as me, have no fear. They’re hitting the road on some tour dates you can read below, so grab a slice and watch the video.

 

TOUR WITH BOX FAN (from Olympia)

4/8: Philly @ Grundle Grove with Jenna and the Pups + more
4/9: New Brunswick NJ @ In The West with Secretary Legs and Dog Date
4/10: NYC @ Silent Barn with Cleo Tucker and Sean Henry (fb event)

COOL SHOW WITH TRY THE PIE IN PHILLY

4/23: Try The Pie, Great Hart, Shakai Mondai, Romona Cordova, and Yung Nila (fb event)

TOUR WITH KATHERINE (from Columbus/Philly)

4/25: Western Mass TBS
4/26: Boston with Ursula and Long Gone (fb event)
4/27: Portsmouth TBS
4/28: Worcester TBS

REVIEW: Julia Holter & Circuit De Yeux at Great Scott (3/6)

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By Tim Gagnon

Photos by Eric Walker

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I’ve only entered a bar completely silenced in front of a television twice in the last five years.

The first time was at a King Khan and BBQ Show set this past November. The opening act tepidly set up and played to an empty floor as all TVs turned to a live feed of the shootings in Paris. The first thought was naturally to leave, doctor to fear immediate surroundings like all terrorists want, to Facetime all my friends in Europe just to see their faces. My second thought was to stay, to dance like hell to pastiche-heavy garage rock in a way that the Bataclan got robbed of. I went with my second thought.

opener 3Sunday night thankfully did not carry the same mortal weight, but a similar stomach plunge came about as the room remained transfixed to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on TV, both trading fiercer barbs above ticker tape updates of the bullet-proof Trump campaign. A dulled version of those thoughts in November, the need to be both far away and present, were revisited. Thankfully, a bill as ethereally powerful as Circuit des Yeux and Julia Holter had the ability to extinguish such thoughts for a few hours.

Haley Fohr revealed a divide between herself and her music as Circuit des Yeux within the first few moments of her set. “I don’t really give a shit about these next few songs,” Fohr said in complete deadpan, alluding to a cover she was going to duet with Holter to end her set later. The funnier thing is that her songs are the furthest thing from “don’t give a shit” music as one could get. Circuit des Yeux’s most recent LP, 2015’s In Plain Speech, takes hints of Appalachian folk guitar work, drags it through distortion and looping, and leaves it at the mercy of Fohr’s vocals, which could be huskily crooning, wailing, or operatically climbing the stage pipes at any turn. Longer songs like set highlight “A Story of This World” is an exercise in all three, leaving the room in a meditative stupor as the aforementioned cover of Lucinda Williams’s “Fruits of My Labor” returned the Great Scott crowd back to its bodies.

Where Circuit des Yeux played as viscerally as a musician could with a crowd’s sense of lucidity, Julia Holter offered her layered lyricism and weaving instrumentation as a means of escape. Sunday’s performance marked Holter’s first appearance in Boston since releasing last year’s Have You In My Wilderness and, furthermore, three years since her last visit to a Boston stage. The long wait could be blamed for Great Scott being packed to the rafters for her set, but Wilderness’s place as Holter’s most critically acclaimed and accessible record yet was definitely felt.

The flow from set opener, “Silhouette”, into Loud City Song single “Horns Surrounding Me” felt seamless in the care of Holter’s band, comprised of violinist/singer Dina Maccabee, upright bassist Devin Hoff, and percussionist Corey Fogel, who assisted Holter in rearranging the set as a stripped down, but never bare affair.

Older inclusions like Tragedy’s “Goddess Eyes” received a beefed up live treatment (although the vocoder throughout was slightly missed), while newer fan favorites like “Betsy On The Roof” remained as emotionally draining as on record.

Holter herself was in positive spirits, adding to Fogel’s spot-on impression from behind the kit of Bernie Sanders. “Right now, from where I am, I can only see both their hands shaking in the air,” she added, mimicking the elevated hand gestures. The room was almost entirely focused on Julia Holter’s impression though, the debate temporarily as distant as Bernie or Hillary’s hands from the stage. Closing on a cover of Dionne Warwick’s anthem of female acceptance “Don’t Make Me Over” and Wilderness’s own independence song “Sea Calls Me Home”, Holter proved that her cast of lyrical characters, ambiguously living between fiction and non-fiction, could provide some hope to a silenced Great Scott.

For photos from the show, check out our slideshow below.

 

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Father & Son Review Co. – Black Beach

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By Tim Gagnon
Photo by Ben Benson

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Look, we really like our local bands. A lot.

Depending on who you are, it might border on unhinged worshipping, but it’s built into the AP DNA to love what this rat-infested patch of turf offers. If our fandom was concentrated into a laser beam last week, ours was aimed at Black Beach with enough iridescence to form a rainbow from Brighton to Cambridge. The fuzz rock kings definitely deserved the hype: we got to premiere their LP, Shallow Creatures, on Wednesday followed a release show that Friday worth an entry in the ol’ dream journal (if your dreams mostly involve pools of sweat meeting beer and greasy hair).

While Shallow Creatures is a winning amalgamation of the band’s psychedelic-leaning, distortion-heavy worship of guitar with bits of surf rock thrown in, we get that some people might not be as enthused as we are. Unfortunately, our resident Father critic found himself in that camp, giving a few songs off Creatures a shot with slightly less interest. This week, the Father offers a bit of advice over their album’s title track, suggests band names for potential Rat City musicians, and throws out various sickly musings (he was fighting off a cold at the time of our conversation).

Maybe if he accepted the Beach into his heart with a ‘Gansett in hand, he wouldn’t have felt so sick…

Black Beach’s “Shallow Creatures”

Tim: Alright, so is Black Beach a fun band to hear while sick?

Dad: Okay, so I listened to it twice this morning. I jotted down some notes, whatever came in my head really. It may be because I’m a little tired and more under the weather this morning, but my second note was “Isn’t America a great country when anyone can start a band?”

Tim: [laughs] Oh no, what made you say that?

Dad: Let me finish. My first note was that it started like a song out of a Quentin Tarantino movie. Y’know, like Pulp Fiction or something… and that’s not a diss. It’s sort of a compliment. It’s got a driving beat, but it’s certainly not a Sunday morning listen. You pop a song like this in when you’re ready to lift weights or get pumped up.

Tim: You wanna get swole to Black Beach, Dad?

Dad: Yep, I would. It started out really good, but then the guy opened his mouth.

Tim: [laughs] The singer… it’s always the singer with you.

Dad: I was like, “Oh my god.” It’s like that TV commercial slogan: “I could do that!” I couldn’t believe this guy was doing this and I kept thinking how I could do it. But, you know, America is a very good country!

Tim: I dunno, America’s been having a rough few weeks. It was his vocal style you didn’t like?

Dad: Well, first of all, you know I’m not a fan of whatchamacallit… heavy reverb? It sounded like he was in space.

Tim: Okay, wait, you’re not a fan of reverb, but you dig rock from the ‘80s and modern bands like Thirty Seconds to Mars and Angels and Airwaves?

Dad: I may not be using the right term. When it sounds like he’s in the back of a hall and his vocals are hitting all the walls…

Tim: That’s reverb!

Dad: But I couldn’t understand a freakin’ word he was saying! It was echoing and his voice is not the greatest. If you’re going to have an extended chorus like, “ahhh, ahhh, oh oh oh oh” at the end, you gotta nail that. You gotta stick to those notes. Man, I feel like one of those American Idol judges, but it was a pitch problem there.

Photo by Madison Mcconkey

Photo by Madison Mcconkey

Tim: Y’know, when the band first sent me this song, I immediately thought, “Ooh man, he’s gonna comment on the screaming.” I know you just love screaming in songs.

Dad: We are talking about that “Shallow Animals” song, right?

Tim: Close, “Shallow Creatures”. You listened to more than that?

Dad: I listened to a few songs and it had screaming, but it was the “hitting notes” thing I had more of a problem with. Let me continue though; I have a compliment here.

Tim: Okay, let’s hear it.

Dad: It seems with the bands you listen to that they’re real good musicians despite the vocals. I thought the music here was solid. I could definitely see myself lifting weights to this if it was an instrumental. That guitarist is talented, for sure. At 1 minute and 44 seconds in, there was this awesome guitar solo.

[Sidenote: I think he might’ve listened to “Self Portrait”, the song before it, because I just checked and… uh, there’s no guitar solo at 1:44. Don’t blame the Dad too harshly, he had a cold when this was recorded]

Tim: But that’s the kind of band they are! They fill the basement shows or small bars, they absolutely shred, and people really move. I’ve never seen a local band make a crowd move like Black Beach.

Dad: I could see that. I mean, the drum and bass are the whole heart and soul of a song and man, those guys were good. It has potential, but then, at the three minute mark, it just flips a switch and changes completely. It sounded like Black Sabbath or Iron Butterfly or something.

[2nd sidenote: “Shallow Creatures” is two minutes and fifteen seconds, so yeah, we think he decided to go with “Self Portrait” without telling us. We’ll post that song right here…]

Tim: Wait, do you mean Iron Maiden?

Dad: Nah, go back further! Iron Butterfly! “In A Vida De Gada”?

Tim: Oh, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”?!

Dad: Yeah, something like that. It was like they totally shifted into an Iron Butterfly song though. Like, all I could think about was listening to this with my black light on, lava lamp going, and looking at a velvet poster. But also, it was like if the Ramones did beach music… but that would never happen because The Ramones were so freakin’ pale. They’d get sunburnt if they did surf stuff.

Tim: [laughs] I mean, all these bands are based in New England, so they’d get burned just as bad. It all makes sense; Black Beach is a pretty prominent band in the local psych rock/fuzz rock scene.

Dad: Okay, psych rock! I even wrote “this is psychedelic rock” in my notes! There was one other song I heard called “Nervous All The Time” that was like beach punk. It was so up your alley.

Tim: Absolutely. You nailed it with that Pulp Fiction reference too; the surf rock influence is big, but it’s got some grimy proto-punk in there as well. It fits the mood of Allston Rat City. There’s actually a rat on my windowsill right now!

Dad: Are you gonna knock it off?

Tim: Nah, that’s mean. The rats are one of us. They’re, like, among us.

Dad: Sounds like a band or album name. The Rats Are Among Us.

Tim: Okay, so winding down: if you were their manager or American Idol judge, what would you suggest they change?

Dad: I would like to compliment them first. I think they’re very accomplished musicians and they played a really good song. Actually, it felt like two songs with that second part. Can the vocals though and be an instrumental band. Wait, does the singer play anything?

“Isn’t America a great country when anyone can start a band?”

Tim: I wasn’t gonna tell you, but yeah, he’s the guitarist that’s doing all the solos.

Dad: Hmm… I dunno, it still wouldn’t be so bad instrumentally.

Tim: I’m afraid to show you any of the other psych rock bands in Boston then. They just layer on the reverb, the words are often times unintelligible, and it almost becomes its own instrument in all the noise.

Dad: Oh… wow. That’s, uh, something. You know how I am about the vocals.

Tim: Oh, of course I do. But all things considered, what would you rate this band?

Dad: Considering this is not my type of music, it gets a 6. I’m waffling between 5 and 6, but the musicianship won them a 6.

Tim: I’m surprised!

Dad: And hey, I didn’t mention “melody” once this time! I’ve still got some surprises.

Tim: Well shit, you just did and now I have to end it on that note.

Dad: Aww, c’mon…

P.O.S. Is Back With “sleepdrone/superposition”

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By Allston Pudding Staff
P.O.S.

Minnesotan rapper, recipe P.O.S., has been warming fans up for a return with a few Midwestern show dates, but the release of “sleepdrone/superposition” details the urgency for it all. Taking on a world with priorities that are unfathomable after the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, among many other Black Americans, P.O.S. discusses his mistrust and confusion.

You might hear a few familiar voices on the track, as well. Lizzo, Kathleen Hanna, Astronautalis, Allan Kingdom, Eric Mayson, Hard_R, Lydia Liza, and Nicholas L. Perez, joined P.O.S. in his triumphant return.

WEEED Performs “Rainbow Amplifier Worship” in a Fitz Ross Spare Room Session

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By Christine Varriale

weeed

Seattle band WEEED has one of the most-fitting names and should probably tour with our buds in BEEEF. Regardless of extra vowels, WEEED rips through the song “Rainbow Amplifier Worship” in the Fitz Ross basement we’ve become familiar with through all these sessions. With fuzzed out screeching guitars and slamming drums, the doomy instrumental outfit is a band sure not to miss when they next come through town. Watch the live session below.

PROFILE: Potty Mouth Opens Up

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by Karen Muller
Illustration by Alyssa Alarcon
Photography by Ben Stas

AP Potty Mouth-01

“This needs to be a punky set.”

Potty Mouth vocalist and guitarist Abby Weems sits hunched over on the concrete floor of the band’s basement practice space, calling out song titles and scribbling setlist changes in a notebook. The trio is getting down to the wire, gathered at bassist Ally Einbinder’s Northampton home to run through a set for the first night of their upcoming tour, now just two days away.

It’s an unassuming practice space, lit by mismatched string lights and a couple of flickering bare bulbs. The floor is scattered with distortion pedals and carpet samples. The only hint at the tour ahead is a heap of well-traveled hardshell cases, plastered with stickers, stacked off to the side of the room. The setlist that Weems is drawing up is for a smaller venue than the rest– a Northampton house show that they’ve been weary of giving the address out for. More importantly, it’ll be the first time they’ve ever played without the backing of an additional touring guitarist, who won’t be able to join them until the next stop. The “punky set” angle incidentally suits the show’s setting, but the real goal is to get away with a set that feels intact when stripped down to a three-piece.

At 22, Weems is the youngest in the band by 4 years, though given her tall stature and commanding presence behind the mic, she’s often mistaken for the oldest. When she speaks, it’s usually accompanied by a hair-trigger smile, but right now her eyebrows are furrowed in thought. She rattles off the setlist, pulled from 2013 album Hell Bent and last year’s Potty Mouth EP, mixed in with new cuts in the works for an upcoming record. Something about it feels off.

“It needs more stuff that people know,” says drummer Victoria Mandanas, 26, from behind her set, where she’s been watching Einbinder and Weems debate how to change the list. Her commentary tends to be sparse but significant, a current that keeps the band on course. The thought clicks. Weems makes a few more additions to the list, amps hum to life, and the trio thrums into EP single “The Bomb”. Even down a guitarist, they sound uncannily like the record. Later, they shift gears to an anonymous new track that’s both slicker and heavier than their known material. It demonstrates a clear vision for their sound, and as they describe it later on, signifies their ambition to match.

After five years of increasingly buzzy house shows, bar gigs, and shoestring-budget tours, it feels like Potty Mouth is on the verge of something.

In the meantime, tonight is just another Saturday night in Northampton. Following a nearly two-hour practice, the band is ready to let loose. Over quesadillas at a Mexican restaurant on the outskirts of town, the conversation bounces from Tinder stories to gossip from a friend’s party the previous night, landing on the group’s plans for the evening to come. Einbinder, 27, is texting Speedy Ortiz frontwoman Sadie Dupuis, who also lives in Western Mass, about a party that starts in a few hours.

Though we’ve spent most of the afternoon together, this is the band’s first nod toward any connections to other local musicians, which is surprising if only because the community-driven aspect of the Pioneer Valley’s music scene has been the subject of recent media interest. Last year, Pitchfork ran a locally notorious article centered on the idea that “Western Mass is having another moment,” describing Potty Mouth, Speedy Ortiz, and a hodgepodge of other area bands in a loose parallel to the mid-’80s rise of greats like Dinosaur Jr., the Pixies, and Sonic Youth.  Its effect was lasting, planting plenty of seeds in pieces elsewhere, though many Pioneer Valley musicians themselves (Potty Mouth included) feel that it wasn’t an entirely accurate representation. 

Later that night, after a string of small-town Saturday errands (a Walmart run for polka-dotted balloons, an economical boxed wine purchase) we’re all talking in Einbinder’s sherbety orange bedroom when the article comes back up. Though Northampton has a reputation as a unique incubator for artistic talent, Weems explains that the area also comes with limitations. “Living here doesn’t feel like a music mecca. I can see how, if you compare it to [other small towns] it can seem like that, but I definitely think that it was romanticized”.

Einbinder agrees. “The other thing about this place is that for such a small area there are still so many divisions. I don’t think we’re in any kind of scene right now at all.”

The three feel that they’ve taken Potty Mouth to its limits within Western Mass. “I definitely think that there’s a ceiling here,” explains Einbinder. “If you want to make a career in music, the music business exists in New York and LA.”

That realization, along with a goal of becoming career musicians, is pushing the band to move to L.A. this upcoming summer. They’ll have to define new goals all over again, not only to suit a new city, but also because they keep surpassing their own evolving definitions of success. It’s a welcome task that’s due in part to Potty Mouth’s recent momentum, but it’s also a reference to the band’s own humble expectations at its outset.

Formed in 2011 by three Smith College students (Einbinder, Mandanas, and former guitarist Phoebe Harris) along with Weems, at the time still a high schooler navigating house shows, the group came together as what Weems explains was “more like a project than a band”. Creative roles were loosely defined and, out of the group, Mandanas was the only one with a formal musical background playing drums since childhood. As the months went on, jam sessions evolved into songs and the four fell into a natural rhythm.

According to Weems, none of the band’s early turning points were especially thought out; instead, they came as the products of a commitment to the group that soon outweighed other priorities. “There were always obstacles along the way,” she says. “We thought ‘Oh, this will be the end of the band because Victoria is graduating and she moves away,’ or ‘Abby has to go to college’ or whatever, but we just kept deciding to do things in favor of the band.” Harris left the group to pursue an illustrating career in 2014, but the rest were determined to make it work, filling the role with rotating touring guitarists.

Along the way, they grew into their sound: blunt lyrics, coolly delivered against melodic, garage-y instrumentation. Weems’ double-edged voice is capable of both silky harmonies and snarling, often vacillating between the two within a single song. Depending on who you ask, the overall effect might be described as a polished reinterpretation of punk influences or a toughened-up spin on pop.  “We say punk-influenced pop,” explains Weems, careful to sidestep pop-punk baggage. “It is just pop music, but we’re a rock band.”