For its seventh consecutive year, Boston Hassle is putting together a music festival made up of the best of the underground scene. Hassle Fest 7 needs your help, though. In the same vein as previous Hassle Fests, Boston Hassle has set up an IndieGoGo campaign to help fund the fest. Rewards include tickets to the festival, entrance to afterparties, T-shirts, posters, and at the top level of donation, a personalized show just for you put together by the blog. Starting as low as $1, you can contribute as much as you can here.
The campaign is set to run for a month, leaving ample time for donations and to set up the festival. Last year’s campaign raised over $600 past their goal–and the festival was a resounding success as well. This year, Hassle hopes to raise $10,000 to fund their festival, said to be their biggest yet. HF7 boasts a whopping 50 headliners over three days, making it well worth the cost. Featured headliners include: Screaming Females, Pile, Guerrilla Toss, Downtown Boys, and Free Pizza.
Boston Hassle is one of the three members of the 501(c)(3) non-profit BRAIN Arts Organization, a nonprofit whose mission statement focuses on fostering a creative community.
“Foster an innovative, compelling, and interconnected music, art, and film community in the greater Boston area through grassroots and inclusive participatory culture.” —BRAIN’s mission statement
The campaign’s page states that the $10,000 goal only covers half the cost of HF7, with additional funding coming from ticket sales and sponsorships. It also states that any excess funds will be put towards the opening of a Hassle-owned venue next year.
“We will demonstrate to Boston and the wider public that there is a viable alternative, non-profit model for supporting music and the arts.”
Hassle Fest 7 is set to take place November 5-7 at Cambridge Elk’s Lodge and Brighton Music Hall. Donations can be made at the IndieGoGo page, here.
Boston has had the chance to see Pity Sex quite a few times after their 2013 release of Feast of Love, but we’ve been waiting for another fuzzy LP ever since. Today, NPR streams their newest track, “What Might Soothe You?”, hinting at the sound of their upcoming LP, White Hot Moon, to be released by Run For Cover Records this spring. This track stays true to the swirling shoegaze that drew in the initial intrigue, but a back and forth between thoughts of vocalists, Britty Drake and Brennan Greaves, makes for something worth the anticipation.
Pity Sex will hopefully premiere some new tracks during their CMJ appearance at the AdHoc Car Wash show along with Porches, Perfect Pussy, Potty Mouth, Protomartyr, LVL Up, Downtown Boys, Sheer Mag, Whitney, and Destruction Unit.
Aw yes… fall! The season and leaves change, vialis 40mg but our denim jackets and local music scene still remain the best and most comforting. Listen and download to the newest batch of your favorite and soon to be favorite local bands via Bandcamp below. Side note: your music is best shared, help so spread it like almond butter on wheat toast.
If day one delivered on the very specific theme of folk, cialis Boston Calling on Saturday was an erratic, cialis yet fulfilling, medicine endeavor.
Alt-J headlined the evening, and the band’s awkward blend of electronic and guitar music were almost outmatched by an incredible light show.
Alt-J’s set spanned both last year’s This Is All Yours and 2012’s An Awesome Wave. The odd vocal stylings of Joe Newman might divide some, and so could the lyrics that have not really graduated middle school — there are three songs among Alt-J’s two albums that have choruses that literally spell the word “common.” At the same time, the instrumentals and grooviness could get a crowd going.
The set’s highlights included “Taro,” a song that includes a twangy guitar instrumental; and “Breezeblocks,” which uses a Where the Wild Things Are line to an ominous effect. In all, festival attendees leaving City Hall Plaza seemed pump dup by the performance.
Also anchoring the evening was Chvrches, hot on the heels of the release of Every Open Eye, the band’s sophomore album. The Scottish trio has been absent from the city limits since prior to the release of the debut Bones of What You Believe. The band’s last show in Boston in 2013 was up against the fuckin’ Arctic Monkeys, leaving a depressingly attended House of Blues.
It’s 2015 though, and the new album has been out for a single day, and the set was by far the strongest of the day. Lauren Mayberry’s vocals on “Clearest Blue,” a song on the new album, were pristine, yet full of emotion. Plus, the line “Will you meet me more than half way, yeah?!” feeding into an almost EDM-like drop was a rush to hear live.
The album is so new, that Chvrches has not performed it live all that much — as evident in “Make Them Gold” when Mayberry flubbed a line and made light of it after, noting she was singing lines from a demo version. Needless to say, one hopes that Chvrches doesn’t wait two years before the next Boston visit. Perhaps a return trip to House of Blues is in order in a few months?
Elsewhere during the day, Father John Misty bought his trademark tongue-in-cheek emotional (dis)honesty. Songs like “Honeybear” and “True Affection” were wonderful on the Boston Calling stage. Singer Josh Tillman did not speak about his Velvet Underground-style covers of Ryan Adam covers of Taylor Swift’s 1989.
Sturgill Simpson brought his own brand of psychedelic(ish?) country music. His distinct vocals and his band’s backing style made his set perfect for the mid-day rush, following Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks’ straight rock-focused set.
Other highlights included Doomtree, the hiphop collective, which, at times, called to mind another Boston Calling alum, Run The Jewels.
Leading off the day was Grey Season, the fantastic Boston band growing more and more deserving of a breakthrough. The straight
Day two brought to light that real estate is reduced on the festival grounds. The area to the left of the red stage (each set does not overlap at Boston Calling, they alternate stages on the weekend) was noticeably smaller due to the construction at Government Center.
In past festivals, it was easy to walk around the red stage and not walk right into a packed area (a Brand New set from 2014 is a notable exception to this, however). During the Chvrches set, there was an astonishing amount of pushing and bickering among attendees. The fortunate news is that Government Center’s construction is on track to be finished next year (even perhaps before next May’s Boston Calling). While that isn’t time for Sunday’s show, it’s worth noting that this is a temporary, minor issue.
In all, Boston Calling is on track to have another generally positive weekend. While that’s good, a noticeable safeness is noted about the lineup. Saturday’s lineup was very, very safe; Sunday’s lineup comprises Hozier and Ben Howard, which is the very definition of safe. That’s not to take away from the overall positive reactions elicited this weekend — Walk The Moon had its fervent supporters, for example. There are benefits to booking acts that have broad appeal — they spur ticket sales, obviously — but Boston Calling is now an institution. It’s time for Boston Calling to stop booking tastemakers and be the tastemaker itself.
It’s that time of year again. Boston Calling is here, and we’ve got the daily artist-by-artist rundowns to help you determine which sets to stake out, which new acts to catch, and when you’ll be safe to hit up the food trucks without missing a beat.
Dirty Bangs: 1:05, Red Stage
Genre: Rock
Recommended If You Like: The War on Drugs
As finalists of this year’s Rock ‘n Roll Rumble, local rockers Dirty Bangs have established themselves around the city for their ability to pull off a tight set. They’ll open Sunday with the kind of jangly, shoegazey rock that feels as suited to the sunlight as it does to their usual dim-lit digs.
Essential Track: I’m In Love with the Summertime
Bully: 1:40, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Garage Rock
Recommended If You Like: Diet Cig, Chastity Belt
Bully originally hails from Nashville, but it’s easy to imagine the band’s grungy sound fitting in at an Allston house show. The foursome builds the sort of sonic volatility that’s typically matched with angsty lyrics, but frontwoman and audio engineer Alicia Bognanno takes a more confessional approach to songwriting. It’s a refreshing change of pace, and their spot on the bill marks a step in the right direction for the festival representation of a stereotypically testosterone-ruled genre.
Essential Track: Trying
FIDLAR: 2:25 PM, Red Stage
Genre: Skate Punk
Recommended If you Like: Beastie Boys, Wavves
There’s something great about watching a band of debaucherous rockers tear through a crazy set in the shadow of City Hall, and if anyone can deliver that this weekend, it’s FIDLAR. Known for simple, shouty choruses revolving around cheap beer, weed, and beyond, their party-punk anthems seem destined to back high school rager montages in teen movies for years to come. There’s a good chance that this will be the weekend’s rowdiest set, and that the front-and-center crowd could explode into a Warped Tour-reminiscent mosh pit– but if that’s not your thing, you’ll be as much in the spirit if you’re off to the side with a beer (or two) in hand.
Essential Track: 40oz. on Repeat
Daughter: 3:10, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Folk
Recommended If You Like: The xx, Birdy
Daughter’s electronic-tinged folk is already stripped-down and sensitive–think sparse acoustic arrangements and vulnerable lyrics dredged from the very darkest corners of the soul–but following FIDLAR’s set, the effect will be especially abrupt. The UK trio currently has just one studio album to their name, but they’ve spent the summer recording, so we can hope that they’ll debut some new material on the plaza.
Essential Track: Youth
Twin Shadow: 4:05, Red Stage
Genre: Synthpop
Recommended If You Like: Future Islands, Fitz and the Tantrums
Singer-producer Twin Shadow brings a dose of ’80s revival to the afternoon. Defined by soaring hooks and polished synths, his sound has a broad appeal that’s led him to contribute to soundtracks of both Grand Theft Auto and a John Green tearjerker movie. It’s the ultimate “you can dance if you want to” set; whether you’re looking to chill out or you’re getting psyched up for the headliners, his music somehow just fits.
Essential Track: Old Love/New Love
MisterWives: 5:00, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Indie Pop
Recommended If You Like: Of Monsters and Men, American Authors
The afternoon’s upbeat streak continues with playful popsters MisterWives, a New York City sextet that initially formed when lead singer Mandy Lee couldn’t find an 80’s pop cover band to play her birthday party and instead decided to start one herself. Though their sound has leapt a few decades since those days, that sense of whimsy still resonates through their danceable tracks. They haven’t lost any love for playing covers, either: in the past they’ve tackled everything from Hall and Oates to Drake, and it seems likely that they could treat us to their own spin on something this Sunday.
Essential Track: Reflections
Nate Ruess: 6:05, Red Stage
Genre: Pop
Recommended If You Like: Neon Trees, Imagine Dragons, Fun.
Regardless of whether he’s performing in The Format, Fun., or as a solo artist, Nate Ruess by any other name is still Nate Ruess. His distinctive voice, Freddy Mercury-channeling theatricality, and orchestral pop songwriting spray a giant “NATE WAS HERE” graffiti tag across every project that he comes in contact with, and it seems to be working out for him considering the length of his career in such a moving-target genre. This weekend marks his return to Boston Calling after headlining the festival’s first-ever night with the rest of of Fun., and though he’ll be performing solo, this is sure to be a very (a-hem) fun set.
Essential Track: Nothing Without Love
Ben Howard: 7:10, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Indie Folk
Recommended If You Like: Angus & Julia Stone, Damien Rice
English singer-songwriter Ben Howard keeps the weekend’s twilight mood-setting streak locked down. He’s known best for his soulful storytelling and acoustic-plucking style, but he’ll likely draw a few numbers from his electric-tinged latest release as well.
Essential Listen: Only Love
Hozier: 8:15, Red Stage
Genre: Blues Rock
Recommended If You Like: George Ezra, The Black Keys
Around this time last year, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier rocketed to international fame on the tails of his YouTube-viral single “Take Me To Church”, and it was the kind of rise that’s enough to make any industry-weary music fan a little suspicious. True, he’s a major-label success story, but that shouldn’t be held against him: he’s got the chops to back it up. He only has the one album to work off of this weekend, but the entire catalogue is right on par with “Take Me To Church”’s approach, blending poetic lyricism and gospel backing vocals with a little bit of blues, folk, and rock. Take heart: he’s one of those instances where the music industry has turned a huge talent into a huge deal.
Essential Track: Jackie and Wilson
Alabama Shakes
Genre: Roots Rock
Recommended If You Like: Cold War Kids, Heartless Bastards
Alabama Shakes wraps up the festival by effectively throwing the kitchen sink at us, incorporating elements of soul, punk, R&B, and Southern flavor through a blues-rocky filter. They’re another group that’s seemingly risen out of the blue (in this case, the Alabama bar scene) to massive success, largely attributed to the talents of charismatic frontwoman Brittany Howard. Known for channeling greats like The Rolling Stones and Janis Joplin, they’ll round out the weekend by leaving no musical stone unturned.
Who let the folk in? Boston Calling kicked off the sixth installment of the biannual music festival Friday night, and there was more than a little kick (drum) to go around.
The night was anchored by headliners the Avett Brothers, who have more albums to date than the top two artists on the billing for Saturday and Sunday nights combined (Alt-J, Alabama Shakes, Chvrches and Hozier have seven albums to their names to Avett’s eight). Numbers aside, the Avett Brothers are nothing if not consistent.
The band’s sound is perfect for arenas and in the concrete monument of City Hall Plaza. Songs like “Kickdrum Heart” and “Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise” filled the plaza with twangy instrumentation and vocals. The audience responded in kind with handclaps and footstomps.
The band encored with “Slight Figure of Speech” off I And Love And You, which devolved into a jam fest, but the Avett Brothers didn’t tear the place down so much as whet the appetites of festival-goers.
Iceland’s Of Monsters and Men, a festival alum and festival favorite, were in the middle of the evening’s 3-band itinerary, and went on as fall’s fading light drained out of a mostly clear Boston sky.
The band has an almost cinematic quality about it, with booming drums and horns. At points, especially the closer “Six Weeks,” you’d be surprised you weren’t listening to an Arcade Fire demo circa Funeral. When it was going for those grandiose, soaring gestures, Of Monsters and Men truly shined.
If there’s one artist who might be considered a gem or great find this weekend for many, it’s Gregory Alan Isakov. He had the tall task of playing not 15 minutes after the gates to the festival opened, when most are getting 21+ bracelets or finding their friends who got there before them.
The Colorado-based folk singer was a great late addition to the fest, replacing The Staves. Isakov performs in his own words “sad bastard” banjo music. That self-assessment is true, and while these tunes certainly might play well in a club or theater, Isakov and his band know how to tailor a setlist to the audience. The drums bursted forth, violin and guitars were loud, all while maintaining the emotional honesty present in Isakov’s work.
Since the expansion a three-day fest in 2014, the Friday night shows have always had the most cohesive feel to it. Earlier this year, Beck, Tame Impala and Sharon Van Etten were Fridays performers, which all had a very similar appeal. Saturday’s and Sunday’s are often more of a mixed bag – Sturgill Simpson, a folk singer, is mixed in with Chvrches on Saturday, for instance – whereas Friday feels like a concert.
In all, the first night of Boston Calling was a solid kickoff to the weekend ahead.
Few bands can leave a 45 minute headlining set without disappointment, but this past Sunday, Joyce Manor executed it in a way that bolstered thick enthusiasm. The energy coming off of that speedy set inspired an angst that has carried over for days, knocking two solid minutes off travel time while walking and thinking about the show. The last time that the band passed through Boston, they supported the newest album, Never Hungover Again, with a 30 minute set at The Sinclair and it resulted in the same hearty spirit. I can’t help to think there’s a real art to the short set and, based on Sunday’s show at Royale, there are a few vitals to maintaining a strong, but short lived set:
1. Make Those Songs Short
Let’s just get this out of the way: the average Joyce Manor song is about two minutes long. The secret to keep it catchy enough, so that after two minutes of screaming and heavy head bopping, fans feel like they’ve completed a StairMaster workout. This is also a good look for the end of the show. Walking out of a show with a pack of smelly, sweaty people gives off the real pop punk feel.
2. “Fuck Panera”
You only have 45 minutes here, so riling up the fans early is mandatory and you know what really gets the people going – a popular food chain that everyone regularly visits despite a universally deep loathing (well, besides the bread bowls) “Did you know that an actual side at Panera is a piece of untoasted bread? You’re paying for a piece of untoasted bread!”, Barry Johnson (vocalist/guitarist) proclaimed. I haven’t seen a pop punk crowd that angry since the Adam Lazarra/Jesse Lacey debacle.
3. Play A Pinkerton B-Side
It’s impressive enough to hear a medley of the band’s finest sing-a-longs with a couple deep cuts within 45 minutes, but just in case anyone doubts the amount of material you offer in a short set, you have to throw in a cover. When Johnson hinted at a cover, I hardly expected a B-side, but to totally overwhelm, they broke out in Weezer’s “You Gave Your Love To Me Softly”.
4. Run For That Encore!
We live in a world where people expect encores. I applaud people who refuse to accept societal expectations, but to be real this didn’t feel like a full set until the band hustled on stage, gave each other a quick look, and jammed out a two song encore. “Five Beer Plan” comes as a given within a Joyce Manor show and a slight tension was felt until the moment that the heavy bass line broke. If you keep the people waiting for a song, they will treat it like the first time they’ve heard it live and the set length will mean nothing.
*Be sure to see our photos of Joyce Manor along with Cheap Girls and Tracks from this September Royale show.
A lot of people think that Northampton originals Potty Mouth got their name from the Bratmobile album – and it makes sense. 90s grunge sensibilities, an effortless chill that recalls the best of West Coast punk, and a penchant for breezing though cultural commentary (fig. 1 – “Black and Studs“) with an air of already being over having to talk about it. But despite whatever Riot Grrrl comparison you and I are waiting in the wings with, Potty Mouth, like its name, is a singularly original project, with no allegiance to genre or message – only to itself.
It logically follows, then, that Potty Mouth would venture into experimenting with a more polished pop sound on their new eponymous EP, but I wondered how the new songs would stack up when the band brought their show, fresh with a new guitarist, to Great Scott this past Monday.
Singer Abby Weems and co. brought the crowd up after solid sets from Salem punks Gravel and local psych-folk act Bong Wish as she led the band through the entire new EP, as well as old favorites like “The Spins” and even a Weezer cover (although I was really hoping for a Pink Slip cover, if we’re getting really honest here). The new tracks blended seamlessly with the garage-slack of the band’s older material, changing lineup and fancier studio production aside. Potty Mouth’s set seemed to cement the idea that these Smith Collegians are much more than another college band to come out of Massachusetts, their sound much more than the sum of the 90s punk comparisons with which they’re so often stuck.
As Weems sings on new track “Creeper Weed,” “I’m confused what you mean when you say I’m not me / As if the part of me you knew was all there was.” Yes, Potty Mouth hails from Smith College, and yes, the all-female lineup is an intentional decision on the band’s part – but the band is not, and does not wish to be, a vanguard for feminist punk in 2015, despite their on-paper qualifications. And their new material is a crystalline pop reflection of that dichotomy. When explaining the inspiration behind their fantastic new single “Cherry Picking,” Weems told the Fader: “I think people put a lot of stake in the legitimacy of bands as a collective, and project a singular image/brand on them. Some people are really good at that, they’ve totally got their shit down and it works, but I know for me personally that’s been a weird struggle because people expected our band to fit into this riot grrl revival type thing, and that’s just not us at all.”
So Potty Mouth may not be the riot grrrl band Gotham deserves, but after leaving Great Scott last Monday, it’s apparent that they’re the really fucking good band we need. Armed with an ever-maturing sound and an uncanny pop sensibility, the future is bright for these Northampton punks, and just as bright for our record collections.
Whether you’ve heard of him or not, viagra 40mg Frank Turner is one of the biggest names in folk music. Since the dissolution of his post-hardcore band Million Dead ten years ago, mind the Hampshire, UK-based singer-songwriter has won over a massive and rabidly loyal fanbase both in England and worldwide with his punchy, lyrically rich brand of punk-folk. Beyond multiple sell-out tours and best-selling albums, Turner has two rare and impressive achievements under his belt: selling out the 90k-capacity Wembley Stadium and performing in the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.
Six albums in, Turner shows no sign of slowing. He approached his recent release, Positive Songs for Negative People, with the ideology that what makes debut albums so exciting is that they’re really just a studio translation of songs that artists have been playing live for ages. Thus, instead of a dedicated writing schedule, he went into recording sessions with legendary producer Butch Walker and hammered out songs that he and his band, The Sleeping Souls, had been playing out, recording tracks live and unprocessed wherever possible. The album, which was finished in nine days, sees Turner at his most invigorated, espousing earnest, life-affirming sentiment over some truly catchy riffs.
Turner will be playing a two night residency at the House of Blues this weekend with The Sleeping Souls. We caught up with him in advance of the shows, chatting about the new album, his personal links to Boston and how he avoids getting stale.
AP: This album was recorded in a very short period of time, with almost all live takes. This being your sixth record, how would you say that experience compared to a more traditional recording?
FT: It was a great experience, short answer. The thing is, I’ve been doing this long enough now that I know what I want and I know how to get it. I’d say that I always want to approach every record with that methodology. In this instance, with the material I had and the kind of vibe I wanted for the record I knew this was the right way to do it.
It was interesting, because the third album I did (2009’s Poetry of the Deed) had a similar approach to it, but I don’t think that at the time my band and I were quite in the right headspace to nail it. This time around it was very much us knowing we were rehearsed enough, in the right headspace and we had the right producer.
It was a really rewarding experience. The record came out how I wanted it to, which is the important thing!
AP: Speaking of the right producer, how was working with Butch Walker?
FT: It was fantastic! He really brought the record together. I had this idea about trying to do things live and with a certain vibe and sound to it, and I was having trouble finding a producer who really got that. I went through a lot of different producers, having conversations where things were never really quite clicking, but once Butch got involved in the conversation it was instantly like “yup, we know what we’re talking about, we know what we’re doing, this is the right vibe.” So yeah, it was a good time!
AP: In regards to the name, would you consider yourself to be a negative person?
FT: On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, sure! (laughs) No, there are elements of that to my personality, as I’m sure there are to everyone. I mean, I like the title and I think it works for the record, but I think it’s important to state that’s it’s not entirely po-faced.
AP: I was really surprised to read in an older interview that you had a, i think you called it, proviso that you don’t write towards themes or make concept records. Tape Deck Heart and certainly England Keep My Bones really felt like concept records, as does this one to some extent.
FT: I think the thing about it is that I write pretty directly, autobiographically, and I write chronologically in the sense that I really just write until I have an album’s-worth of material, then synthesize that into a coherent whole. As a result there are coherent themes that emerge after the event. You can structure a record, structure a body of work, in a way that it has artistic and intellectual coherence without it necessarily being a concept record.
It’s really important to me to not, I guess, pre-direct songwriting. I want to just sit down and write, and I’d say it’s important that that process is not externally influenced, in a way. With Tape Deck Heart, I’d just been through a really unpleasant breakup, so I’d written a whole bunch of songs about that. After the event you can move things around in it way that it has a coherence to it. That’s different than sitting down to write a concept record.
AP: At this point in your career, do you feel yourself drawing influence from different sources than you would have, say, five or ten years ago?
FT: I certainly hope so! I’m pretty, sort of, voracious musically. I’m always trying to find new things. The most important part is that, while acknowledging that the music that I’m making is not radically reinventing the wheel in terms of style, I’m not interested in repeating myself, you know? I hope that each record that I do breaks new ground and isn’t just like something I’ve done before.
AP: Your last show in Boston was a much smaller affair at McGreevy’s Pub. How did that show come about?
FT: Oh that! Well, basically the deal was, Boston’s a great city for us and we’ve always had a good time there and the Dropkick Murphys have been great to us, so we have a lockup where we keep our gear at Logan Airport. We’re always flying in and out of the States via Boston. So I was flying into the states, and we know the Dropkick boys so obviously we know McGreevy’s. I had the night free so it seemed like a great opportunity to play some tunes and make some money for a good cause.
AP: How does it feel playing intimate shows like that as a performer who has done venues as big as Wembley and the Olympics?
FT: Well, it feels homely to me. I’ve certainly done a lot more shows in bars than arenas, so it’s an environment I’m more comfortable with. Honestly though, I often feel like the differences between those types of shows is slightly exaggerated. At the end of the day I’m getting up and performing and trying to play songs from the heart and entertain the people standing in front of me. The size of the room in front of me is less important to me than I think some people want it to be.
AP: That show aside, do you have any standout memories of Boston?
FT: Oh, definitely. Being, in a way, inducted into the Dropkicks family has been a wonderful thing. We did a bunch of nights there, in 2012 I think it was, around St. Patty’s day and we did Tsongas Arena out in Lowell on St. Patty’s day itself. We did two gigs there in one day and it was one of the most extreme, hard working days of my life because I was running my own merch table at the time!
But yeah, I’ve been very welcomed by the city. I’ve had walking tours of Fenway Park and the like. People have just been good, man. It’s always been fun.
AP: Would you say the size of the US gives your tours here a different feeling than touring the UK or even Europe?
FT: Well, yeah. There are different vibes that have to do with the culture of the place. Also the context of my career is different, in that I’m further along in the UK than I am in the US, but also in the US I’m more closely associated with the punk scene than I am in the UK, which is absolutely fine with me!
So yeah, there are differences. But I think that, again, the differences can be slightly overdone. People are people, you know? Also, I’ve toured in China and I’ve toured in Russia and those shows are genuinely kind of weird and out there. After you’ve done those shows the difference between a Boston show and a London show is less striking.
AP: This is a few months back now, but I was really surprised to see you wrestling with CM Punk in the music video for “The Next Storm”. How did he get involved in that?
FT: Well I actually don’t know anything about wrestling at all! My friend Ben Morse, who does a lot of my music videos, is a big wrestling fan and somehow he got wind of the fact that CM Punk was into my stuff. From there it was pretty simple; we basically just got his email address off of a friend of a friend and he said “yeah, I’m into it!” Next thing I know I’m in Chicago, in a wrestling ring, quaking with fear!
AP: So it was a little bit intimidating then?
FT: Yeah, you know, he’s the nicest dude ever and he was very gentle with me. Bottom line is, though, standing in the ring with a professional, world champion wrestler, when you haven’t been in any semblance of a fight since you were 14 years old is a little bit daunting!
AP: What kind of music have you been listening to in your spare time lately?
FT: Well, as I said earlier, I tend to be voracious in my music taste. Lately I’ve been trying to educate myself about a lot of 60s jazz-punk stuff. I’ve been listening to a lot of Northern soul. Also, funnily enough, I’ve been listening to loads and loads of George Jones. It’s a bit of a new thing for me, since he’s not really known here in the UK, so that’s been an interesting journey.
AP: What’s next for you after this tour.
FT: More touring! The record’s been out for a month and I’m going to be on tour for a good couple of years for this one. Which is absolutely fine- around the making and mixing of the record there was a chunk of time where I wasn’t on the road, and being at home really doesn’t agree with me. I’m very excited about the fact that I’m going to be on tour until at least the end of 2016!
Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls will be playing the House of Blues tonight (9/25) and tomorrow night (9/26) with Skinny Lister and Beans on Toast. Both shows are sold out.
It’s that time of year again. Boston Calling is almost here, and we’re here with daily artist-by-artist rundowns to help you determine which sets to stake out, which new acts to catch, and when you’ll be safe to hit up the food trucks without missing a beat.
Grey Season: 1:00, Red Stage
Genre: Folk Rock
Recommended If You Like: Frank Turner, The Ballroom Thieves
Boston’s own Grey Season kicks off the weekend by picking up where Friday night leaves off, blending familiar folk acoustics with five-part harmonies, electrified melodies, and rambling bluegrass banjo. They were recently hailed by Billboard for rallying an impressive crowd during “arguably the worst time slot” at Bonnaroo, and this time around they won’t even have to deal with competing stages.
Essential Listen: Satellites
Skylar Spence: 1:35, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Electropop
Recommended If You Like: Capital Cities, Last Dinosaurs
In the spirit of city pride, we can almost claim Skylar Spence (formerly known as Saint Pepsi, newly monikered thanks to trademark drama) as local talent: he has roots as a former BC kid. Like so many Bostonian artists before him, he’s Brooklyn-based now, and he’s shaking up bigger dance floors with his LP Prom King, which dropped last week. Between silky synths, nu-disco beats, and playful sampling, he’ll bring the party atmosphere to lead into the weekend’s most upbeat day. Check out the full story behind his name change and new LP with AP’s recent interview.
Essential Listen: Fiona Coyne
Doomtree: 2:20, Red Stage
Genre: Alt Hip-Hop
Recommended If You Like: Kendrick Lamar, spoken word
Boston Calling has never been big on hip-hop, but its curators have represented the genre by cherry-picking its biggest innovators for the past few festivals. Thankfully, they’re sticking to that habit this time around with Minneapolis-based hip-hop collective Doomtree, the collaborative effort of 5 MCs and 2 producers who trade off rapid-fire wordplay and measured choruses against sizzling electronic beats. Their dynamic structures are complex enough to make comparisons difficult—no one sounds enough like them to make such observations worthwhile—but those intricacies build an equally strong argument for why they’re worth seeing live. If you get hooked, you’re in luck: most of the crew’s members also head up promising independent projects.
Essential Listen: Final Boss
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: 3:05, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Rock
Recommended If You Like: Guided By Voices, Thurston Moore
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks bring a much-needed dose of guitar-slinging rock to the weekend, not to mention a sudden spike in the festival’s Cool Dad population. Though the band lives in the slight shadow of its frontman’s past success with Pavement, it’s worth appreciating in its own right for cleverly careening lyrics and inventive arrangements. Still, all that talent might not be enough to shake the one question on holdover fans’ minds: Will they play any Pavement songs? We can hope.
Essential Listen: Lariat
Sturgill Simpson: 4:00, Red Stage
Genre: Country
Recommended If You Like: Jason Isbell, Willie Nelson
Following suit with the curators’ recent tendency to spice up lineups with slightly out-there picks (you might call it the Tigerman WOAH factor), Saturday’s bill takes an unexpected twist with country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson. Good news: he isn’t of the bro-country ilk, and he’s miles away from singing about solo cups ’n pickup trucks. There’s an authentic twang here, and he’s often described as an artist of “outlaw country”, which is possibly the most badass-sounding subcategory of the entire lineup. Expect a sound that’s raw and honky-tonk-infused, and probably going to result in one of the most divisive performances of the weekend.
Essential Listen: Turtles All the Way Down
Father John Misty: 4:55, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Folk
Recommended If You Like: Mac DeMarco, Andrew Bird
Acoustic snark machine Father John Misty lives to mess with expectations. Just this week he released his own one-upping cover of Ryan Adams’ cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”, and as if that wasn’t enough, he did it in the style of the Velvet Underground. If you know nothing else about him, know that it was hardly a one-off joke: though he may sing sweetly, his first-glance earnestness is pervaded by weary wit. He’s charmingly sincere on occasion, but seems more interested in sizing up everything from one-night stands to his own performances through the scope of self-aware sarcasm. A proponent of live-show gimmicks, he once framed a stage with a giant iPhone screen cutout, with the implied message that most of the crowd would’ve seen it that way anyway. The opportunity to indulge in similar hijinks on a festival scale might just be too good for him to pass up.
Essential Listen: I Love You, Honeybear
Walk The Moon: 6:00, Red Stage
Genre: Pop Rock
Recommended If You Like: Grouplove, Two Door Cinema Club
Walk The Moon is responsible for a couple strong “song of the summer” candidates in recent memory (“Anna Sun” back in 2012 and “Shut Up and Dance” this past summer), so it’s only fitting that they’re a part of the season’s last hurrah. They self-categorize as an alt-rock outfit and sound closer to straight-up pop, but regardless of what you call it, there’s no fighting their massive choruses. To get right down to it, their music doesn’t need much explaining: it’s been so ubiquitous that there’s almost no way you could’ve avoided it if you’ve spent any amount of time in a bar, restaurant, or grocery store over the past six months.
Essential Listen: Shiver Shiver
Chromeo: 7:05, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Electropop
Recommended If You Like: Cut Copy, Calvin Harris
In step with the day’s upbeat lineup, Chromeo’s modern funk set kicks off the evening’s plunge into electronica. The Montreal-based duo specialize in smooth hooks (about women and pretty much nothing else) and poppified beats. Think of them as this millennium’s version of Hall and Oates, but in a cool way. If you’ve ever dreamt of participating in a sunlit dance party on government property, this is your chance.
Essential Listen: Jealous (I Ain’t With It)
Chvrches: 8:10, Red Stage
Genre: Electropop
Recommended If You Like: Purity Ring, The Naked and Famous
If there was ever a time to catch Glaswegian trio Chvrches live, this is it. Amid a massive international tour and fresh off Friday’s release of sophomore album Every Open Eye, this is the first time the group is returning to Boston since its big break back in 2013. Lacing ebullient melodies with dark lyrics about relationship struggles, their music explores a different side of electronica from the day’s other synth-driven sets. There’s a decidedly emo element to their songwriting, but it’s disguised in a glossy, 2015-appropriate package that makes them an upper or downer depending on your current mood. In full festival force, they’ll be an upper for sure.
Essential Listen: Leave A Trace
Alt-J: 9:35, JetBlue Stage
Genre: Indie Rock(ish)
Recommended If You Like: Bombay Bicycle Club, MGMT
“Indie rock” is a fickle term. Alt-J is decidedly more of an indie rock band than it is anything else, but thanks to its quirky electronic compositions and elaborately layered vocals, that doesn’t feel like a fair way to sum them up. If you haven’t listened to them before, imagine a disenchanted college a capella group that’s finally gotten ahold of some instruments and devoted itself to crafting metaphors so obtuse that they almost distract from their own dirtiness. Will we be able to make out what they’re saying on Saturday night? Probably not, but that’s not the point. Alt-J’s artistry lies beyond melody or meaning alone, simultaneously setting a mood and forcing you to feel a part of the moment.