Molchat Doma Are Post-Punk’s Heir Apparents

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Photos & Words by Harry Gustafson

molchat doma

Dark, gloomy post-punk is my loving childhood home: though I’ve since grown and moved out, I know that any time I visit, there will be a warm meal and cozy bed waiting for me. In this case, “warm meal and cozy bed” might be better stated as “a pack of cigarettes and seasonal depression,” but the point is, it’s home. That’s why a band like Molchat Doma is such a delight (in the way that Addams Family characters talk about gothic horror as delightful). 

Hailing from Minsk, Belarus, the trio represents a call back to that late 70s post-punk sound: fast, tight drum beats; pulsing basslines; angular, descending guitar riffs; and a frontman with a haunted, baritone voice. Joy Division is often a lazy point of reference in this genre, but let’s be honest… I fucking wish I could have seen Ian Curtis way back when. Molchat Doma’s Egor Shkutko is a worthy successor. 

I first heard their track “Судно (Борис Рыжий)” via TikTok (or Instagram reel or whatever). This is probably the case for many, since this track’s viral popularity is a huge factor in what has led to the band’s growing popularity in the U.S. While they didn’t sell out the room at Roadrunner last week, there were still plenty of bodies that showed up. Surely just about every goth in Boston was easy to find that night.

The show itself was sweet and to the point. If you attend concerts for the total spectacle of such affairs, then this wasn’t much to write home about: no VFX adornments besides the house’s light setup; bare stage dressing; the three band members rarely straying from their sectors. The stark contrast of Roadrunner’s light display provided a little drama, but overall, the music was the main course. In that department, Molchat Doma very sufficiently delivers. It is delightful to see Shkutko wriggle around on stage; it even helps with the Ian Curtis parallel. 

Check out our photos from the show below. 

Molchat Doma at Roadrunner 4.4.23

Prince Daddy & Friends Crash Into Providence

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Photos & Words by Emily Gardner

prince daddy emily gardner

A stacked bill rolled through Providence’s Fete Music Hall on Saturday. Prince Daddy & The Hyena brought along Webbed Wing, Anxious, and Drug Church for an energetic show featuring a well-monitored mosh pit. Fete Music Hall is known to enforce their “no moshing, no stage-diving” policies but each band took it as an opportunity to challenge the crowd. Anxious took the stage and demanded the crowd to move as close as they could to the stage while the Connecticut rockers leaped up and down for each song. Drug Church, a band that notoriously has a hyped up crowd, insisted that crowdsurfers stay up in the air as long as they could without touching the stage. Without having the ability to rush the stage, the crowd was up to the challenge and held up their peers as they floated around the room. When Prince Daddy & the Hyena started their set, fans were treated to an intimate performance with a lot of energy. The New York natives played multiple songs from their discography, but there was a heavy focus on tracks from their latest self-titled album. Check out photos from the memorable show below.

Prince Daddy & The Hyena @ Fete Music Hall 4/1/23

RINI Oozes Sensuality & Seduction at the Sinclair

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By Harry Gustafson

RINI harry gustafson

I love all genres, but baby-making R&B has a special place in my heart, probably stemming from an obsession with Marvin Gaye’s ‘70s output that I developed in middle school. I always knew I was a lover, not a fighter. And yes, this led to fuckboy tendencies later in life, but it also led to a bleeding heart, which is a terrible combo. Long story short, that’s ultimately what drew me into the music of Australian singer RINI, who swung by the Sinclair on Sunday night. While the house wasn’t quite at capacity, the crowd that did show up – mostly AAPI college students – squeezed their way to the front in an effort to get as close to the singer as possible. They stand by their man. 

Floyd Fuji opened the show with a set that featured the performer alone on stage, accompanied by a pad to play loops plus his guitar and bass. Between songs, he went on to talk about how he lived in various Boston neighborhoods for five years, even giving a shout out to dear old Allston. We love one of our own. 

By the time RINI took the stage, the audience was plenty hot and bothered beneath the Sinclair’s lowlight, which was the perfect ambience for RINI’s music even if it makes taking photographs a pain in the butt. We were in the mood. 

While he doesn’t shred the guitar at quite the same level, there’s a generous and delectable serving of Prince to RINI’s music in its smooth sensuality. So many of these tracks are late night groovers that feel like the sonic equivalent of the soft gleam of neon lights. There’s a deftness to his music that belies the fact that the artist is just 25 years old. 

One of the big highlights of the night came early on when RINI performed “Red Lights,” the opening track from his 2021 album Constellations. The album version of this song features a verse from Wale, but since the rapper wasn’t in tow on this tour, it fell to RINI to perform this verse, which he did without missing a beat, dropping a syllable, or stumbling over the words. 

Check out our photos from the show below. 

RINI & Floyd Fuji at the Sinclair 4/2/23 

A One Night Stand With Masego

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By Harry Gustafson

masego harry gustafson

Just so I have this on record: saxophone is objectively the sexiest instrument. There are other contenders, sure, but let’s save ourselves the time it would take me to really bust it down didactically, analyze the sort of rizz each instrument brings to the table, and just agree that at the end of the day, the saxophone is the orchestra’s oyster (i.e. an aphrodesiac). 

Masego’s music would already be pretty sexy even if the Jamaican-American musician didn’t incorporate his sax skills on several tracks. So it’s a little unfair one performer should have so much drip. Add to the equation that when he stepped out to perform at Boston’s House of Blues last Friday, he was draped in a red robe that showed off juuuuust the right amount of chest to remind the audience that, hey, it’s Friday night, baby. 

Touring in support of his most recent release – a self-titled LP – Masego was joined by opener OGI. Armed with sax in hand, the singer emerged onstage to the delight of an eager audience (pretty sure at least 80% of the audience was there out of sheer attraction to this man while the remaining 20% were holding their girlfriend’s coats). Singing an interpolation of the Beatles’ “Michelle,” he and his two-piece band began rifling through his catalog. 

For almost an hour and a half – which feels like a generous set time these days – Masego delighted the crowd with his R&B stylings. Not every track features saxophone, but the ones that do work as a showcase of Masego’s talent set. I’m never one of those people who bemoan the fact that many contemporary artists don’t play instruments (it is an old and crotchety criticism), but Masego’s prowess as both singer and saxophonist definitely add an extra layer of delight to hearing his music. 

Check out or photos of the show below. Be sure to check out Masego’s self-titled album on the streaming platform of your choice. 

Masego at House of Blues 3/31/23 

 

DJ Silky Smooth Want You To Embrace Life

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By Dillon Riley
DJ Silky Smooth posing in a room with a classical guitar

Photo courtesy of DJ Silky Smooth

Last time we checked in with Jacob Schwartz of DJ Silky Smooth on these very digital pages, the Greater Boston native was back living around here and hanging out at all the usual Allston basements. However as many do, Schwartz moved back to New York post-lockdown to rejoin his bandmates (to reiterate, DJ Silky Smooth is just a clever name for a four piece indie rock band), and with the power of greater proximity, the group has acclimated themselves quite nicely to the ever-vibrant Brooklyn scene. It turns out Schwartz was quietly piecing together the latest DJ Silky Smooth record between that big move, and now its release is nearly upon us. I’m Glad For Life functions kind of like a compilation, with tracks that date as far back as 2018 muscling up against material written in late 2022. However, Schwartz (who largely records and arranges DJ Silky Smooth albums alone before bringing them to his three bandmates, who then translate the songs in different way live) plots a thematic through line here, tying these tracks together in a way that makes for a funny, but also emotionally stirring listen. With influences ranging from the typical bedroom pop playbook to more robust pop songcraft like XTC and Argentine shoegaze group Soda Stereo, the end result is a batch of songs that mark a songwriter tinkering on their own path. A self-professed lover of “dinky” samples, Schwartz builds a unique world of sounds on I’m Glad For Life, folding in hip hop drums, orchestra hits, and autotune to create music that certainly nods to plenty of forebears, but comes at them at weird and unique angles. This is indie rock for sure, but rendered in a way that feels truly different and very online. 

We hopped on the phone with Schwartz recently and he graciously walked us through each track on the DJ Silky Smooth album, so hit play on the early stream and read along below.

Dear Poopy

This song was the result of me tuning the high E string down to D. “Reverse drop-d” is what I hope Gen Z will call it. I wrote and recorded it in my grandparents’ basement on Long Island in 2018, making it the oldest DJ Silky Smooth track from the album. The lyrics stem from the irrational notion I had growing up that if I let my arms hang over the side of my bed at night, someone or something could bite me. I didn’t originally have it sequenced as the first song, but in the end, I realized it could be a short and sweet intro to the album and I like the way things shift abruptly afterwards, with “Drool” coming on. If you don’t like it, the good news is that it’s only a minute long. Also, I do not know what possessed me to call it “Dear Poopy”. I just type in random words when I have to save logic sessions and that’s what came out. 

Drool

I recorded this song in late 2021, and was convinced it was not worth putting on an album for a while. My friend Avery repeatedly texted me that I had to put it out, and convinced me. “Drool” began with just a  hi-hat loop, which I made by stretching and pitching a sample across the keyboard spectrum and then playing notes across a few octaves. The rest is kind of a blur. The writing and recording happened very quickly. I don’t usually have harmonics as a part of my guitar riffs, and I remember feeling really pumped about including those. Around that time, I was going through a breakup that made me feel insecure, which is reflected in the lyrics, which talk about an unhealthy infatuation. For the last year, my single piece of merch has been hats with the Drool wrench logo. I call them “Drool Hats.”

Stox

I thought it would be fun to make a song using business buzzwords sort of out-of-context. Like other songs on the album, Stox has a mix of fiction and real introspection. I am not a finance bro. I don’t trade stocks or understand what cryptocurrency is. I don’t know what the word “dividends” means, but I guess that didn’t stop me from using it as a lyric. However, the finance/business world of southern Manhattan does speak to me as a sort of gray place where everyone walks around in a suit and tie, and it seemed like a good setting to channel some feelings of loneliness and the desire to belong. The guitar in “Stox” is tuned to open D major, which I’d highly recommend any guitar player to try if you haven’t yet. My favorite part of producing this song was adding the echoey background pianos. Overall, I was going for a New Radicals “You Get What You Give” type of sound. I absolutely love that song; It just hits so immediately. Joe Sutkowski, a.k.a. Dirt Buyer really nailed verse 2 and I can’t imagine the song without him on it now. He’s a great friend and I feel honored that he made a verse for the song. 

Let Me Go Back To Sleep

“Reverse drop-d” makes its second appearance here. I wrote this one while working at a music store in Newton, MA in the summer of 2019, while dealing with some heartbreak. My favorite lyric is definitely “it’s hot as balls, I wipe the floor.” It just feels very *me*. I was already bummed out, my boss made me wipe the floor and on top of that, it was just hot as balls that day in the store. Anyways, I think sonically it sits in the same zone as “Dear Poopy”, in that I recorded it very simply, just using DI’d electric guitar and some 808s for the most part. 

Floaty

I saw a YouTube doc about a man who survived a plane crash and floated in the ocean for days. He was stung by dozens of jellyfish, saw sharks, and almost died numerous times, but by chance he found a log to float on, and eventually was found. How true is this story, you may ask? I don’t know. Sorry. However, “Floaty” was written with that story in mind. While working at that music store later that year, someone came in once and just gave us a classical guitar they’d found in their attic that they had no use for. I ended up using this guitar to record Floaty. I particularly had a lot of fun producing the middle section of the track, which has some trap drums and bendy synths. I love making music sometimes.

Bird

One day during the early lockdown portion of the pandemic, I was laying on my bed trying to sleep around 6am, and there were some birds making quite a racket. Around that time, I was feeling cranky and lonely as a result of the whole sequestering-inside thing, and it almost felt like those birds were mocking me; that’s what I ended up singing about here. Production was incredibly fun because I got to use my “orchestra hit” sample that I got off YouTube. I tried to make the drum samples sound a bit like “Woof Woof” by Arthur. My bandmate Ryan Accardi also added some insane harmonies for the chorus, and he is such a genius. 

June 30

The lone track featuring actual drums, recorded with actual microphones. Jason Block, who has been drumming in the band since 2019, had not appeared on a DJ Silky Smooth recording until now. I love how this one turned out. I got a blues jr. amp in 2020, and this was the first time I tried mic’ing it up for a song. The drums were recorded on June 30th, 2020, hence the track name. The song was supposed to include vocals for a long time, but after a while, I gave up and decided it was fine as an instrumental. This song and “Stox” were the two songs mixed by my bandmate Jack Mullin, who is so good at everything, and has been my advisor throughout the whole album process. 

Simeone

My friend was driving across the country a few summers ago, from Santa Fe to Providence. We talked on the phone as she was passing through Salina, Kansas. I was intrigued by the name Salina and I felt that it rolled off the tongue. Lyrically, it’s very brief–just four lines of what I imagined Salina might be like, and some Jiffy Lube® and Taco Bell® product placement. At some point, the name of the song changed from “Salina” to “Simeone”, named after the longtime coach of the Atlético de Madrid football club. The song has nothing to do with him, or Los Rojiblancos. I’m not sure why I did that. Though even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you, cause It’s really none of your business! So there.

Concorde

Concorde is loosely inspired by the 2018 Horizon Air Q400 incident, in which an airport ground service worker stole, flew and crashed an empty airplane in Seattle. I really like putting myself in fictional situations in my songs, and then injecting them with some real emotions. In “Concorde”, I am a commercial airline pilot who has gone mad, and is treating the flight like a video game, scaring and endangering his crew and passengers. I also have a bit of a fear of flying, so I guess this is all something for my therapist and I to unpack together. I think I must have also been listening to Pinback a bunch around the time I made it, because it ended up having a bit of that vibe especially in the b-section. At the end of the song, you can hear some pilots and JFK air traffic controllers talking to each other, which I recorded live off the internet. If that is illegal, then no, I did not do that, and I was actually kidding.

You Couldn’t

Without going into specifics, at one point I had an older boss at my job who liked to…“debate”. His style of debate was one in which disagreeing with him was frowned upon, if not prohibited. He had a lot of strong opinions about political correctness, women, music these days, etc. I often found myself wanting to say to him, you couldn’t possibly mean what you’re saying, right? Musically, Alex G’s album House of Sugar was a big inspiration here. Like “Floaty”, this song also has a middle section where I had a good time experimenting with production, throwing in some trap sounds and 808s. 

County Pool

This is the newest song on the album. Near my parents’ house, there is a public pool called the Gath Pool. I remember on a hot summer night in high school, walking by the Gath and seeing that some kids had climbed over the fence and snuck in for a swim. I was so jealous. In real life, I was too much of a goodie two shoes to pull off something like that, but in “County Pool”, I am one of the cool kids who have the audacity to sneak into the Gath on a hot and sticky night, for a refreshing dip. At the very end, I attempted a George Martin style harpsichord solo a la “In My Life”.

Secret Track

“Secret Track” is a song that was borrowed from my side project, Jazz2D2. More specifically, it was part of a very short concept album called Calcutron, in which a calculator is struck by lightning, and subsequently gains superpowers, which he then uses to save the world. Towards the end of the album, our hero Calcutron falls in love with a toaster. So, to reiterate, it is not I, DJ Silky Smooth, that is in love with a toaster, but in fact, it is Calcutron, the super calculator. I will not be answering any further questions about this song, and I would hope that you respect my wishes in this regard.

Tough Love

During early lockdown, Moog made their Model D app free on iPhone. I tinkered around with this keyboard sound and made a little loop that became the foundation for “Tough Love”. I was getting a bit into hyperpop at the time, and that pushed me to experiment more with production and instrumentation. I also added a couple of pads from a Jupiter software synth plug-in by Arturia, which I cannot recommend enough. I found myself feeling vulnerable while recording the lyrics I wrote about loneliness and disagreements, and pitching the vocals up helped, and I also just find it fun and different.

I’m Glad For Life is out everywhere Tuesday, March 28th.

Elihu Okay Searches for Meaning on “Friday Night”

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By Harry Gustafson
Photo by Carlos Semedo

Photo by Carlos Semedo

“I’m not making the most that I should be tonight,” laments Elihu Okay with the opening lines of “A Little Money,” the first track of his new album Friday Night, his third full-length release, which came out 3/25. It’s an anthem for the age of FOMO, operating as an effective thesis for the album as a whole, as well as serving as a decent primer for the artist’s overall sound. The filtered vocals borrow from the tenets of contemporary pop with their hints of digital affectation, which is certainly Elihu’s lane. But as you continue to travel through Friday Night’s tracklist, you get more of a sense of his range. Up next, we have “Camel Crush,” which owes more to ca. 2010 indie rock anthems. 

While the genre influence varies throughout this album, everything centers on Elihu Okay’s ability as a songwriter, especially his lyricism, which reeks of mid-20s ennui, escapism, and soul-searching. “I’ve living like I’m on vacation, barely / Making money but we’re having so much fun,” he cries on “Late 2 Work,” before talking about his “solipsistic state of mind.” How far past our own noses were any of us able to see in our 20s? Even moments when we were considering someone else, were we considering them with the required empathy to understand another’s point of view, or merely as an extension of our own reality with the (false) assumption that these other people function as mere NPCs in our lives, only there to aid as accessories in our personal missions?

"Friday Night" cover art by Carlos Semedo & Elihu Okay

“Friday Night” cover art by Carlos Semedo & Elihu Okay

Speaking of empathy… “Karma” opens with the confession that Elihu thinks he “was born without empathy” and later admits that he is “scared [he is] not enough.” These lines seem to belie the crux of the issue: most often, it’s our own insecurities that prevent us from achieving a deeper connection with the people around us. While that sort of connection has never been a walk in the park for American society as a whole, it’s certainly been an evident concern post-pandemic. Friday Night was written and recorded between 2019 and 2022, a timeline that implies the album contains a spectrum of emotional reaction that is encircled by COVID-influenced anxiety. 

Despite that, Friday Night never feels hopeless. In fact, just the opposite: there is somehow an optimist in Elihu Okay, as if the expression of these frustrations and insecurities is actually… good? Yes, it’s a wild concept: talking about how you feel – yes, even the bad stuff that feels difficult to talk about – is good and healthy. Thankfully, Elihu Okay makes that sentiment sound so much better than an Instagram post or a Hallmark card or some other trite, generic medium. Friday Night proves that Elihu Okay is one of Boston’s brightest voices in indie pop. 

Stream Friday Night by Elihu Okay below on Spotify, or on the streaming platform of your choice. 

Foxtails Make Familiarity Exciting At O’Brien’s

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By Andrew McNally

There was a strange feeling in the air of O’Brien’s on Sunday night, one of familiarity. In an extended time where everything has felt weird, wrong and bad, this was a night where things just felt right. After an ominously calm winter, it was a comfortingly cold night in Allston as I set foot in O’Brien’s – a pub I hadn’t been to since before COVID hit. It sits at the end (or beginning) of a two-block stretch of bars and venues I used to frequent in normal times, only half of which still exist. Behind the bar at O’Brien’s hangs a framed photo of the Great Scott, one of Boston’s biggest COVID losses.

This is also the first hardcore show I’ve been to in quite some time, and the smallest venue show I’ve been to since shows started back up. While I may be old and battered now, I grew up going to small-venue hardcore shows, and this brought back a different sense of familiarity, one that stretches back fifteen years instead of three. With the exception of the bar, O’Brien’s has the proper set-up for this type of show – a stage in the corner, roughly a foot off the ground and barely big enough to fit a band. The card’s first two bands, New Forms and Amitié, had singers who opted not to use the stage at all.

As I stood alone waiting for the show to start, a kind stranger from Providence struck up conversation. It was a kind of kindred barstool chat that, again, felt familiar in the sense that I used to be proficient at it. Now, I’m floundering for words. We talked about scramz, and the awkwardness of a late show on a Sunday night. He told me about a show the week prior where a crowdsurfer went too hard and ate shit, only for that total stranger to be standing right next to us.

New Forms

In true punk fashion, the show started 35 minutes late and one of the announced bands (Providence’s catalyst…) was nowhere to be found. Once it started though, it started with a bang, and a hum. Boston’s New Forms came out swinging with rapid fire emoviolence tunes, a set of songs that packed otherworldly intensity into their hyper-compact runtimes. After only a couple songs, they had an electric issue to deal with, as an amp started humming as loud as the band was playing. Expertly, the band blamed it on fatigue after spending the previous few days in the studio recording – spinning the malfunction into promotion. Once fixed, the band ripped through a handful more songs that were high-energy, high-screamed thrash-emo. It was an incredibly impressive performance for a band that has so far only released roughly six minutes of music.

Amitié was up next, and filled the shoes amicably. Like New Forms before them, their singer eschewed the stage to sing directly to the fans. The band wasn’t as singularly focused on intensity as New Forms, as they showed off a more varied brand of emo – the screamo energy sometimes gave way to quieter, midtempo moments; there was time for bridges and riffs. This made the louder moments all the more hard-hitting. They also teased new music, and had spontaneous pits open on multiple songs. The Providence group had a strong showing, showcasing a set of screamo tunes that were abrasive but patient.

Boston’s own My Fictions were the biggest outlier on this card, as they are neither a scramz group nor a fresh one, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t sound fresh. The band played some cuts from their 2021 EP “Time Immemorial,” as well as some older tunes dating back a decade. Naturally, they had the most contained and most mature set of the night, as they pummeled through a set that ignored the night’s genre-bending in favor of traditional hardcore. It was a blast, and the young crowd had nothing but deep appreciation for the local vets. And, like both bands before them, they also teased new music.

Foxtails

Sunday’s main even came in the form of Connecticut’s Foxtails, whose recent album “fawn” made our 2022 Staff Picks list. The group, like New Forms and Amitié, offer a helping of screamo twisted through other elements. But Foxtails have a secret weapon in Jared Schmidt, their full-time violinist. Jared adds a sense of realism to the phrase “Midwest emo” with their strings, that gives the band a slight folk-punk and even indie edge as well. The band as a whole plays very patiently; some songs are stretched out and jammed on, or start with tantric riffs that tease a wild conclusion – whether it actually happens or not. Of course, in a live setting, the band leaned heavily on their wild bangers. It was a ripping set with the band locked in, plowing through 9 songs in a short time. Singer Blue Luno Solaz is one of the scene’s best up-and-coming screamers and they proved it during this set. None of the band’s four members looked primed for a screamo showcase, but that only adds to their allure – a group of misfits refusing to hold themselves to any genre identity.

Hardcore is alive and well, and a local showcase like the one put on at O’Brien’s can only prove that. Hardcore and Boston are forever intertwined, and no matter how much the city changes, there will always be haunts for young bands to scream, slamdance and experiment. That is the biggest familiarity that can truly never fade away.

Foxtails, My Fictions, Amitié and New Forms are all on Bandcamp.

An Intimate, Experimental Night in Providence with Squirrel Flower & Horse Jumper of Love

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By Jose Martinez

squirrel flower jose martinez

On a cold Wednesday night at Providence’s Fete Music Hall, the indie faithful were treated to the next stop on Squirrel Flower and Horse Jumper of Love’s co-headlining tour, a small run of shows taking place in the northeast that placed an emphasis on solo material from each music project. For their stop in Providence, Ella (Squirrel Flower) and Dimitri (Horse Jumper of Love) were joined by local Providence outfit Nova One, performing as a duo, who perfectly set the tone for the evening with swirling, dreamy, and intimate renditions of their material. Dimitri continued with a short set on his acoustic guitar, met with respectful silence and engagement from the crowd, which he not only made note of, but also thanked the audience for. Squirrel Flower closed the night with songs from both the band’s catalog and material of the experimental soundscape variety that she quipped she doesn’t usually get the chance to perform, seeing as she regularly performs with a band. A night as quiet as this, it’d be easy for someone to assume something negative, but if anything, especially paired with the ambience of the Lounge, it felt akin to a secret show – you had to know the right people to get to experience something this arresting and cozy. 

Check out our full gallery from the show below.

Squirrel Flower, Horse Jumper of Love, and Nova One at Fete Music Hall 3/8/23

Reverie Bring Arena Rock Pomp to the Jungle

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Photo by Caroline Daniels

by Ben Bonadies

Though arena rock got its name by the way it filled the biggest rooms in music, devotees know well that the genre has always been more about set than setting. The soaring, dramatic tunes of Styx, Bon Jovi, and Boston sound just as good coming out of your FM radio as they do inside a football stadium. Somerville’s community music space The Jungle is a great room, but an arena it is not. The low cap size did not stop Reverie, a seven-piece ensemble of Berklee students, from treating it like one.

Reverie specializes in the kind of virtuosic hard rock that has seemingly fallen out of fashion. Their set—a mix of smart originals and well chosen covers—is equal parts pomp and chops. The band’s wardrobe is fittingly (and welcomingly) turned up: hair flowing, shirts unbuttoned, sunglasses donned, shoes sequined. And the musicianship on display was first rate, too. All three singers who took the mic wielded powerful, booming voices and were bolstered by rock-steady rhythm section and dynamite dual guitar work. Jack Black’s character in School of Rock would adore them. 

The band opened with Journey’s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” heralding the brand of nü-classic rock that would be Reverie’s oeuvre. Original tune “No Mercy” is a potent mix of hair metal and stadium glam. Lead singer Alec deMello’s vocals are undeniably strong here, moving between belt and scream with impressive control. “Sorry Not Sorry,” another original penned and led by Karelia Rydman Santos, was some refreshingly pared down pop punk and a set-highlight for this writer. Late in the set came “Long Gone,” an old school power-ballad that keyboardist Gilliam Robles said came about by trying to write something like Scorpions’ “Still Loving You.” 

One thing is for sure, Reverie know how to fill a stage—physically and musically. Their sound and presence was far bigger than the 85-cap venue could contain. 

Follow Reverie on Instagram to catch their next show.

WHYTRI Makes MA Look Like an Alien World in “UGHK” Video

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By Harry Gustafson
 
whytri ugkh

While it’s hardly a lost or dying art, the music video – at least in the most vague, abstract sense – doesn’t have the same impact it did in the 80s through the end of the 00s. That’s not to say there haven’t been great music videos since then (there are in fact, countless incredible videos coming out every year). But due to the way the internet has changed and dissolved monolithic media consumption – in contrast to the days when 1) MTV still played music videos and 2) the videos you saw were whatever they chose to broadcast – that does mean that most of the best videos out there are flying in under the radar.

This is especially true if you look at the local level. Today, Boston rapper WHYTRI is dropping a new video for his song “UGHK.” Clocking in at 1:28, it’s a quickie, but the rapper makes the most of this time. There’s nothing overwrought about it: shot in a field off I-93, a pedestrian underpass tunnel and a few marshy stalks serve as set pieces. It’s simple but effective. In the artist’s own words, “Even when I shoot simple videos with light scenes, we take a lot pride in trying to make it as creative and different as possible.”

The visuals are pretty captivating, with a few subtle visual effects and set pieces that offer a stark yet dreamy quality. “With this video,” WHYTRI explains, “the goal was to keep it grimey but experimental. I was inspired by crop circles and the movie NOPE and thought the aesthetic would just fit the song perfectly. We wanted [to give off] the idea that I may have been transported here and don’t know what’s really going on.” WHYTRI worked on the song with Jon Glass and brought in Poortfolios to direct the video, with additional footage by SINWAV.

But what good is a cool video without a great song to stand on? The heavy bass and minimal beat offer WHYTRI plenty of space to play around lyrically. There’s a smoothness to both his syncopated flow and his deep voice, which carries enough gruff to engage the listener without ever feeling overly aggressive in a showy way. It’s a release that will certainly leave you eager to hear more from this performer.

Check out WHYTRI’s video for “UGKH” below, hosted on YouTube via Club Ambition.