Wednesday Crashes The Crystal Ballroom

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By Dillon Riley
The band Wednesday posing around some outdoor patio furniture

Photo Courtesy of Dead Oceans

Asheville, NC quintet Wednesday have had a big two years by any metric. The twangy shoegazers released their sophomore LP Twin Plagues to rave reviews and set out on a series of tours in support of acts like Beach Bunny and (their collective personal heroes) Drive-By Truckers, while gaining recognition around the indiesphere for their unique blend of big hooks, crushing guitar squall and sighing lapsteel textures. A short headline run at the tail end of last year touched down at a very sold out Cambridge Elks Lodge, and we can confirm the night was a steaming and sweaty mass of sound that sent bodies flying all around the basement. Following a now beloved covers album who’s smashing success bucked convention, Wednesday recently announced their signing to Dead Oceans with the dense and sprawling “Bull Believer”. Their longest track to date, “Bull” runs through a couple different song sections and moods before culminating in fronter Karly Hartzman’s pained screams to “FINISH HIM” like the Mortal Kombat game blaring out the screen in the song’s haunting video. We thought the song was a smash when we heard it live in its infant stage last November, but the recorded version is an entirely different beast, in the best way, 

Wednesday hits Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom this Tuesday, September 27th alongside the excellent fellow Carolinian noise pop troupe Truth Club, and locals Dino Gala. Ahead of the gig we had a chance to chat with Hartzman about the band’s approach to music, her use of literary influences, and basketball, and you can read all about that below. Also, we’re running a ticket giveaway for the gig! So please enter for your chance to win two tickets via the form below.

Allston Pudding: How did you arrive at this sound? Is it a conscious thing or just the result of the five of you playing together?

Wednesday: It feels just like a blend of the five of us and our different tastes, we don’t pass up on any idea either of us wants to bring to the table. It’s also just the result of the love we have for the instruments we bring into the band, like whenever you add Xandy [Chelmis] on lapsteel it’s gonna have a country influence no matter what. We just wanted to play loud shoegaze and it just sorta ended up this way.

AP: The covers record seemed to really take off in a way that may have been unexpected? What about those songs spoke to you as a band, and is there a connective thread between them?

Wednesday at Crystal Ballroom concert flyer

Flyer courtesy of Crystal Ballroom

Wednesday: You know those songs all date from a long period of time, like the songs I just did with Jake [Lenderman] were recorded years ago. But really any time I decide to do a cover it’s because I’m singing it in the car and it matches my vocal because a cover is never gonna sound good if the vocal isn’t in your range. We never expected it do as well as it is, covers albums are usually just a fun project strictly for the band, but this has been a surprise for us. 

AP: Richard Brautigan was an author I revisited a lot early on in quarantine, and then I heard your first record not too long after and was blown away by the connection. I’d love to hear a bit more about the effect his work has had on your music?

Wednesday: I feel like my writing is influenced so much by what I’m consuming at the time that it’s being written, whether it’s movies, other music, podcasts, stuff my friends are saying, or anything else. Richard Brautigan just has so many of those like “two words next to each other” type thing that is so mind blowing to me, so those really stuck with me and I just took it as a challenge to include some of his phrasing and write the rest of a song around it as an attempt to approach the quality of his writing in my own words. I see him as a benchmark for the kind of creativity with language that I wanna demand from myself.

AP: So you had this tweet about the term “blue collar” and the way that it’s kind of bastardized in music writing that really resonated with me. Is that kind of branding limiting to you?

Wednesday: I don’t find it limiting as much as I find it unnecessary or irrelevant because when you think about what the term “blue collar” really means it’s kind of incorrect. You can describe the place where people are from without it. When you talk about blue collar you’re talking about economics, and you generally have no idea where people are at with that when it comes to being in a band, and you can get tripped up in that language. It just seems like a weird assumption to make and I find that a lot of journalists, while I get where they’re coming from and why they might use it, do use as a way to kind of quaintify a band that’s just not from a big media city. I often see journalists that are from New York or other places that haven’t spent much time here jump to that word a lot quicker than say someone from here or the midwest or other places where being outside the city doesn’t necessarily mean you’re working in a factory or whatever else. I just think it’s a weird assumption to make unless the band themselves are priding themselves on that language, like Oasis or something where they make it a part of the band, but that’s not what we want to aspire to.

AP: I totally understand what you mean, that word can be meant to encapsulate a lot, but it mostly just ends up sounding hollow.

Wednesday: We’ve been written about in that way before and it’s bothered us and a friend of mine a little, but I just didn’t think I was in the place to defend my view on this like I am now. I’ve taken kind of a firm stance against that kind of branding for us at this point.

AP: Compared to how little location matters for east or west coast bands do you feel a sort of responsibility to show off “the south” and in a positive light to listeners? 

Wednesday: I don’t feel a responsibility as much as I want to do it because I love where we are from and I don’t think it’s a perspective that’s really present as much. Obviously there’s plenty of artists from the south that don’t push that to the forefront, but I love bands that are really proud to rep where they’re from, like R.E.M. and other bands from Athens in that era, I just thought that was really cool to instill a sense of pride in that community by being a successful band from there. I feel like Enumclaw is really doing that now with Tacoma as well. It’s great to see bands try to become a source of pride for their hometown.

AP: It’s very easy to be into indie rock or dance music, or art in general in places on the coasts as opposed to elsewhere.

Wednesday: Yeah, the only live music in Greensboro I could see was pop punk and then it took me a really long time to realize “ok I’m into music, but not this music.” It probably took me until college.

AP: How would you define the Carolina music scene now? Is there a cohesive sound and attitude?

Wednesday: There’s bands I went to school with that kind of influenced what’s going on. I think the biggest melding of styles has to do with the bands in our really small circle, and most of us live in the same neighborhood. Our next door neighbors both have bands of their own and then I live with Jake who has his own band [MJ Lenderman]. It feels like our friend group influences each other a lot, but there’s not as much communication on a wider scale, especially when we talk cross-genre communication. There’s hardly any right now, at least.

AP: A lot of articles about “Boston” tend to reflect back to Dinosaur Jr, Pixies, Lemonheads, Julianna Hatfield, etc. Is there a similar sort of thing with Superchunk and Archers of Loaf? Like ghosts of indie rock past?

Wednesday: It’s funny you say that because I had no idea Superchunk and Archers were from North Carolina until really recently, or that even Merge was in North Carolina because I just didn’t realize that that kind of thing could happen here. Also, I wasn’t into digging into music history as much as Jake was, but he is into all that stuff and would tell me the lore. So I kind of just found out about that, but weirdly enough I don’t think that it’s really relevant here. I’ve only recently tried to channel some of that energy into what we do, I’ve always been into that music, but I didn’t realize it was from my home.

AP: How was the experience of touring with Drive-By Truckers? Did they impart any road wisdom for you?

Wednesday: Oh yeah, everything has happened to them in the world. More than anything they were making sure we knew that if we ever needed anything in the future, any sort of questions we could always just ask them. So I feel like less than general wisdom and tips and more than we have music dads for life now. We really do have a growing list of people who have literally seen it all in our corner. Like Owen who ran our last label Orindal is someone I ask for things a lot, whereas I feel like the Truckers I could go to for advice on how to deal with our access to alcohol and drugs on tour and how to handle it if something gets out of control with that, or with emotional stuff within the band because they have a lot of experience with that kind of stuff since they’ve broken up and gotten back together and figured stuff out a bunch of times in different ways. It’s more just having a safety net of wisdom for the rest of my career, which is crazy. In general the Truckers were mostly just sweet to us. After every show they would hang out, and come up to us like “we love your music so much, we’re so glad you’re here with us” and that alone, getting validation from a band we worship every night, was invaluable.

Wednesday plays the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville on Tuesday, September 27th alongside Truth Club and Dino Gala. Tickets are available right here.

MUNA Saves the Royale

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Photos and Words by Emily Gardner
 
muna emily gardner
 
Girl power was the theme of the night at the Royale for the MUNA show. Pop punk powerhouse Meet Me @ The Alter started the evening off with a fun and energetic set. The New Jersey natives even treated the crowd to an acoustic performance of their hit song, “Garden”. After their set, the stage went black and after a period of time, white lights flashed to the beat as MUNA took the stage. The trio danced around the stage as they played songs new and old, including “What I Want” and “Silk Chiffon” off their newest, self-titled album, “MUNA”. Both bands brought charisma and chemistry to the Royale stage for an unforgettable night.

MUNA at Royale 9/25/22

Actor|Observer Get Urgent With Anti-Gentrification Song “Fool’s Gold”

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By Andrew McNally

(Photo credit: Adam Parshall)

Post-hardcore groups aren’t exactly known for having the most uplifting songs, but Actor/Observer’s new single “Fool’s Gold,” the lead single off their upcoming album Songs For the Newly Reclusive, is a particularly upfront and urgent listen for anyone who is a fan of the Boston music scene. The song is predictably heavy, though it begins with a somber and echoed guitar line. The vocals switch between screamed and sung – though mostly sung, to emphasize the song’s critical lyrics. “Gold” is about the increasing costs of living and disproportionate living standards across Boston – and the country’s major cities – that are rapidly killing the arts.

The song is not exactly subtle, as the lyrics are peppered with phrases like “We thought we could make a change / But it’s too little too late / This town can’t be saved,” as well as “No one said you had to stay here” and “Those who stay will continue to bear the weight.” The lyrics are emotional and direct, written to a city where art-oriented individuals are departing in favor of tech bros at a seemingly one-to-two rate. The song hits for anyone like me who has watched multiple friends emigrate to other cities to chase a different arts scene. The song’s lyrics are delivered with a genuinely passionate fury, matched by urgent music that switches from regret to bitterness on a dime.

The song could not come out at a more critical time. With the closures of historical live music institutions like Great Scott and the impending demolition of The Middle East, it’s impossible not to feel like the arts scene that gave Allston/Brighton and neighboring pockets their reputations is collapsing inwards on itself. There are fewer venues for the local and national up-and-coming bands, and more vacant luxury apartments, all under the watchful eye of both Harvard and landlords free to price out anyone with no rent control in place. Bands of any fame level could always rely on Boston as a safe, reliable stop to find frenzied fans, but that time is increasingly coming to a close. And it isn’t just Boston – New York is years into pricing out it’s citizens, and Austin is rapidly falling to some of the country’s most soul-sucking corporations. It isn’t even that the local arts scenes are being displaced – they’re being systematically disseminated, faster than real time.

Being a successful touring artist has always been the ambition of the many but a viable occupation for the few, and with a dangerously combustible mix of inflation, rising food & gas costs, venue closures and city-wide gentrification, that “few” dwindles by the day. One needs to look no further than the location of Great Scott, Allston’s most cherished music venue that has now sat gutted and empty for two years, or towards the Seaport district, which until a few years ago was a cozy, available section of the city now lined with the pricy gastropubs and glossy, glassy skyscrapers of interchangeable tech companies.

I spoke with guitarist/vocalist Nick Grieco and vocalist Greg Marquis via e-mail about the song and its larger themes.

Allston Pudding: What do you see as the biggest threat to the local/national art scene(s)?
 
Actor|Observer: Locally, the biggest threat is lack of affordable housing, lack of accessible artist spaces, and lack of meaningful support, resources and funding for the arts. It’s no secret Boston has been facing an ongoing housing crisis for years, along with most major cities in the U.S., and the most vulnerable communities impacted are immigrant, POC, working class, and creative communities (among which there is so much overlap). Cities love to invest in the “appearance” of being a cultural hub without actually investing in the lives of the people who make it that way. So until we can actually prioritize the material needs and economic health of those who contribute to the vibrancy of our cities, the arts and our most vulnerable communities are going to keep getting pushed out and painted over.
 
AP: Which venue closure has hit you the hardest (local or anywhere)?
 
A|O: Great Scott. Hands down. Boston has very few small-to-medium sized venues as it is, so losing that spot has been a huge blow to the local scene. Not only was it a beloved local haunt, it was a crucial space for touring and developing acts. Boston loves to tout the big national acts that came from here, but where do you think those acts got their start? In venues like Great Scott! Local artists need those in-between venues to grow. I mean, our last record release show was at that venue. And the one before that was T.T. The Bear’s which also closed soon after… Haha maybe it’s us. Look out Rockwell! All kidding aside, I know GS will live again someday once a new location is found, but while we wait, the impact of losing that space continues to be felt by our community.
 
AP: What do you think about the new bigger venues, like Roadrunner & MGM Music Hall?
Do you think they’re good for the scene or do they just give in to gentrification even further?
 
A|O: I know that Roadrunner has received a lot of criticism for being a gentrifier tool and the knee-jerk reaction of many in that school of thought is “We don’t need this,” but the big picture is much different. Roadrunner (being a part of the AEG/Bowery family) was designed and is run by the same people who run The Sinclair, which is already regarded as one of the best venues in the country. Because of that reputation, many national touring acts elect to book out multiple nights at The Sinclair instead of one night at House of Blues or The Palladium (Worcester). The existence of Roadrunner applies a necessary healthy competition for large general-admission venues and very much puts Boston back in the running to be regarded as an “A-Market” destination city, which it has not been for quite a while. Simultaneously, it opens up the calendar at The Sinclair to potentially be a more nurturing force for the local scene as a larger rung on the ladder that can still host mid-career local acts. Overall I think Roadrunner is a strict positive for Boston Music as a whole, especially when you consider all of the jobs it has created for music industry professionals from our local scene. As far as MGM Music Hall goes, I think they’re appealing to a much different clientele, much like the entirety of Fenway, which was lost to gentrification long ago. If there’s anywhere for a space like that to go, it’s there. 
 
 
AP: The lyrics say “this town can’t be saved,” do you feel that’s true for Boston? What would need to happen to revitalize things?
 
A|O: It’s funny, I have thought a lot about that line in particular since we wrote this song because I know how pessimistic it sounds. It’s not meant to be a definitive proclamation about Boston per se, but more so an honest expression of frustration and hopelessness that I know myself and many others have felt at one point or another while living here. Over the years I’ve watched venues close, rents rise, bands break up, friends move away, artist studios get demolished and turned into luxury apartments, and the hits just keep coming. This fight or flight response kicks in and after a while, it can feel like an endless uphill battle where the odds are forever against us. I know hopelessness doesn’t win the fight, but the feeling is real and deserves to be expressed. Once we can acknowledge that, then we can recognize the dire urgency of the situation and work toward a solution together. For the past 5 years or so our members have gotten involved with local civics meetings via Artist Impact, writing to city councillors, protesting harmful developments, voting, organizing, educating, and raising awareness of various creative and civic organizations like the Dorchester Arts Project, the Allston Civics Association, Abundant Housing MA, and so on. There are so many groups doing great work to combat gentrification and support the arts, but there is always a need for more folks to get involved, especially from our music scene, either by showing up to community meetings, donating, or simply elevating these topics in public discussion. And yes, call or write to your city councillors and share your views with them. That’s what they’re there for!
 
AP: What are some of your favorite local bands to play with, or best local shows you’ve played?
 
A|O: Move is an awesome local band really embodying the spirit and purpose of hardcore that’s been missing in Boston for a while. They’re playing with us on 11/9 at The Rockwell for the hometown date of our record release tour, along with Moss Tongue who we also love, awesome grungy alt rock shoegaze band from Boston. Our friends and family in Girih have a new record coming out next month, and they are easily one of the best live bands I have ever seen or heard. Valleyheart, Dreamwell, Inspirit, Oldsoul, Lesser Glow, Zip-Tie Handcuffs, all great bands we love and hope to play with again next year. Some up-and-comers who have really been shining are Please 2003, Trash Rabbit, Olivia Sissay, and Pet Fox, amongst others. 
 
AP: What are some of the other themes across the album and/or influences that went into the songwriting on the rest of the album?
 
A|O: As the title implies, it has a lot to do with becoming less trusting, less open, and ultimately less interested in being around other people. It’s a shift I started to notice in myself over the years after being hurt or let down by so many people in my life, but also as I began to develop a better relationship with myself and with being alone. As I’ve gotten older I’ve become more introverted and disillusioned with the world, especially in recent years seeing how cruel, selfish, and downright terrible people can be. Then the pandemic hit and the fear of being around others became that much more literal. As a band, we spent most of 2020 separated from each other just trying to keep our sanity and lives in tact, so when we were able to finally get together and start writing again, the themes I had been writing about had a much more profound weight to them for all of us, and I think they will for everyone else too.

The song can be found below. Songs For the Newly Reclusive comes out on November 4th, with six more songs just as impassioned and penetrative as “Fool’s Gold” is.

Momma Are Indie MVPs at BMH

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Words & Photos By Harry Gustafson

momma harry gustafson

Though my time in college was spent listening to and forming opinions about every alternative indie band that walked under the sun, in recent years I’ve veered away from new entries in the genre. My time writing for the good ol’ Pudd has seen me fill these virtual pages primarily with reflections and impressions of hip-hop, electronic, and R&B. This hasn’t really been by design. I still adore a vast array of sounds indie rock has to offer. I’ve just been branching out, trying to flex my verbal muscle in other directions. But when I do carve out time to check out some glorious indie rock & roll? Damn, does it hit. 

I hadn’t heard of Momma – fronted by the main songwriting duo of Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten – prior to the release of their album Household Name, which came out back in July. But after seeing a few friends hype the album up on their IG stories, I figured I’d add it to the queue. Plus, I can’t resist an album with a slightly faded, blurry photo of a car as the cover (a clear indicator that the band in question is in their bag). 

momma harry gustafson

Connecticut band waveform* opened the night, giving a pretty lowkey intro as the medium-sized crowd trickled into Brighton Music Hall. After a couple sound system related hiccups, they got into the bulk of their set. Most of their tracks follow a slower tempo, with a bit of a moody stoner vibe to boot. It wasn’t 100% my cup of tea, but they seem like sweet lads.

Momma got their set started with “Rip Off,” the opening track off Household Name. While the song starts off on the gentler side, the growing dynamic range is a good example of what the band does very well: extremely catchy tracks with explosive choruses. They followed this intro up with “Medicine” and “Speeding 72,” which round off the opening of the album. Most of this tour’s setlist pulls from the album, with one or two older tracks thrown in here and there. This is probably a good indicator of the warm reception Household Name has been getting since its release. 

If you put a gun to my head (please don’t) and made me compare Momma to one of the many 90s bands that no doubt influences their sound (also don’t), I’d jump right to the Breeders. But since comparison is the thief of joy, I really try to avoid making band-to-band comparisons. I’ve got mixed feelings about them, at least in terms of music writing: on one hand, it can be a useful compass to place a band within a sonic milieu of predecessors and contemporaries; on the other, it more often than not feels like lazy writing to me. So prior to the show, I knew I wanted to try to avoid tossing the Breeders analogue in this review in an effort to gauge Momma for they are as opposed to a standard they might not even be trying to live up to. 

momma harry gustafson

This plan went out the fucking window when Momma decided to bust out their cover of the Breeders’ “Divine Hammer” towards the end of their set. Since Momma have specifically cited Kim Deal’s songwriting as a big influence, I can’t really act surprised. Plus, it was friggin’ awesome. 

If I had to lodge any complaint against an otherwise awesome set, it would probably be the show’s brevity. Right now, Momma’s shows are clocking out after about 10 songs, which is a perfectly reasonable length, and, of course, they are just humans who have to rest like everyone else. But given the crowd’s enthusiasm, I don’t think anyone in attendance would have hated it if the band added two or three more tracks to the list. The ones you do get, though, prove that Momma are vanguards of a strain of catchy alt rock that will undoubtedly please rockers romanticizing the 90s while still appealing to young newcomers to the annals of guitar-centric rock. 

Momma & waveform* @ Brighton Music Hall 9/12/22
 

The Joyful Return of My Chemical Romance

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Words by Emily Blodgett & Photos by Corwin Wickersham

Fans came together on Wednesday and Thursday night last week for the long-awaited and drawn-out return of My Chemical Romance to Boston. After two years of pandemic-driven delays and the tour being expanded to add a second Boston date, it’s no surprise that the energy in TD Garden was hard to contain.

Openers Badflower and Thursday benefitted from an early arriving and engaged crowd, both receiving a warm reception as fans eagerly awaited the night’s main act. Before My Chemical Romance took the stage, the arena generally felt like it was filled with a group of old friends; old, excited friends chatting about which songs they would love to hear that night. Red lights that, outside of an MCR show would be deeply unsettling, began pulsing. And finally, swathed in layers of fog and the embrace of the crowd, My Chemical Romance took the stage and hurdled into “Foundations of Decay”; their first new release in almost a decade.

Everyone from middle schoolers to people who started listening to My Chemical Romance in middle school to people who have middle school aged kids at home found common musical ground as the setlist sweetly spanned the band’s discography; choice cuts such as “You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us in Prison” and “Cemetery Drive” landing squarely in the category of ‘songs you thought you might never hear live again’.

Singer Gerard Way spoke familiarly with the crowd throughout the set, joking with bandmates and dedicating several songs to longtime friends of the band. But while both guitars and singer scream in songs like “It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s a Fucking Deathwish” the atmosphere of Thursday night’s show might be categorized as pretty damn playful.  

Band members smiled and threw hearts to their toddlers in the front row. They asked the crowd to take a few steps back several times and, surprisingly, it did. Security guards gave out water. Phone flashlights flagged down help for those who needed it. And as the show thundered on, the crowd maintained a type of community fostered by the musicians on stage. Joy, community, and trust might not be words that come to mind when you think of a My Chemical Romance show, but maybe they should be. And it’s a good thing, too – because a My Chemical Romance show is not a spectator sport.

Setlist here.

Photos:

An Evening with Dance Gavin Dance 

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Photos & Words by Emily Gardner

dance gavin dance emily gardner

Saturday’s Dance Gavin Dance tour stop at the Big Night Live felt like a big family reunion. New fans of the band were excited to hear tracks off of the Sacramento band’s newest release, Jackpot Juicer, while older fans appreciated a lineup full of Blue Swan Records members. The record label, founded by DGD guitarist Will Swan, hosts many bands that are comprised of other DGD members. 

Openers Body Thief started off the show with an energetic set, featuring songs off their 2019 release, Travel Glow. Up next was Royal Coda which includes Kurt Travis, an old vocalist for DGD, as well as Will Swan and other members of various bands in the Blue Swan Records network. The band put out a new album, To Only a Few at First, just days before the Big Night Live show and made sure to play some of the singles from the release. 

After Royal Coda rocked their set, crew members started bringing out vertical flags with the album covers of the whole Dance Gavin Dance discography. The stage started to become an homage to the band’s extensive history. Due to a series of events, Andrew Wells took a break from his guitarist role and filled in on clean vocalist duties. The stage lights would light up one of the flags, illuminating an album, and the band would perform a song from it. The crowd was treated to songs from all over the DGD timeline. About halfway through the set, Kurt Travis came back to perform two tracks from his time in the band. He returned for the encore of “Rock Solid”, a fan favorite. Generally, the band looked like they were having a great time on stage, despite all the changes that 2022 has brought along.

Dance Gavin Dance, Royal Coda, and Body Thief @ Big Night Live 8/13/22

The Puddcast Episode 32: Spooky Boys

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 By Harry Gustafson
 
puddcast

Artwork by Cat Elia

Thought they’ve only been a band for slightly less than a year, Portland, OR’s Spooky Boys sound like they’ve been playing together for at least a decade. Their new EP Which Ways Up – which just came out last week – was recorded live in studio, giving it a high-octane energy; yet it never loses the tightness that might come with a release featuring a lot of production. 

To help promote the EP, Spooky Boys stopped by The Puddcast to talk about that recording process… but in reality, everything got a little sidetracked when we all started roasting Michael Bay movies (we praise The Rock so it’s not all slander). We also share some warm and fuzzy feelings on still-deceased former president Ronald Reagan (“First you ruined my country, then you ruined jelly beans”). The episode is a lot of fun, at least for us. Maybe you’ll laugh a few times too. 

Be sure to listen to Spooky Boys’ Which Ways Up, available on all major streaming platforms (and bandcamp!). You can listen to their Puddcast appearance below, or wherever you get access your podcasts. And be sure to check out the Spotify playlist for this episode, featuring the music of Spooky Boys, plus the other artists mentioned throughout the episode, like Huey Lewis, Aerosmith, Rihanna, 2Pac, and more. 

Happy Bandcamp Friday!

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By Andrew Bourque

It’s every indie musicians favorite day of the week: Bandcamp Friday! That’s right, the music distribution site announced this week that it’s bringing back the massively popular Bandcamp Fridays through the rest of the year. Every month, on the first Friday, Bandcamp.com will forgo any profit made from sales with all the funds going directly to the musicians/artists. 

As if any of us really needed an excuse for more online shopping, but here is an opportunity to directly support some incredible musicians while continuing to update your collection of killer merch. A win-win really. Just make sure you place your orders before midnight tonight or you’ll have to wait until Oct. 7th!

Born Without Bones

Coming off of an incredible set at this year’s editions of Boston Calling and Nice! A fest, Milford based rock trio Born Without Bones made quite an impact. Now it’s time to show your support with a new tee from their Bandcamp page, available here!

Bowling Shoes

Quit ya Doomscrollin’ and pick up a new long sleeve from Boston boppers Bowling Shoes, available on their Bandcamp page here!

 

Colleen Green 

The end of Summer may be approaching but there’s still plenty of sun to go around. Keep cool by picking up a copy of Colleen Green’s latest album on CD, cassette or this deliciously sleek color vinyl. Available here!

Coral Moons

Like a swift breeze on a sunny summers’ day, let the music of Boston’s own Coral Moons waft over you and carry you along after you snag a vinyl from their Bandcamp page here!

Crooked Coast

Show your Crooked Coast pride by picking up a sticker pack in honor of their recent album Picture This. Catch them live when their tour wraps at Brighton Music Hall on Friday, Dec. 2nd. Buy the stickers here!

Haasan Barclay 

As exclusive as it is elusive, Boston creative Haasan Barclay only printed 50 of these tees. Grab one before they all disappear! Available here.

Izzy Heltai

Following tours with Liza Anne and The Mountain Goats, an introduction at Newport Folk Fest from Marcus Mumford and an upcoming set at ACL, Heltai is on the up-and-up. Cop a tee shirt, stickers or tote to show your Izzy spirit. Available here!

Layzi

Lo-fi bedroom popstress Layzi’s aesthetic is as warm and charming as their music. Feel the warmth with this soft tee available in both Lilac and Rose. Shirt and cassette both available here!

Maneka

Get out of this world with a new UFO or Alien tee from Brooklyn based experimental indie talent Maneka. Complete the lewk with an embroidered Tiger beanie. Available here!

Nova One

Treat yourself like the icon you are with this new “I Was Made For Me” tee from PVD based indie darlings Nova One. A variety of other shirts, stickers and music also available here!

Pet Fox

From the lads that gave us the eerie “Ghostrich” tee comes the awe inspiring “Hand of Fox” tee. Finish the set with a Pet Fox dad hat. Available here!

Rebuilder

Featuring a massive collection of tee shirts (some available in kids’ sizes!), vinyl, pennants, cassettes, hoodies, pins, hats, baseball cards and more, you can’t go wrong with a visit to their Bandcamp page here! 

Speedy Ortiz

Bring a tear to your eye with a pre-order of Cry Perfume (out Oct. 4th) from vocalist (and poet) Sadie Dupuis. Or maybe you’re crying from a dab of their Death of Speedy hot sauce. Either way, soothe yourself with some Mystery Caravan Tea or some stick on nail art. All available here! 

twen

Make it a one stop shop as you peruse various tie dyed shirts/long sleeves, stickers, (signed!) posters, music and more! Available from indie duo twen’s Bandcamp page here! 

Bandcamp Friday will continue on Oct. 7, Nov. 4th and Dec. 2! Support local talent and buy direct from artists!

The Puddcast Episode 31: Beats By Girlz Boston Takeover

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By Harry Gustafson
puddcast

Artwork by Cat Elia

Boston is home not only to an incredibly diverse and talented community of musicians, but also to some fantastic organizations with missions to enable and empower that community. It’s been on the docket for a while to showcase some of these organizations on The Puddcast. Finally, we’re getting the ball rolling on that goal.

First up we’ve got Beats By Girlz, an organization with chapters based around the globe that aim to provide educational opportunities for women and gender expansive people who want to learn music production techniques. The Boston chapter has really gained momentum in the past few months, due in part to the dedicated work of artistic director Naomi Westwater (who appeared on the first season of The Puddcast).

For this episode, Naomi takes over hosting duties to interview a panel of BBG Boston members including Ximena Rivas (another returning Puddcast guest), DJ Slick Vick, and Maria Bartolotta. The group talk about how they came to be involved with BBG and what working with the group has meant to them.

Listen to the episode below or wherever you get your podcasts. Head over to Beats By Girlz Boston’s website to find out how to get involved, learn more about educational opportunities, and more.

The Puddcast Episode 30: Emma Jayne

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By Harry Gustafson
puddcast

Artwork by Cat Elia

Critiquing terrible architecture? Check. Tarot reading? Check. Uplifting tunes about being able to stand on your own two feet with confidence and self-assuredness? That’s a big ol’ check! 

This week on The Puddcast, we’ve got singer-songwriter Emma Jayne, who wrote and recorded her debut album during her time at Boston University. We also plot out a martial arts movie, skewer a very ugly new building on BU’s campus, and get a little tarot reading for the show.

Check out Emma’s music on your streaming service of choice. And while you’re doing that, make sure you’re also following The Puddcast wherever you listen to your podcasts, just so you can be sure you’re getting the freshest and hippest content. Do it.