After seeing Ted Leo again this weekend, our faith in live music was rekindled by a combination of bee pinatas and vegan sweat (not scones). We bring you a few music picks for the week in hopes of getting you back in the show swing yourself. In addition to the indie rock nonsense below, the BSO brings you Ligeti, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky all week.
1
Results tagged “bostonmusic”
Tuesday, September 8
Hop on over to Toad in Porter Square for the first week of Cassavettes' Septemberlong Tuesday night residency there. The music will combine dense emotion and free-flowing folk—plus, it's free. Mia Dyson opens at 8pm.
Some big names are in town this week: Paul McCartney, Marilyn Manson, Van Morrison, and of course Taylor Hanson. Plus, there are a plethora of throwback acts that have us thinking of our high school days. It's not a matter of having a show to go to, it's a matter of picking which one—and how nostalgic you want to get!
A bit of a slow week for music. The Needy Visions hit Harper’s (again!) and Children Collide are here all the way from Australia to rock the same venue on Saturday. Also, Dinosaur Jr. put out a new album and it kills.
Some weeks, we get ambitious with our music picks. This week, we're taking a laid-back approach that matches the music of (some of) our selections.
This is a great week: for music, and in general. Our friend Bradley and his (awesomely redesigned) Almanac are having a rad show this Friday, PA's is hosting a Jonathan Richman tribute Saturday, and did you notice we set a heat record today? Things will get cooler temperature-wise but hotter music-wise as the week goes on. Here are a few picks for tonight and beyond if you want to rock out.
Last Monday, Bostonist brought back the age old custom of weekly music pics. This week, the tradition continues, with plenty of local and traveling acts to go around. Got any suggestions? Feel free to send them in!
College is a place that is romanticized as the best of one's formative years, where interests in academia blooms, life-long friendships are formed, and one's musical tastes can blossom to dizzying heights. It's fitting, then, that Baltimore's Ponytail will be headlining Boston College radio station WZBC's Spring Concert at T.T. the Bear's tonight. Not only does Ponytail make the kind of dizzying experimental-art-punk-rawk that's bursts to the tops of skyscrapers and boils over with intense energy, but the quartet happened to meet while students at the Maryland Institute College of Art. In fact, the band formed as part of a project for a course taught by professor Jeremy Sigler called Parapainting; every member of the class was told to form a band and perform at the end of the semester. It's thanks to Sigler that one of Baltimore's best and brightest bands exists today.
In the past few years, the hype machine that is Great Britain's music scene has put the spotlight on two types of rock acts: those that make you dance and those that bow to the sounds of yesteryear. Sure, these categories certainly ignore a number of acts with brilliant sounds and vibrant creativity, but the shake-yer-rump vs. reimagined-nostalgia bands tend to grab the largest chunk of attention. When it comes to gropus that take a wide amount of sound and inspiration from the past, you've got the Arctic Monkeys (who reignited the craze for British garage punk from way back in the early aughts), Bloc Party (80s English post-punk), and the Editors (ever heard of Joy Division?), among others. The bands that make you dance range from the "nu-rave" Klaxons to the minimalist angularity of Foals, and even venturing over to the trance-core of Enter Shikari. Saturday night at the Paradise saw a meeting of these worlds, with the wistful White Lies in one corner and the dancefloor tunes of Friendly Fires.
It was the loudest of times, it was the sweatiest of times, and much like Dickens plainly wrote, last night Bostonist had everything before us and nothing before us. Like any Friday night, the potential to just stay at home and snuggle up to a good book was calling as the scattered rain showers began falling. However, Bostonist decided to forgo the comforts of being dry and head out to two house shows in Allston.
The new House of Blues isn't the only musical entity to open its doors to Boston this February. Weirdo Records, which had been operating as an online entity selling oddball and rare music to intense album nerds who wouldn't be out of place working alongside Jack Black and John Cusack in High Fidelity, moved into a tiny storefront at 844 Mass Ave. in Cambridge on February 6. It's the first storefront for Weirdo, formerly operated from its owner's bedroom.
Former Bostonians of the Week Walter Sickert and Edrie of The Army of Broken Toys are involved in tonight's eminently weird screening of The Why, an indie film by Eli Higgins, Anthony Pedone and Stephen Floyd. Walter and Edrie will perform live along with Jaggery and Goli; the music of all three groups is featured in the film. Proceeds from the show go to help complete the work. Support local independent film tonight at Great Scott.
Ah, Lansdowne Street. The roar of rowdy bros, the click-clack of skank heels, the grate of Boston accents, the smell of stale vomit, the refrains of "OMG why didn't I wear my coat?" from girls in skimpy tops and short skirts. It's exactly the kind of place you'd expect to hear some authentic blues music. Or... not?
Boston Viral Video is on vacation for the next two weeks. In its stead, Nick Curran will bring us a collection of quality music videos released by bands in Boston. Check it!
The other side of TT the Bear’s saw a transformation to times past Monday night, as four folk acts took the stage and captured hearts.
Boston Viral Video is on vacation for the next two weeks. In its stead, Nick Curran will bring us a collection of quality music videos released by bands in Boston. Hooray for Earth have a fun weekend away, the Everyday Visuals break the 9-5 barrier, and the Wonderful Spells envision themselves as vampires. Check it!
Massachusetts' own Grinding Tapes Recording Company has been toiling away in semi-veiled obscurity since its inception in 2005. Like any great DIY label, Grinding Tapes extols an excellent lineup of musical artists and a homegrown manifesto to match it. All the artists on the label recoup a significant amount of money from CD, vinyl, and digital download sales; a small portion of the money that each artist earns is donated to a charity of that musicians' choice; and Grinding Tapes uses TerraPass to offset CO2 emissions from mail-outs.
Last time we checked in, Boston bands weren't exactly dominating the SXSW music festival. Fortunately, the final list now includes Apollo Sunshine, Arms and Sleepers, Sarah Borges, The Downbeat 5, Melissa Ferrick, Muck and the Mires, Passion Pit, Eli Reed, Eileen Rose, Mean Creek, Tulsa, Westbound Train, Wheat, and Who Shot Hollywood from Massachusetts; Deer Tick, B. Dolan, Howl, The Low Anthem, Jared Paul, and Prolyphic from Rhode Island; plus Pictures and Sound from VT and the Queers from NH. It's a much more robust New England lineup than before.
Introducing Fringe Benefits, a new, semi-irregular music column from Leor Galil focusing on local bands and artists who might not be receiving the attention they deserve. This week: Daniel Harris.
Longwave revs up for its impending shows with OK Go and Bloc Party by playing Great Scott tonight. Expect slick, impressive pop with tight melodies and sweeping chords. Showing modern indie chops but occasionally venturing into 80s rock choruses, Longwave demonstrate that a band can sound radio-friendly even in a waning age of radio. Local boys Wheat (easier to listen to, harder to Google) actually appeal to us a little more, with a more down-home alt-rock style.
Sarah Rabdau and her Self-Employed Assassin(s) not only have a great name, they also make great music. Drummer Matt Graber backs up Rabdau's sometimes gorgeous, sometimes disturbing vocals and piano work with somehow-melodic rhythms, and the duo are often joined by strings as well. Just as some photos make you wonder whether the duo has been picking berries or killing folks, so too does the music occupy a space between haunted and heavenly.
You might expect a "frightened rabbit" to have inferior stage presence, but the Scottish group (half brothers, half not) put on an engaged, high-energy show that blasts its balanced tunes from enjoyable to ecstatic. The band's live skills were particularly apparent when juxtaposed with the slight nervousness and discombobulation of openers Pants Yell! and David Karsten Daniels, While both openers showed musical chops, with Pants Yell! in particular being pleasantly reminiscent of early Weezer (minus a member), both had moments of stiffness and disconnection that never happened for Frightened Rabbit.
Brothers Scott and Grant Hutchison make up half of Frightened Rabbit, a dirty, anthemic rock Scottish band that will bring its controlled yet confrontational sounds to Great Scott. Many tunes will surely be from latest album Midnight Organ Fight, dubbed by one Pitchfork writer the best album of 2008 so far back in September (in the end, it came in at number 33).
Those New Kids. Just when you thought they could rest on their laurels, they go and do something crazy. The no-longer-new-or-kids are launching (literally!) a cruise series. Boats will leave from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and cruise around from May 15-18. You'll get a day in the Bahamas in addition to two days at sea, plus a "NKOTB Experience with all band members." Will the cabins have NKOTB sleeping bags and pillow cases? Will there be butter sculpted to resemble Joey's face? We can only dream, because the whole damn thing is almost sold out already. There is "limited" availability for a $1500 two-person ocean view cabin if you absolutely can't miss this experience.