bradley's almanac - a boston-based music blog

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thursday, september 2nd

lou barlow + the missingmen

wye oak

the unfamiliars

@ the middle east upstairs

saturday, september 4th

mg lederman (ex-victory at sea)

cd release show with

the wrong reasons

the beat awfuls

brant deatley

@ the plough & stars

sunday, september 5th

sweet apple

(w/j mascis on drums)

black helicopter

zombie radio

@ the middle east downstairs

sunday, september 5th

the milling gowns

what time is it, mr. fox?

faux ox

jaggery

@ harper's ferry

monday, september 6th

wallcreeper

@ charlie's kitchen

monday, september 6th

shellac

helen money

@ the middle east downstairs

tuesday, september 7th

tortoise

greg davis

ben vidas

@ the paradise

tuesday, september 7th

someone still loves you boris yeltsin

telekinesis

golden bloom

@ tt the bears

tuesday, september 7th

kele (from bloc party)

does it offend you, yeah?

@ the royale boston

wednesday, september 8th

hot hot heat

22-20s

hey rosetta!

@ the middle east downstairs

wednesday, september 8th

airborne toxic event (acoustic)

with the calder string quartet

@ the somerville theatre

thursday, september 9th

apple betty

this blue heaven

the backup factor

apollo run

@ tt the bears

friday, september 10th

i, pistol

black fortress of opium

the crushing low

@ precinct

friday, september 10th

the charlatans uk

sherlock's daughter

@ the royale boston

saturday, september 11th

school of seven bells

active child

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, september 11th

neutral uke hotel (nmh covers on ukelele)

the michael j. epstein memorial library

@ cafe 939, berklee

saturday, september 11th

28 degrees taurus

magic shoppe (record release!)

@ the rosebud

saturday, september 11th

jamie lidell

@ the royale boston

friday + saturday

september 11th + 12th

the life is good festival

lots of bands, raising money for kids

over 2 days in canton, ma

sunday, september 12th

jarrod gorbel

(of the honorary title)

air traffic controller

@ great scott

sunday, september 12th

blondie

@ the house of blues

sunday, september 12th

vampire weekend

beach house

dum dum girls

@ the boa pavilion

monday, september 13th

dirty projectors

owen pallett (final fantasy)

@ the wilbur theatre

monday, september 13th

isobel campbell

mark lanegan

willy mason

@ the middle east downstairs

tuesday, september 14th

rush

@ the td garden

wednesday, september 15th

laura veirs + the hall of flames

the watson twins

led to sea

@ tt the bears

thursday, september 16th

of montreal

janelle monae

@ the house of blues boston

friday, september 17th

one happy island

kevin dunn

cotton candy

7:30pm @ the lily pad, cambridge

friday, september 17th

broken social scene

@ the house of blues

friday & saturday

september 17th & 18th

the 5th annual

viva la vinal festival!

with live performances from

audrey ryan, kingsley flood,

this blue heaven, bridget + the squares,

the international string trio, & justin shorey

6-10pm on friday + 12-9 on saturday

@ somerville community growing center

on vinal ave. in somerville's union square

saturday, september 18th

pavement

jenny (lewis) + johnny (rice)

@ agganis arena

saturday, september 18th

wavves

@ brandeis university, waltham

sunday, september 19th

thee oh sees

the human tail

thick shakes

@ the magic room gallery, brighton

sunday, september 19th

caribou

holy fuck

emeralds

@ the paradise

monday, september 20th

girlfriends

carnivores

weekend dads

@ o'brien's

tuesday, september 21st

superchunk

versus

@ royale boston

tuesday, september 21st

basia bulat

the acorn

john shade

@ tt the bears

tuesday, september 21st

sea wolf (alex acoustic)

sera cahoone

patrick park

@ the middle east upstairs

wednesday, september 22nd

phantogram

railbird

@ the paradise

wednesday, september 22nd

david bazan

the mynabirds

@ tt the bears

wednesday, september 22nd

field music

@ great scott

thursday, september 23rd

aloud (album release party!)

st. claire

old jack

with special emcee

poet/author james caroline

@ church of boston

thursday, september 23rd

stars

wild nothing

@ the house of blues

thursday, september 23rd

!!! (chk chk chk)

fol chen

@ the royale boston

thursday, september 23rd

bettie serveert

meandjoancollins

the painted lights

@ tt the bears

friday, september 24th

eels

@ the royale boston

saturday, september 25th

teenage fanclub

@ the royale boston

saturday, september 25th

james

ed harcourt

@ the paradise

sunday, september 26th

come (reunited!)

wussy

@ tt the bears

sunday, september 26th

mr. sister (debut album release!)

coyote kolb

tallahassee

@ great scott

sunday, september 26th

mates of state

@ the paradise

monday, september 27th

rogue wave

midlake

peter wolf crier

@ royale boston

tuesday, september 28th

lcd soundsystem

sleigh bells

@ the orpheum

tuesday, september 28th

best coast

male bonding

@ the middle east downstairs

wednesday, september 29th

quilt

paper castles

toothache

@ the lilypad

wednesday, september 29th

foals

esben + the witch

@ the paradise

thursday, september 30th

mc frontalot

@ tt the bears

thursday, september 30th

menomena

suckers

@ the royale boston

thursday + friday

sept 30th + oct 1st

built to spill

revolt revolt

pretty & nice

@ the paradise

friday, october 1st

the tallest man on earth

s. carey (of bon iver's band)

@ the somerville theatre

friday, october 1st

ra ra riot

chikita violenta

we barbarians

@ the royale boston

saturday, october 2nd

gayngs

(with bon iver's justin vernon)

glasser

@ the paradise

saturday, october 2nd

film school

the depreciation guild

static of the gods

night fruit

@ tt the bears

sunday, october 3rd

the xx

@ the orpheum

sunday, october 3rd

tom tom club

caravan of thieves

tony castles

@ the paradise

sunday, october 3rd

lost in the trees

@ tt the bears

tuesday, october 5th

the vaselines

jeffrey lewis

@ the paradise

tuesday, october 5th

chapterhouse

ulrich schnauss

@ the middle east downstairs

tuesday, october 5th

ratatat

dom

@ the house of blues boston

wednesday, october 6th

gorillaz

@ agganis arena

wednesday, october 6th

the hold steady

wintersleep

@ the royale boston

thursday, october 7th

the walkmen

a.a. bondy

blood feathers

@ the royale boston

friday, october 8th

death

@ the middle east downstairs

friday, october 8th

fountains of wayne

marshall crenshaw (solo)

@ the paradise

friday, october 8th

bell x1 (acoustic)

@ the brattle theatre

saturday, october 9th

paul f. tompkins

@ the brattle theatre

sunday, october 10th

deerhoof

xiu xiu

father murphy

first show @ the paramount!

sunday, october 10th

miike snow

@ the house of blues

sunday, october 10th

primus

mucca pazza

@ the orpheum

tuesday, october 12th

ingrid michaelson

@ the house of blues

wednesday, october 13th

dead kennedys

@ the paradise

thursday, october 14th

the thermals

cymbals eat guitars

@ the paradise

thursday, october 14th

the morning after girls

the lovetones

the december sound

ghost box orchestra

@ tt the bears

friday, october 15th

nick lowe + his band

graham parker (solo acoustic)

@ the somerville theatre

friday, october 15th

jimmy eat world

@ the house of blues

friday, october 15th

bowerbirds

death vessel

@ tt the bears

friday, october 15th

belle + sebastian

@ the wang theatre / citi center

saturday, october 16th

deerhunter

real estate

casino vs. japan

@ royale boston

sunday, october 17th

the henry clay people

the dig

@ tt the bears

monday, october 18th

greg dulli

(afghan whigs/twilight singers)

first-ever solo tour

with opener craig wedren

(of shudder to think)

@ the brattle theatre

monday, october 18th

bad religion

the bouncing souls

@ the house of blues

monday, october 18th

the drums

the hairs

@ the paradise

monday, october 18th

phoenix

two door cinema club

wavves

@ agganis arena

tuesday, october 19th

massive attack

thievery corporation

@ the orpheum

wednesday, october 20th

the pains of being pure at heart

yuck

eternal summers

@ the paradise

wednesday, october 20th

helmet

@ the middle east downstairs

sunday, october 22nd

gary numan

rasputina

playing 'the pleasure principle'

@ the paradise

saturday, october 23rd

local natives

the ruby suns

union line

@ the house of blues

sunday, october 24th

woven bones

frankie rose & the outs

@ tt the bears

monday, october 25th

the corin tucker band

hungry ghost

darren hanlon

@ the paradise

wednesday, october 27th

a sunny day in glasgow

candy claws

@ great scott

wednesday, october 27th

black prairie

(members of the decemberists)

sarah jarosz

@ the middle east upstairs

thursday, october 28th

the tt's halloween bash

with members of mean creek + campaign

for real time (as talking heads)

john powhida (as todd rundgren)

preacher roe (as guided by voices)

@ tt the bears

friday, october 29th

frightened rabbit

plants and animals

the phantom band

@ the paradise

saturday, october 30th

hallelujah the hills

magic magic

boy without god

@ great scott

sunday, october 31st

florence and the machine

the smith westerns

@ the house of blues

monday, november 1st

blonde redhead

pantha du prince

@ the paradise

monday, november 1st

social distortion

lucero

frank turner

@ the house of blues boston

tuesday, november 2nd

junip (jose gonzales)

sharon van etten

@ the royale boston

tuesday, november 2nd

black mountain

the black angels

@ the paradise

wednesday, november 3rd

the dandy warhols

blue giant

@ tt the bears

wednesday, november 3rd

land of talk

suuns

little scream

@ tt the bears

thursday, november 4th

through sunday, november 7th

the international pop overthrow

4 nights @ pa's lounge

thursday, november 4th

matt + kim

javelin

@ the house of blues

thursday, november 4th

blitzen trapper

@ the paradise

friday, november 5th

guided by voices

blitzen trapper

@ the paradise

sunday, november 7th

drivin 'n cryin

@ tt the bears

monday, november 8th

clinic

the fresh & onlys

@ the paradise

tuesday, november 9th

the morning benders

@ the paradise

thursday + friday

november 11th + 12th

sufjan stevens

@ the orpheum

thursday, november 11th

shearwater

horse feathers

damien jurado

anais mitchell

@ the house of blues

thursday, november 11th

deer tick

@ the royale boston

thursday, november 11th

mumford & sons

cadillac sky

king charles

@ the house of blues

friday, november 12th

bottomless pit

black helicopter

chris brokaw

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, november 13th

roky erickson

@ the royale boston

saturday, november 13th

grinderman

(nick cave, warren ellis, + more)

@ the house of blues

sunday, november 14th

elizabeth mitchell (of ida)

and friends

(a children's show!)

4:30pm @ club passim

sunday, november 14th

man or astro-man?

@ the middle east downstairs

monday, november 15th

la roux

@ the house of blues

tuesday, november 16th

a night of springsteen covers

with chris keene (mean creek),

corin ashley, dave aaronoff,

brendan little, hilken mancini,

the dirty truckers, drew o'doherty,

and more to be announced

marking the release of the new

6-disk 'darkness on the edge of town'

box set @ tt the bears

tuesday, november 16th

the posies

brendan benson

aqueduct

@ the royale boston

wednesday, november 17th

cornershop

@ the middle east downstairs

thursday, november 18th

kate nash

@ the paradise

thursday, november 18th

bear in heaven

@ the middle east downstairs

friday, november 19th

township

the lights out

the organ beats

@ tt the bears

saturday, november 20th

delorean

lemonade

@ the middle east downstairs

wednesday, november 24th

idlewild

happy hollows

@ the middle east downstairs

thursday, december 2nd

director/actor kevin smith

@ the house of blues

saturday, december 4th

peter hook + the light

play joy division's "unknown pleasures"

@ the royale boston

saturday, december 4th

killing joke

@ the paradise

visit tourfilter for more shows

A lazy sort of Sunday, time to play some catch-up and clear out a few bookmarks...

Couple of excellent musical guests on Last Call this past week, and here are the mp3s for ya... Kings of Convenience performing 'I'd Rather Dance With You' and Matt Pond PA doing 'Closest'.

Brainwashed captured Low's performance at the Somerville Theatre a couple weeks back on video, and combined it with some new Alan Sparhawk interview footage. Check out part one and part two here. Nice work, Jon.

Got a great package from Merge Records the other day, which included my early-order of the new Crooked Fingers disc 'Dignity and Shame', and something I'd been meaning to pick up for a very long time, Annie Hayden's 'The Rub'.

Ms. Hayden was one of the three songwriters in Spent, a longtime personal fave (their 'Songs of Drinking and Rebellion' disc sits safely in my desert-island list), and I regretably missed out on this 2000 solo record of hers. Consider that fixed. Cool to find out that Spent's John King recorded and mixed the thing, and that drummer Ed Radich played on it, too. Not only that, but the last song on the album, 'Lovely to See', is even credited to everyone from the band. Oh, how I miss 'em, and this Annie album is hitting me just right.

And about that Crooked Fingers disc... I was one of the lucky ones to get that bonus 'Red Devil Dawn Demos' collection thrown in for actin' early, and it was so, so worth it. They say it's an EP, but there's 12 tracks, and while I'm not much of an autograph-coveting kinda guy, it was nice to see Eric Bachmann's silver-sharpied scrawl across the cover. Even though those first fifty are gone, Merge says the band will be selling it on the road (Boston on March 29th), and it may show up in their online store again.

Since the Ivory Coast's Jay Cox headed west from Boston to his new home in Seattle, I've been waiting for word that he's back to making live music. Well, word has arrived with news that his band, The Sea Navy, opened up for Ted Leo in Seattle last week. Not only that, but the much-loved (by me, for sure) KEXP has added the self-released 'Breathing in the Old World' to their playlist. Grab tracks from that album here.

Put pen to calendar: Chris Leo's Vague Angels returns to Boston with a show at Great Scott in Allston as part of The Plan on March 7th. He'll be playing with Ume, and you can read more about both of 'em at the Pretty Activity Records site.

Music trivialists take a gander: Band to Band is a six-degrees sort of site linking musicians through their bands and collaborations. At first it's pretty mind-blowing, and you could waste a lot of time there, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that if you removed five particular albums, with like 20 people playing on each, that the entire thing would fall apart.

Also notable: This new Band News site, which promises to get news 'direct from the sources', and offers up categorized RSS feeds. Still, I can't yet find a category that doesn't offer up lots of news I care nothin' about.

As a devourer of pretty much anything written by Robert B. Parker (the Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall books all included), I was mildly stunned to realize that the Tom Selleck TV movie that's on tonight, 'Stone Cold', is based on the Parker book of the same name. But y'know, thinking about it... Selleck is a pretty great choice to play Jesse Stone, an ex-big city cop whose alcoholism and failed marriage send him running to a small New England coastal town, where he heads up their tiny police department. Nice to see that Mimi Rogers is in it, too. Hope the adaptation does the book proud... TiVo will tell.

When I was a kid collecting comics (as opposed to the um, adult that still buys a few), I was hugely into Jon Sable, Freelance. Mike Grell wrote and drew what became one of my 'gateway books', a title not released by one of the 'big two' (Marvel or DC) that opened up a whole other world of independent comics publishers (Comico, First, Eclipse) and series (American Flagg, Badger, Jon Sable, Nexus, Grimjack, Somserset Holmes, the Elementals... I could go on and on).

Well, if some of my favorite bands can reunite and tour again, makes sense that one of my favorite comics can come back, too. Jon Sable, Freelance: Bloodline is a six issue mini-series that starts in March, and is accompanied by long-awaited collections of the original series.

I'm enough of a fan to buy the mini-series (instead of waiting for the inevitable trade paperback collection), but I don't think I've got it in me to meet Mr. Grell this afternoon when he appears (along with the great Jim Starlin) at this Boston comic convention. Maybe when I was 15, but not today...

My friend Heath, over at his Media Diet, has put up the second installment in his Forever, Vermont series of posts (part one here). In each, he digs through and reviews some old zines and comics from the early-to-mid nineties that came up up in the Burlington area, including work by James Kochalka, Colin Clary, & Jason Cooley. Hopefully the third installment won't take as long as the second did to appear... I love that random dose of nostalgia (yeah, the stuff he's writing about is from my own little collection).

Fans of HBO's The Wire who are waiting for news of either a Season 4 or cancellation, here's the latest. It's a summary of the recent 'Unraveling THE WIRE' seminar at the Museum of Television & Radio on February 10th in New York City, and reveals this:

"David Simon, the Creator/Executive Producer of HBO�s acclaimed drama, THE WIRE, reports that he has had constructive discussions with Chris Albrecht and Caroline Strauss of HBO on the possible renewal of the program, but that no decision as yet has been made by the network. Mr. Simon said of the discussions that, �the ball is in my court�, and that he was developing a further presentation for HBO executives on where he wants to take THE WIRE over the next two seasons. Simon indicated he was happy to report his discussions with HBO were not about the program�s ratings or �numbers�, but acknowledged that THE WIRE has clearly not been a �break-out hit� for the cable network. Simon expressed his appreciation of the fact that his conversations with HBO were focused on story-line and not lightening up the program. He hopes and expects to be prepared to restart his discussions with HBO on the program's future by the end of this month."

That's actually pretty promising news, especially if word that the decision is not ratings-based is true. My fingers remain crossed.

Heads up, bloggers: GeoURL is on the verge of a complete relaunch. Version 2.0 of this geographical-location tool was due to appear Friday, but should now be up 'real soon'. Previous functionality listed the physical location of registered websites relative to your own, and I'm curious to see what the revamped one will show ya.

So Midway just made a deal to produce games based on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block of shows. Oh My. The day I can drive a golf cart through Sealab, or fire lasers out of Frylock's eyes, that'll be a happy day indeed.

I caught a free screening of Constantine last week, and it falls squarely in the 'not as bad as it could have been' category, which isn't saying all that much. I'm a fan of Hellblazer, the Vertigo series the movie was based on, but I'm not one of those that'd cry foul over the fact that Keanu Reeves isn't British or blonde, so long as the essence of John Constantine remained. If the story, effects, and performances were solid, I'd leave happy. No such luck.

Sure, there were some neat effects, the supporting cast was pretty good, and the basic premise had potential... but it all felt like a wasted opportunity. It comes down to not buying Keanu at all, his inability to emote getting in the way of a part that really needed it. It's like he got this idea in his head that "hey, it's a hard-boiled pulp story, so I'll act all wooden and serious!", but none of it clicked. His dialogue just ended up cheesy and forced... not terribly written, but poorly delivered. The only thing that justifies ignoring the physical traits of an adapted character is the belief that the actor will make them irrelevant. Well, nice try, Neo.

I will admit, I sure did enjoy seeing the lead singer of Bush get punched in the face a whole bunch of times. Artistic payback, even if it wasn't real.

So how did I never know that Iggy Pop appeared on Deep Space Nine? Even though I missed out on the sixth and seventh seasons, I figured I would've heard about it. Quite a little shock as I was watching 'The Magnificent Ferengi' episode the other day...

Bless my TiVo, and SpikeTV for rebroadcasting the entire DS9 series in order, two episodes a day. It's no surprise that Ronald D. Moore was writing and producing the excellent later seasons of the show, considering he's the man behind the new Battlestar Galactica. There's no better sci-fi on TV right now, and if you haven't tried it just because the connection to the 70s original scares you off, you're missing out on something great.

In internet-speed, this is old news by now, but just in case you missed it... the NYC-centric Gothamist has birthed a Boston offspring: Bostonist, natch.

Later tonight, with no blizzard in sight, it's the rescheduled Ida show, with Thalia Zedek and Jodi Buonanno opening up. Pretty excited about that, I am...

... and on Wednesday I head down to DC with Colin for the Teenbeat Records 20th Anniversary shows. So many great bands playing, and I've got the go-ahead to record the whole thing, so I'm hoping to post songs and pictures like crazy while I'm down there. Total old-school indie-geek action, and I'm so, so ready.

Speakin' of which, you can now download the well-timed 'Relax Brother, Relax: A Twentieth Anniversary Tribute to Teenbeat Records', which has twenty artists covering songs by their favorite TB bands, including Colin doing some Eggs, and his band The Smittens on a True Love Always song. Hey, it ain't just great, it's free. How 'bout that?

Whew, that was a long post. Time to get the hell outta this basement...

posted by brad at 1:04 PM | direct link |