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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving. Great holiday or The Greatest Holiday? No gift-giving or gift-taking required, just a day to surround yourself with family, eat to your belly's content, and enjoy some calm before the impending onslaught of rampant consumerism. This long holiday weekend always helps me put things in perspective, gives me a break from sweating all that small stuff, and lets me appreciate all that I have. Which includes two fully functioning ears, lots of Boston-made music to put in them, and a place to write about it...  If you're reading this, and you're anywhere near Boston over this coming weekend, I'm assuming you'll be at one (or all) of the three Buffalo Tom 25th Anniversary shows going down at the Brighton Music Hall in Allston. Three nights - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - and a load of super-talented BT friends sharing the stage. I mean, take a gander at this list: J Mascis, Ted Leo, and Eugene Mirman (on Friday); Mean Creek, Bob Weston, and Hilken Mancini (on Saturday); Tanya Donelly and Thalia Zedek (on Sunday). I'll be there on Sunday for sure, and would make every night were it not for our annual Thanksgiving drive down to New York. That's some unfortunate timing, but don't feel too sad for me - I'll be bowing down to The Cure at the Beacon Theatre on Friday night. Playing their first three albums, back to back, and with help from Lol and Roger. Yeah, I'm giddy (my last.fm library explains why). And despite the incongruity, I'll probably keep smiling all the way through "Faith". The Friday and Saturday night Buffalo Tom shows are sold out, but last I checked there were still tickets for Sunday, so get on that before you're stuck outside. So, speaking of Buffalo Tom, guitarist/vocalist Bill Janovitz will be playing a short set to kickoff the ReadBoston Hometown Authors Reception at the Hotel Commonwealth on Monday, December 5th at 6pm. The shindig features 20 Boston area writers, including personal faves Jef Czekaj, Chuck Hogan, and Dennis Lehane. It'll set you back $35, but that includes beer, wine, and light food, and besides, all proceeds benefit ReadBoston. Buy tickets right here. While we await the release of their second 7-inch, Cuffs will appease us with another live appearance, this time at TT the Bears on Thursday, December 1st, opening for Advance Base. Haven't heard of Advance Base yet? No worries, it's just the name that Casiotone For The Painfully Alone's Owen Ashworth has chosen for his current musical output. In other words, go. Boston indie-pop trio One Happy Island have a new EP out, but you can't have it... yet. The so-far-UK-only availability of the 4-song "Unsummer" CD (and songbook!) will be remedied shortly with a release party at Toad in Cambridge, MA on Friday night, December 16th. And in the spirit of full disclosure: Burlington, Vermont's Let's Whisper will be traveling down to open the show. (Hey, I'd be mentioning it even if I wasn't playing drums with LW. Pinky swear.) Looking a bit further ahead into 2012 (does that not sound futuristic?), Mission of Burma will, at long last, play a couple of Boston shows on Friday & Saturday, January 20th & 21st, at Brighton Music Hall. The last time they played their hometown? January 2010. Two years between gigs is way too long. Tickets are still available, but I'd imagine once the holidays are over that'll change quickly. If you were paying attention when I posted the most recent New Music Night playlist, you may have noticed new short-playing releases by a couple of local faves: Travels and Wheat... Travels' new 2-song 7-inch record is actually a gateway to a 5-song digital EP. Order up the vinyl, and you'll get a download code for those two tracks (new song "Stencils" and a cover of Daniel Johnston's "The Sun Shines Down On Me") along with three other new ones ("Lucky", "Veil of Stars", and "The Runner"). Grab it on Bandcamp, where you'll get the downloads instantly, with the wax due to ship in early December. Here's the D.J. cover... Wheat are doing something pretty special with their new songs as well - a series of three limited-edition two-song singles, the first of which is already out. Here, I'll use their words to explain... "Each single will feature 2 new tracks, exclusive artwork hand-screened by the band, full liner notes and free downloads. Subsequent months will have a new single, each with two additional tracks. This project will culminate in a yet-untitled, limited edition CD along with other exclusive downloads. The single can be purchased now through the band's website.All this serves to tide us over nicely as Wheat finishes up their next full length record, to be titled "Can't Stop The Addiction". So I stayed up later last night than I should have, and the results can be found on Flickr: A slew of photos from recent (and one not so recent) Boston-area events. John Hodgman & Ted Leo at the Coolidge, Kristin Hersh at the MFA, The Wire panel at the Boston Book Fest, The Thoughts at All Asia, The National with Yo La Tengo and Wye Oak at the BoA Pavilion. And if you missed them earlier, Tanya Donelly & Friends at the Brattle. Whew. Alright, time to pack the car and hit the road for New York. Reflections, here I come. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  Saturday, November 19, 2011
Hey, remember these? Yeah, I used to run down random things I was digging, but it's been some time since I've done so. Pardon me while I share various and sundry Boston-centric musical items.... I've seen Boston's Animal Hospital (aka Mr. Kevin Micka) a few times, always in his regular solo drumming/looping/triggering form, and never better than when he opened for the Jesus Lizard at the Paradise two years ago this month. Well, I'm thinking that set is about to get trumped. He's pulled together something very special called the Animal Hospital Ensemble, and it sounds pretty much amazing. I'll let him explain... "After six years of crafting vast, unforgettable works of aural experimentation by himself and an arsenal of looping hardware, Animal Hospital's Kevin Micka is announcing the first ever live performances of his music by an ensemble of seasoned local guitarists, string players, and drummers.Seriously. Micka's musical co-conspirators include members of local faves Shepherdess, The Broken River Prophet, Roh Delikat, Hallelujah the Hills, and Neptune... and that's just naming a few. Check out the full stacked list of guests here. Two lone shows and an audience-enveloping setup that promises to be unlike anything ever. How can you miss such a thing? Easy answer is you can't. Your only chances to see this spectacle will be on Saturday, December 3rd at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket (starts at 8pm with openers Big Digits), and the next night, Sunday, December 4th at MassArt's Pozen Center in Boston (starts at 6pm with openers Beautiful Weekend). Both shows are all ages. Check out the super-slick poster. A couple weeks back a note from relatively new Boston combo Strange Mangers hit my inbox, letting me know that they've just released their self-titled debut EP via Bandcamp. I've listened to the songs a whole lot over the past week, and am totally digging on them. I'll spare you my descriptive attempts and share the lead off track... Head over to Bandcamp and pay-what-you-want for the 6-song EP, and keep an eye on their Facebook page for their next area live show, which should be sometime in January. TONIGHT! Earthquake Party! Release Party! Yes, I should have given more notice, but hopefully you're already aware that Earthquake Party! officially releases their new 3-song "EP! vs Pizza" EP tonight at Great Scott. You can already listen to the five-minute blast over on Bandcamp or Soundcloud, but if you want one of the special cassettes (yup, it's on tape), you'll have to get yourself over to Allston proper this evening. Joining EP! on the bill are Pretty & Nice, Miniboone, & the Clippers. Here's the tape's first cut, which you can download for free over at Bandcamp... Hallelujah the Hills (who played the Milky Way last night) have just finished mixing their fan-funded 3rd LP, which is due out in 2012 - but to tide us over until then, they've offered up two brand new non-album songs in the form of a digital single: Side A is "Amateurs" and the B side is "The Girls Are Here". Have a listen over at Bandcamp, or stream "Amateurs" here... I've got plenty more I could write about, but in the interest of timeliness (I know, go ahead and laugh), I'll fire this one off... |
 fugazi live in burlington, vermont in early spring 1991 previously: david bazan - solo in allston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac...
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