The Monday Fiver
Posted on November 10, 2008 at 3:54 pm | No Comments
Trying something new this week, a little posting experiment to see how it feels: A slight twist on my random Music Miscellany missives that limits myself to sharing five bullet-pointed items that have struck me. Short sharp shocks, rather than the rambling collections that end up taking me forever. Here goes…
To mark 10 years since they released “Clarity“, Jimmy Eat World will perform the album in its entirety on February 26th, 2009 at the under-construction House of Blues on Landsdowne Street here in Boston. It’s one of just 10 dates the band has scheduled for the “Clarity x 10” tour, and despite the fact that I soured on the band after they sacrificed depth for radio-ready riffs on “Bleed American”, I don’t think I can resist being in attendance for this one. “Clarity” is still a fave, and there are more than a few tracks on there I never thought I’d get a chance to see live. Besides, I’ll need an excuse to check out that new House of Blues location, which is still on track for a February opening. Considering it will stand on the site of so many of my best concert memories (Axis, Avalon, and Venus R.I.P), I’ll need to see if any of the old ghosts still linger.
No word on when tickets will go on sale, but given the propensity of Boston-area construction projects to run over schedule, I’d put the odds of a venue change at about 50/50.
This coming weekend brings the official cd release celebration for Scarce‘s new downloadable 5-song EP, “Tattoos and Parades”, at TT the Bears in Cambridge. The Saturday night show teams the reunited trio up with the wonderful Wheat, who are themselves set to release a new record titled “White Ink, Blank Ink” (the word in September was “soon”), so hopefully we’ll be served up some tracks from that. Opening up the night is Cambridge’s own Triple Thick.
While Scarce’s “Tattoos and Parades” is a digital release, the band did pull together a cd compilation titled “Tattoos and Parades and Yesterdays” that includes the EP along with 10 old and rare tracks, so I’d imagine copies of that will be for sale at the show.
For a preview, check out Scarce’s appearance on WMBR‘s esteemed Pipeline! program last Tuesday, where they performed an in-studio live set…
Subscribe to the Pipeline podcast, or check out this massive list of directly downloadable live sets. Gold lies within. (thanks to Drew for the heads up)
Also this coming weekend, Will Johnson pulls double duty on Sunday night with his two bands: Both Centro-matic and South San Gabriel are playing at the Middle East Upstairs with Chris Flemmons of The Baptist Generals. Assuming I can muster the weekend-ending energy for that, I’m prepared for another rough Monday.
Brushfire Records, home to Neil Halstead and Rogue Wave, is releasing a new holiday compilation called “This Warm December” tomorrow, and you can stream the whole thing over on iLike. Halstead contributes “The Man In The Santa Suit“, and Rogue Wave offers up a song simply titled “Christmas“, alongside many other exclusive tracks.
A new episode of Blog Fresh Radio came out last week, in which I make an appearance babbling about the excellent new +/- {Plus/Minus} album. The overly-kind BFR crew let me play my favorite track from it, “Unsung“, and if they keep asking me back, I’ll keep sharing words and songs. Go have a listen.
More self-promo: In case you hadn’t noticed the new box on the right, I’ve just added Bradley’s Almanac to the Facebook Blog Network, so join up if you’re so inclined. And thanks to those who have so far.
Today Is The Day
Posted on November 4, 2008 at 10:54 am | No Comments
Got up extra early this morning here in Allston, Massachusetts to exercise my right privilege, and was one of the first few dozen to vote at the Honan Library. I’m filled with no small amount of pride, excitement, and cautious optimism. I’ve been so beat down by the non-stop news stories — each one lifting up a new rock to reveal another dirty, rotten underside of this country — that I’ve kept my enthusiasm, and quite honestly, my hope, in check for a very long time.
You may have noticed there’s been nary a mention of politics here on the ‘Nac this time around, despite the fact that I’m actually more inspired by my candidate of choice than I’ve ever been. In the past two presidential elections, it was more about my disdain for the opponent than any deep admiration for my selection. Not so this year. And for that reason, the possibility of a defeat is potentially even more soul-crushing than before… but today, true hope is starting to surface.
At this point, if you’re a U.S. citizen and aren’t planning on voting today, there’s not a lot I can say to get you away from your computer and down to the booth. A co-worker from Pune, India asked this morning “What’s the point of voting here in Massachusetts, anyway? Not like it’s up in the air here…”, and the simplest response was, hey, after two years of build-up, it felt damn good to get some kind of personal pay-off, a culmination of all the swirling coverage that comes down to one equalizing moment. Filling in those blanks and sliding my card into the machine brought everything into focus, whatever the next day may bring.
I’ll leave you with a couple things…
And finally, a rally song, as this is (mostly) a music blog, after all…
Here’s hoping that’s what’s on the menu tomorrow morning. I really need to get the taste of eight years of failure outta my mouth.