Ticket + CD Giveaway: Wheat @ Great Scott on 8/1
Posted on July 28, 2009 at 11:01 pm | No Comments
This Saturday, August 1st, the pride of Taunton, Mass. celebrates the release of their brand new album with a show at Allston’s Great Scott. Yes, Wheat has returned. Their “White Ink Black Ink” hit the streets last week thanks to The Rebel Group label, and they’ve invited locals Bon Savants and Brooklyn’s The XYZ Affair to help mark the occasion with this weekend’s Massconcerts-presented bash.
A taste of what you’re in for, with two freely available songs and a video from “White Ink Black Ink”…
[Mp3]: Wheat – “Changes Is“
[Video]: Wheat – “Changes Is“
(in .mov format / youtube here)
I’ve got a pair of tickets to Saturday’s show, along with an extra copy of the new album, to give out to one fortunate Almanac reader. If you’re up for it, send along an email to giveaways [at] bradleysalmanac [dot] com by high Noon this Friday, July 31st, entitle it “Gimme Wheat!“, and let me know which town you live in (obviously, make sure it’s close enough to actually go to the show, doy). I’ll pick a random soul from the emails, letting them know right away that their name will be on Saturday night’s guest list with a +1. I’ll also get in touch to get your mailing address so I can send the disc along.
For some insightful words on the band and the new album (along with another track from it), check out Chromewaves recent write-up, to own a copy of it as your very own, go here, and for tickets of your own to the show, click on over here.
The ‘Nac at XX Merge: Gone Mergin’!
Posted on July 25, 2009 at 10:32 am | No Comments
Greetings from below the Mason-Dixon line, y’all. In case you haven’t been following me on Twitter, I’m down in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area for XX Merge – the 5-day 20th anniversary blowout celebrating the magic made by Merge Records. They’re one of my favorite labels, perhaps the fave, and when this thing was announced earlier this year I was compelled to make the journey down south from Boston. Actually, the Boston area is well-represented here at XX Merge, with at least a dozen attending fans I could name off the top of my head, and likely many more I haven’t met. Warms the heart, it does.
As I write this, we’ve hit the festival’s halfway point – it kicked off on Wednesday at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro (the event’s main venue), and what followed were three consecutive nights of massively varied, rarely disappointing, passionately delivered sets by artists who are clearly grateful to be here, and to be part of the Merge family. 17 bands so far, with at least 16 more to go: a free outdoor show this afternoon in the parking lot behind the wonderful Orange County Social Club, then one more Cat’s Cradle show tonight, and a grand finale at UNC’s Memorial Hall tomorrow evening. Then home, where I will clearly require a post-vacation vacation.
One of the best parts of this shindig is the lack of a mapped-out lineup for all four of the Cat’s Cradle shows – you only know what time the first band’s on, but you don’t know who they’ll be, or who will follow them, unless you’re looking for clues on the merch table or the equipment setup. It’s added a lot of extra fun to this thing, and has also helped keep the crowds solid for just about every act.
I’m planning (ok, more like hoping) to write up a post on each day, but for now I’ll just share a few links for you to experience XX Merge vicariously, through my eyes and others…
As I mentioned, I’m Twittering this sucker when I can, so follow up if you’re game. There are plenty of others doing the same, so do an easy #XXMerge hash tag search for the collected crowd consciousness. While I don’t have much extra time to write down here (too busy, um, having fun), I have been using what I do have to upload my photos. Check out my XX Merge Flickr collection for shots so far from XX Merge Day One, XX Merge Day Two, and the Friday afternoon Merge FANily BBQ Picnic & Kickball Game. I’ve got some great pics from the day three show to share, but I wanted to fire off this post first. By far the best pre-XX Merge coverage I read was the wonderful work done by the local Independent Weekly, who pulled together an extensive seven-part preview, and who are adding more content as the fest progresses. A must read. I’ll have links to coverage from other publications in my individual posts.
By the way, I can feel your envy from here… best not to bottle that up. You can take comfort in the fact that this party is being very well-documented, with at least five-camera video being shot, participating bands being interviewed, and from what I hear, special acoustic take-away performances being laid down. Esteemed director Jem Cohen is involved, so there’s little doubt the footage will see the light of day, somehow, somewhere, somewhen. And hopefully sometime before XXV Merge. Which, given the absolute blast I’ve been having, I’ll be at as well.
More later… back onto the humid Carrboro streets I go…