‘Nac Music: Boston Local
Posted on January 9, 2007 at 6:35 pm | No Comments
On the local bands and area shows front…
Turns out I don’t have to wait until the end of the month to check out my new aural obsession, the Beverly-based Caspian. Found out a couple days ago that they’ll be appearing tonight at Allston’s Great Scott as part of a Pan9 benefit, along with Thom Moran (from Bon Savants) and The Glass Set. Listen to some Caspian at their MySpace page, or grab an Mp3 from their 2005 “You Are The Conductor” EP right here…
More songs can be found on their website. The band should be releasing their first full-length, entitled “The Four Trees”, in the next few months. Check out the tracklisting here.
In case you’re wondering about the benefit they’ll be playing tonight: Pan9 is the collective artists space that was recently hit by a devastating fire, damaging artwork, personal belongings, instruments, and studio equipment (including some belonging to Thom Bon Savant). Lots of other beneficial events are being planned so read up on things here and lend some help if you can.
I can’t tell you how much it pleases me to be able to call this new band a “local” one: Travels is the name of the team-up of Metal Hearts‘ Anar with Victory at Sea’s Mona. After touring together with their respective bands, Anar relocated from Baltimore to Somerville (represent!), started writing songs with Mona, and began spreading the sounds via email and their new MySpace page. Given that discs by both those bands got tons of my ear-time last year (Metal Hearts’ “Socialize” and Victory at Sea’s “All Your Things Are Gone”), their cross-pollination is an exciting one.
Four songs are available for streaming so far, including the just-posted “What We Are“, which may be my favorite yet. Thanks to the band for allowing me to share it up here…
Head over to Donewaiting or Sixeyes to download one of the other songs, “Isabelle“. According to Anar, Travels should be ready to play out within a couple months, so keep an eye out for their name on club schedules in Boston and beyond.
Tickets for the Boston stop of the Sebadoh reunion tour went on sale this past Saturday, so click over Ticket$%^#er soon-ish, or better yet, stop by the Paradise box office to buy tickets and save yourself those convenience charges. The show is on Friday night, March 30th. Here, have some mp3s…
And sadly, Friday, March 30th is the very same night that Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 (which includes REM’s Peter Buck and ace drummer Bill Reiflin, along with Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows & the Minus 5) come to play at TT the Bears. A guaranteed sellout, and tickets for that can be bought right here at Ticketweb. In my dreams, I’d catch Sebadoh and then head over to see Robyn, but it looks like TTs is having the RH&V3 set start promptly at 10:30. Curse the coincidental timing of those two shows… missing either of ’em pains me.
Speaking of shows selling out: When I posted about tix going on sale for the March return of Explosions in the Sky to Boston, I recommended grabbing them quickly–downstairs at the Middle East is just far too small to accomodate ’em, especially given the size of the places they’ve already been able to pack solid around the country. I wasn’t wrong… tickets are long gone and the craigslist hopefuls are starting to accumulate with the show still over two months away. If you’re in possession of extras, head over there and help ’em out.
Oh, and don’t get left in the cold (if we ever get any) when Sparklehorse comes to town, either. Tickets just went on sale this morning for the Monday, February 26th show, which is also at the Paradise. Hit up their box office when you can, or click over here or here.
Heads up: The Boston-based Broken River Prophet have some new recordings available. Listen to a rough mix of the track “Burned In Place” on the BRP MySpace page, and a mix of “She Gives Me Hope” can be found on their website. Allow me to point you to that one right here (and let me know if this busts your bandwidth, Mr. Brilla):
The Broken River Prophet is led by Adam from Lockgroove & Shenzou 5, along with his fellow-Shenzou’s Deb and Eric, and a relatively-rotating cast of area players (disclaimer: i was proudly one of ’em). The final mixes of both songs above should be found on their eventual release “With Infinite Arms To Cradle The Flames“.
Oh, and if you’ve never had the pleasure of listening to the former Shenzou 5, head to their MySpace page for a three-song treat. The five-piece was fronted by former Swirlies & Syrup USA singer/guitarist Seana Carmody, who is at this very moment working on a sophomore solo album. Some of those new songs can be heard at her own MySpace page… I’ve got seriously high hopes for that one.
For updates on both of the in-progress Broken River Prophet and Seana Carmody discs, keep an eye on Roger Lavallee’s news page. The Curtain Society singer/guitarist has been engineering both projects, which is another reason my hopes are high.
Not sure the world needed another cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy“, but since this one is done by Boston band 27, it’s well worth a listen. Especially with a little nod to Neil Young thrown in. Stream it at 27’s MySpace page, or download it over at purevolume. And give a listen to the rest of their stuff while you’re there.
Boston band The Information have been relatively quiet after the flurry of news and shows surrounding their debut album “Mistakes We Knew We Were Making” in 2005, but a freshly-posted demo on their MySpace page heralds their recorded return. Stream new song “The Theft” over here, and grab three tracks from that debut album over here.
Buffalo Tom‘s Bill Janovitz and Fuzzy‘s Chris Toppin have quietly released an album’s worth of recordings online under the name Show People at Bill’s website. The 12 songs were recorded at various times and places, either as a duo or with various friends, most of whom should be very familiar to Boston music scene fans: keyboardist Phil Aiken, drummer Dean Fisher, bassist Paul Kolderie, and guitarist Mike Leahy (who’ve all performed together around town as The Bathing Beauties.)
Included among all the excellent originals is a fantastic cover of the Tanya Donelly b-side “After Your Party” (from her “Sleepwalk EP“. Bill actually performed on Tanya’s studio version of it, so it’s fitting that he and Chris offer up their own take on the beautiful song. Here it is, with permission…
Download the rest of Show People’s self-titled album right here for a mere 8 bucks, or stream a couple more songs at their MySpace page if you somehow remain unconvinced.
Ok, they’re not quite local, but Vermont is close enough (and close to my heart): The VT collective known as The Hero Cycle has signed a little deal with Australian label Hidden Shoal Recordings to release an EP titled “Lakes and Ponds” on January 16th. The first single from the disc is the excellent “You vs Them”, which I played an infinite number of times last year, and which can now be streamed here (along with two other songs) or purchased here. Check out the artwork for the upcoming EP on their website.
I burned out on all those “best of the year” music lists very early on (so much so that once again I’m not motivated to do my own), but I was definitely up for learning and listening to what WMBR DJ Tim Kelly selected for his favorites of ’06. His December 29th edition of The Late Risers Club was filled with those faves, and you can still stream it right here (m3u link). Should be up for maybe another week or so. Check out the full playlist here.
Required reading for anyone even remotely interested in the ever-evolving world of digitized music sharing and related legal issues: Attorney Mark Fischer, who specializes in Media and Entertainment, Trademarks, and Copyrights at the Boston-based Fish & Richardson firm, maintains a 20-page updated online document titled “Revolutions All The Time” (pdf file) that covers “The Digital Revolution & File Swapping”, “International Legislative Developments”, “Sampling”, “Video Sharing Services”, and “Satellite Radio”, among other topics. It’s clear, concise, and well worth a good read.
I’ll close by saying farewell to a fellow Boston blogger whose online presence will be missed: Hello Gina has said goodbye. And while it was clearly for the right reasons, the Boston music-blogging community is lessened without her perspective. Maybe she’ll write up a guest-post for the ‘Nac every once in awhile? If you ever get inspired, drop me an email, Gina.
Alright, time to post this before all that info on tonight’s show at Great Scott that I started off with becomes past-tense…
[Live MP3s] Now It’s Overhead in Cambridge, MA
Posted on January 8, 2007 at 9:51 pm | No Comments
I spent more than enough time with Now It’s Overhead’s third album, “Dark Light Daybreak“, in the final few months of 2006 to count it among my favorites of the year. NIO frontman Andy LeMaster adds meticulous production skills to his varied songwriting, giving the Saddle Creek-released disc a depth and beauty that at times echoes the strengths of Mark Linkous and his Sparklehorse. But that’s not to say he and his band can’t rock out a bit live, which they did when they played downstairs at the Middle East in November.
The range of moods that LeMaster is able to conjure with his studio work might be difficult for anyone to pull off live without lulls, and this might explain why NIO’s set didn’t focus much on the new album (only three of the ten songs were recent ones), and instead picked the most upbeat from each of their three releases. While I was at first disappointed to not hear more of the songs I’d grown to love since September, it lent a cohesiveness to the set, and prompted me to pick up both the self-titled 2001 debut and 2004’s “Fall Back Open”.
Here’s their set, which was sandwiched between also-excellent appearances from The Album Leaf (shared here) and The Lymbyc Systym (shared soon)…
Live at the Middle East Downstairs
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
01. Blackout Curtain
02. Hold Your Spin
03. Type A
04. Wait In A Line
05. Who’s Jon?
06. Skeleton On Display
07. Reverse
08. Estranged
09. Walls
10. Wonderful Scar
Some NIO-related links…
Their official site, MySpace, and Wikipedia entry. Mp3s: from “Dark Light Daybreak“: “Walls” & “Let Up” / from “Fall Back Open“: “Wait In A Line” & “The Decision Made Itself” / from “Now It’s Overhead“: “Wonderful Scar” & Hold Your Spin“. Lots of YouTube-hosted NIO clips, including videos for “Walls” and “Wait In A Line“. Now It’s Overhead is about to depart their hometown of Athens, GA and head overseas for a nearly two-month tour that starts off with six dates in the UK. On Thursday, January 18th they’ll be in Amsterdam, and Fabchannel will be streaming video and audio of their entire set live from the Paradiso. Check here at 2pm EST that day, 8pm Amsterdam local time.
the fine print… If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (contact info in the ‘nac faq). Recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. Mp3s are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.