screams, whispers and songs from planet earth

Month: March 2012 Page 1 of 2

A New Club for Every Season…

(add these venues to your Boston-area clubbing circuit – coming soon!)

Valhalla International Restaurant and Lounge, and future sites of The Davis Square Theater and The Sinclair

Valhalla International Restaurant and Lounge, and future sites of The Davis Square Theater and The Sinclair

Attention club hoppers – Davis, Central, and Harvard Squares will all be giving birth to brand new clubs this year. The Davis Square Theatre, which was formerly Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway Theater, will be adding live music shows to its schedule of theater productions (Spring); Valhalla is coming to Central Square, which is actually the All Asia Bar moving house (Summer); and The Sinclair in Harvard Square will be operated by Bowery Cambridge, the latest ‘outreach program’ by New York’s booking agency The Bowery Presents, much the same as they now do at The Royale with Bowery Boston (Autumn).

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Drift off with Drifterswift @ PA’s Lounge tomorrow night…

Rough week? Let the dreamy and pleasantly spacey sounds of Drifterswift wash all that crap away. Head out to P.A.’s Lounge in Somerville tomorrow (Friday) night. Have a listen to two lovely new songs below. They’ll be joined by Full Time Dreamers, Paper Snakes, and The Highway.

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Sara Radle (of L.A.’s Walking Sleep) celebrates her latest solo album, Same Sun Shines, with her Thursday night show at PA’s Lounge

photo by Dhrupick

photo by Dhrupick

Lucas Navarro (12am) with Faux Ox (11pm), Sara Radle (10pm), and Gun Shop Daddy (9pm) at PA’s Lounge, Thursday, 3/29
8:30pm doors | 21+ | $8

From San Antonio, Texas, to L.A.’s Eastside, songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sara Radle has been performing since 1996, first in the punk-pop trio Lucy Loves Schroeder, then in The Rentals with ex-Weezer bassist Matt Sharp (who convinced her to move out to Los Angeles). After releasing an EP and going on a world tour, she left The Rentals to join up with her current band, Walking Sleep (formerly known as The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra).

Throughout those years, she’s also had a solo career. In February, she released her fifth album, Same Sun Shines, on which she plays guitars, drums, piano, and violin, as well as doing all the engineering and mixing herself. It was released on Jeez Louise Records, her own label. On the plucky and proud “The Pins,” she sings “I’ll do this without you.” Indeed. The result? Vibrant and poppy with a ’60s girl group vibe, and some delicately pretty, sad and sweet pop ballads. Of special note, the song “Still Here,” a chilling matter-of-fact contemplation of suicide, and a cover of “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” sung as a duet with Mary Lou Lord.

Upcoming Shows

Thursday, 3/29 @ P.A.’s Lounge // Boston, MA
Friday, 3/30 @ The Living Room w/Marvelous Toy // NYC
Sunday, 4/1 @ DC9 // Washington, D.C.
Saturday, 4/7 @ Art Bar // Milwaukee, WI
Sunday, 4/8 @ Quenchers Saloon // Chicago, IL
Monday, 4/9 @ Redstone Room // Davenport, IA

West Coast tour w/ Girl In A Coma, Pinata Protest
4/22-5/10 (AZ, CA, OR, WA, ID, UT, NM, TX) – see site for details

web | facebook | twitter | youtube | bandcamp

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The strong, soulful sound of Nneka touches down at TT’s Monday night (3/26)

Nneka, photo by Jens Boldt

Nigerian-German songstress and activist Nneka Elise Egbuna has important things to say concerning social justice, human dignity, and the soul’s journey, and she’s been doing it in elegant fashion since 2004, when she first started working with German hip-hop producer DJ Farhot, performing in Hamburg, where she lived at the time. Singing in both English and her native Igbo, she cites hip-hop as her main influence, and her powerful social commentary touches on the best traditions of that genre, but her sound is unique, melding hip-hop beats with shuffling reggae rhythms, African pop and authentic ’60s/’70s soul, with strong tribal roots.


Taking from the best of all worlds, she creates an atmosphere that wraps perfectly around her amazingly agile vocals.

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MTV Hive Live Premieres in Boston with Cloud Nothings ~ Sunday Night (3/25) at Brighton Music Hall – with Live Streaming!

Fenway Recordings Sessions, Crossroads Presents and MTV Hive present Cloud Nothings, with Classic Education and The Dirty Dishes at Brighton Music Hall
Sunday, March 25 ~ Doors at 8 PM; Show at 9 PM; 18+ show; $10 advance
::: buy tickets ::: | Live Stream 3/25 at 11pm!

The Fenway Recordings Sessions folks have teamed up with MTV Hive for a very cool concert series which kicks off on Sunday night with Cleveland’s indie punk rockers Cloud Nothings at Brighton Music Hall. This new collaboration, Live In Boston, is an expansion of MTV Hive Live’s ongoing Live in NYC concert series at New York’s Webster Hall, that has featured such bands as The National, Sleigh Bells, The Black Keys, Two Door Cinema Club, Theophilus London, and St. Vincent. Their mission has been to bring emerging artists (and some fairly well established ones) to the masses via live-streamed concerts. With this new venture, they’ll be bringing Boston’s music scene and visiting artists to a global audience (hopefully this will also benefit the local bands on these bills). For those who can’t make it to the show, you can watch an hour of it online Sunday night at 11pm ET. The BMH show also features Boston’s The Dirty Dishes and Bologna, Italy sextet A Classic Education.

[Editor’s note: how annoying are YouTube ads? Sorry!]

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Billy Wine’s funk & hip hop

Billy Wine, photo by Dory Dinoto

photo by Dory Dinoto

Something a bit different for me. To be honest, I’m not a huge funk or hip-hop fan (and these guys are rather surprisingly both), but I’ll make an exception for a band this good. Somerville based trio Billy Wine refer to themselves as “funk hip hop/instrumental” – sometimes they just jam out on their own, and other times they’re joined by a rapper. Check out one of their instrumentals. And if you like what you hear, keep an eye out on their sites for upcoming shows.

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Relations (from Brooklyn, NY) at Radio in Somerville Friday night

Relations w/the Beatings and Louder My Dear
Radio, Union Square, Somerville – Friday, March 23
9pm show | 21+ | $7

Brooklyn, NY-based duo Relations are playing their first Boston show at Radio (Union Square, Somerville) Friday night. From auspicious beginnings as part of a Modern Lovers cover band, Terence Murren and Michael Sanders (Officer
May/ Abigail Warchild) re-joined forces last year to create music, the result being their upcoming EP, to be released on U.K. based 100m Records. You can see the first video for the track “A Savage Way to Live.” Joining them Friday night will be Boston’s own the Beatings and Louder My Dear.

web | facebook | 100m Records | The Beatings | Louder My Dear

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Introducing Grace Woodroofe (at T.T.’s on Saturday, 3/24)

photo by Ben Sullivan

photo by Ben Sullivan

I’ve got something delicious for you – bluesy, folky, with a touch of jazz and an indie rock chick vibe. Here’s a ridiculously awesome vocalist, guitarist and songwriter, Grace Woodroofe. Her sound slides from quiet and sultry (“Transformer” – god I love this) to dangerous (“Bear”) to “Battles,” which is just eerie, hypnotic, and deeply sad. In the past four years, she’s been in some damn fine company – Ben Harper, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Cat Power, and I predict that people will really like what they hear. Originally from Australia and now based in California, she’s just released her debut album here in the U.S., Always Want (Modular/Universal). She’ll be playing some dates on the East Coast later this month (T.T. the Bear’s Place on Saturday, March 24), before a month-long residency at the Bootleg Bar in L.A. The toughest part of this piece was deciding which of her marvelous songs to post, but you can listen to a few others on soundcloud.

Upcoming Shows

Wed, March 21 – North Star, Philadelphia, PA
Thurs, March 22 – Mercury Lounge (early show), New York, NY
Sat, March 24 – T.T. the Bear’s Place (early show @ 8:15pm), Cambridge, MA
Sun, March 25 – Black Cat Backstage, Washington, DC
Mondays, April 2-9-16-23 – Bootleg Bar, Los Angeles, CA

web | facebook | tumblr | World Cafe, NPR (performance and interview)

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The Nico Blues: Die Happy (and show @ Copperfield’s 4/6)

New Jersey-based The Nico Blues recently released their latest EP, Die Happy, and will be coming to Copperfield’s (98 Brookline Ave, between Fenway Plz & Overland St) on Friday, April 6 (9pm show). Have a listen below to their cool, warm-and-fuzzy ‘pop grunge’ sound. The EP was recorded, produced and mixed in their basement, and released on their own Tiny Giant Records imprint, part of the Tiny Giant Artist Collective, which they co-founded. If you like what you hear, you can ‘name your own price’ and buy it on bandcamp. Help support these guys!

Upcoming shows

Mar 22 Dork House w/ Sara, Banned Books, New Brunswick, NJ
Mar 23 Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ
Mar 30 WPSC Brave-a-thon, Wayne, NJ
Mar 31 the Dojo, New Brunswick, NJ
Apr 03 ROARING Benefit Concert, New Brunswick, NJ
Apr 06 Copperfield’s, Boston, MA
Apr 07 Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ
Apr 13 The Garage: Village Basement Sessions, Midland Park, NJ
Apr 21 Piano’s, New York, NY

web | facebook | twitter | bandcamp | youtube

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Introducing SLEeVES, and their new album The Sky Ghost: Pt. 1

Here’s something incredibly beautiful for you. How’s that for an introduction? Ethereal, spacey, trippy, experimental, folky, quirky, and delightfully strange New York/Boston band (or perhaps I should say art project, because “band” doesn’t quite seem to cut it for these guys)… have a listen to SLEeVES conjuring some serious magic on their new album The Sky Ghost: Pt. 1. Acoustic guitar, piano, violin, percussion, harmonica, other unidentifiable sounds, and a flowing cacophony of vocals, each its own exotic instrument. So weird, and so pretty. Incredibly hypnotic, with surprising emotional heft. On the new album, the quartet of Justice Roman Hill, Callum Plews, Kim Schulke and Tabitha Wertheim is joined by several friends for this exquisite musical oddyssey. Highly – and I mean highly – recommended.

The band also runs Analog Candle, a music production company and collective of like-minded souls, working with various musicians in the Boston area and over the ‘nets. They have a small studio and record/produce non-collective musicians for a very reasonable rate, so check them out.

facebook | twitter | bandcamp | soundcloud | Analog Candle | YouTube

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