In a sudden burst of ambition and enthusiasm (we’ll see how long it lasts), I’ve decided to continue something I started last year – a Resource Guide for touring musicians passing through the Boston area, and for those who live here as well. For now, you’ll find a list of area venues, capacity and booking info., and just added, a list of local promoters. Coming soon (I have, what, seven more days left?) I’ll have radio and press, rehearsal space and recording studios, and much more. Have a look. And very happy holidays, everyone. Stay tuned for my ‘Favorite Shows of 2011′, and also some ‘end of year angst’. I’m sure I’ll be able to summon some up for ya.

Somerville Grooves proprietor David Plunkett was a WZBC DJ who also worked at In Your Ear Records in the 1990s, before leaving for a more lucrative writing and editing gig (from which he was recently laid off). After much scouring of flea markets and yard sales for product, he’s giving his love of music another go, and all vinyl lovers in the city welcome him with open arms.

Also new to Union Square will be the 200-person capacity Radio, a brand new restaurant and live music venue, replacing the recently closed Club Choices on Somerville Avenue. The new owners, Josh Banville and Aimee McGrath, were bartenders at Rosebud Bar & Grill, the chef is Jim Seery (formerly of The Plough & Stars), and it will be booked by Boston Band Crush’s Ashley Willard. Both the food and the music will have a “local flavor” (see schedule below). They plan for live music Thursday through Sunday, with most shows a $5 cover. Awesome.

Upcoming Shows

Friday, Oct. 7: The Rationales, The Organ Beats, John Powhida International Airport, “and one more beloved local act that we can’t announce quite yet.”
Saturday, Oct. 8: BrownBoot, AM Stereo, Watts and The Dirty Truckers.
Sunday, Oct. 9: Dinner With the Band: Erin Harpe — “an occasional free Sunday event during the dinner hour where Jim will prepare a menu that accompanies the act that’s playing. In this case, a Delta-inspired menu to accompany Erin Harpe’s Delta blues.”
Saturday, Oct. 15: Parlour Bells / Sarah RabDAU & Self-Employed Assassin / Garvy J / Eldridge Rodriguez
Sunday, Oct. 16: Nina Violet / Willy Mason / Tallahassee
Friday, Oct. 28: Halloween with local bands/musicians covering The B-52s, Pat Benatar, INXS, James Brown

Saturday, Nov. 5: Guillermo Sexo / Age Rings / Marconi / The Future Everybody
Sunday, Nov. 6: The Fagettes / Thick Shakes / more TBA
Friday, Nov. 11: Mitten / Lovewhip / Streight Angular / SPF 5000
Saturday, Nov. 19: Mellow Bravo / InAeona / Rule / Cask

Radio
379 Somerville Ave., Union Square
Somerville, MA

Somerville Grooves
26 Union Square
Somerville, MA
Phone: 617-666-1749
somervillegrooves@gmail.com

A trifecta of new music from some of my favorite L.A. bands today. Last but certainly not least is the latest from The Henry Clay People, whom I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing. Several times, in fact, and always a great rock ‘n’ roll celebration. The song is “California Wildfire,” the first offering from their upcoming five track EP, This Is A Desert, due out in May from TBD Records. There’s lots of noisy guitar, some wacky effects, frenetic drumming, and Jordan’s rollicking honky-tonk piano. Serious fun. Can’t wait to see these guys again! For those of you lucky enough to attend Coachella, they’ll be performing April 15th.

The Henry Clay People – California Wildfire by One Thirty BPM

official site | facebook | twitter | TBD Records

old Rademacher press photo. maybe it'll embarrass them into getting a new one. maybe not.

UPDATE: (from press release) “Rademacher, will be playing several dates in Southern and Central California during the month of April and will return to the studio to record the follow up to their full length debut, STUNTS…. The new record, titled BABY HAWK, will be engineered by Josiah Mazzachi (of Los Angeles band Light FM) at his Eagle Rock, CA studio, The Cave. The band will be releasing Baby Hawk on their own label, Hot Mess Magic, in three parts, with material being released digitally in June, August and a final and physical release slated for December of 2011.”

Two yummy treats from College Kids and Rademacher. Finally getting around to posting these. Enjoy.

College Kids – “Let’s Always Be Friends” (demo)

A solemn piano ballad with the loveliest of vocal harmonies and the most wistful of lyrics, courtesy of Malcolm Sosa and Kim Haden, that begins with the line “you said you’d never fuck me, so we just held hands, and I thought nothing could hurt me, so I said, let’s always be friends.” Ah man, classic. Sad-sweet sentiments from Mr. Sosa that I’ve come to know and love.

Rademacher – “Silver Lake” (demo)

Such a great sound. Some acoustic strumming, piano ballad, cool percussion, psychedelia… nice.

“When you’re hanging with the crowd that shouldn’t have been hung with
talking really loud, when you should have just been quiet…
some other time, some other place, a whole new dimension
it’s time for strange confessions.”

This just gets me more anxious for an actual album (according to their facebook page, it’s “on the horizon”). Hopefully an East Coast show as well. For now, though: 4/2 Big Sur, 4/4 San Diego, 4/5 Long Beach, 4/6 L.A. (Satellite aka Spaceland), 4/7 Fresno.

Tumblr | facebook | twitter

After a week of hellish transition from night worker to day, I’m finally back amongst the living, ready to enjoy life’s simple pleasures – dinners not in front of a computer screen, the occasional evening out to see a band, and the novelty of actually sleeping when it’s dark out. Meanwhile, The Airborne Toxic Event have been in a whirlwind of their own, revving up to introduce the world to their new album, All At Once.

Since first hearing Airborne’s music in January ‘08, it’s been fascinating, exciting, humorous, and at times a little harrowing to follow their steady ascent from indie band lugging their own equipment into small clubs to international artists on a major label, 300,000+ sales of their debut album, and multitudes of fans crashing their site in a desperate clamor for presale tickets (theairbornetoxicevent.com is down for the weekend as it gets moved to a larger server).

There’s all sorts of cool stuff going on. The Origins Tour will see them playing 5-night marathon residencies in London, L.A. and NYC, starting from the smallest venue played in that city steadily moving to the largest, with a “secret show” for those who purchased season passes to all four [sorry, those special passes are all gone, but you can still get tix for select individual shows.]. Then there’s the new album, All At Once, with an April 18 release in the UK and Europe, April 26 in the U.S. The Bombastic video series – acoustic versions of all 11 songs from the album – are being released once a week leading up to the release date, and will be included in a special deluxe CD/DVD version of the album (along with the official videos for “Changing” and “Numb”). To top it all off, they’ve embarked on an eclectic and ambitious “Song Of The Day” series for the entire year on the band’s twitter, courtesy of Mikel. Anna, not to be outdone, has started her own “Book of the Week”. Awesome. That should keep everyone busy for a little while.

All At Once

UK/European release: April 18
U.S. release: April 26

Pre-order from band’s site

track listing
1. All At Once
2. Numb
3. Changing
4. All For A Woman
5. It Doesn’t Mean A Thing
6. The Kids Are Ready To Die
7. Welcome To Your Wedding Day
8. Half Of Something Else
9. Strange Girl
10. All I Ever Wanted
11. The Graveyard Near The House

Produced by Dave Sardy (Oasis, Band of Horses, the Ting Tings, Twisted Wheel) and featuring The Calder Quartet.

Performances

Tickets are still available for the larger shows in L.A. and NYC, plus other cities on the tour. A Ticketmaster presale with digital album bundle is available through Friday, February 25th for certain shows; the general sale begins Saturday, February 26. | Ticketmaster | The band’s presale (some shows still available, pre-order the CD or CD/DVD, avoid Ticketmaster fees).

Europe & UK
April 4-12 (Nottingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Dublin, Portsmouth, Rotterdam, Nuremberg) | UK tickets

Origins Tour
April 18-22 London, England (secret show | Dublin Castle (150 c) | Barfly (200 c) | King’s College (500 c) | Koko (1400 c))
April 25-29 Los Angeles, CA (Satellite, formerly Spaceland (260 c) | Troubadour (500 c) | El Rey Theatre (900 c) | The Music Box @ Henry Fonda Theatre (1300 c) | secret show)
May 2-6 New York City, NY (Pianos (140 c) | Mercury Lounge (250 c) | Bowery Ballroom (500 c) | Webster Hall (1400 c) | secret show)
Ticketmaster (presales on now; general sale 2/26) | band’s presale – direct link to store

U.S. Tour
Sat May 7 – Philadelphia, PA – The Trocadero
Sun May 8 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Wed May 11 – Boston, MA – House Of Blues
Thu May 12 – Montreal, QC – La Tulipe
Fri May 13 – Toronto, ONT – Opera House
Sat May 14 – Cleveland, OH – House Of Blues
Sun May 15 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
Tue May 17 – Minneapolis, MN – The Varsity Theater
Wed May 18 – Chicago, IL – Metro
Fri May 20 – Kansas City, MO – Beaumont
Sun May 22 – Austin, TX – La Zona Rosa
Tue May 24 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Thu May 26 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room
Fri May 27 – Orlando, FL – The Social
Wed Jun 1 – Salt Lake City, UT – Club Sound
Thu Jun 2 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
Tue Jun 7 – Vancouver, BC – Venue
Wed Jun 8 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox SODO
Thu Jun 9 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
Sat Jun 11 – San Diego, CA – House Of Blues
Ticketmaster (presales on now; general sale 2/26) | band’s presale – direct link to store

The Bombastic

A weekly series of one-shot, one-take acoustic versions of every song on the new album, leading up to its release, posted Mondays on various sites to be announced, and Tuesdays on the band’s official site. Week #1 was the title track “All At Once,” which features The Calder Quartet, the Lalo Guerrero Children’s Choir, and music students from the Plaza de la Raza Community Center in East Los Angeles, all of whom performed with Airborne at the Disney Hall Show (and once again directed by Jon Danovic).

Mikel’s Song Of The Day

follow them on Twitter to keep up with the latest news and the latest song suggestions.

Thus far…
“Atlantic City” – Bruce Springsteen | “Two Doves” – Dirty Projectors | “Daughters of the Soho Riots” – The National | “Ek Shaneesh” – Das Racist | “Basic Space” – the xx | “A Whiter Shade of Pale” – Procol Harum | “Love Is All” – The Tallest Man On Earth | “Crown on the Ground” – Sleigh Bells | “Our Riotous Defects – Of Montreal | “Why Can’t I Touch It?” – Buzzcocks | “Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl” – Broken Social Scene | “Changing” – The Airborne Toxic Event | “Colorado Girl” – Townes Van Zandt | “Bankrobber” – The Clash | “To Kingdom Come” – Passion Pit | “Walt Whitman’s Niece” – Billy Bragg & Wilco | “North American Scum” – LCD Soundsystem | “Strange Vine” – Delta Spirit | “King of Carrot Flowers” – Neutral Milk Hotel | “Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons | “Boots of Spanish Leather” – Bob Dylan (here’s Joan Baez’s cover – great) | “The Way that he Sings” – My Morning Jacket | “Midnight Train to Georgia” – Gladys Knight & The Pips | “Come on Feel the Illinoise” – Sufjan Stevens | “Heartbeats” – The Knife | “You Oughta Know” – Das Racist | “Next Time Around” – Little Joy | “Shadow People” – Dr. Dog | “Martha” – Tom Waits | “Eraser” – No Age | “Born Slippy” – Underworld | “Two Weeks” – Grizzly Bear | “The Rat” – The Walkmen | “Details of the War” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | “3rd Planet” – Modest Mouse…

Anna’s Book Of The Week

An unofficial series, prompted by fan request. Here’s what we have so far…
“The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen (wikipedia) | “Sixty Stories” by Donald Barthelme (wikipedia)

Where Are They Now?

The band’s currently immersed in their month-long circling European residencies (I question the wisdom of starting each full week of shows in Amsterdam, after a weekend in the city’s cafes, but so far, there’s been no word of casualties). They finish off the month in Holland, Germany, Switzerland and France. If you find yourself in any of these locales, here’s a great chance to catch the band in a small, intimate show!

Mon Feb 21 – Amsterdam, Paradiso
Tue Feb 22 – Berlin – White Trash
Wed Feb 23 – Frankfurt – Das Butt
Thu Feb 24 – Zurich – Hafenkneipe
Fri Feb 25 – Paris – Fleche D’Or
Mon Feb 28 – Amsterdam – Paradiso

Whew! Did I miss anything?

“The song was originally called “Something You Own.” It’s a song about conflict and resolution, resisting and accepting Change.” Read more…

The new album: All at Once (Island Def Jam), to be released on April 25th in Europe and April 26th in North America.

The tour: February residencies and shows in Europe – see full schedule. Additional dates to be announced February 15 on their official site – and I’ll post them here as well.

It’s all about learning to welcome change. Not just adapt, but a full embrace of the process of life and natural changes in our own lives, and in the lives of those we care about. Change is an integral part of living, but we are frightened by it. We cling to emotionally draining relationships and continue to play out time-worn destructive patterns and tape-loop responses. We hesitate to leave dead-end jobs, preferring to stay in our comfortable prisons. It takes an amazing amount of bravery to leave one’s comfort zone for the vast expanse of the unknown. To venture out on that unfamiliar road with a neutral mind, without preconceptions. With a child’s curiosity, let’s see what the rest of this year holds…

May as well make this a trifecta of ‘blasts from the past’. Brian Eno is an old favorite (meaning I’ve liked him for a long time, no offense Brian), though I’ve lost touch with what he’s been doing in recent years. Make that many years. I’ll still put on his wonderful early solo albums when I’m in need of that warm, loving, quirky embrace. So now, as he just released his latest album last month, Small Craft On A Milk Sea (Warp Records), it’s high time to catch up.

We’ll pick up from his last solo album, Another Day on Earth in 2005, which was a “song album” with lyrics. As was his 2008 collaboration with David Byrne, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. In between was 77 Million Paintings, a video and music program for the PC, which featured, yes, 77 million combinations of video slides w/music generated by the program, and apparently never the same twice. A guest appearance on Belinda Carlisle’s solo album Voila. Music for the 2007 film Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. Producer duties for Coldplay, U2 and Grace Jones (the latter of which he perfomed on). Soundscapes for a show of Italian artist Mimmo Paladino’s works in Rome. The “Bloom” and “Trope” Generative Music Applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. And music for the 2008 video game Spore. Talk about eclectic.

In the past two years, he curated the Luminous Festival in Sydney, where he made a rare live appearance, performing as part of Pure Scenius for improvised pieces (and later playing with them at the Brighton Festival in England). Scored music for Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones”. In November, Small Craft on a Milk Sea had its release, on the highly-regarded electronic label Warp Records. It is an instrumental collaboration featuring keyboardist Jon Hopkins and guitarist Leo Abrahams.

In addition to his music and art installations, Brian is also involved in politics and activism, giving occasional talks and contributing to a newspaper column in The Observer. He writes about society and innovation in Prospect magazine. And is on the board of directors for The Long Now Foundation, whose mission is ‘to provide counterpoint to today’s “faster/cheaper” mind set and promote “slower/better” thinking.’ They state that they “hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.” A ridiculously interesting guy.

But back to the music. Have a listen to and get completely swept up and away by two beautiful new offerings below. A third song, “2 Forms of Anger,” can be heard on the official site, where you can also purchase the CD, download, or Limited Edition Box Set; and watch a very silly interview.

Brian Eno with Jon Hopkins & Leo Abrahams – Horse (taken from Small Craft On A Milk Sea) by Warp Records

Brian Eno with Jon Hopkins & Leo Abrahams – Emerald and Stone (taken from Small Craft On A Milk Sea) by Warp Records

Brian-Eno.net – Small Craft On A Milk Sea site | Seven Sessions On A Milk Sea (improvised compositions – the making of the album) | Brian Eno/Warp Records facebook | Warp Records | EnoWeb fan site | Eno Shop – official store | The Long Now Foundation | Pitchfork interview | wikipedia