screams, whispers and songs from planet earth

Month: November 2009 Page 1 of 2

Boston Music Spotlight’s Toys For Tots benefit concert – Dec. 3, 2009 @ Hennessy’s Hooley House

ToysForTots

This benefit concert presented by Boston Music Spotlight will take place on Thursday, December 3 at Hennessy’s Hooley House (25 Union St., Boston) and will feature Boston bands Cassavettes, Shadwell, Three Day Threshold and Taste. All proceeds will be donated to the national Marine Toys for Tots Foundation benefiting needy children in the Greater Boston area this holiday season. Tickets for the 21+ show are $10 or $5 with an unwrapped toy and can be purchased in advance online at TicketLeap.com. Live Nation and Straight Stitch Custom Embroidery & Silkscreen will co-sponsor the benefit concert.

Read the press release from Boston Music Spotlight.

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Boston Bands This Week..

Bodega Girls, Mark Lind & The Unloved (photo by Nicole Tammaro), The Deli New England Launch Party, and the Pixies

Bodega Girls, Mark Lind & The Unloved (photo by Nicole Tammaro), The Deli New England Launch Party, and the Pixies

A quick introduction. I’m going to start posting previews of selected shows in the Boston area for the following week which feature local bands. My hope is for this to be a new weekly feature on ‘musings’. We’ll see how it goes.

This week: some great Boston-area bands to see, from dance music at the Middlesex Lounge, to “best punk act of 2009” at T.T.’s (as part of their Thanksgiving Eve Fiasco), the Pixies @ The Wang Theatre, and a cool launch party for The Deli/New England at The Middle East Upstairs.

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Show Preview: Friendly Fires/Nylon Winter Music Tour featuring The xx @ The Paradise, Boston MA, Friday, December 4, 2009

Friendly Fires - Photo by Dominic Storer

Friendly Fires - Photo by Dominic Storer

The xx - Photo by Terryfy

The xx - Photo by Terryfy


Friendly Fires/Nylon Winter Music Tour featuring The xx
at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, Friday, December 4
(doors at 8pm; 18+ show)

[Note: at this writing, the show is sold out, but I’ve been told that a limited number of additional tickets will likely be released, so keep an eye on the Paradise site and also Live Nation]

My first time seeing Friendly Fires was back in March, also at the Paradise. While I’ve never been a huge fan of or terribly knowledgeable about the British synth-pop dance scene, they were highly recommended to me as a band I should definitely check out. What impressed me then (and what I’m sure has been even more finely honed through a great deal of touring) was their explosive energy and enthusiasm, and the serious tribal groove and crazy frenzy they worked themselves and their delirious audience into.

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“Umpteenth Annual” WZBC Pow Wow hosted by Victor Robert Venckus

The Annual WZBC Pow Wow
hosted by Victor Robert Venckus
Thanksgiving Day – Thursday, November 26th, 12 noon – 12 midnight
WZBC 90.3FM or online at WZBC.org

On Thanksgiving Day (a.k.a. the Native Americans’ National Day Of Mourning), Victor Robert Venckus presents his Annual WZBC Pow Wow. He’s been doing this, well, forever… over 20 years now. From noon until midnight, he’ll be playing Native American and Native American-inspired music in all possible genres, including rock, folk, traditional, new age, and spoken word. He’ll also have live reports from the demonstrations in Plymouth and possibly interviews regarding Native American spirituality and politics. Tune in to WZBC 90.3 FM, or listen online, for the perfect soundtrack for your Thanksgiving dinner or whatever you happen to be doing that day.

To commemorate this event, I’ll do a brief profile on a local group called The Wolf Cry Singers, whom Victor will be playing that day.

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Expanding Awareness: The Truth About Vaccines and Viruses

Today on Expanding Awareness, Victor spoke with James Murphy about the controversy surrounding vaccinations and about viruses. You can listen to the archived program, and James Murphy will be Victor’s guest again next Saturday morning at 10am.

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Review: Rademacher – “Bellyflop” EP (JAXART)

rademacher-bellyflop

“I’ve got 3,000 MySpace friends
and sofas to crash on
from here to New York
and the adventures just continue..”
– Car Wash Donations

This current assessment by Malcolm Sosa a.k.a. Mike Mancillas of Rademacher would suggest that life is good, though looking back at this past year, I’m thinking it must have been a rough ride. In February, their new drummer Eden had just joined he and bassist Greer McGettrick in time for a 6-week West Coast tour that would include 12 shows with The Airborne Toxic Event and The Henry Clay People. For Rademacher (judging by their tour diary) things got off to a shaky start, and then four of the dates ended up being rescheduled. Initial plans to be at SXSW were scrapped, but then they rejoined Airborne’s shows for Las Vegas, Pomona, and Sacramento. More big changes followed, with Eden leaving and then Malcolm and Greer parting ways. A brand new line-up, from what I can tell, was first unveiled back on April 21 at The Echo, and I’m guessing it’s this same line-up that’s featured on their new EP, Bellyflop, released last month by JAXART Records. Mind you, I could be totally wrong about some or all of this; if anyone has better information, please let me know! I’m not exactly sure who’s in the band, except for drummer Eli Reyes, who also plays in Fresno-based The Fay Wrays.

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The Scissormen, Peter Parcek, and The Ten Foot Pole Cats at Lizard Lounge in Cambridge 11/14/09

The Scissormen - Matt Snow, Larry Dersch, Ted Drozdowski

The Scissormen - Matt Snow, Larry Dersch, Ted Drozdowski

If you’re a guitar aficionado and lover of the mind-blowing riff, a connoisseur of brain-bending slide guitar sorcery, were anywhere in the vague vicinity of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and you weren’t at the Lizard Lounge to witness Peter Parcek and then Ted Drozdowski and his Scissormen, I feel really, really sorry for you. When I say it was an evening of guitar showmanship, I don’t mean that in a pretentious, self-satisfied rock-god poseur sort of way. I mean whiskey-soaked, venerable bluesmen blasting cobwebs out of dusty, unkempt corners of smokey Southern barrooms. Something timeless, and soul-satisfying.

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Show Preview: Scissormen, Peter Parcek, and The Ten Foot Pole Cats @ Lizard Lounge, Cambridge MA, 11/14/09

Scissormen, Peter Parcek, and The Ten Foot Pole Cats
at Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA
Saturday, November 14, $8
1667 Massachusetts Avenue
(downstairs from Cambridge Common restaurant, North of Harvard Square)
Cambridge, MA
(doors at 8:30pm; 21+ show)

Ted Drozdowski

Ted Drozdowski

The last time I saw Ted Drozdowski, it was back in the 90s performing with the experimental guitar, bass, and electronics orgy known as Blood Blister, which also included the irrepressible Reeves Gabrels on bass and a myriad of devices. At that time, Ted was also in bands like Vision Thing, Devil Gods, and probably others. Oh yeah, and he also did music reviews for The Boston Phoenix. I just learned that Ted had relocated, some time back, to Nashville, but he’s back in Boston with Scissormen, a bluesy, garagy, slide-guitar loving outfit that I guess is him and “some drummer”. Not sure who that drummer will be, but they’ll be over at Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, along with special guests Peter Parcek and The Ten Foot Pole Cats. Nor’easter be damned, I plan to be there.

P.S. The Scissormen will also be at Cantab Lounge in Cambridge on Monday night (11/16), as guests of Boston folk legend Geoff Bartley. It’s part of a “famed acoustic music night” at the Cantab. Open mike is at 8pm; they’ll go on around 9:30pm. The Cantab is located at 738 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA (Central Square).

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Red Cortez’s new demo “Western Front” and squirrel madness

This was one of my favorite Red Cortez songs as performed at their recent shows with The Airborne Toxic Event and The Henry Clay People. Absolutely wonderful that they’ve just released this as a demo. And as a special bonus – a completely incongruous and f***ing hilarious video. I’ll never look at squirrels quite the same way again.

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Expanding Awareness: Karma and Reincarnation

On Saturday’s Expanding Awareness show, Victor and his guest will discuss karma and reincarnation. Listen on Saturday morning at 10am on WZBC 90.3 FM (in the Boston area) or check him out online. You can also listen after the fact on the WZBC archive. P.S. Victor also does past life regressions as well as psychic Tarot card readings, and can do readings long-distance by phone.

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