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The Noise

Music New England

March 2017

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Drunken Logic

The exhilarating effects of
DRUNKEN LOGIC
By A.J. Wachtel

Sometimes things just fall together in the right way and you find yourself in a band where the sum of the parts may be greater than the whole; and you make great music cooperatively. Case in point: Jake Cassman (piano and vocals), Austin Wells (lead guitar and vocals) and Ryan Jordan (rhythm guitar, keys, mandolin and vocals), as individually talented a trio as you can find today in New England. Determining whether your own presence in your own circumstances is pre-planned and fated or just a simple situation of your own free will and making the right choices needs a healthy dose of drunken logic. Read on. You have no choice.

Noise: Your band just played First Night Boston in Copley Square. What are the pluses and minuses of playing outside in the freezing early morning at that New Year’s Eve event?

Jake Cassman: We lucked out – we actually started playing at 7:30PM on New Years Eve, before the freezing rain and wind started. The crowd was great for all of the bands, but Air Traffic Controller and Tigerman –Woah definitely got caught in the weather. Turns out that if you’re shivering and soaked, getting blasted with confetti is something of a mixed bag.

Noise: Drunken Logic was formed at Berklee in 2012. Does the group’s name have anything to do with your curriculum or attendance there?

Cassman: Not Berklee necessarily, but Boston for sure. I’d spent months trying to come up with a band name, but for every idea I had, there was already a band with that name. Then I heard a friend say the phrase when we were out in Mission Hill one night. I googled it, it wasn’t taken, and that was that.

Noise: What music knowledge learned at the jazz school contributes to your current folk rock sound?

Cassman: The best thing about Berklee is the community – I don’t think you can find a better pool of young, dedicated and diverse musicians. I’ve learned so much from Austin and Ryan, who’ve played with us the longest. Ryan has opened my eyes to a lot of folk artists I didn’t know, while Austin has introduced me to a ton of classic and prog rock.

Noise: Is folk rock a fair genre to describe your music?

Cassman: Sure. I came up with the term power folk about a year ago too.

Noise: Who are the band’s major influences and how do you bend these factors   to make your own music?

Cassman: I’ve always wanted to capture the energy and majesty of the Who. Green Day taught me how to write a pop song. And bands like Frightened Rabbit and Arcade Fire gave me a deep appreciation for how to arrange music and instruments. Our list of influences on any one song can be very divergent – our most recent song is part Monkees, part Tom Morello.

Noise: Your debut CD, Something New To Burn  came out in 2013 and your sophomore release, Long Day’s Journey To The Middle, came out in 2015. How are the albums similar and different? What are your plans for your next release and what can we expect to hear on it?

Cassman: The songs on both of these albums are autobiographical and chronological, for the most part. Something New to Burn was recorded in two and a half days, before we’d ever really played a show. For the second record, we went out of our way to play pretty much everything live before we hit the studio.

We’re going to take our time recording our third album, much more so than we have in the past. This album is going to be a lot more conceptual too, and focus on how divided we are as a country – politically, demographically, generationally, technologically, morally…

Noise: You donated your song and the video of “What A Beautiful Morning” to the 30 Days 50 Songs Project for a Trump-free America along with Death To Cutie, R.E.M, and dozens of other major artists. How did you guys get involved in this and now that Trump has been elected are you planning to move to Canada or do you have any optimism at all?

Cassman: We knew we wanted to put something out before the election – I was really disturbed by the nostalgia for a very oppressive era of our history that the slogan “Make America Great Again” seemed to imply. So we wrote a song about someone who bought into that, and made a really great video out of newsreels and PSAs from the ’50s and ’60s. I was as convinced as anyone that Trump wouldn’t win, and I’m definitely still shocked and depressed by it. But I think we’ve learned as a country that we can’t take progress for granted anymore, that complacency is never productive. And while I’m worried about the years ahead, I’m so proud and grateful that we had the chance to take that sort of stand alongside bands that have inspired me throughout my life.

Noise: Drunken Logic plays a lot of gigs at Faneuil Hall. How is playing for tourists different than playing in a suburban bar for regulars?

Cassman: We’ve played at Hooley House a couple of times, but mostly we busk at Faneuil Hall itself, taking requests for covers and selling CDs out of a guitar case. There’s nothing quite like it – each set is either divine or bizarre in some way that ensures you’ll have a good story to tell. I love a good Boston bar show as much as anyone, but there’s something really magical about getting parents to dance around with their kids and playing to completely spontaneous crowds.

Noise: The band won the R.A.W 2013 Musicians o the Year Award. How is this independent organization’s pageant different from the Boston Music Awards and does winning awards like this really help out?

Cassman: RAW Artists does shows on a much smaller scale than the BMAs, but they’re a nationwide organization that puts on these incredibly eclectic events involving music, fashion, art and so much more. Artists from all walks of life and every stage of their career get to mingle and learn from each other. I’ve never been one to exaggerate the importance of awards, but I think they have a use – especially early on, when you need to fill out lines of your resume.

Noise: What’s in the future for Drunken Logic in 2017 and beyond?

Cassman: We’re going to record a new album over the course of the year and keep playing shows. You’ll hear from us – apologies in advance if we turn it up too loud after your bedtime.

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Continental

CONTINENTAL 

by Kevin Finn

Those who follow Boston punk rock know Rick Barton as one of the scene’s biggest heroes.  From playing on such great Outlets’ tunes as “Knock Me Down” to co-founding The Dropkick Murphys and playing on their best records, Rick has a resume that few in this town can touch.  These days, he’s joined forces with his son, Stephen, in Continental, an extremely versatile outfit that takes the fire of punk rock and filters it through a lens of folk, country, and straight-ahead rock.  The band’s second album, Millionaires, was released on October 14 by East Grand Record Co.  Rick graciously sat down with me for a few questions in a South End bakery following a day of house painting.

Noise:  Let’s talk a little about the recording process for the new record.

Rick:  We did it at Woolly Mammoth with Dave Westner.  Dave is an incredible engineer and musician in his own right.  He made the process quite easy.  I recommend people work with him because he’s quick and efficient.  He does not fuck around.

We toured Europe for all of November and some of December.  We made sure we played almost the entire album every night.  We basically used that as pre-production.   I wanted to give the record a live feel instead of scrutinizing every bit.

We self-financed the album.  We went into the studio, cut all the basic tracks, ran out of money, went back to work for January and February.  Then we did a little tour with The Tossers.  When we came back from that in the middle of March, we went back in and did all the overdubs, vocals, guitars.  In fact, I did my rhythm guitars and vocals for all 11 songs in one day.  Like four takes each on vocals.  That’s the way I do it.  I live with that.  That’s what I sounded like at that moment.  I can listen back and think, oh, I didn’t do that well, but it doesn’t matter.

Noise:  Obviously, one of the super cool things about the band is that you get to play with your son.

Rick:  That is either question number one or question number two in every interview.  I will try as succinctly as possible to tell the story.  Stephen heard me playing the lead song on our first album. He heard it, and was like, Dad, that’s a great song; what else do you have?  Well, I have hundreds and hundreds of songs.   He says, can we use some of them?  I said, who’s we?  They were 17-, 18-year-old kids.  They said, come down and jam with us.  I’m thinking, this sounds like Ken Casey when he wanted me to start The Dropkick Murphys.  Just come down and show us a few songs.  That’s how The Dropkick Murphys started.  I think Kenny had the idea in mind the whole time that I was going to be the guitar player.

My son plays bass and is actually a lot like Kenny.  He’s very business-like.  Get it done.  Don’t do too much talking.  I’m a chatterbox.  I’m aloof.  I go off on tangents.  I get down to the basement, and these guys are proficient musicians. 

In my day, kids 17, 18, 19, just weren’t that good.  I said this is pretty cool; why don’t we just start a band?  The writer of a song is going to be more genuine than anyone else singing it.

Noise:  The record has kind of a rock feel, kind of folk feel, kind of a country feel.  Do you find that people who know you mostly from punk bands are taken aback a little by the sound?

Rick:  Unfortunately, Kevin, I only hear the positive stuff. If people say the new music by Barton sucks, they’re not going to tell me.  I only hear the good stuff.  Some old friends of mine, like this one guy Dave Smith, who was in Jaya the Cat, said this is the music that is suited for me.  This is what I should be doing.

Noise:  A lot of these songs like “She’s Gone” and “Punk Rock Girl” are really personal.  Do you write strictly autobiographically?

Rick:  Autobiographically is the only way I know how to write.  I can’t write the topical song.  I can’t write the political songs.  I can’t write what I don’t know.  The only thing I know is my inner search and what has happened to me in my experience.

The best songwriters all say the same thing, that the songs flow out.  For better or worse, that’s how it is with me, and I consider that a great gift.  Even if my songs aren’t at the highest level, I get an incredible rush.  It’s the single most pleasurable thing I do in my life.

Noise:  People far less advanced in their careers have burned out, and you can hear that as a listener.  It’s nice to know that it’s not a matter of going through the motions with you.  How about touring?  Does that become a drag of a routine over time, or is it still exciting?

Rick:  That’s my second favorite thing.  We leave on tour soon.  The kids will help me load up the van, and then I’m driving by myself from Boston to San Diego, where the kids will meet me.  I  love driving.  I love moving forward.  I love seeing new places, meeting new people.  Sometimes the music and the performance is almost secondary to the experience.

Noise:  Do you guys usually get a pretty responsive crowd?

Rick:  Let’s put it this way.  We are the greatest unknown band in the world.  Sound men love us.  They come running up to us after the set, shaking our hands, telling us that we were incredible.  It’s unbelievable because sound men are the most jaded men on the planet.  If the sound men are the barometer, we’re like The Rolling Stones.  Unfortunately, honestly, there aren’t always many people there.  When we’ve done really strong support tours like with The Reverend Horton Heat or The Tossers, people have loved us, especially middle-aged people.  They love the story.  They love how talented the kids are.

Noise:  I imagine one of the silver linings of playing to smaller audiences is that you’re probably attracting the type of people who really get what you’re doing.

Rick:  I don’t know if my son wants to be famous or not, but he definitely wants to be playing at a higher level.  But I actually revel in what you just said.  I love going into a room when there’s twenty people there and trying to win them over.  I think that’s the best part.  He’d be like, Dad, we’ve played too many of those shows.  I get his point because then you’re able to make a living doing it.  I used to want to be a rock star, too.  When I was eighteen, I was playing in The Outlets, and we had just put out a single called “Knock Me Down.”  I was up on a ladder painting in Quincy, and I heard a car go by with that song blaring out of the radio.  I was like, rock stardom is on its way, baby.  This is going to be my last summer painting, no doubt about it.  That was my first summer painting, and I said I’d never be painting again.  Here I am, thirty-five years later, and I’m still painting.

Noise:  Sticking with the theme of the live shows, I remember last year when you guys played The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Hometown Throwdown, I was waiting in the coat check line and you were saying hello to everyone, shaking hands and passing out stickers.  How important is it to you to put that personal touch on things?

Rick:   I do it every night.  One night I just started passing out stickers or buttons or whatever instead of staying backstage.  Now it’s like a pilgrimage every night.  I wrap up my cords as fast as possible and run over to the merchandise table, grab all the stuff and try to meet as many people as possible.  It makes me feel good.

I have a therapist up in Portland.  I do everything I can to help myself feel better.  His theory, and I buy into it, is that our only purpose in life is to experience love and to experience interaction with other humans.  Sometimes, of course, people think you’re a kook, but I don’t care about them because I engage people in conversation.  If they don’t want it, then I’ll move on.  Say we’re doing our laundry, I’ll say, what’s going on, and shoot the shit.  I try not to get too personal.  I don’t go for the jugular, but I’ll tell them a bit about myself and see if they’ll open up to me.  Sometimes you have these incredible experiences, and you’ll never see that person again.

Noise:  That is a very non-New England thing to do.  Last question, is there anything in particular you want the listener to take away from the record?

Rick:  That’s a good question, but a tough one.  I think I would like them to take from the record that they can have the hope to pursue a challenge.  I’m no better than anyone out there.  I’m no better than any person trying to do something artistically or creatively or even down other avenues.  I pour everything I have into that music.  Everything.  Last night I was in the practice room, and there were two people waiting to use that room, very gifted people.  One of the people waiting was actually on The Voice or one of those shows.  I’m thinking to myself they must think I’m a hack, but I don’t care because if everyone waited until they were great at something, they would never get there.  If people listen to this Continental record and it gives them hope to pursue something in their life, that’s what I want.  I want people to do something, to make themselves happy, to try to enjoy happiness in their life.

…
…

Continental will be at Firehouse 13 in Providence on November 8.  Because there is no Boston stop on the tour, the band will be providing all Massachusetts residents with either a free T-shirt or copy of Millionaires.

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Neptune – +2 Charisma
by Mike Baldino

Photo by Lindsey Walker
Hearing Neptune deliver their assaultive off-kilter songs from their homemade art school scrap metal instruments is quite a shock to the system. Imagine Gang of Four or one of Steve Albini’s groups making music that looks and feels like it sounds and you might come close, but there never has been a band quite like this one. They’re commanding on both visual and aural levels, and one leaves their shows with the feeling of having attended a real performance, something that is all too lacking in most bands these days. The men of Neptune-Jason Sanford (guitar/vocals), Mark Pearson (bass/vocals), John Manson (drums/ vocals) and Dan Boucher (percussion)-hurl themselves into their music as if their lives depended on each note, and in Boucher’s case it just might; he comes frighteningly close eviscerating himself on his percussive rack of circular saw blades with every downbeat.

Jason’s sculpting studio (he makes every instrument by hand), as well as Neptune’s practice space, is in the basement of his apartment building. He lives on the second story, and on the ground level is a grocery store. The heating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems pipe down into the basement, which is almost unbearably hot even in October and which emits a droning mechanized hum over the cracked and dangerous floor. He shows me the first instrument he ever made. “I really didn’t know what I was doing, so I figured I’d just jump right in,” he says. The instrument falls somewhere between a bass and guitar in scale, and is something of a hybrid. The neck’s underside, around which the player would wrap his hand, is smooth, but the topside has a series of long, jagged points. “We had to decommission this one pretty quickly,” he laughs. We chat about the tonal qualities of his instruments, which leads into musical influences. “I always really loved Gang of Four for the sparseness of their sound, and also their lyrical approach. They were so different than other punk bands that were all about pointing their finger at ‘the man,’ whereas Gang of Four was somehow implicated in the problem. They weren’t outside of the situation pointing their finger; they were part of the system. They never came off as preachy, but they were able to talk about politics in an important way.” I ask him about other bands that may have influenced Neptune’s sound, like Big Black and Wire. “My record collection is really random; a lot of it is just stuff I found in the trash or at thrift stores. There’s a lot of lounge records and those mood records from the 60’s, or Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66. It’s hard for me to talk about influences; the other guys in the band get much more into that.”

“Were you one of those kids who built ham radios?”

“No, I wasn’t actually,” says Jason. “I never really knew anything about [electronics], and then I went back to school. I was going to Mass Art, and I took a semester off and took an analog electronics class at the Harvard Extension School. It met once a week, and was far outside the realm of anything I’d done, so I immersed myself in it, and this [sweeps arm around room] is the result of that. I tried to take the follow-up class in digital, but I dropped out. I’m not as interested in digital.” He shows me a computer-driven instrument he’s working on called an automaton, and continues, “I like when there’s a visual link to the sound so that you can understand what’s happening. It’s disconcerting to me that a lot of modern music is more and more divorced from the original phenomenology, and also when you go to see a performer and it ends up being a laptop band, and they’re just kind of sitting there hunched over a laptop, it’s like, why did you come to see them? It may be true that the music is very interesting, but when you go to see music, I think the operative word of that is ‘see,’ seeing something happen. Neptune’s really about that, from playing sculptural instruments to really performing and trying to be energetic. We try to be interesting to watch as well as to listen to.”

I ask Jason about his high school days, and the things that influenced him growing up. “The Brookline Public School System was really great at the time I was going, and I took a class when I was a senior called Metal Technology 3 with Mr. Stephen Arsenault, the metal shop teacher. Brookline High was like any high school, where the metal shop had the automotive and woodworking stuff and the town-ier kids that were heading on the track of being an auto mechanic, but also all these brainiac kids who were applying to M.I.T. or Harvard who took advanced physics classes. So this amazing teacher went out and recruited these high-level physics/math students and got them all to come and take this class in metals, because he told them that they’d never get that kind of hands-on training in college. So the class I took was mostly these engineering students, and I was the token art school kid who was interested in sculpture. I had exposure to art, but in high school I was really into writing. My friend and I co-edited the high school magazine, and that was my main thing. When I went to college at UMass Amherst, I wanted to take art classes, but I was an English Major and I couldn’t get into any of the art classes I wanted to take without declaring as an Art Major. So I did and figured I would always switch back, but never got around to it [laughs].”

“What did you see yourself doing as a career at that point?”

“I was always interested in performance art,” he says. “Not really as a career, but at that time I felt really scattered. I was always really into writing, but also art, but also music, but also performance, and that was a kind of a big dilemma for me throughout college. So I became more and more interested in performance art as this thing that would involve performing and writing and sculpture and using my body, but I had the idea of making instruments, and that put everything together.”

I ask where he was first exposed to performance art, and what it was that made it click in his head that that was what he wanted to do. “Laurie Anderson was one of my early heroes. I remember her being on WFNX when I was in high school. When I was in college a traveling art show from PS-something came through and it was an evening of performance art, a cross-section of the New York scene. There’s something about performance art-I mean, there’s no clear line between it and theater, but theater tends to involve the fourth wall, which to me is an uncomfortable convention of pretending that the audience isn’t there. But performance art seems more about involving the audience, or at least addressing them more directly.”

“So how do you think being a typical bar band is different that performance art? Do you derive a distinction?”

“No, I don’t, actually, and that leads me to be highly critical of many bands. With my background, I tend to think of things in terms of performance art, so when I see a band onstage I’m not just thinking about how they sound, I’m thinking about their performance onstage as a group of performers performing for an audience. Are they connecting with the audience? Is the audience into it? The sound of the music is just one factor among many that could make for a good performance, so I wish that more musicians would think of it that way, because I think it’s important to perform for an audience.”

I ask him what he thinks of acts with huge stage shows with videos and lights like Britney Spears and N’Sync, and to what degree they communicate with an audience.

“I’ve never really been to a concert like that so I couldn’t say, but arena performances are a different realm. There’s some threshold beyond which it becomes really difficult to connect with the audience. Just playing The Middle East Downstairs is almost too much for Neptune, because the people at the back might not even realize that we’re playing non-traditional instruments ’cause they can’t see you. But there’s a history of musicians who think in terms of performance. Like conductors at the symphony-they’re performance artists. I don’t know if they see it that way, but they’re all about making these grand gestures and there’s a physicality to their work and they’re sweaty and looking serious, and they’re like the star. The audience is transfixed by what they’re doing in relationship to the sound. Tom Waits is a good example of a musician who’s a classic performer. He’s really like an actor playing a part with each new song.”

He says of his lyrical themes and influences, “I tend to read things that are difficult and strange, like theory or art textbooks. I spent a long time struggling with Foucault, who wrote a book on the history of prisons. Sometimes I read to do research for songwriting; one song I wrote not long ago was one called “Jeremy Bentham.” When I was in England a couple of years ago I went to London University, and in the lobby there’s this glass case with this guy sitting in it named Jeremy Bentham, the father of Utilitarianism [the philosophy of usefulness as a guiding principle]. He had something to do with the founding of the university, and at the time of his death he requested that his body be dissected by his colleagues in the name of science and that he be put on display in the lobby. After 100 years or so, he started to decay, so a wax mold was put over him, but his remains are still there in that case. So that’s the kind of writing I tend to do-stuff about some weird body I saw in London.”

The Ballet of Process will be released on 12/13 at Jacque’s. Go to neptuneband.com for more info and MP3s.

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THE SUITCASE JUNKET

Signature Sounds Recordings
Pile Driver
12 tracks

This one-man band is an example of outsider art, what with the poetic lyrics, and found objects used as instrumentation and percussion, and the lo-fi recording technology, and the eccentric vocal technique. “Jackie” deconstructs rockabilly; “Evangeline” has a bizarre Creedence vibe. The appealing “Seed Your Dreams” is evocative of guitar-driven hokum jazz; the excellent “Busted Gut” is a letter-perfect classic folk blues; the fascinating “Beta Star” is like some long-lost strain of perversely melodic No Wave with superadded vocals quite unlike anything you’re likely to hear anywhere else. “Swamp Chicken” is a pleasantly loping folk blues; “Ten Rivers” is an achingly beautiful traveling folk blues, and the forlorn, emotionally wrenching “Red Flannel Rose” has an Irish folk feel. Matt Lorenz is a one off; brilliant and verging on genius. You should see him if you can. (Francis DiMenno)

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PARKER WHEELER BAND

Black Rose Records
Live – The Grog Sessions – 1997
12 tracks

If you like bar room r&b, this CD should be in your collection. From start to finish, all the music is recorded live over five different Sunday nights during the jam Parker has hosted for the past few decades at The Grog, in Newburyport, and it sounds like you are sitting at the bar. In fact, the audience’s great pleasure is heard numerous times throughout the cuts. The core band provides the heart and the many guests provide the soul. Parker Wheeler on harp and vocals, Fly Amero on guitar and vocals and Tommy T.H. Hambridge on drums and vocals. T.H. currently plays in blues icon Buddy Guy’s band and has won a Grammy for producing a recent Buddy Guy album. The cameos are done by: Toni Lynn Washington, James Montgomery, David Brown, Wolf Ginandes, Marty Ballou, David Hull, Lenny Bradford, Tom West, Bruce Bears, Ron Levy, Scott Aruda, Sax Gordon, Amadee Castenell, David Sholl and Scott Shetler. All of these creative artists are also very experienced performers. A million dollars of talent on stage at the same club in a little more than a month. Do you think there is such a reservoir of great talent, in small geographical circles, in places like  Butte, Montana? High points include: Toni Lynn’s vocals on the r&b medley “Slippin’ And Slidin’ “/ “Keep A Knockin’ “/ “Roll Over Beethovan,”  James Montgomery and Ron Levy on Bo’s “Who Do You Love?,” T.H.’s “Cadillac” with David Hull on bass and Bruce Bears (Duke Robillard Band) on keys, “D.D. Rider” with Sax Gordon shaking the roof, and a bluesy version of “Golden Slumbers” that is a clever take on The Fab Four classic. A great release and I hope we don’t have to wait another 20 years for Volume Two.   (A.J. Wachtel)

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FOUR POINT RESTRAINTS

Malice
6 tracks

Vocalist/ guitarist Evan Dadowski and lead guitar Will Barry write the material for Four Point Restraints and the maxi-EP Malice brings together a nice mix of rock and country with solid playing, enthusiasm and heart.  In four minutes and fourteen seconds “The Last of Me” gallops along with a dynamic, spaghetti western flair as if out of television’s Rawhide or director Sergio Leone’s legendary For a Few Dollars More.  The backing vocals add immense spirit to this opening track, Cat Verlicco’s bass keeping up the intensity with Tim McCarthy’s drums.  “Barroom Kyrie” follows with Kurt Weil style, Barry’s harmonica giving the period piece a go-between nod for the splashy chorus of “have mercy on me.”   Sterling production by WMFO’s Joel Simches at Watch City Studios, the song construction is studied and smart.  “Partner in Crime” is one of three titles under the four minute mark, and it picks up where “The Last of Me” started.

“The Plague” changes pace, nearly seven minutes that descend into a revved up Doors dirge like “The End,” only Dadowski gets more borderline personality disorder than Jim Morrison here, the country flavors dissipating over the edge.  It’s one of the more provocative titles on the half a dozen titles here, and it works on many levels.  The 3:27 “Heading East” gets back to the wild old west, thumping with a loose abandon while closer, “The Writing’s on the Wall” is exactly that eccentric quasi-schizophrenia referenced in the liner notes.  It’s radio friendly with its melodic pop/grunge engagement.  (Joe Viglione)

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NIGHT NURSES

Shy
6 tracks

Night Nurses are a trio from Providence. I know nothing about them. I stumbled across them in a FaceBook invite for a show that already happened and wondered what they sounded like, since they played with a bunch of cool bands. Well, thank you technology! This is an unexpected surprise, um, as opposed to expected surprises. Anyway, this is a fairly mellow psych album with hints of The Kinks, Doors XTC, and David Bowie,although I suspect they might be more directly influenced by newer music from Arcade Fire and Flaming Lips. I don’t know what “I Live On Dragonfly” is supposed to mean, but I’ve been humming it all night, like a dragonfly. (Eric Baylies)

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DANIEL OUELLETTE & THE SHOBIJIN

Meanie Jeanie Records
Lepidoptera
7 tracks

“Meanie and the Seven Dwarves” comes out of the gate like Bowie on his Serious Moonlight tour backed by Ry Cooder circa The Long Riders  soundtrack. The collection gets weirder from there. “La Llorona, Juana La Loca” is like symphonic Queen with superadded Gypsy violin. “The Moon Is Full of Love” is a bizarre dirge-like choral piece with sweetly insinuating violin and cello. “Les Filles Du Roi” is a resonant recitative backed by galumphing percussion and some fine guitar picking. “Van Dyke” is a gratuitously silly bit of tomfoolery – like early Genesis backed by a click track. This is followed by the fine mysterioso art song “A Neve Du Norte” – the combined effect of chanting, click track, and strings makes me feel odd. I look outside and the trees are… melting. “Loudest Lover Leaves Lonely” is another trippy art song-cum-recitative with a metronomic beat and a gnomic bent. The Shobijin is one of a small number of local bands whose wry eclecticism and musical experimentation make them a must-see experience. (Francis DiMenno)

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SADHA

Bright Castle
4 tracks

Sadha are a young trio from Allston. They play a heady and complex brand of instrumental hard rock. There are literally 400 billion bands playing this stuff right now, and a thousand of them are good. A few are great and Sadha is one of them. There is so much going on here that it is hard to make a comparison. Oh, that sounds like Yes or Rush, get ready to write that down, all of a sudden it reminds me of John Zorn or Dillinger Escape Plan and I forgot what I was just thinking. Where am I? It comes as relief on “Crown Of Clouds” when the keyboards take over like a quick cloudburst after a long day of sports in the summer sun, but that only lasts a few seconds before a spoken  word part that sounds like Sleep Chamber, and then it’s back to the mathrock again. I don’t know what Sadha means but I’m going to pretend it means “Excellence of Execution.” (Eric Baylies)

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REGENERATION

Travel Amygdala
3 tracks

Coinciding with this prog/ metal band’s 10-year anniversary, Travel Amygdala brings a great array of sounds to this three-track EP. “Godzygdala” explodes out of the gate with a pulsating assault, blasting vocals and drums that remind me that earplugs are a must with these guys at a show if I want to hear anything the next day. “Invisible” takes a more measured tone, though it’s all relative, right? The pace is still decent, and I love the drum work on this one. Aaron Bugden is a frigging machine on this track, and the vocal work by Josh and Derek Jackiewicz and Ian Decoteau is stellar throughout, as is the guitar styles of Joshua Catanzaro. “Hollow” is anything but, and I loved the opening–It almost has a “war drum” quality to it, giving the feeling that something amazing is coming, and damned if it doesn’t.

All in all, this is a great representation of what the band can do, and I am very, very impressed.  (Max Bowen)

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DEDE BOOTH

The Stillness and the Rage  
11 tracks

Ms. Booth, formerly of Sententia, has produced a sporadically brilliant solo album full of majestic compositions, none more so than her ambitious “Opus 714,” which has elements of film music, musique concrete, and Goth, all encased in a compelling quasi-classical soundscape. “No Information” utilizes vertiginous guitar, echoing percussion, languid vocals and sampled sounds to create a strange and otherworldly composition. “First Order Beating” is very much in the mode of new age music, with its echoic tones, electronic sounds, and piercing circular guitar riff. “Will Never Break” has a more conventional tune and vocals which are underpinned by busy metronomic percussion and swirling synths. The title track is a plainsong with discreet percussion and a guitar/synth backing. It is ineffably moving. “The Stone,” with its synth and guitar backing, also features a wrenchingly sad and lovely vocal. “Awake” is a fantastical instrumental shot through with liquescent layered lead guitars and percussive rhythm guitar. This is a truly methodical work; Ms. Booth has self-produced a triumphal series of musical statements. (Francis DiMenno)

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THE ADAM EZRA GROUP

Hurricane Wind
11 tracks

There’s a lot of things to like about this great new release from a great New England performer. It was fan funded and fan produced where the final tracks were chosen by the band’s extended family. How’s that for grassroots? John Oates, from Hall & Oates, co-wrote three songs and adds his vocals to the final mix. And there isn’t a bad track on the CD. Adam Ezra on guitar and soulful vocals, Josh Gold playing piano, Corinna Smith on fiddle, Francis Hickey playing bass and Alex Martin behind the kit have a sound influenced by Americana, folk, pop and rock and there’s even a bit of hoedown present every now and then. Listen to “Goin Out Tonight” and hear the square dance vibe. I really dig the three Oates songs including: “Juna Please,” an introspective mid tempo Americana ballad, “Truth In The Wine,” another Americana ballad with twang, and the closing cut, “All I Am,” another Americana ballad that is an acoustic duet recorded live in the studio. You can feel the closeness of the two artists just playing and singing for each other. A great arrangement. A sweet song. Adam is a good story teller and his folk ballads “The Toast,” and “I Believe” are good examples of how he uses his music to send a message. “Steal Your Daughter” is a great rocker and “100 Year Old Storm” is in his usual funky folk/ pop/ roots/ dance music style. The more I play this CD the more I like it and you will too.  (A.J. Wachtel)

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GHOSTS OF SAILORS AT SEA

Red Sky Morning
8 tracks

Ghosts of Sailors at Sea are pretty much THE instrumental rock band in Boston. Krautrock, mathcore, psych, it’s all here. This album was produced by J. Robbins of Jawbox and Government Issue and sounds massive.  The songs on this album are all named after obscure sailors so I guess it’s kind of an instrumental concept album? You can slamdance to songs on this album, or you can get out your protractor and abacus and figure out time signatures and what not, because there is a lot going on here. You can listen to this album on repeat several times and not get bored, you find yourself going through new doors in old rooms. (Eric Baylies)

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JAKALS

Keeping Mother Sane
11 tracks

This collection is chock-jammed with keening eldritch songs featuring supernal vocals by Katie Solomon. The instrumentation is quite sophisticated; not quite folk and not quite jazz; it seems to exist largely as a platform for Ms. Solomon’s twisting and bobbing vocal theatrics. “If You Want a Companion” is a quietly powerful plaint;  “Lonely” is a subdued, fascinating and charming vocal showpiece; “Apathy” strays into more jazzy territory; “Like a Doll,” the best of show, is a memorable and truly lovely tune and vocal performance, the latter both brittle and beautiful. I wish the production values were better and sharper, but the sheer musicianship shines through all the same. (Francis DiMenno)

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SUN YOUNG

Sun Young
10 tracks

Sun Young are a Boston based band. Too bad the band name “Fun” is already taken. No big whoop, these guys are 50,000 times better than them, anyway. This reminds me of ’90s alternative and ’80s SST bands. The track “Grandma’s Promise” pushes and pulls, stops and starts, speeds up and slows down so much, and so GOOD, that I don’t know if audiences will dance or have a seizure. Maybe both! They sing about “pouring your own milk” and make a serious, if not profound statement on the human condition, or something. I love this record, and I hate everything. (Eric Baylies)

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JAMIE KALLESTAD  

In the Belly of the Feast
5 tracks

A songwriter from Minnesota settled in Massachusetts for a spell and eventually became a Nobel laureate. I’m not sure Jamie Kallestad will replicate Bob Dylan’s success, but stranger things have happened. Like John Prine, Kallestad has an instinct for the heartfelt tune tinged with melancholy which will serve him in good stead, even nearly 60 years after the heyday of folk music as a popular form. I particularly like the touching “Holiwar” and “Forget Everything,” with its pearlescent guitar. (Francis DiMenno)

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KINDRED

Shatter
3 tracks

This grunge, hard rock trio from Maine plays real good head banging music complete with loud power chords, screaming vocals and a first- rate  rhythm section that bleeds power. Kindred is: Dennis Ouellete and C.J. Theriault on volume eleven guitars, Brad Pelletier on bass, Phil Smith pounding hard, and Nick Clapp on vociferous vocals. “Worthless,” “Shatter” with the flashy guitars, and the drum driven “Beat Down” all showcase the cool way this band works: the rhythm section makes the music move and keeps up with the growling guitars and stellar singing. Influenced by Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, Nirvana, and Alice In Chains, this band can wake the dead! Great stuff from up North, check it out. (A.J. Wachtel)

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INCINERATOR

Death By Mastering
7 tracks

Incinerator is Boston’s Lilia Halpern-Smith’s long running project. This older recording has been dusted off and released some 20 years after it was recorded, but still sounds like it could have been recorded tomorrow! This is fantastic batch of tunes that meld and weld (ouch) Neil Young and Tanya Donnely. This is labeled adult contemporary, but that is a little misleading. This is a rock record with hooks by one of Boston’s best songwriters of the past 25 years. (Eric Baylies)

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THE WINTER PROJECT

Hookset Records
Salt and Misery
5 tracks

Smells like classic proto-grunge with elements of new wave, as on the spiffy opening track “Kismet”. Lots of snarly guitar and poppy quasi-hooks. “Opeechee Boy” has an epic feel akin to Nirvana, and “Hold” gives us some more turbocharged new wave. “Going Home” is the band’s bid for a certain anthemic grandeur, and “Give” – the best of show – explores a liquescent territory akin to The Cure. But I detect very little of the shock of the new here, and so I hope that as the band develops, they begin to explore fresher and less derivative territory. (Francis DiMenno)

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OMOO OMOO

Zagreb
8 tracks

Omoo Omoo are from Keene, New Hampshire. While I do not know what the name of the band or album title mean, I do know that this a pretty amazing album on many levels. This is complicated but driving music in the style of Mars Volta, Tool, or King Crimson without the vocals. There are traces of Ultravox, old Scorpions records, and Sigur Ros here too. The ten minute epic “Femtosecond” takes you on a spiritual and instrumental journey to the center of your soul, and you could almost dance to it. This band is new to me, but they have several older releases that I will be checking out, and I can’t wait. This band rules. (Eric Baylies)

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STEVE DENNIS

EP Demo
5 tracks

Don’t know if “Dubhe” refers to the Imperial Black India Pale Ale, but the four minute sixteen song has a groove and strong melody that needs no re-recording. The music  Dennis captures has an allure where the magic is isolated without a full band or choir or massive production, the tunes innocently show themselves to be complete in this simple setting. Both “Your Garden” and “Reboot” as carefree and to the point as 1960s folk/pop star Norma Tanega. “Reboot” especially works from the perspective of a singer/songwriter giving his point of view and reflections.  “The King” stays with the guitar and vocal approach with the singer’s style shining through – it’s his delivery that brings the message forward in almost four and half minutes.   “Any Time Now” keeps things short and sweet, sketched out with an uptempo, happy-go-lucky feel… with some reservations.  (Joe Viglione)

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TWINK

Dust Bunny

11 tracks

Last winter nearly killed all of us. That’s a fact. What did you do to wile away the hours? I mean, after masturbation and booze and sobbing? I tell you what our pal Twink here did. He made a disco record on toy pianos. Would he have done this if he had his wits about him? No, no one would. So we have twenty feet of snow to thank for the fragile insanity of Dust Bunny. I tell you one thing, it’s the goddamn Pet Sounds of toy piano records. There will never be a toy piano record as good as this, so if you are making one, just stop. Of course, it’s entirely up to you to decide whether you actually want to listen to the greatest toy piano record ever made, but at least now you know it exists.   (Sleazegrinder)

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ANDY NEWTON

A Banner Day

14 tracks

Besides being really cute, Andy Newton is an exceptional song writer. I really like the mood of the first track, “In Due Time” – the arrangement and instrumentation is introspective and sweet: “I don’t know where I’m off to/ I don’t know what’s mine/ Still I’ll see everything through/ In due time. “Brush it Off Henry” is a dandy song of encouragement to a lovelorn friend: “Don’t be such a sad sack/ Why do you even want her back/ There ain’t nothing new today/ She was always walking away.” “Kelly Green” sounds like something Mick Jagger would’ve written or sung or both: “Girl run that stocking up your leg/ I said, Girl/ run that stocking up your leg.” “Like We Used To Do” has a dreamy, quiet quality, and the production is just so pretty, (with a little hint of Tom Rush’s “Child Song” in the chord progression.) There’s great piano and energy in “I Guess That Really Was the Last Time.” I think Bob Dylan might wish that he wrote it if he ever heard it, it is that good. And lookie there, the next song is a Dylan song, “If You Gotta Go, Go Now,” but I like Andy’s Dylanesque song better than the actual Dylan one! Gee willikers! “Those Fine and Good Blues,” is another winner. I can imagine Mick Jagger doing a cover of this one too. “River Rushing Through My Heart” has that garage band rock ’n’ roll sound reminiscent of the Standells’ “Dirty Water.” “When I Fall in Love Again” brings to mind Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits, I don’t know why, I think because it’s plaintive and sincere and I believe it. “Providence Rain” starts like a distant cousin of “I am the Walrus” or a Beatles song that didn’t make it to the White Album. I think we will be hearing from this young man for many years to come, this is a fantastic debut album. It has been an honor to listen. Love the cover art by Rob Logan too!    (Kimmy Sophia Brown)

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ABSINTHE ROSE

Black Earth
11 tracks

This is basically an anarcho/peace-punk record played acoustically, like if Crass didn’t pay the electrical bill (They never do! They’re anarchists!) so they had to play unplugged. If folk-punk wasn’t already invented, Absinthe Rose would’ve just invented it. This is their third record, and if you can get beyond the odd banjo freakout here and there, there’s a lot of good stuff in it – empowering lyrics, slur-along choruses, some tasty gypsy/spaghetti western flourishes, and plenty of room for dancing. I always thought this town needed it’s own crusty New Model Army. Turns out we’ve got one. The perfect soundtrack for your next squat party. I mean, good luck finding a squat in this greedy town, but if you do, this’ll rock it.   (Sleazegrinder)

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ROSEMARY’S BABY BLUES

On Time and Feelin’ Fine

10 tracks

A well-produced rhythm & blues band with a stellar horn section and a repertoire consisting in the main of classic covers, the best of which are mentioned below. The band performs Delbert McClinton’s “Every Time I Roll the Dice” in a ballsy and brassy rendition faintly reminiscent of (and quoting) the Rolling Stones in their post-blues period. The icy-cold rhythmic cool of “Pass the Peas,” (by James Brown’s backup band The J.B.s)  is ably preserved in the jaunty trumpet and tenor sax stylings of John Abrahamsen and Rosemary Casey; pianist Travis Colby’s Hammond B3 solo adds a sprightly touch, and Joe Peck’s bass playing is remarkable. The instrumental rendition of Muddy Water’s “Got My Mojo Working” is particularly strong due to Jake Jacobsen’s guitar and Larry Bassick’s sure-footed percussion. The Funky Delbert McClinton number “The Rub” is highly entertaining as well as impeccably performed – the muted trumpet solo is an especially nice touch. The smoldering harp playing of (the presumably pseudonymous) Bismo Beerbelly adds a smoky touch to the band’s cover of Big Joe Turner’s “Flip Flop and Fly,” and John Abrahamsen’s wild trumpet solo is perfectly executed; Jake Jacobsen’s juddering guitar solo made me laugh out loud in admiration. (How often does that happen? Practically never.) “Killin’ Time,” an instrumental original which seems very much influenced by James Brown; recorded live, it is an added treat which climaxes the album. The band’s choice of repertoire reveals outstanding good taste, and the instrumentals are top flight. I would be very surprised if this weren’t one of the best revivalist R&B bands out there. Recommended.  (Francis DiMenno)

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TERRY KITCHEN

The Post-American Century

10 tracks

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NOMAD DREAMS

Nomad Dreams  

11 tracks

Okay… now I’m going to be outed as a hypocrite for loving this album, after criticizing Found Audio’s album for its cliches… because Nomad Dreams employs plenty of cliches as well — but in my defense I’d argue that you can do cliches better than others, so we give you a slide. Nomad Dreams mixes regular cabaret and jazz pop, but they do it so deliciously that I cut them slack for lacking originality. This album is scrumptious! Their Russian singer Vlada has a voice of verve and sass, and even though I was listening while doing other work, lyric upon lyric kept jumping out at me. Unlike most jazzy acts, the lyrics are not poetic and instead punch you in the face with sly wit. Example: “I’m un-employyyyed / don’t-know-where-i’ll-sleep-tomorrow” and “don’t-ask-me-for-how-long… I lost count / when my insurance ran out”! This album is fun from start to finish. Imagine Julie Andrews singing “I wanted to be a painter / but they told me I’m color blind / i wanted to be a rabbi / but god said ‘you’re out of your mind.’” I’ve already listened to the CD three times and will listen again! (I’ll be listening to Found Audio’s album again, just for the great bits.) Simply delightful.    (Shauna Erlbaum)

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TONI LYNN WASHINGTON

Regina Royale Records

I Wanna Dance

9 tracks

Toni Lynn has long been an iconic matriarch of the local R&B scene. She is in her late ’70s and was awarded a Boston Blues Festival Lifetime Achievement Award back in 1999. This new release showcases her powerful, warm and emotional vocals. She purrs. She growls. She gets the message across. Her backing band takes her from funk to bar-room to traditional blues in the blink of an eye – and they play tightly together on all the cuts. Bruce Bears on organ and piano and Mark Texeira on drums also play in Duke Robillard’s group. Veterans Jesse Williams on bass, Mike Williams on guitar, and Sax Gordon and Amadee Castenell on horns are a real pleasure to listen to. My favorite tracks on this great release are the opener, “I Feel Like A Million,” Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Checkin’ Up On My Baby,” and “Walkin’ and Talkin’ (And Crying My Blues Away).”  All three you would expect to hear in a an exciting nightclub appearance. “Mellow Down Easy,” a Willie Dixon cover, “Somebody’s Been Sleeping” (with a red hot Sax Gordon solo) and Buddy Guy’s “Leave My (Man) Alone” are funky and fantastic. And “Give Me One Reason” by four time Grammy award winner Tracey Chapman and Toni’s own “I Can’t Get Over Losing You” are in the traditional blues vein. This is one of the best R&B releases I’ve heard this year. I really love in the credits it’s written “All songs ARRANGED by Toni Lynn Washington. She is the real deal and these words are justifiably true. A great release. Check it out.   (A.J. Wachtel)

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DREAMCHILD

Absynthe Soundworks

Le Cabaret de L’Enfer

15 tracks

I fell in love with the cover of this CD. Brilliant red poppies adorn it, along with black and white images of a stylish steampunk couple raising glasses of absynthe. Intriguing! However, once it began to play, I asked myself, “What fresh hell is THIS?”

Silly question, since that answer is within the title. I  wanted to like this CD, between its cover and the titles of the tracks such as, “Gaslights in Hell,” “Ophelia’s Melodious Lay,” and “Sin Eater.” I really tried, but when I heard their cover of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights,” I was done. Cringe worthy, like coffin nails on a blackboard to my ears.

My tastes in music are typically very diverse and open, but when I listened to this, not only did the doors close, but they were also well bolted. I just couldn’t find any pleasure in this self proclaimed hell. No doubt there is a cult following for Dreamchild, but I’ll not be drinking the koolaid. Nor the absynthe, for that matter. It strongly disagreed with me.  (R.J. Ouellette)

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JOHN SURETTE

Tomorrow The World (A Punk Rock Opera)

12 tracks

This album by John Surette of old school Boston punk legends Boys Life is impressive on many levels. Writing a concept album is a lot harder than it looks. Many of the songs break the conventions of punk rock and add elements of new wave, rockabilly, ragtime and prog. There are twists and turns in the songwriting that you never see coming yet feel natural. This record was produced by Surette and David Minehan. It sounds as polished as a Bob Ezrin recorded Kiss, Pink Floyd, or Kiss album. While no longer a teenager himself, John Surette seems to draw effortlessly from the well of teenage angst. This album should be re-released by the lingering ghosts of major labels. (Eric Baylies)

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TUMBLING BONES

Loving a Fool

13 tracks

“Broken Things” takes off as if on horseback, galloping along with a great rhythm section, with a wistful fiddle, and lovely harmonies reminiscent of Fleet Foxes. What’s wonderful about this album is the new compositions juxtaposed against the old gems that they excavated from hither and yon. “Bound to Ride” must be one of the ones T Bone Burnett missed when he was working on “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” –  complete with a freight train fiddle alongside high and lonesome voices. “Loving a Fool” is a country waltz full of regret and sorrow over loving the wrong person. I’ve heard the 1956 “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby” covered by Dolly Parton, and also by Alison Krauss, but this version by these boys is an excellent presentation of the male perspective. “How They’re Rolling” is an enthralling ballad with wonderful blended voices, guitar and harmonica. “Shady Green Pastures” begs Elvis to join in this fine gospel tune, sung a capella in four-part harmony. “Red, Red Rose” is a dark ballad written in the vein of “Pretty Polly” which builds to a dramatic climax. “A Voice From on High” by Bill Monroe sounds as if it was recorded decades back. They learned “Just Because” from a Jorma Kaukonen record (which I have in my collection too!) but they make it their own. It’s a toe tapping, joyous song of warning. “Bright Morning Stars” is a traditional tune, sung in wailing soulful harmony. These guys are from Portland, Maine which is where I live. How have I missed them? I must show up for one of their concerts, they are a truly spectacular bluegrass band.  (Kimmy Sophia Brown)

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BEES DELUXE

Boston Is Trying To Kill Live Music

A Can of Bees

7 tracks

The ambient and subtle low-key version of “Mercy Mercy Mercy” (also covered by Cannonball Adderly) establishes this band’s excellence from the get-go. The smoldering acid blues of “A Quitter Never Wins” is compelling and intense–even vaguely reminiscent in places of early Funkadelic. A band original, “Zoe’s Chromatic Blues” – the title is perfectly descriptive– isn’t very different from what you might hear on some eclectic soft jazz radio program. Pianist Bruce Mattson adds an admirable Hammond B3 solo to Carol Band’s subdued keyboards and composer Conrad Warre’s reflective guitar. “Roll Over Stockhausen” is a live jam with subtle, insinuating bass work by Alan Dorr, ably accompanied by some spectacular plashing percussive fills courtesy of Sebastian Kossak. the cover version of “Damn Your Eyes” is performed in a creditably minimalistic fashion which highly suits the material–again, with spectacular guitar work by Warre, as well as dead-on percussion by Patrick Sanders. Warre’s bizarre, Hendrixesque acid blues fills on a number like his “I’m a Corpse part 2″ are proof positive that the band isn’t afraid to mix the brazen with the sedate. This combo is pushing the boundaries and are, in that sense, a band apart. Recommended, particularly if you like something more than a little different in the realms of blues and jazz. (Francis DiMenno)

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DRAGONFUCKER

Eponymous Epic    6 tracks

I had never heard of this band from South Boston until my friend took me to some dingy basement show (I love these kinds of shows) but it was all metal bands, and I find most metal to be too conformist and by-the-book. (I do like generic doom metal, though, because it’s so heavy and low.) Before this band played a note, it was clear they were a different beast. Their name alone! (That’s how you do it, bands. Your name should sell your “product.”) This demo doesn’t have the best production, but it doesn’t really matter, as the material transcends it. Think maybe Uriah Heep meets Iron Maiden? They’re also probably Tenacious D fans, but Dragonfucker play it pretty straight, which is good, because I don’t really like corny parody bands. These five good looking longhaired guys are surprisingly skilled musicians for their young ages (they all look 19) and tighter than a chinese lady’s purse. Great song titles too, like “Castles of Leather” or “Irony Is A Dangerous Game,” and inspired lyrics that dangerously veer too-close to the aforementioned silliness but succeed thanks to some cleverness. “Castles of leather/ tethered together/ …with barbed wire!/ rivers of iron/ roar like a lion/ …made of fire!” I could just read the lyric sheet for hours! (Is it too much to ask all the musicians out there to try a little bit harder?) The singer is serviceable but not distinctive enough; however, that could change with more practice. (He was much better in a live setting.) It’s 2015, metal bands! Stop aping 1985! Come up with something new! Granted, Dragonfucker are not reinventing the wheel – their genre should be called post-gallop! – but they also aren’t just imitating their heroes, either. They do some acrobatic metal moves I’ve never heard before.  (Shauna Erlbaum)

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21st CENTURY FUGITIVES

Losing Time

5 tracks

John Lucas singing, Gavin Burke on drums, songwriters Jimmy Bez on guitar and Jaden Mendola on bass, are all 16 years old and go to two different area high schools. They met in a town sponsored music class in Wakefield when they were 12 years old, and have been playing together ever since. Their sound is classic metal rock a la Led Zep meets The Foo Fighters, and the first two cuts, “Losing Time” and “Caught Cheatin’” are radio friendly rockers with cool power chords, vocals, and a good rhythm section that moves the songs along nicely. “Blame It on The Universe” is a bit goth, “You” with its great bass intro, and “Basic Facts” all have loud guitar, pounding drums, and screaming vocals. This young band shares the intense attitude of The Dropkick Murphys in their music too. Very Boston. Very Cool. Very Good. Keep an eye and ear out for  this clamorous quartet as they grow.   (A.J. Wachtel)

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BILL

The Bill Album

13 tracks

This is some record. Bill the band have been around since the late ’80s and on some level, it’s always been a bit of a goof. And it still is, but this record jams. Bill Gage is the best grunter since Tom Warrior, and he growls and spits through thirteen tough-as-nails hard rockers here that sound basically like Jim Carroll’s Catholic Boy if Jim recorded directly after getting his wisdom teeth pulled. Bill’s mush-mouth is definitely the highlight, but the back-alley guitars move things along nicely too. As far as gimmicks go, The Bill Album goes pretty far.     (Sleazegrinder)

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WATERMELON

Ate Me

9 tracks

This spazzy young band hails from Connecticut. They cover both Janes Addiction and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, so that’s cool, but what about their originals? Watermelon writes some pretty good stuff too. They have odd passages like the residents and jagged rhythms like Sacharine Trust and Arab On Radar. Some of the songs are more rock ’n’ rolly but most of it takes a sort of free jazz approach to rock. This is a great big slab of awesomeness. (Eric Baylies)

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BUCKY FEREKE & THE PONY EXPRESS

Crumble Crumble Crumble Records

Wild River

12 tracks

Bucky Fereke’s self-produced production values are casual, and the vocals aren’t always front and center, necessitating a lyric sheet–attached. The excellent opening track, “Nothing,” is redolent of the band Green on Red with some superadded Neil Young touches (that whining harp, mostly). Frontman Bucky Fereke (he pretty much does it all, except for the often out-of-sync percussion) has a plaintive and high lonesome voice capable of descending to a near-baritone (as on the folksy but lumbering title track, reminiscent of Jackson Browne in a Jimmy Buffet mood). “Dearly Departed” is a shimmering country and western harmony vocal confection–one halfway expects to hear some yodeling. “Kings” has a halting and juddering instrumental backing which is certainly unique on the annals of country-folk–it’s like listening to Mungo Jerry in a hall of mirrors. “Welsome Home” is a curious combination of heavy metal and pure country – a coming-home song for a jailbird? Whatever. It’s a disturbing and memorable song, kind of like Husker Du in a country mode. “Sleep In” is another heavy number, somewhat murky and confused, but undeniably unique. (One has to wonder, however, what sort of mad mood the composer was in, to combine Spencer Davis Group with musique concrete?) “Give Me Back My Heart” is another example of Fereke’s inimitable brand of bizarro country songcraft. “Since My Baby left Town” is an uptempo but plaintive Cowpunk number: fans of the Holy Modal Rounders and Michael Hurley will find much to like here. “Lonesome (When You Go)”–not the Bob Dylan number–is a tinkling, tintinnabulating lament instrumentally somewhat in the mode of Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Sr. Overall, this is country rock with a twist–very much in the tradition of, but sounding not an awful lot like, Poco and Pure Prairie League. (Francis DiMenno)

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FOUND AUDIO

Locomotive Earth    

12 tracks

Your intrepid reviewer (me) has informed The Noise‘s editor to send them (me) only CDs that are very creative and innovative-in-some-way, as that is my cup of soup (I don’t like tea), but that memo continues to appear lost or ignored. So here goes! I really don’t want to hurt the feelings of musicians (even though most could use a lot more Tough Love), but they have to choose between being lied to or being hurt (and growing as human beings). The press release for this record states it “aimed to embrace experimentation”, but that’s almost perfectly untrue. Hell, the opening riff is literally the most common cliche in rock music: a straight 4/4 beat of chugging guitar chords. This was trite by 1962! All of it sounds terribly uninspired. We’ve heard all these cliches thousands of times before. (The “experimentation” seems to be the occasional sound effect.) The CD is deliberately-ordinary country-roots rock, but it seems like they didn’t try too hard in the writing department (hence the cornucopia of cliches). Waitaminute! WHO is this on track 4? It begins with a very unusual and delightfully crafty structure and sounds! LOVE it! But then diverts back to ordinary, sigh. This is a band that really does need some tough love, to make them rethink their laziness. I hear what COULD be a really great rootsy band, but the singer needs to try harder as does the songwriter. The album SOUNDS great. But I’m really hard on musicians, because I expect more out of them. Helpful Tip: if you write a chord progression and it doesn’t blow your mind every time you strum it, then throw it out and try again. Track 5 (the titles are too dull to cite) begins like a David Lynch soundtrack! I’m loving it… and then the parade of country cliches comes in and ruins the party. Ah! There it is again: the REAL Found Audio! The bridge (?) of track 5 takes the country music cliche of the thump-thump-thump-thump upright bass etc but uses non-cliche chords and melodies over it! There you go! Because you can use some of the cliches of a genre you love, while still surprising us. EX: that thump-thump-thump-thump bass not only is a rhythmic cliche of country, it’s a melodic cliche, and that instrument‘s cliche (as opposed to playing country bass with a Moog doing the same notes and rhythm). See? All three elements — melody, timbre, and rhythm — are the exact cliche! A cliche jackpot! You can change two of the three elements and it’s still country music.  Wow: some of the artsy bits are phenomenal. They need to learn to fuse that sense of adventure with The Song, so it’s one long breath of fresh air, versus artsy-intro-then-ordinary-song-then-artsy-outro. Track 7 is mostly really good throughout! If these guys tried harder, they could be an amazing post-REM. Let’s hope I kicked their butts enough to motivate them! My editor’s going to kill me for going over my word count, but I think there’s a real breakthrough here! Right before your eyes! Track 8 also shows them fusing it all into their own sound. Guys! You would be HUGE if you just committed to making all your songs more “experimental.” The good parts are fantastic! Commit!    (Shauna Erlbaum)

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JAY WILLIE BLUES BAND  

Zoho Records

Johnny’s Juke Joint

12 tracks

Generally speaking they sure know how to rock ’n’ roll down in Connecticut. More specifically, the Jay Willie Blues Band has cornered the market on the way his major influence, Johnny Winter, sounded. What better way to create an almost identical intonation than to have Bobby T. Torello, Johnny’s drummer during the ’80s, and Jason Ricci, who played on Winter’s 2014 Grammy award winning releaseStep Back in the band?

Joining Jay Willie, Bobby, and Jason in the group are Bob Callahan on guitar and vocals, Steve Clarke playing four strings, Ted Yakush on sax, and Malorie Leogrande with her five octave vocal range and Jay’s brother Tod singing.

This release has a bunch of covers and a few originals and the one thing they all have in common is the cuts rock righteously. Jay’s slide guitar on the Winter cover “I Love Everybody” from his Second Winter album is just killer. Malorie’s great female vocals on the song change the perspective of the original, and I love how the band keeps playing as the song fades into the outro! Johnny Winter did this a lot on his records and it’s an inside way Jay pays tribute to the master. Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions’ “People Get Ready” is a very soulful and rocking cover. An instrumental that Johnny, Jon Paris and Bobby T used to open with, back in the day, “Succotash,” sounds a lot like Johnny’s laying down the licks himself. The nice stomping shuffle, “Nobody But You” with a great Yakush sax part also is very good. “Me And The Devil” a trad blues Robert Johnson melody, Jimmy Reed’s “You Got Me Dizzy,” Buddy Guy and Jr. Wells’ “I Got A Stomach Ache” and Jay Willie’s own “Upside of The Ground” showcase the band’s tightness and ability to get and stay in a groove. PLAY THIS CD LOUD!   (A.J. Wachtel)

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CONOR MULROY

The Last Circus Act

8 tracks

If you want to sit down and hear some really pretty music, set yourself down and listen to this album by Conor Mulroy. The compositions are all his but they have an old feel, some remind me of songs by Townes Van Zandt – they’re full of feeling and observations of the heart. Lindsay Paige Garfield offers a perfect feminine edge on harmonies, with Michael Feingold, Patrick Warren, Dave Easley and Tom Arey adding their excellence on strings, keyboards and percussion. “Brown’s Island” is a notably lovely instrumental piece. “Norwegian Eyes” makes me think of the Moody Blues. “The Last Circus Act” is the most unique track, it feels other-worldly and mysterious. Nice album. (Kimmy Sophia Brown)

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THE WIG PEOPLE

Littleguy Records

Black and Grey: A Film By Marc Stuart Tourigny

6 tracks

For the record, the full title is “Black and Grey: I Will Be Your Light Single Featuring Music From the Wig People: A Film By Marc Stuart Tourigny.” The single is easily the best of show; a singularly bent bit of ecstasy-rock somewhat akin to latterday OMD or maybe a deracinated Yo la Tengo. It is a heartening bit of emotion-laden songcraft which fades to silence amid the epic tom toms of John Lynch. Next, lead guitarist Jonny Rely provides a solo instrumental guitar track stark in its beauty and simplicity titled “Flight of the Wig People”. Then there’s a couple of warhorse classical pieces and a negligible demo. The final track is “The Blue Light,” a band effort somewhat reminiscent of U2 and PiL, performed in a clamorous fashion by the band Menfolk. Overall, this is at the very least an interesting curio. (Francis DiMenno)

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BRIAN CARPENTER & THE CONFESSIONS

Accurate Records

“The Far End Of The World”

11 tracks

This debut release took four years to make. It is an interesting and unique mix of haunting ballads, sea shanties, reverb drenched guitar and free jazz. Brian sings like Frank Zappa and writes all the songs, but it’s the well crafted arrangements and vivid lyric and audio imagery that makes this a good endeavor. The opener, “Savior of Love,” “Beautiful Jane,” “The Far End of The World,” “This Lonely Road,” and “Up Come Old Lazarus” are moody, haunting ballads. “Lost at Sea” sounds like an old marine tune, and “Where The River Bends,” which incorporates whistling, has a C&W influence and is pretty cool. Brian’s past gigs include Beat Circus and Ghost Train Orchestra and I love the electronic swirls and quirks he uses for his free jazz inspired tunes “Resurrection,” “It Hurts to Love You Sometimes,” with the neat violin part,  and the final cut, “Sailor’s Song.” Contributing artists include David Michael Curry from The Thalia Zedek Band and Carla Kihlstedt from Tin Hat and Rabbit Rabbit, who sings and performs on strings and the traditional Swedish nyckelharpa. Introspective music played out loud. Finest Kind.   (A.J. Wachtel)

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VARIOUS ARTISTS

Loving the Aliens

A Lowbudget Tribute To David Bowie

29 tracks

This two disc release is an intriguing collection of songs with varied influences of punk, new wave, metal, jazz, orchestra and gospel. They all share an avante streak of uniqueness as the common denominator on all the cuts. Most of the tunes are unrecognizable for the first few measures until all of a sudden the known hook emerges and you smile at the off the track appeal of this project’s music. There are almost 30 different songs here but not from as many different bands. Being associated with the label is what this release’s musicians have in common. In fact, some of the groups have two cuts on the CD. I didn’t look at who the performers were as I gave my attention to all the cuts, I just listened and took notes and I found things to like about every recording. Some inclusions are very different than the originals and some are straighter covers but all the melodies resonate with cleverness and passion. The best tunes to listen for on disc one: The spacey almost eight-minute opener “Warszawa,” with the choir like backing vocals by Urban Ambience, the ominous low-key techno rock “Fame,” by The Lowbudget Allstars, “Queen Bitch” taken on by Hummingbird Syndicate. No Mick Ronson but the song still done very punkish and very good. Paul McDonough and Sean Yadisernia do a killer piano lounge version of “All the Young Dudes,” “Seven,” an acoustic power punk version done by Geoff Pango and Mr. Curt, and a cool cover of “Let Me Sleep Beside You ” by Terry Kitchen from Loose Ties. I also dig The Chunks’ Americana version of “Saviour Machine,” and Ground Control’s “Fashion” is funky and very new wave in a David Byrne fashion. The last two tracks on disc one, Doctor X’s ominous and spacey version of “Heroes” and Chillgroove’s equally ominous “Art Decade,” a punk ballad with piano and horns, complete this first side statement by some of Boston’s most creative talents.

Disc two is more of the same.  Check out these songs: The chic new wave instrumental version of “Changes” with just piano and keys basically by The Chunks, the nice harmonies and twang in Louder Than Milk’s sparse punk cover of “Young Americans,” Electric Standard’s great punk take on “Panic In Detroit” with the female vocals giving a whole new perspective to the lyrics, and Kingdom of Love’s funky punky dance take on “Suffragette City.” All the interpretations are interesting, creative, done well and a lot of fun. At the bottom of the credits on the cover sheet it says: “Hate Does Not Live Here” and “God Bless David Bowie,” two proclamations I can totally live with. This is the fourth compilation CD release from Roslindale’s Lowbudget Records under grand wazoo Tim Casey’s direction. Following Across The Universe (The Beatles), You Can’t Always Want What You Get (The Rolling Stones), A Lowbudget Barrel of Monkees (The Monkees).  Loving the Aliens may be their best one yet. Check it out.    (A.J. Wachtel)

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DAVID GREENBERGER AND PRIME LENS

PelPel Recordings

My Thoughts Approximately  

30 tracks

Prime Lens consists of Bob Stagner (ex-Shaking Ray Levis) on percussion and guitar, Evan Lipson on bass and keyboards, and Tyson Rogers on keyboards. They are joined by Amanda Rose Cagle on keyboards and wind instruments and Frank Pahl on strings, along with Dan Dorrill guesting on trumpet and Steve Hickman guesting on organ. David Greenberger, drawing as is his wont upon the reminiscences of nursing home residents, provides spoken-word accompaniment to the highly skilled and occasionally whimsical musicians. Highlights include “Buttons, Buttons,” which could pass as a ’30s pop-jazz novelty, and the absolutely delightful “An Automobile Driver,” a splendid tour de force of percussive and keyboard effects. The serious “Refugees” is a spare recitative accompanied by piano. “In Praise of Sailing” is a minimalistic capsule biography backed by spooky echoing effects with piano and bass. “A Lot of Things Are Real” is a cool-jazzy shaggy-dog story. The fragment “Loud Shakespeare” sports a cleverly faux-Elizabethan accompaniment. “Dynamo” is a clattering and cacophonous percussive showpiece about a firefly. The impressive “Heaven” is eerie, echoing exotica – a mini-saga about escape and relocation. “A Timeless World” is an amusing, chiming fragment. “Onion and the Trail Cutter” is a whimsical anecdote accompanied by old-timey piano. “Hummingbird Pie” is a surreally catchy ditty. “Jerry Lewis in France” is a deadpan put-down accompanied by an equally deadpan Gallic accordion. The CD ends with “A Dream Life,” which is an appropriately austere piece accompanied by the doleful keyboards of Tyson Rogers. As always, Greenberger has masterfully wrangled anecdotes sere and whimsical into musical settings which transmogrify them into miniature gems. (Francis DiMenno)

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FOXTAILS

III

8 tracks

Foxtails are a young rock band from Monroe, CT. Some of the parts are very pretty, with singer/ bassist Megan crooning like Linda Sharrock or Billie Holiday. Keep listening, though, and you will be rewarded with tumultuous melodies and blood curdling screams. Megan sounds like she’s getting murdered in a performance art piece gone awry. They don’t take themselves too serious, as the song “Revenge Of The Chicken From Outer Space” can testify to, if a killer song were put on the witness stand and Yoko Ono was the judge. If you ever wanted to hear And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead with Diamanda Galas or Lydia Lunch singing, Foxtails could be your dream band – I know it’s mine.  (Eric Baylies)

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MC KASSON & MCDONALD

Harbour

12 tracks

Three cheers for Kickstarter! Eric McDonald’s vocals, akin to those of a young James Taylor, allied with Ryan McKasson’s spot-on fiddle playing, make this a welcome venture into a mixture of vocal and instrumental folk songs which are both traditional, as well as new but traditional-sounding.Jeremiah McLane adds his highly accomplished accordion playing to tracks such as McKasson’s joyous Irish fiddle reel “Brooke Leigh,” the traditional “Fair Anna,” and the gentle love song “Mark the Hard Earth,” in which McDonald’s graceful and ingratiating tenor soars. These Scotch-Irish-derived folk tunes and recreations are incredibly beautiful, and McDonald’s guitar is played with an earnest wistfulness which is beyond reproach. A tune such as “Let the Cold Wind Blow” is soothing, reverential music which is well worth the attention of even the casual folk aficionado. Some of the tunes here, such as “Theme for Scotland,” display some of the same wistfulness as Brendan Behan’s devastating plaint “The Old Triangle” (aka “On the Banks of the Royal Canal”). This CD is a pleasure from start to finish. McCasson’s fiddle playing is particularly sprightly and inspiring on the “Lady Mary Ramsay” medley. People who enjoy the likes of Steeleye Span will also find a great deal to like here. A keeper. (Francis DiMenno)

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COVE SAUCE

Super Wimpy Punch Records

Cove Sauce

6 tracks

Cove Sauce is a Boston based trio. The first song I listened to cruised along as cool rock tune, then turned into a trainwreck, all of a sudden they sounded like U.S. Maple. I want to hear more trainwrecks! Other songs have more of an offbeat avant garde feel of Volcano The Bear or Savage Republic. Cove Sauce has a couple of catchy songs that could get on the radio, or they could be the next Velvet Underground. No matter what direction they head, it will be interesting to hear what they sound like. They seem to have mastered every style they attempt and all the songs on Cove Sauce are great. (Eric Baylies)

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PETEROSSI  

That’s What Lips are For

8 tracks

Gabe Rossi – who records as a solo artist under the name PETEROSSI – is a Gloucester-based veteran of bands such as The Klapp and Ships in the Dark. I get several vibes off of his lo-fi songs: Pebbles-era space oddity (“A Little More Time”), Elvis channeller (“Slumber Girl”), soft-rock avatar (“Roundhouse Eyes”), thin-voiced white funkster (“That’s What Lips are For”), sensitive folkie (“Full Moon Craters”; “Green Field Glasses”), thin-voiced crypto-Gath balladeer (“Intermood”), melodic Love-era tunemaker (the excellent “Occasionally, in the Willamette”). Except for the first two numbers and the closing track “Occasionally,” the songs are too long and lack the sort of ingenuity which is the mark of the true songwriting professional. But three out of eight is not a bad batting average, and PETEROSSI shows a certain special likeability, particularly when he turns his voice toward material which is more suited to his undeniable talents.  (Francis DiMenno)

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SOMETHING WILD

Olivia Cawley

5 tracks

The newest album from Olivia Cawley blends rock with a country kick and some amazing lyrical prowess. The title track has such a raw power to it, the kind of song that simply can’t be listened to with half an ear – it grabs your attention and holds it until the final note. Songs like “Punch Line” touch on the perils of the romance world, something we’re all familiar with. But this isn’t some tender love song – the instrumentals are intense from the opening moments and stay strong right to the end.

“Another Country Song” focuses on Cawley’s independent life and not relying on someone to make her life complete. It’s a great tune, catchy and pretty funny as well. All told, Olivia Cawley has a lot to offer, and so good, you’ll be starting over time and again to make sure you caught it all. (Max Bowen)

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I B SOMETIMES  

Rancis Coyote Music

WTF?

11 tracks

The first song, “Easy When You Know You’re Right,” strongly evokes rock-opera-era Kinks replete with galumphing horns and quavery vocals. Other standouts from this Northhampton duo’s fourth CD include the twangy C&W pastiche “How Come We Can’t Just Get Along?,” the gritty guitar-bluesy paranoid romp “Who’s That Man?,” and the electro-funk-driven “Welcome to the Caliphate.” Ernie Senecal and James Weeks are sometimes clever and craftsmanlike songsmiths, but I wish they would apply their talents to something potentially more transcendent. (Francis DiMenno)

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BE THE SEEN

Voynich Sound Volume 2 (Musical Exorcism)

4 tracks

Be The Seen is from Pittsfield. They may (or may not) be best described as a cross between metal and noise, but that is a big chasm to bridge. Relentless beats pound your brain, you may cry for mercy or beg for more, depending on what you are into. This reminds me of Dillinger Escape Plan and The Body. Personally, I would like to hear a little less of what I tenderly call the screaming “vomiting clotted blood” vocal style and hear some regular spoken word or singing, but maybe I am not the target audience. I’m glad I’m not a target, I don’t feel like getting shot with an arrow today, but all in all, this is great offering. (Eric Baylies)

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SATCH KERANS

Wait…What?

9 tracks

This entry from 2015 kicks off with “Out Here In the World (Trying to Do My Best),” a Springsteen-like anthem (replete with obligatory sax). The rest is a melange consisting of a broody plaint (“Dogtown”), a twangy love song (“Claim”), a dour blues-shuffle boogie (“Shipwreck on the Land”), some Green On Red-style jangle (“21st Century Hobo”), a rawkin’ organ-slathered anthem (“Kid From Gloucester”), an uptempo number (“Gasolene Refugee”), and a downbeat tune sung in an introspective croak (“Bon Fiesta”). Competently executed throughout, but not a particularly spectacular outing. (Francis DiMenno)

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HILL HAINTS

Hill Haints

5 tracks

Hill Haints hails from Western Massachusetts. They offer up swaggering and defiant punk rhythms like Dead Boys and Real Kids, but with some effects on the vocals that recall ESG or La Machine. The song “Night Mare Moon” is a little trippier, showing way more versatility than a regular “punk” band, whatever that means anymore. If they ever made a sequel to the movie Repo Man, the song “She Writes With Gasoline” would fit great. I don’t want to get too music gear nerdy here, but I am curious what kind of bass and amp were used on this recording, this is the best bass sound ever. Hill Haints has come up with their own unique sound, not an easy feat at this point, and an album full of good songs. (Eric Baylies)

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THE WYRD BROTHERS

New York’s Calling

5 tracks

Singer Peter Mitchell Wyrd and guitarist Brian Wolfe Wyrd wrote all these hard rocking songs and they first played together in the ’60s. Now 50 years later they’ve reunited with Johnny Wyrd on bass and Jacky Wyrd pounding and their sound is sorta like The Sex Pistols meets Deep Purple. Vocals with an attitude surrounded by punchy punk arrangements and screaming six string solos. This is a guitar album with appearances on the CD by a 1960 Les Paul Jr., a 1961 Starfire III and a 1964 Gibson J-50. The band plays rock ’n’ roll with a fuck you attitude and they pull it off well. Produced and recorded by Michael Arafen at The Coffeehouse in Middleton, CT, these Nutmeg State band mates showcase their sound on killer cuts “National DNA,” “Rust Belt,” the metal ballad “Racing To The Bottom,” the screaming title track “New York’s Calling,” and my favorite the closing cut “Rent Strike;” a real arena rocker. Great release. Play this CD LOUD!   (A.J. Wachtel)

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LEIKO

Double Shot of Depresso

7 tracks

Leiko is a Providence band that take the beautiful harmony and melody of the Mamas & the Papas and obscure it a little bit with rock ’n’ roll and mushrooms. This record was produced by Andy Davis of the Pixels and sounds ready for stadiums and living rooms. The tune “Clementine” is haunting and beautiful in a way that reminds me of one of my favorite bands, Throwing Muses. Although mellow at times, this is certainly not easy listening. This a challenging, yet catchy record that everyone should check out. (Eric Baylies)

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ANDY STONE

Blender

11 tracks

Andy Stone is a very talented singer/ songwriter/ guitarist from Warwick, RI, who has a nice passionate and believable voice and whose sound is jangly pop on one end and finger picking folk on the other. The members of the band are Andy on both six and 12-string guitar, bass, percussion and lead vocals; Emerson Torrey on acoustic and electric guitar, keys, percussion, backing vocals and he also produced the music at Satellite Studio in East Greenwich, RI;  Mike Mills on piano and keys; Max Couto behind the kit; Eric Barao on backing vocals; Deb Keeling on violin and viola; Emily Thomas on cello; and Georgia Mills arranges the strings. Listen to the opening track “Catherine’s Acting” a real uptempo radio friendly song. and the other jangly pop tunes “Please Don’t Go,” “Be That Girl,” “4:30,” “I Don’t Know Just What To Do,” the ballad with a hint of electronica, with the great guitar solo by Jonathan Gregg and my favorite, “The Love You Lost.” This song rocks righteously and I really dig the vocals. The folkier songs, “When You Were Here” and “Are You Satisfied?” have nice finger picking guitar and capture a stripped down punk feel. An enjoyable effort from Andy Stone.     (A.J. Wachtel)

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QUEEN ELEPHANTINE

Kala

6 tracks

Queen Elephantine is a Providence, RI, based heavy rock band. They carve hypnotic atmospheres as much as songs. They seem to be equally influenced by Swans as more metal groups like Isis or Today Is The Day. These are long mystical journeys into the unknowable. The song “Throne Of The Void In The Hundred Petal Lotus” is a magical marriage of space rock, doom, and metal. Turn off the bright lights, put on the headphones and go on a trip with Queen Elephantine’s Kala. It is hard to categorize this band, so I will simply label them as great.  (Eric Baylies)

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Frankly Francis I was speaking to four hungry Franciscans who are franchising in France, Paris and Francalookaville, Illinois. We wish you best of luck in your sincere efforts and hope that you and your assistant, Frannie Franerton, continue to muddle the waters with your “frantastic” reviews.

Tom Satch Kerans but you can call me Tom Satch Kerans

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MICHEAL J. ROY

Eclectricity

14 tracks

Michael J. Roy is the long time guitar star and handsome fashionista of Boston and NYC bands Fox Pass and Tom Dickie & the Desires. The players here are Stephen Gilligan on bass and Lenny Shea, Jr. on drums of Stompers fame. Line up wise this is essentially Fox Pass sans Jon Macey. Roy is and has always been a sensitive, painterly guitar player who added color and emotion to the songs of the Desires and Fox Pass, as he does here on Electricity. His warm, soulful voice can cause even this reprobate’s heart to melt. It was always Roy who was chosen to sing the smoother, more melodic songs of Fox Pass. If it were the ’60s, I could envision Roy in a blue eyed soul outfit like The Rascals.  “Stop the Rain” kicks my ass. As does the Byrdsian jangle of “In A Well.” There’s not a dud here. Roy’s voice is heart-wrenching. He doesn’t pluck the heartstrings – he shreds them! Congrats to a fine artist and human being.     (Nancy Neon)

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REVEREND FREAKCHILD

Treated and Released Records

Hillbilly Zen-Punk Blues

10 tracks

Swampy, with appropriately muddy production; the first song, “All I Got Is Now,” comes lackadaisically oozing out at us with laconic, homely wisdom: “If you can find a way/ To want what you get/ Hmm, I’ll tell you Buddy,/ That’s the best thing yet.” The Instrumental piece “Angel$ of Mercy” is a soothing, introspective piece for resonator guitar, with harmonica by the super-talented Hugh Pool. The brain-melting cover of Rev. Gary Davis’ “It’s Gonna Be Alright” is reverential, but not slavishly so–not to mention kind of trippy. “Lullaby” is another crystal-clear instrumental with meditative undertones. The delicate picking and atmosphere of calm is entrancing. The guitar line on “Moonlight Messages” is like something out of John Fahey, albeit with vocals, percussion, and flute (ably played by John Ragusa). “She Wants My Name” reverts back to gutbucket blues – the low-down dirty kind which wouldn’t be out of place in any whiskey-soaked roadhouse in the U.S.A. “Soul Transforming Realization” has an anthemic guitar line which explodes into percussion and dirty blues, then resumes its psychedelicized ascent. We hear some more spectacularly grimy blues on the raging “Tears of Fire.” Finishing off a fine collection is a growly version of a song made popular by Mississippi Fred McDowell and R.L. Burnside, “Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down” – a song which lesser mortals wouldn’t even attempt. Overall, this is one of the best modern blues albums I’ve heard in years. Recommended.  (Francis DiMenno)

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BONNIE GORDON

Lowbudget Records

This Modern World

10 tracks

When Bonnie Gordon released her debut album almost six years ago, she was a fresh-faced, lovelorn tunesmith of much potential. She got some excellent reviews, did a few gigs, and then disappeared. Not a promising career move. My suspicion is that heartache rules her destiny and the proof is here on her new album. With her fragile voice, wound-up verbal delicacy, and gentle piano playing, she paints song after song with vibrant images of failed, missed, and past romance. Obviously, she’s still looking for her dreamboat. There is something compelling and utterly personal, unsentimental, and somehow affectionate in the details she engages. In the title tune, she admits “I may be old fashioned/ A casualty of a kind/ But I’ll go round the world/ For a modern love to find.” Displaying a sadness tempered by optimism and a despair rescued by innocence and experience, she is a modern adult caught in a major paradox called the dating game. Two of my favorie songs are the bluesy, jazz shuffle, “Lips of Fire,” wherein she succumbs to the passionate advances of a “dime store paperback” though she prefers her “literature hard bound,” and “Long Ride,” a deep organ driven confessional overview of her tired life with “her meter expired without any spare change/ feeling so human and terribly exposed – my thoughts deranged.” Without forcing comparisons, she mostly reminds me of Marianne Faithful and Rikki Lee Jones, two classic song stylists with wistful voices and an array of anecdotes, all weary and wise. And lastly, I must acknowledge Chillgroove, the ambient, world-music backing band she uses to convey this fine material. Adroitly attuned to her sentimentality, every texture and nuance they produce – dripping with atmosphere – works masterfully. If they ever return to live performance, this would be an ideal pairing to make modern audiences swoon. This is a gorgeous, stunning album produced by Tim Casey, and hopefully a preview of more to come. Highly recommended.   (Harry C. Tuniese)

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MELVERN TAYLOR & HIS FABULOUS MELTONES

The Old New Stuff

14 tracks

This kicks off as classic Americana: nouveau-vaudeville music hall division, in the vein of Harper’s Bizarre, The Kinks, and Mungo Jerry (!). “Penny Arcade” – as well as many of the other songs –benefits from an irrepressible joyousness, here replete with horns, which is impossible for the fan of eclectic music to resist. Melvern Taylor has the kind of relaxed tenor which suits the material. Other best of shows include “Jet Black Chevy Corvette,” which has a somewhat cheesy old-time country and western tone which is nostalgically delightful. Brilliant, after its retro fashion. “Mill Town Moon” is a slowed-down waltz more suitable to the tastes and sentiments of the early 20th century than the present day, but its straight-faced earnestness renders it innocent of the charge of mere travesty. “Tellin Lies” is so sprightly it might almost be featured on The Lawrence Welk Show, reeking as it does of a ’20s mentality and ’40s western swing bonhomie. One almost expects to hear an electric steel solo by Bob Dunn. “Nothin Left to Do But Cry” could almost be a lost recording by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. It also happens to be a pretty good tune under the layers of superadded hokum. “The Girl Next Door to the Girl Next Door” is an anomalous Motown-like bit of early ’60s pop fluff and is awfully impressive, even if it is replete with the now-familiar c&w styled guitar. “Melly’s Waltz” caps the proceedings – thoughtful, even heartwarming, with an entrancing melody. The wonderful thing about this album is how it manages to integrate disparate instrumental styles belonging to music hall, bluegrass and c&w with the Great American Songbook of early 20th century popular and Broadway tunes – while seldom betraying much of a modern sensibility at all. This collection is an amusing exercise in musical camouflage which will please fans of artists such as early-era Randy Newman and Harry Nillsson. Recommended. (Francis DiMenno)

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BELLA’S BARTOK

Don’t Be Yourself

4 tracks

The number of songs on this release may be minimal but all the cuts possess a big and very unique sound and approach. The four tunes, “Frankenstein’s Monster,” “The Bag End  March,” “Garden Song,” and my favorite, “Wanderin’” all sound like they come from the music of an avant off-Broadway play. An accordion, mandolin, and acoustic guitar mix with a trumpet, trombone and a very tight bass and drums to provide the perfect backing for the changing tempos, alternating instrument focus and the eye-popping, finger wagging vocals. It’s as if a kaleidoscope had a soundtrack. The music itself has many influences from punk arrogance, polka oom-pa-pa, to Broadway musicals. Cool and very interesting music from a suburban band. Check it out.   (A.J. Wachtel)

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DOWNTOWN BOYS   

Don Giovanni Records

Full Communism         

12 tracks

Providence Rhode Island’s Downtown Boys are often lumped in with political punk rock bands. That’s all fine and good, and well documented elsewhere. I only have a moment of your time and I want to focus on what I love about Downtown Boys. They write catchy yet angry punk noise songs and execute them to near perfection, mostly in English, but with some sung in Spanish. Not many punk bands use horns, and fewer make them work. Downtown Boys, who are also great live, obviously put a lot of thought and hard work into this short but amazing album. The CD has 10 originals and two covers. “Poder Elegir” is from a leftist leaning Chilean hardcore band Los Prisoneros, and the other is from Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen has written many political anthems and socio-economic essays within the framework of a pop song, so its interesting that they cover the pretty much straight forward “Dancing In The Dark.”  Maybe singer Victoria Ruiz and crew want to show that sometimes even Downtown Boys want to have fun. (Eric Baylies)

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HIXX

Branded  

12 tracks

The music on these songs basically fall into two different categories: Southern rock punk, sorta like Blackfoot or Skynyrd on amphetamines, and country metal, sorta like Kiss meets Elvis meets Johnny Cash. Richard Mirsky (Zipper), Ray Crandall and Chris Costello wrote all the tunes and I know Bob Daley (Chloe) is now the hard hitting drummer, but the credits don’t reveal a thing to me about who does what to create this loud and contentious release. Everyone has a pseudonym with the last name Hixx, and in the photos, everyone is wearing sunglasses.  My favorite cuts are, the head banger “Petting Zoo,” the country punk ballad “Trailer” and the oversize 10-gallon hat country punk pop anthem “We Want America Back.” I also dig the growling and creepy low opening vocals to “AxMurder Country,” the loud sonic thrashing of “Redneck Motherfuckers,” and the aggressive “Drink! Fuck! Fight!”  Sometimes dark and scary. Always guitar driven. And built like a wall of sound. Best for inspiration when you want to kill for catharsis. Make sure you’re not near anything breakable. I love it !    (A.J. Wachtel)

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VIVA GINA

Live At WFMO   

4 tracks

This is a fun CD. I’m sure the ladies in Viva Gina work real hard to be this awesome. Tracks titled “Crotch Punch,” “Your New Girl Is A Slut,” and “Like A Unicorn” make me think these women are not as angry as they seem on first listen. The album is a must for anyone who likes Hole or The Muffs, but are looking for something way better. The songs were recorded live on WMFO’s On The Town With Mikey Dee on July 17, 2013. They sounds good but I can’t wait to hear a proper studio recording. Still, the live energy of the band explodes through the speakers and dares you to see them live. (Eric Baylies)

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