August 27, 2008
We had essentially forgotten that My Bloody Valentine even was reuniting, figuring that nobody in our tax bracket would ever be able to see it. But if this clip that's been making the rounds from their Fuji Fest performance last month doesn't quite get us totally pumped to see the show, we're at least now up to "intrigued."
August 25, 2008
XTC, "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead"
Our colleague (and XTC fan) David Bernstein is blogging -- and Twittering -- live from Denver for the duration of the Democratic National Convention. A few minutes ago he txt'd an update while walking past an official DNC merch booth that was blaring XTC's 1992 track "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead," which David correctly remembers as "a song about a JFK-like pol who gets killed."
We suspect that the DNC/XTC fan who put this on their iPod recalled the song's opening verses -- Candidate Pumpkinhead "came to town/Spreading wisdom and cash around/Fed the starving and housed the poor/Showed the vatican what gold's for" -- but neglected to recall the song's bitter conclusion:
But he made too many enemies...
Peter pumpkinhead put to shame
Governments who would slur his name
Plots and sex scandals failed outright
Peter merely said
Any kind of love is alright
But he made too many enemies...
Peter pumpkinhead was too good
Had him nailed to a chunk of wood
He died grinning on live tv
Look, we're all in favor of anything that gets the Democrats to stop blaring the same two fucking Bruce Springsteen and U2 songs they've been playing at every rally since 2004. But given how assiduously the Obama campaign and the news media in general have avoided the A-word -- as ThePhoenix.com's Adam Reilly reported during the primaries -- this seems like a very odd choice for a soundtrack to selling Obama t-shirts.
August 25, 2008
In lieu of a review of Metallica's throwbackish new single, which has bitterly divided staff opinion, we'd been amusing ourselves by making up (a la the New Yorker's caption contest) snarky new song titles suggested by this photo -- an image by which we are universally horrified. Feel free to add your own in the comments, but note that the following are taken:
And then, just today, Metallica made yet another surprising upmarket cameo -- in the New Yorker itself. The source? Part two of Anthony Lane's Olympic Games wrap-up, thusly (our emphasis):
The other mystery weapon in [Canadian archer Jay] Lyon’s quiver was Phil Towle, a performance coach back in the States, whose online messages had been an inspiration. “He’s also been a psychologist for Metallica,” Ryan said, as if to justify the gentleman. I had to steady myself against a passing volunteer. Metallica has a psychologist? What, exactly, is it repressing in its sylvan melodies?
What makes this exchange particularly amusing is that Anthony Lane is the New Yorker's chief film critic.
Anthony, have we got a movie for you.
August 22, 2008
These guys are weird
Skeletal Lamping, Of Montreal's follow-up to last year's outstanding Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, made its way on to the internet today, and it's a worthy follow-up that may even outpace its celebrated predecessor.
The actual sound of Skeletal Lamping is pretty comparable to Hissing Fauna. It's still Of Montreal's particular brand of weird, arty, pop. It kind of sounds like listening to a 1970s cartoon. What this album doesn't have is anything as instantly catchy as some of the best songs on Hissing Fauna ("Heimdalsgate as a Promethean Curse" or "A Sentence of Sorts in Koningsvar.") But that's okay - what it lacks in immediacy it makes up for in ambition. This is main dude Kevin Barnes' epic, and if it's not an actual "concept album," it's certainly got a unifying theme to it - specifically, just about all of the songs are about sex, and they manage to get their point across in about the least subtle way imaginable. Sample lyric: "I want to know what it's like to be inside you." And that's one of the tamer ones.
August 21, 2008
DOWNLOAD: Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Shoppin' for a Friend" [mp3]
If you were around in 1978, it’s possible you could’ve bought Unnatural Axe’s legendary seven-inch "They Saved Hitler’s Brain' out of the bin at Newbury Comics, then gone to see Richie Parsons’s obnoxiously loud (or loudly obnoxious?) OG punk band tear the Police a new asshole at the Rat. Thirty years on, the Rat is dead, but the Unnatural Axe and Newbury Comics are still with us. They even share a birthday, which they’re celebrating together with three Parsons-curated gigs at Church August 21 and 22 and the Middle East downstairs August 23. For those who would dispute the continuing relevance of either institution, there’s Ruling the World from the Back Seat, a new double-LP (yes, vinyl) tribute to the Axe on which their songs are played by the likes of Mission of Burma (“Creeper”), the Neighborhoods (“The Man”), Jerry’s Kids (“Bombing”), the Queers (“No Surfing in Dorchester Bay”); there are even takes on “Hitler” B-side “Summertime” by both the Bags and the Dogmatics. Here we’ve got the Mighty Mighty Bosstones rampaging through “Shopping for a Friend,” a song that could still pass for a Johnny Thunders tune if not for the local details. As in the original, Dicky Barrett name-checks Filene’s Basement, which is (essentially) lost to history, along with (you guessed it) Newbury Comics, which is not.
BONUS TRACK: Another new Dicky Barrett song!
Longtime Phoenix contributor and former music editor Ted Drozdowski is about to release Luck In a Hurry, a new album by his punk/blues duo SCISSORMEN (with the drummer from Blaine "Nashville Pussy" Cartwright's old band Nine Pound Hammer).Ted taught OTD most of what we know about the blues, which is not bad tutelage considering Ted learned partly from the late critic Robert Palmer, and partly from the hill-country virtuosos of Clarksdale, Mississippi, including the late R.L. Burnside. The new Scissormen record is the fucking balls, and this track is even gnarlier thanks to a cameo by the Bosstones' Dickie Barrett -- who with his grizzly-bear growl is actually a much more believable blues singer than he is a ska singer. HE MISSED HIS CALLING. Kidding, plaid ones, kidding.
DOWNLOAD: Scissormen and Dicky Barrett, "Whiskey and Mary Jane" [mp3]
August 19, 2008
As always, you can get first dibs on weekly ticket onsales straight to your mobile phone by texting HOTTIX to 22122. Standard txt-msg rates apply.
KAKI KING
October 10 at the Paradise, Boston | $15 | On sale this Thursday, August 21, at noon
ASOBI SEKSU
October 18 at T.T. the Bear’s Place, Cambridge | $10 | On sale Friday at 10 am | www.ticketweb.com
THE HOLD STEADY + DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
November 9 at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston | $25-$27.50 | On sale Friday at 10 am
KINGS OF LEON + WE ARE SCIENTISTS + THE WHIGS
November 12 at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston | $36 | On sale Friday at 10 am
ELECTRIC SIX + LOCAL H + THE GOLDEN DOGS
November 21 downstairs at the Middle East, Cambridge | $15 | On sale Friday at 10 am
N.E.R.D. + COMMON
October 1 at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston | $35-$39.50 | On sale Friday at noon
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
October 3 at Agganis Arena, Boston | $35 | On sale Saturday at 10 am
MAXWELL
October 8 at the Opera House, Boston | $59.50-$150 | On sale Saturday at 10 am
MADONNA: STICKY & SWEET TOUR
October 16 at the TD Banknorth Garden, Boston | $57.50-$352.50 | On sale Monday at 10 am
MEIKO + JENNY OWEN YOUNGS + THAO NGUYEN + SAMANTHA CRAIN
October 31 at the Paradise, Boston | $15 | On sale Tuesday at noon
ZUCCHERO
September 25 at the Somerville Theatre | $39.50 | On sale Saturday at 10:00 am
August 19, 2008
Jen and Andy Guthrie of Band in Boston: “Five Local Songs We’d Love to Play in Rock Band”
1_The Soft Drugs, “Let It Be”
2_The Self Righteous Brothers, “Electric Boogaloo”
3_Apollo Sunshine, “Brotherhood of Death”
4_Viva Viva, “Valentine”
5_Township, “Highway”
Band in Boston curated a series of shows at P.A.’s Lounge that runs through this Saturday.
August 15, 2008
DOWNLOAD: The Broken River Prophet, "Alec's Vision" [mp3]
The Broken River Prophet have come a long way since 1994 — without ever leaving Allston. Adam Brilla (of Lockgroove, Tiny Amps, Shenzou 5, and the Seana Carmody Band) imagined an evolving exploration of country, psych, and folk musics, but it’s not likely he foresaw the panorama of sounds that’s ensued. After more than a decade of amorphous memberships and genre-resistant experimentation, the group have finally been “curated” into what feels like a band. On “Alec’s Vision,” from their new With Infinite Arms To Cradle the Flames, the sweet boy/girl vocals of Brilla and Deborah Warfield navigate storms of bristly guitars, but the real surprise is the overt pop — think Silversun Pickups without their fashion pouts. Grab the MP3 above, and then nab your own copy of Infinite Arms at the CD-release show this Saturday, August 16, at the Middle East upstairs.
August 14, 2008
>>If you haven't already, check out our photo gallery from last night's show. Yes, it was that good.
Sure, we sent a "reviewer" to the Radiohead show last night -- WILL SPITZ went
with the traditional pen and reporters' notebook, having won a
last-minue inter-office Sumo match for the right to write the Final
Word on the World's Most Important Band. The rest of us, being big
interweb dorks and even bigger Radiohead geeks, took our cellphones and
txt-chatted straight to our Twitter page during the whole show, thereby
making us into total assholes. But look, someone's gotta lead the
new-media revolution, right? What are you gonna do, read what the Herald wrote? Or skim our fanboyish, Twitterific play-by-play, NOW UPDATED WITH YOUTUBE CLIPS? Exaaaactly. Here's how it went down according to OTD, MEGAN BELL (who was seeing her third Radiohead show in less than a week!), and CAITLIN CURRAN. Read on after the jump!
August 13, 2008
Going to Radiohead tonight? Got a Twitter account? Follow us on www.twitter.com/bostonphoenix, then reply to our live-tweets with shocking praise, OMGs, stoned epiphanies, etc. We'll post best @bostonphoenix tweets tomorrow morning at www.phx.com/onthedownload, along with shitloads of photos by our ace shutterbug Carina.
If you're stranded at home, you can still read our drunken, real-time play-by-play (in bursts of 140 characters or less) at www.twitter.com/bostonphoenix.
And yes, we know it's not called the Tweeter Center anymore.
August 12, 2008
Joel Roston of Big Bear and Don’t Ever Lie to Anyone: “Songs I've Totally Annihilated at Karaoke”
1_Oasis, “Don’t Look Back in Anger”
2_Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill”
3_Billy Joel, “The Longest Time”
4_Liz Phair, “Supernova”
5_The Beatles, “Oh! Darling"
Don’t Ever Lie to Anyone play upstairs at the Middle East on Friday.
August 11, 2008
Part 1 of 2: Melvins at the Paradise, August 9, 2008
K. Bonami shot some clandestine vid of the epic Melvins gig at the Paradise over the weekend. Clickage above, and one more after the jump. Also, if you haven't already, we highly suggest reading the interview we did this week with King Buzzo's wife, Mackie: clearly, indie-metal fans, someone needs to put together a reality show. The Osbornes, anyone?
August 11, 2008
The last time Dan Deacon came to MassArt, it looked like this.
Dan Shea's had this one on his calendar for a while, but we didn't quite understand the gravity of the situation until we got a press release explaining exactly what DAN DEACON has planned for the "Baltimore Round Robin" tour, which kicks off at Boston's MassArt in October. It's not simply that Deacon has assembled a lineup of more than 20 of Baltimore's finest bands and multimedia artists to perform over the course of two nights -- from Beach House and Jana Hunter to the Deathset and of course Deacon his own bad self. Sure, the content is fantastic. But the format is some waaaaaaay next-level shit. We'll let them explain it, because you'd never believe it coming from us -- read on after the jump -->
August 11, 2008
We've been anticipating/dreading the leak of the new METALLICA single for weeks -- god, it can't be any worse than St. Anger, can it? -- and we can't say that we're heartened by the fact that the band is rolling out its American tour dates several weeks BEFORE the release of their new Death Magnetic. Metallica live is always sort of a no-brainer, but you can't help wonder whether they're gonna try to get fans to buy tix before the single comes out and spoils everyone's enthusiasm.
The good news? No on-sale dates have been posted yet, but the band will be at TD Banknorth Garden on January 18, 2009 -- a Saturday night -- with the Sword on the opening card. The bad news? The other opening band is Machine Head. Jesus.
Here's the full North American tour schedule:
October 21 - Glendale, AZ Jobing Arena
October 23 - Albquerque, NM Tingley Coliseum
October 25 - Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
October 26 - Des Moines, IA Wells Fargo Arena
November 1 - Portland, OR Rose Quarter
November 3 - Salt Lake City, UT Energy Solutions Arena
November 4 - Denver, CO Pepsi Center
November 6 - Omaha, NE Qwest Center
November 8 - Moline, IL iWireless Center
November 9 - Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center
November 17 - St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
November 18 - Tulsa, OK BOK Center
November 20 - Houston, TX Toyota Center
November 22 - Little Rock, AR Alltel Arena
November 23 - New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena
December 1 - Seattle, WA Key Arena
December 2 - Vancouver, BC GM Place
December 4 - Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
December 7 - Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
December 12 - Ontario, CA Citizens Bank Arena
December 13 - Fresno, CA Save Mart Center
December 15 - San Diego, CA Cox Arena
December 17 - Los Angeles, CA The Forum
December 20 - Oakland, CA Oracle Aren
January 12 - Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
January 13 - Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
January 15 - Washington, DC Verizon Center
January 17 - Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
January 18 - Boston, MA TD Banknorth Center
January 26 - Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
January 29 - Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum
January 31 - Newark, NJ Prudential Center
August 09, 2008
The Museum of Fine Arts has just released its fall indie-rock schedule -- killer, as usual -- which includes dates for Why?, the Dodos, Low, No Kids, Jolie Holland, and Au Revoir Simone, among many others. Check back, we'll be doing ticket giveaways for all of 'em. In the meantime, though, we're giving away tix to the MFA's summer-ending indie blowout with Grizzly Bear (the day after they open for Radiohead) and Violens outdoors (weather permitting) in the MFA's courtyard on August 14. Don't bother trying to buy your way in, it's been sold out for a month. To win tix, text the word GRIZZLY to 22122. We'll notify the winners next week.
And if you feel like it, you can get OTD's weekly Tuesday Ticket Alert -- the earliest possible word on which concerts are going on sale when -- by texting the word HOTTIX to 22122.
Note: standard text-messaging rates apply.