New England Music News

Boston music news: August 11, 2006

Notes on Bullseye and Aberdeen City

By JIM SULLIVAN | August 8, 2006

Bullseye

Greg “Skeggy” Kendall is best known in town for his music, both playing it and promoting it. But the singer/guitarist and his family relocated to Amherst three years ago, and his main gig now is as an independent film distributor. As for music: “My entire rock thing, I’m flexing that muscle with the kids now.” By “the kids” he means his own, bassist/singer Lucas, 12, and drummer Dana, 11, and their four friends: guitarist Lucas Graham, 10, pianist Eamon Wick, 12, keyboardist Tom Naughton, 11, and percussionist Evan Jacobson, 11. Their name: Bullseye.

They have a CD mixed by another Boston ex-pat, Fort Apache’s Gary Smith, and they play the Middle East downstairs this Saturday sandwiched between Kristin Hersh’s two bands, 50 Foot Wave and Throwing Muses. Bullseye, says Kendall, evolved out of a jam at Dana’s 10th-birthday party. “They wanted to keep doing it, so I had Rock School on Sundays.” The sound? “They have a fairly sprawling sound. The songs are not punk rock but have tight pop construction.” Tunes are composed by the brothers Kendall, though they also cover the Kinks’ “I’m Not like Everybody Else.” And they recently caught a nice break — the Fray heard their demo and invited them to open for them at Lupo’s in Providence in front of 2000 people. It was their second gig

Steve Lillywhite (U2, Talking Heads, Pogues, Peter Gabriel, Morrissey, etc.) is one of my favorite producers, and he lent his talents to two songs on Aberdeen City’s Columbia debut, The Freezing Atlantic, which came out Tuesday. Nic Hard (the Bravery, the Church) handled the rest of the disc. The foursome start a tour next month that includes a home-town show downstairs at the Middle East on September 19.