New England Music News

Boston music news: November 24, 2006

Notes on Frank Smith and Mark Kates

By JIM SULLIVAN | November 20, 2006

Frank Smith

One of AARON SINCLAIR’s bands, the LOT SIX, played their final show a week ago last Thursday. But Sinclair’s one-time solo offshoot, FRANK SMITH, are very much alive and well. In fact, while the Lot Six were gearing up for their goodbye show, Sinclair and the rest of Frank Smith — bassist Dan Burke, drummer Drew Roach, pedal-steel player Steve Malone, and guitarist Scott Toomey — were laying down tracks for Heavy Handed Peace and Love. The disc, Frank Smith’s fifth, is scheduled for release early next year. Sinclair calls their music a mix of “indie, country, and honky-tonk.” We hear echoes of latter day Gun Club; Sinclair is happy to admit the new disc is “pretty gloomy.” The basic tracks were done at Mad Oak in Allston, the vocals at Q Division in Somerville, and some final guitar touches were added at 202 Lions in Quincy. Mixing has now commenced. In the meantime, Frank Smith open for the Damnwells downstairs at the Middle East next Thursday, November 30. And they’ve licensed four tracks to On Broadway, an indie film starring Eliza Dushku that was scored by Buffalo Tom’s BILL JANOVITZ and will hit next year’s festival circuit.

In other news: MARK KATES, a/k/a DJ Carbo and the founding owner of the local Fenway Recordings, has something to celebrate this Monday at Great Scott: it’s the 30th of his Fenway Recordings Sessions. The show itself will feature England’s ¡FORWARD, RUSSIA!, and SNOWDEN as well as DJing by Carbo himself. And like past Sessions, it’s a chance to catch buzzed-about bands early on — as Kates puts it, “bands we believe in before they get bigger. It’s been a cross-section of important new bands, especially from England, over the past three years. Agents know our night is a good night for new bands to get promoted. And Great Scott, with its 250 capacity, is intimate without being claustrophobic.”

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Jim Sullivan: jimsullivanink@verizon.net