PLAYGROUND BOSTON

The 25th Annual Collegefest kicks off this weekend at the Hynes Convention Center in Back Bay, 900 Boylston St. The event takes place during the daytime, so you still have plenty of time to spend your weekend nights as you please. Tickets for each day are $10 in advance or at the door, but the Collegefest website has various ways you can get discounted admission if you want to do a little work for it. There’s a great mix of local and national bands of all different genres represented, plus chances to walk out of there with tons of free swag. This is a great opportunity to walk out of the Center with your ears ringing from some great music, and your pockets and bags heavy with all the free stuff that you can handle that’ll be thrown at you from the minute you enter the place. Check out the schedule here!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11th

12:10pm – 12:30pm TBA
12:50pm – 1:15pm The Yellow Team
1:30pm – 1:55pm Red Summer Sun
2:15pm – 2:40pm Ten Feet Deep
3:00pm – 3:25pm Tom Flash
3:40pm – 4:10pm Mission Hill
4:25pm – 4:55pm Mike Del Rio
5:10pm – 5:40pm McAlister Drive
6:00pm – 7:00pm Chiddy Bang

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12th

12:10pm – 12:40pm Air Traffic Controller
12:55pm – 1:25pm Jamie Kent
1:40pm – 2:10pm The Goonies
2:25pm – 2:55pm All These Elements
3:10pm – 3:45pm Hank & Cupcakes
4:00pm – 4:35pm Man on Earth
5:00pm – 6:00pm Asher Roth

McAlister Drive – “Best Dressed” – Missing Figures EP

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Collegefest

After a little moving-related hiatus, PGB is back in action… and we’ve got some free music AND some free tickets for you! Muy Cansado has been a longtime PGB Favorite – their Track Of The Week selection last November, “Tu Eres Mala,” is still in heavy rotation on our iPods to this day! Twangy strumming, clever songwriting, catchy rhythms, and Pixiesesque abrasive-wailing male / sweet-as-saccharine female dueling vocals – the perfect recipe for some good ol’ fashioned home-cooked rock & roll!

“Giant” is the first track off of Muy Cansado’s brand new EP Love & Fear. Slick guitar riffs and catchy sing-a-long choruses abound throughout all 4 songs on the album. After much deliberation we here at PGB have decided that this track is our favorite – and the good folks who wrote and recorded it have consented to let us share it with you – for free! Give it a listen here, and if you like it, give it a download! And if you REALLY like it,  support your local musicians and get yourself a copy of the EP – you’ll love every song! (Note: album available at 9/11 CD Release Party, and for digital download beginning on Tuesday, 9/14 on artist’s website)

Muy Cansado – “Giant” – Love & Fear

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download: Muy Cansado - Giant.mp3 (3.66MB) description: Right-Click to Download!

The release of Love & Fear is to be celebrated this Saturday, September 11th, at the Middle East Upstairs. Muy Cansado has put together an incredible lineup to help them celebrate their first release in 2 years, featuring fellow PGB Favorites Sidewalk Driver and The Lights Out, as well as Muy Cansado’s labelmates from NYC, The Press. The Lights Out will also be releasing a new EP at this show – Rock Pony is a collection of long-time crowd favorites they’ve been playing at their shows for years but never recorded… until now!

This promises to be an amazing night of local music, and along with the Gozu/Mellow Bravo dual CD Release party at the ME Downstairs the night before, the BEST CD RELEASE WEEKEND OF THE YEAR! There have been some excellent new albums from Boston bands in 2010, but 4 brand new releases from 4 PGB Favorites, 4 Track Of The Week honorees, all over the course of 2 nights with stacked local lineups at the same venue? How could it possibly get better than that? …How about if we gave you a pair of tickets to get into this show absolutely free? Would that make it better? Yeah, we think so too. To win tickets, just send an e-mail to bryan@playgroundboston.com with the subject “MUY CANSADO” and you’ll be automatically entered into the contest! Our winner will be selected at random this Friday, September 10th, so make sure to enter before it’s too late! See you at the show!

Saturday, September 11th – Middle East Upstairs
18+ / $10 / Doors at 8pm

Muy Cansado

The Lights Out

Sidewalk Driver

The Press

Check out the brand new official video for “Used to Be” by PGB Favorites Have Nots, filmed by master videographer Mike Gill of Circumvision! The Boston-based ska-punk band has released another excellent video featuring poignant and thought-provoking themes set to a fast-paced, fast-sung aggressive anthem. “Used to Be” is about growing up, getting old, and making changes over the course of your life – I’m sure there’s plenty of people reading this right now at their office job who can relate to things not quite turning out the way they envisioned! The video was shot by Mike Gill, who is responsible for some amazing videos from bands like Televandals, Confront, State Radio, Damone, and Wheat among others. This is the second video shot by Gill off of Have Nots’ debut album Serf City USA, PGB has featured the video for “One In Four” in the past. Watch this video here, and check out the full library over at the Circumvision website.

OH YEAH! You can also download the entire debut album from Have Nots, Serf City USA, for FREE! This is easily one of the best local releases of 2009 of ANY genre, let alone just punk rock – a PGB favorite all the way!

Have Nots will be playing this Saturday, Sepetember 4th, at the Middle East Downstairs as part of the CD Release Party for veteran Boston punks Far From Finished. FFF and Have Nots will be joined by PGB Track of The Week honorees Burning Streets and Lenny Lashley of Darkbuster (2000 WBCN Rumble winners). This is a jam-packed lineup of some of Boston punk rock’s best helping to kick off an unbelievable MONTH of music in the city – get your weekends clear now, because you won’t want to miss this or any of the shows we have coming up in town!

Saturday, September 24th – Middle East Downstairs
18+ / Doors at 8
$10 advance / $12 door

Far From Finished (CD Release)

Have Nots

Burning Streets

Lenny Lashley (Darkbuster)

Circumvision

Oldjack

“Love Me Or?”

Union Glory

© 2009 Self-Released

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Oldjack

I can’t believe this song hasn’t made Track Of The Week before now. This is easily the best song off of one of the best local releases of 2009! Oldjack has a residency at the end of every month at the Rosebud in Davis Square, Somerville. They’ve been inviting some of their favorite bands in town to play with them, and this Saturday night (8/28) is certainly one hell of a lineup! Check out the soulful sounds of Oldjack, the catchy pop rock of Brendan Boogie, and a special reunion set by retro indie rockers The Charms! This is a lot of great music for only $5, mark your calendars now and be sure to get down to Davis this Saturday!

Saturday, August 28th – Rosebud
21+ / $5 / Doors at 9pm

Oldjack

The Charms

Brendan Boogie (acoustic)

Stingray Body Art owner Scott Matalon, performing with his band Matalon at the Stingray 5th Anniversary Party at Harpers Ferry - Photo Credit: Scott Gacek

The Welch Boys – “Friend Or Foe” – The Welch Boys
(Stingray 5th Anniversary Party Headliner)

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The Welch Boys - Photo Credit: Scott Gacek

Thanks to Scott Gacek for the great photos! See more of his work at wickedcheapshots.com!

100th Monkey Effect

Old Crow & The 45’s

Matalon

The Welch Boys

Stingray Body Art

Harpers Ferry

Al Polk of Streight Angular, clearly shown here saluting the awesomeness of Playground Boston and all things PGB - Photo Credit: Justbill

Streight Angular – “Alright” – Alright EP

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This show at Harper’s Ferry served as a benefit for Ben Garceau, ex lead singer for Roman Traffic (formerly Gravehaven). A tragic accident Ben narrowly survived led to staggering hospital bills – by all accounts this benefit raised $750 to help him overcome his debt. The Garceau family is still accepting donations, if you’d like to contribute please visit this website.

The Luxury's Justin Day, very excited to get a feature in PGB - Photo Credit: JustBill

Saturday’s show was also the Re-Birthday party of local radio program Boston Emissions, hosted by Anngelle Wood. The show used to be part of the WBCN Sunday night lineup, but with the dissolution of WBCN approximately a year ago Wood took her show over to WZLX, and was celebrating her first anniversary at the new station.

Thanks to JustBill for the great photos! Check out Justbill.net for more of his work!

JustBill.net

Dead Cats Dead Rats

Streight Angular

The Luxury

Ben Garceau Donations

Boston Emissions

Harper’s Ferry

Mad Oak’s got another live session up, and once again it’s been made available for free download! Boston streetpunks Razors In The Night have been taking the world by storm basement by dingy basement, club by packed club, pit by ferocious pit. They’re currently recording a new full-length album, but while that’s in production they wanted to do something for their fans and give them some new music to hold them over until the new record gets finished up. RITN’s thunderous live set has been the stuff of legend in hardcore punk circles since they first broke out on the Boston scene early last year, with this new live album you can now check it out for yourself!

In late July RITN locked themselves in the infamous Allston recording studio to lay down a full set of raucous hardcore anthems with a few dozen of their friends. The purpose of the visit was to do a video shoot for their instant classic “Carry On!,” but while they were there Mad Oak master engineer Benny Grotto left the tapes running and captured the entire set! The video, shot by Mike Gill of Circumvision, won’t be finished for quite some time, but you can download all the audio from the night free of charge, courtesy of the good people down at one of the best studios in the city. The Live Album features all of the old favorites from 2009’s Carry On! EP, as well as a few brand new songs that will appear on the upcoming album! This is Boston hardcore in its most raw, primeval form – live, uncut, and with a horde of seething punks and skins screaming along to every word. If this doesn’t get your blood boiling then well, to put it bluntly, you’re a fucking corpse.

Razors In The Night – “Did I Stutter?” – Live At Mad Oak

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Razors In The Night – Live At Mad Oak
Download Link: 2010.07.22 Live at Mad Oak Live-to-2 Mixes.zip

The mp3 files aren’t labeled by song, so here’s the tracklisting for you to copy down:

1. Intro
2. Did I Stutter
3. Alcololists
4. Insufficient Funds
5. On The Outside
6. Carry On! – Intro
7. Carry On!
8. Jeff Allen – Intro
9. Get What You Give
10. Hate LA
11. Frustration – Intro
12. Frustration
13. Tuning to “D”
14. Hipster Holocaust
15. The Summers
16. Never Give In
17. Never Give In (Continued)
18. Skinhead Alright
19. Carry On! (Take 2)

Razors In The Night

Mad Oak Studios

The narrative behind an album can often be as compelling as the album itself, whether it’s Justin Vernon of Bon Iver locking himself in a remote Wisconsin cabin for three months to write “For Emma, Forever Ago” or that time when Puffy covered a Sting song in tribute to his boy Biggie. The story behind the music can often be bigger than the music itself. Meet Tennis, the husband and wife duo of Alana Moore and Patrick Riley. Their summery lo-fi beach bound hits have been met with rave reviews and an even bigger sense of mystery.

Moore and Riley began writing music together on an 8-month sailing voyage along the East Coast. The couple spent six years saving up for the trip, which was a childhood dream of Riley’s. Tennis’ song titles reference various ports they docked at on their journey – “Marathon” (Florida) “Baltimore” (like “The Wire”) and “South Carolina” (that one). The sense of discovery and adventure that fueled the trip are also present in the sounds and lyrics of their mysteriously poppy and fuzzed out record.

Tennis’ debut 7″ was released on Underwater Peoples late last month. The duo is touring the East Coast (by van) for their first time ever, and hope to unveil some of the mystery behind themselves. Catch their first east coast appearance on Sunday 8/22 at Great Scott on a great bill that also features Boston’s I Have Ears and Jersey’s Family Portrait.

Sunday, August 29th – Great Scott
18+ / $8 / Doors at 9pm

Tennis

i have ears

Family Portrait

Hunter S. Floortom

It’s that time again! 40 local Boston musicians split randomly into 8 5-piece bands, writing 4 songs (1 cover) over the course of a single day to be performed the very same night. Sound hectic? It is? Sound awesome? IT IS! This is the second annual occurrence of One Night Band, put on by the good folks over at Boston Band Crush for the benefit of East Boston youth music organization Zumix.

This year’s edition features another incredible roster taken from some of Boston’s best bands – Township, MEandJOANCOLLINS, Mellow Bravo, Sidewalk Driver, Mean Creek, Drug Rug, Gozu, Autumn Hollow Band… the list goes on and on. Head on over to the ONB website to check out bios and interviews of all the participants, then get down to the Middle East Saturday night for an unforgettable event! As an added bonus, the first 300 people in the door will get a gift bag filled with all sorts of free goodies! Check out the video below, it’s a documentary about how this amazing night went last year!

One Night Band

Boston Band Crush

Zumix