PLAYGROUND BOSTON

Make your way to T.T. the Bear’s place on Wednesday night and you will definitely see some familiar faces, as this week’s trip over the hump will be filled with sounds in the air from some of the Boston independent music scene’s more prolific & industrious cast members.

Sophie Innerfield’s recently solo-only venture, Highly Personal Trash, allegedly won’t be so solo after all.  This siren’s stirring yet picturesque vocal melodies are rumored to be accompanied not just by her undulating modes on keys alone, but also by the multi-talented Chaetan Newell (St. Helena) on drums, thus further complimenting the mysterious drive of her otherwise haunting compositions.

Speaking of Newell, following HPT will be his personal outfit, Croquet, celebrating their CD release.   Newell’s self-proclaimed “inexorable right to do whatever he wants,” Croquet’s clean but involved guitar patterns shimmer and dance over active-to-pensive drumming while the dual-vocal fronting of Newell and sideman Thomas Parr tell the story.

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Upon seeing their live performance, Kingsley Flood immediately impressed me with their self-dubbed “Post-Americana” homage to acoustic blues, bluegrass, and Dixieland jazz, all the while filling their tasteful arrangements with strong lyrical imagery, and Dust Windows, the recorded version of this band’s musical arsenal, did not disappoint.

“Cathedral Walls,” starting in at track three, heralds in the next seven tracks that, during every playback, actually made me stop whatever I was doing and just listen.  “Cathedral Walls” opens with a great mellotron-sounding pad that gives way to vocalist Naseem Khuri’s signature acoustic guitar.  Khuri’s scratchy, Dylan-esque (but in pitch!) voice settles in to set the pace on verse one, and the song just builds from there. Drummer Will Davies enters the first chorus and leaves out a much anticipated second stroke, which, accident or not, gives me goose bumps every time it happens.  What follows is a very satisfying, four-minute, musical payoff. Nick Balkin’s bass part is very mid-rangy, but serves the song in a deliciously utilitarian & reliable way. The mandolin & guitar melodies are very sweet and catchy, and the background vocals are excellently written. Khuri’s final benediction before the chorus is his shortest but most rewarding lyric in the song:  “…. so call it a prayer / call it a lie / but nobody gets out of life alive.”

Kingsley Flood – “Cathedral Walls”

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A three-way marriage.

That’s legal in Massachusetts, right?

Well, that’s exactly what you get out of The Indobox’s Adventure Rock:  a three-way marriage of electric, electronic, and acoustic as they switch at will from the passionately organic to the grindingly distorted and onward to the pleasantly & head-bobbing-ly danceable.

That also means there’s no way to single out any one instrumentalist or even vocalist.

Quinn Ferree’s natural drums give way periodically to drum-machine sounds that ramp up and down in the backdrop of tracks like “Reading,” and “Part II.”  Guitars provide stabbing rhythms and monolithic chords in the background while bright synth lines decorate a track. At other times, those same guitarists take the front seat, dial on the delay, and swim their way into your ears. The vocal styles and sounds also change throughout the record thanks to multiple singers, making for a further varied experience.

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All Photos by Nicole Tammaro - www.nicoletammaro.com

In my opinion, Watts is a Boston band not to be missed.  My most recent favorite description of their sound is Psychedelic Furs’ vocalist Richard Butler singing with the catchiest of Tom Petty-style rock.  The result makes it hard to pinpoint which aspect of Watts is more memorable:  Dan Kopko’s vocal melodies or John Blout’s guitar lines.

It’s been said in one of my previous reviews that I’m a huge fan of Watts drummer John Lynch (also the drummer for the Dirty Truckers).  For my full opinion on his musicianship, check out the Dirty Truckers review, also found on Playground Boston.

I’ll just say that Lynch continues in this project to provide the same solid drumming and tasteful dynamics that I’ve come to expect, but this time in a smaller venue demanding a lot from a band so easily tailored to great loud Rock’n'Roll.  In any case, the band didn’t disappoint in their command of the sound and stage alike.

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Firing off pop songs like synchronized riflemen are Brendan Boogie & the Best Intentions, the imagery not entirely unrelated to the sea captain-themed duds of both drummer Justin Tibbets & lead guitarist Tim Delaney. Frontman/bassist Brendan Boogie and guitarist KenDo both kept up the sophistication with their ties and sweaters, and I’m always a sucker for a band that dresses for the show, as long as it’s not uniform.

Dress code aside, Boogie and his recruits delivered a loud & lively, tight & grinding set of catchy, power pop complete with fun lyrics and a full assault of vocals from all three axe-wielders on the front line. I guess I’ve got a soft spot for bands that have a full set of singers stepping up to three mics in sync, and the harmonies are very reminiscent of Dave Grohl’s textures on his various projects, which I especially like in this genre.

The song that had me smiling most was “Pharmaceuticals.” Simply stated, once the chorus dropped to the title line, I almost jumped for joy at “Ooooo, life is beautiful!…” It’s nice to see a band not relishing the pseudo-glamor of drug abuse, but rather seeming to satirize emotional dependency on medication.

Add in catchy songs like, “I Remember Teenage Girls,” and “Baby Makes My World Go ‘Round,” which feature the same background-driven hooks and Delaney’s punchy leads, Brendan Boogie & the Best Intentions will keep your head bouncing and your ears full. Brendan’s got a number of solo shows coming up in town, including the Cover-Up series at the Lizard Lounge and Boston Band Crush’s One Night Band, but the next time you can catch the full band in town is September 18th down at Church.

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For our readers, if you haven’t been to a performance by The Dirty Truckers, you are missing out on one of the finest musical experiences in Boston. Yes, I know that’s a big statement, but being a fan of rock & roll music, I do rate it up there with Symphony Hall. It’s just one of those things you’ve got to do in this town.

Featuring Tom Baker on lead vocals and guitar, The Dirty Truckers bring to the scene a great mix of top notch, American rock songs – complete with John Lynch’s pounding drums, Jamie Griffith’s virtuous bass lines, and Baker’s lyrical storytelling, topped off with a sparkling twang of guitarist John Brookhouse’s home grown, almost country, lead guitar lines.

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Kinsgley Flood – It’s 8:36, and the job falls on Kingsley Flood to warm us all up for the night, and they kicked it off right with a slow, bluegrass-style ballad. The song, entitled, “Eventually,” featured frontman Naseem Khuri’s acoustic guitar and electric guitarist George Hall’s delicate-yet-shining lead lines, and the song had what I thought to be the best three-part vocals I’ve heard this side of the Mississippi.

For me what makes a great band is dynamics, and Kingsley Flood has it in spades. Consistently, for the first three songs, Hall’s guitar solos made the perfect transformation from background shimmer of noise and gentle countermelody into growling and blinding prima danseurs.

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