PLAYGROUND BOSTON

More giveaways? No problem! This time we’ve got a pair of tickets to go see local indie darlings Drug Rug open up for Apollo Sunshine next Thursday the 18th! Fresh off a national tour, Drug Rug returns triumphantly to their hometown to rock out the big stage at the Paradise. Fronted by BMA Female Vocalist of the Year Sarah Cronin, Drug Rug has been taking the lo-fi indie scene by storm on both the local and national level since the release of last year’s Paint The Fence Invisible. They’re currently plotting and scheming on a new album to be recorded in May, so you can bet you’ll get a nice mix of brand new songs to go with your favorites from the last album.

Apollo Sunshine, who also boasts ties to Boston (as well as NY and SF), will be headlining the night. After blowing up in the Berklee scene, they’ve spent the past few years touring the country and all over the world opening up for the likes of Dirty Pretty Things, Sonic Youth, Built to Spill, The Walkmen, The Roots, The Decemberists, and My Morning Jacket. They’ve got quite the unique style, which Pitchfork describes as “runs the gamut from pastoral folk to distorted-everything blues-punk to Latin-tinged indie pop to orchestral interludes.” Yeah, good luck figuring that one out. Anyway, they’ve got an original indie sound that’s become very popular in the wake of their third full-length, Shall Noise Upon. Scroll down and check out the video of one of their more mellow numbers, “Singing to the Earth.”

Want to enter to win tickets? All you have to do is send an e-mail to bryan@playgroundboston.com with “DRUGSHINE” in the subject, and you’ll be automatically entered for a pair of tickets to the show! Winner will be announced the morning of the show, enter now!

Apollo Sunshine

Drug Rug

Edan the Dee Jay

The Paradise

All Photos by Tim Bugbee

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Thanks to Tim Bugbee for the great shots! See more of his work at www.tinnitus-photography.com!

Blue Oyster Cult

PGB is happy to offer up a pair of tickets to Monday’s show at the Paradise featuring Philly’s DJ/Producer extraordinaire RJD2! RJD2 usually comes through town once a year, and without exception his shows are regarded as among the best anyone has seen – regardless of your genre preferences. The influence RJD2 has had on the underground and indie hip hop scene cannot be denied, and we’ve got your chance to see his groundbreaking style for yourself! This tour is in support of his brand new album, Colossus, released January 20th. He promises to have some tricks up his sleeve for this time around – check out this excerpt from his website:

This is the most planned out/intricate/thought out/awesomest show I’ve ever been a part of. Easily. By far. I can say this with a clear conscience.  Costume changes. Custom built electronics. New songs and old.  3 turntables, 2 mixers, 1 sampler, 1 serato rig(PLUS a crate of vinyl), guitar, bass, drums, vintage and new analog synthesizers, visuals, and 2 hand puppets to boot.

RJ, you had us at hand puppets. Want your chance to win? Just send an e-mail to bryan@playgroundboston.com with the subject “RJD2″ and you will be automatically entered to win a pair of tickets, courtesy of PGB and The Paradise! Still not convinced you want to check out this show? Then check out this video for “Let There Be Horns” off the new album, featuring a drug-addled, lovelorn minotaur in a wife beater. Nope, couldn’t make that up if I tried. RJD2 can though, and if he can come up with something as crazy as that just imagine what he can do live with a couple of turntables and some samples. Enter now, winner will be selected on Friday!

T-Model Ford - Photo by Tim Bugbee

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All photos by Tim Bugbee. For more of his work, check out Tinnitus Photography.

T-Model Ford

Ten Foot Polecats

Erin Harpe & The Delta Swingers

Boston Blues Society

This Saturday at Precinct in Union Square NTP Productions has put together a strong lineup of bands to celebrate the release of the Young Tremors new album on Teenage Heart Records, a local indie label well established in punk and garage rock circles. The collection of bands on the bill are perfect compliments to each other, and are extremely fun to catch live. The Young Tremors describe their sound as “The Kinks caught huffing the fumes of Motown in Elvis Costello’s garage.” Tad Overbaugh is opening the night up, the former frontman for The Kickbacks debuting his solo project, The Late Arrivals. Memphis 59 are bringing their rootsy twang up from Virginia to add a little southern flavor to the bill – and hey, look! Is that Rich Lewis from Sam Black Church on bass? You damn right it is! PGB Favorites Watts will be providing rock ‘n roll hooks, sneers, and struts for the masses. Dirty Truckers, who have also received plenty of coverage on PGB, will be closing out the night with their 90’s style rock that’ll stay stuck in your head the entire ride home after the show.

Watts - Photo by Johnny Arguedas

Good music and good people not enough for you? OK, well how about a ‘Gansett sponsorship? Still not enough? How about FREE FOOD?! The $10 price of admission gets you all the appetizers you can eat all night long, courtesy of Nicole Tammaro. Stuff your face and rock the fuck out tomorrow night at Precinct, 70 Union Square in Somerville.

Tad Overbaugh and the Late Arrivals – 8:30pm

Memphis 59 – 9:15pm

Young Tremors – 10:05pm

Watts – 10:55pm

Dirty Truckers – 11:45pm

This weekend brings the 4th annual New England Americana Festival to Boston (formerly known as the Alt-Country Extravaganza). The festival this year has been receiving tons of press in newspapers and music sites for the past two months, and is looking to be one of the best roots-rock events this area has seen in years! This is an entirely non-profit event, with all proceeds to benefit Coalition for Courage, an organization that helps children in Africa.

In addition to 8 bands per night on the big stage at Church, event organizer Noel Coakley (Autumn Hollow Band) will also be setting up a second stage over by the bar, to ensure that even between sets there will still be music filling the room. The lineups for each night speak for themselves – check them out below, with the headliners for each night in bold. Each night is extremely solid! Tickets are around $10 per night, but you can get a combo pass to all three shows for only $20 – a great discount for a long weekend of all the twang you can handle!

Here’s the lineup and set times for each night:

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In case you haven’t seen the lineup here, we wanted to get you some quick and easy links for all the information you need on the 12th annual New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, taking place this April 23-24th at the Palladium in Worcester. This event always attracts some of the biggest names in local, national, and international metal and hardcore, and this year looks to be the same. Mastodon is headlining the festival, fresh off a 2009 that saw them in Boston twice (playing nearly exactly the same set… at the exact same venue… ah well, on the plus side, both times their second set of the night was all older stuff and it kicked ass.) Other big names include Amon Amarth, Baroness, Between the Buried and Me, Cannibal Corpse, COA, Cro Mags, Death Before Dishonor,  Skeletonwitch, and the immortal and unparalleled Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, current reigning champion for Best Band Name EVER. Just make sure to avoid Earth Crisis’ set. Those guys sicced an entire pit on a buddy of mine for smoking a cigarette at one of their shows. Screw them. Preachy straightedgers drive me insane. There, I said it.

For a full listing of all the bands playing each night check out the NEMHCF’s website here

Tickets to the festival are about $40 a day, or you can get a small discount on a 2-day pass. To purchase tickets, click here.

Friday, February 19th @ TT The Bears

Seems like just about every weekend so far in 2010 has been an embarrassment of riches for local music. Every Friday Saturday Sunday you have tons of amazing bands coming together to form jaw-dropping can’t-miss lineups. Only problem is, you need about 4 clones to be able to make it to everything you want to catch! This Friday at TT’s is no exception. PGB Favorites The Luxury and Conservative Man are teaming up with local britpop-meets-american-monotonish-indie act The Honors to rock the hell out of Cambridge. After listening to these guys side by side I’m REALLY surprised they haven’t shared a bill before – they seem like a great match for each other’s sound. They’ll be joined by Philly’s Jealousy Curve, who are set to break into Boston with a little help from their friends on the bill. And yes, I know this is an outdated flyer (CM were a late add to the bill), but it was also the best looking one I could find. So deal with it.

Friday & Saturday Feb 19-20th @ Rosebud Diner

Fresh off a raucous live set at Mad Oak Studios (click here to download the full live audio from that session!), Township will be taking over the Rosebud Diner in Davis Square all weekend to celebrate the release of their latest opus, Vol. 1, a collection of the cream of the crop from the past 4 years worth of EP’s and LP’s. Friday night they’ll be sharing the stage with Brownboot, whereas Saturday they’ll be joined by Ryan Fitzsimmons. Both nights will feature DJ Jordan Valentine spinning between sets. Do NOT let this weekend go by without catching at least one of these shows!

Saturday, February 20th @ O’Briens

Everyone needs a good metal show now and again to roil the blood, blow off some steam, and generally rock the fuck out. This Saturday is a great opportunity to do just that. Local icons Born of Thunder and Cromulent are joined by newcomers onto the scene Bring The Knife, born out of the ashes of the now-defunct Destruct-a-thon. They’ll be joined from She Rides, up from Providence to bring their intense, high-energy onslaught to bear on the unsuspecting masses of Allston. This promises to be an excellent show that brings you back to the days when O’Briens was metal and metal only, and you didn’t go in their unless you had long hair, excessive regrettable tattoos (band names or pentagrams on your neck really aren’t nearly as cool at age 72 as they are at age 27, dude), or were wearing a t-shirt from an obscure Swedish metal band from 1978.

Sunday, February 21st @ Middle East Upstairs

We’re looking at melted faces, cramped hands from clenched fists, and sore necks from banging heads – just a few of the casualties of Sunday Night! This is an excellent lineup, a perfect note to end the weekend on. PGB Favorites Planetoid NEVER disappoint – spacy riffs, sibilant vocals, and thunderous talent abounds with this extraterrestrial power trio. Cocked N’ Loaded bring some good hard rock to the table, complete with all the guitar insanity you could possibly ask for. Mellow Bravo’s got gritty vocals over a bluesy southern sound to help you drown away your sorrows from the weekend, while Hotblack’s aggressiveness and sick riffage will feed your fury and get you thoroughly depressed that you have to go back to work the next day when you could be rocking this hard all the time. Come have a beer with some PGB Staffers and check out some of Boston’s best straight-up rock!