PLAYGROUND BOSTON

The outpouring of support for the victims of the disaster in Haiti from the veterans of the local Boston music scene has certainly been impressive, but there’s always more that can be done. To this effect, Jillian of One in a Million Media has put together a benefit show tomorrow night at the Middle East Downstairs featuring an outstanding lineup of bands, DJs, prizes, and more! Aloud, The Lights Out, and You Can Be A Wesley are all PGB favorites that have received plenty of coverage on this site (Aloud and TLO are also previous Track of the Week honorees). Pretty & Nice’s indie pop is just about impossible not to dance to, as are the vast array of songs spun by some of the most well-known DJs in town. This will be a great opportunity to catch some incredible music, and all for a great cause too!

If some of the best rock & pop acts Boston has to offer aren’t enough for you, there’s plenty more happening at this event. Several local businesses have donated some amazing prizes to be raffled off to raise additional funds for the relief effort, including Ace Ticket, Anna’s Taqueria, Rescue, and The Alter Eco. We’re talking tickets, gift certificates, merch, and more! Also, Special Ed & Charlie, formerly of WFNX’s Sandbox but now operating independently as The Empire, will be recording a podcast throughout the night. PGB always supports charitable benefit concerts, especially for such a great cause. It’s a lot easier to be so supportive, though, when a benefit is as packed with awesome-ness as this one. Rock out, dance, win prizes, party – but feel good about it because you’re helping out those in need! That’s what we call a good time – see you there.

• 7:30 – Doors
• 8:00 – 8:30 Michael V
• 8:45 – 9:15 Aloud
• 9:30 – 10:00 The Lights Out
• 10:15 – 10:30 Pretty & Nice
• 10:45 – 11:15 You Can Be A Wesley
• 11:30 – 12:00 Damien Paul
• 12:00 – 12:30 Repeat Offenders

Aloud

The Lights Out

You Can Be A Wesley

Pretty & Nice

DJs Michael V / Repeat Offenders / Damien Paul

Gillian Bowling Photography

The Empire

One in a Million Media

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Photo by Annie Burns

With 76 shows in 47 different cities, Aloud’s tour supporting their latest record Fan The Fury has finally come to an end. While the band is currently in the studio working on yet another album, they’ve made the recording of one of their shows into an excellent live EP, featuring 5 songs from Fan The Fury taken from a performance in Pittsburgh on November 19th. The quality is great, the energy in each song is fierce and palpable, and they’ve even created a digital booklet for the EP featuring some great photos from the tour.

The best part about Aloud’s Live 2009 EP? It’s completely and entirely free. All you have to do is go to Aloud’s website here and sign up for their mailing list. In return they’ll send a ZIP file of the album right over to you. It’s that easy! Here’s the track list:

01 The Last Time

02 Sometimes I feel Like A Vampire

03 Fan The Fury

04 You Got Me Wrong

05 When The Ants Attack The Queen

Click here to sign up for the mailing list and receive the Aloud Live 2009 EP for free!

www.allthingsaloud.com

Aloud

“When the Ants Attack the Queen”

Fan the Fury

© 2008 Lemon Merchant Records

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Aloud

Aloud with Muy Cansado – “Lola” (Kinks Cover)

Great show this past Tuesday. The Enormous Room is a very intimate place to have a show – close quarters, couches everywhere, small stage – and it made for the perfect environment for a little tour kickoff party. Muy Cansado opened the night playing some crowd favorites from Stars & Garters, as well as several brand new songs recently recorded in preparation of a new album release. They brought up Corey Blanchette to help out on guitar for a few tracks as well, adding a spacey element to their flippant rock style. Aloud played songs from their most recent full-length, Fan The Fury, which they are touring in support of. They… well they just flat out rocked out. I think I saw a few of the Enormous Room regulars pop in for what they thought was going to be a normal loungey smooth-house night at their favorite club, and promptly got their faces melted off by the quartet’s raucous vocal assault and blazing hooks. Here’s Aloud’s tour schedule, if you know anyone in any of these towns do them a favor and tell them to check this band out!

I’m going to let the videos speak for themselves. Each band brought the other band’s singers up for several songs to play together, including the above video featuring both bands belting out a great rendition of “Lola” by the Kinks. Thanks to Mick Murray for the great video footage, Enjoy!

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Our lovable local scene looks to be well represented at the CMJ Festival down in New York this year. For almost 30 years CMJ has been an annual showcase of some of the best emerging musicians and filmmakers in the world, taking place across the entire city in over 75 different venues. This year’s festival will take place from October 20th through the 24th, so we here at PGB thought we’d clue you in on what Boston bands will be playing so you can start planning your schedule and making your travel arrangements now.

Early registration for the festival ends on October 18th, so make sure to get on over to the CMJ website to pick up tickets as soon as you can! In addition to early registration specials, CMJ also offers discounts for students, industry professionals, and groups – check their site for more details. The set times and locations for many of the bands are still being confirmed, but we’ll do our best to keep you posted as to when our local heroes will be performing as we hear about them. Without further ado, here’s our listing of Boston’s representation at this year’s festival…

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The beloved Beantown bloggers at Boston Band Crush have put together a back-to-school bash that is sure to enrich your local-music education. Prepare to get schooled in all things indie rock by the likes of The Motion Sick, The Future Everybody, Aloud, Brendan Boogie and the Best Intentions, The Grownup Noise and a bunch more. This weekend long seminar (awesome concert), held at Church in Boston, features 10 bands and 7 comedians, and commences Friday night (9/18) at 9 PM. It also has a student-friendly price tag of only $10 per night, or $15 for both. Click here for all the info.

Friday Night-
The Great Bandini
The Motion Sick
One Happy Island
The Future Everybody
Sarianna and the Swell

Saturday Night-
Aloud
Brendan Boogie and the Best Intentions
Blizzard of ‘78
VulGarrity
The Grownup Noise

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Photo by Seth Drury

I missed Aloud again. I can’t fucking believe I missed Aloud again. I’ve been trying to catch them for the better part of a year, but I either can’t make the show, arrive too late, or find out they’re playing a day after they actually play. They were one of the bands I had marked off down in P-Town to catch, and of course because of set time mix-ups I ended up just missing them. Tonight was no exception – Aloud was tapped to play The Lights Out’s big Video Shoot show at TT the Bears, along with This Blue Heaven and Divorced. Unfortunately I showed up JUST as they were finishing up their set – I’m almost used to it at this point. Ah well, I’ll catch them sometime soon, and hey, at least what I did see of this show was fucking excellent – that’s a plus, right?

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We’re just a week away from the inaugural Provincetown Rocks Festival, descending on Commercial Street in P-Town from July 22nd – 26th! This promises to be the premier Boston music event of the Summer, with some of the best bands our city has to offer ready to rip up the town for four straight nights of musical madness! Underground Control is bringing you bands, DJs, Burlesque shows, and so much more… its going to be a 4 day party, and you’re insane if you miss it. No question. This is going to be a musical riot across multiple venues, all within walking/stumbling distance of each other. We’ve got schedules for each venue in the form of incredible flyers created by the extremely talented Joey Mars – check em out! These are the main stages for music, but there are even more events going on at venues all over town! Start planning now, and pick up tickets in advance, as they’re going incredibly quick and you don’t want to be left hanging for this incredible event!

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