PLAYGROUND BOSTON

Lady Lamb The Beekeeper

Last Thursday, Church celebrated the beginning of summer (only a week late) with a Beach Party, presented by Agent Bishop Productions. Hawaiian shirts, leis and fake tattoos dotted the bar and pool tables as the audience was treated to 4 of the best female fronted bands New England has to offer.

St. Helena - Photo by Perez

First up was St. Helena, a five piece with an interesting, eclectic mix of sounds ranging from the bubblegum pop sensibilities of The Beatles or Dr. Dog to more moody, soulful tunes. Frontman Patrick Teahen took the lead on many of their songs, but those sung by keyboardist Magen Tracy had a more introspective feel, reminiscent of Tidal era Fiona apple minus the pretention. (In case you were wondering, that’s a very good thing.)

St. Helena – “Superheroes Make Mistakes” – Slow Jack
[PGB Track Of The Week #6]

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After St. Helena, Lady Lamb the Beekeeper trotted up on stage. An unassuming young woman with giant black glasses resting on her nose, Aly Spaltro was the belle of the ball. She smiled and introduced herself: “Hi, I’m Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, and this is my band,” she said with a wave of her hand to the empty stage behind her. Those who were not immediately wooed by her charm became enthralled as soon as she began to sing. A very big voice comes out of that little woman. She oscillates from beautifully constructed metaphors [I want to touch you like the sea touches the soil – I want to hold you like the milk holds the spoil] to statements so obvious that they become stunning [My hair was long – so I fucking cut it.] She commanded the audience with her every move.

Aloud - Photo by JustBill

Next up was rock and roll quartet Aloud. By now, Aloud should be familiar to anyone who lives in Boston and has ears. They were touting the upcoming release of their new record Exile, coming out this September. Along with offering a presale, Aloud played several songs from the new record. “I’m about to say the four words that no audience wants to hear,” Guitarist Henry Beguiristain smiled at the crowd, “We have new songs.” The audience fake-groaned (or perhaps really groaned), and one fan screamed “Marriage has ruined this band!” (in reference to the recent marriage of singer/guitarists Beguiristain and Jen de la Osa.) Aloud’s performance was unconventional to say the least: Like St Helena, they mix light, airy power pop songs that are reminiscent of Phantom Planet (also a good thing, in case you were wondering) with more subtle, instrumentally driven songs. At one point, De la Osa and Beguiristain leapt off the stage into the crowd and played standing and sitting on the club floor respectively.

Aloud – “When The Ants Attack The Queen” – Fan The Fury
[PGB Track Of The Week #28]

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Aloud finished their set by calling up all of the ladies of the evening (not ladies-of-the-evening, rather all the ladies that were on the bill that night) to join them in a rendition of The Supremes’ “Can’t Hurry Love.” (Video courtesy of Michael Epstein from TheMotionSick Youtube Channel)

Naked On Roller Skates - Photo by Steve Wollkind

The last act of the night was Naked On Roller Skates. Travis Richter, drummer for Aloud pulled double duty as lead guitarist for the final band as they played impossibly catchy rock tunes with attitude to spare. NORS’s powerful vocals and strong hooks make them seem as if they were plucked from the soundtrack of a teen comedy about believing in yourself. Once they get rocking, it’s impossible to not find your head bobbing and toe tapping.

St. Helena

Lady Lamb The Beekeeper

Aloud

Naked On Roller Skates

Agent Bishop Productions

Church

Thursday, July 1st – Church

Agent Bishop has put together one hell of a lineup, especially for a Thursday Night! He’s assembled some of the most talented female musicians in Boston to rock the hell out of Church, and its all happening tonight! We’ve got PGB Favorites all around – ALWAYS a sign of an excellent show! Aloud’s dual vocal attack will blow your eardrums out and leave you screaming for more. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper puts on a stunning solo performance with an angelic voice laid over soulful acoustic guitar. St. Helena are amazing songwriters and talented musicians all around, and Naked On Rollerskates‘ pop hooks is irresistible for dancing and singing along. All-star bill to ring in a new month, what more could you ask for? How about new songs by Aloud and St. Helena, as-yet unreleased tracks off their forthcoming albums, never before played out live!

Thursday, July 1st – Middle East Upstairs

Boston punk veterans The Acrobrats are releasing their latest 5 song 7″ Hair Trigger tonight at the Middle East Upstairs, and put together a solid punk rock lineup to help them celebrate! The new vinyl consists of 4 originals and a David Bowie cover – can’t wait to check that one out! PGB Favorites Burning Streets are right in the middle of a marathon tour, something like 50 shows over the course of 2 months, and are making a brief stop-off at home to rock the Middle East with the ‘Brats before heading out west for the second leg of the tour. Due to a name dispute, The Saints are now The Union Boys, good angry punk rock from up north. 007 Hundred Club rounds out the bill – fast, hard, and really, really pissed off. The whole summer so far has had some unbelievable punk rock bills all over town, and tonight is no exception. Head on down, pick up some vinyl, and rock the fuck out to some great local punk rock.

Perhaps you’ve seen the flyers around town. Perhaps you’ve seen a sticker or two while walking the streets. Maybe you’ve heard about it through features in Performer Magazine or Boston Band Crush. Hell, maybe you just saw something odd in your song library while working on your laptop at the In House Cafe in Allston. Whatever it may be, you’ve gotta check out Band Over Boston, a new initiative by Cullen Corley (Kuuluuko, Electric Laser People) designed to bring local music to the masses of Boston, conveniently to their own computers!

Band Over Boston is a self-described “free, ever-expanding iTunes-based jukebox of all-local music.” Sounds good, right? Basically, the way it works is if you’re in a cafe or restaurant that offers this service, you pop open your computer, fire up your music player, and you’ll see “Band Over Boston” appear on the left under Shared Libraries. Click on that, and you now have free access to thousands of songs to stream by hundreds of great local Boston bands! Very easy to use, very simple concept, but holy shit is this a great idea! The launch location for this project is the In House Cafe, located at 194 Harvard Ave. in Allston (Green Line B to Harvard Ave, about a quarter of a block up the road from the T stop). Once the website is finished, Corley aims to expand to other cafes and WiFi spots in and around Boston to perfect the service before opening access to the internet.

The list of bands who have contributed their music to this project is already extremely impressive, and more music is being added every day! There are dozens of bands who have received coverage right here on PGB, quite a few PGB Favorites, and looking over the list I saw a bunch of bands that have won past PGB Track of The Week honors – including Aloud, Blackbutton, Kingsley Flood, The Lights Out, The Luxury, The Shills, and Sidewalk Driver! If you’re a fan of local music this is a great chance to hear your favorites. If you’ve been meaning to get into the local scene, this is an excellent way to get access to some of Boston’s best for free. Whatever your reasoning, you owe it to yourself to head on down to the In House Cafe and check this out for yourself! (Plus their iced coffee is amazing. Just sayin’)

BANDS: Want to get your music on the Band Over Boston archives? IT’S FREE! While there are already hundreds of bands featured, there are plenty out there who still need to get in on this initiative for it to thrive as it should! Join the hundreds of acts who have already submitted their music, and get exposed to new fans across town! You’ll get a bio on the main page, links to your website, and easy access for people to purchase your music if they like it! Did I mention it’s free? Easy too! Head on over to the Band Over Boston Submission Page for details on how to get your music loaded into the Jukebox!

Band Over Boston

Band Over Boston Blog

Band Over Boston Twitter

Band Over Boston Facebook Page

The Everyday Visuals - Photo by JustBill

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All photos by JustBill – check out www.justbill.net to see more of his amazing work, to purchase prints from this incredible show, and to learn about some of the best bands in the local scene!

Aloud

Flying Machines

The Lights Out

The Everyday Visuals

Thursday, April 29th @ Great Scott

Former WBCN personality, local rocker, and creator of the amazing Quiet Desperation Allston reality sitcom Rob Potylo is putting on his own version of the WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble down at Great Scott this Thursday. He’ll be filming for the 20th episode of his show, giving away prizes, and drumming up support for an initiative to get local radio stations to play more Boston music rather than cookie-cutter-corporate rock. The former Roadsteamer has assembled a great lineup for this event, with performances by his own band, Humanwine, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, and New York’s King Hell. Great local sponsors + great local rock = a great fuckin’ time!

Friday, April 30th @ TT The Bear’s

This is an unbelievable lineup of some of the best indie rock in town. If you’re a PGB reader, you’ve heard us scream bloody murder about the merits of Aloud and The Lights Out, and how amazing their live sets are. If you’re not familiar with them, click those links and get yourself caught up! They’ll be joined by 2009 BMA Pop Act of the Year winners The Everyday Visuals, easily one of the most critically acclaimed bands in the city. The driving force behind them, singer Christopher Pappas, departs our fair city for the smoggier pastures of LA later this summer, so this may be one of your last chances to see this amazing band! Rounding out the bill is New York powerpop outfit Flying Machines, freshly back from SXSW and a live performance at Rolling Stone HQ. Don’t miss this show!

Saturday, May 1st @ TT The Bear’s

Very cool event happening Saturday at TT’s. Rock photographer extraordinaire (and PGB contributor) Nicole Tammaro will be turning the venue into an art gallery, featuring artwork by local Boston musicians bringing their talents to a new form of media. The night will also feature performances by (in order) Squallie Greenthumb, Paul & The Strings, The Other Girls (local supergroup featuring Andrea Gillis, Linda Khoury, Amy Griffin, Melissa Gibbs, & Michelle Paulhus), Bryan McPherson, and Gene Dante & The Future Starlets. This was an extremely popular event last year, and this year’s rendition promises to be even bigger and better. Support local music and local artists, all wrapped up in the same event!

And don’t forget about our BBC & PGB Presents show, the main event, coming at you Saturday, May 1st from The Hard Rock Cafe… More info coming soon!

Photo by Heather Canterbury

Aloud AND The Beatings on the same bill? You’re kidding, right? Its not uncommon for two bands who have had such a profound impact on the Boston music scene in the past decade to share a bill, but it’s rare when they exhibit such a glaring contrast in styles. Aloud is straight-up rock – catchy hooks, singalong vocals, crunchy riffs. The Beatings are a bit more on the indie-noise-rock side of the spectrum – feedback and distortion used as instrumentation, droning verses giving away to screaming choruses, that type of thing. What might have initially seemed like an odd pairing ended up a match made in heaven though, as both bands had the entire venue howling for more! Apologies to Hello Ninja and Action Camp, who opened the night but I was unfortunately not able to catch.

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Screw the lamb! Boston rock started off March strong and will be ending it the same way, with an extended weekend of great shows all over town. There’s so many can’t-miss options happening that they had to go and start the weekend off on Thursday rather than Friday. Didn’t you hear? You don’t have to go into work on Friday. Your boss understands that you need time to rock out, and whether its the hard stuff and Church or the more indie style over at Great Scott, your rocking out will not be denied. Check out these great shows happening Thursday night…

Thursday, March 25th @ Church

Worcester metal badassness meets Boston metal badassness in this second part of a series of shows designed to show off the meanest of the mean from New England’s two largest cities. Earlier this month the two Worcester bands on the bill, Birch Hill Dam and Burn The Witch brought the two Boston bands, Born of Thunder and Bring the Knife, down to the Lucky Dog in lovely (yeah, lovely!) Kelly Square, Worcester… Now its time for the Boston bands to return the favor down at Church in the Fens. Gotta love that Massachusetts Metal Solidarity! Get ready to bang your head, throw a fist or some horns in the air, and sin up  What better place to throw some devil horns in the air and rock out than at the most blasphemously sinful house of worship Boston has to offer?

Thursday, March 25th @ Great Scott

Don’t get me wrong, Action Camp and Hello Ninja are great, but any show featuring Boston heavyweights The Beatings AND Aloud is one worth the price of admission – no matter what it may be. The Beatings have been taking some time off in the wake of some serious touring in support of last year’s critically acclaimed Late Season Kids, now they’re ready to kick their noise rock machine back into overdrive. Aloud is commemorating the 2 year anniversary of their seminal album Fan The Fury by playing a setlist that will include alternate versions of newer favorites, as well as a few oldies thrown in that date all the way back to their 2004 EP! There’s probably going to be a few songs played on Thursday at Great Scott that you will NEVER have another chance to hear – don’t miss out!

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

b

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