PLAYGROUND BOSTON

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:

(continue reading…)

Baliset

“A Time For Rust”

A Time For Rust

© 2009 Ret Con Recordings

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Check out Baliset frontwoman Lauren Flaherty performing a solo set as part of Ryan’s Smashing Life’s Haiti Benefit, happening tonight (2/10) at Church!

Baliset

Lauren Flaherty

Friday, February 5th @ Church

Former PGB Track of the Week honorees Sprained Ankles highlight a bill chock full of irreverant punk rock down at Church. Check out the Ankles’ original brand of doo-wop garage rock, complete with female backup singers doing interpretive dances to songs like “Randy the Rock and Roll Pizza Wolf” and the legendary “Axe Gnome.” Nope, couldn’t make that up if I tried. Also worth checking out is Wasted Talent, featuring solo artist Nabo Rawk and DJ Paul Foley. Should certainly be interesting, click here to check out their video “Khed.”

Friday, February 5th @ O’Briens

I’m happy to report that rumors of the demise of Buried in Leather have been greatly overexaggerated. While they may only play a show every 6 months or so, they are still definitely alive and breathing. Sneering, guttural vocals laced over shredding guitar riffs, this band gets you pissed off and fired up like no other. You never know if or when you’ll have another chance to catch them, so make sure you don’t miss this one. Also appearing on this bill are Anarchunts, an all-girl gutter punk quartet having recently burst onto the Boston scene; Doggfight US, fist-in-the-air anthemic punk rock from up north; and local legends The Acro-brats. This is an unbelievable lineup, sure to pack the house at O’Briens and threaten to tear the roof down.

Saturday, February 6th @ Great Scott

A killer lineup is hitting Great Scott on Saturday night. Local rock giants Reverse might be the most influential band playing out in Boston today – almost every last musician in town counts these guys as one of their favorite acts to see. Full Body Anchor is a brand new outfit consisting of former members of some of the best punk and garage bands in the city – Blue Bloods, Darkbuster, The Dents, and more. Lead singer Eric Edmonston jumps back and forth seamlessly between a heartfelt croon and an eardrum shattering scream, accenting the crunchiness of the heavy noise-rock instrumentation. Sun Lee Sunbeam and Dirt Mall also take the stage for this show, assuring a nice mix of styles across the bill for your listening pleasure.

Saturday, February 6th @ Church

Church is doing themselves proud this weekend with the great rock shows. Look at the bands on this bill! Dirty Truckers, fresh off a win at the Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands. Watts, featuring the incomparable John Blount on guitar and John Lynch on drums. (Lynch is easily one of the best drummers in the entire damn city, and is pulling double duty on this show as he also plays for the ‘Truckers). Garage powerhouses Muck and the Mires will also be making an appearance, the only band in town and probably one of the few in the entire country who have shared a stage with both MC5 AND the New York Dolls – if that’s not some serious credibility right there I don’t know what is. Rounding out the bill are The Cretins, back after an almost 10 year long vacation. Local hero Malibu Lou will be opening the night in celebration of his 40th birthday – go check out him and The Italians rock out up on stage, then buy him a PBR or two – happy birthday Lou!

Thursday, January 14th @ TT The Bears

PGB Staff across town will be converging on this show for sure! This show features a great lineup of bluesy Americana-style rock – heartfelt vocals, ripping guitar, and a sweet groove sure to get everyone in the bar moving. PGB Favorites The Few have been hard at work in the studio for quite some time now, so this is their first Boston appearance in months. We’re looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeve in terms of new material – and possibly new guitars crafted by the band’s bassist and Becker Guitars luthier Ryan Martin!

Friday, January 15th @ Church

This should be an excellent show. Varsity Drag is Ben Deily from the Lemonheads‘ side project, they’ve been rocking around Boston for quite some time now and are ready to lay down their new CD Night Owls on the Boston masses. ‘Drag features Deily’s sugary sweet vocals laid down over catchy-as-all-hell uptempo pop hooks. They’ll be joined on the bill by rockers I, Pistol, featuring Rick Taylor’s commanding lead vocals and Daanen Krouth from The Luxury on lead guitar.

Friday, January 15th @ Olivers

OK so we’ve all seen better flyers. Let me just say that and get it out of the way right now. But hey, we also all know that a good flyer doesn’t necessarily dictate a good show, and thus a bad one doesn’t mean the show’s going to be bad as well. Case in point on this show here. Back Seat Lover is a Pearl Jam tribute – that’s cool, but hey, you know all the songs. The real hidden gem in this lineup is Moonstone Lady. They put on an AMAZING live show, full of energy. Each member of the band is extremely talented, like ridiculously so. Think Stevie Ray Vaughn meets Dream Theater – one part blues, one part prog, all rock. I just received the EP they’ll be releasing at this show and I’m blown away. Take a minute to check out the songs they’ve posted on their myspace, then do yourself a favor and head on down to Olivers to catch their live show!

Saturday, January 16th @ PA’s Lounge

More PGB Favorites playing this weekend! St. Helena had a solid 2009 featuring a critically acclaimed album Slow Jack, an appearance at CMJ, a sordid affair with BBC’s One Night Band, a benefit show for Pinups for Pitbulls, and countless other performances. They’re currently in the studio recording a follow-up album to their last EP, but have taken time off from recording to put together an excellent lineup over at PA’s this Saturday. Broken River Prophet and The Northeast Sky feature veterans of the Boston music scene coming together for new projects, while the Ugly Fucklings, aside from having one of the best names in the entire city, play an impossibly fun style of punk rock infused with 50’s rock and roll.

Sunday, January 17th @ Church

This is a nice little Sunday show here. RIBS has a very cool sound, well worth checking out. They’ve got the noise-rock thing going, while at the same time featuring layered compositions that add so much more substance. The dark combination of vocals and frantic guitars enable their sound to jump from a Death From Above 1979 to a fast-paced, much less depressing Joy Division. They’ll be joined on the bill by Art Decade, with an experimental style that PGB Staffer Nick Grieco describes as “The Mars Volta and Rx Bandits had a baby named Frank Zappa, who grew up listening to The Fall of Troy and Damiera.” If that sounds like your style, you definitely want to check these guys out. One more thing about this show – its cheap! Tickets are $8 at the door, but RIBS was nice enough to provide us with an advance purchase link that lets you pick them up for only $6. Click here to take advantage!

New Years Eve in Boston is always a great night for music, and this year is certainly no exception! Problem is – how the hell do you decide between so many great shows? Well, we can’t tell you where you should end up, but we can try to narrow down the list a little bit and give you our top 6 picks for the best NYE 2009 has to offer. Why top 6? Well, to be honest, I couldn’t narrow this down to a top 5. I had enough trouble getting to 6 from 10, give me a break here! Just check out the list and try to get out to any one of these shows – you will not be disappointed! Best part is, every one of these events will leave enough left in your wallet to ensure you’ll have plenty to spend at the bar and forget about all those nasty things 2009 did to you! Happy New Year everyone, we’re looking forward to plenty more PGB madness in the new decade!

The Upper Crust, The Gentlemen, The Motion Sick – Church, 69 Kilmarnock St. Boston

The Upper Crust blew our collective minds at the P-Town Festival earlier this year. Powdered wig and breeches wearing fops rocking your face off with aggressive rock riffs and clever Victorian-era lyrics? Yes please! These guys simply have to be experienced – no amount of writing will give their shows full justice. They don’t play out so much anymore either, so this is definitely a treat that they’ve put this show together – especially considering what a great lineup they’ll be accompanied by! The Gentlemen, who celebrated their 10th Anniversary in 2009, will also be bringing their nonstop jam-packed set to the crowd at Church. Here’s another example of a band that doesn’t play around here too often, as all of the members seem to be knee-deep in side projects and rarely have the time to come together as the original band. Rounding out the bill is The Motion Sick – Boston indie-pop at its finest. These guys have had an incredibly successful 2009 – music videos, Dance Dance Revolution notoriety, The Phoenix’s Best Local Rock Band award, mentions by every conceivable Boston press outlet – you name it! They’re currently hard at work in the studio but are taking time off from recording to rock out for the New Year!

Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 day of show. Get tickets here!

Forgetful Jones & Three Day Threshold – Olivers @ The Cask n Flagon, 62 Brookline Ave. Boston

Team Shred’s doing it up right for the New Year. The local super-promotions team is taking over Olivers in Kenmore Square for an incredible night of rock. Forgetful Jones has a clear funky reggae imprint on their hard rock style, whereas Three Day Threshold has more of a roots influence. These genres may seem like a bit of a clash at first, but rest assured the two bands work great together and will combine to give your ears everything they could have asked for this holiday season. (Well yeah, they asked for Q-Tips too, but your mom got you those for Christmas.) FJ has been a PGB favorite long before this website even existed, and 3DT’s New Years shows have been the stuff of legend in this town for years!

Feeling a little greedy this New Years Eve? A killer band lineup just won’t cut it for you? Well then, the party at Olivers will also feature a free champagne toast at midnight, a free buffet from 8-9:30, and drink specials all night. STILL not enough? How about some free hockey ticket giveaways going on all night? They’ve got tix for the Winter Classic at Fenway Park, the Legends Game, and the big BC-BU game coming up as well!

Tickets are $25 at the door. Tickets are no longer available online in advance, however there will be plenty of tix at the door if you want to just show up.

(continue reading…)

Lovewhip

“Automatic”

Love Electric

© 2009 Juicy Juju Records

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Official Release Date: 11/17

Lovewhip is having their Boston CD Release tonight (11/12) at Church, head down to pick up a copy of the album before its official release!

Lovewhip’s Website

Too many record releases, too little time. OK well three record releases and one video release. And its actually only two different shows. But hey, I haven’t figured out how to be two places at once yet, if you have any groundbreaking research about this feel free to let me know. Anyway, these two shows are way too good to choose between, so we figured we’d tell you about both and you can decide for yourself based on your musical taste. No matter which you pick, you’re gonna have a hell of a good time this Friday.

(continue reading…)

Superpower - www.nicoletammaro.com

Ashers - www.nicoletammaro.com

Dead Friends - www.nicoletammaro.com

Swaggerin' Growlers - www.nicoletammaro.com

(continue reading…)

This Saturday, October 3rd we’re looking at a hell of a show down at Church in the Fenway! Since the breakup of Boston hardcore legends Tree, lead singer Dave Tree has been fronting a new band, Superpower, who since forming has played hundreds of shows with a laundry list of some of the best bands the punk rock and harcore scenes have to offer. After putting out a few EPs over the years, Superpower is now set to release a full-length, “Phantom of the Alliance,” this Saturday at Church. They’ll be joined onstage by a can’t-miss lineup of some of the angriest (and in the Growlers’ case drunkest) bands the Boston scene has to offer. Ashers features Mark from The Unseen on vocals – The Unseen tore the roof off of the Middle East a few weeks back, now Mark’s getting ready to do the same to Church with his new band. Dead Friends is Mark Doherty’s new band (Nowhere USA), featuring members of Straw Horse and Splint as well. Click here for a PGB review of a Dead Friends show back in May – I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve been doing since then. And the Swaggerin’ Growlers, well, they’re just incredible – beers everywhere, whiskey-soaked lyrics, and fiddles and flutes galore. You’ll just have to see it for yourself.

Oh yeah, one more thing – this show’s being sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon, meaning free shirts and other swag will be given away throughout the entire night. Punk rock and PBR? I’ll take that mix any day of the week! See you there!

Sponsored by The Weekly Dig, PBR, and Bekah the Wrekah!

Superpower

Ashers

Dead Friends

Swaggerin’ Growlers

Church

b