PLAYGROUND BOSTON

The Phoenix is turning Downtown Crossing into a week long block party! This Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday they’ve got 3 bands per night rocking out in the streets – with different themes per night. Tonight’s show is “Garage Night,” featuring a killer lineup of Needy Visions, Hands and Knees, and Thick Shakes. Wednesday is “Blog Night,” with John Shade, Kingsley Flood, and Magic Magic hand-selected respectively by our buddies at Tea Party Boston, Boston Band Crush, and Bradley’s Almanac. Thursday wraps up the event with “New Night,” with a bill consisting of Mystery Roar, Bearstronaut, and Mean Creek. There’s talk of a full wine bar, and the entire event is sponsored by Budweiser so I’d guess there will be a few beers floating around as well – what’s a block party without alcohol? Best of all? IT’S FREE! (well, admission is free, I’m guessing the alcohol is gonna cost you a few bucks) Here’s some links to let you check out the bands, see you down there!

Tuesday, June 6 – “Garage Night” – 5-8pm

Needy Visions
Hands and Knees
Thick Shakes

Wednesday, June 7th – “Blog Night” – 5-8pm

John Shade
Kingsley Flood
Magic Magic

Thursday, June 8th – “New Night” – 5-8pm

Mystery Roar
Bearstronaut
Mean Creek

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.

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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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I’ve heard quite a bit about Magic Magic– from their Phoenix accolade to their international praise from press giant The London Times, they’ve gained significant recognition with the release of their self-titled LP. They’ve got the theatrics, harmonies, and infusion of orchestral detail like pop-glam band of Montreal, and have been consistently compared to a band actually from Montreal, Arcade Fire. The Baroque pop edge of Magic Magic make them an easy comparison to these bands, and groups like The Decemberists, that make a dramatic production of each song. However, in the way Brian Wilson used the theremin to create a dark and haunting mise-en-scène to the sunny “Good Vibrations”, Magic Magic is able to produce generally cheerful melodies aided by the xylophone and seemingly upbeat vocals while still beautifully chanting lyrics with a gloomsday glow.

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Stuck in Boston this weekend? Can’t make it down for the inaugural Provincetown Rocks Music Festival? Don’t worry, don’t fear, don’t cry – the friendly folks at PGB have you covered! We’re down on the Cape this weekend in full force for this monumental occasion, and we’ll be doing our best to bring you updates on how everything’s going each and every time we can find a wi-fi signal to steal! We’ll have quick reviews of some of the bands we’ve caught, a few songs to check out from intriguing artists, and maybe some reports of weird, insane, and/or drunken encounters over the course of this long rockin’ weekend! And if you’re planning on coming down to P-Town, either to perform or to check out the scene, we’ll try to give you the heads up on bands playing multiple sets so you can catch them for yourselves!

Click here for a complete listing of bands and venues participating in the festival!

Day 1 – Wednesday, July 22nd

So the action on the first day of the festival was limited to just a few venues. We stuck primarily to the main stage at the Vixen and the bar Good Times, and caught some pretty decent bands. Contrary to popular belief (ahem Michael Marrotta at the Herald), the festival seems to be going along without too much of a hitch. Sure there’s some scheduling issues, sure the sound engineering could be a little better – its the first year of this festival and like 150 bands playing over the course of 5 days, you thought everything was going to be perfectly smooth? Event organizer Martin Doyle remains fully confident with the way things are going – I think I bumped into him about 20 times over the course of the night all over Commercial Street, taking a hands-on approach to make sure everything goes as planned. It seems things are looking good, and so far I have no reason to expect that’s going to change. Anyway, onward to the meat and potatoes…

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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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