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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Thanks to John A Macy for the photos – see more of his work here!

Bim Skala Bim

Have Nots

Morgan Knockers

Brunt Of It

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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I realize posting a review of a show that happened two weeks ago may be considered old news by any blog and music standards, and for this, I apologize. But, this band is worth writing about, regardless of how timely this post might be.

How many blondes does it take to make a hundred people dance? Answer: one.

Sarah Guild, the petite dynamo fronting The New Collisions, blew me away with her powerful stage presence at their CD release party. Of course, there is something to be said about a platinum stunner as the voice to a pop/ rock band: Blondie, Letters to Cleo, No Doubt, Be Your Own Pet. There’s nothing dumb about these fierce leading ladies. And, it’s a formula that works.

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The New Collisions - Photo by Seth Drury

Oranjuly

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Muy Cansado

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Hot Protestants

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The New Collisions

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The Luxury

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All Photos by Seth Drury

This Thursday Playgroundboston.com, in conjunction with WTBU and Rocknrollboston.com, are taking over the Middle East Downstairs for a incredible night of rock with some of the best bands the local scene has to offer! We’re gonna keep it nice and cheap for you too – $10 gets you 5 great bands, but if you’ve got a student ID you get $3 off!

Check out the amazing lineup! We got The Luxury, who just this past weekend played to a crowd estimated to be in excess of 20,000 at the Boston Freedom Rally on the Common. We got The New Collisions, playing their first show back in their hometown after touring the nation with the B52’s and opening up for Blondie. Muy Cansado will be debuting a new drummer for this show, and they’ll all be joined on stage by the Hot Protestants and Oranjuly, two excellent indie pop bands. We’re looking at light shows, costumes, special guests, and plenty of other surprises all night long!

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This Saturday, the Middle East Downstairs is hosting a benefit for the Boston Freedom Rally (better known as the HempFest). This benefit show features an all-star lineup of Prospect Hill, The Force, Captain Cutthroat, Planetoid, Neurological Damage, and Build A Machine. While the show was originally scheduled for the Upstairs venue, it had to be moved downstairs once the true drawing potential of all these bands, plus the Boston institution that is Hempfest, was taken into consideration! This is going to be an incredible show – amazing bands, a common cause, and the Girls 4 Ganja will be out in full force, meeting and greeting as well as holding an open casting call for future models! Also, local NORML hero Mike Cann will be filming the festivities, interviewing concertgoers about decriminalization, etc. to post on his blog and Youtube channel.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or at the Middle East Box Office… or if you purchase tickets through any of the members of The Force they’ll include a free T-Shirt or their debut CD with purchase! Click here for a review of the CD – if you haven’t picked up a copy of their incredible album, now is the perfect opportunity. This show WILL sell out, so why not grab a freebie if you’re getting tickets anyway? So head on over to their website, send them an e-mail, and work out a time and place to meet up to pick up tickets!

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This video is from a couple of years ago, but really when nunchucks are involved, does it ever get old? My only wish in life is that he brings the chucks along for this year’s show at Middle East Downstairs on the 29th. Yep, I can’t wait for this one!

www.bucketheadland.com

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photo by Uli Loskot

Long Island’s finest balding classically-trained electro dance artist cum eclectic-psych-folk-rock-dance-craziness artist is coming to Cambridge in two days, and I for one am pumped. On tour with a 13 piece band, the Dan Deacon ensemble will be invading the Middle East Downstairs, and as far as I know there are still tickets left (someone correct me here if I’m wrong).

Below is a track called “Woof woof” off of Deacon’s latest album Bromst, a record that in my opinion is deserving of its hipster-fuled hype.

Dan Deacon – Woof woof

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also… I’ve heard rumor that this animated video involves Deacon locking himself in a closet with a tape recorder after consuming copious amounts of acid. Whatever the true story may be, it’s pretty much one of the greatest things to happen in world ever.

www.myspace.com/dandeacon

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