PLAYGROUND BOSTON

Al Polk of Streight Angular, clearly shown here saluting the awesomeness of Playground Boston and all things PGB - Photo Credit: Justbill

Streight Angular – “Alright” – Alright EP

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This show at Harper’s Ferry served as a benefit for Ben Garceau, ex lead singer for Roman Traffic (formerly Gravehaven). A tragic accident Ben narrowly survived led to staggering hospital bills – by all accounts this benefit raised $750 to help him overcome his debt. The Garceau family is still accepting donations, if you’d like to contribute please visit this website.

The Luxury's Justin Day, very excited to get a feature in PGB - Photo Credit: JustBill

Saturday’s show was also the Re-Birthday party of local radio program Boston Emissions, hosted by Anngelle Wood. The show used to be part of the WBCN Sunday night lineup, but with the dissolution of WBCN approximately a year ago Wood took her show over to WZLX, and was celebrating her first anniversary at the new station.

Thanks to JustBill for the great photos! Check out Justbill.net for more of his work!

JustBill.net

Dead Cats Dead Rats

Streight Angular

The Luxury

Ben Garceau Donations

Boston Emissions

Harper’s Ferry

Saturday night at Harper’s Ferry presents a great lineup of local bands coming together for an excellent cause. Former Roman Traffic / Gravehaven lead singer Ben Garceau was recently the victim of a terrible accident that left him severely injured at the hospital. Unfortunately, Ben has no health insurance, and as a result has accumulated thousands of dollars in hospital bills. The Boston music community has banded together to try to help Ben, culminating in this benefit show in his support. The Luxury, Dead Cats Dead Rats, and Gene Dante, all of whom competed against Gravehaven in the 2009 WBCN Rumble, will be joined by Streight Angular to create a strong lineup anxious to raise as much money as possible in an effort to help ease Ben’s financial burden and let him focus solely on getting healthy.

To further promote this benefit, Boston Emissions hostess and former Rumble coordinator Anngelle Wood has dubbed Saturday night her “Boston Emissions Re-Birthday Party,” celebrating a year since her excellent local music program survived the dissolution of WBCN by moving to WZLX. Anngelle will be hosting the entire event, as well as spinning DJ sets in between bands. In addition, there are plans for baked goods sales and raffles to help raise additional funds for Ben. Among the raffle prizes are a Sonicbids membership, Narragansett prize packs, CDs, and more! 100% of all the proceeds are going to this great cause, so head on out to Harper’s Ferry this Saturday and catch some great music and a surprise or two while helping someone who is truly in need of your support.

Steve Foster of The Luxury cheering on Ben Garceau at last year's WBCN Rumble - Photo Credit: Matt Wilson

Saturday, August 14th
Harper’s Ferry
18+ / $12 / Doors at 8pm

9pm – Gene Dante (solo)

10pm – Dead Cats Dead Rats

11pm – Streight Angular

12pm – The Luxury
(with special guests)

To donate prizes to the raffle, e-mail Anngelle Wood.

To donate directly to Ben’s fund, click here.

Friday, July 2nd – On the Boston Harbor!

Back on New Years Day, Destroy Babylon tore the roof off the Middle East by performing The Clash’s London Calling in its entirety to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the best front-to-back album ever recorded (I apologize for nothing). Due to popular demand, DB will be doing another Clash show, but this one with a few changes thrown in. Yes they’ll be performing London Calling, yes they’ll be throwing a few other Clash favorites into the set… but this time they’ll be backed by the 11-piece afro-funk outfit The Macrotones… and they’ll be doing up the whole thing on a boat in the middle of the Boston Harbor! Both bands will be doing a set of originals as well before joining up and getting all Strummer on us. INCREDIBLE! These rock cruises are an absolute blast, if you have yet to check one out this is a perfect opportunity! If you can’t make this one, definitely check out Rock On’s website for more info on other cruises they’re putting on over the course of the summer. Don’t be late though – boat boards at 7 and departs at 8 sharp – whether you’ve made it on board or not! These things usually end at 11, so if you’re feeling especially ambitious you could hit this up and then head over to Cambridge or Allston to check out one of our other picks for the night…

Friday, July 2nd – Middle East Downstairs

A night of irresistible pop catchiness. Lots of piano, lots of love songs, lots of head bobbing… and some of the most beautiful songwriting in Boston. All four bands on this bill are immensely talented, and fast on the rise in this city. Oranjuly is celebrating the release of their brand new debut album, a labor of love they’ve been working on for 3 years now! Their brand of dreamy pop is reminiscent of Ben Folds Five with a little Weezer thrown in, and a little twist of their own. Wear orange tonight and you’ll get a free download of their new album! Oranjuly will be joined by an incredible lineup sure to pack the Middle East. If you read PGB regularly you know all about The Luxury, click this link here to check out all our past coverage. The star of Spirit Kid is growing brighter every day, their new age take on Beatles-style pop is well worth checking out. This may be the final Boston show for local indie pop icons The Everyday Visuals, as a couple of the guys will soon be leaving our fair city behind for the greener pastures (read: concrete-r wastelands) of LA. Catch them now before it’s too late!

Friday, July 2nd – O’Briens

Sweet garage punk show going on at O’Briens tonight. The band to watch, in our humble opinion, is With A Bullet, a new band just a month or so off their first show. WAB consists of members of Razors in the Night and the Beantown Boozehounds, among others. Definite Jawbreaker sound here, from the raspy vox to the driving guitar riffs – looking forward to watching these guys explode on the local scene! They’ll be joined by trash rockers Triple Thick, fresh off yet another CD release party just a few weeks back. This show also marks the debut of new Allston punk outfit The Nose Jobs, and rounding out the bill will be The Nailheads all the way down from Montreal.

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

Friday, June 11th – Rosebud Diner

Nice lineup here! Muy Cansado and Sun Lee Sunbeam are both PGB Favorites who’ve received plenty of coverage on these here pages. These guys rock out with the best of ‘em, and the two of them together on a bill at an extremely cool venue is an event not to be missed! This is Muy Cansado’s first show in months, as they’ve been locked up at Q Division hammering away at a new EP due out later this year. The 5 songs on the new album will be “Not About A Girl,” “Love & Fear,” “Sharpshooter,” “Giant,” and “Acquaintances” – and there’s a good chance you’ll be able to get a sneak peak of the new tunes if you get your summer lovin’ butts down to the Rosebud tonight!

Friday, June 11th – McGann’s Pub

OK OK to be fair, this isn’t really a flyer for this show so much as it is a listing for all the shows at McGann’s this month. However, its got Super Mario critters on it, so its going up on the site, dammit. Shows like this are helping McGann’s to gain notoriety as a quality music venue in this city. Artsy indie darlings The Hush Now have been exploding both nationally and internationally since their debut in 2008. They’ll be joined by the Hendrixian trash rock duo Kuuluuko, an incredible act in their own right! Also on this bill are The Susan Constant and El Fuego. But check this out – apparently a regular flyer wasn’t good enough for this show, so The Hush Now made a little video flyer with some artsy images and soothing music, to lull you into coming out to the show. Take a look!

Saturday, June 12th – Rosebud Diner

Rosebud’s got some great shows going on this weekend – isn’t it about time you checked the damn place out? Looks like our friends at Boston Band Crush have come up with another AWESOME idea for a show. This one strikes close to my Middle School soul (Even *I* had long hair back then. And yes, you’re right, it looked friggin’ terrible.) Rather than have a show full of covers of one specific band’s songs, the Mixtape series takes an entire year and lets bands cover whatever songs they like that came out at that time. Think about some of the albums that came out in ‘93 – In Utero, Vs., Siamese Dream, Rancid, Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can’t We, Black Sunday, The Wedding Album, Pork Soda, Are You Gonna Go My Way, Doggystyle, Pablo Honey, Last Splash, 36 Chambers, Undertow – holy shit, right? They picked a hell of a year to kick off this series with! This show’s going to be great, especially considering they’ve tapped some of Boston’s best to do the performing – The Luxury, The Rationales, and St. Helena will be joined by the newly formed Exile in Somerville, featuring members of Apple Betty, Kingsley Flood, Dark Martini & The Dirty Olives, and Ashley from BBC!

Aaron Norell of Silent Century - Photo by JustBill

PGB Exclusive Photo Soundtrack:
Silent Century – “Red Hands” - Live at the Hard Rock, 5/1/10

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Thanks again to JustBill for the photos – as always, 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!

Silent Century

The Main Drag

Hot Protestants (2 free album downloads on their website!)

The Luxury

The Weekend is finally upon us! The spectacular show presented in conjunction by Playground Boston and Boston Band Crush is here! This Saturday, May 1st, we’re bringing you an unbelievable event at the Hard Rock Cafe, featuring performances by PGB Favorites (and former Track of the Week Honorees) The Luxury and Silent Century, as well as talented indie rockers Hot Protestants and poppy experimental Rock Band heroes The Main Drag!

The Luxury – Sing For The Last Train – In The Wake of What Won’t Change

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The Luxury - Photo by Seth Drury

This all-star lineup can be seen for only $7 if you purchase HERE in advance, but if you can’t get the tickets in time you’re still making out like a bandit with only paying $10 at the door… provided there are any tickets left! The Hard Rock rose from the ashes of the now-defunct Rack night club, on Clinton St. just across from Faneuil Hall. The club is very easy to get to via the Green, Blue, or Orange Lines.

Silent Century – “Teeth” – Live At Great Scott

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Hot Protestants - Photo by Seth Drury

This is an important show for the Boston music community as a whole. Since doors opened at this new rendition of The Hard Rock back in 2007, this 300-capacity nightclub has primarily booked cover bands, hosted parties for TV shows such as “Rock of Love,” and occasionally brought in a national semi-headliner or two. Now its the local boys’ turn to show the bigwigs at Hard Rock booking central what they’ve got. If we can pack this place up they’ll be sure to start to book more local shows in the future – a 300 person monster of a venue with one of the most extensive and expensive sound systems in the city! For fans, this could give you another spot to catch some of the best new acts this city has to offer. For bands, this could be another spot to show off what you’ve got, in the heart of the city!

Hot Protestants – “Spent The Weekend” – EP2

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So come support your local scene, rock out with the PGB and BBC staff, and catch some of the fastest rising stars in Boston rock! We’ll see you there!

Save $3 off the cover by purchasing tickets in advance!

Silent Century

The Luxury

Hot Protestants

The Main Drag

Silent Century

Boston Band Crush

Hard Rock Cafe

Let it never be said that JustBill doesn’t throw a hell of a party. The local master photographer is celebrating his 12th year in the Boston rock scene – 12 years of tirelessly supporting local music, spreading the word about great new acts, taking incredible pictures, throwing huge afterparties and basement shows, and generally being an all-around great guy. This year he’s assembled an incredible lineup to rock TTs Friday night, jam-packed with PGB Favorites.

Chris Mascara gets the night started with with his cast of Boston rock all-stars (Bo Barringer of MEandJOANCOLLINS and Matt Graber of Sarah Rabdau & The Self-Employed Assassins). The otherworldly rock stylings of Planetoid follow them up at 10, with a sound caught somewhere between Led Zeppelin and Queens of the Stone Age… IN SPAAAAACE! Fresh of a St. Paddy’s day appearance on WMFO’s popular On The Town show, I Pistol will be rocking out third on the bill, this time bringing in Daanen Krouth of The Luxury to rip it up on lead guitar. Forgetful Jones will be closing out this show, the reggae-infused funk rockers will get you jumping and amped up to party all night long. This is a solid bill front to back, each band hand-picked by JustBill himself for your maximum rocking pleasure. Don’t miss this show!

9pm: Mascara

10pm: Planetoid

11pm: I, Pistol

12am: Forgetful Jones

One of the best parts about living in Boston is the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Camraderie, funny hats, and alcohol-infused good times – what better to go with all of the above than some great local music? Sure, its not exacly what St. Patrick had in mind while transversing the Irish countryside as a Catholic missionary, but I don’t think Jesus was thinking of pastel pink rabbits handing out eggs to commemorate Easter either. We work with what we’ve got, and we make the best out of what we can. Since the parade always falls on a Sunday, and St. Patrick’s Day is always on March 17th, they usually don’t line up on the same day and as a result you get TWO days to celebrate. Sure, this year’s parade was a little… soggy, to say the least. But hey, the weather’s going to be 60 degrees and sunny tomorrow, perfect conditions to throw a few back and check out some Irish-themed local shows!

Over in Cambridge, The Swaggerin’ Growlers are taking over The Middle East Upstairs for their 5th annual St. Patrick’s Day Riot. The local legends of Irish riot folk are bringing some great local bands together for this one, including Faulty Conscience and The Old Edison. Amherst’s Time and Place will be this year’s pit band. They’ll also be bringing in New Jersey’s F Bombers, a female-fronted punk rock machine from the worst-smelling state in the country. The Growlers will be selling their new CD for only $5, will have new T-shirts for sale, and will without a doubt be willing to have at least one drink with every last man, woman, and child who walks into that club. There are also plans to have the entire show recorded for a live DVD, even more reason to join in the revelry! This annual show has become an institution for St. Paddy’s day madness in Boston, come see what you’ve been missing!

If you’re planning on spending your time on the other side of the river make sure you get down to Great Scott for their St. Pat’s celebration show, featuring an absolutely STACKED lineup. Local Britpop superheros The Luxury will be headlining the night, playing a rare weekday show to commemorate the Irishness of the day. They’ll be joined by Midatlantic (ex-Bleedin Bleedins), who put on one of the best sets of the entire P-Town Festival but we have unfortunately not seen since. Midatlantic’s actually got some ties to Ireland among the band members, so I suppose that gives this show a little bit extra authenticity. The Organ Beats (ex-Damone) completely killed it at the Conservative Man EP Release show back in January (click to see Matt’s review), and have been blowing up the Boston spotlight ever since with a jam-packed show schedule. We’re excited to see what they come up with for this one. Local rising stars Mellow Bravo are also featured on this bill – their gritty blues-rock style has made a serious impact on the local scene in the relatively short time they’ve been together. The Herald recently named them one of their top 10 bands to watch for in 2010 (Herald article is archived, click link for a transcribed version on the writer’s blog), so if you haven’t had a chance to watch them yet, now’s your chance! Creepy Jones rounds out the bill, ensuring you’ll have enough yee-haw rock to make it through the night. In addition to their normal sets each band will be doing at least one cover of a traditional Irish song, and DJ Belfrank out of Belfest will be spinning and lending even more authenticity between sets. This is sure to be an unforgettable (depending on how much you drink) night of some of the best local rock Boston has to offer!