PLAYGROUND BOSTON

It’s that time again! 40 local Boston musicians split randomly into 8 5-piece bands, writing 4 songs (1 cover) over the course of a single day to be performed the very same night. Sound hectic? It is? Sound awesome? IT IS! This is the second annual occurrence of One Night Band, put on by the good folks over at Boston Band Crush for the benefit of East Boston youth music organization Zumix.

This year’s edition features another incredible roster taken from some of Boston’s best bands – Township, MEandJOANCOLLINS, Mellow Bravo, Sidewalk Driver, Mean Creek, Drug Rug, Gozu, Autumn Hollow Band… the list goes on and on. Head on over to the ONB website to check out bios and interviews of all the participants, then get down to the Middle East Saturday night for an unforgettable event! As an added bonus, the first 300 people in the door will get a gift bag filled with all sorts of free goodies! Check out the video below, it’s a documentary about how this amazing night went last year!

One Night Band

Boston Band Crush

Zumix

Gozu

“Jamaican Luau”

Locust Season

© 2010 Small Stone Records

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Gozu

Mark your calendars! Gozu has a MONSTER show coming up this fall for their official CD Release! Don’t even think of going anywhere but the Middle East Downstairs on Friday, September 10th, for Gozu (CD Release), Mellow Bravo (CD Release), Township, and Zip Tie Handcuffs! PGB Favorites and Track of The Week honorees everywhere! Seriously, this lineup is like a Boston rocker’s wet dream. They’ll also have DJ Nook spinning in between sets! This one’s gonna be packed, make sure to get your tickets early! We’ll have more info on this as we get closer to the date, but make sure you’re around for this one, you will NOT want to miss it! Tickets can be purchased online HERE, or just get in touch with any of the bands!

Friday, February 19th @ TT The Bears

Seems like just about every weekend so far in 2010 has been an embarrassment of riches for local music. Every Friday Saturday Sunday you have tons of amazing bands coming together to form jaw-dropping can’t-miss lineups. Only problem is, you need about 4 clones to be able to make it to everything you want to catch! This Friday at TT’s is no exception. PGB Favorites The Luxury and Conservative Man are teaming up with local britpop-meets-american-monotonish-indie act The Honors to rock the hell out of Cambridge. After listening to these guys side by side I’m REALLY surprised they haven’t shared a bill before – they seem like a great match for each other’s sound. They’ll be joined by Philly’s Jealousy Curve, who are set to break into Boston with a little help from their friends on the bill. And yes, I know this is an outdated flyer (CM were a late add to the bill), but it was also the best looking one I could find. So deal with it.

Friday & Saturday Feb 19-20th @ Rosebud Diner

Fresh off a raucous live set at Mad Oak Studios (click here to download the full live audio from that session!), Township will be taking over the Rosebud Diner in Davis Square all weekend to celebrate the release of their latest opus, Vol. 1, a collection of the cream of the crop from the past 4 years worth of EP’s and LP’s. Friday night they’ll be sharing the stage with Brownboot, whereas Saturday they’ll be joined by Ryan Fitzsimmons. Both nights will feature DJ Jordan Valentine spinning between sets. Do NOT let this weekend go by without catching at least one of these shows!

Saturday, February 20th @ O’Briens

Everyone needs a good metal show now and again to roil the blood, blow off some steam, and generally rock the fuck out. This Saturday is a great opportunity to do just that. Local icons Born of Thunder and Cromulent are joined by newcomers onto the scene Bring The Knife, born out of the ashes of the now-defunct Destruct-a-thon. They’ll be joined from She Rides, up from Providence to bring their intense, high-energy onslaught to bear on the unsuspecting masses of Allston. This promises to be an excellent show that brings you back to the days when O’Briens was metal and metal only, and you didn’t go in their unless you had long hair, excessive regrettable tattoos (band names or pentagrams on your neck really aren’t nearly as cool at age 72 as they are at age 27, dude), or were wearing a t-shirt from an obscure Swedish metal band from 1978.

Sunday, February 21st @ Middle East Upstairs

We’re looking at melted faces, cramped hands from clenched fists, and sore necks from banging heads – just a few of the casualties of Sunday Night! This is an excellent lineup, a perfect note to end the weekend on. PGB Favorites Planetoid NEVER disappoint – spacy riffs, sibilant vocals, and thunderous talent abounds with this extraterrestrial power trio. Cocked N’ Loaded bring some good hard rock to the table, complete with all the guitar insanity you could possibly ask for. Mellow Bravo’s got gritty vocals over a bluesy southern sound to help you drown away your sorrows from the weekend, while Hotblack’s aggressiveness and sick riffage will feed your fury and get you thoroughly depressed that you have to go back to work the next day when you could be rocking this hard all the time. Come have a beer with some PGB Staffers and check out some of Boston’s best straight-up rock!

Photo by JustBill - www.justbill.net

Township

“Life Starts Tonight”

Live at Mad Oak Studios 2/10/10

© 2010 Recorded & Mixed by Benny Grotto

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Township

Mad Oak Studios

Catch Township during their CD Release Party Weekend, with shows both Friday 2/19 and Saturday 2/20 at the Rosebud Diner in Davis Square, Somerville!

Download the entire live session here!

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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PGB Favorites The Lights Out have embarked on a media blitz in anticipation of their new album Color Machine, scheduled for release on September 25th. You’ve seen the posters all over Allston – You’ve read their posts all over the internet. They’ve also been offering one track per week for download on various music blogs leading up to the release (see below for links to each track!). We are honored to have been selected for the home stretch – PGB has been granted exclusive rights to make “Danny Partridge,” the final track off of the much-anticipated record, available to YOU – to stream AND to download! Check it out:

The Lights Out – “Danny Partridge” - Color Machine

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download: The Lights Out - Danny Partridge.mp3 (4.41MB) description: PGB Exclusive! The final track off of the as-yet unreleased new album byThe Lights Out, Color Machine. FREE download for all PGB Readers!

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Photo by Caroline Bridges

Great Scott hosted a rock show last Thursday night that Locks of Love would’ve loved to have gotten their shear-clasping hands on. I’ve never seen so much hair in one place in my life, especially in the beard department. And I’m not talking about that scraggly Bon Iver-esque face fuzz that passes for acceptable beardery nowadays, I’m talking full-on swamp Viking—that’s part backwoods redneck, part sword-wielding Norwegian badass—beard.

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The New Collisions are gearing up for their big EP Release Party at the end of this month by releasing one song each week on various Boston music sites. The Release Party is scheduled for Friday, May 29th, at TT the Bear’s in Central Square, and features a monster lineup of Township, The Lights Out, Televandals, and Logan 5 and the Runners in addition to the guests of honor. They’ll also have DJ Chris Ewen spinning in between sets. The New Collisions haven’t been around too long, but they’ve been hitting this town hard with their new-wave synth pop style and have built a lot of buzz for this EP. They’ve even got Greg Hawkes from The Cars to play keys on the album – and he’ll be sitting in with the band for their set at TT’s!

This is going to be an incredible night of live local music, with something for fans of all genres!

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