Video: Tulsa #2
Here’s video number 2 from the live set that Tulsa played on Pipeline!, on WMBR 88.1fm.
For more info on these videos click over here for the first post in this series.
Video: Tulsa
One of the hats I wear is recording engineer for the weekly live music show Pipeline! on WMBR 88.1fm. Every week a band from somewhere in New England (usually from the Boston area) comes down to the studio and plays live on the air. It’s a ton of fun, both to listen to and engineer!
Recently, it got even more interesting: a couple months ago the guys from Echoplanar Films started coming down and filming some of the sets. There’s already a few clips up on the Pipeline! site in the video category, and as time goes on I’ll post clips here as well as over there.
Below is a clip from the very first set they shot, by the band Tulsa.
Benefit for Mona Elliot
Late notice, but there’s a great show for a great cause tonight at PA’s Lounge:
A Breast Cancer Benefit for Mona Elliot with…
Helms
Black Helicopter
Seana Carmody
Vox Humana
$10, 9pm.
More soon…
Shrinking Islands live at Great Scott 6/13/07
Shrinking Islands are playing a show at Great Scott this coming Wednesday.
Who are Shrinking Islands? Right here:
They Don’t Watch Me - from the album “In the Black Carpet” (buy it here)
Why mention it? Besides being great friends of mine, they’re busy recording their debut release for Inman Street Records, due in a few weeks (hopefully).
Here’s the rest of the bill for Wednesday’s show:
Hands & Knees
My Teenage Stride
A Sunny Day In Glasgow
Jesus Lizard + Boston + Venus de Milo = DVD
We headed over to the Middle East down last night for the screening of the new Jesus Lizard DVD… shot in Boston on October 4, 1994 at the Venus de Milo. Both that show and the club predated my arrival in this fair city, though I did manage to see the band twice during their lifespan.
Ahh, nostalgia.
Turnout for the DVD showing was really weak, but the DVD was a great representation of a Jesus Lizard show. Here’s a sample:
Plenty of other Jesus Lizard clips on YouTube for your enjoyment, and you can buy the DVD online at Newbury Comics.
Sunday Afternoon Sonic Bliss: 6/10
What’s occupying your calendar for this upcoming Sunday afternoon (June 10)?
Odds are good that you can hold off on the laundry for another day and instead bring the whole family out to the Middle East for a great afternoon show featuring the extremes of local folk music all gathered together in one show. This all-ages affair begins with doors at 1 PM (though nothing is stopping anyone from showing up earlier and letting the Middle East make brunch for you as well).
http://www.mideastclub.com
First up is Most Bitter, whose keyboards and loops and toys and North Indian classical instruments can seem as far from folk as possible. However, once you boil songs down to their essence, the results are still a collection of notes and words no matter what instruments are used. Bringing poetry and music together doesn’t need to be a high art form, it just needs to make good songs and this is a glimpse at the folk music of the future.
http://www.myspace.com/mostbitter
Hailing from New London, Connecticut, the Can Kickers are a trio whose irreverence for the folk idiom is only overshadowed by their love of it. With banjo, fiddle, and a backbeat, they bring traditional songs into the punk era and take punk forms and tack them to tradition. It’s a whirlwind of bliss, that reminds you that the dancing part of folk can be just as important as sitting back on the porch swigging whiskey (or at least helps you understand why those same people that created our popular folk forms are the same folks who nowadays cook meth in
their sheds).
http://www.cankickers.com/
Kurt Weisman is a songwriter whose music truly possesses an otherworldy musical allure. Usually he’s heard within the confines of his band Feathers, whose self-titled CD was released on Devendra Banhart’s Gnomonsong record label, but this afternoon he takes wing on his own. With tunes about rainbows and bird songs sung as if they are coming from those voices themselves, Weisman is a talent for the ages.
http://www.feathersfamily.org/
The event is headlined by Mike and Ruth Merenda, the recently married couple who have spent their past few summers hitting every folk festival in the nation as part of the Mammals. After drawing more attention in the parking lots at the Newport Folk Festival than many of the main stage acts, the group has ascended the ranks boasting the slogan “Trad is Rad.” Supporting solo records and a forthcoming disc recorded on their honeymoon, the Merendas make music engaging and fun, without being afraid to get a bit political.
http://www.michaelmerenda.com/
Sun 6/10
Mike and Ruthie Merenda (the Mammals), Kurt Weisman (Feathers), The Can Kickers, Most Bitter - All Ages - $8– NOTE: 1pm Doors
http://www.michaelmerenda.com/
http://www.feathersfamily.org/
http://www.cankickers.com/
http://www.myspace.com/mostbitter
http://www.mideastclub.com
Shows in Boston This Week
TONS of shows coming up this week in Boston. Here’s some of the better ones:
Thursday June 7th - Jack Wright, Agnes Palier, Olivier Toutlemonde
Pierre Menard Gallery, 10 Arrow St in Harvard Square, Cambridge. 8 pm.
Friday June 8th - Jandek (with Eli Keszler, Jorrit Dijkstra, and Greg Kelley)
Boston ICA, 7 pm. presented by The Critique of Pure Reason
Friday June 8th - Sunburned, Birds Of Delay, Emeralds, Astronaut, Puritan Agenda
Nom D’Artiste, 25 Edinboro St. #5 in Chinatown. 9 pm.
Friday June 8th - Major Stars, UV Protection, Helms
The Milky Way, 403-405 Centre St. in Jamaica Plain. 10pm.
Saturday June 9th - The Divorced
The Distillery, 516 E 2nd St. in Boston. 8pm.
Sunday June 10th - Lexie Mountain Boys and others
Infrasound loft. Call Weirdo Records (617-666-VILE) for details.
Monday June 11th - Melt-Banana, Doomriders, Neptune
Middle East Downstairs, 472/480 Mass Ave in Cambridge. 9pm.
Friday June 15th - Warmer Milks
Twisted Village, 12 B Eliot Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge. 617-354-6898.
New Dania Shapes CDR Now Available
Our friends over at The Paper Cities have just released Holograd, a limited-edition (100 copies) CDR by the band Dania Shapes. I’ve been listening to more ambient/electronic stuff lately, and they’re very much in that vein, though they can get a bit noisy at times. While I’ve never seen then live, I’ve been enjoying the songs up on their Myspace page for quite a while; of the current batch that are up I’m partial to “NEST 5900″ and “October”.
The CDR can be purchased at The Paper Cities website.
Singer - a new band from half of US Maple?
UPDATE: Battles and Singer have now played in Boston. I went to the show and have posted my thoughts over here.
—–
I’ve been a huge US Maple fan for years. When I first heard them sometime in the mid-90’s, I was absolutely floored; the music they made was so alien, yet amazingly compelling. The first time I saw them live my brain melted out of my ears. They were that great.
Battles is a more recent band that I’ve been really impressed with. Their initial EP’s melded instrumental rock with electronics in a very satisfying way. I’ve only heard a couple songs off their new album - I haven’t picked it up yet, but will soon - but the addition of (heavily effected) vocals merely raises the bar.
What’s the connection? I missed Battles when they played in Boston a month or two ago, so when I saw a listing for their upcoming show Wednesday July 18th at the Paradise, I was happy.
AND! I noticed one other thing! Opening up for them is a band called Singer. According to the listing, Singer features “Rob Lowe, Adam Vida, Ben Vida, and Todd Rittman”. Todd Rittman is one of the original members of US Maple; Adam Vida was brought in to play drums on their last album and tour.
Much googling insued, but there’s scant information about this new band available online. The best I could do is a post on the messageboard of Modern Radio, a small record label out of Minnesota. Someone who appears to be Adam Vida writes:
“AJV posted this on May 25th, 2007 at 02:01:41 pm
Speaking of polarizing bands… Here’s a new one.
SINGER:
Todd Rittmann (US Maple)
Adam Vida (US Maple)
Ben Vida (Town and Country, Bird Show)
Rob Lowe (90 Day Men, Lichens)
We’ve been invited to tour with Battles in July. We’ll be in MPLS (where Ben and I grew up) on July 11th, 2007 at Triple Rock. You gotta see Rittmann is bringing to this… that’s all I’ll say.
Best, Adam”
Follow this link and scroll all the way down to the bottom to see the post.
I couldn’t find a myspace page or any other info. If anyone knows anything, please leave a note in the comments; suffice it to say I’m quite excited to hear what these gentlemen have to offer!