In the comments to this post ”shredder” gives us a juicy rumor: Singer will put out a record on Drag City this coming March. Singer’s MySpace page does indeed show Drag City as the label, and while I haven’t seen any other confirmation of the March release date, this is great news indeed! Can’t wait to both see those guys live and hear their debut album.
BreakThru Radio has a great review of Shrinking Islands “In the Black Carpet” album, with a nice mention of Inman Street Records and the 3-song EP they have up here towards the end.
I’m a bit late on this one, but in September Mike over at Pocket Full of Chump Change posted his thoughts on “Mosquito Nets”, the debut album by Reports. The review is here, and you can download “Mosquito Nets” in its entirety.
Thanks to both these sites for helping get the word out. (Have you written about stuff that’s released on this site? Be sure to let me know.)
It’s worth noting that Martin from Reports is the one helping to keep this site entertaining, with a bunch of posts under his belt. Not only is he a talented singer and songwriter, but he can put pen to paper (ahem) too!
So this coming Tuesday, Secretly Canadian is reissuing the two long-lost albums by Bobb Trimble, Iron Curtain Innocence (1980) and Harvest of Dreams (1982). Both records are totally essential, I’ve learned in the past month or so. Haunting, creepy, and totally bizarre, maybe like an R. Stevie Moore or Ariel Pink interpretation of The Wall or something like that. Reagan-era Worcester and its desperate loneliness and desolation ooze out of every second of these records, but with a weird uplifting hope. I’ve been hooked on them from the moment I got them in about a month ago, and I can’t recommend the flanged-out weirdness of it all more.
This Thursday, November 8th, River Gods will be hosting a CD release/listening party with the man of the hour in attendance, and I suggest anyone interested get there early to enjoy the festivities. Details:
NOT a gig per se, but Bobb will indeed be on hand to help celebrate…
Secretly Canadian presents:
Bobb Trimble listening party
for the deluxe enhanced reissues of
Iron Curtain Innocence (1980)
Harvest of Dreams (1982)Both albums will be played
Also: DJ ned egg (Nick Branigan) & special guestsvenue is 4 blocks from Central Sq. (MBTA Red line)
recommended inexpensive parking ($1/hr.):
5 blocks away, at Green St. Garage
(260 Green St., between Pearl St. & Magazine St.)
I’ll be there having dinner and some brews and some haunting songsmithing before heading over to the Middle East to see A Place To Bury Strangers later in the evening. It’ll be a great night.
Both the shows on my “must see” schedule next week feature Cococoma headlining, but that’s kind of a secondary point. While I’ve been loving the hell out of their various 7″s and am happily anticipating their debut LP on Goner, the real crucial business is that in the course of two days four of the most exciting current local bands will be joining them. For the Providencers, or the Bostonians willing to commute, next wednesday (10/3) at AS220 will see two of Providence’s most brutal starting the party. Tinsel Teeth have the old school dirge rock jams down as well as a penchant for playing in the nude (not sure about AS220 policy on that kind of thing), and I keep missing the shows, like an idiot. After them, the best band in Providence, Black Clouds will ruin the show for anyone following them. Seriously, the nastiness of their primal two-guitar/drums bullshit is pretty unparalleled and makes it difficult to discuss in any kind of measured way. So yeah, Providence pretty much has it made that night. Worth the trip down for all you northern types.
The reason I’m actually making the trip up to Somerville the next day, though, is that any bill featuring Turpentine Brothers my unhinged buddies in Life Partners can’t really be passed up (especially when Cococoma gets mixed into that cocktail). The Turps really need to get some more wax out, whether a full length or more singles, because their last few singles (including a split with Cococoma) have been downright feral, and their live show has only suggested that as awesome as their first LP was, it’ll be buried by the dirt their next record will throw all over the place. I’ve maintained Life Partners as the inexplicably greatest band in Boston for some 6-7 months now. Offensive disaster rock that maintains a musicality almost never found at those depths, where no idea is a bad idea.
So yeah, Cococoma, thanks for inadvertently causing the best 1-2 punch of locals shows in recent memory. And hey, these Hipshakes you’re touring with sound great too. I’m gonna be broke soon…
…and kicked it a few blocks down the road.
That’s a very, very good thing.
This past Wednesday at the Paradise in Boston, Singer and Battles were on the bill. Singer, a brand-new band featuring members of US Maple (among others), kicked off the evening.
Now, it’d be hard to overstate how much I loved and respected the music of US Maple. They stood on the shoulders of giants such as Beefheart, and then took that music to the nth degree; they were unrepentantly difficult and unique. Any follow-on project has to bear the expectations implied by those words, and I was afraid Singer would disappoint.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case at all. Singer came onstage sporting a 2 guitars/bass/drums lineup, and from the word go they reminded me of US Maple v2. The meandering, abstract guitar lines were there, if a bit bluesier than before, while the rhythm section held things down in a more concrete way. The biggest change was the vocals: all four sang at times, and there was no clear lead vocalist as they all took a turn at the mic, with two or even three of them singing lead at the same time.
The last song was the most different. It started with Todd Rittman switching to a small drum kit, with both him and regular drummer Adam Vida playing a drum roll on their snares. Bassist Rob Lowe switched over to a mini-organ and played deep, droney bass notes while singing occasionally, and guitarist Ben Vida played a repeating line that sounded like a cross between shattering glass and a crackling campfire. Over the next 8 or so minutes the piece evolved, sounding at times like a Neu-style Krautrock workout. It was an excellent piece, and I definitely hope they do more like it in conjunction with their more conventional songs as they go forward.
They proceeded through a solid set of about 40 minutes, pretty impressive considering they’re a brand-new band with less than 10 shows under their belt.
Complaints? I thought some of the songs lent themselves to a more abstract style of drumming, similar to Kevin Shea in Storm and Stress, instead of Adam Vida’s more straight-ahead work. Especially with the bass holding down the fort, there was room in the music for it. To be fair, it’s a minor nitpick; Mr. Vida is certainly more than capable behind the kit.
Overall? Two big thumbs up. I can’t wait to hear more, and hopefully they return to Boston before too long.
As for Battles, they were simply awesome. I gotta disagree with Will Spitz’s review of their set as “emotionally unaffecting”; from the minute Dave Konopka came out to start their set they had my attention, and they just killed it. It was my first time seeing them live - I missed all of their earlier Boston shows, for various reasons - but I was really into it, and judging from the crowd’s reaction I wasn’t the only one. Yes, the last third of their set dragged a bit, and I think they’d do well to add more vocals to their songs, but it certainly wasn’t “surgical”; they rocked, pure and simple.
It’s been quiet on the site for the past couple weeks as we roll into summer. BUT we have a pair of new releases coming out in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
My post on Singer has been getting some notice, with a commenter named Mike mentioning that they now have a MySpace page up. No music or any other info besides tourdates, and it’s hard to read, but it’s a start.
I’m seeing them next week with Battles here in Boston, so expect a full report afterwards.
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.
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!
The guys over at Echoplanar Films have been coming by the Pipeline! show on WMBR (I’m one of the sound engineers) and filming some of the live band sets. They were in the house when Reports played a couple weeks ago; here’s a video of one of the songs from the set. More coming soon.
Meanwhile the Hot Stof blog, out of the Netherlands, has two brief and positive mentions of Reports. The first is from earlier this month, with the second mentioning the LP release along with a link to mp3 versions here on Inman Street. Thanks!
Finally, I fixed the site so it looks fine in Internet Explorer 6. IE7, Firefox, and all other major browsers should do you right as well. Please drop me a line if you’re having difficulties.