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People are still missing Justine Couvault

News from the Nervous Eaters on Facebook from Steve Cataldo: "I broke my wrist a while back, "Occult Fracture" they call it...but I've recovered and am back in the studio, at rehearsals and back at work....so I will see you guys out there starting in Feb 2025." Later the news was: "New Nervous Eaters coming out in 2025 -New Group - New Music - New Gigs" Nervous Eaters Facebook page.

Vanyaland reports that a new all ages music venue is opening on Artists Row, Derby Street, Salem. Moon Base One is part of Moon a nonprofit supporting music on the North Shore. The first shows will be early next year and be announced soon. Read the full story on Vanyaland.

COME has three shows booked in Australia in February (13-15): in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. If you happen to be in the area ...tickets are here: Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

Condition Baker from Holbrook has a sort of familiar looking new logo on their T-shirts. Get them on their Bandcamp page.

VIDEOS......

This is so cool - a new Happy Birthday song that isn't lame. The song is off Better Late Than Never, the Prozacs' split album with the Downstrokes. it's on Punkerton Records.
The song "Hey What's Your Face". Most of the lyrics go "Happy Birthday to you" a lot, then a section of " Oh ya, Party, Party, Party, Let's Go". It's a zingy pop punk confection. This is our go to Happy Birthday tune from now on. We needed this and we didn't know it.

Bridge Nine Records in Beverly had a wild in-store set 12/7/24 with Agnostic Front playing with Jaime Sciarappa and Chris Foley of SSD. This was in conjunction with a duel book signing of With Time: The Roger Miret Archives a 300 page book about Agnostic Front by Roger Miret  , and Vinnie Stigma's memoirThe Most Interesting Man In The World(with co-author Howie Abrams). The authors had a conversation with Drew Stone who also did the video above left.

Drew Stone did a whole show with Roger Miret of Agnostic Front on The New York Hardcore Chronicles. Roger and Drew talk their way through the book. Great stuff. The video is above right.

Thurston Moore was guest on the #350 show of the NYHC Chronicles with Drew Stone. Thurston has lived in London for ten years. He started his book Sonic Life: A Memoir when the pandemic hit. One of his sources was the Village Voice. To find the info he had to go the library and look at the microfilm copies.

The initial name of Sonic Youth was the Arcadians. He shows an ad for CBGB's from Village Voice of their first gig in 1981.
Thurston was at the first show of the Damned in America at CBGB's. He has a lot of inside NYC stories. He went to NYC clubs like Mothers and The Great Gildersleeves that you don't hear about these days. It's all worth hearing.

RADIO......

Brian Young had Simon Ritt on his A Crash Course for the Ravers show. Simon played two new recordings. One was "Go Screw" with Billy Loosigian on it. The other is a track from the long awaiting tribute album for Bill Hayden of the Dawgs. Simon talks a lot about the work going on with that recording project. He plays "When Shit Hits the Fan".

We have both of those songs and some of the interview embedded below.

On A Crash Course for the Ravers 12/14 show Brian Young played Jay Allen's "Effin' Dreidel Song". If you think you're getting out of here without hearing that, you are mistaken!

A Crash Course for the Ravers show is on WMFO 91.5 FM on Saturdays at 1pm. After that go to the WMFO schedule page Hit the A Crash Course for the Ravers show on 1pm on Saturday, then hit the 'archive' button.

Skybar had Tim and Judy Sprague from Crow Follow on his Rising show 12/2. They premiered their latest single "Sylvia Says". Inspired by Justine Covault, the song is highlighted by a few horn segments.
They talked about the Crow Follow origins and how the "Sylvia Says" song slowly formed. Tim and Judy also played a few songs live in the studio.

Rising show is on WMFO 91.5 FM on Tuesdays at 8pm. After that go to the WMFO schedule page Hit the Rising show on 8pm on Saturday, then hit the 'archive' button.

PODCASTS.........

Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico interviews Lynda Mandolyn on his 12/5 show. Steev plays her new release "I Love How You Love Me". It's a sumptuous cover of a classic tune. Lynda is living in Portland and recommends The Worst and the Bumbling Woohas as bands from there to check out.

Lynda relates how Justine Covault suggested covering "I Love How You Love Me" but she died before she could record. It took a while for Lynda to recover from the loss but then she followed through. The song is below

"I Loved How You Love Me" is part of a digital single and they talked about that. The other song is "Little Dreamer" a cover by Some Birthday Girls. She heard the song on the Wednesday show (Netflix) on the soundtrack.

On the 12/9 show of Blowing Smoke Steev announced that another podcast had a 'Blowing Smoke' title to their podcast. Now the show will be the Twisted Rico Podcast. Steev had Michael Cudahy of Christmas and Combustible Edison. Michael was on to talk about the Propeller Sampler rerelease.

Michael also talked about his appearance on Jeopardy. He said he applied to game shows, living in LA, and Jeopardy is the one that called him back. He was up against Ken Jennings!

Michael is from the New Haven, CT area. Like a lot of people his first rock experience was the Beatles on TV. In high school he quickly went from prog to punk. Hearing Devo was a game changer. Michael moved to Boston and his first band was Chinese Girlfriends, who are on the Propeller collection. Then he was in Shut Up with Robyn of The Girls. He was also in a group with David Hild and then Judy Grunwald. The group Christmas grew out of the Propeller scene.

Michael revealed that Christmas moved to Las Vegas for a year and a half. We don't remember that happening. Later he had some memories of Brother Cleve who played keyboards for Combustible Edison.

These days Michael is scoring films.

The Elastic Glam Show (12/6) shows you what a Glam Christmas sounds like. It starts with T.Rex doing "Christmas Boogie". The Darkness does their thing with "Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End)", that group was made for Christmas songs. Racey has "It's Christmas" and The Voltz glam stomp through "Do You Remember Christmas".

Throwbacks were Showaddywaddy with "Hey Mister Christmas" and Sweet "Let It Snow" .

There were new songs from Gyasi's "Sweet Thing", "Lady on Fire" by Bobby Dazzle and Creem Circus with "Playgirl".

On the 12/13 Elastic Glam show it was heavy with Christmas tunes starting with T Rex's "Christmas Bop". There was "Glam Rock Christmas" by Romano Nervoso (Belgium). Wizzard cranks up "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday". The glorious Slade stomps out "Merry Christmas Everybody," and SilverGlam sings "No One Waits Till Christmas." All that should hold you Christmas music lovers for a while.

There were two songs by Nashville glammer Gyasi for his Birthday. That's where some of the new glam is coming from - Nashville. Sethyspice played Creem Circus (Philadelphia) doing "Playgirl" we love that tune.

Al Quint began his 11/18 Sonic Overload with a set in memory of Ross Noyes of Middle Class and some local groups.

Al played a cut from Radio Birdman and it's always great to hear that group. They have held up so well. We embed that song "Murder City Nights" below with its follow up songs in the set "Fuck It" by the Left and "Mall Punks" by TV Freaks which was a nice punk set.

Later Al celebrated the 40th anniversary of the release of Slip It In by Black Flag by playing "Black Coffee". We have that included in the embedded set below.

You can hear the whole show on the Sonic Overload web page.

NEW MUSIC/CDs......

A year and a half later, and no one is over the loss of Justine Covault. Even in this week's news we have Crow Follow talking about a song they have inspired by her and on Lynda Mandolyn talks about the project she just finished that was started as a joint project with Justine.

Now Justine's partner Tom Baker has Justine & Me on Rum Bar. The songs were recorded at Ed Reimer's barn in Canton. The first song we have all heard "You're Still Standing There," released a while ago. The Steve Earl cover is good on the face of it but with Justine singing it adds so much. There it is; the voice that we all miss. It's the perfect capstone to this tribute album.

There's humor in "Category 5" where Tom describes keeping on his toes as the loved one's anger goes to a category 5. There's a whole band on this song. The songs on the album go from band to bare bones acoustic, as well as rock to light country. This works with the different moods and facets that Tom captures of his relationship with Justin.

"Hook Was Set Deep" is that situation where you know you are hooked for life. "Just Lost Sight Of It" tells of almost losing it. The "Last Merry Xmas" tells that story. Is it because they broke up or she's gone?

There are two song titles that tell you to brace yourself - "Coming Back To No One" and "Where's My Baby Now?". "Coming Back To No One" is light acoustic but the pace of the song is moderate. When Tom sings, "Talk to me. I know you can," boy does that hit hard. The same goes with, "coming back to no one, wasn't in our plan"

The final song on the album "Where's My Baby Now?" was the most emotional of all for us. There's a heavy guitar layer underneath as the slow deliberate pace of the song exudes a dark tone. Tom repeats, "where's my baby now?" with various tags like, "is she coming home soon?" "did she take a wrong turn" and "I've been waiting here all month - a little bit concerned". We all know the answer and it's devastating.

Oh the Humanity has their album Ground to Dust set up for release on January 25. We spotlighted one pre-released song "Gutted" a few weeks ago. Now they have another song "Upper Riffspiratory Infection" streaming now. The performance is super tight and the furious drumming adds excitement. The singing is primo. It's melodic and expressive even at the pace and volume of the song which is challenging.

Gossip Collar, Victoria and Tom from Spitzz, have a new ten song albu;    Spinning Silk for Parasites. The group's take on goth is a bit different. Most songs are in the three minute or less range. Another thing is the tempos are faster than the usual goth material. We like those two change ups.

The overall sound has evocative goth tonalities that would go gangbusters on videos. Also, they should be playing ManRay. Gossip Collar is playing Koto, Salem, with The Scrooges, Solver Screams and Cryptophaser on Dec 21!!

On Wednesday's Late Risers Club Mark Frances played a song by Robbery, a Vermont band. The song "Stars That Never Shine" was a good punk tune and that made up go to their Bandcamp page.

We were captured by another tune titled "Johnny". It is a story of a childhood punk the singer looked up to. The pace of the song is brisk and the lyrics are talked rather than sung. The pop punk tune captures some young adult nostalgia.

Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volume IV is a generous 65 cut compilation album, put together by CRISIS an English charity working to end homelessness. The disk costs 7 pounds ($9.33) and it'll put you in a nice Christmas mood without the cloying mainstream faire one is pummeled with.

Grandaddy sings their song to the tune of "Silent Night". The title tells the story, "It Was a Silent Night At Least Till Jeff Lynne Arrived." It seems Jeff showed up "out of the blue." Hilarious.

TV Smith (Adverts) acts the curmudgeon in "Xmas Bloody Xmas" but finally, grudgingly offers "Happy Bloody Christmas, it almost sounds sincere."

This is an English release but a Connecticut band Shirese has a cut: "Christmas in New Haven." Some phrases sounded interesting, like "there lies the problem with art and intent." The atmosphere of the track was inviting. See the review below this which is about them.

Marsheaux's "We Met Bernard Summer at a Christmas Party Last Night" is very electronic and Joy Division sounding, appropriately. You know what "Christmas in the Synthesizer Age" by Ex-Rental sounds like.

Most of the songs are indie sounding, but there are exceptions. The Sultans of Ping dish up a pop punk bubblegum effort "Christmas Bubblegum Machine" that we liked. The Kaisers go back to the fifties with "Merry Christmas, Loopy Lou."

From the Merry Indie Christmas cut "Christmas in New Haven" we searched out Shirese. That was a good move! Their album Hardley Cricket was released in September 2024.

It starts right of with "New Music" which is heavily a "Roadrunner" knock off with a vocal that sounds like Lou Reed. The lyric's hit a spot where they repeat "the passionate part" and yes, it's very passionate. As much as it sounds like other things they stamp it with their own riffs and personality. We're embedding that right below.

The rest of the album lives up to the first impressions. The singer just sounds like Lou Reed naturally. The beauty is that the music and the lyrics are pointed. They have the beatnik feel to them. The album is infused with the creative spirit. The band has a garage soul. Nothing is too polished. They sound gritty. The lyrics in "Hardly Cricket" say, "make a weapon of your rock and roll heart," and that's what this album sounds like.

Joanie Lindstrom on her Late Risers Club show (12/12) played "Coco Loco," a new song from The Jackets (Switzerland). It has a nice fuzz guitar sound. The Jackets played the Middle East a few years ago.

The new album, Intuition, has a lot of punchy garage/psychedelic songs. The recording is very clear. There's no hiding behind a jumble of noisy tracks.
The opening tune "Crossing Streets" has a Spanish/psychedelic feel like a song from Arthur Lee's Love from the sixties. All ten tracks are worthy to dig into and get fuzzed out with.

There was a nice follow up twist to Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin album Records . The group Shake Some from France have covered the Skin Tight Skins song "I've Got Lots of Problems" and the Skin Tight Skins covered the Shake Some song "Slow Down."

It got the Pick of the Day at the Turn Up the Volume blog . Shake Some have a lot of music on their Bandcamp page . One is an update of the Beatles "When I'm Sixty-Four" to the more applicable (for most of us) "Over Sixty-Four."

The Discarded (Ontario) are a three person group: a father and two sons. We reviewed their song "Testify!" a while back. It's a raging MC5 style rocker with a preacher style interlude, "OK, brother and sisters, I want one minute of your time." Now the whole album The Green Door is up on Bandcamp to hear.

They open with "Testify" and follow that with another fierce rocker "Wait and See". You'd expect the next song "Going Down to the Beach" to be a bit surfy, but not really. It's a tad surf-like but they group is still pumping it out, there doesn't seem to any lounging on the beach happening.

They do take things down a level with "Not Very Helpful". They let chords hang in the air and the vocals are not manic. Then there's this line: "I'm not very helpful, play guitar all day." Here and everywhere the overall sound keeps everything interesting as does the varied songwriting.

We've spotlighted two Sex Mex (from San Antonio) songs in the past year. They now have a whole album, Repackaged,out.

The group somehow has a garage feel even though they are heavy on the synths. Like one of their local papers say they have "synths and attitude" . They even do a song putting down "Nerds Who Play Guitar". Got to admire the pre-emptive strike on their part.

On most of the songs they have an organ sounding keyboard. They have young people problems. "Good Friends", "Good Will" and ""Loosing Her" are relationship songs, "We'll Be Gone" is an anti-bullying song.

Here's a video of them from May of 2022.

Here's some good shows coming up .....

December 17, 2024 (Tuesday) Salem Wolves, Baby Got Backtalk, Roland Highlife, Orbiter - O'Briens

December 20, 2024 (Sunday) Kids Like You & Me presents... HUNGOVER FOR THE HOLIDAZE!!! with Johnnie & The Foodmasters, Whyte Lipstick and Puke Pisstols (members of Monsieurs, Andy California)7PM, ALL AGES, $10-15. All proceeds will be donated to Rosie's Place, a women's shelter - it's at The Lilypad Inman Square

December 21, 2024 (Saturday) The Del Fuegos at The City Winery - TWO Shows 3PM and 7:30 PM TIX

December 21, 2024 (Saturday) THE HOLIDAY SPECIAL with Gene Dante, Freeloader, The Daylilies, and pecial guest Joey Wit at The Midway 8PM- this is alsoAnngelle Wood's 12th Annual Spectacular Gift Drive for the Mass Dept of Children & Families (DCF) Wonderfund! We are collecting unwrapped gifts for local foster families. Check out the Midway page for lists of gifts wanted.

December 23, 2024 (Monday) Leon Rich, Larry Newman, Butterscott, Captain Easychord at The Jungle;

January 4, 2024 (Saturday)The Instamatics, The New Frustrations, The Pleasing Terrors at The Jungle

January 11, 2024 (Saturday)The Bags with The Croaks and Gymnasium at The Crystal Ballroom - FB event page

February 8, 2024 (Saturday)

April 17, 2025 (Thursday) Dead Boys with Richard Lloyd (Of Television) at Deep Cuts, Medford, MA, 7pm

April 20, 2025 (Friday) Gang of Four at The Crystal Ballroom, Somerville. Tickets.

CONTACT US AT....misslynbgn@yahoo.com Send us your gig listings, your anything else you've got!! You want your CD reviewed?? Contact us for that too.