We will not have any News this week. We are initiating
an every other week schedule. This week it was traveling for family
that is the cause.
We've been posting a weekly news section since we started the web based
BGN in 2002. In those early years we concentrated on
posting older material from the print zine and features about occasions
of interest. Around 2012 the News page grew. You can see this by checking
the Archives
that we've had since 2008. The News page became a live music blog in
effect. We were going to three shows a week up until Covid hit in 2020
along with posts by John Keegan and Captain Easychord. During Covid
times we became more of a broadsheet for what was happening on the scene.
One thing was consistent - we posted every week.
That process requires both of us (it takes two) to dedicate every Sunday for 8 to ten hours to cobble together what we have collected during the week. We made vacations not include weekends. We didn't go out clubbing on Sundays. We did it because we love it but it does require dedication. Now, we are taking things down a notch by going every other week. Part of this is undoubtedly because of getting older and we embrace that. That's life.
The quick review above is to show that the BGN has
changed as the decades have gone by and we put this new schedule in
that context.
See you next week.
The IPO at the Square Root
For pop fans The International Pop Overthrow is like
Woodstock that happens every year. David Brash curates
the bills with his well-honed taste for the best pop. This year our
local IPO happens at the
Square Root from 10/30 to 11/2. A list of bands AND times has been posted...
here you go....
Wednesday, October 30 - 8:00 Karen Zanes, 8:45 Sal
Baglio, 9:30 Kelly Knapp, 10:15 Girl With A Hawk, 11:00 Tom Baker, 11:45
Hi-End
Thursday, October 31 - 8:00 Corin Ashley, 8:45 Smitt
E. Smitty & The Fezztones, 9:30 David Minchin from The Innocents,
10:15 Cold Expectations, 11:00 Little Billy Lost
Friday, November 1 - 8:00 Brian Larney, 8:45 Alan
Walker and the Accomplices, 9:30 Dave Finney and The Procrastinators,
10:15 The Glad Machine, 11:00 Speedfossil
Saturday, November 2 - 8:00 Justin Levinson, 8:45
The Brigands, 9:30 Hummingbird Syndicate, 10:15 Dave Charles, 11:00
The Pretty Graves
Listen to The Glad Machine from Friday’s line
up for some pop goodness. The band is from Northampton, MA and new to
us. The song is “San Francisco”.
The Darlings were invited to play at The Eastside
Bowl in Nashville. Simon Ritt sent the BGN
notes on his trip. They played at The Eastside Bowl and celebrated Jan
Long Collin's birthday while there as well. They all had a great time,
visited various sites there and ate some great food! Click photo below
to see report.
To paraphrase MBR's Joanie and Sara J. we have a Nordic
stampede coming to town thanks to Bootleg Dan who put the tour
together. Stupidity will hop the pond for a northeast
tour and The Cocktail Slippers will join Stupidity
from Providence to NYC. And... It's a two-for-one deal at the early
show at the Burren. Here's the full tour schedule for The Cocktail Slippers,
Stupidity Tour 2024.
10/24 Alchemy, Providence with The Wynott's
10/25 The Burren, Somerville with The Chelsea Curve
10/26 Bayside Bowl, Portland with Muck and the Mires, and Tiger Bomb
10/27 The Music Room, Yarmouth with Stop Calling Me Frank
10/29 Cafe Nine, New Haven with The Cynz
11/1 Randy's Cave, Hightstown, NJ
11/2 The Parkside Lounge, NYC with Palmyra Delran and the Doppel Gang,
The Cynz, Undergang,
11/3 Drew's Place Ringwood NJ
The shows in New Haven, Hightstown, NYC, NJ, will have Keith
Streng from the Fleshtones playing with Stupidity!
Bootleg Dan says "I worked with The Cocktail Slippers last year.
My first tour with a band was Stupidity two years ago when they were
on Red on Red Records, the genius of Justine Covault. Many people are
excited about this fantastic tour!!! I can't believe I can work with
these great musicians and friends again!"
How times have changed. Hardcore is getting acclaim
from the mainstream. The New England Music Hall of Fame
has SSD
nominated for the Wailer Award which recognizes the group’s “contribution
in the music and recording world.” Back when hardcore started
in the '80's, the idea of getting an award wasn't even considered. Clubs
wouldn’t book them, now…awards!
Somebody (Ted Zelke) posted a whole 1982 set of The
Neighborhoods at the Rusty Nail in Sunderland, MA. They cover
Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” in the set. They end with “Twist
and Shout” and “I Can’t Explain”. It's on YouTube
and there's even a set list. Check
it out here.
Nirvana is still getting monetized... Now the Nixon watch company
has watches with Nirvana stylings for $325.00 (for the yellow smiley
face), $225.00 (spells Nirvana instead of numbers) and a mere $175.00
(in black with smiley face in middle). Here’s an article on the
watches on Louder
Sound website Or, if you have the money, you can buy them at the
Nixon
website
VIDEOS......
Boston punk fans love their rock clubs. We can relate when the
Slip-ons from Vancouver sing about the Greystone club
in the song "Greystone". Members of the band used to play that Detroit
club often in the eighties. The lyrics relate stories that the band
members recalled.
The video is a creative mix of graphics and live band playing. At
one point they show gig flyers and the lyrics are on them. One of the
flyers is for a Dag Nasty show.
The music has a different sort of beat to it. There is a down and dirty
guitar solo that is notable and some nice drum work.
It’s not often that we find French pop punk but here it is.
Alvilda gives us "Angoiss" We’re drawn in just
by the French singing alone. Then those chiming chords, those are heavenly.
“Angoisse” means anguish, but the song seems so sing song
carefree.
RADIO......
Skybar had Goddam Glen of
Parlour Bells and Looking Glass War in for
an interview. Glen talked about the dynamics of working with each band
because they are a bit different.
Skybar played all four songs from the new Parlour Bells EP
To Be Or Not To Behave along with two Looking Glass War
songs.
Glen talked about filming the video for “Slasher Movie Weather”
and related the origin story for Looking Glass War.
You even get the story of how Skybar got his name! We have the interview
embedded below.
The Rising show is on WMFO 91.5 FM on Tuesdays at 8pm. After that
got to the WMFO
schedule page Hit the Rising show on 8pm on Tuesday, then hit the
‘archive’ button.
We were thinking about the destruction down in Ashville when it occurred
to us that Peter Abzug of theFirst
Wave podcast is out of WPVM-FM in Ashville. We were guests
on his show in April of 2023. We went to his
Facebook page and things seem alright. He had just posted his 100th
show. On the show he talks about the dire situation in the city.
The 100th show went back to the beginnings of punk and brought back
many memories for us. Some of the groups were Ramones, X Ray Specs,
Avengers, The Jam, Swell Maps, Adolescents, X and Clash.
We remember those first times hearing songs Peter played like Radio
Birdman “Aloha Steve and Dano” when the song broke
into “Hawaii Five-O”, getting the blast of “Blank
Generation” by Richar Hell and the Voidoids,
being dazzled by “See No Evil” by Television
and the choppy and quirky “Psycho Chicken” by Talking
Heads was like nothing else. Back then the new and exciting
were continuously rolling out and we couldn’t get enough of it.
First Wave brings back those days. Glad to know Peter is alright.
Also, we see local scenester Roy Rubinstein, who moved
to Ashville, was safe and posted some info on Facebook. He’s getting
along but he and others in the area still will have no running water
for a month.
We’ve been to Ashville and Joanie
visited in her vacation journeys. It pains us to see the devastation
in the area and glad to see the country funneling help of all kinds
to help the residents.
Joanie Lindstrom played a song by Burn Kit
on her Thursday Late Risers Club. Their Bandcamp
page says they are a Boston band but Joanie says Dover, NH. The song
“Becoming the Wind” is hard to peg. The band tags both jangle
pop and post punk. They have lots of inherent power in the way they
play even when they do actually jangle some.
The playing is excellent. There is adroit and varied guitar work.
The bass is active and always pumping the songs along. The drummer has
nice fills at all the right moments. The band just did a European tour
which must have been a lot of work.
To hear Joanie’s whole show go to the WMBR
archive page and hit the Late Risers Show for Thursday 10/17.
PODCASTS.........
Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico has a return visit
by Adam Sherman. Adam has a new song “Pure As
Yours.” The song is piece of romantic magic. We don’t think
this is easy to do but Adam writes songs that get you to a special place
all the time. Adam’s
Bandcamp page
Adam has a long and interesting career. His time in Private Lightning
gave him success early. Later he was in The Souls which
a lot of people fondly remember and count as a favorite group. Steve
had Adam recount the history of the Souls.
Adam’s songwriting was the highlighted in the Billy
Conners Project. Being drafted by the Nervous Eaters
has made him even more high profile than ever. Meanwhile his songwriting
has been a constant asset. They talked about the Rat Reunion
show. Steve asked if Adam suggested bring in Carissa Johnson
in the Eaters and yes, he affirmed that.
Adam talked about his song “January,
February” done in the style of Chet Baker that Jeff Hudson
did the video for.
It seems that the Nervous Eaters have no live shows scheduled for
a while. What a stretch there’s been with the group for the last
few years. There’s a lot of info in this interview to take in.
Sethyspice, of the Elastic Glam Show
is a big Halloween fan. He didn’t wait and played Alice Cooper’s
“Ballad of Dwight Fry” this week….”I GOT TO
GET OUT OF HERE! LET ME
OUT OF HERE!” Then it was more darkness with Nick Cave/Birthday
Party with “Deep in the Woods”.
Before that Sethyspice played the new Looking Glass War
song “Adamantine Chain Gang” which has a horror element
to it, if you listen. We talk about that song below in the New Music
section. There was a strong cover of Nirvana’s “Polly”
by Daisy Grenade that was a fine pick. Hear that below.
More new songs were from Bobbie Dazzle and The
Linda Lindas. Some choice older glam tunes with Hello
and “Star Studded Sham,”Racy singing “Lay
Your Love on Me” and Sweet with “Fox on
the Run”.
Early in Sonic Overload Al Quint played a Boston
group Insult with their song “I Wanna Be a Burn
Victim” that came off Runt of the Litter Vol 2. He followed
that with Crucial Unit doing a crushing “Let’s
Unite the Punx and Skins.” We have those two songs embedded below.
He played a West Coast set with Agent Orange, TSOL, Los Olvidados,
Savage Beliefs and Atrocity.
Al ended with a set of 80’s local groups. It was: New
Models, Swingers Resort, La Peste, Neats, Vacuum Heads and
Human Sexual Response. We don’t remember the
Vacuum Heads. They were on a Wicked Good Time sampler in 1981. We have
their song “No Way” embedded below.
The always moving ahead Dogmatics have a new single,
“The Scarlet Letter.” We heard it during their set at the
Rat
Reunion at The Belforge
The Dogmatics are juggling a few things here. They are taking a tale
from a local author (Hawthorne) and using it for grist to give substance
to a typical Dogmatic tune. They show that we're not different humans
than the Puritans circa 1600, as much as we like to think we are modern
and advanced.
We don’t mean to make it sound heavy because the song doesn’t
stop to mope. It has that appealing rough characteristic of all songs
sung by Peter. Give it a listen and you will be singing “I love
you better, with a scarlet letter” like we can’t stop doing
all day long! We love that buzzing tone of the intro which also shows
up in the solo.
Stop Calling Me Frank has their album The First
6 Years that compiles their recorded efforts in the early years.
Their promo blurb is classic: The Rat. Gone. Chet’s. Gone. WBCN.
Gone. The Phoenix. Gone. Buzzy’s. Gone. Stop Calling Me Frank.
Still friggin’ here!!!!!!
The album has 10 live cuts. There are five songs that you can hear
now including the driving version of “Off The Hook” and
the recently released “Stood There Watching”. Get the album
on their Bandcamp
page
Rum Bar Records has done another good service by
getting a career retrospective album Unleashed
fromThe Dogs from Michigan. The Dogs began in 1968
and have been rocking like crazy from day one. Good enough to play with
the Stooges, MC5, Dictators, Ramones, Kiss and Van Halen along the way.
“John Rock and Roll Sinclair” from 1976, is an MC5 worthy
track. That’s old school hard rockin’. The same with “Let’s
Go Baby,” “Under the Coast,” “Welcome to the
Revolution,” “Oh Baby” and so many more. Listening
to this now makes you marvel at how they were able to fly the rock and
roll flag for so many years.
There are 24 songs to dig into on Unleashed.
Our faves 999 have covered the Beatles “I Saw
Her Standing There.” We don’t know if this is part of a
compilation project or a cover album by the group, or just a one off.
They punk it up but the song retains its character. Nick Cash
even handles the falsetto section.
Locals are all taken in by Looking Glass War. Their
new song “Adamantine Chain Gang” released this week, has
already been played by Skybar on Rising and Sethyspice on Elastic Glam.
The lyrics (which are on the Bandcamp page) depict a hellish situation:
“Adamantine chain gang/I’m not saved, but I’m safe”
which is ambiguous, but then “All those halo fuckers spitting
on my grave/Hey...it’s just a little rain” is no walk in
the park.
The word ‘adamantine’, meaning hard, is not often used
these days. Emily Dickinson used it a few times when dealing with life/death,
see
here
The groups post punk sound with goth overtones are a perfect setting
for the lyrics.
Triple-B
Records is from Boston and Florida. They have a constant
flow of hardcore albums. Kids Like Us are from Florida.
Their new album is Outta Control.We like their
drilling hardcore with furious rolling drumbeat and with lyrics you
can almost get.
“Lantern Cops” is the Green Lantern pledge put to hardcore.
That was a good idea and it just takes nineteen seconds to do. We like
“Box of Buttholes”, “Don’t Eat Rocks, We Rocks”
and “You Know Your Life Sucks” but everything here is good.
They have a twist in “Gator Smash” where they throw in
some Southern style slide guitar. That could be the source of whole
new genre right there - Hardcore Blues.
Corker from Ohio like to get noisy on their album
Hallways of Grey and we like noisy. They give
every song a shape, it’s not a blur of sound. Here and there the
bass is pronounced and the guitar will drill down for a fill. A few
songs have a Captain Beefheart angularity to them like “Sunken
Submarine” and “Vital Fall”.
Joanie played “Forever Silent” this week on the Late Risers
Show. Here's “Distant Dawn.” That gets melodic and then
at the 1:22 mark goes into a complete noise section for ten seconds
and then back to the song. We suggest, if you like that, to get in there
and listen to the rest of the album.
Here's some good shows coming up .....
October
21, 2024 (Monday)The Stress Balls, Dave Strong,
Joe Gallo and the Qualms - At the Jungle, Somerville, MA. 5PM/Free
October 24, 2024 (Thursday)Stupidity,
Cocktail Slippers and the Wynotts at Alchemy,
Providence FB
page.
October 25, 2024 (Friday)Moving
Targets, The Long Wait, Spiller - Middle East Up - Facebook
page
October 25, 2024 (Friday)Rendez-Vous
and Gossip Collar at Sonia - 5PM SHow-
Tickets
October 25, 2024 (Friday) Bootleg
Dan presents Cocktail Slippers, Stupidity, The Chelsea Curve,
DJ Sherman at The Burren
October 25, 2024 (Friday) Cape
Cod show with Noun (from Philly, featuring Marissa
Paternoster from Screaming Females), Grasshopper Green
(Falmouth), Modern Hut (New Jersey) at The Christ Church
Episcopal in Harwich Port. 6:30 doors, 7:00 bands $15, all ages, no
drugs/booze.
October 26, 2024 (Saturday) Costume Party show - the Mischievous Masquerade Marianne
Toilet and The Runs, Jimi Halfdead and the Die Alongs (reunion), Gagger,
Super Beef, Friday Night Pizza Party, and Renegade Cartel.
at the VFW post , 20 Stevens St, Peabody, MA FB
page
October 26, 2024 (Saturday)TREE Beer Party - help
TREE celebrate the new TREE BEER, with a live performance from TREE,
Inverter, Ingrate and DJ Treeman
and special guests ... at Dorchester Brewing 7-10PM. Check FB
page for directions.
TIX!
October 26, 2024 (Saturday)Tiger
Bomb, The Cocktail Slippers, Stupidity, Muck & The Mires
at The Bayside Bowl, Portland, ME FB
page
October 30, 2024 (Wednesday)Gang
of Four are at The Cut in Glooucester!
Tickets.
October 30- Nov. 2, 2024 (Weds - Sat) International Pop Overthrow is here, at the Square
Root. 21 bands. In there are: Hummingbird Syndicate, Corin Ashley,
Speedfossil, Cold Expectations, Fezztones, Sal Baglio, Kelly Knapp,
Girl With a Hawk and many more. Check
the FB page for bands/times/tix
November 1, 2024 (Friday)Coffin
Salesman (Record Release!), Motel Black, Saeddyr, Squallie
Greenthumb at Faces Malden.
November 2, 2024 (Saturday)Neutral
Nation and Diablogato at Askew in Providence.
Doors at 8, bands start at 9. FB
page
November
8, 2024 (Friday)Boston Punk Rewound/Unbound. The
Arthur Freedman Collection - "2024 marks the 50th anniversary
of the opening of the Rat, a location that looms large in both the Freedman
Collection and in Boston lore. To mark the occasion, the Harvard
Film Archive and the Loeb Music Library—who collectively steward
the Freedman tapes in the collection—have partnered to bring you
an evening celebrating the bands, venues and wider scene documented
in the Freedman collection."
Read
more here!! and see you there!! 7PM at The Harvard Film Archive
24 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138
November 8, 2024 (Friday)Hilken
Mancini Band, The Cujo, Mary Lou Lord at Sonia , Cambridge,
November 8, 2024 (Friday)Steve
Conte Trio, Tiger Bomb, The Shang Hi Los at
Koto Lowell - FB
page.
November 8, 2024 (Friday) Wormtown
show with Swamp Roots, Thee Sonomatics and
The Wray-Ons (playing the music of the Link Wray & The
Wraymen) at Husky's Pub (413 Park Ave, WorcesterMA) Bands start at 8
PM. .
November 9, 2024 (Saturday)The
Pist, Grip Bite, Neighborhood Shit, Trollmilk, 1PM doors -
Matinee All Ages - Middle East FB
page
November
9, 2024 (Saturday) Hixxgiving at The Midway...with
Black Clouds, HIXX, Freeloader, Strangemen - 3PM Matinee
November 9, 2024 (Saturday)Shaggahs,
The Wynotts, Carnivals, Hot Franks at Faces in Malden
- FB
page THIS SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED
November 9, 2024 (Saturday)Silver
Screams, Black Helicopter and Jay Allen and the Archcriminals
are at The Square Root.
November 9, 2024 (Saturday)TRAITRS,
Dead Leaf Echo, Gretchen Shea and the Middle Eight at The MIddle
East Up
November 9, 2024 (Saturday) A charity
show for Marblehead SEPAC! with DEER TICK and Other
Brother Darryl at Abbot Hall in Marblehead - 7-11PM FB
page for tickets.
November 15, 2024 (Friday)The
Rumours, The Downhauls, Yes Nanny (debut show, woo!) at Koto
Salem.
November 16, 2024 (Saturday) Bootleg
Dan presents The Dowhauls, Midnight Creeps, The McGunks
at Buttonwoods Brewery. Cranston, RI.
FB page
November
16, 2024 (Saturday)Kal Marks (Release Show!) Paper
Lady, Black Beach at Deep Cuts, Medford
November 23, 2024 (Saturday)Diablogato,
The Long Wait, Speed Teeth at Faces in Malden tickets
November 23, 2024 (Saturday)Hi-End,
Duck and Cover, Color Killers at The Square Root
November 30, 2024 (Saturday)Midway
Matinee of Punk! with WORM, Presidential Disgrace,
Screw Cart, Neponset Monestary - at The Midway for a 3PM Matinee!!
December 6, 2024 (Friday)Warrior
Soul, All Sinners and Speed Teeth at Koto
Salem
April 20, 2025 (Friday)Gang
of Four at The Crystal Ballroom, Somerville. Tickets.
CONTACT US AT....misslynbgn@yahoo.comSend us your gig listings, your anything
else you've got!! You want your CD reviewed?? Contact us for that too.
We interviewed David Bash on the week where his International Pop Overthrow is
coming to town. It's some backgroud on the history of the event and of course talk about POP..........
We bring you into the Rat Room at the Hotel Commonwealth.
Jimmy Harlold invited a group of scene veterans. It was a Rat reuion
with lots of stories exchanged. Get to see the room and the people.........
Johnny Angel writes a mystery novel Looking for Lady Dee steeped in Boston punk and Thrills history.
It's no apologys given for the punk lifestyle. ....
It appeared before us like a chimera and it's
still growing...it's the Pipeline 25th Anniversary celebration.
We interview mastermind Bob Dubrow about his background and
search for what motivates him as well as Pipeline history and
the show....
The Boston punk community comes out for a good cause.
Neighborhoods, Upper Crust, Dents, Dogmatics, Roy Sludge Trio, Ed
Moose Savage, Downbeat 5 and Classic Ruins raise some money and
rock the house at......
He's legendary and his surprise birthday party was legendary in turn. Only in your Boston Rock and Roll dreams could you come up with a night like this.......
In a case of reverse outsourcing Carl Biancucci of the Classic Ruins also plays bass in the English group Shotglass Killers.
He tells us about a gig at the 100 Club with a reformed Damned....
The Konks' hypnotic bashing was a smart mindlessness that you got addicted to. They are calling it quits and we'll miss 'em and there's no free clinic out there to help us either...........
Thank god for 110 Instamatics or we wouldn't have a lot of our early Boston punk photos. Kathy Flynn used hers to get some pics of the Rat and The Club and she sent them to us to share with you..........
One of the interesting things in the early days of Boston punk was seeing the attention grow around us. One watershed moment was when we heard that a Time Magazine reporter was going to visit the Rat. We didn't like the resulting article. But you can decide. Take a look at the ....
...
Let's get real. We are all getting older and will die. Do you ever consider how you will be remembered? I'm talking about your tombstone. It's morbid, it's in poor taste, it's .....
Crotch biting...head bleeding...dick jiggling...it's all in Miss Lyn's report (with photos to prove it) from the GG Allin 10 Year Memorial Tour at the Middle East....
Punk started 25 years ago. Did any of us think we would ever make it this far? Probably not, that was punk; nihilistic, "no future!". Here is a place to remember, and give a moment of thought to, those who didn't make it
this far...
The minute she hit the scene she was every male punk's heart throb. She was beautiful. She had a winning personality. She had a ...well...a...glow. That could be my heart talking because I, Blowfish, confess: I too am Judy's love slave. We didn't just love Judy, we worshiped her. So, now all of us members of Judyism have somewhere to meet and offer our prayers of unrequited love.
1977-The Damned were ready to piss on Blowfish and started to undress Miss Lyn! And people seemed to like it!! This interview IS outrageous...for then AND now!