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Al Barile RIP

The giant of Boston Hardcore Al Barile died this week.
It’s been heart wrenching to read his Facebook posts for the last few weeks. He had a heart attack a short time before his death and he knew he was nearing the end. He had been battling cancer for some time.
Our hearts go out to Nancy Barile. Nothing compares to her personal loss.

The tributes on social media have been massive. So many people acknowledged their debt to Al, as a musician/songwriter/performer and as an inspiration. Ironically SSD has been getting more attention than ever with the photo book and record re-releases. They've also received acknowledgement of their importance in Boston music history with their induction to the New England Music Museum and the Get it Away short film from Trust Records which we have to the right.

Here’s an interview on The Vinyl Guide from Australia.

Al Quint opening set on Sonic Overload was in memory of Al. We have that below. The songs are all SS Decontrol : “Glue “, “Boiling Point”, “Fight Them, “The Kids Will Have Their Say”, “Nothing Done”, “Words That Kill” and “How Much Art?”/”Wasted Youth” (demo).

Something to take in will be the New York Hardcore Chronicles special on Al Barile. That will be on Wednesday April 14. There’s nothing better than Drew Stone’s show for substantive talk on hardcore. Drew was in the scene next to Al and all the people he will have on the special: Nancy Barile, Jaime Sciarappa and Chris Foley (of SSD), and Duane Lucia (of Gallery East). The show will be on the NYHC Chronicles YouTube page.

Clem Burke of Blondie has died of cancer. Blondie was Clem’s claim to fame but there’s a long list of groups that he played and recorded with through the years. The list is extensive: Nancy Sinatra, Sonny Vincent, Arthur Killer Kane, the Romantics, Iggy, Kathy Valentine, Steve Jones, and Michael Des Barres in Chequered Past. He drummed for the Ramones on a few gigs. A lot of the new sources listed those high profile gigs but we know him from the other projects that are not as well known.

John Keegan caught Clem playing with the Baseball Project at Great Scott in August of 2024.
Chris Horne shared the memory on Facebook when her group Tiger Bomb opened for The Split Squad, the band Clem was in, and Clem sat in with Brad Marino and played "Blitzkrieg Bop". Check out The Split Squad album Another Cinderella. Keith Streng of the Fleshtones is in the group and David Minehan guests on the album too. Hear it below.

In 2023 we reviewed The Tearaways album with Clem on drums. One track was very notable – “Charlie, Keith and Ringo”. Yup, all about drummers and Clem’s drumming gets spotlighted. We have that song below.

In 2009 Magic Christian played in town and Clem was on drums in that group. That was the last official show for the Prime Movers too. In April 2024 The Tall Poppy had a cool Kink’s song redo with “This Time Tomorrow” and Clem was on drums with the group.

Here’s Clem on Steve Conte’s recent “Gimme Gimme Rockaway” on Wicked Cool Records.

Far Out Magazine had a few pages on Clem. One was his list of 10 Favorite Albums. They had a Spotify playlist with the complete full albums. They had his Ten Best Drumming performances. One is the drumming on Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll”.

Far Out also has a page of tributes from fellow musicians. And here's a article in the NME.

​Get to the C Note in Hull this Friday April 18 to be in the video for Worm’s song “Eye In the Sky.” The song will be included in their upcoming album Slave Driver in June.

Other bands on the bill are Hardwired, Witches Tears, Far Above the Ground and C.O.B. We review the song below in our New Music section. Event Facebook page.

We were watching the Netflix show Black Doves the other night - A guy walks into a music store and starts talking to the guy behind the counter. That guy behind the counter looked familiar - "That's Rat Scabies!!" - Rewind - Pause - Google cast - and and yup it was Rat! Come to find out we aren't the only ones that noticed. There are a ton of social media posts and even a short article in NME! and one on Brooklyn Vegan. He did a pretty good job of it too!

On April 19 at the Brighton Music Hall Rick Berlin will have a record release party for and it will be his 80th birthday!
There will be a large line up of quests like: Willie Loco Alexander, Thalia Zedek, Laurie Sargent, Dave Champagne, Robin Lane and Adam Sherman.

Tickets at the Brighton Music Hall.

If you are crossword fan you might already know. Last week in the Boston Sunday Globe crossword puzzle the clue for 70 across was “Mission of _____ (cult Boston band)”. The puzzle creator is Brendan Emmett Quigley. He was born in Norwood. He’s a musician and is part of the Boston Typewritter Orchestra.

The Dogmatics, a Dogumentary is now steaming for free on Roku. We don't have a Roku subscription but we went to this page on the computer and the documentary is there to watch - for free.

Worshipper get an interview in the The Wailing City serving New London County. It seems they are down to a trio now.

VIDEOS......

Clint Conley played with Ida and Tsunami at the Crystal Ballroom on March 23 where he joined the group to play “Academy Fight Song”. Ida was an indie band from NYC in the 90’s and Tsunami was a feminist band from Virginia. They have joined for a tour. Their plan was to get some friends in as guests. You can feel the vibes coming out of the video. What a nice moment.

Hardcore group Grip Bite from Providence have a video for their single “Skate To Annihilate”. It was filmed at the Scurvy Dog and AS220 by Dynamite Day Productions. The video shots and effects match the manic outpouring of the group and especially the singer. It’s almost hallucinogenic or schizophrenic at the end. Here’s Grip Bite’s Bandcamp page.

Miracle Blood put out one of the heaviest albums this last year with Hello Hell. They have a video for the song “Pets and Owners“ off the album. There are some humorous and surrealistic images in there. Take them in as you sample their heavy noise attack.

RADIO......

Brian Young on A Crash Course for the Ravers started his 4/12 show with a long set of Blondie songs from a live album in memory of Clem Burke.
A Crash Course for the Ravers is on WMFO 91.5 FM on Saturdays at 1pm. After that got to the WMFO schedule page Hit the A Crash Course for the Ravers show on 1pm on Saturday, then hit the ‘archive’ button.

On the Rising show on Tuesday 4/8 Skybar had Stop Calling Me Frank in to talk about their new release “Good Enough”. Lenny and Dan had some good stories. Terry and Dan were on Mike on the Mike show a few days earlier and they had different stories then too. We talk about the song below in the New Music section.

Skybar’s Rising show is on WMFO 91.5 FM on Tuesdays at 7-9pm. After that go to the WMFO schedule page hit the Rising show at 7-9pm on Tuesday, then hit the ‘archive’ button.

PODCASTS.........

We found a podcast for all Jonathan Richman fans: Trash Flow Radio from WAIF in Cincinnati, OH has combined two shows from 2011 filled with Richman rarities.

That’s four hours of live cuts, hard to find studio cuts, interview snippets, many lost cuts that were recorded for albums but didn’t make the final cut and home recordings.

“A Plea for Tenderness” and “Modern World” are primo early Richman from Kim Fowley demos in 1973. “Song of Remembrance” is an unreleased track. “Fly Into the Mystery” recorded by John Cale. A dropped version of “I’m Straight”. There is an instrumental with Belle And Sebastian. There are a few cover versions: Feelies doing “Egyptian Reggae”, Alex Chilton with “Government Center”, Yo La Tengo “A Plea For Tenderness” and hardcore group Crucial Youth appropriately singing “I’m Straight”.

The in-studio guest is John Alberty a Northern Kentucky English professor. He wrote an essay titled "I’ve Come Out To Play" about Jonathan. The essay is included in the book Reading Rock and Roll from Columbia University. He draws many serious points from Jonathan’s whole persona and the way he plays music. A link to the set list is on the Mixcloud page.

Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico had Boston Punk royalty in for an interview – Rick Harte of Ace of Hearts records. The show was recorded at WMFO at Tufts and Rick went to school at Tufts in the mid-seventies.
The scene in Boston was beginning. Rick started going to clubs just a bit later in 1977. Rick’s sister was going out and she got him interested in checking out the scene. Cantone’s was Rick’s club of choice. He gives an insight to the early Del Fuegos. He says they were more endearing than good musicians, but they got better as time went on. Rick recorded them but they signed to Slash. There’s a long section of Del Fuegos talk.

Rick’s take on MOB's“Academy Fight Song” and its receptions is a good story. Then it was stories about The Neighborhoods and “Prettiest Girl”. Rick is so clear thinking and brutally honest that the stories are all insightful and pointed.
Next are inside stories and assessments of the Neats. Rick called Jeff Connely of the Lyres “pure genius”. We agree, Jeff has an understanding of music, groups and recordings that no one can match. We are so lucky to have had Rick Harte doing those amazing recordings right in the early days. It would be a different recorded history otherwise.

Blowing Smoke had another show with the Slamdinistas members Gabriel Johns & Loren Molinare. We know of the Slamdinistas from Rum Bar Records. This is a chance to get the group’s back story. They formed around Gabriel when he was recording Shoot for the Stars which was supposed to be a solo album. We loved when they talked about Malibu Lou and how they linked up with Rum Bar Records. We get their perspective on the LA fires. We have the Slamdinistas new album Wild & Reckless reviewed in our New Music section below.

Elastic Glam show (4/4) started with the T.Rex classic “Mambo Sun”. Then it was on to some new glam with Cream Circus’ (Philadelphia)“Keepers of the Hip”, Vienna Vienna (Hollywood) with “God Save the Queens”, Velvet Rush, Bobbie Dazzle and Bones UK (“Boys will be Girls”). Old glam faves Slade and Suzi Quatro are welcome throwbacks. Sethyspice slipped in locals Smitty and the Fezztones “#1 Most Likely” into the mix.

On the 4/11 Elastic Glam show Sethyspice played “Snake City” by new glam group Gyasi. We got a surprise when Gyasi musically quotes (a lot) from the beginning of the Nashville Teen’s “Tobacco Road”. There was a new punk song that got our attention. “God Save the Queens” is by Vienna Vienna, a singer songwriter from LA who describes their music as glimmer rock. Coincidentally, local group Spiller also have a song titled “God Save the Queens”.

There was the classic “New York Groove” by Hello. New to us was Velvet Rush with the glam rocker “Fire Spirit”. Just before the usual Bowie closing song Sethyspice played “In the Almost” by Lexi Jones who is Bowie’s daughter.

On the Sonic Overload of 3/31 Al Quint played a Boston punk rarity. The song “Four Point Restraints” was done by James and backed by LaPeste. Truth be told it never got too much attention when it was released in 1980.

James. full name was James Conant. The flip side of the single was “That’s a Joke”. Playing on that was Kip Korea, Bob McKenzie (of Jabbers, Mighty Ions) and Lord Manuel. It was engineered by Ted St Pierre who did the early Willie Loco recordings. The cover photo for the single sleeve is by Phil ‘n Phlash and are all hand signed by Phil!. The record was distributed by the Count’s Varulven Records. We remember James hanging out at the clubs a lot back then.

Al also played a few songs for the Trans Gender Day of Visibility. One song was “What You Got” by Jayne County and the Electric Chairs. We have the James/LaPeste and Jayne County songs embedded below.

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

NEW MUSIC/CDs......

Screw Cart has a new song. With them you can be sure it’s some new sort of evil on parade. They sing about the monstrous “Bag Worm”. There’s a neat drum roll and then a vocal heave as the tale begins: "The Bag Worm takes what he can, talks shit and sucks you dry. It’s easy for the Bag Worm."

The music is the usual heavy and tight arrangement that is standard for them. At the end there’s some drilling guitar work and a dramatic flurry of drums to top it off. The last five single releases have a distinctive and unifying graphic design. They have a deep red/black/white color scheme. We see they are all done by Colleen Garrison. She has captured the HP Lovecraft and Outer Limits atmosphere of the songs.

Is striving for excellence wearing you out? Is trying to be the best making you feel the worst? It’s time to listen to Stop Calling Me Frank’s new song “Good Enough”. “Just coast half assed, at most”, that’s good enough the song strongly suggests. It’s a paean to mediocrity. The lyrics are hysterical. It’s good enough: “…like the Godfather Part III, “…just drink the cheap Chablis”, “…at least the bread sticks are free.”

Jeff Ousborne the guitarist wrote the song. On a song like this you see the genius of Lenny Donohoe. Who else could deliver these lyrics and get the laughs without pandering? No one we know. The song includes the the sax solo that no SCMF song should be without. The cherry on the top is the EP photo of a kid digging into a Salisbury Steak TV diner.
“Good Enough” should be the rallying cry at all SCMF gigs from now on. Finally something to get behind. There is a ‘single version’ of the song…which is a different mix, along with two other previously released songs to make this an EP.

Stop Calling Me Frank (Terry and Dan) were on Mike on the Mike show on WMFO on Saturday 4/5. They talked about the band origins which is 45 years ago. Dan has more of a Boston punk history than we knew. The bands later history turns on Justine Covault and Lou Mansdorf. They play some SCMF tunes and talk about the new song.

Humingbird Syndicate has a new album titled Poptimystic. You can pick the way to live….Jon has picked optimism and acceptance and it sounds right…judging by the music . The negative is banished in the new Hummingbird Syndicate. All the songs are by Jon Macey and Lynn Shipley.

A big part of the Hummingbird Syndicate is Sunshine Psych, but there is some country in the mix. In the first song “Sound and Light” things get celestial immediately with references to sky and starscape. “While Rome Burns” has a funky rhythm and lesson of the song is zen like. Dance and don’t get stressed, you should fiddle and let Rome burn. “For Elizabeth Longmeadow” is different. It seems like it’s about a letter written by a soldier to his wife in the Civil War. The last letter was unanswered so he fears she may be dead. The music is soft acoustic. It sounds like it could be from the Ken Burns Civil War series. The group playing is always tasteful.

We like that the lyrics written by Jon and Lynn carry with them the experience of lives lived. It’s not teenage music. At this point in our lives we want to hear that. These quiet contemplated moments that run through the album perk our memories and experiences. Now, we see every album by Jon as part of the career we have been following since 1974 from Fox Pass, Tom Dickie & the Desires, Macey’s Parade to solo work. We feel that in this album Jon’s message is transmitted with clarity. His life lessons have brought him to a calm place and a philosophy of one with the natural world.

“Eye in the Sky” is the new single by South Shore’s Worm. We’ve heard the group through the years and we can hear that they are now at another level. As the song progresses your ear catches the bass laying down a commanding line and right in there is the drummer hitting hard and making room for himself.

Mikke Worm has a strong front person persona now. He gives the lyrics about the modern loss of privacy and sense of being overwhelmed a jolt of manic desperation. This bods well for the new album Slave Driver.

Worm is a very political group. Mikke Worm listens to political podcasts and actually got two new songs on the The Politics & Punk Rock podcast done by Andrew of America. The episode has a lot of Noam Chomsky clips. Andrew plays “Eye In the Sky” and the song Media”. The podcast is on Spotify. Worm are in the last ten minutes.

The new Boston group The Northern Line arrived with a sound. They were new mod. With this second single you can hear even more what they are doing. “Throw A Fist” has a comfortable grove which is greased with a soulful organ and pronounced bass. They tag themselves as "numanchester." You can hear that influence very clearly here. This is very self-assured playing all around. The guitar player has some fills that snap in perfectly to the swing of the tune.

Slamdinistas are a fabulous Rum Bar find. They just released their second album Wild and Restless on the label . Everything clicks: good song writing-check, distinctive lead singer – check, kickass band – check.

We could hear in almost every song where they get the chorus and work it with vocal and instrumental variations to pump it up and push it over the top. We (again) have to give credit to singer Gabriel Johns, he makes it all special. “Reason to Believe” has a captivating feel to it. The lilt of the melody sucks you in. It has wonderful vocals. The arrangement seems organic. This is a real winner.
Other faves are “Weather the Storm”, “Johnny Wallfower”, “Oh Yeah” and “Rock N Roll Clown”. They put in their Christmas song “Santa’s In a Punk Band Now” on the album too. “He traded in his sleigh for a van full of gear!” It’s too good to be a Christmas song to us.

Where does Rum Bar Records find all these groups? The 20th Century Boys (a trio) from California are their latest find. The album is self-titled. The group fits in with Rum Bar’s 70’s infatuation. We flashed back to our seventies favorite groups when we heard the 20th Century Boys but there are not many of them that were as consistently good as this. We like just about every song.

We keep going back to “Come On Jason” that takes the “Misty Mountain Hop” riff from Zeppelin adds a short descending turnaround and manage to make it new. The guitars have a nice crunch. There are half a dozen tasty solos and there you notice the tone and sustain of the guitars. The singer and the background vocals are spot on and boost the already fine songwriting.

One of the things we like is that the songs all come out with their own identity which is a function of the songwriting. We will name “Cuz I Want To”, “Glory Boys”, “Come On Jason”, “Alright” and “Never a Dull Moment” as big favorites, but it’s a fine whole album listening experience.

We spotlighted The Slow Death’s song “I’ll Be Fine” in last issue of the BGN. This issue we post the next single “Last One to Know” off their forthcoming album No Light to See. Hey, we’ll say the same thing – it’s a ripper, a steamroller of a song. They are at Faces in Malden on June 14.

Jackie and the Idiots are from Providence. They won this year’s Favorite Punk Act in the local Motif magazine. That got us over to Spotify to give them a listen.

The first song was “Creeper” which made us think of the Unnatural Axe, but it’s a different song. They are not unlike the Axe in the fact that they are basic punk. We ended up liking the “Creeper”. It had humor in the lyrics and it takes nerve to do as many repeats as they do with the lyrics in some parts of the song. We thought it all worked very well.
In one of their songs “Harris Ave” they sing about the now closed club Dusk. We have “Creeper” embedded below.

We featured Australia’s Letherman twice before with the single “Telephone” and “Big Shoes”. They now have a whole album titled Turn You On. The band has an unusual and seamless combination of pop and metal. They remind us most of Thin Lizzy. It’s full of guitar work, half of it is tandem leads. The songs have memorable lyrics and melodies. The singing is strong and sweet at the same time. They have five of ten songs streaming on Bandcamp.

We slowly got drawn into the Watermelon/Peacock album (and that’s what the cover shows) by the Exploding Flowers (Los Angeles). The opening song “Crowded Streets” got us thinking of the paisley underground especially Dream Syndicate.
The band members have all worked in dozens of other bands. That’s not a surprise when you hear the music, you have to have experience to put together 14 cohesive tunes like this.
The guitars go from ringing 12 string, to indie to cutting psych leads. The arrangements bring in different instruments but it never gets too elaborate. If you like pop/psych you will like or love this.

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

April 16, 2025 (Wednesday) Your Pest Band "Japan's best garage power-pop punkers", Zip-Tie Handcuffs, Wicked Dead at Faces Brewing, Malden. Your Pest Band has been at it for almost 15 years. Check 'em out!

April 16, 2025 (Wednesday) Temptress, Psycho, Larry and the Bats at Koto Lowell - FB page

April 17, 2025 (Thursday) Plymouth Punk Rock Market at Mayflower Brewing Company 6-8PM Event Page

April 17, 2025 (Thursday) Dead Boys with Burn Kit and Neponsett Monastery at Deep Cuts, Medford, MA, 7pm

April 17, 2025 (Thursday) Nasalrod with Minibeast and The Ghouls at Koto Salem FB page

April 18, 2025 (Friday) Worm Is Shooting Some Footage for a Music Video for their new Song "Eye In The Sky" -be in the audience = be in the video!! on the bill: WORM, C.O.B., Witches Tears, Hardwire, Far Above the Ground at The C Note Hull TIX

April 18, 2025 (Friday) Joe Zippo Memorial 2025 with Scumbari, Mosse Knuckle, Sadplant at Moon Base One Salem

April 18, 2025 (Friday) Nasalrod with Minibeast and Grip Bite at The Parlour, Prov. RI FB page.

April 19, 2025 (Saturday) Gang of Four at The Crystal Ballroom, Somerville. Tickets.

April 19, 2025 (Saturday) Rick Berlin with quests Willie Loco and Thalia Zedek and more...at the Brighton Music Hall. Tickets.

April 19, 2025 (Saturday) The Instamatics, American Ocelot, Yes Nanny, Peter Buzzelle at The Midway FB page

April 23, 2025 (Wednesday) Circus Battalion, Bastard Leg, Drug Deal Gone Bad, Botch Joe at the Silhouette Lounge

April 24, 2025 (Thursday) Christian Death at Deep Cuts Medford 7-11PM

April 25, 2025 (Friday) Casket Rats, Helldog, Trollmilk, Betty, DOD at  O'Briens

April 25, 2025 (Friday) Sidewalk Driver, Rice Edmonston and Talk Chalk at Deep Cuts Medford. Facebook event page

April 26, 2025 (Saturday) The Dogmatics, Stop Calling Me Frank at The New World Tavern Plymouth - FB page.

April 26, 2025 (Saturday) Kill Lincoln, Hell Beach, The Prozacs at Hutghi's At The Nook ( 8 Franklin St Westfield MA) FB page

April 27, 2025 (Sunday) Stray Bullets, Nick And The Adversaries, Hell Beach, Static Friction 3PM Matinee at The Midway FB page

April 29, 2025 (Tuesday) The Bellrays, Muck and the Mires, The Downhauls at Deep Cuts

April 30, 2025 (Wednesday) The Bellrays, Muck and the Mires, The Downhauls at Deep Cuts $20 advance / $25 day of

May 2, 2025 (Friday) New Warden, Trophy Lungs, Choke Up, Depressors at  O'Briens

May 2, 2025 (Friday) Gossip Collar, The Stress Balls, Neponset Monastery, Bastard Leg - Thirsty First, Lowell, 21+ 9pm

May 9, 2025 (Friday) One Fall, DNA's Evolution, Type 66, The Mighty Suicide Squirrels at The Middle East UP

May 9, 2025 (Friday) Hilken Mancini Band, The Cujo, Mary Lou Lord at Sonia

May 10, 2025 (Saturday) The Villains, The Rejekts, The Stress Balls, and more TBA -Cambridge Community Center - All Ages -2pm

May 10, 2025 (Saturday) Koto Salem's Annual Pancreatic Cancer benefit show with Acoustic sets starting at 730 - Pink Acoustic Rock n Roll, Keith Bennett - Bands starting at 930 - Gravewraith, Swarm of Eyes, Scuzzy Yeti, Worshipper - All proceeds go directly to Pancan.org

May 11, 2025 (Sunday) The Queers at The Middle East UP

May 11, 2025 (Sunday) The Thigh Scrapers, M.O.T.O., The Stigmatics, The Ballbusters at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

May 16, 2025 (Saturday) The FUs, Arctic Horror, Deprogrammer Cult, The Angry La's (Formerly GIVE UP!) at KOTO Underground, Salem:

May 24, 2025 (Saturday) Neighborhood Shit, The Promised End, Fracture Type, Knock Over City at The Midway 3PM Matinee!

May 29, 2025 (Thursday) Major Stars, Gossip Collar Notch Taproom Brighton

June 14, 2025 (Saturday) ShaggahS, The Cynz, Stop Calling Me Frank, at the Burren, Somerville 7pm The Burren

June 14, 2025 (Saturday) The Slow Death are at Faces Malden

June 27, 2025 (Friday) The Gruesomes (legendary Canadian garage punk band a) , Muck & The Mires, The Chelsea Curve at The Middle East UP EventPage

June 27, 2025 (Friday) Rockin Bob Punk Band, Color Killer, The F.U.’s and from California, Stay Out at the Middle East UP, 8pm

June 28, 2025 (Saturday) TREE and Incendiary Device at Brighton Music Hall - 6PM - TIX

June 29, 2025 (Sunday) Frenzy Of Tongs, Scumbari, The Stress Balls, Angry Red Planet -at The Cantab, 21+ 8pm

July 29, 2025 (Saturday) The Wynotts, The Haymakers, American Ocelot at the Square Root, Roslindale 8pm

July 31, 2025 (Thursday) The New Bomb Turks, The Drowns at Sonia

August 2, 2025 (Saturday) The Dwarves, Burn Kit, Scumbari at Deep Cuts TIX!!

September 7, 2025 (Sunday) Rock and Roll Yard Sale in Somerville Union Square FB page for more info vendors etc

September 19, 2025 (Friday) Marc Valentine Band, Chelsea Curve, Glimmer Stars at The Burren

September 27, 2025 (Wednesday) The Grip Weeds, Tiger Bomb, at The Burren

October 30, 2025 (Thursday) Stupidity, Chelsea Curve, Little Billy Lost, at The Burren

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.