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Paul Armstrong RIP at The Midway Photo:John Keegan

Paul Armstrong of The Flashcubes and 1.4.5 died last week. We were shocked by his passing. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year but we don't think anyone knew that!

The Flashcubes were formed in Syracuse in 1977. Blowfish used to play their song “Christi Girl” back in 1978 on the Late Risers Club. Then 1.4.5. formed and Blowfish played songs from their album Rhythm n’ Booze. Armstrong was always very friendly and he was easy to be around. His love of rock n’ roll was always at the top of his mind.

He moved to Hull and started 1.4.5. up again. When he hit the stage we described him as ‘uncaged’. He would be all revved up and almost used his guitar as a weapon. He was loved rock and wanted to transmit that ...and definitely did! We love that sort of person. We’re all a little fanatic.

We ran into him a few times with his wife Marge down at the C Note since he lived in the area. A few months ago we reviewed the tribute album for the Flashcubes and Paul texted us with a Thank You. He was so thrilled that some of his favorite musicians covered the Flashcubes songs. He also sent us a bunch of the Flashcubes catalog.

Here’s some memories from Gary Frenay from the Flashcubes. 1.4.5. at the C Note 1.4.5. at the Midway

RIP Paul Armstrong!!

The Del Fuegos are heading for two European tours this year, first in June and then in November. The group had a few mishaps, like that canceled show at Roadrunner a few years ago. Now, they point out that a popular Facebook page on the band is not in their control. They urge everyone to follow up their new page The Real Del Fuegos.

Rudy Childs who directed The Dogmatics: A Dogumentary is working on a new film named 1983: Almost Forgotten. He's already interviewed Mach Bell for the documentary about his time with the Joe Perry Project. Rudy now has a show, Riff Raff, on WRPS radio in Rockland which is 88.3 FM. It's on Thursdays from 11am to 1pm and repeated later at 7 pm and repeated again on Sundays from 11am to 1pm. Rudy likes his metal but plays local and other music too.

VIDEOS......

The Spackles video for “Be My Anchor” off their last EP Music For Blockheads, does what you hope a video does which is to make you take another listen to the song. It's full of surf/spy riffs and you wonder why.

The video begins with a shot of a Greek statue. The lyrics soon reveal that the figure is Diogenes. The song is setting up the mythic search for an honest man and referencing it to spy/spaghetti western imagery. Once you get that the almost James Bond riffs will bring a smile to your face.

Alas, the music gets dark, the images go apocalyptic, and the lyrics declare “your quest is futile”. There are live shots from The Midway interspersed and you may recognize some of the regulars.

Locals Condition Baker have a video for their song “Bleed”.  The band plays live in a small space. There’s not much variety there but it's injected it with their personalities and moves. Seeing the band play really does open up the song even more.

That bass line at the beginning is a cool arrangement of notes and to see how the bass player does it is revealing.  Then the first chord progression gets solidified in your mind the way it might not by just hearing it. The mix of being beat up emotionally and physically is brought home in the catchy chorus of “Why? Why do I have to bleed?”.  The singer sings clear over the roar of guitars, that is a genius point right there.  Their a new album Bennington Street is out on May 8.

We have fond memories of hearing The Rentals in the early punk days. One song that got lots of airplay was “Gertrude Stein” released in 1979. It had that jerking two chord rhythm in the verses that was perfect to mimic the repetitive text of Stein’s “A rose is a rose is a rose is a…”

It wasn’t until recently that we heard “Cab Driver” by Lenny Kravitz that was released in 1990 on his Let Love Rule album. When we heard that opening rhythm (here done on bass) we could only think of “Gertrude Stein”. Lenny's song has an anti-racist message.

We're sure he come upon it on his own, but it’s a good excuse to play “Gertrude Stein” again. The recording was co-produced by Oedipus and The Rentals.

RADIO......

On his 4/21 Rising show Skybar had David Harrison in for an interview. Dave is currently in The False Positives and was also in the Voodoo Dolls and The Nines (with Evan Shore). He had a backstage Dee Dee story about when The Voodoo Dolls played with the Ramones .

He says he was apprehensive starting a new band after having such a great experience with those former groups. Could he measure up? His first recording was “Leave A Mark” which hits hard with a cautionary message and in retrospect was an impressive debut. David gives all the updates on the group and upcoming shows.

PODCASTS......

Al Quint had a neat punk set in his 4/13 Sonic Overload show. It was Teenage Head, Weirdos, Adverts and X Ray Spex. The Spex song was “I Live Off You” off Germ Free Adolescents and it sounds better than ever now. Here it is on YouTube.

A later set had Annihilation Time, a group from CA, doing “Panic”. It’s sort of a punk/hardcore/metal combo but we like the punk feel of it, and it’s from 2004 though it sounds older.

There was a local punk set with Freeze and The Not (“Action Man”). The Not never got the attention we thought they warranted . A track by Expando Brain “Flogging a Dead Relationship” followed. Their album, Mother of God, It’s Expando Brain, was produced by Gary Waleik of Big Dipper. The not often heard now Busted Statues song ”Home” ended the set. There was a real aura around this group in the eighties. They seemed very special. We have the Expando Man and Busted Statues below because they are not readily available.

It was another fine show on 4/11 from Punks in the Garage podcast (from WAIF Cincinnati). They put the spotlight on Richard Hell for three songs- “Blank Generation”, “Boy With the Replaceable Head” and “Love Comes in Spurts”.

They had one of our favorite 999 songs; the very expressive “I’m Alive” which came out in 1977 as their first release. The In Crowd, an English sixties group that became Tomorrow did “Why Must They Criticise”.

Half of what Punks in the Garage play is from the sixties the other half is current groups playing sixties style, like Chesterfield Kings, Archie & the Bunkers and The Violet Mindfield. They played the MC5’s first single (1967) a cover of “I Can Only Give You Everything”.

Their 3/28 show was all early San Francisco punk 76 to 82. They have bands you know like Avengers, Dead Kennedys, The Nuns, Crime and The Mutants. There were some you might not know like Mary Monday, Impatient Youth, Tools and KGB. They have an interview with Jonathan Postal of the Readymades talking about his days on the early SF scene. One hour of the real stuff.

NEW MUSIC/CD's ......

The Chelsea Curve want to take you for a “Ride”. That’s their pre-release single for the upcoming album The Rideout. Make no mistake when The Chelsea Curve want to take you for a ride, it’s on a Vespa.

That’s what is so easy to love about the group, they take you to Mod heaven. It’s not just they do the mod thing, it’s that they do it so genuinely and unfailingly. “Ride” is three minutes where you can forget your troubles and fantasize that you are free to dress with flair and join your mates on the scooters. The song captures that spirit. It’s not just a song, it’s a lifestyle. The part we listen for, after taking in Linda’s vocals, are the rumpling and tumbling drums. Man does that give us chills. That spirit is sustained for the next six songs. It’s the perfect opening statement.

The Chelsea Curve have changed since their beginnings. They always had Mod influences but now it’s all solid Mod material and it suits them fine. They have a focus and a strong identity. The seven songs on The Rideout album and they all keep up a swift pace. That breathless enthusiasm for life is part of what they are trying to transmit.

“Kindawanna” and “Rally ‘Round” are two excellent songs that were released earlier. “In Real Life” sticks out to us, but all seven songs are going to sound fabulous on the radio. It’s real easy to pick this to click.

The Rideout release party is Saturday May 9 at the Medford Brewing Company, with DJ Sherman, The Northern Line, and Nick and the Adversaries. It’s a matinee from 4:00-8:00 and it’s a FREE show. Scooters are welcome - how cool is that. “Ride” is streaming on Bandcamp now.

Jenn Lombari and Sourpunch are on fire in their EP Shake Them Bones. It ’s evident in the energy, speed and sense of urgency in the recordings. On the whole the songs are upbeat with speedy tempos and there’s a bit of a nightlife/party/social feeling going on, that we assume is Jenn’s life experience coming through. There is also “Gin Buzz” and “Dead Friends” , about remembering those that passed, that adds gravity to the set of songs.

Jenn’s vocals have always been a center point but here Jenn is commanding. In places like the first track “Lipstick and Black” she does marvels with multi-tracking her vocals. In “Dead Friends” the vocals get punky. In “Rebound n Down” it’s a Chuck Berry sprint. In the cover of “Going Up The Country” its raspy rockin’ that works up to an enthusiastic scream.

The drums make their mark. We love the spots in “Lipstick and Black” where the drums create a pronounced low rumble that is a real speaker shaker. Then there’s the guitar solos that we weren’t expecting. In “Sourpunch Stomp” it’s a burst of wah wah shredding! There are also succinct solos in “Ginn Buzz” and “Going Up the Country” that stick out.
This is a high water mark for Sourpunch and one hard rocking EP by any standard.

Requiem are a new young band from Boston. Their debut EP All The News That's Fit To Print is out on April 27. Because they are young the lyrics reflect a different view than what we might be used to.
The group sound has a bed of loud guitars but it’s slicker and leaner. You get a sense of the control they have. There are subtle differences that make them stand out. One of those is the singer who again uses control of her voice. There’s no yelling. The vocals have tone and you can hear every word.

The drumming is strong and the fill ins are very tasteful. All this is very exciting for any group, never mind a young new one. They just seem so natural, it’s got to last and hopefully get some traction with these excellent songs.

“Turning (Inside Out)” has a hook in the chorus that it works up to. By the end you want to listen to it again. Pay attention to the voice. Notice how the singer articulates the words “fatal”, “table”, “Stable” and “unable” to make the rhyme stick out in the first chorus. This is how she gets attention with subtly and not volume.

Their website. You can see them on stage with their YouTube vids. Requiem are at Warehouse XI in Union Sq Somerville this Monday April 27

Torch Red are playing like they have something to prove. “Deaf Minds” has an inborne drive to it.   The song rides on a four chord garage progression.  All the instruments dig in. The guitar solo scratches and scrapes like a caged animal and seems to end in a growl. Teresa Mastrorilli gives an excellent vocal performance. Check them out on Friday June 5 at OBrien's with The Idolizers, The Stigmatics,  and Whyte Lipstick

We saw American Ethos at the Hong Kong (Harvard Sq) in 2020. We liked them but not as much as we do after hearing this new album, the title is Morse code for SOS (... _ _ _ ...), that’s going to mess up searches on google.

The band is a bit mysterious. They ID themselves as a New England band, led by Daniel Lajoie with a changing group of musicians. Their music is hardcore/metal. It's relentless, and that goes along with the lyrics that burrow into life’s problems. The opening track is the Beach Boys “Wouldn’t It Be Nice“ slowed way down. Why? Don’t know, but it’s an indication that things are going to be challenging.

The Bandcamp page has the lyrics and they show pretty quickly that there is a lot of life experience funneled into them. Indeed an “An Appeal to Heaven” seems like a person reviewing their hard life. “On Purpose” is similar and adds two minutes of a man’s taped memories in the background.

There’s a lot to unravel in some songs, like “Quietus Part Deaux”. The word ‘Quietus’ which means settling one’s debts shows up in Hamlet. Sure enough near the end the lyrics go “To be or not to be, that is the question/ to be or not to be, forever the question”. There’s also a line, “There is a point to this song”. There’s the challenge if you want to delve in.

“Pink Panthers” begins with reference Plutarch’s quote of Julius Cearsar, “I came, I saw” and before “I conquered” proceeds to list seventeen more statements beginning with “I…” They all seem like existential problems. That leads to a screed about someone …or self-loathing. Meanwhile the music is grinding away. It’s intense. This is just a few examples of what we found. You can spend a lot of time delving into this album.

Foxy is just one of the treasures that Rum Bar Records has found and released. They released the album Tonight Tonight last May. Now they've taken the song “She Waits Alone” from the album and added three songs for an EP to promo the group’s summer tour. The added songs are from older material, but their sound has always been the same.

We've spent an inordinate amount of time listening to “Sick Inside”. It has a massive grove from the get go. The bottom end is deep as bed rock. The guitars are heavily fuzzed up. The chorus gets us swaying with the back and forth chords and base notes, when the lyrics go “I’m sick inside, inside” the singer turns sugary with “inside- eye-eye” which is pure sixties girl group teen bop. That’s our favorite moment.

The song captures a late night love sick feeling. There’s a cleaver Rashomon moment where a scene is commented on by two separate people and illustrates their misunderstanding.

I’m not an impartial reviewer anymore when it comes to the Glimmer Stars. I go in just loving them to death. Even before I heard their new album Someday’s A Long Time I was totally sold on the two pre-released songs.

I love the sound of the guitars, I love the drum fills, I love heartbreak lyrics and most of all I love Mini Mendez’s vocals. It’s to the point that I get fixated on the way Mendez’s voice plays with a single word, like “now” in “I Need It Now” or “around” in “It’s The Only Dream I Keep Around”. All of that applies to the whole album.

I’m with Mini when he pines for the women in “Love, Madeline”, “Autumn Girl”, “It’s the Only Dream I Keep Around” and “Maybe”. Even though it’s poppy heartbreak songs the guitars (by Steven Soto) always have muscle and the drums (by Ritchie Mendez) are pounding. There’s no delicate manner about any of it.

“It’s the Only Dream I Keep Around” is so suffused with yearning one can get drunk on it. Whatever the trick is to get that feeling in a song, Mendez knows it. In the last minute of the song, they have a classic power pop guitar solo. Mini sings the last chorus as some airy background vocals join in and still more atmosphere with chimes. Wow.

The last song “Better Day” is optimistic that things will be fine in the end which is a wonderful way to end this album.
There’s two songs streaming on Bandcamp now. The album is released on May 8. Here's their Bandcamp page.

High on Stress is on Rum Bar Records. Their EP Over/Thru had universal good reviews. The song “Over/Thru” is on the new album Still Here too. That song is a favorite. When it hits the chorus it’s so perfect - the yearning in the voice, the words, the slight swing in the chords.

They do sound like the Replacements sometimes (“Time Will Tell You”, “Plans Have Plans”, Over/Thru”). On the album you can hear their own personality too (“Under The Table”, “Ambassador”, “Uphill Climb”) .

The band is killer. The guitars are always in the sweet spot between jangle and beefy power chording. The bass carries a rhythm all its own. You feel it as well as hear it. The drummer has a strong snare and has busy fills that excite. The recording brings them all out. That along with consistently good songwriting makes a solid album.
The release day is May 8. There are two songs streaming on Bandcamp now.

Black Market Heart are a noise/post punk outfit from LA. The Jesus and Mary Chain come to mind first when you hear them. There’s some early Bauhaus in there too. There’s goth too but we get more of a Noir feeling with these songs. That’s backed up by the video for the first song “What Happens In the Dark" with one shot of the group in a car at night. The song is a crisp 1:40. Also check the city night scene cover above.
Check out the first song below and if you like that you will dig the whole album. We think it’s a notable effort.

Troubles from Helsinki, Finland have a garage sound they couple with horror themes to make an appealing mix. Often they sing about love, loss and life’s problems but use a horror metaphor to add the drama. It works. We think about The Darts doing a similar thing on Halloween Love Songs.

They declare they don’t put their music on Spotify so as to not endorse that platform’s “monopoly and investments”. They are proud to be DIY. But they are on Bandcamp. The first song on the album is “Ghouls” and that is indicative of the whole album. Hear that below.

Dharma Guns, another Helsinki group, are a hard rock unit. They eschew any finesse or other genre borrowing. Their new album Nightmares and Broken Dreams is hard rock heaven. They only break the volume and pace on one of the ten tracks (“Black Cloud”). You can hear the whole album on Spotify. We embed a riff based “King of Action Rock” which will pump up your day below.

Rad Girlfriend Records has a split EP with Horace Pinker and Raging Nathans. The Raging Nathans from Dayton, OH play pulsating punk. They prove punk is not dead.
Horace Pinker are Chicago based. They have a pop punk sound but hit it hard. There’s no cutesy playing around with them. We like the speedy “Another Way” and have that embedded below. Hear the whole EP on the Rad Girlfriend Bandcamp page.

Time for something heavy. Slow Shiv are a trio from Nashville, TN. They play what they call 'Mean Pop' which they describe as “pop music for heavy music fans and heavy music for pop fans”. It sounds very heavy to us and reminds us of Nine Inch Nails or Big Black.

We checked out their last EP and this is much better sonically. The recording /mix does the job. The song “Ridiculous Beast” is a profile of a ‘big man’ who is very greedy.

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

April 27, 2026 (Monday) Requiem and Spanghew are at  Warehouse XI (Sanborn Ct Union Square Somerville) (see Blowfish's review above)

April 27, 2026 (Monday) Cowboy Killers, Soy Capibara, Odie at The Silhouette Lounge

April 28, 2026 (Tuesday) Brainwash Victims, Cigarette Camp at The Model, Allston -early show at 6PM

April 28, 2026 (Tuesday) Emily How, Miss Bones, Mackenzie Keefe at O'Briens

April 29, 2026 (Wednesday) Vulture Feather, Thalia Zadek Band, Sinaloa at Deep Cuts

April 30, 2026 (Thursday) Last Second Dropout, Island of Alaska, In Use, Botch Job at O'Brien's

May 1, 2026 (Friday) Sevalynn, Actor Observer, Sir Echo, This City Hates You at Deep Cuts, Medford

May 2, 2026 (Saturday) Eric Knopf's 50th Birthday with The Manglers, Larseny, Box of Records at The Midway for a 3PM Matinee

May 2, 2026 (Saturday) Breakout From Oppression, Tripwire, Lucky You, ChumHuffer (from NY,) The Stress Balls, Shoot Billy at The Allston Abbey FB page for more info

May 7, 2026 (Thursday) Still Sedated, Timoth Stone, Emotional Roller Coaster at O'Brien's

May 9, 2026 (Saturday) The Chelsea Curve's The Rideout album release party

May 9, 2026 (Saturday) Whyte Lipstick, Puke Pisstols, The Lithophones (ex-spits ex-Tampoffs) at The Square Root.

May 9, 2026 (Saturday) Restless Collective, Dayes, blindspot, Moonshot at The Jungle

May 9, 2026 (Saturday) The Long Wait, WORM, Catching Hell, The Ungraded, A.P.E. Mark Martin (Marko Bruiser Acoustic Set) at Ralph's Rock Diner Worcester

May 10, 2026 (Sunday) Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico 7th Anniversary with Black Helicopter, The Long Wait, Hammered Saint, The Black Souls at Sonia TIX.

May 10, 2026 (Sunday) The Casket Rats, Lipsmear, Matt Charette, Jimmy Clifford at O'Briens

May 11, 2026 (Monday) Twisted Teens, Tyler and the Names, Puke Pistols at O'Brien's

May 13, 2026 (Wednesday) Billy Liar & The Haunted Hearts, Lesser Devils, Battery March at Faces Malden

May 14, 2026 (Thursday) TRAITRS, Pilgrims at The Middle East Up

May 14, 2026 (Thursday) Tired Radio,, Five Hundred Bucks, Little Low, Oh the Humanity! at O'Brien's

May 16, 2026 (Saturday) Bentanzaganza (Benefit for Ben Tan) ft. Johnnie & The Foodmasters, Delons, Noah Britton, Sound Dream Machine at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

May 16, 2026 (Saturday) SkyTigers, Farewell Drugs, Ruffian Dick at Faces Malden

May 16, 2026 (Saturday) Endation, Miracle Blood, Chainlacing, Gloomlurker at O'Brien's

May 16, 2026 (Saturday) Satch Keran Band, Aluminum Brain, Stigmatics at Underbones

May 16, 2026 (Saturday) The Dogmatics and The Gypsy Moths at Boston Harbor Distillery, Boston, MA, 8:30p

May 17, 2026 (Sunday) Blind Adam and the Federal League, Resurrectionists, Indoor Friends, Bad Idea USA at O'Brien's

May 18, 2026 (Monday) Simon, Daphne Blue Underworld, Battlemode at The Silhouette Lounge

May 21, 2026 (Thursday) Kerosene Heights, Dear Maryanne, Ogbert The Nerd, Blame it on Whitman at The Middle East Up

May 21, 2026 (Thursday) Couch Crash, Superchild, Glowbox, JB & The Weather Machine at The JUngle

May 24, 2026 (Saturday) Crow Follow, Connor Storms & His Bouquet (release show!), Coffin Salesman, Lou Mace at The Midway for a 3PM MATINEE!

May 29, 2026 (Friday) Beantown Boozehounds, Gossip Collar, SpikyTops, Worm, Give Up Hope at The C Note, Hull. FB page

May 30, 2026 (Saturday) Is Malden Porchfest! Huck 2 will be on the City Hall stage at 2:45! We recommend everyone spend the day in Malden checking out all the great bands! Lots of friends will be playing that day. Gretchen & The Banshees, Crow Follow, Warthog, Hey Blondie, Captain Easychord and many others!

May 30, 2026 (Saturday) Homemade Speed, Yankee Bastard, Wanted, Zipper at O'Brien's

May 31, 2026 (Sunday) Wrought Iron Hex, Spectacle, Osis (their final gig!!), Bastard Leg at The Middle East Up TIX!

June 2, 2026 (Tuesday) Killusonline, Hell Dog, Short Circuit, Faith in Silence at O'Brien's

June 5, 2026 (Friday) The Idolizers, The Stigmatics, Torch Red, Whyte Lipstick at O'Brien's

June 11, 2026 (Thursday) Echo & The Bunnymen at Roadrunner TIX

June 11, 2026 (Thursday) The Gruesomes with Muck and The Mires at The Burren, Somerville, MA, 6pm

June 13, 2026 (Saturday) OH THE HUMANITY!, Dead Cats Dead Rats, A Minor Revolution, The Digs, The Hideout at Faces Malden

June 14, 2026 (Sunday) Wreckless Wreck Chords Presents: The Long Wait, Incendiary Device, Scumbari, WORM, Pledge Of Allegiance- this is a 3PM MATINEE at The Midway

June 20, 2026 (Saturday) Stop Calling Me Frank, Girl With A Hawk (release show!), Tad Overbaugh & The Late Arrivals at The Midway 8PM

June 24, 2026 (Wednesday) Contracharge, Cartridge, The Blind, D.O.D at O'Brien's

June 27, 2026 (Saturday) Silver Screams, Still Sedated, Past Life Crisis at The Jungle - this is a 4PM MATINEE

June 27, 2026 (Saturday) American Ocelot, Emily Grogan and Bearmonster, Sean Wolf Wortis at Underbones

July 31, 2026 (Friday) Jonee Earthquake, In Shreds, BAABES, Typhoid Mary at Koto Salem

September 25, 2026 (Friday) Muck and the Mires, The Sharp Class (UK), The Chelsea Curve and Dj Sherman at Deep Cuts

September 28, 2026 (Monday) The "Sex Pistols" at The Royale

CONTACT US AT....misslynbgn@yahoo.com

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