I'm Not Gone Vol II artists visit the Mess-Arouond
Photo:Captain Easychord
Captain Easychord went to the special edition of the
Mess-Around on Sunday, 11/21/21 at the Plough & Stars: "The
Salute to Boston Rock'n'Roll" the first part of the evening
was your regular Mess Around with Justine's Black Threads
and Mach Bell as a special guest. The latter half was
about musicians who've recorded songs for the Asa Brebner tribute album
I’m Not Gone Vol II, put together by Larry Newman.
That even drew out the Rat owner Jimmy Harold.
Jimmy
Harold - Jan Long Collins
Photo:Captain Easychord
Mach
Bell
Photo:Captain Easychord
Mach Bell put down his book and picked up a guitar
and did some rocking because, ya know ... he’s gotta rock! Robin
Lane did some “rich, soulful songs” reports Captain
Easychord.
The club was packed and the stage too. Others that played are: Randy
Black, Linda Viens, Billy Connors, Charles Hanson, Frank Rowe, Mike
Quirk, Kenne Highland, Garret Vandermolen, McGregor McGehee
and George Hall. Read all Captain Easychord’s
review and see all the photos on Easychord’s page by clicking
the photo link below.
Moving Targets are ramping up to do their next album
In the Dust. Their last two albums Wires
and Humbucker were superb.
You
can support them and be one of the first to get the next album by pledging
on their Kickstarter page. They start recording in March of 1922
in Baltimore.
Record Store Day happened last Friday ...
Decibel magazine has a bleak look at the whole affair.
They have a lot of issues. One is that the major labels got into this
quickly and screwed it up. We know that some opportunists just scarf
up the limited releases and then head to EBay. Decibel says that the
record stores themselves sell on EBay. On top of all this, vinyl pressing
plants have a backlog that’s only getting longer.
But let’s not get too depressed. Vinyl came back on its own.
People just wanted it. It’s not often that happens. Vinyl makes
us feel good.
You have to have a good memory for this ... the first issue of Take
It magazine had a red flexi disc with the song “It’s
Up To You” by the Trademarks. We always loved that piece of pop
gold. The good news is that recently the song was released on a comp
titled Standing in the Shadows Vol 2. The bad news is that it’s
sold out.
Also featured on the album is the Hot Dates (Rock
n’ Roll Rumble contenders in 1980) and The Sighs.
The album and other volumes in the series are on the Mean
Bean Records website
BOOKS......
The Big Balloon is Rick Berlin’s
second book. It’s a sort of pastiche: an autobiography, artistic
reflections, sexploits and band stories. Most chapters begin with a
piece of art or household item that Rick will comment on and if that
leads to a story from his life, he goes there.
Things fill in as you go along. Rick relates happenings in Orchestra
Luna, Berlin Airlift, The Shelly Winters Project, and The
Nickel & Dime Band. Rick is a mainstay in Jamaica Plain
and he has stories (and songs) of the hood and the Jamaica Plain Festival
that he helped create. He had a long employment at Doyle’s. Some
to the parts we found most intriguing were, not surprising, about Orchestra
Luna. The band got attention from record companies and played CBGB’s
and interacted with Danny Fields.
The eBook edition is interactive in the sense that it has links to
songs and videos from Rick, as he talks about what and who they are
about. This is an enormous help in understanding and appreciating the
songs.
Early in the book tells of a friend who relates a story about his roommate
Machiko who he’d never seen eat, among other things. Rick took
the words of the story verbatim and that become the song “Machiko”.
Then you go to the link provided and hear the song. It has an amazing
arrangement, and that’s the thing with Rick it’s not just
the song, there’s always an arrangement. In this case it’s
played by some proficient musicians. Knowing how he got the lyrics makes
the unconventional vocal make sense. This happens a lot in the book
which is reason to read the eBook version. This is one of the obvious
ways to utilize the eBook connection to the web but so few books take
advantage of it.
Rick is prolific. He has 34 albums on his Bandcamp
page. The
Demos album alone has 168 songs. That’s why
in the book when he mentions any person or club or situation he probably
links to a song about it.
Rick has really done this right. He’s exercised his artistic
spirit in the writing, explained his lifestyle and community (Jamaica
Plain), told much about his colorful life and shown how his music directly
links to his experiences.
Rick will be performing at The Midway on Sat Dec 18th at 8:00pm
Tommy White of Unnatural Axe posted
Chapter 8 in his ongoing documentary on Zoom. The phenomenon
of the Zoom Rap is featured this week.
RADIO......
Ron on the Late Risers Clubhttps://www.wmbr.org/
always has a show worth catching. There are always a few things that
jump out. This week the cover of The Boys' “First Time”
by GeeTeeVee was the one. The cover is rawer and punkier than the original.
It works for us.
Skybar will have a call in interview with
Michael Kane (and the morning Afters). He'll talk about his
new release on State Line Records. We spotlighted the Morning After’s
new song “Tear This World Apart” a few weeks ago. Michael
Kane & The Morning Afters on bandcamp.
Skybar’s Rising show is on WMFO
on Tuesday nights from 8 to 9pm.
NEW MUSIC/CDs......
We like our metal done up Il Mostro style ... We like
the way they put some punk in it..We didn’t know they had a new
EP, Occult Practices, till Joanie
Lindstrom played it on the Late Risers Club this week!!
It doesn’t take much more than the first song on the EP, “Firewitch”
to set your speakers on fire. It
comes with a video too. They also cover T.S.O.L.’s song BlackMagic!!
Il Mostro will be at The Midway for a matinee show
on January 22.
We love getting a new track from Adventure Set. They
evoke everything good about mid-eighties electro pop. The new song “Narcoleptic”
moves smooth and graceful. It’s easy to fall under its spell and
we did.
Joey Ramone’s brother, Mickey Leigh,
wrote the book I Slept with Joey Ramone. Mickey’s
a NYC mainstay, he was also in the Rattlers. Now his band Mickey
Leigh's Mutated Music has a new album, Variants
of Vibe. Six of the 14 songs are pre-released on Bandcamp.
You would think maybe it would ape the Ramones sound, but he doesn’t
do that. The band sound is clearer and goes for more nuance than bashing.
We can hear Who and Jam in the guitar attack.
“Brave New World” has some New Orleans style horns. “Lost
in Space” is the song that gets closest to the Ramones style.
We’ll direct you to “No Fun Anymore” which has that
Who/Jam sound going for it.
I Slept with Joey Ramone is also being made
into a movie featuring Pete Davidson of SNL. It's being produced by
Netflix in partnership with STX, and has the support of the Estate of
Joey Ramone. There's no release date as yet but that should be a good
one to watch!!
Here's some good shows coming up .....
November 30 (Tuesday)The
Labor Pains, Disqualifier, Tensor, Bad Sandy, The Lost Boys
at The Midway. FB
page
December 3 (Friday)Kurt
Baker, The Fatal Flaw, Dutch Tulips at The Jungle
December 3 (Friday)Planet
Mercury, Super Pink and Chris Walton at Club
Bohemia
December 4 (Saturday)The
Imposers, Witches Tears, Jerry's Got Jokes, Blame It on Whitman, Beyond
Agitation - 3PM Matinee Show at The Midway
December 4 (Saturday)Hunter,
Melt, Faith and GingerIbex at Club Bohemia
December 5 (Sunday) Benefit for
Pine St. Inn with Lenny Lashley's Gang of One, Jesse Ahern,
Wicked Whiskey - 3PM Matinee Show at The Midway
December 9 (Thursday) North
by North, /Kid Gulliver, Motel Black, Lily Black @ O'Briens
December 10 (Friday) Live
Skull w/ Thalia Zedek Band at the Midway -
night show
December 10 (Friday) Boston
Hassle Benefit Show with HiFi, Scare City, Rusty Mullet,
Exit 18 at O'Brien's
December 11 (Saturday) ONCE Somerville
& Boynton Yards present: Winter Fest at Boynton Yards -
starts at 11AM. FB
page for more info.
December 11 (Saturday)The
Hi-End, Tim McCoy's Rock Quartet, Freeloader - Middle East
Up - starts at 12:30PM!!
FB page.
December 11 (Saturday)Toys
For Tots Benefit with The Welch Boys, Loser's Circle,
Michael Kane & the Morning Afters, Grip Bite at The Midway
- 3PM matinee show. FB
page.
December 11 (Saturday)
Kids Like You & Me Christmas Special featuring Johnnie
& The Foodmasters at Club Bohemia
December 11 (Saturday)
Charmed & Strange, Linnea's Garden, Sapling, Pitstain at
The Midway - FB
page.
December 11 (Saturday) A Krampus
Xmas Celebration! Special Guest Hostess: Kristen Eck of BumbleBee
Radio! and Motel Black, Little Billy Lost, Gretchen
Shae & the Middle Eight @ KOTO in Salem, MA!- FB
page. *You will need a Vax card or proof of a negative test.
December 11 (Saturday)The
Feldons with Tiger Bomb & The Chelsea
Curve at Sun Tiki Studios Portland, ME FB
page.
December 12 (Sunday)Thrash
‘n BangChristmas Party/ 10th Anniversary Party
with Stop Calling Me Frank!, Baabes, Lewd, Kermit's Finger,
The Grommets - At the Midway - Matinee show - 3pm to 7pm. ....and
...FREE pizza! Facebook
event page
December 17 (Friday) The
Chelsea Curve Singles Scene Live! Nite #1: with The
Chelsea Curve, Gene Dante & The Future Starlets, Britpop
Social Club DJs! Early show - 5-8PM at The Jungle. This is the first
night of the Chelsea Curve's Jungle residency! FB
page
December 17 (Friday)Diablogato,
The Devils Twins, Ruin The Nite at Opus Underground / Salem.
December 18 (Saturday) Martin
/ Morell / Fredette with Crow Follow and
Girl With A Hawk at The Midway - 3PM matinee show
December 18 (Saturday)Koto's
Killer Kristmas Party with Marianne Toilet and the
Runs, Fog Wizard, Dust Prophet at Koto Salem.
December 19 (Sunday)The
Mess Around at The Plough & Stars 3-7PM
December 20 (Monday)Camelopard,
Rawstrum, Zygote Theory, Headlights at The Jungle - early show
6:30 - 10PM Music at 7PM.
December
22 (Wednesday)Black Beach, Cronies(NYC), Betties,
Anxious Wave @ O'Briens
January 1 (Saturday)Randy
Black and the Heathcroppers early 4-6PM show!! at The Plough
& Stars.
January 2 (Sunday)Vanishing
Point, Rocket Gods, Sourpunch, The Stigmatics at The Midway
for a matinee show starting at 3PM.
FB page.
January 7 (Friday) The Chelsea
Curve Singles Scene Live! Nite #2: Chelsea
Curve, Muck and The Mires and DJ Mike Gioscia
X-Night! This is an early show 5-8PM at The Jungle
January 14 (Friday)Hixx,
Bunch of Jerks, Highland Air Force at Club Bohemia.
January 15 (Saturday)The
Skirts, Crow Follow, Linnea's Garden at The Square Root
January 15 (Saturday)11th
Annual Joe Zippo Kelley Memorial Show with Blanks77,
Brix’n'Mortar, The McGunks, PCP & The Knives at Koto Salem
- FB
page.
January 16 (Sunday)Jerry's
Got Jokes, Blame it on Whitman, Witches Tears, Screams of Hockomock,
Coma Hole at The Midway - 3PM matinee show. FB
page.
January 16 (Sunday)The
Mess Around at The Plough & Stars 3-7PM
January
18 (Tuesday)Wine Lips & Zip-Tie
Handcuffs @ O'Briens
January 22 (Saturday)The
Somethin' Somethings, We Own Land, Il Mostro, Watching It Burn
at The Midway a matinee show starting at 3PM. FB
page
January 22 (Saturday)Razors
in the Night, Tijuana Sweetheart (originally
known as Vagiant), Sky Tigers and Nothing But
Enemies at Sonia Facebook
event page
January 22 (Saturday)Kid
Gulliver and The Chelsea Curve at The Plough
& Stars - 10PM music.
January 28 (Friday) The Chelsea
Curve Singles Scene Live! Nite #3: Chelsea
Curve, The Shang Hi Los and DJ Sherman! This
is an early show 5-8PM at The Jungle
February 5 (Saturday)The
McGunks, Duck and Cover, Scotty Saints & The True Believers, Presidential
Disgrace at The Midway - 3PM matinee show
February 5 (Saturday)The
Jacklights at The Square Root.
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!
You
can support them and be one of the first to get the next album by 
You have to have a good memory for this ... the first issue of Take
It magazine had a red flexi disc with the song “It’s
Up To You” by the Trademarks. We always loved that piece of pop
gold. The good news is that recently the song was released on a comp
titled Standing in the Shadows Vol 2. The bad news is that it’s
sold out.
Things fill in as you go along. Rick relates happenings in Orchestra
Luna, Berlin Airlift, The Shelly Winters Project, and The
Nickel & Dime Band. Rick is a mainstay in Jamaica Plain
and he has stories (and songs) of the hood and the Jamaica Plain Festival
that he helped create. He had a long employment at Doyle’s. Some
to the parts we found most intriguing were, not surprising, about Orchestra
Luna. The band got attention from record companies and played CBGB’s
and interacted with Danny Fields. 
November 30 (Tuesday) The
Labor Pains, Disqualifier, Tensor, Bad Sandy, The Lost Boys
at The Midway. 
December 11 (Saturday) ONCE Somerville
& Boynton Yards present: Winter Fest at Boynton Yards -
starts at 11AM. 
December 12 (Sunday) Thrash
‘n Bang Christmas Party/ 10th Anniversary Party
with Stop Calling Me Frank!, Baabes, Lewd, Kermit's Finger,
The Grommets - At the Midway - Matinee show - 3pm to 7pm. ....and
...FREE pizza! 
December
22 (Wednesday) Black Beach, Cronies(NYC), Betties,
Anxious Wave @ O'Briens
January
18 (Tuesday) Wine Lips & Zip-Tie
Handcuffs @ O'Briens
March 13, 2022 (Tuesday)
Reigning Sound at the Sinclair Tickets:
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