The BGN News Archive

So here we are in March.....the covid shutdown is beginning to open up. A third vaccine is now approved but getting an actual vax appt is near impossible. It still seems like a few more months before we can even begin to interact in person.

And.....It looks like some music shows may be starting up in some way soon. We'll see how this goes.....

We're still reeling from the loss of "The Queen" Tontileo...but as a consolation The Fabulous Billy Goons have set up 30 days of Tonitelo video clips in her honor.....you can visit their Facebook page to watch the video. RIP Tontileo!!!!

Bands, Beer and Banter – an excellent combo! It's also a monthly video showcase on Facebook and YouTube. Ron Belanger, Chris Meusel and Tim McDonald, all members of The Winter Project get together to watch and review local bands' videos.

The format is simple. Each month four music videos are shown, first without interruption and full screen. Then they're shown again with hosts Tim, Ron and Chris commenting on the song, video and related stories triggered by the video...all while drinking beer of course. After the four videos are played, a winner is randomly chosen, usually by selecting a beer can out of a paper bag. It’s low key, unpretentious and a lot of fun!

They're up to four episodes now. Episode One had Linnea's Garden, Salem Wolves, Kid Gulliver +. Episode Two went from surf (Tsunami of Sound) to metal (Lord Almighty) and then to synth pop (Freeze Pop). Episode Three had Shang Hi Los and Motel Black + . Episode four is on YouTube here

They encourage bands to send in videos to bandsbeerandbanter@gmail.com. You can subscribe to their YouTube channel or on their FB page. They even have a Spotify playlist.

The second Asa Brebner tribute album is coming along. A dynamite version of “Who Do You Voodoo?” a Mickey Clean and the Mezz song, written by Asa and Mickey. In this version, Chris Cote is on vocals and Duke Levine in on guitar. Wow, hearing this brings back those Monday nights at The Rat watching the Mezz gigs!!! Watch the video of Who Do You Voodoo here!!

Bandcamp is waiving their fees again on Friday March 5. That’s a good time to go Bandcamping and buy some music ... and the groups will get the money….what a concept!

DO617 is running a contest to win a $10.00 gift card to use at The Jungle when it reopens. That’s the point of it all…The Jungle will reopen. Just enter your name and email here:

Hey here are some live stream shows coming up.......

Linnea's Garden's "Nowhere Friday Nights" EP Release Show is on the Once Virtual Venue platform on Friday March 5th at 8 pm. You have to be curious as to what visual surprises Linnea will cook up. The Facebook event page is here.

The next Back Porch Carousel is Sunday March 14 at 7pm. Along with the regular crew, Linda Viens, Randy Black, Larry Dersch, Adam Sherman, Eric Martin, Sarah Levecque and Peter Zarkadas, will be quest Jenee Halstead. Here's the event page on Facebook.

The Winter Project have a live stream from the Midway on Sunday March 7 between 6 and 7 pm. We found out about this band after the coronavirus hit, so that can happen. They had a song we got stuck on with “Scars Above” We replayed the video many times. The Live Stream event page on Facebook is here.

A Bunch of Jerks and Jay Allen and the Archcriminals are joining in for a Midway livestream on March 16 at 7 pm. Those are two groups that have done well keeping busy during this year of quarantine. The Midway will be closed but you can watch from home. The Facebook event page for that is here.

Dropkick Murphys big St. Pat’s day show will be virtual again this year, They have a new album called Turn Up That Dial coming out at the same time. They have a preview single called “Middle Finger”. Watch the video to the right. You can watch the St. Patty's Day live stream here.

Tsunami of Sound got a great gig with comedian Jim McCue. His "Stream of Comedy" is a ticketed live stream event for March 18 at 8 pm. It's "part classic vintage talk show, part game show, part variety show, part comedy show ... its new, its improv, its live, its unpredictable, its pop culture. Guests for the Thursday March 18, 2021 Episode include: Candy Clark (American Grafitti, The Man Who Fell To Earth w/ David Bowie), Burton Gilliam (Blazing Saddles, Back To The Future 3), Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster, LidsVille), comedians Jannelle Draper, Corey Rodrigues, Cher Lynn, Rodney Norman and Kathe Farris, along with the psychedelic surf rock of Tsunami of Sound." You can get tickets here.

The next Mess-Around is Sunday March 21 from 6 - 8 pm. This one is the Messa di Tutti Messa, or The Mess of Messes, to celebrate the Beebe Gallini record release. This one is not to be missed folks, there are more groups than ever on this show!! The list: Kid Gulliver, Hayley and The Crushers, Nathalie Sweet and Morten Henriksen of The Yums Yums, The Toxenes (From Minneapolis), Russell Quan, Motorgirl, Daniel James (Indonesian Junk),The Dogmatics, The Hired Men, The Lemon Drop Gang, Justine Covault, Tom Baker and of course Jay Allen. The event page on Facebook is here.

Now some other news.......

Rum Bar’s Beebe Gallini now have a video for their song “My Way of Thinking”. We love that garage rocking tune and have it at the top of our Top Ten Songs

The band faced all the challenges all us Covid shut ins have and then some more of their own. Their story and the background of the video is told on the Bust website.
The "My Way of Thinking" video can be seen here.

My Sweet George, the George Harrison tribute show at the Regent Theatre was streamed on Thursday Feb 25. Adam Sherman performed two songs: “I Need You” and “If Not For You” You can catch it at the 2 hour and 5 minute mark. Corin Ashley contributes two songs at the 2 hour and 42 minute mark and Duke Levine does “All Things Must Pass” on slide guitar at the 3 hour mark. Watch the video here.

Now some other news.......

The new Doyle's

A big project in the works to replace (and supposedly reopen) Doyle's in JP...but it comes at a cost.... It's a multi-use building with 23 condos and a grocery store and a restaurant. There boast that it will have fried chicken and pizza..."and other fun stuff"! Really, don’t promise anything you can’t deliver people. Mostly it makes us very afraid for the beloved Midway!!!! Read the sad details here.

Blondie has teamed up with Z2 comics for Against the Odds, a new graphic novel that chronicles the band’s rise from the downtown Manhattan clubs to stardom in the late Seventies. It will be out this fall. It's written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti and illustrated by John McCree. Most importantly Debbie Harry and Chris Stein are overlooking the project and checking out the details as it develops. Read more on Rolling Stone website.

The graphic novel is connected to the Against All Odds archival box set that Blondie is putting out this year. That's the first authorized Blondie archival box set in the band’s history including extensive liner notes and essays, complete discography and historical photographic history hard cover books plus rare unreleased bonus material. Get that on the Blondie website.

Time hasn’t diminished the outrageousness of Poly Styrene yelling out “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”. It’s a confrontational stance for the ages. Now, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliche, a film about Poly Styrene is nearing its completion. "Featuring unseen archive material and rare diary entries narrated by Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga, this documentary follows Celeste Bell, Poly's daughter, as she examines her mother’s unopened artistic archive and traverses three continents to better understand Poly the icon and Poly the mother. The trailer for the film is to the right. The film's UK debut is on March 5th. You can buy tix and watch it via Modern Films here. A little more info is on the Punkuation Magazine web site.

Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom did his live stream for Q Division on Friday. He started with some chatting at a bar set up in the studio but soon got to work and did about two hours of music. It’s a joy to see someone with so much good music and the ability to perform it with confidence and ease. He reveled that there is a lot of unrecorded Buffalo Tom material just waiting to be recorded. Watch the video here.

Richard Mirsky did his live stream on Friday. He had some technical problems but the songs came through. He did “Creepy Older Guy” which is a gem. He did our favorite off his newest album “Clear Fine Day”. That can be found at the 31 minute mark. The video can be found on Facebook here.
At the end of the stream he premiered the video for “Run Away”. The video of that is above.

CDs/ Music.............

We hadn’t heard of the Martha’s Vineyard Ferries until a few days ago but they've been together since 2010. They are a trio with Chris Brokaw, Bob Weston and Elisha Wiesner. Some of those names should ring a bell. They have just released an album, Sun’s Out Guns Out. A lot of the songs are mid-tempo and while not quiet are less loud than you might expect. We like “After You” which kicks things up a notch.

Pop genius Kurt Baker is hard to keep track of sometimes. He likes to be busy and that means he does a lot of projects under different names. The Mondo Bizzaro under the name K7’s is one of those projects. This was released on the Family Spree label. It puts Kurt in a harder rocking place as he covers the Ramones album, but puts his sound on it..

The Doors’ “Take It As It Comes” sounds especially good here. “Poison Heart” is one of the songs that hit a sweet spot being poppy and having a hard edge and has the Baker touch to it too.

The Mardi Kings is one of Andy McBain’s projects. They just released Season 2 this week. It’s low-fi fun, or “Fun Fun Fun” as one song has it. Like all Andy’s projects there’s a tunefulness at the center of things. It all sounds like early 50’s rock. If you equate low-fi with less musicality you are going to miss out on this. The trick is to get in and listen for those tunes.

“I Wanna Live” does a lot in 2 minutes. It takes advantage of the low-fi with a fast distorted riff at the 30 and 60 second mark then throws in some chimes…chimes!. It must be a keyboard setting…but it works.

“Fun Fun Fun” takes you to swinging summer Saturday night back when you could hang out together.

When Dug McCormack isn’t busy doing art or his art show he’s a busy musician, even in shutdown. He just posted, Math Ghosts, a 23 cut album on Bandcamp.

The music is all instrumental and in the ambient and abstract vein. It could be soundtrack material for a David Lynch project. It’s very listenable for something like this. The sounds extremely diverse. That keeps things interesting. Dug is a lot of things but inventive is near the top and that comes across in this project big time. We like the big classic piano sound that is encased in a disturbing rumble in “Egg Free”. Dug should use it for the background of his art show, if he hasn’t already.

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