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The BGN News Archive
June 23, 2014
A month ago people were all of sudden talking about the Eagulls. They were posting the videos on Facebook and saying they can't wait for them to play Great Scott's. I heard a DJ saying the same thing. I looked at the videos but didn't get much from them. The gig was a Wednesday night so I thought I'd give it a try anyway and maybe catch something new and worthy. I catch a few songs by the opener local band The Sun Lions. I like their songwriting but they didn't have a cohesive punch. Their bandcamp song Best of Me, done at Q Division, comes off better.  But I mainly came to see the Eagulls. Even before they set up I was looking at one ugly backdrop. I think they should dump that. The mike tests showed the heavy reverb that would be on the vocals. The guitarists have what sound like multiple effects giving them an fuzzy far away sound also. That's their thing and it works well enough to give them a haunting sound. I was drawing parallels with 80's English bands like the Psychedelic Furs and Killing Joke.
 The singer, who was a striking slim figure in a plain white shirt and black pants, had a flatness to his voice that I found very grating as the set went on. The flatness was both in tone and pitch. The songs also favor short phases rather than a longer melody line so to me the songs never took off. After 7 or 8 songs the voice just drove me out. Great Scott's was about half full. With all the buzz and press these guys generate I thought more people would be there. Friday night at The Cantab was a twofer. Two bands that I should have seen a while ago but somehow kept missing; Litehouse and M.O.T.O. Litehouse we knew about because it is Matt Burns' latest group. When we saw Randy Black at TT's he had a guest singer doing a cover of Femme Fatal that channeled Nico. Matt came up and said, 'that's our singer." That was Clara Wellons. Suitably impressed we knew we had to check out the group.
 We got to the club about ten to nine for a nine o'clock start and were met with a chairless and empty club. Mickey Bliss takes out the chairs for the nights where there may be lots of equipment like the four band night tonight. Matt tells us the Litehouse set tonight is all covers except one for original song. Soon enough people arrive and the band is up. Also tonight Lighthouse has Tony from Fireking on guitar. He turns out to be a big asset knowing all the riffage to the cover songs. I never heard Lighthouse without him but he was so well integrated and contributed so much tonight I now can't imagine them without him.
 They start up the Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love - the sound is faithful to the record and then there is Clara's voice. She has a full bodied voice with no affectations. The best part is its all rock; for instance - there is no blues influence at all. She's pitch perfect all the time. She's a real talent. In Ever Fallen In Love she is able to inject more emotion than Shelly and when she sings a line like "You disturb my natural emotions. You make me feel I'm dirt, And I'm hurt" you feel it like never before. Later she rips through Search and Destroy flailing about and delivering that diatribe with fire. Then she sings some Beatles with ease and then the Femme Fatale cover where she's got that blasé flatness down too. The band has been rocking lively all night and Tony has been a standout on guitar and then singing Cheap Trick's Surrender. They end with Caught in the Rain, an original. Catch a performance of this at Porchfest. This is a straight pop tune and way catchy. Now, I feel like I need to see a set of all originals. This is a produced video of the song Portrait of Wilson. Litehouse should be commanding more attention.
 I used to play M.O.T.O. a lot on WMBR's the LRC back in my 80's stint. I loved "Dick About It". The group always seemed a bit mysterious to me and the cassette releases I could never keep track of. They do have a long history and a lot of releases. It's all about Paul Caporino and his songwriting. Paul has ended up here and has had lots of gigs these last couple of years. MOTO is a trio and the bass player, who is very good, is his wife. I love the fact that from the first song he keeps it punky and punchy. No touchy feely moments you might get from a singer songwriter. Paul has the guitar volume up and the lyrics pointed. It doesn't take long to realize you have to be on your toes with this guy. Verbally, between songs, he's a motor mouth spewing out puns, observations and obtuse connections to all and everything. Musically, he's the same way. In the middle of his songs he has included snippets of famous tunes and lyrics and his leads have quotes from songs in any era of rock. It's like his mind is a Pro Tools set up where he can cut and paste anything he wants into any point in the song: all entertaining and stimulating. He's not unlike our house savant Kenne Highland. I actually thought at one point I would like to see the night annotated somehow. Maybe that could be a project: a video with subtitles or a web version with links.
 MOTO is famous for its sheer volume of songs. The songs they played all had long melody lines with plentiful chord changes and were distinctive. There's no quality drop for the sake of quantity. At one point he was somehow playing Hard Day's Night with different lyrics but it wasn't just Hard Day's Night. I would love to know what was going on there. That was indicative of his set. I would listen and something would capture my interest and then the next interesting thing would come and I'd be caught in wonder again. He can be crude; Miss Lyn had steam coming out of her ears over the song, It Tastes Like a Milkshake. (This is Blowfish's review today but Miss Lyn has to interject here: When did he write that song? when he was 12?? Cause its really childish and stupid. And how could any self respecting woman sing those lyrics? or even play the song??? Reminds me of that Figgs song I heard a couple years ago only this one is WORSE.) It was a good night with two groups with lots to hear. Mickey Bliss had the new Real Kids CD Shake Outta Control playing between songs all night so we had some flashbacks to last Saturday too. There were still two more bands to go but we felt satisfied with the first two bands.  Review of Fuck Buttons at the Brigton Music Hall |
Ed Lynch (ex of GG Allin, Psycho and Insult) is now officially
the new bass player for The F.U.s and you can see them August 16th at
O'Brien's!! Congrats Ed, we know you are thrilled! 
Always promising an interesting experience Walter Sickert & the Army
of Broken Toys (12AM) are at TT's along with Parlour Bells,
Muy Cansado and Future Carnivores on Friday June 27th
Trip to NYC time!! Sunday July 13th Greg Allen and His Fringe Religion are
playing at the 
Terry Brenner's bringing The Real Kids and Nervous Eaters
and Greg Allen's Fringe Religion to The Spotlight Tavern in Beverly
on Saturday August 2 Thank you Terry!!
But also put this on your calendar: At O'Brien's on Friday Sept 5...It's
Fri Lisa & Malibu's 10 Year Anniversary Rock Off!!! Featuring: The Kurt
Baker Band, The Connection, Tom Baker & The Golden Shower Band (Members
of The Dirty Truckers & Watts)and ZipGun Bomber
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