The BGN News Archive

Matt Burns Memorial Show 7/28 at the Burren

Matt Burns had a low key personality. He didn't have anything to prove or push. He drummed and groups in need sought him out. He was at so many shows that he became one of those people you expected to see at shows.

Matt loved the music we loved and often had the musicians' view of what made a group Once he talked to us about the Velvet Underground's Loaded album because a group had played a cover of one of the songs. The next day we had to pull it out and give it a close listen.

The Matt Burns Memorial Show is coming up at The Burren in Somerville on Sunday July 28 from 7 to 12pm.

Here are the list of musicians playing: Frank Rowe, Larry Newman , Spike, Captain Easychord w/Schlemiel, Kenne Highland's Air Force, Classic Ruins ,Crow Follow, The Reverend Joseph Fagan and his Deacons of Love, Vogon Poets and Shiny Beasts.

Ducky Carlisle died in October of 2023. He was a drummer and a multiple Grammy award winner for his recording and engineering. After his death there were fond stories told by many musicians that had played with Ducky and recorded at his studio. Now, some of those musicians will be at the We Love Ducky Tribute show at the Brighton Music Hall on August 11. The list of acts is long... Barrence Whitfield, Mike Viola, Flashcubes, Sal Baglio, The Figgs, Air Traffic Controller, Corin Ashley, Jim Janota, Anthony Kaczynski, Nat Freedberg, Emily Grogan and many more. Tickets

Mach Bell's single “Can’t We All Be Bad” single with the Mach Bell Experience made playlists at over 100 stations!!

How does he celebrate that? With more appearances! He will be at the Plastic City Comic Con in Leominster Ma Hilton Doubletree Hotel on Saturday July 20th. Mach assures us it is air conditioned.

He will have a bunch of his books and records ready for signing including, “an original Thundertrain, Teenage Suicide LP (Jelly Records 1977) on clear vinyl and with the poster!” Here's a link to Plastic City ComicCon for tix and info

Medford's Porch Southern Fare & Juke Joint is closing after 8 years total. They were important during the pandemic. They were one of the first places to have live music.

The Porch, on social media, sited the general bad conditions that are causing other restaurants to close these days. They have a short statement on their Facebook page.

BOOKS......

Robyn Hitchcock is getting a lot of praise for his new memoir 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left. Robyn limits his memoir to just one year. He manages to reveal his essential life threads and his potential future path from what is going on in that year. He received a rave review from author Michael Chabon who is a perceptive and influential reviewer.

Robyn is going to do some in store appearances to promote his book including one at Porter Square Books in Cambridge on August 5. He will be interviewed by Harold Lepidus (from Boston Rock back in the day).

Later in the year Hitchcock will be on a tour playing music and will be at The Winery in Boston on October 29. Tickets! get a signed copy of the book here!

VIDEOS......

This week the New York Hardcore Chronicles with Drew Stone lands a biggie with Springa, who doesn’t do these sort of things usually.

Springa’s family made all their children learn an instrument. He played a bugle. Springa’s stories of his early years make the case that he had the Springa personality from day one. His musical influences start with Tony Bennett, then Beatles and Stones, Kiss. There’s a quick turn to The Damned. He hated the same lame seventies mellow rock we did. His first live band was Paul Revere and the Raiders then the Who.

Springa was a roadie for years before he was in a band. He spots Mr.Curt of Pastiche as a big influence in his life. He roadied for Real Kids and Willie Loco.

You get the SSD origin story and the band’s philosophy in the early days. Later he tells the story of the pig head he threw around during a Channel show. It’s a packed three hours. Springa is showman and all his stories make a point or have a punch line. It seems like he’s lived three lives. He left with the news that he was writing a book!!

Miracle Blood have a new song and video with “Phenomenon.” The video has the band fleeing from the Walking Dead. There’s real panic in the song. There’s panic in the vid sometimes, but then some of the chase scenes are like the Beatles dodging fans in a Hard Day’s Night. Some of the action is across Harvard Ave from O’Brien’s at the old Pizzeria Regina.

Miracle Blood have been getting noisier and tighter. Now their intensity is way up there. “Phenomenon” and the other side of the digital signal on Bandcamp “Lobotomizer” show all their new strengths. The video for that (above right) is a performance video and that is just about as scary as the horror treatment of “Phenomenon”. Listen to that drummer on “Lobotomizer”. Yikes.

Rum Bar’s The Hollywood Stars are in the flush of their second career with their album Starstruck. They are busy. They now have a video for a song off the album “I Had a Girlfriend”. It’s a performance video that’s nicely done. It’s our first chance to see the guys in action.

RADIO......

Brian Young on Crash Course for the Ravers had two guests on this week. Three members of the ska outfit Double Star. They’ve been together for a while but have been gigging more in this last two years. They tell their story and you get to hear a few songs during the interview.

The other guest was Simon Ritt who has been a regular for a few years on Johnny Thunders birthday. Simon played with Johnny and he has a lot of amazing stories. Jan Collins was in the studio too, she used to work at Trash in Vaudeville in NYC where Thunders used to shop and she has a great story about that. Simon plays a few songs in the studio too.

The interview section of the show is below.

Skybar had Rumble winners The Ghouls in the WMFO studio this last week on his Rising show. The Ghouls have only been together one year and only have one song up on Bandcamp (“Hellbound”), yet they won the Rumble this year. In an unusual origin story the band members pointed to the game Guitar Hero as the thing that got them interested in rock tunes. They also find music on social platforms and the internet leads them to other songs, but what they don’t do is listen to traditional radio. They spread their music more through Spotify and Apple Tunes rather than radio.

They didn’t even know what the Rumble was much before they applied!! They talked a lot about the Rumble experience.

They played new recordings “Pocket of Gold” and “Garfield” which will be part of a larger recording in the fall. Those songs make it clear that The Ghouls will have a higher profile in the future.

PODCASTS.........

Fresh off their Top 100 Glam Rock Tournament last week Elastic Glam was back with a new show this week. There were new songs with Mondo Cosmo's “Wild Horses”, KillerStar with “Should’ve Known Better” and Vera Bloom's “Bohemian Junk”. In The Votz’s new glam world of “Fire Up Indigo” you still ‘turn on the radio’ and are on ‘the telephone line’

Sethyspice played some classic glam from Marmalade and Mud. He spun some vintage glam that we missed back in the day with Bobbie McGee singing “Rock and Roll People” Brett Smilley with “Va Va Voom”.

Sethyspice has a great glam thing going on here.

This week’s Sonic Overload had a song that reverberated with us. It was The Cutters from Melbourne, Australia, who had the song “First of Many” that captured a feeling that is very human:

"I used to think I was an individual, I used to think I had style.
I used to think I was an individual, I used to think I had guile.
But I'm the first of many suckers.
I'm as worse as all these fuckers."

Our inner voice tells us all that we are special, but life often proves us otherwise. The Cutters capture that reality.

Sonic Overload allows us to spot groups like Gen Gap from Philadelphia. Their album Hanging Out With Gen Gap has 9 songs and the longest is 1:32. Al played “Scumbag” but they all blast out satisfyingly. What’s great is that the group sound is hard to peg. Is it hardcore or punk? We’re going to post a song that we liked named “Reject”. To hear the whole album go to their Bandcamp page

Al Quint also played a punk set with Penetration, Boomtown Rats and the great X-Ray Specs doing “I’m A Cliché”.

We didn’t know there were bands with names from the world of Devo, they were Uncontrollable Urge and Booji Boys. Al played Devo in a later set because the Duty Now for the Future came out 45 years ago…. as did the Cars Candy-O album and The B-52’s self-titled album.

There was one extra bonus segment of nine songs this week that celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Husker Du’s Zen Arcade album. That album seemed to change the aural landscape when it came out.

Another week with a load of good music!! Al’s been going this for decades. If you want to support the show Al now has a “buy me a coffee” page which makes it easy to donate any amount of money - so do that! You can hear the whole show at http://www.sonicoverload.net/

The hardcore scene has been getting lots of attention lately. This week Springa was on the NYHC Chronicles this week and Twisted Rico gets their turn to cross examine Dave Smalley. Dave started with DYS and went on to Dag Nasty, All, and Down by Law.

Dave says he sang in school and church choirs. He was comfortable singing and that set him up for a his career. Dave’s early rock likes were hippie rock like Allman Brothers and Kansas. Later Dave explains these traditional rock influences lead to hardcore groups going metal in the later days.

Dave went to Boston College and was a DJ at WZBC. He met other hardcore fans hanging out in Kenmore Square. It was great hearing Dave giving kudos to the Outlets.

On Radio Warfare this week Tim Livingston did a set of three songs of Boston artists. It started with “Roadrunner” by The Modern Lovers, then to “Mass Ave” by Willie Loco Alexander & the Boom Boom Band followed by “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” by Mission of Burma. That was three undeniable classics.

Before the Boston songs was “Painting My Face”, nice garage tune by Thee Brinks from France. Here it is on YouTube

NEW MUSIC/CDs......

Here's some great news! - a split EP titled Trash Fest on RumBar with two songs by The Downhauls and two by Duck & Cover.

Both groups will be playing Deep Cuts in Medford, MA on Friday August 2. The songs will be released then but we got a preview.

The Downhauls do “Dragged Down” and “The Tower” The band on these recording sounds so big and expansive. The drums are thundering and the song powers along like a locomotive. It’s all larger than life. This band is arena ready!!

“The Tower” has some awesome guitar work that is half metal. If that last blood curdling scream doesn’t stop you in your tracks, nothing will.

Duck & Cover’s songs are “Girl From Nowhere” and “Help Myself”. It seems much too long since we’ve had some new material from Duck & Cover. They're in fine form here. Their songwriting has always been a step above. These songs have a punk base with all sorts of influences that crop up as you listen. The twin guitar lines are the most obvious but it’s also in the vocals. Talking about vocals there is always Chris’ with its identifiable tone.

“Girl From Nowhere” is such a strong song that sounds like a hit already or that it’s a cover of some hit song you don’t know. There’s so much good guitar work and vocalizing in it. Every time we play it we hear more and more detail in it.

One of our favorite spot is in “Help Myself” where it breaks down at the 2:50 mark and a strong guitar riff in the bass slips in and then there’s some cool drum work and that keeps going till the end. Super!!

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

July 17, 2024 (Wednesday) Gossip Collar, Frogs, Burn Kit at The Silhouette

July 19, 2024 (Friday) Bash At the Beach With WORM, Rockin' Bob Punk Band, Spectacle, Scotty Saints & The True Believers, Screw Cart at The C Note, Hull FB page

July 20, 2024 (Saturday) A Crash Course for the Ravers has The Stigmatics on WMFO 1-4PM. FB page.

July 20, 2024 (Saturday) Thou Merciiless Graves, American Ocelot, Captain Easychord at The Jungle for an early show 4-7PM.

July 20, 2024 (Saturday) Electric Street Queens, The Humanoids, Midnight Creeps, and Pledge Pins at The Midway 8PM show

July 21, 2024 (Sunday) Mid Summer Mess Around at The Plough with guests The Rainbows featuring Josh Boughey, Beth Daly and Bryan Porter Hinkley-(Tree, Never Got Caught, Clutch) FB page

July 24, 2024 (Wednesday) Sloppy Seconds, The Queers, The Raging Nathans - at The Middle East Down

July 24, 2024 (Wednesday) Bad Mary, Double Star, Thigh Scrapers, Stigmatics at The Middle East Up _ FB page

July 25, 2024 (Thursday) The Hi-End, Tim McCoy Rock Quartet, J Prozac Band at The Square Root.

July 25-28, 2024 Nice Fest is back! It's got LOADS of bands - this year it's at the Rockwell, and Crystall Ballroom AND outside at the Grove st parking lot. Too many great bands to list here but check out their FB event page and website.

July 26, 2024 (Friday) Carrot Flowers, Toadpatrol, Bleach The Sky, Ruffian Dick at The Union Tavern - FB page

July 27, 2024 (Saturday) The Wynotts, The Spackles, Tsunami of Sound, Black & Grey at The Midway for a matinee at 3PMS

July 26 & 27, 2024 Rock Garden Showcase with Adam M Sherman, Jennifer Tefft & The Strange, Robin Lane, Little Billy Lost, Ricky Rat, Smitt E. Smitty, Hummingbird Syndicate, Crow Follow, Captain Easychord, Satch Kerans Band at Warehouse XI Union Sq Somerville - check the FB page for what bands what night

July 27, 2024 (Saturday) Honkeyball, White Dynomite, Welsh Boys, Hammered Saint, Catching Hell at the Middle East down - 7PM!

July 27, 2024 (Saturday) The Dogmatics, The Grommets and Kevin Patey’s new party band The Carnivals at The New World Tavern, Plymouth.

July 27 & 28, 2024 (Sat & Sun) O'Brien's Annual Blood, Sweat & Beers - July 27: (3PM Doors) Crowfeeder, DJ Grayskull, Karate Steve, Loudsounds, Morgued, Northstar The Wanderer, Silver Screams, Viqueen, Voidkeeper, Waelmist - July 28: 1PM Doors- Bacterial husk, Coma Hole, Cortez, Dragged By Chains, Eyespressedin, Guhts, Kind, Miracle Blood, Mollusk, Philip Eno, Shadowcloak and ... Special Guest - O'Brien's

July 27 & 28, 2024 (Sat & Sun) Worcester Punk Rock Flea Market at the Hotel Vernon! Market 1 to 7pm, Bands 4PM, Saturday bands: Ratlord, The Lousekateers, Leatherrax -Sunday Bands: Jonee Earthquake Band, Bangzz, Dando Fever Facebook page LOADS of very cool vendors.

July 28, 2024 (Sunday) Matt Burns Memorial Show with Frank Rowe, Larry Newman, Spike, Captain Easychord w/Schlemiel, Kenne Highland's Air Force, Classic Ruins, The Reverand Joseph Fagan and his Deacons of Love, Vogon Poets, Shiny Beasts, Crow Follow at The Burren 7-10PM FB page.

July 28, 2024 (Sunday) Linnea's Garden, the Worst, Mattias, and CJ Honey at State Park in Kendall Square. Linnea's Garden will be celebrating the release of their new single, "Cherry"! FB page

August 3, 2024 (Saturday) Plymouth Punk Rock Market - 60+ vendors selling weird stuff for weird people - Live music, Craft beer and a food truck (or 2), Vinyl records, vintage clothing and housewares, original art, handmade, jewelry, oddities, and more! Noon to 5PM All ages, FREE EVENT at Mayflower Brewing Company. FB page

August 3, 2024 (Saturday) BV70!!! Yup, Bob Voges is turning 70 and wants to celebrate with a rocking show! So he's got Abbie Barrett, Stars Like Ours, Sapling at Warehouse XI in Union Sq Somerville. Doors at 7:00, Music 7:30. FB event page. We love Bob!!!! So be there. FB event page.

August 3, 2024 (Saturday) Cheap Cassettes, Chelsea Curve and Shang Hi Los at The Square Root - FB page

August 3, 2024 (Saturday) Mayhem In Manchester!! with WORM (their 21th Anniversary Show), Street Trash, WarGraves, Gagger at The Shaksheen Pub - FB page

August 3, 2024 (Saturday) recycle your punk/goth wardrobe at the S.W.A.M.P. meet in Salem! at Notch Brewing Salem 12-4PM - BUT before you go...if you want to recycle your cool stuff check the Facebook Event page..for the dates & location for drop off which are BEFORE the actual event.

August 4, 2024 (Sunday) Giuda, Midnight Creeps, Hammer & the Nails, Typhoid Mary at Alchemy, Providence, RI -this is an all ages show!

August 9, 2024 (Friday) Barrence Whitfield & Sal Baglio’s Giant Rocket Roll Show! at The Bull Run in Shirley - FB page.

August 10, 2024 (Saturday) Bootleg Dan presents The Midnight Callers, Freeloader, Rattle Bones at The Burren 6PM show!!

August 11, 2024 (Sunday) Brunt of It, PWRUP, Sgt Scag, Threat Level Burgundy at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

August 15, 2024 (Thursday) Bootleg Dan presents John Powhida CD Release Party, Shang Hi Los, The I Want You, at The Burren 6:15pm show

August 17, 2024 (Saturday) Booze Cruz'n on tha Harbah- yes on a boat with The Queers, Unnatural Axe and Stop Calling Me Frank - boat leaves at 4PM SHARP- Rowes Wharf - FB page for info and tix

August 17, 2024 (Saturday) Tiger Bomb and Muck & The Mires at Belfast Harbor Festival After Party - The Marshall Wharf, Belfast, ME

August 18, 2024 (Sunday) Boston Punk Rock Trivia at The Armory FB page

August 18, 2024 (Sunday) Surf at The Midway with The Electric Heaters, The Nebulas, The Beachcombovers, Kioea 3PM matinee

August 18, 2024 (Sunday) The Peelers, The Pourmen, The Gobshites at Alchemy in Prov. RI 7PM -FB page.

September 6, 2024 (Friday) Bootleg Dan presents: Sharp Class, Muck and the Mires, The Chelsea Curve at The Burren - FB page

September 6, 2024 (Friday) Bootleg Dan presents: Sharp Class, The Chelsea Curve at Parkside Lounge NYC

September 7, 2024 (Saturday) Girl with a Hawk on A Crash Course for the Ravers 1PM on WMFO- FB page

September 8, 2024 (Sunday) The Somerville Rock And Roll Yard Sale is in Union Square Somerville.

September 8, 2024 (Sunday) The Lowell Summer Music Series has Belly playing Boarding House Park: 40 French St., Tickets

September 14, 2024 (Saturday) Bootleg Dan presents: The Prime Movers Reunion!! with Thee Sonomatics at The Burren 7PM show FB event page.

September 14, 2024 (Saturday) Tiger Bomb and The Nervous Eaters at Askew Provi RI

September 15, 2024 (Sunday) The Thigh Scrapers and Va Va Voodoos are at the Worthern Attic in Lowell

September 16, 2024 (Monday) John Cooper Clarke comes again!!! at The City Winery [7:30PM]

September 19, 2024 (Thursday) Legendary Queer-core Pop Rockers Pansy Division, The Fatal Flaw and Gene Dante at Faces in Malden

September 19, 2024 (Thursday) Bootleg Dan presents: Arthur Alexander Band, The Glimmer Stars, Tiger Bomb at Blue in Portland, ME

September 20, 2024 (Friday) Tiger Bomb and The Nervous Eaters at Sonia

September 20, 2024 (Friday) Bootleg Dan presents:Arthur Alexander Band, The Glimmer Stars, Crow Follow, at The Burren 6:15pm show

September 28, 2024 (Saturday) Rich Mirsky is on A Crash Course for the Ravers on WMFO 1-4PM. FB page.

September 29, 2024 (Sunday) Supersuckers, Downhauls, TJ Welch and the Wasted and XEROFUX (That's Jesse Meyers and Andy Excuse's new band!!) at Sammy’s Patio - Revere Beach - Facebook page

October 25, 2024 (Friday) Moving Targets, The Long Wait, Spiller - Middle East Up - Facebook page

October 26, 2024 (Saturday) Tiger Bomb, The Cocktail Slippers, Stupidity, Muck & The Mires at The Bayside Bowl, Portland, ME FB page

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.