The BGN News Archive

Minibeast - will we have the magic of Great Scott's again?

Great Scott closed in May of 2020. Later there was a chance that is would open in the old Regina Pizzeria at the end of Harvard Ave. That never happened. Now, the club will open in the same building as O’Brien’s! They bought the whole building!

O’Brien’s is run by the same three people as Great Scott: Paul Armstrong, Carl Lavin and Jordan Warshaw. In the new location the club will hold 300 people. The old club held 240. O’Brien’s holds 75.

WBUR says “Having the ability to expand and renovate a dual-venue is an exciting prospect. The mixed-use building will be designed by local architects CambridgeSeven and will also house retail and artist spaces along with residential rental units.” The main drawback we see is the parking, but that's nothing new in that neighborhood.

Article on WBUR.org site and The Boston Globe article if you can get by paywall

When the Dead Boys were supposed to play The Middle East with the Nervous Eaters a while ago it was cancelled because Cheetah Chrome had Covid. Now, Cheetah has even worse problems. He fell off the stage in Las Vegas and broke some ribs and his pelvis. He’s in a Las Vegas hospital now. The Dead Boys had a European tour lined up and that has been cancelled. This is from the current Dead Boys singer Jake Hout Facebook page.

Mach Bell, has reminded us that it’s 50 years ago to the day (Sunday August 4) that Thundertrain began.

He tells the tale: “This Sunday, Aug. 4th, we celebrate Thundertrain’s 50-year anniversary! On that afternoon in 1974 the whole band (with brand new recruit, lead guitarist Steven Silva) visited Miss Lyn's apartment (following our first rehearsal underneath Jack’s Drum Shop on Boylston St.) to loudly share our good news with you. I remember the Watergate hearings were playing in the background on your portable TV.” The Boston punk scene was beginning back then in 1974. Miss Lyn’s apartment was in Harvard Square.

Now, Mach is a published author as well as singer. And to that list you can now add actor! Mach plays a rocking alien named Impulse… in the rock opera Beasties. This was written by Gary Sohmers and Bill Holloman. The film will premiere at the Regent Theatre in Arlington on October 10 and 11. Barrence Whitfield is in the show. They plan to take the play to an Off-Broadway run.

The West Coast has been doing a good job documenting their punk scene these last few years. Now there's a exhibit called We Are The One: San Francisco Punk 1970s -1980s at the Haight Street Art Center, now till September 22.

The show, put together by a Rolling Stone editor Michael Goldberg, includes S.F. punk club posters and flyers, punk films, local punk music, and 150 photographs of such bands such as Crime, the Avengers, the Ramones, from a variety of sources to get the whole story of Bay area punk. We, of course, immediately think of a Boston punk version. There have been a few photo shows including Philin Phlash’s from 2019 but to have a more sweeping overview is the idea. There is a story to tell and so much has gone by as we approach fifty years of punk here in Boston.

It’s all a game! You hear that about different things including a music career. Now, it’s true in another way. There is a board game named Hard Rock: 1977 about getting ahead in the rock world ... and it was created by Jackie Fox ex of the Runaways.

In the game you play a character on the verge of stardom in 1977. You go from day job to rehearsal studio as you write songs and achieve goals. You tally your points on board styled like an amp. You weave your way up the ladder of success dodging jeering crowds etc. Drugs are refashioned as ‘candy’.

About Jackie: Ten years ago she talked about being raped by Kim Fowley and has come to grips with that. After quitting the Runaways, Fox went to U.C.L.A. and then earned a Doctor of Law degree from Harvard Law School (Barack Obama was a classmate.) and she became an entertainment lawyer negotiating song rights in films. She was also on Jeopardy in 2018 and won four times!!

Buy the game on the Devir Games web site for $49.99. This all reminds us of the BGN board game "Clubland"!

There is an article in the NY Times if you can get by the paywall.

Steve Albini now has a Chicago street named after him!! The 2600-2700 block of West Belmont Avenue, which includes the late artist’s studio Electrical Audio, is now “Steve Albini Way” We bet the anti-establishment Albini never guessed that would happen.

It’s just another indication of the undeniable impact he had on rock music. Article in Pitchfork

BOOKS...... The L.A. punk novel What We Do Is Secret by Thorn

Kief Hillsbery from 2007 is being made into a film (working title) Under The Big Black Sun.

The story follows main character Rockets Redglare and his punk buds as they traverse LA in a night of reveling with a suitable LA punk soundtrack. We like this one line from the book that we see quoted, "Why am I a punk? Because I wasn't anything before, except different. And now it's like I'm different, but with a vengeance."

Read more about the film in Variety The book on Kindle from Amazon

Are you ready for Back in Black…the book? Back in Black is a mystery anthology of stories inspired by each of the songs on the legendary AC/DC album. It even has a Jack Reacher story by Andrew Child in it. Get it on Amazon

This is the third in the music mystery series. The first two were Hotel California and Thriller.

VIDEOS......

Linnea’s Garden have a video for their new release “Cherry”. It acts as a video tour diary. The scenes are in New York City, Minneapolis, Columbus, Chicago, Toledo and even Somerville! We talk about the song below in our New Music section.

Video show Sonic Lobotomy is now up to its ninety-first show in its twenty years of existence. The latest show has Boston band The Degenerates of Punk. It’s a half hour of two minute punk songs. They're a newer band that started in 2019 by accident…that’s what they say on their Bandcamp page.

The audio of the whole show up on Bandcamp and it's a free download. We suggest you scoop up “I’m Not the One”

The band X are calling it a day. They'll have their last album, Smoke and Fiction, out on August 2. They have a video of a song off the album titled “Big Black X”. There are a lot of lyrics in the song which deals with the bands history. A lot of places get name checked in it. The video is above left.

Just a few days ago they released another song/video from the album named “Ruby Church”. That video is above right

It’s the 40th anniversary of the Rebel Yell album. To celebrate, Billy Idol performed the title song on top of the Empire State Building accompanied by Steve Stevens. That video is above left.

RADIO......

Happy Little Clouds were interviewed on The Rising show last Tuesday. We were surprised that the group has been in existence since 2010. To us they sort of exploded just this year. Skybar went into their backgrounds and we needed that backstory. As it turns out the trio has a lot of experience in bands and bring a lot to this current line up.

They described a neat trick they did in their video for “The Emperor’s Song”. They played the song at half speed and filmed and then played the song at double speed and filmed again. When the film is subsequently played at normal speed it gives a subtle feeling to the footage.

Rising is on WMFO 93.5 FM on Tuesdays at 8pm. After that got to the WMFO schedule page. Hit the Rising show on 8pm on Tuesday, then hit the ‘archive’ button.

PODCASTS.........

Blowing Smoke has Mike Gent (Figgs) and Paul Armstrong (Flashcubes and 1.4.5.) in for a talk about the upcoming Ducky Carlisle Tribute show at the Brighton Music Hall on Sunday, August 11.

Paul Armstrong has known Ducky since the seventies in Syracuse. Mike Gent meet Ducky at the Lizard Lounge around 2001.

Both Mike and Paul worked a lot with Ducky in his studio. It seems everyone loved recording with Ducky. He was a great engineer and pleasant to work with.

Ducky began recording in his college dorm room with Teac four track. Then he was recording in Syracuse. Next it was the New Alliance space near Kenmore Sq. Following that he went to South Boston for a few years before moving to his Medford location where he stayed for a long time.

Mike Gent had loads of Ducky recording stories with people like Mandy Moore and Graham Parker. At one point Steev lists some of the groups that recorded at Ducky’s and that was so impressive.

Ducky is missed by those that worked with him and all us local music fans will have less quality recordings to listen to because Ducky is gone.

The Elastic Glam started out with primo T.Rex this week – “Jeepster”. Sethyspice played a cut by Orville Peck this week which is the first time, we think.

There were two local songs in their first week of release – Linnea’s Garden with “Cherry” and Looking Glass War doing “Rumination House”. There was classic glam with Mud, Sweet, Mott the Hoople, Queen and Sparks. Then the new glam movement with Gyasi, Mondo Cozmo and Bridgette Calls Me Crazy.

Sethyspice has also posted all six hours of the Elastic Glam Countdown show from July 4th. Go to the Elastic Glam Mixcloud page to access all that.

On this week’s Sonic Overload Al Quint had a set of older California punk, some from the Posh Boy label. There was The Crowd, Social Circle, Red Cross and the Klan doing “Pushing Too Hard” of the Rodney on the ROQ album.

At the end of the show Al played a set for the 40th anniversary of the Minutemen’s Double Nickel on the Dime album. There were eight songs that give you a good picture of what that double album has to offer.

That was in addition to hours of hardcore. For a representative dose of hardcore that Al played here’s Rabid City from Baltimore doing “Modern Problems.

You can hear the whole Sonic Overload show

NEW MUSIC/CDs......

Happy Little Clouds have been a revelation to us this year with the two songs they have released recently. Now we have the third titled “Lungs.”

The song lyrics are empowering and the performance makes it inspiring. The vocals are to savor. Singer Jac Mestel changes tone to emphasize, adds embellishments and can add emotion at will. Even the wordless singing at the beginning of the song says to you that there is something of weight coming.

The message of “we are the way we are” is simple. As such it cuts through the endless mind games being played out in the USA these days. This is the time for a song like this and we only need more.

Linnea’s Garden latest digital single (from an EP to come) is “Cherry”. The song has a wonderful feel to it, it's positive and seems joyful when it hits the words “Cherry Blossom”. The words are impressionistic so it nice that the Bandcamp page says the song is about the “beauty of things we know won’t last.” One lyric lines up disparate images: “Chandeliers in the shower/Panthers and pantheons”. Some other notable lines: “Heartthrobs on pull up bars” and “Standoffish Stanzas”.

With every release Looking Glass War gets more and more impressive. This band knows what it’s doing. In “Rumination House” the guitar backdrop has that Johnny Marr feel, the drums are stately and the vocal absolutely sumptuous.

The song seems to be about not leaving the house. Agoraphobia never has seemed more attractive if that’s the case.

When all these singles take their place in an album, that is going to be very impressive.

False Positives have a new song “Long Distance Romance” out that features their two new members. Dave Harrison picked some good ones!! That would be the legendary pair of Carl Biancucci (Classic Ruins) and Pete Cassani (Peasants). As a long time Boston music fan there’s excitement in the lineup before they even play a note.

The recording has lots of presence, it pops out. The guitar sounds sharp and then you notice Carl’s bass playing. That adds instant excitement to the song. Later Pete leaves some scorched earth with a fiery solo. We love the background vocals at the 1:50 mark that are a fine smooth touch strategically placed and they are done by Carl, Pete and Dave.

We love the song and love the band lineup.

Stop Calling Me Frank have a new fun song about a day at the beach. But hold it, doesn’t someone go down three times and drown as the singer stood there watching?

That’s the situation in “Stood There Watching”. There’s “fun”, “glee”, “pleasure” and hot dogs in the sun….as the guy drowns in plain sight and no one helps! Only SCMF could pull this off. It’s loopy but somehow if you do this with a sax sounding very seasonal it can be done. Life is a beach.

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

August 9, 2024 (Friday) Devils Twins, Anti-Queens, and Oh The Humanity! at Deep Cuts Medford

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 10, 2024 (Saturday) The Devil’s Twins, The Anti-Queens, Dred Buffalo at Askew Providence

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

August 11, 2024 (Sunday) Ducky Carlisle Memorial - tickets at the Brighton Music Hal with Barrence Whitfield, The Figgs, Air Traffic Controller, Mike Viola, Bleu

August 11, 2024 (Sunday) Scurvy Dog parking Lot Mega Show with Baabes, White Dynomite, Gossip Collar, Z Boys, Grip Bite & more - 1PM - 2AM FB page.

August 12, 2024 (Monday) Haunt Dog, Better Living, Nicoteens, and Voided Shape at The Silhouette

August 13, 2024 (Tuesday) Sapling, Dwelling, and Minibeast - Notch Brighton

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) Static Friction, Grip Bite, Klown Puncher, C.O.B., Rocket Gods at The Midway for a matinee show FB event page

August 17, 2024 (Saturday) Bricks of Boston, TJ Welch & The Wasted, Spectacle, Kingshot at The Midway night show

August 17, 2024 (Saturday) VaVa Voodoos, Density Black Cat, and Lucretia's Daggers at The Square Root

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 with bands LoboHombre, Already Dead, and The Grubs 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.

August 18, 2024 (Sunday) The Courettes, Cool Beverages at Askew Providence

August 23, 2024 (Friday) Duck & Cover, Speed Teeth (Ian Clark, Jessie Von Kenmore, Andy Excuse!), Baabes at Koto Salem.

August 24, 2024 (Saturday) WRPS-tival with Dogmatics, Stars Like Ours, Wynotts and more At Rockland High School - Food and live music in an air conditioned hall. It’s a Scholarship fundraiser too. Facebook page

August 25, 2024 (Sunday) Benefit for Rosie's Place with Neighborhood Shit, Unhinged, No Chain, Latch, Cold Case at The Midway - this is a 3PM matinee. FB page

August 30, 2024 (Friday) Wreckless Wreck Chords Presents The FU's, WORM, Ruffian Dick and More TBA - at The C Note - 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 FB event page

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, The Stigmatics and Va Va Voodoos are at the Worthen 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: John Powhida, Tiger Bomb, Rick Barton Band, playing Blue in Portland at Blue in Portland, ME

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

September 20, 2024 (Friday) Bootleg Dan presents: John Hovorka Band, Crow Follow, Connor Storms and his Bouquet, at The Burren 6:15pm show

September 21, 2024 (Saturday) The Cynz, Spanking Charlene, Kanak, are at The Parkside Lounge NYC 9/21

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

September 28, 2024 (Saturday) DRAGO 20th Anniversary Show with The Downhauls, Dead Like Death, The Blue Bloods at The Midway = this is a matinee at 3PM. FB page.

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

October 5, 2024 (Saturday) Dreadnoughts, Hub City Stompers, the Pourmen at Sammy's Patio Revere FB 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

December 6, 2024 (Friday) Warrior Soul, All Sinners and Speed Teeth at Koto Salem

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.