The BGN News Archive

We will not have any News this week. We are initiating an every other week schedule. This week it was traveling for family that is the cause.

We've been posting a weekly news section since we started the web based BGN in 2002. In those early years we concentrated on posting older material from the print zine and features about occasions of interest. Around 2012 the News page grew. You can see this by checking the Archives that we've had since 2008. The News page became a live music blog in effect. We were going to three shows a week up until Covid hit in 2020 along with posts by John Keegan and Captain Easychord. During Covid times we became more of a broadsheet for what was happening on the scene. One thing was consistent - we posted every week.

That process requires both of us (it takes two) to dedicate every Sunday for 8 to ten hours to cobble together what we have collected during the week. We made vacations not include weekends. We didn't go out clubbing on Sundays. We did it because we love it but it does require dedication. Now, we are taking things down a notch by going every other week. Part of this is undoubtedly because of getting older and we embrace that. That's life.

The quick review above is to show that the BGN has changed as the decades have gone by and we put this new schedule in that context.

See you next week.

The IPO at the Square Root

For pop fans The International Pop Overthrow is like Woodstock that happens every year. David Brash curates the bills with his well-honed taste for the best pop. This year our local IPO happens at the Square Root from 10/30 to 11/2. A list of bands AND times has been posted... here you go....

Wednesday, October 30 - 8:00 Karen Zanes, 8:45 Sal Baglio, 9:30 Kelly Knapp, 10:15 Girl With A Hawk, 11:00 Tom Baker, 11:45 Hi-End

Thursday, October 31 - 8:00 Corin Ashley, 8:45 Smitt E. Smitty & The Fezztones, 9:30 David Minchin from The Innocents, 10:15 Cold Expectations, 11:00 Little Billy Lost

Friday, November 1 - 8:00 Brian Larney, 8:45 Alan Walker and the Accomplices, 9:30 Dave Finney and The Procrastinators, 10:15 The Glad Machine, 11:00 Speedfossil

Saturday, November 2 - 8:00 Justin Levinson, 8:45 The Brigands, 9:30 Hummingbird Syndicate, 10:15 Dave Charles, 11:00 The Pretty Graves

Listen to The Glad Machine from Friday’s line up for some pop goodness. The band is from Northampton, MA and new to us. The song is “San Francisco”.

The Darlings were invited to play at The Eastside Bowl in Nashville. Simon Ritt sent the BGN notes on his trip. They played at The Eastside Bowl and celebrated Jan Long Collin's birthday while there as well. They all had a great time, visited various sites there and ate some great food! Click photo below to see report.

To paraphrase MBR's Joanie and Sara J. we have a Nordic stampede coming to town thanks to Bootleg Dan who put the tour together. Stupidity will hop the pond for a northeast tour and The Cocktail Slippers will join Stupidity from Providence to NYC. And... It's a two-for-one deal at the early show at the Burren. Here's the full tour schedule for The Cocktail Slippers, Stupidity Tour 2024.
10/24 Alchemy, Providence with The Wynott's
10/25 The Burren, Somerville with The Chelsea Curve
10/26 Bayside Bowl, Portland with Muck and the Mires, and Tiger Bomb
10/27 The Music Room, Yarmouth with Stop Calling Me Frank
10/29 Cafe Nine, New Haven with The Cynz
11/1 Randy's Cave, Hightstown, NJ
11/2 The Parkside Lounge, NYC with Palmyra Delran and the Doppel Gang, The Cynz, Undergang,
11/3 Drew's Place Ringwood NJ
The shows in New Haven, Hightstown, NYC, NJ, will have Keith Streng from the Fleshtones playing with Stupidity!

Bootleg Dan says "I worked with The Cocktail Slippers last year. My first tour with a band was Stupidity two years ago when they were on Red on Red Records, the genius of Justine Covault. Many people are excited about this fantastic tour!!! I can't believe I can work with these great musicians and friends again!"

How times have changed. Hardcore is getting acclaim from the mainstream. The New England Music Hall of Fame has SSD nominated for the Wailer Award which recognizes the group’s “contribution in the music and recording world.” Back when hardcore started in the '80's, the idea of getting an award wasn't even considered. Clubs wouldn’t book them, now…awards!

Somebody (Ted Zelke) posted a whole 1982 set of The Neighborhoods at the Rusty Nail in Sunderland, MA. They cover Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” in the set. They end with “Twist and Shout” and “I Can’t Explain”. It's on YouTube and there's even a set list. Check it out here.

Nirvana is still getting monetized... Now the Nixon watch company has watches with Nirvana stylings for $325.00 (for the yellow smiley face), $225.00 (spells Nirvana instead of numbers) and a mere $175.00 (in black with smiley face in middle). Here’s an article on the watches on Louder Sound website Or, if you have the money, you can buy them at the Nixon website

VIDEOS......

Boston punk fans love their rock clubs. We can relate when the Slip-ons from Vancouver sing about the Greystone club in the song "Greystone". Members of the band used to play that Detroit club often in the eighties. The lyrics relate stories that the band members recalled.

The video is a creative mix of graphics and live band playing. At one point they show gig flyers and the lyrics are on them. One of the flyers is for a Dag Nasty show.

The music has a different sort of beat to it. There is a down and dirty guitar solo that is notable and some nice drum work.

It’s not often that we find French pop punk but here it is. Alvilda gives us "Angoiss" We’re drawn in just by the French singing alone. Then those chiming chords, those are heavenly.

“Angoisse” means anguish, but the song seems so sing song carefree.

RADIO......

Skybar had Goddam Glen of Parlour Bells and Looking Glass War in for an interview. Glen talked about the dynamics of working with each band because they are a bit different.

Skybar played all four songs from the new Parlour Bells EP To Be Or Not To Behave along with two Looking Glass War songs.

Glen talked about filming the video for “Slasher Movie Weather” and related the origin story for Looking Glass War.

You even get the story of how Skybar got his name! We have the interview embedded below.

The Rising show is on WMFO 91.5 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.

We were thinking about the destruction down in Ashville when it occurred to us that Peter Abzug of the First Wave podcast is out of WPVM-FM in Ashville. We were guests on his show in April of 2023. We went to his Facebook page and things seem alright. He had just posted his 100th show. On the show he talks about the dire situation in the city.

The 100th show went back to the beginnings of punk and brought back many memories for us. Some of the groups were Ramones, X Ray Specs, Avengers, The Jam, Swell Maps, Adolescents, X and Clash.

We remember those first times hearing songs Peter played like Radio Birdman “Aloha Steve and Dano” when the song broke into “Hawaii Five-O”, getting the blast of “Blank Generation” by Richar Hell and the Voidoids, being dazzled by “See No Evil” by Television and the choppy and quirky “Psycho Chicken” by Talking Heads was like nothing else. Back then the new and exciting were continuously rolling out and we couldn’t get enough of it.

First Wave brings back those days. Glad to know Peter is alright. Also, we see local scenester Roy Rubinstein, who moved to Ashville, was safe and posted some info on Facebook. He’s getting along but he and others in the area still will have no running water for a month.

We’ve been to Ashville and Joanie visited in her vacation journeys. It pains us to see the devastation in the area and glad to see the country funneling help of all kinds to help the residents.

Joanie Lindstrom played a song by Burn Kit on her Thursday Late Risers Club. Their Bandcamp page says they are a Boston band but Joanie says Dover, NH. The song “Becoming the Wind” is hard to peg. The band tags both jangle pop and post punk. They have lots of inherent power in the way they play even when they do actually jangle some.

The playing is excellent. There is adroit and varied guitar work. The bass is active and always pumping the songs along. The drummer has nice fills at all the right moments. The band just did a European tour which must have been a lot of work.

To hear Joanie’s whole show go to the WMBR archive page and hit the Late Risers Show for Thursday 10/17.

PODCASTS.........

Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico has a return visit by Adam Sherman. Adam has a new song “Pure As Yours.” The song is piece of romantic magic. We don’t think this is easy to do but Adam writes songs that get you to a special place all the time. Adam’s Bandcamp page

Adam has a long and interesting career. His time in Private Lightning gave him success early. Later he was in The Souls which a lot of people fondly remember and count as a favorite group. Steve had Adam recount the history of the Souls.

Adam’s songwriting was the highlighted in the Billy Conners Project. Being drafted by the Nervous Eaters has made him even more high profile than ever. Meanwhile his songwriting has been a constant asset. They talked about the Rat Reunion show. Steve asked if Adam suggested bring in Carissa Johnson in the Eaters and yes, he affirmed that.

Adam talked about his song “January, February” done in the style of Chet Baker that Jeff Hudson did the video for.

It seems that the Nervous Eaters have no live shows scheduled for a while. What a stretch there’s been with the group for the last few years. There’s a lot of info in this interview to take in.

Sethyspice, of the Elastic Glam Show is a big Halloween fan. He didn’t wait and played Alice Cooper’s “Ballad of Dwight Fry” this week….”I GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE! LET ME OUT OF HERE!” Then it was more darkness with Nick Cave/Birthday Party with “Deep in the Woods”.

Before that Sethyspice played the new Looking Glass War song “Adamantine Chain Gang” which has a horror element to it, if you listen. We talk about that song below in the New Music section. There was a strong cover of Nirvana’s “Polly” by Daisy Grenade that was a fine pick. Hear that below.

More new songs were from Bobbie Dazzle and The Linda Lindas. Some choice older glam tunes with Hello and “Star Studded Sham,”Racy singing “Lay Your Love on Me” and Sweet with “Fox on the Run”.

Early in Sonic Overload Al Quint played a Boston group Insult with their song “I Wanna Be a Burn Victim” that came off Runt of the Litter Vol 2. He followed that with Crucial Unit doing a crushing “Let’s Unite the Punx and Skins.” We have those two songs embedded below.

He played a West Coast set with Agent Orange, TSOL, Los Olvidados, Savage Beliefs and Atrocity.

Al ended with a set of 80’s local groups. It was: New Models, Swingers Resort, La Peste, Neats, Vacuum Heads and Human Sexual Response. We don’t remember the Vacuum Heads. They were on a Wicked Good Time sampler in 1981. We have their song “No Way” embedded below.

You can hear the whole long running hardcore show on the Sonic Overload web page

NEW MUSIC/CDs......

The always moving ahead Dogmatics have a new single, “The Scarlet Letter.” We heard it during their set at the Rat Reunion at The Belforge

The Dogmatics are juggling a few things here. They are taking a tale from a local author (Hawthorne) and using it for grist to give substance to a typical Dogmatic tune. They show that we're not different humans than the Puritans circa 1600, as much as we like to think we are modern and advanced.

We don’t mean to make it sound heavy because the song doesn’t stop to mope. It has that appealing rough characteristic of all songs sung by Peter. Give it a listen and you will be singing “I love you better, with a scarlet letter” like we can’t stop doing all day long! We love that buzzing tone of the intro which also shows up in the solo.

Stop Calling Me Frank has their album The First 6 Years that compiles their recorded efforts in the early years.

Their promo blurb is classic: The Rat. Gone. Chet’s. Gone. WBCN. Gone. The Phoenix. Gone. Buzzy’s. Gone. Stop Calling Me Frank. Still friggin’ here!!!!!!

The album has 10 live cuts. There are five songs that you can hear now including the driving version of “Off The Hook” and the recently released “Stood There Watching”. Get the album on their Bandcamp page

Rum Bar Records has done another good service by getting a career retrospective album Unleashed from The Dogs from Michigan. The Dogs began in 1968 and have been rocking like crazy from day one. Good enough to play with the Stooges, MC5, Dictators, Ramones, Kiss and Van Halen along the way.

“John Rock and Roll Sinclair” from 1976, is an MC5 worthy track. That’s old school hard rockin’. The same with “Let’s Go Baby,” “Under the Coast,” “Welcome to the Revolution,” “Oh Baby” and so many more. Listening to this now makes you marvel at how they were able to fly the rock and roll flag for so many years.

There are 24 songs to dig into on Unleashed.

Our faves 999 have covered the Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There.” We don’t know if this is part of a compilation project or a cover album by the group, or just a one off.

They punk it up but the song retains its character. Nick Cash even handles the falsetto section.

Locals are all taken in by Looking Glass War. Their new song “Adamantine Chain Gang” released this week, has already been played by Skybar on Rising and Sethyspice on Elastic Glam. The lyrics (which are on the Bandcamp page) depict a hellish situation: “Adamantine chain gang/I’m not saved, but I’m safe” which is ambiguous, but then “All those halo fuckers spitting on my grave/Hey...it’s just a little rain” is no walk in the park.

The word ‘adamantine’, meaning hard, is not often used these days. Emily Dickinson used it a few times when dealing with life/death, see here

The groups post punk sound with goth overtones are a perfect setting for the lyrics.

Triple-B Records is from Boston and Florida. They have a constant flow of hardcore albums. Kids Like Us are from Florida. Their new album is Outta Control.We like their drilling hardcore with furious rolling drumbeat and with lyrics you can almost get.

“Lantern Cops” is the Green Lantern pledge put to hardcore. That was a good idea and it just takes nineteen seconds to do. We like “Box of Buttholes”, “Don’t Eat Rocks, We Rocks” and “You Know Your Life Sucks” but everything here is good.

They have a twist in “Gator Smash” where they throw in some Southern style slide guitar. That could be the source of whole new genre right there - Hardcore Blues.

Corker from Ohio like to get noisy on their album Hallways of Grey and we like noisy. They give every song a shape, it’s not a blur of sound. Here and there the bass is pronounced and the guitar will drill down for a fill. A few songs have a Captain Beefheart angularity to them like “Sunken Submarine” and “Vital Fall”.

Joanie played “Forever Silent” this week on the Late Risers Show. Here's “Distant Dawn.” That gets melodic and then at the 1:22 mark goes into a complete noise section for ten seconds and then back to the song. We suggest, if you like that, to get in there and listen to the rest of the album.

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

October 21, 2024 (Monday) The Stress Balls, Dave Strong, Joe Gallo and the Qualms - At the Jungle, Somerville, MA. 5PM/Free

October 24, 2024 (Thursday) Stupidity, Cocktail Slippers and the Wynotts at Alchemy, Providence FB page.

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

October 25, 2024 (Friday) Rendez-Vous and Gossip Collar at Sonia - 5PM SHow- Tickets

October 25, 2024 (Friday) Bootleg Dan presents Cocktail Slippers, Stupidity, The Chelsea Curve, DJ Sherman at The Burren

October 25, 2024 (Friday) Cape Cod show with Noun (from Philly, featuring Marissa Paternoster from Screaming Females), Grasshopper Green (Falmouth), Modern Hut (New Jersey) at The Christ Church Episcopal in Harwich Port. 6:30 doors, 7:00 bands $15, all ages, no drugs/booze.

October 26, 2024 (Saturday) Costume Party show - the Mischievous Masquerade Marianne Toilet and The Runs, Jimi Halfdead and the Die Alongs (reunion), Gagger, Super Beef, Friday Night Pizza Party, and Renegade Cartel. at the VFW post , 20 Stevens St, Peabody, MA FB page

October 26, 2024 (Saturday) TREE Beer Party - help TREE celebrate the new TREE BEER, with a live performance from TREE, Inverter, Ingrate and DJ Treeman and special guests ... at Dorchester Brewing 7-10PM. Check FB page for directions. TIX!

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

October 30, 2024 (Wednesday) Gang of Four are at The Cut in Glooucester! Tickets.

October 30- Nov. 2, 2024 (Weds - Sat) International Pop Overthrow is here, at the Square Root. 21 bands. In there are: Hummingbird Syndicate, Corin Ashley, Speedfossil, Cold Expectations, Fezztones, Sal Baglio, Kelly Knapp, Girl With a Hawk and many more. Check the FB page for bands/times/tix

November 1, 2024 (Friday) Coffin Salesman (Record Release!), Motel Black, Saeddyr, Squallie Greenthumb at Faces Malden.

November 2, 2024 (Saturday) Neutral Nation and Diablogato at Askew in Providence. Doors at 8, bands start at 9. FB page

November 8, 2024 (Friday) Boston Punk Rewound/Unbound. The Arthur Freedman Collection - "2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Rat, a location that looms large in both the Freedman Collection and in Boston lore. To mark the occasion, the Harvard Film Archive and the Loeb Music Library—who collectively steward the Freedman tapes in the collection—have partnered to bring you an evening celebrating the bands, venues and wider scene documented in the Freedman collection."

Read more here!! and see you there!! 7PM at The Harvard Film Archive 24 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138

November 8, 2024 (Friday) Hilken Mancini Band, The Cujo, Mary Lou Lord at Sonia , Cambridge,

November 8, 2024 (Friday) Steve Conte Trio, Tiger Bomb, The Shang Hi Los at Koto Lowell - FB page.

November 8, 2024 (Friday) Wormtown show with Swamp Roots, Thee Sonomatics and The Wray-Ons (playing the music of the Link Wray & The Wraymen) at Husky's Pub (413 Park Ave, WorcesterMA) Bands start at 8 PM. .

November 9, 2024 (Saturday) The Pist, Grip Bite, Neighborhood Shit, Trollmilk, 1PM doors - Matinee All Ages - Middle East FB page

November 9, 2024 (Saturday) Hixxgiving at The Midway...with Black Clouds, HIXX, Freeloader, Strangemen - 3PM Matinee

November 9, 2024 (Saturday) Shaggahs, The Wynotts, Carnivals, Hot Franks at Faces in Malden - FB page THIS SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED

November 9, 2024 (Saturday) Silver Screams, Black Helicopter and Jay Allen and the Archcriminals are at The Square Root.

November 9, 2024 (Saturday) TRAITRS, Dead Leaf Echo, Gretchen Shea and the Middle Eight at The MIddle East Up

November 9, 2024 (Saturday) A charity show for Marblehead SEPAC! with DEER TICK and Other Brother Darryl at Abbot Hall in Marblehead - 7-11PM FB page for tickets.

November 15, 2024 (Friday) The Rumours, The Downhauls, Yes Nanny (debut show, woo!) at Koto Salem.

November 16, 2024 (Saturday) Bootleg Dan presents The Dowhauls, Midnight Creeps, The McGunks at Buttonwoods Brewery. Cranston, RI. FB page

November 16, 2024 (Saturday) Kal Marks (Release Show!) Paper Lady, Black Beach at Deep Cuts, Medford

November 23, 2024 (Saturday) Diablogato, The Long Wait, Speed Teeth at Faces in Malden tickets

November 23, 2024 (Saturday) Hi-End, Duck and Cover, Color Killers at The Square Root

November 30, 2024 (Saturday) Midway Matinee of Punk! with WORM, Presidential Disgrace, Screw Cart, Neponset Monestary - at The Midway for a 3PM Matinee!!

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

April 20, 2025 (Friday) Gang of Four at The Crystal Ballroom, Somerville. Tickets.

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.