Quilt, Girlfriends, Hands & Knees, and Thick Shakes @ P.A.'s Lounge on 2.20.10

For a night basted with noise, the stage was sweetly dressed with floral arrangements. Sagging from the drapes, outlining the drum kit and climbing the mic stands, all to compliment to giant brass tuba hanging on the wall of what Girlfriends band members joked was ‘father’s’ or ‘pa’s’ Lounge. Thick Shakes set up the event for their EP release and gathered three of the areas most impressive new garage punk experiments. For a mostly male dominated genre, femininity was well represented (and not just with the flowers). Each band had at least one female member.

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Playlist :: Christians & Lions - MORE More Songs For the Dreamsleepers & the Very Awake

Here's a little treat for any potential Christians & Lions fans. From following the band for a while, I've compiled some additional non-album material that happens to be pretty damn good. So, I've made a playlist of the aforementioned songs.

The first section is all unreleased songs.

'We Fall and Get Up' I snatched from myspace, circa 2006...maybe. A sweet acoustic thing about indigestion and indecision. It kind of lyrically relates to the bridge in 'Stay Warm,' "if we only find ourselves in decision, will we only find ourselves indecision?" Don't know why this one never made it onto any release.

'Firebelly Salamander' was on the Christians & Lions Acoustic LP that was released before More Songs.

'Waltz in D' and 'Palek' were also snatched from myspace, but after the Bird's Milk EP in 2009.

'Outlaws' was on the first little Sharp Teeth demo burned CD that I bought at a show in 2005 for two bucks.

The next section is alternate versions of songs on More Songs that are really interesting for one reason or another.

'Bones' has a mandolin in it and for some reason I always really liked when Sam shouts "Let's walk he says!" after the homeless man line before the bridge. This is also from the Acoustic LP.

'Stay Warm' is a demo also with mandolin. From that same Sharp Teeth burned CD.

'Sexton Under Glass,' my favorite version of this song, with mandolin and more uptempo. They used the mandolin for a while, mostly with Sharp Teeth. It was a shame to see it go.

'Things Don't Fall Apart, They Just Give Up on Being What They Are' is actually a demo of 'Some Trees.' For some reason the song got to me with that title. It's actually a line from 'Everybody So Gorgeous' on Bird's Milk. This version is interesting because it has the singing saw, a synth and what sounds like clinking glasses for percussion. It sounds very different from the album version. No idea where this came from.

'A Seven Alarm Fire is Burning Sacred Heart to the Ground' is a 'Landing' demo. The saw really makes this one. Think this came from the Sharp Teeth myspace.

'Free Radio Post-Apocalyptic Metropolis Blues,' is a really cool demo of the version on the Gimmie Diction single and Bird's Milk EP. It's got a nice litte intro.

'Alphamale Soup/Two Row Pale' is a live instrumental thing from 2007. Towards the end of their first run, the band started doing a lot of these semi-digital, very different sounding things. Would've made for an interesting second album.

christiansandlions.com

myspace.com/christiansandlions

myspace.com/sharpteeth

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Christians & Lions :: More Songs for the Dreamsleepers & the Very Awake

It was in the basement of a building on Boylston Street in the mid aughties. Some students from Emerson College set up a show of absurdly different bands. A thrash-core scream-fest metal monstrosity, whose name has been lost to time, finish pillaging the stage and pack up their gear. Fans who were a moment ago throwing themselves into one another and 'slam dancing,' now wait, panting. A group of guys walk in front of the stage. One of them has black wavy hair and Truman Capote glasses and says, "we do things a little differently." He asks everyone to take a seat in a circle around them. The other guys pick up their instruments as he pulls over an upturned trash can with a torn bit of cardboard on it and sets up a tambourine on top of a hat on the floor, testing its sound with his foot. Some confused and sweaty skacore kids stumble out of the back door, but the rest of the crowd sits.

The group plays. Steel brushes chatter against cardboard and tin, the acoustic guitar chasing the rhythm. An upright bass bumbles along, a singing saw is squeezed between knees, and mandolin trickles throughout. Harmonic croonings emerge from the boys that, back then, were calling themselves 'Sharp Teeth.'

It could've been just the fact that those two acts were such a stark juxtaposition, but the audience was entranced, faces awash with surprise. Simple, hollow instruments with thick earthly resonance matched well with prophetic words that were humble, but had an insistence and urgency pervasive throughout. This was nothing wildly inventive; the old world folk attitude came just as people were starting to call that particular sound a 'revival' around 2005. It was just pregnant with poignancy. Amidst the well worn patterns of noise, things could be a little different.

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The Whitehaus Family Record Family Record

"A hootenanny captured in vinyl"

The artists of Jamaica Plain collective, The Whitehaus Family Record, present an onslaught of the best tracks from label artists and friends. This sampler reflects their shows called ‘hootenannies,’ which feature a wide spectrum of audible enjoyables, from slam poetry to acoustics to psychedelics. It’s a little ‘hoot’ captured in the grooves of this vinyl only double LP.

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Spitzer Space Telescope

“A folkloric renaissance folk bard”

Download "Spitzer Space Telescope - Graknils and Gerkins" (right click, save link as)

Gather round the crackle of the fire for Dan MacDonald to tell stories from a time long ago about incredible voyages to the edge of the world and deep into the netherworld. Tales of unicorns and phoenixes and a slew of other fantastic creatures like Graknils, Gerkins and Mynocks. This modern day minstrel masquerades under the name Spitzer Space Telescope and he’s released a full length self-titled vinyl LP.

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The Whitehaus Family Record

On any given weekend night in Jamaica Plain, by some fleeting word of mouth from friends of friends of friends you might wander up the dim wooden porch that is decorated with polaroids or a gutted antique radio or other found art projects. Upon entering this house you’ll realize that it might be the strangest and most interesting place you could’ve gone tonight. Creativity is strung from the ceilings and walls as a dumpster diving collage of broken instruments and equipment, random knick knacks and toys. The house itself buzzes and croons, becoming an amplifier for anything from sloppy, silly, sensitive folk to psyche piercing digital experiments. Its white rooms transform into a stage, a screen and willing host to various performance and projection anomalies. It’s more than just a living art project, a venue, a DIY record label or an art collective; it’s the Whitehaus Family Record.

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Girlfriends :: Our Very First Cassette!

"Like getting your ass kicked by an 8 year old!"

Download "Girlfriends - Sucking Rare Meat off the Bone China!" (right click, save link as)

Once you pop this radioactive green cassette into your tape deck, you'll get three new girlfriends who like to hang out in dusty basements, make noise and yell at you. Oh, and two of them are guys. Maybe not the ideal romantic situation, but it makes for an excellent bopping, in your face, giddy garage punk trio. The menage a trios is a coalition of other local bands. Singer and guitarist Ben Portrykus' fronted the folk philosophers Christians & Lions and the digi-tape-loop project BAXIA, bassist Jen Dowty is formerly from Mmoss, and drummer Andrew Sadoway played with Mean Creek and also backs up Spirit Kid.

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