The Boston Counter Cultural Compass is a mysterious guide to DIY happenings in the Greater Boston area. They're found strewn about the city and in the pockets of passers by, so you never know where you may see this brightly colored leaflets. Sponsored by Bodies of Water Arts and Crafts and The Whitehaus Family Record, it is THE place to look for information about the month's best shows and also other non-music related events.
Check it all out at bostoncccompass.com
Here's February's issue ::
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Boston Counter Cultural Compass No. 13 :: February 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Iron & Wine :: Kiss Each Other Clean
Iron & Wine :: Kiss Each Other Clean
Warner Bros. ~ South Carolina ~ January 25th 2010
Iron & Wine signed to Warner Bros. with much fear that every artists that signs to a major label inevitably changes. The new record is indeed quite a change and does have more of a mass appeal, but it never loses its experimental energy. Incorporating more fuzz and digital noises than ever, the songs change almost in movements. The cover matches the sound quite well and recalls with giddiness the scratch art everyone used to do in art class. There's a little bit of everything on this record, even The Creek Drank the Cradle-like reflections. It turns out to prove that songwriter Sam Beam is always extremely capable of tactfully taking the reins of Iron & Wine into new directions.
ironandwine.com
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
REVIEW: Hands and Knees :: Wholesome
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2009's Et Tu, Fluffy? saw the band introducing a more forceful and ear-grabbing sound than their melodic self-titled debut, and it was rewarding. Wholesome maintains this strength, while at the same time exploring uncharted territory. Singer Joe O'Brien expressed his interest in making each song it's own adventure. In an interview with the Boston Globe he said, "I went through a year as a kid where I listened to Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced every night before bed — not just that I loved blazing guitar solos, but I loved how every song was its own thing. The White Album is a great example of that." While every song on the record falls into the territory of rock and roll, each one find space to meander. Boston bands like Hands and Knees have been playing so many noisy, low production basement shows with songs like "Dancing on Your Tears" that they have a right to change the term garage rock to basement rock. Other songs blend styles, borrowing furious blues riffs for the dark and feverous "99," a little do-wop swagger for "Close Your Eyes," and punk rock fury with "The Ballad of Cottonball Johnny." The acoustic makes unconventional appearances throughout (like the aforementioned "Cottonball Johnny"), but it does get a chance to hold its own for the bouncing folk "The Moonlight is Wicked" from a working man "whistling like a foolish old man." One could even consider the playful "Fieldtrip!" to be a foray into children's music.
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handsandknees.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/handsandknees
twitter.com/handsknees
Sunday, January 16, 2011
New Monthly Concert Series @ Great Scott :: Quilt, Total Slacker, Windowspeak, No Way Jose ~ 1/23
This month marks the beginning of a monthy concert series at the Great Scott put on by the Pelly Twins. It kicks off with two favorites, Quilt and Total Slacker, on January 23rd. I don't know Windowspeak or No Way Jose, but if it's more of the same it should be amazing.
More info at:: pellytwins.blogspot.comTotal Slacker :: "Crystal Necklace"
Quilt ~ quiltmusic.bandcamp.com
Total Slacker ~ myspace.com/totalslackerband
Windowspeak ~ windowspeakband.tumblr.com
No Way Jose ~ Vimeo
Saturday, January 15, 2011
"Remember this Feeling that You're Feeling Right Now" :: A Tryst with the Music Tapes
“REMEMBER THIS FEELING
THAT YOU’RE FEELING
RIGHT NOW”
RIGHT NOW”
This story is a love song between me and the band The Music Tapes.
Their album For Clouds and Tornadoes first crossed my path while I was
working at the radio station WERS. It had been tagged as "the band with
the guy from Neutral Milk Hotel," a group that I had become obsessed with at that point. I was well familiar with the singer and main songwriter, Jeff Mangum, as he is often treated like a mythical creature due to that band's history, which I won't get into here. I had never really heard anyone talk about the music of the banjo player, Julian Koster, and it didn't get much attention at the radio station. Eventually, I would realize that it was way better that way.
I did the review of For Clouds and Tornadoes and I could not stop listening to that album all year. It was full of big fluffy white carols and childhood euphoria to freebase as a wintery adventure into the imagination of Julian Koster. And it was a great place to be.
I never could have imaged that the album would be a door for me into a vast universe loaded with adventure, wonder, a sense of community that I had never experienced before, and, of course, actual real deal magic.
Cue
the opening credits music::
TRACK
1. “The Minister of Longitude” by The Music Tapes
from
For Clouds and Tornadoes
“How in the
world can you say the world is a sad place?”
Julian’s
imagination came to life back in August of 2009 when he came to play a private
show at my apartment in Jamaica Plain, part of Greater Boston. A friend of mine
had initially given me the intel about the tour, because she hosted Julian at
her apartment the previous year for a night of Christmas carols played on a singing saw.
I was more than intrigued to discover that the
band had been doing these sorts of unconventional concerts for a while. Places
like living rooms and basements were the venues, spaces that the band had to be
invited to by fans. The show they put on for us was, however, a little
different. It was part of their
"Lullabies at Bedsides" tour. The idea was to go from house to house,
kind of like Santa, and play for people all across the city just as they were going to
sleep.
Initially,
I had invited Julian to play at the Whitehaus, because the Jamaica Plain art
collective would’ve suited The Music Tapes quite well. However, I received an
email back from the "Minister of Lullabies" that read:
"This
endeavor really is best suited as bedtime hour entertainment, and is not meant so
much to be a traditional ‘show.’ You seem to have a lovely place where people
go often to see shows. The only thing I wonder is, do you think something meant
sincerely as a precursor to dreams would work in that setting?"
It
was signed by “The Strangely Nonexistent Email Reading Polar Bear.”
It seemed
he wanted to play for small groups of pajama clad and sleepy spectators, even
“bed-bound audiences of one,” as he said, were acceptable.
What
ended up making the performance memorable was the people that it brought together.
It was part of the magic of The Music Tapes: there were serendipities and
coincidences everywhere, gathering around them in a lovely swirling mess, like clouds and tornadoes.
It was
what Stephanie and I would jokingly call a better version of one of those
quirky indie romantic comedies with a hip soundtrack that were frequently
targeted at our demographic at the time.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
SINGLE: Doomstar! :: Sea Gull b/w Night at the Movies ~ 1.1.11
Doomstar! :: Sea Gull b/w Night at the Movies ~ Self-Released ~ January 1, 2011 ~ Cambridge, MA
Doomstar! ring in 2011 with some feedback and reverb. They're working on a new record with producer Justin Pizzoferrato, who just did Young Adults debut LP and has also recorded Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. "Sea Gull" comes from the Rainbow Bloodsucker sessions, which was one of the best things to come out of Boston last year. You can download this single for free at their bandcamp.
doomstar.bandcamp.com
doomstar.com
Monday, January 03, 2011
LP: Young Adults :: Black Hole 12"
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Of all the basement shows one wanders into in Allston full of the likes of studded cronies hanging from bursting pipes, singers decapitating the audience with swinging mics, and mosh pits against steel poles, Young Adults is a different kind of show that one would pray to stumble upon instead.
They formed from members of Magic Magic and Whitetail with an interest more towards what they're calling ambient punk. It's a good way to describe the balance between heart-stopping thrash and reverb heavy drone. They've played with Wavves, Male Bonding and Best Coast and their record was produced by Justin Pizzoferrato who worked with Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and The Hold Steady. They even have a Wipers cover on the record. The recordings can trick you a little bit, this is a band you should definitely see live.
This for some reason has great meaning::
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Saturday, January 01, 2011
Saturday, January 01, 2011
+++2011 :: Feliz Año Nuevo+++
Here's a couple of other things to listen to, if you're tired of the obligatory Death Cab for Cutie tune
Happy New Year.
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