Bent Shapes and the Art of Feeling Weird

Originally published on thebomberjacket.com.

Bent Shapes has strong connections to the band’s hometown of Boston and the music community there. Listening to the record almost drops you right into the streets, brick buildings everywhere and rats scurrying around corners. They’re the kids that worked behind the counter of the local thrift store, hocking treasures and oddities from lost decades. Or the kids in the coffee shop that you recognize from the basement show the night before and that you have a supremely awkward conversation with, almost as if “Fight Club” rules applied. However, they’re just the same type of socially clumsy dudes that embody the title of their debut LP, Feels Weird.

The project began with guitarist Ben Potrykus writing songs under the name of Girlfriends. The trio, including Supriya Gunda on bass and Andy Sadoway on drums, teamed up (oddly enough) through musical basements and working at thrift stores. On Feels Weird, they all share the microphone with each member singing at least one song. For a few years now, the group has been consistently releasing solid EPs and singles on cassettes and vinyl. Their debut Girlfriends cassette was a group of songs that complemented each other well, recorded in a more lo-fi style that really lent itself to the content of those particular songs. A few of their singles were released as flexible vinyl 7″ discs–translucent squares that appear as if the manufacturer forgot to pop the record out that can be flexed in half (or maybe it’s better to say it could be bent in a plethora of shapes).

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GREG MULLEN AND A TOUR OF COSMIC AMERICA

Published on thebomberjacket.com.

Greg Mullen snubbed out the joint he’d been smoking just as the bus pulled up. He was wearing a cowboy hat with the sides curled in and big white, heart-shaped sunglasses. He was traveling with only a suitcase and a guitar. High and exhausted, he took his seat and the mystical voice of the bus driver came through the speakers. He said, “Let me be the first to welcome you to the future,” and then the image of everything around doubled, splitting apart horizontally into the cyans and magentas of a 3D image. The bus took off, bringing Mullen to a strange and wondrous place hidden somewhere under the surface of the everyday USA.

On Greg Mullen’s second record, There Are AMERICAS Beyond This America by Greg Mullen and the Cosmic American Band, he assumes the role of the “Cosmic American Bus Driver,” musically guiding you through a land you know well but have never seen before. A place where sculpture gardens grow in backyards and your pockets are full of shooting stars, a place where dogs can laugh, a place with devastating 15-foot waves of molasses, a place where Joan of Ark rides the subway with Mr. Clean and Commissioner Gordon, a place where devils hide in the mountains waiting to snatch your tongue, a place where the Seine, the Charles, and the Zambezi rivers converge into one steady trickle, a place where you can digitize the whole experience on social media websites to make your ex-girlfriend jealous…a place called “Cosmic America.”

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The Craters :: Velcro

Some new hi-fi from The Craters. I still love their Teenage High School.

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Michael Collins :: Violet Flame

Some new stuff I just found from the ex-Prince Ramanator.

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2012(ish) Boston Finds to Keep an Eye On

Below the jump are tons of bandcamp embeds for some of the stuff from Boston from 2012 that I've been exploring. Thanks to Boston Hassle and Allston Pudding.

Bent Shapes

The Woodrow Wilsons

Hands and Knees

Dawn Fauna

TOMBOY

Camp Island

Polaroids

Earthquake Party

Potty Mouth

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In the Belly of the Woodrow Wilsons

Published on thebomberjacket.com.

Jamaica Plain, a part of Greater Boston, is home to many talented musicians that are constantly creating unique and/or bizarre events and contributing greatly to the personality of the city’s DIY music. One such band from the area that has been playing for a few years without laying down a record is The Woodrow Wilsons. It’s made up of some of the nicest and most genuine people you could ever meet. And just like a conversation with one of its members, the music radiates this ineffably positive feeling of warmth and empathy, subconsciously comforting and convincing you that everything is going to be alright. They all play a wide array of instruments, one of the main components being ukuleles that vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Chris McCarthy built himself out of a cigar box. In addition to bass, guitar and drums, the arrangement also includes glockenspiel, horns and a singing saw. The vocals are shared and harmonized between McCarthy and Laura Smith and the collaboration emphasizes the band’s open minds and open arms.

The Woodrow Wilsons recently released its first proper full length, Devil Jonah. The name references the biblical story of Jonah and the whale and has strong motifs of the East Coast and the ocean. As the group explains, the Atlantic seems to have strange powers over them (or at least over Smith). They associate the endless vastness with death and loneliness, but at the same time it’s something irresistible that calls them to get lost in it. It’s this sort of conflict or juxtaposition that is threaded throughout the album. Although one might think Jonah was doomed to be digested in the whale, it was actually the whale that saved Jonah from drowning. Likewise the music is a pleasant balance between somber and joyous. It has ballads and relaxing tunes, but it also has its share upbeat and irresistibly catchy songs like “Anthropomorphism” and “It Always Never Boils (The Kettle Song).”

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Boston Hassle Comp

Two of Boston's most active groups for planning and spreading the word about the coolest stuff around the city (namely Bodies of Water Arts and Crafts and Boston Counter Cultural Compass) now have a new affiliation: Boston Hassle. A new compilation has just been released under the name. The thirteen tracks are only available for now as a Playbutton, a wearable MP3 player badge.

Read more about Playbutton here.
Download the comp here.

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Stream the comp below the jump:

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Quilt :: Debut LP

Quilt

Quilt

November 8th 2011

Mexican Summer

quiltmusic.bandcamp.com

Click here to hold this.

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The Boston (/Brooklyn) Trio make their debut on Mexican Summer. Stream some tracks below:

More Quilt goodness:
Burger Records Cassette
EP - Agents of Play
Deubt Cassette
Live Review 2010
Video Interview

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Hands and Knees :: Wholesome

Hands and Knees :: Wholesome ~ Self Released ~ Boston, MA ~ January 18th, 2011 Available in 12" vinyl and limited screen print 12" vinyl

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Hands and Knees :: "Sitting at the Piano Disappearing"

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The classical guitar on the cover may be a bit misleading. Hands and Knees' new album Wholesome is a catchy, dance-friendly onslaught of garage-pop that also has depth and inventiveness both lyrically and musically. It's a style that inspires multiple listens. The addictive toe tapping tunes get you jumping around quickly and later you're struck with evocative and loaded images. On Wholesome it materializes in a few titles, such as "Throw Me from the Bridge of Flowers" and "Sitting at the Piano Disappearing," two standout tracks. Such surprises are strewn throughout and its refreshing to see a garage rock band give a damn about poetics.
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.

The song "Feather Fly" is an acapella, snapping solo for the group's female vocalist, Carina Kelly. In a live session with Bands in Boston back in 2009, the group did a hilarious bluesy rendition of a Missy Elliott song. They incorporated this interest very tactfully on the new album, without it being tacky. Kelly's vocal presence is another thing that makes the group stand out. Each of O'Brien's growls and shrieks are punctuated by the melodic croons of Kelly. She even takes the helm to solo quite a bit on Wholesome. 

If nothing else, simply how fun the band is makes it worth listening. Wholesome is available in two different limited editions of vinyl on the group's bandcamp. Their album release show is January 27th at Great Scott in Allston, MA with  Doomstar, the Needy Visions and Fedavees. Every band on this bill is a favorite and it promises to be a riotous time.
handsandknees.net
handsandknees.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/handsandknees
twitter.com/handsknees

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"Remember this Feeling that You're Feeling Right Now" :: A Tryst with the Music Tapes

“REMEMBER THIS FEELING 

THAT YOU’RE FEELING
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.

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SINGLE: Doomstar! :: Sea Gull b/w Night at the Movies ~ 1.1.11

Doomstar! :: "Night at the Movies"

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

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LP: Young Adults :: Black Hole 12"

Young Adults :: Black Hole ~ AMDISCS (Prague) ~ November 6th, 2010 ~ Allston, MA
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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youngadultsband.bandcamp.com

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Flyers are Illegal in Boston

Dear Boston,

I thought you were cool. Graffiti and posters nowadays are mostly art. Sure, if someone is going around spray painting penises on buildings, by all means give them a fine (read notice from The Middle East below). But real graffiti actually improves the atmosphere, culture and arguably value of a city. Not only are posters art, but are vital (although not quite viral) to the promotion and well-being of artists. I say, no taxation without representation. For a city populated by high numbers of students and artists, there sure are a lot of laws that make it hard on said demographics (see also: bans on 18- in venues). WORST of all, you are now depriving me of my favorite means of decorating my apartment. FOR SHAME. They should just go ahead and ban fun, merriment and tomfoolery while they're at it. I thought you were cool (shakes head in defeat and cries one single tear).

Sincerely,

Mango Nebula

P.S. ::

Another interesting implication of this is our constantly digitizing world and its effect on the music industry and promotions. It's a theme that keeps popping up as I've recently seen many friends go on tirades about things like ebooks. The music industry is really good fodder for observing the effect of the digital world, as they were it's first victims. I can't even fathom a time when the only means of promotion was concert flyers. Or the only was to find out about a show was through said rectangles. The Middle East says they offer a "digital workflow" now, which isn't really anything new. But, imagine a world where no one makes posters any more, except $50 screen prints to sell at Newbury Comics. I do like their grass roots suggestion of handing out quarter pages with the info. It's something that I've seen at the Whitehaus a lot and have used myself to promote shows. It's classy.

Angry letter in response to this from the Middle East and friends ::

December 16, 2010

All Bands

Playing The Middle East & ZuZu

in the Near Future

Any Town, MA 02139

Dear Bands,

As of today, until further review, The Middle East Nightclub’s official stance on posting flyers is this: We do not in any way endorse or encourage the posting of bills anywhere in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Any posting of bills with “Middle East Upstairs, Middle East Downstairs, ZuZu, Middle East Nightclub, Middle East Club” or any variation thereof are not sanctioned, nor deemed necessary, by the Middle East Nightclub.

The Middle East Nightclub promotion has moved to a digital set up. Online marketing and social media outlets (twitter.com/mideastclub, fb.me/mideastclub, ticket links on ticketweb.com & many more) are to be the focus of promotion for your shows.

Why are we making such move? Fines. Hefty fines. Fines that we accept no responsibility for. Fines that will be charged to any band or promoter cited by law enforcement. Fines that will keep your band from being booked at the Middle East. Fines that could pay for your space rental for a month. Fines that could buy a nice guitar. Fines that could pay rent at your apartment.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts deems your show flyers as graffiti. That stinks. There’s some beautiful art being created on your flyers! Cambridge has it’s own strict subset of these laws. Your community does, too (We’re looking at you, Allston!). Recent citations are not less than $300 per violation. If you put up two of the same flyer in the same neighborhood, that equals $600. Law enforcement must stop there, right? No. Fines are per instance. Imagine having to pay $1500 for 5 flyers! That, sadly, could be you.

What can you do? Reach out to me, I’ll give you a digital workflow to promote your show. It works. Send me a .jpg of that flyer, I’ll get it on our web properties. Get us 4-6 nice 11x17 flyers to hang up on our walls, they are pretty! Color or black and white. No reason to print 1000 of these. Just a couple for us and one for your practice space wall. Make a hundred or so 1/4 page flyers. I can help you set that up and you’ll know how for life! Spark a conversation, shake a hand, get a phone number and hand them one of these little guys. Making friends is awesome. Making enemies of city officials and venues is not quite as awesome (not awesome at all).

Sincerely yours,

Clay Fernald

Middle East Nightclub and ZuZu Publicity
mideastclub.com
@mideastclub
@zuzubar
fb.me/mideastclub
fb.me/zuzubar

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Neutral Uke Hotel Live at the Armory in Somerville, MA

Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a bombastic haunted oddity that many have become obsessed with. Most fans never even had a chance to see it live, since a year after its release, songwriter Jeff Mangum became reclusive. For one night at the Armory in Somerville, Neutral Uke Hotel became a way for people to experience it live, from start to finish completely on ukulele. The man behind the project, Shawn Fogel, said one of the main goals was gathering as many rabid fans together in one room as possible and seeing what happened.

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Photos :: The Tallest Man on Earth @ The Middle East 4/21/10

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Cymbals Eat Guitars, Bear in Heaven, Feelance Whales Live at the Middle East Downstairs 4/8/10

Coming off their recent debut Why There Are Mountains, the Middle East Downstairs was host to the carnage of a swarm of floating cymbals taking down some guitars like savannah gazelles in a school cafeteria and having a food fight with them.

Each band seemed to draw their own crowds. An electric guitar balances against a banjo resting on an acoustic guitar like a house of cards in sound, but never even quivers like its going to fall. This image essentially summed up the swooning pop of Freelance Whales. Seeing unconventional instruments like a tin watering can and an antique harmonium in a rock band just added to the giddy that covered the crowd like the soft baby blue fabric of the organ's bellows. The singer of Bear in Heaven proudly remarked that they played for one single person at T.T. the Bear's Place the last time they were in Boston. The band's drone gloom washed with blood red light had you wondering if the guitarist was playing anything at all until you realized how good they were at transforming guitar strings into synth keys.

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Video :: Christians & Lions - Gimmie Diction

Found this on a DVD at a Whitehaus yard sale. Don't tell Warner Brothers!!

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Photos :: Cymbals Eat Guitars, Bear in Heaven, Feelance Whales @ The Middle East Downstairs 4/8/10

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Greg Mullen :: The Hungry Ocean

"Like Dante climbing out of hell, if his guides were Bob Dylan and Bukowski"

MP3: "Greg Mullen - Ten Thousand Years"

The Hungry Ocean has all the charm of a folk singer, kicking stones down a dusty road with a harmonica ‘round his neck and guitar strapped to his back, traveling to play his soulful tunes about everyday things. Yet at times, Greg Mullen’s voice quivers strangely supernatural and the words he sings veil some otherworldly pseudo-apocalyptic occurrence. It’s something like Dante climbing the wrong way out of hell if his guides were Bob Dylan and Bukowski, instead of Virgil. All of it is decorated with a whirlpool of beauteous piano, horns and lovely female harmonies.

The theme of wishing to be a ship and failing to float in a vast, all-consuming ocean is strongly present on the album. There's two bummed out Narwhals on the cover and even the 12" vinyl is cleverly pressed a transparent green. In ‘Ten Thousand Years,’ Mullen sings, “We both had a hard time trying to decide what to be for Halloween. Said, ‘I'll be a ship, you be a flying machine.’” In the same song he also mentions that he’s been dead for ten thousand years.

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Preview :: Greg Mullen - The Hungry Ocean

Download "Greg Mullen - Ten Thousand Years" (right click, save link as)

The Whitehaus-ian Greg Mullen just finished an LP of insightful, stomping, heartbreaking, pseudo-post-apocalyptic folk called The Hungry Ocean. He's having a record release show at the hallway gallery in Jamaica Plain on March 26th with Saintseneca and The Woodrow Wilsons. You can also pick up a copy of the 12" LP in advance this weekend at Blastfest!!!(which never seems right in type without at least three exclamation points.)

Greg's voice is unassuming and supernatural, talking about every day things that eerily seem to veil a deeper poignancy. 'Ten Thousand Years' has this seeping line, "We both had a hard time trying to decide what to be for Halloween. Said, 'I'll be a ship, you be a flying machine.'" Seemingly desperate to float in a vast, all-consuming ocean, like Dante climbing the wrong way out of Hades if his guide were Bob Dylan and Bukowski instead of Virgil. It all enters a fluid whirlpool of acoustic, trumpet, harmonica, harmonies and even a little aggressive electric in the song 'Telephone.' When the brushes hit the snare drum in 'They Looked Like Giants From Down There,' the rhythm is particularly infectious.

myspace.com/welcometothelifeadventure

gregmullenmusic.com

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