All posts by G. Gordon Gritty

Adam Green, Uncategorized

Adam Green Coming To ONCE Somerville; Convo w/ Chris

Leave a comment
ADAM GREEN is playing ONCE BALLROOM in Somerville on Tuesday, September 6. I had a conversation with my pal and KLYAM co-conspirator Chris about this occasion:

GGG:  Rather than do a bland introduction, how would you proposition someone on the fence of going to this show, maybe because they haven’t heard of Adam?

Chris: Adam Green has been my #1 person to see live for the last few years. I’d show them Adam Green.
GGG: Would you show them a “Bunnyranch” live vid, what kinda stuff you showing them first?
Chris: Depends who the person is, if I know of their tastes already. If someone is more interested in older music or country/folk/ early rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly stuff, I’d show Minor Love, perhaps even Gemstones. For most, I’d show Garfield/Friends of Mine. “Apples, I’m Home, ” “No Legs,” Friends of Mine“
GGG: True. And maybe his latest Aladdin for those really seeking something weird? But that’s the thing about Adam. It’s all pretty weird?
Chris: Wouldn’t be my go to, even though that’s what he’s touring behind…It’s not mainstream, but it’s not outsider either. It follows a lot of conventions. The lyrics are off color and they stand out to you more than others, at least to me. They paint a picture. Abstract, but you can take something away from it, make it your own. I personally don’t spend much time looking for meaning or an artist’s intent in lyrics or any works of art/entertainment. I’d rather pick it apart myself. I like what I can take away from it.
GGG: Yes definitely, and here’s a great case of someone fully in charge of his facilities. He sets the ground rules for his musicianship, and there’s no limit on that
Chris: He doesn’t do anything too fancy, but most of his material is memorable. Immediate.
GGG: What was your introduction to him? I’m trying to think. I think I heard of Moldy Peaches before his solo stuff due to Juno then I heard Minor Love and I remember thinking this is pretty rock ‘n roll. I’m not sure I realized at the time he was a bit of a trickster in the abstract realm
Chris: Moldy Peaches. I knew of them before Juno, but didn’t really get into them. Even after seeing Juno, I didn’t listen to them. It was a couple of years later. So, I decided to check out his solo stuff and I was blown away. As much I love Moldy Peaches, his solo work is superior.
GGG: Yeah, if you think about it too. His music career is really kinda odd just like him.He’s huge (relatively) in Europe or basically any place not USA, has some famous pals, but essentially seems to be pretty DIY. Not that there is any correlation, but the non-linear narrative makes him great subject matter for say, a crazy little conversation like this one
Chris: True, yeah idk exactly why he is more popular over there. I think Americans are afraid to be weird. Unless, it’s heavily marketed in some TV, fashion, or whatever. But, I don’t think that was always the case. At least in terms of embracing odder art. Sure, vintage shit has a charm to it. But, I think there’s more to it than that. There’s no Andy Kaufmans or Tiny Tims out there anymore. The mainstream is a cesspool of normalcy, it’s really boring.But, those guys and perhaps quirkier, odder figures, I think, had a better chance in previous decades and I think people ran with it, didn’t have to question everything. Like Nobunny, mainstream music fans, always ask wtf why is he dressed like a bunny? Why is he half (or totally naked)? I think “underground” or even “indie” fans don’t even question it as much, you just think, hmm, this is cool (or not), but you don’t give as much of a fuck he’s a bunny, you just accept it. And I think that’s the same for Adam Green fans with his idiosyncrasies. I’m a quirky person and I like quirky people and quirky art. You say why, I say why not? That’s the attitude.

GGG: Yeah otherwise you’re cutting yourself off to a lot of interesting stuff
Chris: I think so, then again people can like whatever they like and gain a great deal from that, everyone is different.
GGG: That’s for sure
Uncategorized

KLYAM 7th Anniversary All-Ages Show Tonight 10 PM Doors @ Lilypad

Leave a comment

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS / IAN SWEET / GIVING UP / BIRTHING HIPS

We celebrate every year of existence here at KLYAM not just the big milestones, but all of them. So it’s July 2016 which means we’ve been around now for 7 whole years. So we’re going to celebrate tonight with a line-up that we are very proud to have! Every show we’ve thrown is always a show we would really want to go to (if we weren’t the ones hosting it), so our hope is contagious and if you’ve been going to local gigs around here for the past few years, there’s always fun stuff going on. The show is tonight at Lilypad in Inman Square (Cambridge), All Ages, and we are suggesting a $7-10 donation! Please arrive no earlier than 10 PM and the show will kick off very soon after that.

So what to expect? I would say a very nice little mixture of everything: Sophomore Lounge memory music crew GIVING UP on Tour (from everywhere), crazed dementers of a thing called sound, i.e. underground staples of the region NEW ENGLAND (PATRIOTS), IAN SWEET – the latest Hardly Art signees who we’ve seen many a fantastic time as IAN, but the first time now with the added SWEET, and lastly a new-ish band we’ve seen tons, including three straight weeks, bringing back memories of our 2012 fervor, BIRTHING HIPS

Also, I should mention most definitely that the quintessential basement rock and roll band of our generation, SARALEE (who have a split tape out with Giving Up and other releases on Sophomore Lounge), were originally on the bill, won’t be able to make it, but we will try our damn hardest to have another show with them soon!

Alright cool see ya soon!

Uncategorized

THE WORLD (Oakland / Playing Gonerfest 13)

Leave a comment

THE WORLD is here and let me tell you about them. I don’t know anything – well actually that is wrong. I am on their Soundcloud and I have been on there just about every day, for some spans. I am blown away a bit. God’s honest truth. See back in the day, we KLYAM were a weird bunch, still are, but then we did a couple things. We reacted to the bigger (mainly garage) bands that were getting ‘national’ coverage, definitely, by re-posting or referencing the larger media or the band’s own websites and social media. There was that clusterfuck but there was also the local Boston shows that we were going to and writing about. Very often, we have been the only one or one of a few websites posting about them. As always, but perhaps more so when you fall off a grid of consistently reading about music online, amazing stuff goes unnoticed. But also now more than ever, if you do a little research, you should be able to come up with something. It should not really take long. If you come here on KLYAM now and again, you will see posts because we hope you genuinely care as much as we do, that you should have fun listening to and seeing music!

So with THE WORLD, I saw last week that they are playing Gonerfest 13. Them and tons of others, without much hesitation I can attest these are among the funnest making a rock ‘n roll racket. So I looked up just a few from the list that I had never heard of. Let me first say, last year’s Gonerfest, our first. A world class experience, in the sense that these shows are the very best, large or small, that you will probably experience, unless you have that joy of being able to repeatedly see sick bands in your neck of the woods. In Boston, we have that, yes, yes, and many festivals and showcases that fly more under the radar – the existence of perception aside – but the musical heritage of Memphis combined with the fact that a few hundred from around the world are gathered to celebrate raw, exhilarating live music for a weekend. Bands sound different, there’s no real “sound,” but there’s certainly some favored styles, you know it when you hear it stuff. So back THE WORLD. I went on their Soundcloud like I said, and they have four songs up there. Check them out. A single came out in January on Upset The Rhythm (UK) and with a repress of that and another single, a flexi, on Play Pinball Records (Denton, Texas). Listen, it will be like whatever for you, for me it is like Michel B’s DJ set last month on WMBR’s Late Risers Club. He played only female fronted punk from 1977 to 1984. THE WORLD is like that. An excellent array of dancy, bouncy, punk. Reminds me of UK/Italy, not Oakland. Precision bass and drums i.e Angry Angles or Devo, that is “tight,” but there are sprinkly saxes and guitar that sometimes depart from bubbly new wave territory into the dark of no wave. Probably a likeminded perspective would be Guerilla Toss from here. Really really excited to see THE WORLD at Gonerfest – y’all in the California area look below and go to all these fun ones:

Upcoming shows (taken from their SC, with Gonerfest added by me)
7/11 @ Sgraffito, oakland with Vats, Toyota, Fussy
7/23 @ Warehouse show oakland with Violence Creeps, Baus
7/27 @ Santa Rosa house show with Rakta
8/15 @ WRC oakland with Nandas
8/23 @ Regency SF with Parquet Courts
8/25 @ Starline, Oakland with Sheer Mag and Auscencia
9/10 @ Oakland with Lithics
9/29 – 10/2 @ Gonerfest, Memphis
EAST COAST TOUR IN OCTOBER

Local Music, Music

BOYS LIFE – EP – 1983 (SECO RECORDS)

Leave a comment

1980s Malden mod youngsters BOYS LIFE put out a 6 song EP that I guess is not as obscure as I would have thought. I found this one in my dad’s collection and, like a non-digital age person, I was intrigued by the cover with its big text BOYS LIFE and image featuring lyrics in green font with a pic of a three piece band (drums, guitar, and saxophone) playing in the background. So true I was expecting some kind of chaotic noise inclined group, but instead they are about as MOD as it gets, colleagues of The Jam and maybe The Psychedelic Furs. That kind of very Brit accented, tight musicianship, and pop rock catchiness. The EP was produced by David Robinson, of The Cars and the Modern Lovers. What I’m guessing is that early 1980s was a fantastic time for this kind of sound. I am not surprised that my dad, a true Jam die-hard (his collection has at least a dozen of their records), picked this one up at most likely any number of local gigs these dudes played. And I just found, right now actually, a newspaper cut-out inside the record from I’m not sure from what outlet but it is called “Local Pressings.”  It is a glowing review of the EP that names the “recently broken up” Jam as big influences. 2006/2007 me would probably be much more a fan, now I’m spoiled and this sounds a little safe, but it is a record I can surely appreciate.

Uncategorized

TRIM Cuttin’ and Noisin’ Thru Boston Circuit

Leave a comment
TRIM
Photo hijacked from the TRIM Facebook Page!

Who TRIM? Who you? Well, we seen TRIM a few times about town (Boston, disclosure for our international reader base), let me see 1st at Wicked Mess, 2nd at Porchfest, and most recently in the confines of the Allston basement conveniently named Make Out Point. This duo cuts above the rest, or rather, flows, because of their unique arrangement – drums, and various noise configurations, that is improvisational, within the deep realm of that which I am heavily naïve. So it is the excitement of seeing something different, something not boring, actually really involved or perhaps extraordinarily loose? In a world of boring “Rock” bands, TRIM might get called out for being too weird, but this is not trolling, at least to my brittle ears.

 

ACCLIMATE YOURSELF:
SOUNDCLOUD
FU**BOOK

Big Buck Hunter, Birthing Hips, Local Music, Music

BIGBUCKHUNTER Playing Final Show? @ Grandma’s – Friday 5/27

Leave a comment

Ye ole BIGBUCKHUNTER is playing their final show? tomorrow in the cozy confines of Grandma’s House basement. Yes, it does feel a little odd to call them one of the Boston underground’s most underrated talents because every one around here is a hidden gem of sorts until they selling out the Mid East Up or some shit. It’s not like BBH are incomprehensible harsh freaks, nah to me the chemistry of Kurt (guitar/vocals) and Couch (drums) and whoever is playing bass, that is like a Pavement sense of pop, but the craziness/unpredictability of The Hunches. Loose sloppy playing, but not in a way that me saying that is believable. We will miss our man Kurt, also of Cavemen and formerly KLYAM Recs’ own Miami Doritos (two of our faves), he’s moving on to somewhere new as Nobunny would say.

So once again it’s tomorrow, May 27, Grandma’s with The Buck and the perpetually recommended weirdos ‘newcomers’ BIRTHING HIPS, Steam Traktor, and Book Reef.

FU**BOOK PAGE
 

 

 FU**BOOK PAGE

Band Spotlight, Birthing Hips, Local Music, Music, Tiffany's House, Uncategorized

Cinco De Mayo Recommendations – REQUEST FREEBIRD, TIFFANY’S HOUSE, BIRTHING HIPS

Leave a comment

Its Cinco De Mayo, you’re slizzard, you’re supposed to play in Puzzle Mansion in a quick minute, but isn’t everyone? But you decide it is maybe best to sit back, keep sucking on the 16 OZ Bud Lite Limes and let your music community know how you really feel by recommending obscure Boston bands. Looks like the Hassle got hacked or something, so you’re left with KLYAM.

Let’s start with Request Freebird. I love Request with a lot of my heart because I always have hated solo acoustic acts. Request plays electric, and his songs chord-wise are easy to play and he makes it no mystery by posting what they are on his Bandcamp. But that is not important. I’ve heard “sad” tossed around, by the singer and his followers, but to me he speaks of realities, that blend his own subjective experience – walking to Korn concerts – with stuff that pretty much all us teens and 20-somethings and 50-somethings know a thing about. So all this shit, might make you think, well you are describing what you first said you hate. I’m not a sing-a-longer, or clap a long-er, but Request is the ultimate exception. Something about his performance and music in general is like a light switch turning on or a magnet, just very attracted to its simple, ultra modern story telling, of a guy who has been doing his own thing, perhaps very awkwardly, for years. My first Request experience was at Wicked Mess, but the essence of it all – the artist who has been called ACLU Benefit and Field of Sheep – is something I’ve witnessed many a time over the past couple years. We first met on the Orange Line coming home from a Halloween show at the Elks. Our most recent non-show meetup was in front of a Whole Foods and culminated at an unopened golf course.

Tiffany’s House – damn I wish Bandcamp had an auto-replay function or something, for stuff like this. Never seen The House, maybe this weekend. Kind of like a Request thing going on, at least for my interpretation’s sake. Very Bedroom but instead of guitars and ukuleles or whatever, The House seems to just work with a keyboard and voice. The song DIRT up on the ole BC is a SONG. Hilarious bizzaro existential/lonely lyrics, minimal Dream elements. A chill JANE LA ONDA , more stretching less rambunctious physicality. Choice material.

Birthing Hips – Is there a Band Like Birthing Hips? Not that I’ve seen, not for my money. A group that can do whatever and I trust in ’em fully. That tells you shit and I’m glad. Like I’m glad that I am suckering you into reading this and you see the name BIRTHING HIPS , and you think folk ? World music ? No, I don’t know anything about music. But I think they have their shit together. There are a lot of CHANGES, a lot of ””WEird”’ things going on that you don’t see in a typical four piece incarnation, But in that way it is Psychedelic. You can’t keep up. Carrie guides the way, and her band holds no prisoners. The unpredictable gets me everytime and I hope it gets U!!!!!!!

Angry Angles, Goner, Jay Reatard, Music, Uncategorized

Angry Angles S/T – Goner Records (2016)

Leave a comment

angryangles.jpg

Formal reviews won’t do this record any good; instead the notes on the sleeve that come from those closest to Angry Angles – Alix Brown (one half of the band) and Zac and Eric from Goner Records – tell the story of the band and this record better than any music writer will. The time frame is 2005, when Jay Reatard and Alix formed the band after the dissolve of Jay’s previous group, the synth heavy “dark wave” Lost Sounds. According to Zac, Angry  Angles were Jay’s “return to punk, in a way. Still raw, but now more focused, with a pop sensibility.” They recorded a few singles in Atlanta and Memphis over the course of two years and even got some studio time in Montreal before Gonerfest 6 that culminated in three songs previously unreleased until now.

Unfortunately I was not hip to Angry Angles (or any of Jay’s pre-solo bands) prior to his death in January 2010. But upon listening to Angry Angles shortly thereafter, I was blown away. Listen after listen, this group became most certainly an all-time favorite, right up there with The Reatards and The Lost Sounds, both of which I also had no previous exposure. What stood out to me, particularly, with Angry Angles is sure they were dark and robotic (like The Lost Sounds), but they were mighty concise and sharp. Hook after hook. Jay’s quick fire/angular guitar playing, quasi Brit vocal inflection, easily identifiable drumming, and fat production – trademarks of what would be his solo style take root here. But this was a dynamic duo and Alix and Jay were musically perfect for each other, often taking the heaviest/simplest moments of Wire and Devo soundscapes and modernizing them with the relentlessness of your neighborhood garage band. It seems like Alix challenged Jay-isms to a most positive affect, to me, most apparently on “You Lied” stuffed with a more traditional sounding bouncy bass line and some piano.

Angry Angles no doubt were the basis for the direction that Jay chose to pursue throughout his mighty solo discography from Blood Visions through his final LP Watch Me Fall, which features a tune I never would have guessed was by Angry Angles — “Can’t Do It Anymore.” In fact the final three songs on here, which I mentioned were recorded in Montreal (and not by Jay himself) with drummer Ryan Rousseau, sound very much like Jay’s solo stuff. His obsession with doing it all himself, as Alix writes in her blurb about the album, gives insight into why they never saw the light of day until now. There are no ‘weak’ songs on here, all memorable jams, and I am so thankful for Goner for putting together this album. It is strange to think that over the past six years many of these songs like most of Side A and the first half of Side B have been so influential for me and I have played them over and over, if only via YouTube or a WFMU session. I’ll always say it and I know at least some others agree, the rock ‘n roll that came out of Memphis in the span of four years – 2005 to 2009 –  is simply the best. Angry Angles, The Barbaras, Girls of the Gravitron, Boston Chinks, these are my favorite groups NOW. Back then I didn’t know such wonderful raw stuff. I was a teenager from Boston, MA, listening to The Strokes and The Libertines, damn was I missing out on the real good stuff, most of it coming from Jay and his adjacent friends and cohorts. I hope this record might incite or re-ignite passion, because Angry Angles and a healthy chunk of the Goners left (and still leave) an impact on me.

Kids Like You and Me, KLYAM Presents, KLYAM Recommended Shows, Local Music, Music, Rama Lama Ding Dong

OPENING NIGHT – RAMA LAMA DING DONG – 4/28 – CLUB BOHEMIA

Leave a comment

Fest Poster

Back in the day we used to have “Hopes and Expectations” before highly anticipated shows featuring our slimy favorites. With the Rama Lama Ding Dong, the theme surrounding it is the ultimate local show that we would want to see TIMES THREE. We are grateful to be curating an experience featuring bands we consider EXCITING performers in garage, noise, punk, surf, Rock and Roll.

Opening night is Thursday, April 28 at Club Bohemia in Central Square, Cambridge. Love it or hate it, we are in the former camp and have held several fun KLYAM shows in this dank basement of the Cantab Lounge.

To kick off the festivity, KLYAM will be DJ’ing starting at 8 PM. What will we play? Ass shakers, maybe some Jandek, sure maybe some Khan, some singles from the early 1950s.

My band and I, G. Gordon Gritty, will be starting things around 9 PM. I’m not a musician, we’ve never all together played in the same room and my last gig at Bohemia we cleared the joint of aging Rockers until all but Mickey Bliss remained. Come check it out!

Next up will be Mike Mountain. I met Mike in New Bedford, his glorious hometown, about one year ago. He is joyously unpredictable, confidently moseying the musical vernacular like a guy who owns 20,000 records and favorite band is The Thinking Fellas Local Union 282. Whatever form Mike strolls to town in, it will be somethin’.

Third on the dusty billing is Andy California, perhaps the only musician who is awarded pre-arranged accommodations at the incensed Bohemia Club.  Dude recently toured Europe and yup is THAT guy from The Monsieurs and Mardi Kings. In the California incarnation, he’s strumming away – bluesy stomps – and guess what you better be payin’ attention because he swirms and swims amongst the vulnerable crowd. Not some passive pensive slinger, Cali is the look you in the eye, real deal.

One, two, three and four – Second Becky. What do we know about Second Becky? It is a band coming courtesy of Victoria from GRAVEL. A two piece. What else do we know? We know it’s a band we ought to check out, a band you ought to check out. Find out more at the show!

HEADLINING are the heavies, the behemoths of the every second is a celebratory noisy freakout FUNERAL CONE. The hardest of cores playing the Ding Dong, we’ve been wanting these cats on a KLYAM show for a while and what better occasion than this, bringing this wicked evening of craze to a close.

Come early, stay late, you know. 21+. $8