Our man Back Pages is back with you rightly guessed it – another new EP! The Orlando lone teen shredder’s Various is a mix of three acoustic recordings and one with the full band. In fact, these guys opened for NOTS last month and check on that video footage if you haven’t.
And there are Back Pages compilation tapes – Singles 13 – available on our do-worthy label KLYAM Records. That’s a lotta Back Pages, just how we like it.
Illegally Blind is at it again, putting on Boston En Masse, four days of live music at Church, which is near Fenway Park. Each night offers something a little different (check out the FB event page for a listing of bands) and it is TOMORROW NIGHT, Thursday September 18, that we are most excited to share with you all!
Presented in association with local underground music advocates BUFU Records, Boston Hassle, Fast Apple, a couple KLYAM splifft singlers – Nice Guys and Miami Doritos – are in on the action along with Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser, Boogie Boy Metal Mouth, and The Monsieurs.
Nice Guys are just about a month fresh off the release of their most recent tape, L.A.P.D. Since forming in 2012, they’ve toured the East Coast a couple of times, played at Hassle, BUFU, and Starlab Fests, shared billings with garage slammers like FIDLAR and Ex-Cult, and released their first 7″, a split with Miami Doritos on our KLYAM Records label, earlier this year. Noisy punk chaos with a tendency for instrumental explosions, break-downs, and the like. We really dig this stuff and enthusiasts all over town and beyond are takin’ note, too!
Miami Doritos are like family with Nice Guys – if you haven’t noticed already – they share a home, a member, a television set, stuff like that. They also have a tape, that before mentioned 7″, a couple tours, and tons of sweet local shows in their name. They just a duo, though, and create quite a racket amongst themselves. Their noise is crunchy, their underbelly is tastily (not tastefully) poppy. Come on down.
Ben Katzman’s Degreaser is the latest and just maybe greatest band from Katzman. Dude’s all about chilling mad hard, rokin out, and Shredding, so let’s see you in action, broooooo!!! The band’s first album Degreaser was released digitally a brief time ago and it is a cok rok love affair. Gritty, positively recalling early rock ‘n roll along the way, charming surely. Right now all I can do is picture their queezy punk pop energy, soon I will see it in the flesh!!
Boogie Boy Metal Mouth‘s hip-hop in the punk spirit holds ya hostage, at least that’s the feeling I’ve gotten from their live performances. I’m not sure what else to feel – they’re the only hip-hop group I have seen or remembered seeing. Lotta movement and interaction at the Wilder Zangcraft that time. It’s still sinking in. What they are doing is not like much I’ve seen in the Boston underground; credit their unique set-up and experimental leanings.
Headlining this En Masse shabang are The Monsieurs, who have roots in the garage underworld that date much further than my time. At any rate and at any inclination, they are maybe the most straight ahead, hook filled, no seaweed, punk trio playing local stages and non-stages. Gather together the funnest rock ‘n roll of the past 60 years or, if you’re more myopic, the gunk punk greats of the past 20, and that’s just about Monsieurs style. Ya heard it before but now it’s right in front you, in fine fashion, uttering shit in one ear, while the other’s being damaged by thick loud amps. In good fun, though.
This past weekend, starting September 4th at Club Bohemia and ending on the 6th at Cuisine En Locale, New England Underground Music Festival 2014 took place with dozens of live performances and tables (with records, tapes, and other physically pleasing artifacts) and the focus was NEW ENGLAND. Yep, lots of interesting happenings regularly evolve the participatory culture in this community – and if you don’t know what that means check out the September issue of the Boston Compass for a worthy explanation written by Sam Potrykus. Speaking of which, Sam and Dan Shea, who has long been a foremost advocate of Boston underground arts, deserve some major props for setting up NEUMF 2014 in conjunction with their nonprofit/volunteer organization, the Boston Hassle.
An event like NEUMF is sundry for us KLYAMers; you can usually find us round town at underground R’n’R events of the garage/punk variety so something like NEUMF is a brilliant step away from business as usual into the… unknown. Right on.
As we walk some paces down Highland Ave in an effort to locate Cuisine En Locale (ya gram that place you used to go for baby showers) we finally arrive, greeted by familiar company: members of Nice Guys, Phaze, The Lentils. Most always a fine salute. Then I see Gracie Jackson, the 7:20 PM performa. Aw shit she just finished playing her set! Course I tell her my disenchantment of barely missing her perform with her solo group. Must have been nice for those who got the privilege.
Walk into the main area, already up and jamming on stage are Soft Eyes. Not like I actually could tell, I mean I did get my eyes checked. Should be wearing those glasses. I step a little closer and recognize hey that’s Luke on guitar. He and crew are serving up some wailing psychedelia, spiraling guitar work with that oh so distinct organ sound. I get more and more into it as the set flows through. The last song is a faster mover in the bunch, bringing me happiness Ty Segall & White Fence style. Luke tells us they got a buncha shows coming, I’m listening!
Next up is Worn Leather who call Connecticut their home. Their three piece punchy punk I hoped would stir up the crowd a bit more, but I enjoyed boppin my head to them, most especially during the guitarist/singer’s axe solos. There are some nice possibilities with solid bass and drum behind ya and he seemed to know that!
Back to that stage that Soft Eyes was on is Lair. I remember Lair markedly well, in fact I could say they were the most memorable group that I saw at NEUMF. A duo – guitar and drums – but that’s simplifying the story. Third member was this looping station thing [i don’t play music I appreciate it it’s probably not called a looping station]. Drummer with headset, guitarist fond of intermittently screaming and talking. Lightning Bolt vibes sometimes, ‘weirder’ but more melodic Guerrilla Toss vibes, and more straight ahead doom and thunder. Lair’s presence did it for me more than the music itself, which I mean ya dawg this is all pretty new to me and maybe hundreds of others. We’ll see!
Next band I peered deep into was Video Nasties. As they’re playing, I’m thinking damn what I am going to say about these guys. I love ’em. Never saw ’em before, never heard of them, but wow I don’t even think I can articulate what I’m hearing! That kinda thing. There was a unique energy to their set – maybe it was the dude who was pacing back and forth dancing. Not just a dude but a singer in the band. I hardly noticed the off-stage microphone until he started speaking into it! Hahaha. No drummer necessary…they got machines for that. Also a dude on synths (who sang, too, I believe) and a tall man guitarist/singer. Their stage presence, clang, and strut like DEVO, maybe a super chilled out Lost Sounds. I was into everything they did. Count me most impressed, keep rockin dudes.
At one time KLYAM delved briefly into the world of Electronic Music courtesy of our Queen’s brother Richard Franke. I am not a rock ‘n roll purist or anti-electronic music… I just happen to really love and prefer raw, fun, exciting, live instrument aided rock ‘n roll music. But I can get down with dance music, finding some sounds pleasing, riveting even, when I hear them. That’s exactly the case with JEROME. I totally dug his mix which I guess some could simply call ‘techno’ but I’ll stick with the term beats. A whole bunch of us were dancing, maybe it looked funny from a far. I dunno, don’t care. Fun times.
The Lentils here we come. Lentil Luke was feeling in a more relaxing mood – he said it himself. And with the aid of Gracie Jackson (guitar) and Ben Katzman (drums) alongside his trusty mate Nehemiah (bass), why not everyone take a seat and bear witness to the mouthy, crisp Velvet autumn reflections of Mister Luke. The way he writes songs, they kinda float along wistfully, and the crew follows along, sprinkling some leads, adding some OoOmph. If Vermont was the United Kingdom, it’s all good! The past couple of inclinations of the band that I saw were harder rockin (they took a seat here too) so a gent like me mighta been surmising something like that but this was a neat surprise and cool to see some familiar faces take part in it.
(New England) Patriots there’s no mistaking them. Leaders of the night pack – they play this late for a reason. Crowd flips a lid like no other band performing this night, moshing, crowd surfing. They’ve seen these guys before. I think. I hadn’t. What? Ya thats crazy. Glad I did. Chaotic, noisy – louder than Bob Kraft’s private jet. They’ve garnered the acclaim of many women and men and in between and I am now involved in their schemes, in the front row, seeing these Pats bounce back and forth. Good exercise doesn’t come without some sweat. Alla Boston’s noise outfits of recent years aren’t just spitting distortion and incoherence, there always be some hooks and candied fun to their game. Pats got that. Special Teams.
Now for the grand finale here. Minibeast featuring Peter Prescott (drummer in Mission of Burma) on guitar/keyboard/effects and a few other musicians on other instruments. Not ya typical rock band – off beam experimentation with some poppier flare now and then. One of those ‘wowza’ live experiences that gets you or me confused in a good kind of way. Throw any and all biases and expectations out the window. Course the night was a little fuzzy at this point!
Mavis The Dog has created his own universe of music. The sort of universe that I’m speaking about can be detected on some real spectacular records of the past few years like Girls of the Gravitron’s Magnetic Mountain and The Electric Bunnies Through The Magical Door and it is one of those ‘I know it when I hear it’ experiences that transports you into a modernly bucolic listening environment. The creative freedom pursued by the masterminds of these records definitely transcends what we might easily define as rock ‘n roll, punk, garage, folk, or anything like that. The ‘outsider’ MO, which is so thoughtfully made digestible by Irwin Chusid’s Songs in the Key of Z (highly recommended reading!), begins and ends with making satisfying music to your own ears.
Mavis The Dog from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is responsible for three and a half album’s worth of original material that was self-released digitally and on tape between April 2011 and March 2012. Mavis, whose internet presence is currently limited to his blog on which you can freely download every MTD album, has not released any new songs since, but that does not mean that this home studio solo phenom hasn’t been at work transmitting his headspace into bouncy, dreamy, psychedelic rock ‘n roll. He’s got a new batch of songs all set, he’s just ironing out some others in the mean time. I first found out about Mavis through DJ Boots Lobelle’s Don’t Paint Your Teeth WVKR radio show. Boots Lobelle’s programming pairs older outsider/DIY classics like Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair with newer artists whose approaches are just as bizarre and brilliant. After hearing Mavis played, I was able to track down his blog along with other websites that featured his music from a couple of years ago. I was instantly hooked and my fascination hasn’t faded. Mavis has been my car ride to work CD for some time now. My playlist is a personalized Best-Of that pulls tunes from all of his albums, but definitely takes a majority from The Second Album.
“The Beach Boys have a great lyric, “sometimes I feel very sad” which repeats and is sung over a happy sounding progression. That contrast creates an emotion that is neither sad or happy and I can only relate it to the feeling of nostalgia. But it’s not nostalgia. It’s something else that’s completely new. And even though the lyric itself is totally simple and childlike, when it’s combined with the incredible melody it becomes impactful. That’s the feeling I’m trying to get” is what Mavis tells me in a kind email correspondence. Of course I was curious enough to hear from Mavis himself. I really feel what he means and the way I think of it is that Mavis’ music reflects euphoric old memories, although often with contemporary anxieties and frustrations. In my mind, it is the positively radiant melodies and rhythms that take favor, claiming responsibility for the beauty and landscape of the MTD universe. The house might be dirty on the inside, but it sure looks fine from above.
Mavis The Dog has a sense of humor about things – “Should I go fishing with the Governor’s child? Should I kiss her when she doesn’t smile? Or should I leave her and forget!” (From “Nothing To Do” on The Dog Days of Mavis). Any number of his lyrics contain plenty of lines that seem specific to Mavis, but sound about right to any music maker: “I’ll be at the basement, lady, writing up a new one, lady, I’m not hoping someday you will say,’I love you too, yes I do, yes I do’. (From “Throw Me A Stone” on The Second Album“). Armed with instrumentation and a simple style a la Johnston and White Fencian experimental production flourishes, Mavis The Dog says this about his songwriting: “The good songs write themselves. After that it’s just layering and embellishing which is the most fun part for me. That’s usually the step where the genre is determined.”
The Philly native cut his teeth in The Eeries (a superb DIY garage/pop band that put out an LP Home Alone on Evil Weevil earlier this decade) before going Mavis, bringing back the memories. Sleepy, whisper, haunts. Old girls. Then there’s some tunes that I don’t know how I missed the few times around that dodge the familiar: “$$$” stands on its own two with bass, voice, and some ambient instrumental effects. It’s not complete Mavis – it’s a diversion from the familiar song format. Bouncing a long, confidently directionless. But as far as that universe thing that I mentioned up top, the entire catalog is strongly steeped in one man’s chronicle. Yeah, you, go for it.
Mavis The Dog’s Blog: http://mavisthedog.blogspot.com/
Boston Fuzzstival 2014 organized by Illegally Blind’s Jason Trefts is going down tomorrow (Saturday August 2nd) afternoon and evening at The Middle East Upstairs (starting at 1 PM) and Downstairs (starting at 6 PM) and features exactly 15 bands of the garage/psych/surf/pop variety — exactly the styles of music that we appreciate most around here on KLYAM! Of course this is an event we’ve been looking forward to for months and if you remember back to last year Chris cranked out a review of the event as soon as he got home from it. It is a wonderful thing to see underground rock ‘n roll of this kind making the rounds around local blogs; just head over to the Fuzzstival FB event page to read a bunch of posts about Fuzzstival and the bands playing it.
KLYAM’s pretty energetic about the bands we care about. We’re also eager to see any bands we have not had the pleasure to see yet. I’m just going to say some words about some bands I have seen and really really dig:
GYMSHORTS – Playing at 2:25 UPSTAIRS – Providence scum surf roquers blasted into existence about one year ago, but it just might seem like they’ve been around longer with the amount of shows they’ve been playing around New England and New York. Sarah leads the pack in their mosh friendly jams on vocals/guitar while Devin complements her with fuzzy lead twang. I think this will be about my tenth time seeing them and it’s always a real fun time! [LISTEN]
TELEVIBES – Playing at 3:00 UPSTAIRS – North Shore ass jigglers / ball ticklers – course these words are courtesy of Chris, but I agree completely – playing that slimy Migsian stuff that’s had us in a tizzy since hearing their Washed Up EP and damn that release show is still one for the record books. It’s been seven months since – far too long a wait for us so the anticipation runs highhhhh. [LISTEN]
BEWARE THE DANGERS OF A GHOST SCORPION – Playing at 3:45 UPSTAIRS – Everybody ought to pace themselves at this point – I mean on any other day these guys would probably be playing at 12 AM and closing out festivities. Two weeks ago they put an end to STARLAB FEST and wow I fondly recall bopping up, down, and around, perhaps at one point falling as they pounded out southern evil Dicky Dale instrumental after southern evil Dicky Dale instrumental. Guess I just suck at describing surf and should stick to bumping into people with a shit eating grin. Must see group! [LISTEN]
CREATUROS – Playing at 4:30 UPSTAIRS – Have seen these new era Boston garage/psych legends (a term I’ll use loosely to let the crowd response to their 2013 Fuzzstival set do the talking) rather intermittently over the past couple of years. I was really won over when they opened for FUZZ at Great Scott last fall. That was a killer set… then just a bit ago they dropped ‘SHORT SHORTS‘ a pure garage pop goldie. Forgive me for not really knowing any of their other songs by heart, I will know that one! [LISTEN]
ATLANTIC THRILLS – Playing at 6:00 DOWNSTAIRS – Alrighty garage bro so you know the Atlantic Thrills, you read about ’em online somewhere. OK yes it was probably here. We’ve championed their rock ‘n roll since the year 2011, about three years before they dropped their first LP (KLYAM recommended obviously). Tripped to Providence a bunch of times to catch them in their abode and have had some really memorable experiences both on stage and off stage in their presence. Very happy to hear that they are kicking things off DOWNSTAIRS (where they once opened for Those Darlins), here’s to another round of sloppy debauchery. [LISTEN]
THE FAGETTES – Playing at 9:00 DOWNSTAIRS – Without feeling like a local rock n roll snob, I am confident calling The Fagettes the Boston kings and queens of the garage, flower punk style. They have a history of playing with some of the world’s finest rock n roll bands (NOBUNNY, Shannon and the Clams, Hunx and His Punx) and that is surely no coincidence. The energy, vocal trade-offs of Ryan and Melanie, dueling drums, sax here and there, the noisy POP racket, I could go on and on. You wanna feel good. Catch THE FAGETTES. [LISTEN]
FAT CREEPS – Playing at 9:45 DOWNSTAIRS – We’ve seen the Creeps the most out of all the bands at Fuzzstival about three times over, which should not come as a shocker to anyone as we’re intense supporters from way back. They just released their first LP Must Be Nice [pick one up if you haven’t, along with their klyammy debut 10″ of course] and IT’s great! For those who like both the sun and the shade, the fast and the slow, Fat Creeps pack ’em all and their live show is a stellar reflection of what’s got the Americans, Europeans, and Japanese going nuts!! [LISTEN/BUY 10″]
NEW HIGHWAY HYMNAL – Playing at 12:15 DOWNSTAIRS – What better way to cap off this night than with New Highway Hymnal, emblematic diplomats of the meaning of FUZZSTIVAL. K, didn’t mean to get that deep all of a sudden, except I’m telling the truth here. Psych/garage/surf/noise The New Highway Hymnal can dismantle a Lowell basement and a 575 capacity venue just the same. Don’t think I’ve seen them since Charlie joined on guitar, should be sweeeeet! Heads up crowd you might get bumped in the head by Hadden’s guitar, but you’ll love it all the same. [LISTEN]
Ausmuteants of Geelong, Australia are coming thru to the United States…importantly to GONERFEST 11, but with dates before and after that throughout the East Coast / Midwest / West Coast, including BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS on October 1st at Midway Cafe. Synthy punk, pure fun, go along YouTube ’em or just git at their album Amusements.
9/20 – Tempe, AZ @ 51west w/ Detached Objects, Womb Tomb, Blanche Beach
9/23 – Austin, TX @ Beerland
9/24 – New Orleans, LA @ Saturn Bar w/ Buck Biloxi and the Fucks
9/25 – Memphis, TN @ GONERFEST 11 w/ Grifters, Radioactivity, So Cow, Golden Pelicans, Ross Johnson?s ?Like Flies On Sherbert? Revue
9/26 – Louisville, KY @ Cropped Out Fest
9/29 – Durham, NC @ Duke Coffeehouse
9/30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda?s w/ Dan?l Boone, Lantern
10/1 – Boston, MA @ Whitehaus
10/2 – Brooklyn, NY @ Death By Audio
10/4 – Detroit, MI @ PJ?s Lager House w/ Odonis Odonis
10/5 – Chicago, IL @ The Owl
10/6 – St. Louis, MO @ Melt w/ Lumpy & the Dumpers
10/7 – Minneapolis, MN @ Hexagon w/ Real Numbers
10/10 – Portland, OR @ Dante?s w/ King Khan & BBQ Show
10/11 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile w/ King Khan & BBQ Show
10/15 – San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern
10/17 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Smell
New song!
NOBUNNY – yes yes the mightiest rock ‘n roller, the liveliest of animen – is Breakfast of Champions (this is the classic WMBR 88.1 radio program) BAND OF THE WEEK for this week – starting today July 28th, 2014.
What does this mean? It means if you tune in from 8 AM to 10 AM EST or drum up the archives, you can hear 3 NOBUNNY songs in a row daily, yo. This is amazing, if you ask me. Selected by the DJs so there’s sure to be some variation. Though major props to Becca… she’s responsible for the overall selection of NOBUNNY so everyone be sure to thank her.
I’ll link ya right to the WMBR site: http://wmbr.org/www/sched-mul#boc
I love my Nobunny songs just about equally as a rabid devotee but if I was manning the boards I’d delicately place this one on for sure:
Ya huh MINA’S WORLD is Sonam’s (case you are not acclimated, she runs top shelf local booking staple Fast Apple) new label and she’s starting things with a gunky bang – releasing Sick Thoughts newest tape Last Beat of Death in the oh so limited quantity of 50. Turbulent trash pop from the fecund teen punk who’ll be releasing more 7″s from the big guys of the garage. Kinda hard not to go krei along with these angry rippers… props to MINAS WORLD on their premiere release, a winner.
Boston’s own Free Pizza has hit the road once again, bringing their fun punk down the United States and back up again. The best place for you to check where to see them in those cities (on the poster above) is the FASCIST BOOK: https://www.facebook.com/events/771957836196021/
Do check ’em out, we try to as often as we can, but we spoiled being here in BOS.
Band: The Electric Bunnies
Year: 2009
Label: Florida’s Dying
Some people might be wired to just not accept this kinda stuff, but if you’re one of the lucky ones, these kinds of records are audible blessings… you ‘get it’ or better yet it just resonates along with the other demented recordings in your library. Like Girls of the Gravitron and Kazalok (to name two bands whose records I acquired via the label that put this one out, Florida’s Dying), Electric Bunnies march in their own universe, to their own conceptual beat, and that’s that. Through The Magical Door is far more psychedelic, eastern sounding, and tribal than those records I mentioned, but it operates along that noisy/garage/folk/luscious pop spectrum which I can not seem to get enough of. The first four songs of Side A and the first two of Side B flow like early Barbaras and Smith Westerns goodies. Sunny punk. There are instrumental oddities galore and big deviations from the standard rock ‘n roll format. I like. The gatefold design and included board game speaks to the VIR of this release. Yes, it is worth the physical luxury. Listening to Through The Magical Door makes me feel like I am in on something like-minded underground heads may have missed (again!) so you like-minded underground heads scurry to your store of choice (Florida’s Dying web store) and get on it. It’s out there, weird, and not straightforward. Like you and me. Personally, I would not be surprised if in due listens this splits time alongside all my favorites I mentioned above. Good work Rich.
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 