This Post May Be Banished…

… to WordPress purgatory, but I hereby forward you:

http://bandoverboston.blogspot.com

(It’s boranj.  I’ll give it a facelift after this weekend.  But damned if WordPress lets me do everything I want it to do.)

Spring(ing)

Well, the patio door is open and the breeze says winter is dwindling away.

Submissions have continued through the heavy winter months, but BOB’s been hibernating.  A long fling with a web programmer who ultimately had to leave the project made me want to step back, reevaluate, and fund-raise a little bit.  (Okay, a very little bit – but seeds are small.)  Plus, everyone’s busy (as is always the case), but in the face of long-building expectations for a website that didn’t work out, it was just easier to wait until the time was right once more.

Two computers just came in the mail and I’ve come up with a plan.  Here’s to shaking the snow from the eyes and budding once more.

Now on Band Over Boston: Interviews

Max Bowen of Citywide Blackout is adding a special new dimension to BOB’s library.

Max has been bringing you Citywide Blackout via Cyberstation USA for over a year.  It’s a weekly institution, airing every Thursday evening at 10pm.  Max has had guests visit his studio, and he’s also covered events live.  He has honed his interviewing arts into a incisive, discerning weapon.  I hear CIA operatives listen to his tapes in Interrogation 201.

Best of all (and you probably could have guessed this part), Max focuses on local Boston-area music and the musicians who make it.

Now, a selection of Max’s interviews will be hosted on Band Over Boston’s music library.  Starting with Max’s material, I’ll be making a new playlist within Band Over Boston – interviews – and you’ll be able to listen to a selection of Max’s archive at your leisure.  Sweet!

Check Max out on Thursdays at 10pm here and at Citywide Blackout’s blog.

Interviews being added on 7/31:  Highway Ghosts, Kimberly Bomba, Protean Collective, and Three Day Threshold.

The Highway’s “Forest People” is Deli Magazine New England’s Album of the Month

Hey, all,

The Deli New England is now featuring my spotlight of The Highway‘s Forest People as its Album of the Month for July.  You’ll definitely see echoes of my “Recently Added” post about Forest People in the review, but the feature at the Deli goes into more detail.

Head over to The Deli New England, look to the right of the page, and scroll down until you see it.  The tall, thin CD of the Month box is there.

Apologies for post scarcity as of late.  I’ve still been adding music to the Band Over Boston library amidst the chaos, so there’s some great new stuff up there for you to check out.  I owe you “Recently Added” posts – if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you probably have my phone number, and harassment calls or texts for your music to be featured are allowed and encouraged.  Just sign all threats, please, so I can keep organized.

- Cullen Corley

Musicians: All Asia Radio Needs Your Music!

Marc Shulman, the founder of and friendly face often behind the bar at All Asia in Central Square, is looking to compile a playlist.  Yes, it may be the mightiest playlist undertaking in recent history:  he wants to select some of the best music from every band that has ever played All Asia.

I’d imagine about 90% of the folks reading this have stood on that tiny stage and made too much sound for the space.  And that 90% is probably about 5% of the whole.  Marc has opened his doors to bands without band names and established heavyweights alike; musicians without recordings, one-man promotion teams, personal parties, open mics, wing eating contests set to music – just about every permutation of people on stage with things that make noise, with some damn good musicians thrown in for good measure.

The playlist will be played over the house systems both at All Asia and at his lounge in Taiwan!  Local Boston music setting the scene overseas?  Sounds great to me.

So Band Over Boston has offered to help.  To get some of that golden passive exposure, just head right on over to our web drop box here .  The password is “inhousecafe”.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  In the “Your Name” field, please add AAR after your musician or band name so I know what the submission is for!

If you’d also like your music to be on the Band Over Boston library (see “What’s B.O.B.?” if you don’t know what we’re about), email me at submit@bandoverboston.com and ask for inclusion to both AAR and BOB.

And if you already have music on BOB but have played at All Asia and want to have your music on Marc’s playlist, shoot me a simple email me at submit@bandoverboston.com and let me know.  I’ll get your music added to his playlist as well.

Thanks for your time!  I’m excited about this easy source of passive exposure both close to home and across the pond.  Here’s looking forward,

- Cullen Corley

New Blogface

Hey, folks,

The website has me all sorts of titillated.  Joan and I have been bouncing some ideas back and forth, and it’s really looking solid.  I can’t wait to show you, and, I’m happy to report, there should be some form of it online within a couple short weeks.

In the meantime, thank you for keeping up with what’s happening on the blog.  As you may have noticed (unless you’re a new friend), it’s undergone a bit of a face lift.  I hope you like it.

I’d like to point out some new pages up above on the upper toolbar.  I’ve finally gotten all my links in one place in the “Make Contact” tab.  I now have some easy resources for musicians relevant to the library linked in the “Hey, Musicians!” tab.  And “Community” holds some bitchin’ links you should check out whether you’re a music maker or a music lover or both, all relevant to the Boston scene.  I’ll be adding to that list in the work-a-holic but scattered, ongoing-by-way-of-disorganized fashion that is my wont, so keep an eye on it.  Also, “The Bands” is still growing…

Any suggestions?  Wishes?  Want to write about some of the dope albums being submitted to Band Over Boston, in paragraph “Recently Added” form, or in longer feature form?  Shoot me an email at cullen@bandoverboston.com !

Finally, I have a cool partnership I’ll be announcing soon!

Keep it real, y’all,

Cullen

Recently Added – 6/21/10

DEAF COUNTRY

EP: “Ultra Mega Gold”

From the opening drum loop of “Full Spectrum Bulbs,” soaked in reverb and grand enough to move mountains, it’s apparent that this is an immersion-minded album, whether it’s right in your ears or blanketing the dance floor.  Infectious synths slide and cascade down over sawtooth basslines; other production choices range from tinkling piano to chunky, power guitar, and give each song its own character.  There’s even a little spoken word, right out of the 80′s, and the bonus Broken Social Scene cover brings indie rock right into Deaf Country’s bubbling, shimmering world. “Ultra Mega Gold” wants you to dance, but if you must listen sitting, it will settle for a smile.

BACCHUS KING

LP: “Bacchus King”

I’ve seen rock bands stir up mosh pits and then stop everything or even leave stage when things get too ugly, but I imagine Bacchus King just rocks harder when the picket tips. “Medicine” stomps with dead-eye tunnel vision as if to challenge rock as we know it to duel. “Snake Oil” is a slinky, glint-eyed loomer.  “God Only Knows (What I Do),” a drawly, bluesy meditation, almost sounds ready to bare its soul in a grandiose chorus until it twists into a discontented, steely scowl staring right into yours. This is the spirit of the lost desperado, here to shake you out of those comfortable, worn-in boots.  Sure, you could run, but the revolution hasn’t sounded this powerful in ages.

THE HIGHWAY

LP: “Forest People”

I’ll confess that I’ve looked forward to this album ever since I first shared the stage with The Highway about three years ago.  Despite the years in between, the LP doesn’t disappoint.  This rock is pure and heartfelt; every unexpected chord means as much musically as do Tortoledo’s lyrics on brotherhood and strife, oneness and differences, despair and optimism. There are expanses of psychedelia that pull you down in the spirals on the backs of your eyelids before snarled-lip riff explosions that less demand than command attention.  There are subtle (and not-so-subtle) tempo and rhythm changes that guide you all over the rock map, and even, briefly, as far away as South America and France.  Most memorable for this listener, though, are the layered vocal melodies and deep chord progressions that, for all the psychedelic spinning and rock attitude, bring something a little less expected to the genre – heart, spirit, and even beauty.

- Cullen Corley

Ticket Giveaway – New England Americana Festival Summer Series

This coming Thursday marks the inaugural evening of NEAF’s Summer Series at the Hard Rock Cafe, Boston! Narragansett will provide the suds, and six fantastic, local bands will make you sway, jig, boogie, sing along, and appreciate the warm energy of a good-hearted tradition on a summer evening. NEAF started back in February and sold out Club Church three times.  Join them for the next chapter of this spirited movement.

Speaking of which, I have three pairs of FREE tickets to give away!  Email cullen@bandoverboston.com to claim yours.  Come, drink, make merry!

Check out the website for more information, and check back here soon for features about the bands participating and their music!

http://www.newenglandamericanafestival.com/Summer_Series.html

Recently Added – 6/18/10

JOE TURNER & THE SEVEN LEVELS

LP: “Between Two Seconds,” EP: “Triplets EP,” Single: “Tuesday Afternoon”

I always love a good drummer turned frontman story, so I was eager to check out Joe Turner & the Seven Levels. 15 tracks of vintage psychedelic rock later, and I’m still holding out hope for every guy sweating behind the kit and harboring lead singer ambitions. Lush orchestration complete with swirling organ and synth beds definitely give these songs a trippy 1960s vibe, which, like the music of that era, make this a great album to listen to alone with the headphones on.

TAVONNA MILLER

EP: “4 Songs I Wish I Wrote & 1 I Actually Did”

Soul and R&B are the dominant flavors on this EP of (mostly) cover tunes by Tavonna Miller. The Berklee grad gives the songs a soulful melismatic workout, especially on her gospel tinged version of Jill Scott’s “My Petition.”  Tavonna’s original, “Me and My Baby,” features only her voice and a piano, providing ample space for her voice to breathe and explore; the EP might focus on what she wishes she wrote, but the last track shows a unique writing voice shining from behind its influences.

AXEMUNKEE

LP: “Sidewalk Mary”

While I generally don’t listen to a lot of instrumental music, Catherine Capozzi (aka Axemunkee) certainly proves capable of communicating without lyrics. Distorted bluesy guitar licks take center stage, while spoken word fragments briefly flutter across the spectrum only to fade away. Capozzi’s hard grooving back up band allows her to cut loose with sheets of guitar, especially on stompers like “Blas Famous” and “Slinky Mistress.”

- Patrick Coman (with a teeny bit of Cullen Corley)

Hot Off the Presses: We Got Pressed

Performer Mag did a write-up on Band Over Boston!  Check it out by downloading the free .pdf of the June, 2010 issue at their website and flipping to page 55.  Pretty cool!

I did a recording session with Nate Leskovic, the general editor, a while back.  We were backing up a mutual friend, Daniel Tortoledo (of The Highway), on some solo material of his in Brighton.  We’d never met, but the two of us stepped outside for some non-studio air and got to talking.  We became friends on Facebook, and when I started the “Band Over Boston” Facebook group, he was the first member.  Those little random connections – everyone says it, but those really can be the most electric when you run across people who you get along with, who might share your point of view on things, and who dig on what you’re doing.  (I refer you now to an amazing spoken word track – “Talk to Strangers” by Saul Williams.)

Anyway, Performer did the interview before I had a definite game plan or knew exactly what I wanted to do with the project beyond the iTunes installment at In House Cafe, Allston, so it’s evolved a bit since.  But check out the article if you’re curious.  And thank you, Nate and Chrisanne, for the plug!  Here’s looking forward to the next recording session with new music and new people.

(Speaking of new music, look for a new “Recently Added” and some more band features soon.  I’m listening to the new Highway album, “Forest People,” at the moment, actually, and looking forward to adding it to the library tomorrow morning.  Better than 90% of the major label rock records I’ve heard this year!)