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!)

Recently Added – 6/9/10

As you can see, what was purported to be a “weekly column” is now a kind of erratic, buckshot tradition.  I’ve got a little catch-up to play, so I’m doing new submissions with a few older ones as well for the time being, in greater quantity to cover more ground.  And this will actually be a weekly thing (or semiweekly) once I chew through the back-catalog a little bit.

But speaking of “I this” and “I that,” it’s now finally “We!”  Patrick Coman is from Nashville but has been living in Boston for a while now, making some warm-with-an-edge, southern-tinged music (his album “Southern Storms” is on Band Over Boston and at his website, www.patrickcoman.com), and he’s now heading up an arm of the Band Over Boston progress.  He’s also agreed to help with the “Recently Added” features.  So, here we go – Patrick’s first entry!

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RICHARD JAMES

LP: “Along the Way”

Richard James gives Along The Way the full band treatment with ten lush, dreamy psych pop tunes. Introspective piano ballads are interspersed with swirling upbeat numbers like “Maybe I’m Crazy” and “Wicked Island”. James’ vintage tinged tracks have a massive sound that is reminiscent of 70s-era George Harrison, Donovan, and, at their most epic, ELO.

AWAIT RESCUE

EP: “Hold the Ground”

Await Rescue hits the ground running on Hold the Ground and doesn’t let up throughout their 8 song EP. Jacob Yackshaw’s jazz-flavored bass lines provide some nice low end support and give the rest of the band room to soar. If you’re looking for a hard rock antidote to that indie/pop/electro flavor of the month, this is it.

BLACKBUTTON

EP: “Gun Shot Lover” / LP:  “That Thing You Want To Put A Finger To Is Because”

Blackbutton plays great swampy blues/rock with enough dirt to sound right at home in some backwoods juke joint. Although only a duo, these guys make more than enough noise to get heads nodding and fists pumping. Guitars/vocalist J. M. Tavenner’s voice has an authentic whiskey-and-cigarettes growl, especially on standout tracks like “Babygirl” and “Gray”.

- Patrick Coman

Recently Added – 6/6/10

CALL IT THE TRUTH

EP: “Fight for Your Life”

There’s a nice, funky swing and jazzy bed to this music, even when they’re laying into swooping rock choruses; the guitarist jives and the drummer fills against pulsing bass, giving the songs, even at their biggest, that danceability.  Call It the Truth seems to be defining their own line between funk, sing-along jam, pop, and rock, and they’re at their most memorable when the whole band lands together on kicks that make you want to sing along with them.

VERB THE ADJECTIVE NOUN

EP’s: “Novella,” “Reds”

There are two very different sides of the band set in relief by these two EP’s, but, like an optical illusion, it’s how they complement each other that forms the focus.  Like a scene at a bar, things are boisterous here and melodramatic there; there’s introspection, camaraderie, stumbling, shouting, and, yes, some singing along. If the genuinely folksy vocals on the slower numbers don’t find their way under your skin and make you feel the music, well… you can always go drink with the rock crowd instead.

GHOST BOX ORCHESTRA

EP: “The Only Light On”

This is music to watch Baraka or Koyaanisqatsi to.  There are seriously groovy sections (see if the opening of “The Lodge” doesn’t get you bobbing), washes of guitar, and expertly-chosen flourishes like chimes, barely-there vocals, percussion, cymbal sweeps, and a few effects I can’t even exactly name, but suspect come from a guitar.  This EP fearlessly goes where few have gone before – it’s a long march, but it’s something like traveling with a hooded and mysterious companion, one that keeps you glancing and guessing the whole way.

BARN

LP: “Solace,” Three Singles

I got “Solace” by Barn from my friends over at F Nice Records, and I spent fifteen minutes looking for him online to ask his permission to include the music in Band Over Boston.  Is he a willfully faceless voice in local music?  Or is he just, as he says, “terrible at promotion?”  I don’t yet really know who the man behind the music is, but one thing is clear – he can rock.  There’s a disarming humility and huskiness to both his voice and the songs, which leaves you a little surprised to find hooks like “Annadean,” riffs like “Whisky and Guns,” and even drum beats like “Tonight!” stuck in your head later.  He sounds stubbornly stuck in the rock days of yore, but who’s complaining?  I ain’t.

- Cullen Corley

New Column: Recently Added!

This blog is about the website’s creation, evolution; the process of the ideas that will, at last, serve as Band Over Boston’s inner workings.  Given the blog’s amorphous and process-oriented stance, then, I hope you’ll forgive the shockingly sterile working title for a new weekly column I’m starting right this very minute:  “Recently Added!”  (fireworks)

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WALTER SICKERT & THE ARMY OF BROKEN TOYS

LP’s:  “SteamShipKillers” ; “Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys”

An intensely vivid trip through an ash-gray landscape.  The music rolls in the muck and howls at the sky; it’s dirty and raw and resonates with jangling strings, various acoustic percussion, wilting orchestrals and horns, and, above all, Walter Sickert’s lyrics – growled, slanted, chanted, chugged, belted, and, yes, sung. And when he sings, he means it.

THE SUN LEE SUNBEAM

LP: “Beneath the Burning Sky”

Old-school pop (when it was pop) bounces off graffiti’d building sides in this marriage (or fling, at least) between the rock of today and yesterday.  The songs propel and compel – Sun Lee’s voice romps and rolls and gets tangled in the sheets with the band, but seems to, well… control the proceedings.  If you aren’t one to twist, then those sweet hooks will at least shimmy in your ears all night.

SIDEWALK DRIVER

Selections from their LP, “For All the Boys and Girls”

What can be said about Sidewalk Driver that hasn’t been already?  They’re pop royalty, but they don’t preach or issue decrees – they lead by example.  Tight, chugging guitars, perfectly-placed harmonies, and an impeccable rhythm section set the stage for Tad’s skipping over, weaving through, and soaring high above.

- Cullen Corley

A Note to Musicians on the Library

pasted below is a message I sent to members of the Band Over Boston Facebook group earlier.  I know, I know – this is a blog!  write something new!  alas, it’s my brother’s graduation week and there’s much to be done.  a new band feature and website news are coming soon.

MUSICIANS ON THE LIBRARY – take a few minutes and forward the information requested below to me, whenever you have time.  no rush, but I’m trying to get band bios, etc. together sooner than later.  danke!

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[...] just email this information to submit@bandoverboston.com . you can also just link me to the information – I would have just copied from websites, but I’d prefer as up-to-date as possible – but if your Myspace or Facebook or whatever has the bio, photo, genres, etc., then link me to it and I’ll grab it myself:

- a MAIN CONTACT EMAIL,

- ONE OR TWO WEBSITES you’d like people to be linked to (main site and Facebook, etc), along with or including A PERMANENT SITE TO DOWNLOAD OR PURCHASE YOUR MUSIC FROM (this is important!), so there can be a link right by your music in the library to forward people to to get your music if they like it. (if you don’t have web hosting, something like www.bandcamp.com or even a web drop box),

- a BRIEF BIO (~5-8 sentences long),

- a BAND PHOTO,

- and GENRE – one umbrella genre (rock, electronica, hip hop, jazz), then two or three subs (post-modern, punk, noise-core, two-step, Pixies-esque, Beach, doo-wop, whatever you want!).

I couldn’t be more excited about the website. and this information will help us realize its fullest expression. it’ll be great.

thanks so much for the information, guys! hope you had a great weekend.