XIII. Gibby and the Buzzkills asked us to play their CD release a few months ago, and I listened to their debut EP a number of times in the weeks prior to the show. My first reaction was that they were great songs, but not very inventive. But I kept listening, and was especially struck [...]

VIII. RALPH EATS DYNAMITE are engaged to Red Quiet. We first encountered these wackos at the ever-glamorous All Asia sometime in the faint beginnings of summer in 2008, which was possibly the most fortuitous weekend for us in Red Quiet history. We played a set at 6:00 on a Thursday afternoon—I can’t remember why—and the [...]

V. THE MUSICAL THEATRE’s real name is Matty Studivan. I first met him at a BBQ in Chelmsford, where we shared our first bill at one of Olivia Dynamite’s house shows. The Quiet split early and drove back to Cambridge; I hung out and watched Matty wend his way through a dozen songs on his [...]

VI. ABRAM TABER is a musician’s musician. He plays in almost every band, a few of which are The Musical Theatre, Verre, Glancy, Dubler & Taber and Sound w/Sound. Past projects are almost too many to list, but the highlights include Parafin Section, Pyotr, the Slurred Murrays and Abermathy.
This year Abram prepared an album Two [...]

I.  STREIGHTANGULAR is the best band ever. The first time I was supposed to meet Albert Polk—his name was still Alexis back then—I got stood up. We were supposed to see Comets on Fire at the Middle East, but Al had been banned the night before for putting a sticker on one of the club’s [...]

II. HEALTH&BEAUTY is the moniker of Brian J. Sulpizio. Hailing rom Chicago’s Near-Northwest Side, Brian is equal parts jazz drummer and rock n’ roll guitarist. Health&Beauty began in 2004, and has since had approximately a dozen collaborators across two albums. When Health&Beauty joined us for our October Residency at the now-defunct Abbey Lounge in 2008, [...]

IX. The premier RADIO CONTROL record sounds like they recorded K. Control’s drums in an unused hanger at Logan Airport. Lookeehere, you pimply rock and roll adolescents, this is how it’s done: write a song with a dirty guitar line, ride the fuck out of the floor tom, and start screaming WE DRINK WE DRINK [...]

III.  THE DARKER HUES. This stuff is vintage Vermont punk. Not that punk—the halfass watered-down straightedge fucks you find on every corner of Burlington—I’m talking punk with a brain. Punk that is punk enough to give punk the finger and play something else. They’re DIY enough to understand DDIY. Since we met them on Memorial [...]

VII. LADDERLEGS references haunting work of Entrance, who is quite possibly my favorite artist of all time. Both artists understand that the curious aspect of this thing we call rock is the expectation of eventual self-destruction. Take Elvis, for example. Or Jim Morrison and his Doors. Or Hendrix daisy-chaining Marshall power amps. Even the guitar’s [...]

are something of a rock and roll phenomenon. Justin–guitar and vocals and whatever else he feels like doing–plays a baritone guitar with standard guitar strings through a gigantic bass amp with 18″ speakers. Which, in case you don’t play guitar, is fucking nuts. Their sound is loud and ballsy with a deep, crushing low end, [...]