Good times hanging in the WFNX studio today with Jen de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain of veteran Boston rock band ALOUD, who play T.T. The Bear's Place in Cambridge tomorrow night with Lifestyle and the Daily Pravda. The duo performed a stripped down set on the show today, unveiling two new songs, "After the Plague" and "Don't Let It Get You Down," and selected a majority of the show's playlist.
Oh, Massachusetts, you just have to go mess with an awesome thing. Two state reps on the South Shore have opposed the crusade to name THE MODERN LOVERS' "Roadrunner" the official rock song of Massachusetts by filing their own pick: Aerosmith's "Dream On."
Wake up, people. It's time to drive faster to the State House.
Last week, we reviewed the excellent new Arbutus Records compilation of Sean Nicholas Savage covers, Taste of Savage: His Pupils Sing His Music. On Saturday night, Savage stopped in Boston to play an intimate set at Aviary Gallery with Olden Yolk, Jesus Vio, and The Spookfish. Savage played to a totally packed gallery, with just a tiny keyboard and his voice, performing songs from across his discography as well as a few new ones.
In 2011 GQ magazine named Boston the worst dressed city in America. Caught with their slim-fitting, flat-front chinos down, Boston's sartorialists sought to redeem this city in 2012. Luckily, it turns out that there are plenty of outfitters in this town that cater to discerning gentlemen. From icons like Bobby's from Boston to upstarts like Ball & Buck, and innovators like a mobile streetwear truck, these nominees brought style and swagger back to Boston's streets.
Last month fiery Georgia art-rock trio CUSSES had their music video for “Don’t Give In” added to MTV rotation, a result of winning an MTVu Freshman Fan poll. It’s a sign of things to come for the no-wave/post-punk band outta Savannah, whose 2012 self-titled debut is a romper-ride of sinister sounds.
When you think of the land that gave us Heidi, cuckoo clocks, and cheese, the topic of child abuse is not likely to come to mind. Nonetheless, from 1800 to the 1950s Switzerland farmed out hundreds of thousands of orphans and wayward youths to workhouses where they served as virtual slaves. In a presentation by the Goethe Institut, Swiss filmmaker Markus Imboden dramatizes this Dickensian injustice with this tale of Max, a 12-year-old boy sold to a farm family, where he is forced to work and treated brutally.
Few metal bands -- or groups in any genre -- boasting two-decade-plus careers can rival ENSLAVED'S reputation for consistently dazzling experimentation. Since their formation in 1991, they’ve grown from skuzzy second-wave black metal to intricate, hi-def prog metal, as represented by last year’s excellent RIITIIR (Nuclear Blast).
Jay Z & Justin Timberlake's "Legends of Summer" Tour is at Fenway on August 10
On Sale Now
Sasha + Tamer Malki | March 7 at the Sinclair | $20 | boweryboston.com
The Constellations | March 18 at Great Scott | $10 | boweryboston.com
RAQ | March 28 at Paradise Rock Club | $15 | ticketmaster.
Still shamelessly snapping iPhone selfies of your #KillerAbs in public-bathroom mirrors? It may be time for professional help. Lara Woolfson and Kate Harper of Waltham's Studio Nouveau let locals unleash their inner bombshells through sexy boudoir photography (as shown above). And photographer Ryuji Suzuki of Boston's Beaupix has a growing business taking online-dating profile pics for clients.
Boston's been characterized as a beer city since before Sam Malone was pouring pints for Norm, a cityscape of Irish pubs and discarded PBR tallboys. But the revival of mixology sweeping American drinking culture has reached Boston. These nominees represent the best Boston has when it comes to shaking and stirring, from hipster dens like Backbar to tony establishments like Eastern Standard.
Staff Spinz is a weekly spotlight on what we're listening to in the Phoenix newsroom...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark “Metroland” [BMG/100% Records]
OMD’s 2010 comeback record History of Modern, the Wirral Peninsula new-wave band's first in 14 years, was hailed as a return to form for the ’80s electronic-pop crooners.
The author of Beer Lover's New England talks beer at a talk/tasting thing at Trident Books on Thursday the 28th
What
Time is it, Mr. Fox? Album Release Show | Release show for their new album Little
Bit of Blue. Steampunk attire encouraged.. | UForge Gallery, 767 Centre St, Jamaica
Plain | Friday, February 22 @ 7 pm | ufor
Leos Carax makes public appearances almost as infrequently as he makes movies, so the two together is a rare treat. As part of the Harvard Film Archive's retrospective "Overdrive: The Films of Leos Carax," the sui generis French auteur will present and discuss his latest opus, the delightful, madness-inducing Holy Motors
It is supposed to snow again tomorrow (eff...) but if there is any show worth braving the storm for it's this one, Sunday night at TT the Bear's. Beach Fossils are on a quick tour in support of their excellent new post-punk-inspired full-length, Clash The Truth. They play a record release show on Saturday night in Manhattan and then are driving up to Boston the next day to play a Phoenix-presented show with dream-pop locals Orca Orca and Burglary Years
photo by Danny Krug
Before becoming a house band of sorts within Brooklyn's underground pop community, the dudes in Celestial Shore spent a few years living in Boston, playing jazz at Berklee and living in a big freezing warehouse in Allston. In technical terms, the members of this band are all brilliantly talented musicians, and they have the experimental art-first mindset to match it.
Earlier this week, barnstorming in Pittsfield for US Senate, Congressman Ed Markey was pontificating against the Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision, as he is wont to do, and said that in order to restore campaign-finance limits,
"The constitution must be amended. The Dred Scott decision had to be repealed, we have to repeal Citizens United."
The American Repertory Theater's third annual Valentine's Gala brought a well-dressed crowd of theater buffs to the Revere Hotel, where they mingled with drag queens, company members, and some dude named Zachary Quinto. The cocktail hour was followed by dinner, dancing, and awards, plus a sneak-preview performance from Cirque du Soleil's Amaluna, directed by ART artistic director Diane Paulus and hitting Boston in the spring of 2014
The Coolidge Corner Theatre continues its Django Unchained-inspired blaxploitation @fter Midnite movie series with Jonathan Kaplan's Truck Turner (1974). Like Django, Truck (Isaac Hayes) is a bounty hunter, but he's not as much of an idealist. He doesn't seek justice, or even the rescue of his beloved, but rather $1000 for bringing in a pimp named Gator.
If you've been following this music blog at all for the past month or so, you know we are Waxahatchee superfans here at The Phoenix. Earlier this month, we followed Waxahatchee a/k/a former PS Eliot singer/guitarist Katie Crutchfield around on tour for a week, documenting her stops at a few different towns around New England (in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, etc.
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) is the happy hunting ground for those prone to byzantine, if not paranoid, movie interpretations (the upcoming documentary Room 237 explores just a few of these). So it's well worth watching again no matter how many times you've already seen the kid riding the Big Wheel down the endless Overlook Hotel corridors, or the flirty, naked, decomposing woman in the tub, or the creepy Diane Arbus twins, or the diabolical bartender, or Jack Nicholson with a grin and an axe saying, "Heeere's Johnny!"