Here's the playlist of the Valentine's Day edition of BOSTON ACCENTS on WFNX, a nice mix of new and old. But we had to lead it off with the Atlantics' 1980 classic "Lonelyhearts," which includes the timess lyric: “Take a crowbar to your heart and pry it loose...” Amen.
THE ATLANTICS “Lonelyhearts”
The GOP count of declared candidates scouring the Commonwealth for signatures entered the day at three: the obscure Jon Fetherston, the unseen Gabriel Gomez, and the earnest Dan Winslow.
We also entered the day with rumors that former US Attorney Michael Sullivan was poised to enter the race. A "draft Michael Sullivan" movement has been gathering signatures, but it was unclear whether they were doing so on his behalf.
This is the third installment of our tour diary with Waxahatchee, a/k/a Philly-based songwriter Katie Crutchfield, formerly of PS Eliot. Last week we followed Crutchfield and Don Giovanni Records co-founder Joe Steinhardt around New England for a string of shows, taking notes and photos and videos and audio recordings along the way.
Foals are at the House of Blues on May 9 with Surfer Blood and Blondfire
On Sale Now
Kid Mountain + Winter + Horsehands | February 25 at Great Scott | $8 | ticketweb.com
Color Channel + Earlynineties + Abadabad | March 4 at Great Scott | $8 | ticketweb.com
DeVotchka | March 9 at the House of Blues | $27.
In (Big) Deal Or No (Big) Deal, we assess current controversies in Massachusetts political campaigns, weighing in on whether they strike us as worthy of consideration in weighing one's voting decision -- as opposed to assessing the likely actual political effect, worthy or not.
Today the Boston Globe goes deep on a longstanding criticism of Ed Markey: that he has essentially moved to Maryland, and spends relatively little time in Massachusetts.
It’s been just more than two years since YOUNG ADULTS released their noisy blitz-punk debut LP Black Hole. Since then, bassist Danny O’Neill (ex-Protokoll) joined the band and guitarist Chris Villon relocated to Northampton, but they remain one of Boston’s most viciously sludgy live acts, and finally return with new material.
In the Phoenix's 2013 V-Day spectacular, we did a little something special with our romance-themed fashion shoot, transforming our models' outfits into a paper-doll playset -- which shoulda been a primo way for Scrabble-fatigued Nemo shut-ins to beat cabin fever over the weekend. But perhaps you didn't feel like painstakingly cutting out the clothes in our paper-doll fashion shoot.
Another day, another step closer to the return of alt-underground nightclub MANRAY. The Cambridge Licensing Commission voted unanimously last night "to approve owner Donald Holland’s application for a change of location from 21 Brookline St., where ManRay first opened as a gay club... to 541 Massachusetts Ave.
Like this photo? You can download this card and more right here!
Whoops
Maybe you were busy shoveling snow all week. Maybe you were broken up over the resignation of the Pope. Partied too hard on Mardi Gras to even think about Valentine's Day? That's okay. With this list of off-the-beaten-path activities, your date will never know you dropped the ball.
Last week, DREAMHAUS, a third-floor Allston residential dwelling that also serves as a DIY show space and community meetingplace, was burglarized in broad daylight. Many of the personal items belonging to the residents (which include the Phoenix Assistant Music Editor Liz Pelly and contributor Ali Carter, as well as musicians Emily Reo, Cameron Potter of Little Spoon, and Noah Klein of FMLY and Cuddle Formation) were stolen, and a donation page on the space's tumblr has been established "for the reimbursement of our losses, damages, and towards the future protection of our home.
The Master of Suspense got a raw deal in the lousy, recent biopic bearing his name, but the Coolidge Big Screen Classics series showcases his greatness with its screening of Rebecca (1940). In it, Joan Fontaine plays a fresh-faced ingénue whose fairy-tale marriage to a morose, elegant widower, played by Laurence Olivier, is disrupted by two women, one of whom is dead.
Board chairman and farmers, entrepreneurs and activists, students and teachers, lawyers and actresses --dozens of them -- are gathering at this moment near the White House, where later today they will risk arrest to hold President Obama to the commitments he made in last night's State of the Union to "do more to combat climate change."
I realize that the Republican candidates for US Senate are just beginning to ramp up operations, and I don't expect them to be ready with policy declarations on every issue under the sun. But yesterday offered up what I consider a tap-in putt for them, and it's a little disappointing that the top two contenders chose not to swing.
Some people have asked me of late: Why does it appear that the entire Romney-Baker-Brown Massachusetts GOP establishment is backing an unknown guy with little history of helping the party, over Dan Winslow, who was Governor Mitt Romney's chief counsel and campaign attorney for Scott Brown?
Well, I don't have the full answer for you.
Maybe today's rom coms would be better off if they just hushed a bit and aspired to the visual wit of classic silent comedies like Harold Lloyd's Girl Shy (1924). In it Lloyd plays the title shy guy who tries to compensate for his ineptitude with women by writing a macho dating book. But words turn to action when he must stop the wedding of the woman he fancies and engages in one of the most inventive, dazzling, and hilarious chases in cinema.
Here it is folks -- Republican Gabriel Gomez's YouTube video announcing his entry into the special election for US Senate. Themes: he's a Navy SEAL and a businessman in Boston; Washington sucks; and habla espanol.
PS: Here's his web site.
Back in the Monday swing after a few days away, courtesy of a blizzard and Peter Hook, not in that order, today BOSTON ACCENTS welcomed the fine young lads of CAMDEN to the WFNX studio. The band debuted two new tracks, which will be posted online tomorrow, and it was even Jim's 25th birthday. We opened with "Roadrunner" by the Modern Lovers, to support Joyce Linehan's excellent cause in making it the Official Song of Massachusetts
Christopher Shea, our correspondent at the Berlin Festival, a.k.a Berlinale 2013, files this report.
Reviews:
Set in World War II-era Foshan and Hong Kong, The Grandmaster traces the rise and fall of Kung Fu master Ip Man. The movie is gorgeous, strange and stylized, bouncing between tea houses and brothels and beaches and back alleys, all with operatic sweep.
Gabriel Gomez, a Cohasset private equity manager and former Navy SEAL, is running for US Senate -- he took out papers today to begin gathering signatures. Gomez has several Mitt Romney people on his side, including Ron Kaufmann, Darrell Crate, and Gail Gitchco from what I'm told. So he's quite likely your GOP nominee.
You would think.
UPDATED FEB 13: A bill to declare "Roadrunner" the official rock song of Massachusetts will be filed on February 14. And there's a Facebook page. Scroll down for details.
It appears the two sides of Joyce Linehan’s life – politics and rock and roll – are coming together in a manner both spectacularly absurd and brilliantly inevitable.