Author: johnny

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Mellow Bravo @ The Middle East Downstairs 7.29.2011

There’s this movie called I Get Off. It stars a white 1974 Pontiac Trans AM driven by Sheila, played by an otherwise unknown actress who now makes her meager living charging people $20 a pop to have their picture taken with her and a replica of said car at comic conventions. In this cinematic masterpiece there are bar fights, mustaches, a Columbo knock-off police detective, bricks and bricks of an unspecified narcotic and a guy in a banana suit.

In the climactic scene, the Trans Am races head-on toward a tanker truck in the desert. The windows are down. Sheila’s hair is blowing in the wind. She lifts her sunglasses. Her eyes are focused. There’s a shotgun on the passenger seat. Her hand reaches down to turn up the radio.

Mellow Bravo blares from the speakers as a sly smile comes across Sheila’s face.

Then it gets messy.

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Sidewalk Driver @ The Middle East Downstairs 7.29.2011

It’s becoming old (tiny) hat for me to heap praise upon Sidewalk Driver. Lest you think I’m blowing smoke up their asses, lets get straight to the facts:

  • July 29th was the big Boston Band Crush show at The Middle East.
  • Sidewalk Driver played.
  • The crowd clapped and cheered.
  • The band covered Queen’s “Keep Yourself Alive”.*
  • Tad crowd surfed.**
  • Sidewalk Driver was awesome.***

So there you have it.

* Video by the tireless Sophia Cacciola for Sophia’s Rock Beat.
** No video. Sorry.
*** Fact.

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Streight Angular @ The Middle East Downstairs 7.29.2011

Well, this certainly got my attention.

After falling hard for their song “Everyone Is Syncopated” earlier in the week, I was prepared for good things from Streight Angular at the big Boston Band Crush summer blowout. What I was not ready for was the party bomb the band set off in the Middle East. Crazy good.

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Parlour Bells – “Speak Up” (2011)


Parlour Bells
“Speak Up”
2011

Parlour Bells are making me look good. Ever since I caught their set at Brighton Music Hall back in March, I’ve been blabbering on about what a great band they are to see live.

Now along comes their new single, “Speak Up”. Drummer Brandon Erdos immediately make his presence know with the clock-steady beat that anchors the song. Glenn DiBenedetto pulls you along as his voice weaves a melody through the thumping bass and strummed guitars. There’s a simplicity to the song that draws you in before Nate Leavitt’s harmonized guitars carry you out. Well played.

Where to get it:

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The Invisible Rays @ The Rosebud Bar 7.27.2011

Counting, creativity, projections, synchronization, pop culture, musicality and a touch of humanity.

As it turns out, The Invisible Rays were actually visible. It was just really dark.

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Space Balloons – Welcome To Balloononia (2011)


Space Balloons
Welcome To Balloononia
2011

“Hey buddy, want to hear a song about mustaches?”

“Yeah.”

If you want a mustache you gotta take care of it…

That’s how it started. My five year old thought a song about feeding and reading to your mustache was funny. He liked it so much he made me play it over and over and over. I couldn’t even play the rest of the Space Balloons EP, Welcome To Balloononia, for him. He just wanted to listen to the song about the mustache.

Then he started singing it around the house.

I did eventually convince him to listen to “Grapes”. He liked it.

I had made it clear that we were going to listen to the whole record (all three songs clocking in at just over four minutes), so “The Tale Of The Space Balloons” came on next. Oh boy. This intergalactic tale of balloons, lagoons and monsoons captivated him. I can’t even tell you how many times we listened to this song.* I have video of him singing this song in the car. If my son was a member of The Recording Academy, “The Tale Of The Space Balloons” would win the 2011 Grammy for Record Of The Year.**

Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola, who also happen to be Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (who sound nothing like Space Balloons) and integral parts of about a billion other projects (which vary in their degrees of Space Balloons similarity), seem to be onto something here. The kids dig it.

Where to get it:


* Well, actually, thanks to the wonders of the iTunes play count, I could tell you. Truth be told, I’m afraid to look.

** I predict “The Tale Of The Space Balloons” is a better song that whatever wins the actual award.