Sometime life gets busy and you miss out on important stuff — important stuff like cool new videos! If this has recently happened to you, here are a few music videos that you should maybe probably if you feel like it check out.
If you liked these, there are plenty of other great local vids on Daykamp Music TV!
The Bynars are creating some of the most inventive electro-tinged power pop out there. Each undeniable hook is balanced with a well-timed glitch to keep you on your toes. They were at The Middle East Upstairs this past Friday night.
I don’t dance. But if I did dance, I would probably dance to “Dancing On A Dream” by The Bynars. Seriously, I almost accidentally danced just a second ago when I listened again. That was close. Was it the slick beat, layered synths, perfectly effected guitars or ’80s nostalgia that nearly caused a lapse in my stationary judgement? Possibly. More likely is that it’s such a well written song. Those Bynars are sneaky.
The 2012 Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble Semifinals start tonight! Here’s the schedule. I posted some random rumble thoughts on the Rumble day of rest. I thought I’d do the same for the second half of Preliminaries.
Old Favorites
The 2012 Rumble saw a few of my favorite bands play the sets of their lives. Parlour Bells got all glammed up to rock out on Thursday night. One set later The Fagettes threw a big old rock n’ roll party on the TT’s stage that blew out a bass amp and the womb of a giant cardboard robot. In a testament to the strength of the Boston music scene, those sets didn’t even take the night! Cask Mouse got the nod from the opening slot for a shaking and stomping good time. The next night had Brownboot leading the crowd into hard rock excess like six-stringed pied pipers. The Bynars had synth-heavy power pop down to a science. Saturday night had back-to-back sets by Motherboar and neon post-punks Streight Angular that made me question the structural integrity of the club. I sure am glad I didn’t have to clean up after that show.
Speaking of heavy, the two heaviest bands of this year’s Rumble both advance to the Semifinals. Motherboar was just plain devastating. It’s amazing how colossal they sounded after just having witnessed the how-the-hell-are-they-doing-this flying hair and riffs attack of Sherman Burns. I can’t wait to see how this plays out in the next round.
Fun With Numbers
Do the math: I’m not sure of the exact number, but a bunch of songs got retired during these Rumble Prelim shows. Brownboot put “I Can’t Wait (To Get Away)” on the shelf.* Pray For Polanski put the band on the shelf.
Two for Tue Thursday: There were exactly 2 Explorer shaped guitars in The Rumble. Both were wielded by Motherboar.
One is the loneliest number: The Rumble prelims had exactly one electric banjo (Bow Thayer And Perfect Trainwreck), one upright bass (Cask Mouse), one fiddle (also Cask Mouse), one giant cardboard robot (The Fagettes), one blown bass amp (also The Fagettes) and one Al Polk (Streight Angluar).
Play Me Out
Here are some Rumble tunes that I haven’t been able to shake. It’s quite the varied collection. We’ve got suave pop from Parlour Bells and brutal metal from Motherboar. We’ve got indie rock both manic (Streight Angular) and unsettling (Pray For Polanksi). Top it all of with the searing hard rock of Brownboot and you’ll be humming these tunes for days. Now get thee to TT’s!
* Unless you pay them lots of cash, but you’d have to be a D-Bag to do that…
I love the Rumble. It brings out the best in bands. The Bynars had all of their blips, bleeps, pings, pongs and blurps in perfect alignment during their set at TT’s for Preliminary Night #5 of the 2012 Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble. The catchy pop tunes underneath it all were precision tuned. The Bynars also had their sense of humor engaged, subtly pointing out that the song they had just played, “Dancing In The Dark”, was a cover. Well done.
Well, it’s that time of the year again. The Rumble is upon us. Sunday night will kick off the 2012 edition of this rock n’ roll institution. I called the 2011 version “a crash course in Boston awesomeness”. I have no reason to think this year won’t be the same. Having been to many a Rumble show (and participated in a couple) I can tell you these are always a lot of fun.
For the past few years The Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble has been curated by Anngelle Wood. She’s done a fine job, hasn’t she? This year will be no exception. I’ve managed to document exactly half of this year’s participants in the wild. I look forward to checking out the other half. Below is the complete schedule with some links to the bands’ shows I’ve caught in the past. If all goes according to plan, you’ll be seeing lots of Rumble pics up on Daykamp Music over the next few weeks. Check back often. More importantly, go see some of the shows!
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE
Sunday, April 1
7:30-8:30pm Boston Band Crush sponsored Opening Night Welcoming Party
The Bynars were the third band on this fantastic bill to be invited to participate in this year’s Rumble (the other two being Parlour Bells and Animal Talk). From the sound of things, it should be a good one. The Bynars will be bringing their synth-heavy power pop back to TT’s for Rumble preliminary night #5 on April 6th.
Let’s pretend you are The Bynars. It’s mid-October. Halloween is right around the corner. You’ve got a hip power pop number called “Haunted House” on your latest album. It’s got a retro-horror keyboard part, a cheap-shot scare hit after the first chorus and a catchy vocal hook. Seems like a good time to make the song available as a free download to drum up a little publicity.
If you’re The Bynars, though, you probably realize you need to up the ante. After all, you’re the band that made an interactive music video. You don’t do things in a small way. So you get Sawtooth to do a hyper remix of the song with enough whirrs and blips and beats to make dance-inclined folks giddy. And you get Chris Piascik to do some amazing artwork. And you put it up on the web. For free. Only until November 1st. Because you’re The Bynars, and it seems like a cool thing to do.