As promised a couple weeks back in my Faves of 2011 post, I have extra vinyl editions of two of those fine records to grant to some lucky souls. And they couldn't be more different: Camp Radio 's "Campista Socialista" full-length and Idaho 's "You Were A Dick" LP. A blast of Canadian trio power-pop and one man's LA-based, keyboard-driven melancholia. As I started prepping this giveaway this morning, Chromewaves happened to post a review of the Camp Radio album (confluence!), so head over there to read Frank's thoughts, then come back [...]
![[Last Night's Playlist] New Music Night IV at River Gods](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4029072_lg.jpg)
Roughly 12 hours ago I was up in the River Gods DJ booth for the first New Music Night of twenty-twelve, once again splitting the 4-hour shift with fellow Boston-based music blogger extraordinaire Jay Clicky Clicky . While I've been doing the RGs DJ thing for something like 5 years now, this was just the 4th edition of the every-other-month NMN... and I've never had a more difficult time cutting my set down to a measly 2 hours. The whittling was made a bit easier once I discovered a whole lotta track overlap with Jay's [...]
![[Faves] My Favorite Music of 2011](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4004456_lg.jpg)
Just about every comment I've read on the passing of 2011 boiled down to "good riddance". Not too shocking, since the internet was built for complaining after all (also - more than a few friends really were struggling), but I'm both surprised and very grateful to state that mine wasn't all that bad. I'd hazard to say it was actually pretty good, all things considered. After the personal hell that was my own 2010, things really had nowhere to go but up, and so up they went. Way up, at times. Mostly having to do with music. Fancy that. [...]
![[Boston Music Miscellany] Night Fruit, Kingsley Flood, The Figgs, Eldridge Rodriguez, The Hush Now](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3928394_lg.jpg)
A quick one, Boston-style, before I head up north for the weekend... I became a bonafide Night Fruit fan about 1 minute into a crowded Allston basement show back in January (RIP live music @ Wadzilla ), which is how long it took to decide I'd be sticking around for the trio's entire set. And within a few minutes of getting home that night, despite severe sleepiness, I was online searching for recordings, discovering their [...]
![(Thanksgiving) Boston Music Miscellany [Buffalo Tom, Cuffs, One Happy Island, Mission of Burma, Travels, Wheat]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3886265_lg.jpg)
Thanksgiving. Great holiday or The Greatest Holiday? No gift-giving or gift-taking required, just a day to surround yourself with family, eat to your belly's content, and enjoy some calm before the impending onslaught of rampant consumerism. This long holiday weekend always helps me put things in perspective, gives me a break from sweating all that small stuff, and lets me appreciate all that I have. Which includes two fully functioning ears, lots of Boston-made music to put in them, and a place to write about it... If you're [...]
Hey, remember these? Yeah, I used to run down random things I was digging, but it's been some time since I've done so. Pardon me while I share various and sundry Boston-centric musical items.... I've seen Boston's Animal Hospital (aka Mr. Kevin Micka) a few times, always in his regular solo drumming/looping/triggering form, and never better than when he opened for the Jesus Lizard at the Paradise two years ago this month. Well, I'm thinking that set is about to get trumped. He's pulled together something [...]
![[Overdue Playlist] New Music Night III at River Gods w/MP3s](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3840216_lg.jpg)
Wait, was this really over two weeks ago? Well, that was a blur. While I won't deny I got my usual kick out of playing new songs for sociable patrons at my favorite Cambridge bar, the preparation and follow-through were just plain rough . Jetlag + influenza do not a fun equation make. I was freshly back from drumming on the (flat-out amazing) 10-day Let's Whisper UK tour , which ended with a 7-hour drive, a 7-hour flight, a few hours sleep, a crazy workday, a 4-hour drive, and a homecoming show. Followed closely by a [...]
![[Almanac Overseas!] Let's Whisper 2011 UK Tour / Boston on Monday](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3741781_lg.jpg)
United Kingdom, here I come. Oh, I've seen your shores before, but never like this. On Tuesday I'll be crossing the Atlantic for an 7-date tour of the UK with my friends Colin & Dana, who combine their awesome powers to form the wonderful Burlington, Vermont-based indie-pop twosome Let's Whisper (when they're not busy being Smittens ). They've foolishly graciously invited me along for the trip to hit some drums behind them, temporarily making their duo a trio. While I've been to London a few times, it was mostly for work (1993's amazing [...]
![[Boston Ticket Giveaway / Preview] This weekend's LIFE IS GOOD FEST](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3730875_lg.jpg)
Looking at the lineup alone, this year's second-ever Life Is Good Festival (taking place this coming weekend in Canton, MA ) isn't exactly in my musical wheelhouse. Sure, I like to pretend I have pretty diverse listening habits, but let's be honest... it's not too often that I break out of the so-called indie rock/pop box I hang out in. So on the face of it, the roots/folk/rock-centric 2-day gathering doesn't scream "Must! Go!" at me. Fortunately, the Life Is Good Fest is about much more than an objectively well-curated list [...]
![[Live MP3s / 20 Years On] FUGAZI live in Burlington VT 1991](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3729769_lg.jpg)
While Fugazi is rarely far from my mind (or my stereo), they seem to be floating around the collective consciousness a little more often this year. Covers and mash-ups , interviews , bassist Joe Lally announcing a Fall world tour in support of his latest solo album (Hey, Boston: Great Scott on 11/15 ), David Bazan citing drummer Brendan Canty as "probably the musician that I obsessed over more than any other in my life", and the (hopefully) impending launch of the new Fugazi Live Series Archive, a collection [...]
![[Live MP3s] DAVID BAZAN's Boston House Show (aka my livingroom)](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3662075_lg.jpg)
When I wrote about the still-hard-to-believe-it-actua lly-happened acoustic set that David Bazan played in my Allston livingroom back in April , I promised that, with his blessing, I'd eventually share up that spellbinding performance here on the 'Nac. Well, eventually equals now. I held off for awhile because this particular house show tour took place a month before the release of the former Pedro The Lion frontman's top-notch new long-player, "Strange Negotations" , and he blessed us with a few solo versions of tracks from the album (kicking off with the stunning [...]
- Bazan, David - April 14th, Part I (Gillian Welch cover / live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Bearing Witness (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Cold Beer and Cigarettes (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Hard To Be (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - How I Remember (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Please Baby Please (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Priests and Paramedics (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Q&A #1 (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Q&A #2 (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Q&A #3 (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Q&A #4 (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Q&A #5 (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Q&A #6 (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Selling Advertisting (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Strange Negotiations (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Transcontinental (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Virginia (live / solo)
- Bazan, David - Won't Let Go (live / solo)
- David Bazan - EatingPaper (live on The Current 2011)
- David Bazan - Strange Negotiations (live on KEXP 2011)
- Undertow Orchestra - Bands With Managers (live on the Current 2006)
![[Last Night's Playlist] New Music Night II at River Gods](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3662076_lg.jpg)
The second installment of what Jay Clicky Clicky and I have dubbed "New Music Night" took place this past Thursday at beloved bar River Gods in Cambridge, MA - which means it's officially a thing . A thing that is now officially more than a one-off experiment. A thing that will happen again. Every couple of months in fact. Let's hear it for regularity (if not for naming originality). Huzzah! If June's first edition of NMN was mostly my "faves of the year so far" set, then Thursday night [...]
![[Live MP3s] THE CHURCH in MA 2011 - Album Set Three (Starfish)](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3624415_lg.jpg)
And lastly, here's part three of three: The Church performing their U.S. breakthrough record, "Starfish" , in its entirety earlier this year. Like so many of my fellow 'Mericans, this was my first Church album - hearing (and seeing the video for) the record's second track, " Under the Milky Way ", led me on a journey through the Aussie quartet's back catalog, where they secured my forever-fandom. When "Starfish" arrived stateside in 1988, the band already had a 7-year (and 5-album) history, so tracking down LP imports and finding songs like " The Unguarded Moment ", [...]
![[Live MP3s] THE CHURCH in MA 2011 - Album Set Two (Priest=Aura)](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3624416_lg.jpg)
As promised a few weeks back , here's the second set of The Church 's "three albums live" show back in February in Foxboro, MA. After running through their most recent record, the Australian quartet took a break and came back out to treat us to 1992's excellent, and highly under-appreciated, "Priest=Aura" full-length. Released four years after their 1988 U.S. breakthrough "Starfish" (which comes in the third set, and I'll share up next), "P=A" didn't make anywhere near the commercial impact, but it's long been a fan favorite, and many consider it a career highpoint. [...]
![[Boston Ticket Giveaway] CENTRO-MATIC at Great Scott on Wednesday](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3624417_lg.jpg)
It's a relatively rare occasion that the gents from Centro-matic make their way from Denton, Texas up to Boston to treat us to a set of songs, but last week's release of "Candidate Waltz" has them on the road and in town for a show at Allston's Great Scott tomorrow night. Singer/guitarist/songwriter Will Johnson his band have put out one of the strongest records of their 16-year run, so I'm especially psyched to see them run through this new stuff. Not that I won't also be hoping for a heaping helping of [...]
![[Live MP3 Re-Up] UNDERTOW ORCHESTRA (Bazan, Chesnutt, Eitzel, Johnson) in Boston 2006](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3624418_lg.jpg)
With last month's release of David Bazan 's great new record, "Strange Negotiations", and last week's arrival of the latest Centro-matic full-length, "Candidate Waltz", I've been thinking about how lucky Boston was to get a visit during the one-and-only tour from The Undertow Orchestra . The five-piece was an understated supergroup, with Bazan & Centro-matic's Will Johnson joined by American Music Club 's Mark Eitzel , Centro-matic's Scott Danbom , and the tragically departed Vic Chesnutt . His absence on this plane makes this show even more special in retrospect - any [...]
![[Last Night's Playlist] New Music Night at River Gods](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3528229_lg.jpg)
Felt ridiculously good to get back up in the River Gods DJ booth last night, especially with Jay from Clicky Clicky as my co-pilot. Trading hour-long slots, we hosted what will hopefully be the first of many "New Music Nights" , playing nuthin' but recently-released (and some not-yet-released) songs from a mix of local and national bands. Best part about it (aside from forcing people to listen to my personal faves) was etting to sit at the bar and listen while Jay spun his ace selections. As much as we have in common, taste-wise, our [...]
![[Live MP3s] The Church in MA 2011 - Album Set One (Untitled #23)](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3513093_lg.jpg)
Long-lived Aussie quartet The Church has been running a bit of a victory lap over the past year - marking their 30th anniversary as a band with a 2010 acoustic retrospective tour (no reunion needed!), getting inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in November, and mounting another U.S. visit for their 3-albums-live "Future Past Perfect" tour. Boston is very fortunate to be a regular stop for the band, with the acoustic roadshow hitting the Somerville Armory last Spring and the FPP tour visiting Foxboro(ugh)'s Showcase Live this [...]
![[Beer] This Weekend: Boston's American Craft Beer Fest](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3489469_lg.jpg)
In honor of the now-in-progress Boston Beer Week , I'm letting the beer-geek in me take over for the music-geek that usually runs this place. I have few vices, but drinking quality beer is one of them - in fact, it's safe to say that many an Almanac post came to you courtesy of a preparatory pint. Boston Beer Week , which officially kicked off last Friday and finishes up this Sunday, is centered around this weekend's 2-day, 3-session American Craft Beer Fest , put together by BeerAdvocate.com 's Alström brothers. Tonight and [...]
![[Live MP3s] New Radiant Storm King (RIP) in Cambridge, MA](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3477750_lg.jpg)
I have a very warm place in my music-lovin' heart for Western Massachusetts rock combo New Radiant Storm King , so the news that they packed it in awhile back was sad news indeed. The generally under-appreciated band, which started at Amherst's Hampshire College back in 1990 and released some killer mid-90s material, had a remarkably creative resurgence in the 2000s, putting out the personal-year-end-faves-list-m aking albums "The Steady Hand" in 2006 and "Drinking in the Moonlight" three years ago. An email to core guitarists/co-singers Matt Hunter and Peyton Pinkerton last Fall, sent to check on [...]
Bradley's Almanac
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