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Examples from the Massachusetts Flyer Archive.

Wanna disappear down a rabbit hole waiting for better weather??? There’s a great new site by Big Dig Records called Massachusetts Flyer Archives. It’s everything you want it to be. Tons of flyers of shows through the years. It has a great set up where you can search by city, band, venue or year. Check it out!

Kevin Stevenson of The Shods uploaded all The Shods albums up on YouTube. Here’s Thanks for Nuthin, Tippy, Stop Crying, Bamboozled, Here Come The Shods. The Shods do great covers too. Like the great “All Kindsa Girls” on Thanks for Nuthin.

Record Store Day is April 18th. There are previews of vinyl releases popping up here and there. We got the word that two staples of 80’s radio will have records out ... Romeo Void and The Blasters

Live ’81 to ’85 is the Romeo Void album, it'lll come with lyrics, photos and memorabilia. It’s hard to believe now, how often Romeo Void was played in indie radio heyday.Here is the live version of “Never Say Never” from 1982 on YouTube. The Blasters have Rare Blasts: Studio Outtakes and Movie Music 1979-1985. Last year they released a 5 album career overview collection for Record Store Day. They didn’t create the roots rock genre but they helped popularize it. Here is the song “Can’t Stop Time” from the album on YouTube.

On February 13 the Boston Globe had an article that focused on local groups and how they are responding to the heightened political climate. To a lot of them a love song just doesn’t cut it when real life seems so drastic. A band we talk about in the last BGN, Cape Crush, talks about how they funnel the money they make to worthy legal defense organizations. Indie group, The Only Humans, is trying to time their releases to avoid things like national strikes. Bands now feel the need to be relevant or how to deal with a political upheaval that is taking up peoples head space. If you can get by the paywall the article is here.

VIDEOS......

The self-titled album by TJ Welch and the Wasted had a lot of memorable songs. One of our favorites was “54”. The song states bluntly, “I’m 54, my hair is grey and my knees are sore. I’m 54.” But the singer still feels happy. He’s alive and doing alright. We love the spirit. As someone two decades down the line we just say – stay tuned there’s more coming!

There’s now a video for the song. In it the band seems to be very happy and having fun. You get to see Jon Butcher in action playing the guitar solo in the song. TJ sings that “he’s just another drunken dad” like that’s not a problem but at the end of the video, after all that exertion, he drops to the ground and a band mate has to give him CPR.

The Darts have a neat video for their new pre-released song “Apocalypse”from Halloween Love Songs. The set has Halloween creepy lighting. The group has their look down. This is what they bring to live shows too. The song has organ and fuzz guitar aplenty.

We love that in the fuzz guitar solo the guitarist uses an eastern scale like the Yardbirds did in “Over Under Sideways Down”. They don’t copy the solo, they do their own thing and it’s very cool.

Softjaw are a power pop band formed in 2024 on Dandy Boy Records. They have a self-titled album to be released on April 1. They have a video for the song “I Need You”. It's grainy, on purpose, and uses sixties screaming teeny boppers to add excitement (like Peppermint Kicks did ).

The song starts with a riff that sounds a lot like “In the Streets” originally by Big Star and redone by Cheap Trick for the Seventies show on TV and Softjaw has a lot of Cheap Trick in their sound. The chorus of “I need you” in vocal harmony is repeated and gives you the pop injection you know you need.

If this intrigues you go to their Bandcamp page and check out the other two songs that are streaming.

Rum Bar's release of Michael Des Barres is getting attention. The video for the new single “Kiss or Kill Me” has a simple set up that effectively transmits the Des Barres attitude. In the video is Des Barres and Loren Molinare (from the Slamdanistas and the co-writer of the song). They wanted the song “to have the urgency of ’70s street rock.” Case closed on that. The video was premiered, and there’s a story on, the Big Takeover site.

The flip side of “Kiss Or Kill Me” is “I Was Saved In ‘64”. For this Des Barres dramatically talks through his tale of how his life changed in that year. We hear so often in interviews that band members we know started to play music in 1964 with the Beatles. It’s also true that for us our lives changed in 1974 when the Boston punk scene began. Music can be a powerful influence.
We have "Saved in '64" below.

Jim Sullivan posted, on Facebook, an older video he did as part of Rock Jock, about the closing night of TT The Bear’s Place ten years ago. That was quite a week of shows. (Check out our coverage of it) That night the bands were: Scruffy the Cat, O Positive, Randy Black and Willie Alexander. Ah, the memories....Bonney Bouley was the owner and Kevin Patey was the General Manager.

PODCASTS......

Steev Ricardo is starting an offshoot of Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico called Out on the Couch. Since it's inspired by the Gang Green song of the same title Steev had Chris Doherty of GG in for the talk.

Out on the Couch is about excess, and since drugs and drinking are the main excesses of most rockers, that’s what they talked about. Chris’ song “Alcohol” was a perfect talking point. With Steev however, band talk is never far away and Chris has lots of memories of his bands and their travels.

Al Quint started his 2/2 Sonic Overload show with a new hardcore song that makes a statement about our current political situation. If people object to Bad Bunny they would faint at Clusterfux doing “American Gestapo”.

Al focused on Valentine Day with “What’s This Shit Called Love” by the Pagans, Disrags doing “I Don’t Love You” and Richard Hell & the Voidoids “Love Comes In Spurts”. For John Lydon’s 70th birthday Quint played PIL’s lesser known “Lou Reed”. We have Clusterfux with American Gestapo and the Disrags’ “I Don’t Love You” below.

You can hear the Sonic Overload shows on the web blog. Al has logged all the shows since 2009.

Punks in the Garage podcast (from WAIF Cincinnati) commemorated the 50th anniversary of the “first punk single” “Blitzkrieg Bop” by the Ramones (January 1976). They played the single radio promo version of the song, in mono. The flip has “Havana Affair” in stereo.

They also played Destroy All Monsters, Mekons, Dickies, Buzzcocks. They played The Del Fuegos and mentioned a show they saw in NYC (Folk City) when The Del Fuegos opened for The Neats. They closed with an English 1967 fave “My White Bicycle” by Tomorrow.

It’s Rum Bar Records world – we just live in it. We have a parcel of Rum Bar Releases below in our New Music section. The Born Too Late podcast by Jay Castro and Lord Josh Rutledge had Malibu Lou in for his second interview on the podcast. The interview starts with an open ended question for Lou: How was 2025 for you?

Lou gave a lot of credit to the Dogmatics and the success they had with their album and live shows this year. Then Peppermint Kicks, Miss Georgia Peach, Brad Marino, Muck and the Mires and the Gypsy Moths. Lou realizes he has an older audience and he’s very comfortable with that. That’s refreshing. There’s no catering to any audience, Lou releases what he likes and thinks his audience will like.

He talks about the business side of things. To Lou vinyl is expensive and often digital is the way to go these days. There was discussion about social media and its effect on getting the message out. Lou also talks about the steps a new project goes through from songs to art work to release. Lou says that coming up is Gene Champagne from Canada, and some Stop Calling Me Frank has some music in the pipeline. He also says Jerry Lehane has some new songs for the Dogmatics and new Chelsea Curve in April!!

If you are a Steve Albini fan you might want to listen to this Steve Albini Tribute podcast by Raven-Lunachick. Steve died in May of 2024. Raven starts with Big Black. Then goes to groups he produced: The Pixies, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, The Jesus Lizard, Nirvana, Low and more. It’s a solid hour of music – no talking at all. The playlist is in the fifth post in the comment section.

NEW MUSIC/CD’s ......

Locals Condition Baker have our favorite hard rocking song this week; “BLEED” has lyrics that reveal a bruised psyche as much as a bleeding body. It's rock hard and slamming yet there's emotion in the voice. The recording captures the razor wire guitar sound, the deep drum wallops and the clear voice.

A fine mix job on that too. The chorus pays off with just enough of an ear catch. The way the singer hits the word “Why” twice makes you listen for it each time it comes around. This is the best yet from Condition Baker who really hasn’t make a wrong move yet.

Evil Felipe’s new single “Darling” has a darker tone than most of their material. The bare arrangement makes you pay attention to the singing and the lyrics. The rhythm has a tick tock rigidity. The lyrics paint a picture of personal struggle against the negative attitude of surrounding people. It seems to focus on artistic freedom. Often creativity is an uphill battle. Getting something done and accepted is never easy. This song resonated with us.

Brad Marino seems to always be at work making new music. He now has “Calling Your Bluff” on Spotify. This song is more agro than the average Marino song. The band is playing hard as Brad keeps the guitar riffs going through the whole song. This is off a new album Agent of Chaos out on April 3.

The Bags are now up to the seventh preview song from their next album The Bags Go Deep. In “Natural Thing” we don’t know if they're singing about a love mate or a song. It seems the Natural Thing is a “unicorn in day glow” and also has “feedbacking in the solo”. It has “more Aurora than a succubus thing” and yet “more rocking than a classical thing”. So, go figure. It’s a heavy rocker.

American Ocelot has a digital single. The songs confirm that the group knows how to write engaging material. “Dropped” and “Invisible Lines” both unfold with musical logic that works it’s magic. The more you listen the more you can hear the parts and that’s part of the fun.

The group sound has a strong indie element but sounds fuller than a typical indie artist. The strong guitar sound kicks things up and the bouncy bass and drum work do wonders. We like the recording and mix and wouldn’t you know it’s from Woolly Mammoth with David Minehan at the helm.

And now we return to our regular program – trying to keep up with Rum Bar Records. Get Stiff! is a new album by The Inflatable Idols. The group is made up of ex Orange County punk group members of the Adolescents and Social Distortion and current members of of TSOL, UltraBomb, Streetwalkin' Cheetahs, Greg Antista.

With all that punk background the current streaming song “Ain’t Got Heart” doesn’t sound particularly punk. It’s more the Rum Bar swagger that we have come familiar with and then it’s even amped up a bit more. There’s lots of energy here. Rum Bar use the phrase “soul stained” in their description and that along with a late night bar band lack of restraint gives this lots of character.
There’s a ton load of attitude in the lyrics, the line “I’m livin’ rent free in your head” sticks out.

Another new Rum Bar release is by High on Stress who are from the Twin Cities. Their new four song EP Over/Thru is filled with scruffy power pop. It’s very much like their city mates the Replacements. The song “Over/Thru” is especially like the Mats. A big part of that is the voice and the melody of the song. It really works for us.

The guitar in the song “Klonopin & Alcohol” reminds us a lot of David Minehan’s work with Paul Westerberg. They cover a Tommy Keene song “Nothing Can Change You”. There’s so much to like here. Another unexpected treat from Rum Bar Records.

More from Rum Bar. In the JV Allstars the JV is Joe Vincent the drummer for the Swinging Neckbreakers. He’s also a song writer and arranger and that’s what "Rock 'N' Roll With Me" is all about. Approaching a song as an arranger gives it certain characteristics. There are crescendos in several places, the vocals are very expressive and sound different than a regular rock song. The drums sound big – almost symphonic. You never hear drums like that in rock. This is closer to Jesus Christ Superstar. It’s different and you might find yourself getting into it.

OK, last Rum Bar release. Angela Tini is described as rhythm and blues and rockabilly. We hear both in this nicely done up single "Can't Stop Me". The well-known Deke Dickerson produced this and played on it. The band is so tight and solid in the groove that the song is moving fine even before the vocals come in. Angela has total command of her voice and the style. You’re in good hands all around. A sax solo – check, a guitar solo – check. You can almost see the juke joint jumping.

Give Praise Records is another sort of Boston label. They've released hardcore and skateboard music for 20 years. They now have a 37 cut sampler titled Better Hand Plant Than Dead of songs from many of those years. Only a few songs veer from raw hardcore. Average song length is one minute. We liked George Moshington doing “Boston Tea Bag Party”, Satanic Threat with “I Ain’t Gotta Worship” and Chadhel and their song “Grinding Gears of Discontent”. If you’re a hardcore fan there’s lots here.

No one played more gigs than the Johnny Barnes Group back in the day (70s and early 80s). He was all sweat and hard rock, one hard working guy. He had memorable songs like “Steel Rail Blues” and “Sudden Death Overdrive”. In later years he’s been gigging down in the New Bedford area. He now has a new album Mixed Up.

Barnes always had blues as his base and the album Mixed Up is blues based. He also has always has been song based. The new material doesn’t descend to just blues progressions. It’s song first and blues ornamentation after which makes a very listenable mix. And he hasn’t lost one bit of his guitar prowess.

“Everything” takes it slow and with feeling and that works for us. We are going to embed Rockabilly Baby” below. We love when Johnny hits a crystal clear chord and hits the tremolo like he does right off in this tune.

File Fixed Game under ‘thundering hardcore”. The group is from Tampa, FLA and are on Triple B Records. The music is such assaulting hardcore that we instinctively move to the back wall to be safe…even at home. To hear the whole album go to the Fixed Game website. We embed the last song on the album “In Decline”. It’s a short blast about the world being in decline.

The Traitrs are from Toronto. Their new album Possessor will be out in May. “Dream Drowning” sounds like a goth classic from years ago from the Cure or New Order but it’s new. It’s almost six minutes long and it holds you for that time without a problem. The song is about the life of dreams. It’s dark and haunting. The drumbeat is like a death march. Traitrs will be playing the Middle East Up on May 14.

We pay attention to every release by Lolas from Birmingham, Alabama because every song is unfailing sweet power pop. Their latest “Flowers” fits the bill. Ringing 12 strings set the stage for thick close harmonies tucked in a melodic warm blanket. We don’t have a clue as to what the lyrics mean but that doesn’t bother us.

Germany’s Melonball have a new album Take Care out on February 27. “Static” is the fifth single that's been pre-released. We’ve been enjoying them all. “Static” starts off slow and melodic, after a half minute the drums kick in and then the band and it’s fast, punk and melodic. Melonball are often political but “Static” is a relationship song. It’s unexpected but also not a problem. It comes with a video , in this case we like the audio version straight up.

We love that Greg Norton of Husker Du is now part of Ultrabomb. They've released some very well done music. Their new album The Bridges That We Burn comes out on May 1st. The singles that have been pre-released have been excellent. We can add “Look Forward In Anger” to that.

The song is built on aggressive riffs and boosted with soaring vocals. There’s a nice busy ripping solo in the middle. The song is about shooting for love. Says Greg Norton, “Look Forward In Anger’ is a commentary on how partisan politics push to divide us, when we should all be coming together. Love over BS, any day”

Here's some good shows coming up .....

February 16, 2026 (Monday) Orbiter, Scrod, Divorce Cake, On Regret at O'Briens

February 16, 2026 (Monday) Noone and the Somebodies (?!?!) , Dinos, Irish Goodbyes at The Silhouette

February 18, 2026 (Thursday) The Haymakers, Bob Cenci's Orange Guitar at The Lizard Lounge Cambridge - FB page.

February 20, 2026 (Friday) Lux Lives East Coast 2026 Featuring: The Evil Streaks, Gossip Collar, Cryin Caleb, DJ Kogar the Swinging Ape playing Lux and Ivy's Favorites all night long at Faces Brewing Co. FB page

February 21, 2026 (Saturday) KCUF, Oh The Humanity!, Leisure Boys, CE Skidmore at Faces Malden

February 21, 2026 (Saturday) Worshipper, Zip-Tie Handcuffs, Gossip Collar, Bastard Leg at Deep Cuts

February 21, 2026 (Saturday) Neighborhood Shit, Cigarette Camp, The Promised End, Latch - This is a benefit for Rosie's Place! at The Midway

February 25, 2026 (Wednesday) Inplainsight, Dowsing Rod, Evil Felipe, Horrendous Downplay at O'Briens

February 26, 2026 (Thursday) Miracle Blood, Bug Day, Sapling at O'Briens

February 27, 2026 (Friday) Battlemode, The Sleds, Island of Alaska, Allston Rat Problem at The Jungle

February 28, 2026 (Saturday) The Chelsea Curve, The Northern Line, Modern Day Idols at O'Briens - EARLY Matinee show - 1PM.

February 28, 2026 (Saturday) Osis, At The Hands of Man, Mussel Time at The Jungle TIX

February 28, 2026 (Saturday) Hedge, Cape Crush, MK Naomi, See You at Rogers at O'Briens

February 28, 2026 (Saturday) North Shore Hard Core with Born Cursed, Tension Scale, Billy From Boston, Latch - at The Lafayette Club Amesbury, MA - FB page.

March 7, 2026 (Saturday) TREE, Catching Hell, Beantown Boozehounds, Hammered Saint at O'Brien's

March 7, 2026 (Saturday) The Dopameanies, Time and Place, My Druthers, Tj Welch & The Wasted at The Midway

March 13, 2026 (Friday) Lover of Eve, Carissa Johnson & The Cure-Alls, blindspot, Joshua Sweet at The Middle East Up

March 13, 2026 (Friday) Astral Bitch, Shazbot, The Entire Earth at The Heavy Culture Coop North Hampton MA - FB page

March 14, 2026 (Saturday) Plymouth Punk Rock Mini Pop Up Market at Barrel House Z ! vinyl records, housewares, accessories, handmade jewelry, oddities, vintage goods & clothing. Weird stuff for weird people. Craft beer, all ages, no cover. FB page

March 14, 2026 (Saturday) The Cretins, The Instamatics, Shepards, Charmed and Strange at The Midway

March 14, 2026 (Saturday) Miracle Blood, Sexless Marriage, Woundlicker at The Heavy Culture Coop North Hampton MA FB page

March 14, 2026 (Saturday) M.O.T.O, Vices INC , at The Midway - matinee show at 3PM

March 19, 2026 (Thursday) Celebrity Sighting, Nice Guy,/ Whyte Lipstick, Merry Merry at O'Brien's

March 19, 2026 (Thursday) The Len Price 3, The Chelsea Curve, Stars Like Ours and DJ Sherman at The Stone Church Music Club, New Market NH. FB page

March 20, 2026 (Friday) Angry Samoans at The Middle East Up FB page

March 20, 2026 (Friday) The Len Price 3, The Chelsea Curve, Muck & the Mires, Pop! at Deep Cuts, Medford, MA FB page

March 21, 2026 (Saturday) The Bags and Trinary System are at The Crystal Ballroom. TIX

March 28, 2026 (Saturday) Lyres, Dogmatics, The Downhauls at Deep Cuts, Medford, 7-11PM NOTE: $25ADV / $30DOS / 18+ Promoters profits will be donated to the fund to help the Lyres fund to pay for Chemo therapy - FB Page

March 28, 2026 (Saturday) Electric Street Queens, Humanoids, Orange Whip, Sherman at The Midway

April 3, 2026 (Friday) Osis, Tension Scale, Static Friction at Moon Base1 in Salem, MA, 24 New Derby St.  https://www.moon-ns.org/. 

April 11, 2026 (Saturday) Blood For Blood, Skinhead, COA, Neolithic - All Ages, $30, 7:00 PM - Middle East SORRY SOLD OUT

April 11, 2026 (Saturday) Spackles, Jay Allen and the Archcriminals, The Mesos at The Square Root

April 17, 2026 (Friday) Slamdinistas One night only at the Square Root with  Sado Domestics- FB page

May 2 & 3, 2026 (Saturday & Sunday) The Oddities & Curiosities Expo Boston -Hynes Convention Center- 900 Boylston St, Boston- 10AM - 5PM - the world's largest traveling oddities event showcasing hand selected vendors, dealers, artists and small businesses with all things weird. You'll find items such as: taxidermy, preserved specimens, original artwork, horror/Halloween inspired pieces, antiques, handcrafted oddities, quack medical devices, creepy clothing, odd jewelry, skulls/bones, funeral collectibles & much more. We truly have something weird for everyone at our shows. All items you see at our shows are legal to own and sustainably sourced. Outside of our curated vendors, we host sideshow performers on stage all throughout the day. Check the Website and FB page for more info and TIX

May 9, 2026 (Saturday) Whyte Lipstick, Puke Pisstols, The Lithophones (ex-spits ex-Tampoffs) at The Square Root.

May 14, 2026 (Thursday) TRAITRS, Pilgrims at The Middle East Up

May 21, 2026 (Thursday) Kerosene Heights, Dear Maryanne, Ogbert The Nerd, Blame it on Whitman at The Middle Uast Up

CONTACT US AT....misslynbgn@yahoo.com