The BGN News Archive

Gang Green on the road

Gang Green is back on the road. The band will do a four-city tour to celebrate the 40 year anniversary of Another Wasted Night. The cities are 7/30 -Hamden, CT, 7/31- Brighton Music Hall, 8/1- Geno’s Portland and 8/2i Albany, NY. On the bill with Gang Green is Tree, Worm and The FU’s.

The Dogmatics are now on a new music platform called Subvert. It’s a successor to Bandcamp. It’s based on a co-op mode where artist are part owners. There’s a story behind it that you can read here on The Fader site. You can check the Dogmatics page. . It’s very straight forward and the music quality sounds excellent. Salem’s Tension Scale also has joined the site. We hope this becomes successful because those other streaming services are robbing the music makers.

Dave Smalley the singer for DYS, Dag Nasty and Down By Law has a solo album Light A Fire In The Rain on Missing Fink Records. It’s available in blue or black vinyl from the label’s website

The Chelsea Curve is putting live shows on hold as Linda Bean Pardee deals with her fight with cancer. We wish her the best. It makes us realize that a cancer cure is one of the most important things we should be supporting every way we can.

It seems like it’s been too long since we’ve heard from Baabes. They played Somerville’s Porchfest a few weeks ago. You can see on the video clip they posted that they are still at it like crazy. Their album Rampage At The Plaza ready to be unleashed. Their next gig is at Deep Cuts in Medford on July 25.

Writer Joe Bonomo (who also wrote the very satisfying Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones) wrote a review of The Dogmatics, A Dogumentary on the occasion of the band posting the film on their YouTube Channel. Bonomo saw the Dogmatics in DC in the 80s. He was a DJ and played the group’s songs at that time too.

He does an excellent job showing how the film delivers The Dogmatics story. He finds it inspiring as most viewers do. It feels good to have an outsider dig in and find so much to talk about and like in the film we can’t help loving. Read the article on Bonomo's Substack page. Joe also has a short article on the Prime Movers.

O’Brien’s sent out their regular promo email last week with a surprising ... and welcome piece of news. It's a new pay parking lot near the club at 9-21 Braintree Street!! It only charges $5.00 for four hours. Braintree Street is on the other side of Cambridge Street from O’Briens. Check a map before you go.

Wire Lines are playing their hometown New Bedford on June 7 at the PLAY arcade at 34 Union St. It's got a restaurant, a roof top bar and 40 old school arcade games and pinball games. Wire Lines will also be on the bill at O’Brien’s on July 26 for Day 2 of Grub Sweat and Beers. Admission ($20) covers all day BBQ and music. The twenty two band line up also includes Sundrifter.

WMFO has their LIVE DAY on June 6. That's live music from 9am to 3pm. Some of the artists will be: Muck and the Mires, Cape Crush, Satch Kerans Band, Robert Ellis Orrall, Kelly Knapp and more. The Facebook page

We’re looking forward to Hotel Saturn’s first album release later this month. They are celebrating the event at Montapolooza on Saturday 5/30 from noon to 9pm. It's an outdoor festival in Winchendon, MA.

Coretex Records from Germany have put together two versions of The Outlets' “Knock Me Down” on one single. It’s connected with Tang Records. One side is the Outlets and one side is Dropkick Murphys. It costs 16.99 Euros. You can get it on the Coretex website

VIDEOS......

There aren’t many who have a longer stretch on the Boston punk scene than Jon Macey. In 1976 his group Fox Pass put out the “I Believed” single. Only a few singles precede that, like Willie Alexander, Reddy Teddy, Marc Thor and Boize. Jon has remained creative. In the later years impressive solo albums came out with regularity. The last few years he has flourished with The Hummingbird Syndicate.

There he’s been joined by Lynn Shipley with songwriting credits. Jon who has a wide range of influences can write songs in many styles, with The Hummingbird Syndicate he has settled on sixties pop and psyche. That’s where the new song “Come out and Play” fits in. It has a warm and nostalgic glow which Jon seems to be able to give songs at will.

This was recorded by Brian Charles at Rare Signals studio. Jon and Lynn produced the recording. The video has sixties dancing clips that help recall the period. The lyrics plead for someone to “Come Out and Play” and it’s not come out and play soccer. It’s a young loving couple trying to get the time to be together. That’s married to the “rock and roll on the radio” that makes things magical.

It all seems so effortless and it’s done in two and a half minutes and doesn’t seem rushed at all. The record release party for this is June 6 at the Burren with False Positives, Dave Charles and MC Brett Milano.

The Bags have a video for “Believer” It's a live performance from their show at the Crystal Ballroom. The colors are so deep and the sound is perfect. You get to see Jim Janota doing his thing better than you do even seeing it live.

The Bieber Archives shows done by the Boston Concert Network have proven to be a dependable showcase for groups. The bands get a time to do a whole set uninterrupted. The quality of the sound and image is excellent. No shaky phone vid here.

Last week Today Junior had the slot. They are on the verge of a new album Strange Days to be released on June 6. We’ve been championing the band since we saw them in 2014 at O’Brien’s. We always think they should be getting more attention. We’re glad to see that they are now linked up with Knyvet publicity which should raise their profile.

The Bieber Archive set is another chance to see the strengths of the band. They are a trio with a compact sound. Often all three instruments throb together. The guitar and voice have a distinctive character which you should catch by viewing this. Harry on guitar plays full bar chords, not two string power chords. His tone is on the clear side and often has a surf music tone.

The group has been building up a solid backlog of material. The song “In Massachusetts” boosts the Boston locale. They sing about the “basements of Allston”. The title song of the new album “Strange Days” stuck out in the set. We replayed that a few times. One of the lyrical themes they have was apparent in “Coastlines”.

In the Today Junior world things seem uncertain. They are “chasing dreams”, “falling down” because “times are changing”. They don’t get discouraged but that feeling seems like a generational thing. To catch up on Today Junior (the name is from a Adam Sandler bit in a movie) check out their Bandcamp page.

Killing Joke’s song “Eighties” which is about living in the 80s came out in March 1984. The song conveys that things were tough then . Now rising singer Essex has a video of the song. The video seems to imply that the 80s were hanging around looking goth which is not way out of line actually.

The video looks stylish and the people suitably mopey. The recording does justice to the original and it’s nice to hear the song again. Essex will have an album later this year on Cleopatra.

Salem’s Tension Scale has a video for their song “Green Sky”. They are such movie fans. They were focused on The Burbs but they mention The Sentinel in this video, we think. The Sentinel is about an apartment complex that is a portal to hell. The story unfolds in the video as we see some hooded figures sacrificing someone on an altar, soon after the band is seen in hooded costumes. Good twist.

Here’s some catching up. Anthony Mendousa a synth player was an original member of The MIA’s that we wrote about in the BGN in issue #29 around 1982. In 1983 he was in Primary Colors with Rayboy Fernandes (ex Atlantics) and John Hartcorn (Neighborhoods). He’s now in a group called Quasi Wipeout.

They have a video for the song “Call Center”. It’s almost more of a horror/torture movie than a song. The lyrics tell the situation, “I’m a captive sex slave in a Burmese call center”. The AI imagery is appropriately claustrophobic and sweaty.

No surprise we like the new Ultrabomb video for “Artificial Stars”. We’ve been swept along with every new song from the group. The sound is a prime mix of heavy and melodic, the singing is strong and having Greg Norton (Husker Du) on bass, well ya. We like the section between 2:20 and 2:40 where they layer different vocal tracks. The group is on tour now but the closest they get to Boston is Chicago on 6/24.

Not to be missed is the Greg Norton interview by Drew Stone on the NYHC Chronicles. Greg talks about the 1983 show at Mavericks in Boston. He was surprised that it was sold out not understanding the power of college radio to spread the word on new bands. .

RADIO......

On his 5/19 Rising show Skybar had Adam Sherman and Linda Viens from Girl With a Hawk on the show. The band will have a new nine cut album Regenesis out in June 19 on . There is a pre released song “Wasn’t It Just Yesterday”. which celebrates the rock life. It's inspired by a Lucinda Williams cover of AD/DCs “It’s a Long Way To the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n Roll)“ and it does have a throwback feel to it. We have the song below. I WILL EMBED

Both Viens and Sherman put a lot of their personal experiences in their songs. A lot of those are from their long time on the Boston music scene. They sing a few songs in the studio including, GWAH’s “I’m In Love With My Friends” and Adam's “Long Fall Down”. We have the interview below.

The Rising show is on WMFO 91.5 FM on Tuesday at 7 to 9pm. To listen to past shows go to the WMFO webpage and hit the show listing on Tuesday 5/19 at 7pm and then hit ‘archive’.

PODCASTS......

On Al Quint’s 5/4 Sonic Overload he played a Boston band Red Thread. We're always looking for hardcore bands but that got by us. The band had a four song EP in 2008. Al played “Double Speak”. They have a Discogs page but we can’t find any other info. We have the song embedded below.

Shaved Ape is from Raleigh, NC. Al played their song “Obedience Punks”, it was the first song in a blistering hardcore set. We embed it to give a dose of hardcore, but if you want to hear the goods this whole set can’t be beat. It includes Grip Bite (from Providence) doing last year’s release “Skate to Annihilate”.

Al also played some of that La Peste compilation that just came out and the Modern Lovers “She Cracked”. Quint plays the Modern Lovers to mark Jonathan Richman’s 75 birthday.

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

On the 5/16 Punks in the Garage podcast (from WAIF) they had a proto punk set that was Dead Kennedys, The Germs, The Dicks and Black Flag. They also played The Mo-Dettes “White Mice” and The Dickies “Knights in White Satin”, that’s six punk songs pre-1980. That’s six songs over forty five years old that we remember so well.

Later they played a sixties garage tune by T. Benny & the Buzz Brothers doing “Gimme a Buzz” . It seems nobody but nobody knows anything about the group. Wild. They closed the show with Gene Vincent doing “B-I-Bickey-Bi Bo-Bo-Go”. Vincent died in 1971 but his crazy live shows were legendary in England. His legend has not dimmed through decades. His life on Wikipedia is almost hard to believe.

The Elastic Glam Show 5/22 started with T. Rex singing “Celebrate Summer”. It’s a different sort of song. It was the last release before Marc Bolan’s untimely death. Bolan was trying to go a little New Wave which was in play at that time (1977).

Sethyspice played locals The Magic City, Girl With A Hawk (with the latest “Wasn’t It Just Yesterday) and the new one by The Amplifier Heads “A Song Called Sha La La”. That song is made for radio and Sethyspice promises to play it for a few weeks. We have that below.

We love the classic throwbacks. This week it was “Come On Suzy” by Antelope from 1973. Then it was Alice Cooper and Thin Lizzy.

NEW MUSIC/CD's ......

One of our favorite drummers Jesse Mayer is in a new group named The Farewell Drugs. Joe Osborne from Chanticlear and Brix’n Mortor is in the group. Joe is a quality song writer. The group also has Michael "Swid" Swiderek (bass) and Ian Clark (vocals, guitar). It’s a powerhouse line up!! They have two songs out now, “Hooker Street” and “I Want It All”.

They both are amped up raves of people on the edge. “Young and dumb” and “young fuck ups” as the lyrics go. And they are proudly local, “Lowlifes from lower Allston/Fighting college kids in Boston”. It feels autobiographical and rings true. In “Hooke Street” we love the vocal tweak that singer Ian Clark puts on the words “wall” and “hall” in the chorus. We went back to that a few times. The song packs so much in a mere 1:49.

Just when you think you know MOB’s Roger Miller’s story something new pops up. Now we find a 1975 recording (titled 1975) he did with his two brothers Laurence and Benjamin and schoolmate Jack Waterstone has been released by Cuneiform Records.

The Fourth World Quartet as they were called recorded eleven cuts of classical influenced free jazz. It’s a far cry from MOB but not from Birdsongs of the Mesozoic which Roger would join not long after this. It’s hard to believe that punk was already gestating when Roger was doing this. You can still see the experimentation and musical chances he would bring to MOB and every other project. Laurence and Benjamin next joined Destroy All Monsters. MOB would come in 1979.

It’s another gem from The Adventure Set. “Time Never Bends” is a rumination about time. It’s not that we don’t know that time is unforgiving; it’s that we have to be reminded. This is one of those reminders.

The classy electronic backdrop by Mark Pothier is standard for The Adventure Set. Ken Scales impactful delivery takes advantage of that perfect sonic setting. The song made us stop and think about the time gone by and the time we have ahead. It had done its job.

Garret Vandermolen is drawing attention to his song “(You Wont) See Me” from 2014. It was remastered for Speedfossil’s Time Flies: 10 Years of Speedfossil. We’re glad to oblige. Speedfossil crafts some gorgeous pop and this is one example. The lyrics depict a love gone stale. The melody captures the regret of the situation.

This closer listen made us focus on the section between the versus. There a background chorus comes to the fore and is followed by some well-crafted guitar work. Garret remarks that he remembers getting excited using his new Telecaster for that.

Garret’s label Sound Cove is having a Anger Is An Energy, a benefit show for the ACLU at O’Brien’s on May 31. At the daytime show (2 to 6pm) along with Garret will be Cold Expectations, pop band Ghost and Shadows and Dave Herlihy (O Positive). The Facebook event page.

Sparkle Blood are from Alberta, Canada. They are hard to peg. They cover a lot of territory describing themselves. They name Buzzcocks, grunge, surf, pop, Pixies and more. They mention Guided by Voices and they are on the low fi side of things. They have two songs pre released now from their album Zip ZaP.

Their guitar sound is very prominent and it is fuzzy and buzzy. We liked “Restless”. It starts with the chorus which is catchy which is good because they repeat it four times. That works for us. We found it all very appealing and got into the other song “In Real Life” too. We have “Restless” embedded below. Hear both released songs on the Sparkle Blood Bandcamp page.

We have reviewed songs from Private Function (from Australia) before. They know how to get attention. This time is a little ditty called “Music Sucks (Fuck You)”. The group tags themselves a garage and punk but this sounds like a metal song, and that may be the point.

It goes like you imagine it would go. The song seems to end at the 1:40 mark, but no, they return to toss out “fuck you” at least another twenty times before they end. We were amused.

The Oddfellows are a Texas group that had a short career in 1994. Members went on to other groups. Now, they are back with a 17 cut album on Dirtnap. They have a cool garage sound and punk feel. You can even see punk in some song titles like, “I Hate Rules”, “I Burned Your Lawn” and “They Wanna Die”. They have a song titled “Yeah Yeah Yeah” a stesl from the Beatles refrain.

We know this because we’ve heard the album but right now they only have one song “Draw the Line” out for you to get an idea of what they are doing. We think full appreciation will come from hearing the whole self-titled album but you can get a good idea of where they are coming from with “Draw the Line”.

The SoCal band Chaser has refashioned the Bob Marley & the Wailers classic “Three Little Birds”. They've taken the reggae right out of the song, outside of a short Ska section, and replaced it with skate punk. It’s a whole different experience but it still brings the song’s message of positivity to a new audience. It gave us a warm feeling. Great job!!I WILL EMBED

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

May 29, 2026 (Friday) Beantown Boozehounds, Gossip Collar, SpikyTops, Worm, Give Up Hope at The C Note, Hull. FB page

May 29, 2026 (Friday) Something Sneaky EP Release Party! with Cherubhead, Luddites at Deep Cuts (Medford, MA)

May 30, 2026 (Saturday), Is Malden Porchfest! Huck 2 will be on the City Hall stage at 2:45! We recommend everyone spend the day in Malden checking out all the great bands! Lots of friends will be playing that day. Gretchen & The Banshees, Crow Follow, Warthog, Hey Blondie, Captain Easychord and many others!

May 30, 2026 (Saturday) Homemade Speed, Yankee Bastard, Wanted, Zipper at O'Brien's

May 30, 2026 (Saturday) The Downhauls, Silver Screams, The Angry Las, Bad Idea USA at The Bit Bar, 282 Derby St, Salem - FB event page

May 30, 2026 (Saturday)

May 31, 2026 (Sunday) Anger Is An Energy, a benefit show for the ACLU at O’Brien’s with Garret Vandermolen, Cold Expectations,Ghost and Shadows and Dave Herlihy (O Positive)- this is a 2PM matinee show. TICKETS!

May 31, 2026 (Sunday) Jittery Jack with Amy Griffin on Guitar join the Hot Franks for a 3PM matinee at The Midway FB page.

May 31, 2026 (Sunday) Wrought Iron Hex, Spectacle, Osis, Bastard Leg - at The Middle East Up 18+ FB page

June 2, 2026 (Tuesday) Killusonline, Hell Dog, Short Circuit, Faith in Silence at O'Brien's

June 4, 2026 (Thursday) The Snares, ZIp-Tie Handcuffs, Donny Toronto at Deep Cuts Medford,

June 5, 2026 (Friday) The Idolizers, Typhoid Mary, The Stigmatics, Whyte Lipstick at O'Brien's

June 6, 2026 (Saturday) WMFO LIVE Day 9 to 3pm on 91.5 FM

June 6, 2026 (Saturday) Forever Lager Festival with Pledge Pins, Whyte Lipstick, Andy California, Thalia Zedek Band, Spiller, Hilken & Melissa Band, Black Helicopter, The Dogmatics at Notch Brewery - this is a FREE events - Doors at 12NOON. FB page.

June 6, 2026 (Saturday) American Ocelot, Mass Romantic, Entheos at The Jungle a 4PM early show!

June 6, 2026 (Saturday) The Hummingbird Syndicate are at the Burren with False Positives, Dave Charles and MC Brett Milano.

June 6, 2026 (Saturday) Crow Follow, Exit 99, The Daylilies at Underbones 7-11PM

June 7, 2026 (Sunday) Still Sedated, Exit 99, The Satch Kerans Band at The Worthen Attic, Lowell - FB page

June 10, 2026 (Wednesday) Little Low, The Punk Cellist, The Catastrophes, Massive Nightmares at The Silhouette

June 11, 2026 (Thursday) Echo & The Bunnymen at Roadrunner TIX

June 12, 2026 (Friday) The Gruesome, Muck and The Mires, Tiger Bomb at The Burren, Somerville, MA, 6pm show! FB page

June 12, 2026 (Friday) Duck & Cover, Already Dead, The Only Things at Koto, Salem

June 12, 2026 (Friday) Punk Rock @ A coffee Shop with Worm, Ragz To Stitches, Jonee EarthQuake Band, Ruffian Dick - at The Spot in Nashua, NH -8pm All Ages $10 FB page.

June 13, 2026 (Saturday) Ocelot Records Ten Year Reunion with OH THE HUMANITY!, Dead Cats Dead Rats, A Minor Revolution, The Digs, The Hideout at Faces Malden

June 13, 2026 (Saturday) The Classic Ruins, The Fighting Cocks (Yes! Reunited) The Emily Grogan Band at Ralph’s Rock Diner Worcester FB page.

June 13, 2026 (Saturday) Geets Romo & Paul Simisky Present Tiger Bomb, The Spackles, Mad Painter, The Hammer (A Memorial Tribute Featuring The Living Membership Of Big Meat Hammer. Cryin' Caleb will be singing as Jordan Kratz w/ Trash Picker as Skummy Bob on lead guitar, and original Big Meat Hammer members Lenny, Jim, Tony & Greg.) At The VFW Ballroom, 687 Forest Ave Portland, ME FB page.

June 13, 2026 (Saturday)Wormtown Hardcore presents an old school hardcore show! Featuring:The FUs, Rockin Bob's Punk Band, WORM. Point Blank, Oedipus Triple Rex at The Raven in Worcester FB page.

June 14, 2026 (Sunday) Wreckless Wreck Chords Presents: The Long Wait, Incendiary Device, Scumbari, WORM, Pledge Of Allegiance- this is a 3PM MATINEE at The Midway

June 14, 2026 (Sunday) Skeeter de Milo, Astral Bitch, BEDTIMEMAGIC, Sapling 2PM matinee at O'Brien's Allston

June 15, 2026 (Monday) American Ocelot, The Haymakers, Devil Love at The Square Root

June 19, 2026 (Friday) Tension Scale, Human Issue, Step First, Hell Dog at The Middle East UP

June 20, 2026 (Saturday) Stop Calling Me Frank, Girl With A Hawk (release show!), Tad Overbaugh & The Late Arrivals at The Midway 8PM

June 23, 2026 (Tuesday) Bounce House, Puke Pisstols and Snax on Wax spinning records before the show and between sets all night long. at Deep Cuts Medford

June 24, 2026 (Wednesday) Contracharge, Cartridge, The Blind, D.O.D at O'Brien's

June 24, 2026 (Wednesday) Leftöver Crack, sadplant, Doll's Head, DUIs at Alchemy Providence RI FB page.

June 25, 2026 (Thursday) Linnea’s Garden, TIFFY, The Lookout Honeys, Indoor Friends at O'Brien's

June 25, 2026 (Thursday) Nekromantix, Diablogato, The Rumours at Alchemy Provi RI FB page.

June 27, 2026 (Saturday) Silver Screams, Still Sedated, Past Life Crisis at The Jungle - this is a 4PM MATINEE

June 27, 2026 (Saturday) Badterms, The Downhauls, Farewell Drugs at The Ugly Mug Diner, Salem

June 28, 2026 (Sunday) Weird Nightmare, Today Junior -at Deep Cuts Medford,

June 28, 2026 (Sunday) Miracle Blood, Conan Neutron, The Freqs, Dwelley at The Middle East UP

July 3, 2026 (Friday) Gossip Collar, Farewell Drugs, Yes Nanny at Obrien's Pub

July 10, 2026 (Friday) Cape Crush Record Release Show! with One Fall and Good June at Deep Cuts - FB page.

July 25, 2026 (Saturday) Baabes, Joudy, Parachute Club at Deep Cuts Medford TIX

July 25, 2026 (Saturday) Grub Sweat and Beers Night ONE at O Brien's check out the O'Brien's page for bands

July 25, 2026 (Saturday) Grub Sweat and Beers Night TWO at O Brien's check out the O'Brien's page. This one is a 2PM MATINEE!!

July 31, 2026 (Friday) Jonee Earthquake, In Shreds, BAABES, Typhoid Mary at Koto Salem

September 25, 2026 (Friday) Muck and the Mires, The Sharp Class, The Chelsea Curve, Dj Sherman at Deep Cuts Medford

September 28, 2026 (Monday) The "Sex Pistols" at The Royale

October 16, 2026 (Friday) The Damned at The Royale

CONTACT US AT....misslynbgn@yahoo.com Send us your gig listings, your anything else you've got!! You want your CD reviewed?? Contact us for that too.