The BGN News Archive

WMFO event June 14Saturday

WMFO at Tufts has their live music day on June 14. That means 12 live acts play over the air from 9am to 3pm on 91.5 fm. Some acts are Smitt E. Smitty and the Feztones, Emily Grogan, Randy Black, Glowbox, The Cynz, Girl With a Hawk and Dave Harrison from the False Positives. Facebook event page. You can listen online the WMFO webpage.

Al Barile Day is coming!! Nancy Barile has October 18th at Roadrunner. Save the date.

The Dogmatics continue to be busy, busy, busy. They'll have a new recording, “You’ve Got What I Want”, streaming on June 20. Look to Rum Bar's Bandcamp page for that to be posted. Jerry Lehane wrote the song after being inspired by The Outlets playing a show at the Channel. Rum Bar has let out that it is only 95 seconds long!
Kynvet has an informative page about the song.

Then there is the big Record Release Party at the Waltham's French American Victory Club on Saturday, July 26 and it 3:30 to 11pm. With the Dogmatics the lineup is: Black Cheers, Jay Allen and The Archcriminals, Last Stand, Gypsy Moths, Tom Baker and The Double Down, Stop Calling Me Frank and Band 19 The Facebook event page.

Also on the verge of release on Friday the 13th is the new one by the Peppermint Kicks. The Sal Baglio/Dan Kopko collaboration is unleashing "Radio Wam Bam Boom".
Reports on the lyrics (see Kynvet article) show that they name check WBCN and Maxine Sartori. Maxine was a crucial DJ for that era as punk was slowly inching in. "Roadrunner" looms large in the song too. Kopko is quoted as saying, "If you don't move to this number, you don't move!"

The Peppermint Kicks are also going to be included in the Flashcubes tribute album Make Something Happen. That will be out in September on Big Stir Records. Other acts included are the Sorrows, Chris Von Sneidern and The Spongetones. Paul Armstrong of the Flashcubes has continued to rock in Boston with 1.4.5.

The Chelsea Curve who are out and gigging have Rum Bar Records rereleasing their All the Things album with three new cuts. Those are the singles they have released since the album: "How Can I (Resist You)? ", "Hey Sah-Lo-Ney" and "Jamie C'Mon (Andy Lewis Remix)" The album on Rum Bar Records Bandcamp page.

We have the latest Joanie Lindstrom vacation report, even as she heads for France. This time it's California and Arizona with cities: LA, Pasadena, Salton Sea, Palm Springs, Flagstaff and Sedona. There are plenty of donuts, drinks, displaced Bostonians and the LA Punk Invasion festival with Blanks 77, DI, and Lion's Law. Then more donuts and House of Pies! Joanie's CA and AZ Vacation.

O'Brien's is giving away a pair of FREE tickets every single day in June, July, and August!! They say: "Just let us know what you like to blast. Alt? Folk? Punk? Random noises that your neighbors love? Throw it our way, and if the O'Brien's gods are feeling generous, you're on the list." You can sign up here!!  

Pat and Joey

Patricia

Arthur Freedman is remembering his life partner Patti Pelland (Patrizia Stellanova) who died from Covid 19 on June 18th, 2020. The photo of Patti with Joey Ramone was taken in 1997 outside a rock art exhibition.

Arthur says: "One of the last concerts Patti had the time of her life at was the Chameleons at the Middle East Downstairs and we got to hang out with Clem Burke as he was in town with Blondie and dug the Chameleons."

Rest in Peace, Patti.

VIDEOS......

It's been a while since we heard from Kid Gulliver. They now have a new song and video titled "24 Hours". We got this video before it has been posted so there is no intro image...but press play and you get the vid.

You recognize their signature style right off. The forward driving punchy pop with punky guitar riffs. Then Simone's smooth as silk singing capturing a winsome sadness.
A cool visual moment is at the three minute mark where some drum rolls are illustrated with cascading drums bouncing through the screen.

It was 50 years ago that we heard about The Talking Heads for the first time. We saw them at The Club in Central Square in 1977 with not a lot of people there. "Psycho Killer" was their first release in 1977 and it got lots of traction.

The psycho protagonist of the song was recreated by David Byrne in his jerky stage persona that we now recognize as his own style. We even think that his original vocal presentation is more vivid than this new video. Which is to say the song is more powerful on its own than this new portrayal, which is good in a way. The song wins. The video was directed by Mike Mills.

Boston's Burn Kit began in 2024. They've toured a lot and played with the Dead Boys, and are touring with them on the West Coast this fall. They're touring with the Dwarves in August and are at Deep Cuts Medford on August 2nd..

This video for "When You Know, You Know", a song off their EP Fallen Rose that dropped on May 5. You can hear their Post Punk influences in the guitars. This song isn't driven by power chords but by arpeggios that roll along. It's refreshing to hear.

One article on them mentions influence from Joy Division and you can hear that. The video is all black and white. There's a lot of fast cutting of live and in studio band playing. Their Instagram & Facebook pages. The three song EP is embedded below.

Selena the Latina singing phenom was tragically murdered 30 years ago. In memory Total Chaos, a hardcore group from CA, has done a version s "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" and made it "Selena Was A Punk Rocker". Selena sang Tejano music, which was a popular Latin music subgenre of the day.
We like how Total Chaos used their own punk style to create their memorable video of Selena. Punk and the Ramones continue to give in ways we never could have imagined at the beginning.

RADIO......

Skybar had the last Rumble winners (and Boston Music Award winners), The Ghouls, in as guests for his 6/3 Rising show. You get a chance to hear the group talk about recording their album Handle With Care.

They all sound very down to earth. Skybar plays six songs from the album so you get a good idea of what that sounds like. We learned a new word from the group - scopophobia, which is an anxiety disorder, characterized by an excessive fear of being stared at in public or stared at by others.

There was a passing reference to the next Rumble, thinking it might not happen. Skybar thinks it will. You can't blame Anngelle Wood who has done so well keeping that tradition going. There hasn't been a proper Boston Emissions show for five months. Anngelle also does a crime podcast, Crime of the Truest Kind and that is very active.

To hear the Rising show listen on WMFO on Tuesdays from 7 to 9pm, or go to the WMFO schedule page and hit Rising show on Tuesday at 7pm and then hit archive.

PODCASTS......

There was the usual heavy supply of hardcore in the 5/26 Sonic Overload show. That's no surprise, but you can't stereotype Al all the time. Every show has different genres bumping around. This week he had a few electronic songs, some arty post punk and old school punk.

He's been spotlighting albums that came out 45 years ago. This show included Suicide, The Brains ("Money Changes Everything"), Magazine and The Beat.

One hardcore song that stuck out for us was by local Boston group Stress Balls. They get way stressed on "That's My Parking Space". Later it's Toxic Narcotic that goes on about an "Asshole" and can't let it go. We have those two songs embedded below along with Total Abuse doing "DNA Evidence" because it came before the Stress Balls and was a good match.

On the 6/2 Sonic Overload show Al Quint started the show with a set by English group Conflict. Colin Jerwood, the frontman of the group, died this week at 63. That was a very worthy six song set.
Then Al played “They Wanna Squeeze Me” another song by the local Stress Balls titled . The chorus sticks out because they sing it "they wannawannawanna wannawannawanna squeeze me."

That got us to their Bandcamp page where we find they have a new album due out in July. They have seven releases, both singles and albums. They have a sharp critical eye. They zing a lot of good targets. We had to look at the song "Somerville". They nail it pretty good. They sing, "On a detour to nowhere, all the signs point left and right/On a detour to nowhere, and I won't be home tonight". The BGN crew were actually stuck in a Somerville detour last week and the One Way streets offered no exit out.

Al played some songs from a reissue of the New Wind album by Seven Seconds, they sounded excellent. We have one embedded below. There was a set of songs supporting gay rights for Gay Pride month. It was satisfying to hear the raging hardcore in solidarity for human rights. It's very simple as Germ Attack's song says "Fuck You Homophobe". One throwback was right up our alley - Tuff Darts with "Your Love Is Like a Nuclear Waste".

In the show you also get some reggae and a salute to Rick Derringer RIP. We didn't know Rick played on "Under My Wheels" by Alice Cooper.

Embedded we have the Stress Balls song, the Seven Seconds song "Still Believe" and the Tuff Darts "Your Love Is Like a Nuclear Waste".

To hear the whole Sonic Overload show go to Al's Blogspot page.

Mike was the DJ on the 5/31 Wormtown Underground Radio show. We zeroed in on the Lyres doing "7" from the Cavestomp! Volume 1 album when we saw it on the playlist. The song before it was very Lyres like too. It was Thane Russal & Three doing "Security". It's English and from 1965. It's a combo of garage and soul. Hear it fast on YouTube.

Another find was a band closer to home. Mike played current local Worcester group The Pathetics with the song "My Head Hurts". Their whole album Keep It Classy is worth checking out on Bandcamp.
Then there was the group Gabba. They play the music of Abba in the style of the Ramones! Genius at work there. On YouTube.
Mike played some old Boston cuts: Classic Ruins, Mr. Airplane Man, Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band, and new locals Sapling, Evil Felipe, Muck and the Mires. There's a lot of good music on this four hour podcast.

The 5/30 The Elastic Glam show had an early surprise with a Billy Idol and Avril Lavigne collaboration. The song "77" is off of Idol's Dream Into It album. There's a cut with Joan Jett on it too. "77" sounds more like an Avril Lavigne song than an Idol one. The lyrics are about having the spirit to fight back just like the old days of 1977. The song on YouTube
Then three neat throwbacks with Sweet, NY Dolls, Smoke ("Living Next Door to Alice") and Suzi Qutro ("Can the Can"). The new glam cuts include Silver Glam, The States ("Give Me Joy"), Gyasi, The Voltz,

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

There's so much packed into every One Fall song on their new Cut & Run four song EP. The group has so much drive, they care so much, they have so much talent and they know how to get all of it into a recording. There's so much urgency in every syllable they sing. All the lyrical scenarios seem life and death. It keeps your attention every second.

When One Fall got together and played they must have known how amazing they were together. The playing matches the always interesting songwriting. Just the drumming (by Caleb Wheeler) on the first cut "The Modern Age" will stop you in wonder.

They have talented friends: Kyle Paradis and Kevin Athas (both from Oh the Humanity), Paul Picillo (The Promised End) and Max Davis (Blame It On Whitman). The vocal turn by Nat Grey and Becky Fontaine of Iron Roses is a wonderful influence in the song "Keep Waking". If you know their work you can hear them bring their own special aura into the One Fall song.

Simply put, it's a stunner from beginning to end. The recording has so much presence. It was recorded at New Alliance and mixed by Karl Paradis - had to give these people some credit.

Atlantic Thrills from Providence have a new album titled III out on Spotify now. It'is eleven cuts of glorious garage/surf. The vocals are full throated and punchy. That element raises this album over similar projects.

The sixties influences rule the album with only the songs "So Dumb" and "Heart Attack" showing some punk tones. The album has an energetic spirit that doesn't flag and that makes it a wonderful whole album listening experience. There's too many song faves to list.

It's always a good day when you get a new Brad Marino song. "Reason or Rhyme" is a straight ahead rocker that Brad can do so well. We love his vocal on this. In the verses he parses the words and in the chorus he gives the key end words an extra few syllables. That's emphasized with the rhythm being choppy in the verse and the rhythm flowing in the chorus. We've come to love Zack Spraque's drumming and it gives so much character to the song here.

We have our radar up on Condition Baker the punk group from the South Shore. They have a new single "Nerve" up on Bandcamp now. The song is about a toxic stuck up person. They sing, "You think you're something special but we all stay clear." The band sound is rock solid and the drummer nails it all down. The guitar has an ear catching riff that has welcome returns through the tune. The singer has a full bodied voice that brings presence to the song. This is primed to get airplay.

The Ghouls only had two songs out at the time of their Rumble win last year. Now they have Handle With Care a nine song album.

The group tags The Strokes as an influence and you hear that on the first song "Pocket of Gold". That song plus "Hellbound" and "Lovestruck" have been released in other versions on Bandcamp. Their styles vary with some songs. They also tag themselves as Alternative and Indie rock and that come out in the guitar playing.

In some songs like "For You" and "Lovestruck" they start the songs with positively smooth jazz stylings but they both get rocking before long enough. The album ends with "Goodbye (Da Da Da)" that rocks like the opening "Pocket of Gold". The album shows a lot of talent and the Rumble win means that they have appeal, a winning combo.

Boston's hardcore Already Dead have a slab of angst with "Time". For them the day's both too short, you can't get enough done, and too long, please let it stop. Each section is punctuated with a growling scream which comes across as Primal Therapy.

We like this new trend of a split single with the groups trading songs. Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin has done this before with Sal Baglio's Amplifier Heads. This time it's with Arthur Alexander from the Poppees and the Sorrows and now on Big Stir Records .

The Skin-Tight Skin take on "Why Can't You Come". Like a lot of their material it's solid rock. Rob Moss also brings in guest players. Here it is Billy Loosigian, the new Nervous Eater's man himself. Nothing pleases us early Boston punkers than to hear Billy slinging his strings.

You can tell right off that you are in the hands of veteran music maker at the beginning of Alexander's take on "Red Beans and Gasoline". An acoustic twelve string gives you a New Orleans flavor. Then it adds a Bo Diddley beat which leads to the first lines of "House of the Rising Sun". Later that's mashed up with references to Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode". There are layers of classic rock guitar sounds in the group arrangement bedding the track. An excellent piece of work.

Loose Lips is an Australian group formed a year ago and as a side project of Josh Hardy of the Chats. Their new album is titled Last Laugh. There is one song released now. "Don't Mess Me Round" is low fi garage rocker. In one way it's not much more than its chorus of "Don't Mess Me Round" but that is pretty good and works for us. We love that rough garage sound they have. The group's Bandcamp page.

The Wind Ups are from Northern CA. They've already put two other albums out. They're now on the verge of their third album. This one was recorded on a Tascam recorder. That means it was a bedroom recording.

The one cut they have out now "(That's Just My) Dream Girl" is lo-fi sugar pop, and the miracle is that, it works. Theoretically, it would seem a nice crisp recording capturing subtitle guitar tones and vocals would work better for this, but the charm and coziness of this can't be denied.

We have to emphasize that it is fuzzy and muddy but the song and talent both come through. The other material we heard by them sounded like better recordings but didn't capture the magic of this one.

OK, get ready for this. What we have here is Polka Punk. The Dreadnoughts are from Canada but are now from NYC and have a few albums of Polka Punk. Polka Pit is their latest. The band has good chops and indeed can play and intertwine the two genres. The tune gets you into instant Octoberfest mode.

They have a Bandcamp page with many albums of similar umpah punk. But they are not the first. Back in the day Brave Combo from Texas used to play in town regularly and had many fans. They were polka and other styles combined with punk. And of course there was  Al Janik's Plastyczny Ser Orkestra which played annually for years. (BGN 2012)

Midnight Peg is a hardcore group from Edmonton, Canada. "Thirstland" is a song released in preparation of an album titled Skinning (due in October). The beauty of the recording is the combo of the clear and strong vocal performance couples with a well-honed hardcore band hitting hard and sharp. It's hard to know what they are singing about. What does "stab water" and "report your patrols" mean? At the same time there's no mistaking the anger coming through the voice.

The Testors led by Sonny Vincent were an unsung band in their day. They played regularly at Max's Kansas City and CBGB's but we never heard of them back then. They got on our map when they played WMBR's Clueless Playhouse in 2003. We went to the station and took photos. After that we saw him at PA's in 2012. At Radio in 2018. He was in Providence at AS220 in 2015. Putting things in perspective you can see how amazing The Testors were for their time. A lot of that has to do with Sonny Vincent's persona and his songwriting.

Now there is a new release - Prime Primitive 1976-1977, with 9 early studio recordings and 5 live cuts. It's going to be vinyl only and limited to 500 copies. A deluxe version will have some postcards (one signed by Sonny), posters and stickers.

The Testors were lost history so it's gratifying that they are getting a quality release of the early material. The album is on Green Noise Records. Sonny Vincent has a lot of albums and merch on his Bandcamp page. With the album is a newly put together early film of The Testors from 1979. In the tail end of the video you see the band in the dressing room with some quick shots of Stiv Bators and Johnny Thunders.

JJ Speedball is an Australian punker who captures pop culture in his songs. He sings about places and trends. He latest song is "Tough Titties". That might just seem like a provocative phrase to spin a song, but the phrase actually comes from a classic moment on Australian TV.

It was said in 1985 on a 60Minutes interview by Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Silverman). It's not the first time it ever was said, but did make the phrase famous and she is mentioned in the Urban Dictionary's entry about the phrase. Read about it all here. You can see the TV clip here.

Now, back to the song. It's a heavy pop punker and very catchy. There is a nice snarl in the nasal toned voice and some Chuck Berry licks to juice it up.

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

June 14, 2025 (Saturday) SLC Punk! (the film) and The Rejekts doing a live set - at Coolidge Corner Cinema TIX!

June 14, 2025 (Saturday) ShaggahS, The Cynz, at the Burren, Somerville 7pm The Burren

June 14, 2025 (Saturday) Takes Us Alive, The Spackles, The Brigands at The Jungle

June 14, 2025 (Saturday) The Slow Death are at Faces Malden

June 14, 2025 (Saturday) Linnea’s Garden  at Aeronat Brewery Allston - this show is FREE!! 6:30PM

June 14, 2025 (Saturday) TJ Welch and the Wasted and Guns of Brighton at The Pelican Pub in Lynn, MA JUNE 14 FREE

June 18, 2025 (Wednesday) Salem Wolves, The Endorphins, and The Roland Highlife at The Silhouette

June 19, 2025 (Thursday) Blue Hyenas, Stars In Debt, blindspot, Liam Slavin at The Jungle

June 20, 2025 (Friday) Linnea's Garden at Aeronaut Brewery - FREE!! starts at 6:30PM

June 20, 2025 (Friday) Closing Reception for Spring Gaze show at The New Alliance Gallery with art by Alvan Long, Duncan Wilder Johnson, and others - check the FB page

June 20, 2025 (Friday) Louder Than Milk, Bobby Oakes & The TV Models, Bob Cenci's Orange Guitar at Jeannie Johnston Pub JP Only $5!!

June 21, 2025 (Saturday) The McGunks, Pleasure Wheel, The Welch Boys, C.O.B at The Midway

June 21, 2025 (Saturday) Weekend Nachos, Dropdead, Wound Man, Peace Test, American Ethos - All Ages show at The Middle East FB page

June 21, 2025 (Saturday) SAVAK, Lupo Citta, The Whimbrels, Andy Cohen at O'Brien's

June 21, 2025 (Saturday) The Rumjacks, Crazy & The Brains, Mickey Rickshaw - ALL AGES at Sonia - FB page -7PM.

June 21, 2025 (Saturday) Straw Dogs Reunion also with The Humanoids, Rockin' Bob Punk Band, Ruffian Dick at Thirsty First Lowell.

June 21, 2025 (Saturday) One Fall, 40 Reps, The Downhauls at Moon Base One Salem - this is a benefit for BAGLY

June 22, 2025 (Sunday) Satch Kerans Band, Randy Black and Norris The Terrible - Worthen Attic

June 26, 2025 (Thursday) Murphys Law, The Take, Duck & Cover at The Middle East 7PM doors. ALL AGES

June 26, 2025 (Thursday) Faster Pussycat, The Super Suckers, The Rumours, The Lonely Ones at Koto Lowell 21+, 6:30PM doors - FB page

June 27, 2025 (Friday) The Gruesomes (legendary Canadian garage punk band) , Muck & The Mires, The Chelsea Curve at The Middle East UP EventPage

June 27, 2025 (Friday) Rockin Bob Punk Band, Color Killer, The F.U.’s and from California, Stay Out at the Middle East UP, 8pm

June 27, 2025 (Friday) Better Late, Men & Volts, Hot Franks at The Square Root

June 28, 2025 (Saturday) TREE and Incendiary Device at Brighton Music Hall - 6PM - TIX

June 28, 2025 (Saturday) Neighborhood Shit, The Neon Hookers, Gumskab, In Remembrance, The Blind at O'Brien's

June 28, 2025 (Saturday) Angry Trees, TELL, Jade Array, Hot Start at The Jungle

June 29, 2025 (Sunday) Worm, Cry Havoc, Rags to Stitches, Screw Cart, Hardwired at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

June 29, 2025 (Sunday) Frenzy Of Tongs, Scumbari, The Stress Balls, Angry Red Planet -at The Cantab, 21+ 8pm

June 29, 2025 (Sunday) Black Beach, King in Yellow, Parachute Club at Moon Base One Salem - sober space ALL AGES 1-5PM

June 29, 2025 (Sunday) Murphy's Law, The Take, Klaxon, Grip Bite at Alchemy. TIX

June 30, 2025 (Monday) Bunuel, Murderous Again (Lyndia Lunch, Tim Dahl, Kevin Shea), Today Is the Day, Spiritual Poison at Alchemy TIX!!

July 5, 2025 (Sunday) Who Killed Spikey Jacket, Moose Knuckle, City Kings, Helldog - O'Briens

July 5, 2025 (Sunday) Martin Morrel and Fredette, The Weistranauts, Satch Kerans Band at The Midway for a matinee

July 6, 2025 (Sunday) Greg Norton, (original bass player of Hüsker Dü) and Büddies, Jon Snodgrass (Drag the River, Ft. Collins Co) and David Jarnstrom (Rad Owl, BNLX) and guest singers Scott Reynolds and Lenny Lashley playing songs and celebrating 40 years of Hüsker Dü! 

July 11, 2025 (Friday) Casket Rats, All Sinners, Officer X, Phantom Rider at Ralph's Rock Diner Worcester - FB page

July 13, 2025 (Sunday) New Bomb Turks, The Drowns, Gossip Collar, and Static Friction at Sonia

July 13, 2025 (Sunday) Corin Ashley Band, SCMF, The Chelsea Curve, at The Worthen Attic

July 16, 2025 (Wednesday) Alvilda, Brower, The Downhauls, The Crimps, Balloon Thief at The Middle East UP

July 18 & 19 2025 (Thursday & Friday) Ryan Packer Presents Mike Mccolgan and the bomb squad "Do or Die" in its entirety, Violent Way, The Welch Boys, Klaxon at The Middle East (Down) 7pm $30

July 19, 2025 (Saturday) The Instamatics, The McCritters, Harry and the Hot Flashes, The Grommets at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

July 19, 2025 (Saturday) The Wynotts, The Haymakers, American Ocelot at the Square Root, Roslindale 8pm

July 19, 2025 (Saturday) The Stigmatics, Little Billy Lost, and Smitt E. Smitty & The Fezztones at KOTO in Salem, MA,

July 20, 2025 (Sunday) BAABES, Sourpunch, Euphemia at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

July 26, 2025 (Saturday) Already Dead, East End Redemption, The Frenzy of Tongs, Circus Battalion, COB at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

July 26, 2025 (Saturday) The Dogmatics Record Release Party with Black Cheers, Jay Allen and The Archcriminals, Last Stand, Gypsy Moths, Tom Baker and The Double Down, Stop Calling Me Frank and Band 19. At at the Waltham’s French American Victory Club- 3:30 to 11pm. Facebook event page.

July 26, 2025 (Saturday) Thrust Club, The Flaming Little Sh*ts, Ruby Grove, Tiffy at The Jungle

July 27, 2025 (Sunday) Threat Level Burgundy, Lefthand Hotdog, Pink Slip, Bad Idea USA at The Midway for a 3PM matinee

July 31, 2025 (Thursday) The New Bomb Turks, The Drowns, Gossip Collar, Static Friction at Sonia TIX

August 2, 2025 (Saturday) The Dwarves, Burn Kit, Scumbari at Deep Cuts TIX!! FB page