The BGN News Archive

Punk Rock Week at the Parker Hill Library

The Parker Hill Library branch of the Boston Public Library is having their annual Punk Rock Week from September 15 to 20. They always come up with creative ideas that reflect the punk ethos. The line up:

Monday-9/15 - Punk Listening Lounge They are going to crank up the volume and listen to some punk records.

Tuesday-9/16 - Tell Your Tattoo Story(Online) You do have backstories to your tattoos, right ? Tuesday-9/16 - Drop-In Zine Making You cut and paste your own fanzine. Hey, that’s what we did in 1975.

Wednesday-9/17 - Punk Trivia Come all you know-it-alls.

Thursday-9/18 - Adventures + Misadventures in Self-Publishing A talk by the author, Cameran Sassman, who has two YA books with punk/80s Alternative as the backdrop. Books available on Amazon.

Friday-9/19 - A Band Called Death A film about the earliest black punk band from Detroit.

Saturday-9/20 - Punk Rock Aerobics It’s Hilken Mancini herself kicking your punk ass. Get all the details on the BPL website.

Dromedary Records will be releasing Via, a 6 song EP by the Thalia Zedek band of the same name. They were a short lived band formed in 1988 with Jerry DiRienzo (Cell), James Apt (Six Finger Satellite) and Adam Gaynor in Boston after her time with Uzi and Live Skull.

The songs are from a Jerry DiRienzo recording on his 8 track reel to reel in his basement in Somerville. The vinyl comes out in late October/early November! Here is the Dromedary Records website. Chris Brokaw, who wrote the liner notes to the album, states, “The music bears some cosmetic resemblances to Sonic Youth, but the songs are way more raw, primal, seething, coiled – inexorable. I still can’t get over it.”

One of the earliest, and absolutely the youngest, English punk groups was Eater. They've stuck together and now have the album Duplication on Cleopatra.

It's ten classic punk covers: “Breakdown”, “Your Generation”, “Beat On The Brat”, “Outside View”, “I’m Stranded”, “God Save The Queen”, “White Riot”, “Chinese Rocks”, “New Rose”, “Another Girl, Another Planet”
What makes this different from other punk cover collections? “I was 'there' with my band during the explosive year of 1977 - these songs mean something to me in a visceral sense,” says Eater member Andy Blade. They have the first cut “Breakdown” from the Buzzcocks Spiral Scratch EP out now on Spotify. Order it on vinyl.

VIDEOS......

Actor|Observer’s newly released song “Pyrrhic Victory” (def: a success achieved at such a devastating cost that it is equivalent to a defeat) comes with a video.It suits the song and the way the group presents all their material. A|O are all about the workings of the inner mind. What’s going on there? Why am I having these problems?

The band members in the video are in a dark place. There’s no landscape. Sometimes as the band members walk back out of the light it seems they are getting sucked into the darkness – very dramatic. They are placed in mirror frames that only reflect the black. The colors are deep and rich and images are blurred. It's very stylish.

The song starts with all the instruments sotto voce. For one minute the quiet rules, but then the band comes crashing in. From then on it is full blast and emotional warfare. Both the song and video are the closest they have come to recreating the awesome live experience of their shows.

We’ve talked about Structure Sound from Providence before. Now they have a video for their cover of Amy Winehouse’s song “Back To Black”. They take that powerful song branded with Winehouse’s style and give it a hard rock edge. The deep despair of the broken relationship survives intact.

This is part of Stolen Tunes an EP of cover songs out on September 19. The video is a collection of clips from black and white films which gives it the strong and somber atmosphere it needs.

Vibeke Saugestad Band is a new group in the Rum Bar Records stable. The new song “Hey Now Sunshine” comes with a video full of sunshine and psych. The tasteful playing, the classy melody and smooth singing combine to give you a Summer of ’67 buzz. There’s some low key Sgt Pepper horn arrangement in the song that will tweak your nostalgia too. The EP coming out on Rum Bar is on Bandcamp.

On October 10 Patti Smith will release a 50th anniversary edition of her 1975 Horses album. Pitchfork has an article with details. It’s going to be a two LP/CD collection. It will have the original album and an extras that include demo songs, alternative takes and four new songs. One of those songs is titled “Snowball” and they have the video above released already. She's doing a tour for the 50th also...she'll be at the Orpheum (tix are exorbitant!!) on Nov 24th. sigh...tickets in 1976 were like $4.00 .....

PODCASTS......

Evan Shore of Muck and the Mires was interviewed by Mighty Manfred on the Underground Garage website. We would say that Muck and the Mires were born to be on the Underground Garage show but the group started 25 years ago and the Underground Garage started 23 years ago.

The Muck origin story is series of fortunate happenings. Evan writes and performs an album of a fictional sixties group, and real record companies search him out and release the album in the USA and Europe.

Evan talks about the band hanging with original Beatle drummer Pete Best and original Beatle manager Allan Williams. He explains that the recording was done in guitarist Pedro’s home studio in the basement. It was actually finished two years ago. Manfred and Evan talked about some of the ins and outs of Gilligan’s Island because of the song “Mary Ann Man”.

There’s an interesting John Holmstrom interview on Soundscapes NYC. Holmstrom started and illustrated Punk magazine. The BGN took some inspiration from that zine. We liked the cartoons, the lists and especially the photo layouts. Punk magazine went from 1976 to 1979.

John also talks about NYC and how it was affordable back then. Now, it’s for rich people he says. He also makes a case that comics developed in parallel with rock. The CDGB’s movie has been given thumbs down by almost everybody but John, who was involved, supports it and thinks it does a good job.

This interview was done a year ago when they were going to revitalize Punk magazine but there doesn’t seem like much current action on the website. There is a Best of Punk book that came out in 2011.

There is an interview with Byron Coley in the Rock’s Backpages site. Byron talks about his time at Forced Exposure, his friendship with Captain Beefheart, working with Lydia Lunch, writing for Spin and NY Rocker, working with Sonic Youth, and his grudge against Robert Christgau of the Village Voice. He has lots of stories. He now has a record store (Rub Wrongways ) in Northampton, MA.

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

Roger Miller’s Trinary System has a new song on Bandcamp. “Resistence (Is Its Own Reward)” The song opens with an insistent bass line that digs in and really it never lets up for the length of the song. All the other instruments, the singing and the melody all are relative to that bass line.

The lyrics parcel out some political rallying cries like, “Resistance is not futile” and “Freedom is not free”. That’s followed by group chants of “come on” which make you want to join the movement. Roger adds some of the guitar work that only he can do. There’s a section that is differentiated by the smooth mellotron work that Roger plays.

We came across Boston band The Grimly Pleased in our surfing around. They remind us of Jamaica Plain’s The Grommets. Like them they play old school punk and do gigs at The Midway and Square Root a lot.

Their latest album I’ll Choose It came out a week ago. Half the time they hit their mark with the song title alone. That’s true with “Nobody Dances At Shows Anymore”. They sing how they love their friends and their friend’s bands but they don’t dance to them. Nobody does anymore. Hey, they can’t help it – it’s their knees! Miss Lyn would understand that!

They explain that they are an “Adult Delinquent”. They are guilty of aggressive driving, throwing cigarettes out the window and berating the wait staff. In “But I Did It” they repeat “I told myself once, I told myself twice, I told myself thrice. Not to do it. But I did it.” The music is unapologetic rough garage punk. It has fun built into it. That’s right up our alley.

If we ever make a list of out of town bands that Rum Bar Records has introduced us to The Glimmer Stars will be at the top. They now have the song “I Need It Now” released as a tease for their new album Someday’s a Long Time out soon.

The band’s love of garage, bubblegum and pop comes through in the mix. It’s all glued together with singer Mini Mendez. The voice has charm and character that that comes from Mini’s rock music influences. You can’t teach that or fake it. We love the way he doesn’t just say “ I need it now”, it’s “I need it na na na na Now”.

Catch The Glimmer Stars live on their Fall East Coast Tour: 9/18 @ The Stone Church, Newmarket NH, 9/19 @ The Burren, Somerville MA

Newish band Yes, Nanny have their second digital release and already they are shaking things up. Their first song was “The Other Ones” which had a punk thing going. This current release “Dead Weight” they bring on the heaviness. It’s metalish and the tempo is slower. It still has a garage feel to it along with the fuzzed up riffs.

Tai the singer has the vocal chops to make any song stand out. There’s an outstanding move at the 1:45 point where some smooth multitracked vocals float over the heavy riffage. You don’t hear a move like that all the time. To top it off Tai ends the song with a display of hot emotive vocalization because, well, she can.

Crow Follow have looked up from the swamp and seen the blue skies. With “Golden Days” they give us a sunny view. Clear trumpets at the beginning herald the positive outlook. They wish us “golden days” and “a wind that lifts you high”. They are happy just to get “a few things done”.

At the end of the song the guitar begins to feedback wildly and the group falls apart. What are they telling us? That things aren’t so simple? Or are they just letting everything go free?

Steve Geraci, from Boston, records under his name and the band name The Tear Downs. His current song “Save Yourself” has the immigrant situation as the subject matter. It's in the alternative/indie sounding area and was recorded at Woolly Mammoth. That song is being released on August 22.

We checked out his Bandcamp page and found a song that was of interest to us. “Kenmore, No More” bemoans the loss of Kenmore Square when it was rocking. There are a lot of us that are just never going to get over that. The arrangement has some guitar lines that add a lot.

Some of the lyrics: "The Rat’s a crazy scene Bands sweatin’ there, livin’ their dreams Keep it real, got east coast sway Give it all away Friday night the crowd yells out for more, They want more! Kenmore no more Beer-soaks the floor Kenmore no more How the mighty did fall Charles River at night, Those bands were tight."

There are a few songs about Kenmore Square and the Rat. We add this to the list.

Astral Bitch has a new digital single with “Seeds of Hate” a scathing indictment of the status quo. We've heard others but none captures the anger as well as this. The guitar grunge avalanche for a backdrop is perfectly suited to the list of offenses in the lyrics. This is serious shit for serious times.

The second song “What Goes Around” takes a similar tack but aims for the personal rather than the societal. It’s about a relationship gone bad. Astral Bitch spells it out. When this group gets angry, watch out.

Vanyaland featured the band Bloodsport from Brooklyn and their song “Calvin”. The hook was that it sounded like the Pixies. It does have Pixie-like attributes, and it’s fun to catch that, but has its own thing too. The band combines alternative, punk and hardcore. “Calvin” is a pre-released song from the album Anything Can Be A Hammer.

We reviewed a few Sick Fizz songs here in the past. Now, we have Taken’ Care of Fizzness, a new 12 cut album titled that we thoroughly enjoy. It’s over the top fuzzed out (they would say Fizzed out) garage madness.

What we like is that as much as it seems primitive and unrestrained it still has songwriting and arrangements that make it work better without holding back the exuberance. The guitar is always fueled up with a fuzz tone and a wah wah pedal wanked up to the max. The drums are very busy filling up every sonic space too. Sometimes it feels like at any moment you are listening to 80% drums. The singing is appropriately gruff but it’s also bubblegum sweet some of the time and there are nice backing choruses that add unexpected finishing touches.

We love the very opening of the album with the block garage chords of “OMG Not This Guy Again” that signal what you will be hearing for the rest of the album. Other faves are “Strange Kind of Love”, “It’s Time To Shine”, “Dynomite” and “Scooby Doo”.
To quote the Jimmy Walker audio clip in “Dynomite” we rate the album “D for DYNOMITE!”

The Mistrusted are from Wolverhampton, UK. What we like about this group is that they're heavy without being sludgy, metal or dragging their tempos. There are many places in the album Torres Abren Fuego where the singer does some over the top screaming. One thing we love…screaming.

The songs are lyric heavy. A lot of the lyric situations seem movie-like or story-like. It feels like dystopian situations in “Towers Open Up”, “System Ruse Machine” and “House of Mirrors”. “Picaro” has characters from “Confederacy of Dunces”. “Flat Earth” mentions Room 101, that’s the torture room in Huxley’s 1984. The cut “Meta Song” muses about a boy who lost his arm. Even that seems to be part of a story.

All of those possibilities are intriguing and open up the album to some thinking. The more we listened the more we found to like in Torres Abren Fuego (translated it means Towers Open Fire).

Lawn are a duo from New Orleans. They are an indie band. The song “Davie” off their new album God Made the Highway has some appealing guitar work and a winsome nostalgic feel to the lyrics. The song is nicely arranged. In it’s almost four minutes you go through a few different modes. Davie was the name of their landlord when the band was struggling. The full story is on the Sterogum website .

Profanity Fair (funny play on the title Vanity Fair – especially when you hear their song) from Australia has given us the song “Not So Radio” which has the word ‘fuck’ in it 48 times, by our count. That’s not counting the other obscenities in it too. Yet, it’s all very tuneful and upbeat! It’s not just the swearing then, but, ya know, it’s about the swearing. The song “Plastic Messiah” logs 28 ‘fuck’ mentions.

Here’s another song that will not be played on radio – “Another Fucked Up Day” on the album Self Medicate by The Backstreet Abortions from London. Not everything is nice and that’s why we have punk. This group uses the privilege.

The first song begins with “One, Two, Fuck You”. One of our fave moments is on “Robinson” where they repeat “You wanna shut your fucking mouth” for 20 seconds. The group sound is punk verging on hardcore and metal. “Another Fucked Up Day” is just the way we feel half the time. It’s cathartic listening to it, as is the whole album. It’s nice to have someone else yell for you.
Here the whole album on Bandcamp.

The group Foxycontin from Philadelphia cover the 1965 song “Let It All Hang Out” by The Hombres. They don’t have the breezy nonchalance that The Hombres used to fashion their version, they pound out the tune with some intensity. Rather than the laissez fair attitude while singing “Let it all hang out” the Foxycontins yell it out with punk aggression. It still works.

This is a split single with Cream Circus covering Dion’s “The Wanderer”. Again the steamroller punk attack buries the subtleties of Dion’s version, but that’s the idea.

Appaloosa from Seattle have a combination of influences that collectively give them sound we like. They are glam, bubblegum, punk, power pop and garage. All that will give you a song like their current single “Get It Together, Kid”. There are nice guitar tones in there.

We checked out their Bandcamp page and found and instrumental that was interesting. It has garage rock chords and psych guitar tones. It’s fairly simple but makes us think of the 13th Floor Elevators. Good title too – “Morphine Lollipop”.

Sometimes when things are all over, you understand them more than ever. Post punk is like that for us. In the early eighties Post Punk had a hard edge. Now it seems a recognizable style we like.
That brings us to Nape Neck from Leeds, UK. There new tune “Panacea” is like a compilation of Post Punk tricks. If you wanted to describe Post Punk to someone you could play this song.

Now those cutting chords bring fond memories as well as being a style that sears through conventions and makes you want to do a jerky dance. What a nice piece of work.

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

September 8, 2025 (Monday) Static Friction, Bad Idea USA, Trash Sound Conglomerate, Taken By Vultures at The Silhouette

September 10, 2025 (Wednesday) Clementine, Screenshot, Bicycle Inn, Have Fun at The Silhouette

September 12 , 2025 (Friday) Field Day, Arto Vaun, Cold Expectations at The Square Root

September 12 & 13, 2025 (Friday & Saturday) Moon Over Salem Festival - At Moon Base One on Friday 9/12: Rebuilder, In The Meantime and others.

September 12 & 13, 2025 (Friday & Saturday) Moon Over Salem Festival - Saturday 9-13: At Moon Base One -10 Bands including Evil Filipe, Vivid Bloom At Cinema Salem 10 bands including Tiger Man Whoah, Choke Up and Oh The Humanity! - more info

September 13, 2025 (Saturday) The Del Fuegos will be playing the Belforge Art Center (Medfield) on Saturday September 13 at 3 to 7pm. Tickets are $30.00.

September 13, 2025 (Saturday) DnA's Evolution, The Spackles, Screw Cart, Iron League at The Midway 3PM matinee FB event page

September 17, 2025 (Wednesday) Luddites, The Modern Faces, Invisible Rays at The  Silhouette

September 19, 2025 (Friday) Brad Marino , Chelsea Curve, Glimmer Stars at The Burren

September 19, 2025 (Friday) Boston Fuzztival - Line Up TBA = save the date!! at Arts at the Armory - FB page to check

September 20, 2025 (Saturday) Party In Salem with Silver Screams, Yes Nanny, Sonic Bomb and Linnea's Garden at Koto Salem.

September 20, 2025 (Saturday) Punks for Pets with Sourpunck, Soapbpx Saints, Daen Cabral, The Underwires, Stone Nobles, Musclecah, Hope Anchor at Nick A Nee's - check the FB event page for wish list items to bring!!

September 20, 2025 (Saturday) Taken by Vultures, The Downhauls, Circus Battalion at Thirsty First, Lowell

September 21, 2025 (Sunday) Chumhuffer, Static Friction, Chemical X, Scumbari, Night Riot Radio at The Middle East - Up EARLY show 12:00PM All Ages

September 21, 2025 (Sunday) The Courettes and Pangs are at Warehouse XI in Somerville

September 21, 2025 (Sunday) Your Friends in Hell, Lenny Lashley, kcuf at The Jungle - EARLY show 5-8:30PM

September 21, 2025 (Sunday) Shonen Knife, Pack AD - All Ages at Sonia

September 23, 2025 (Tuesday) Bad Idea USA, Kids On Fire, Mk Naomi, Autumn Astronauts at The MIdway 7:30

September 27, 2025 (Saturday) Futon Lasagna, Skaleton Crew, Threat Level Burgundy, So Many Dangers for a 3M matinee at The Midway

September 27, 2025 (Saturday) The Angry-Las play one of two final gigs before their singer departs for California!! Angry-Las, In Shreds, Gozerian, Letterik at The Midway The Angs play 3rd of 4 bands. FB page

September 27, 2025 (Saturday) Kingpin, The Long Wait, Wire Lines, DJ Vivid Oblivion at Deep Cuts FB page

September 28, 2025 (Sunday) Allston Village Street Fair Festival - On Harvard Ave, Six blocks of entertainment. Music all day - noon to 6pm. Bands include Blindspot, Zip Tie Handcuffs and Children of the Flaming Wheel. All bands and tiems listed on website Facebook page.

September 28, 2025 (Sunday) Coffin Salesman, Daphne Blue Underworld, Connor Storms & His Bouquet for a 3PM matinee at The Midway

October 4, 2025 (Saturday) Soraia, The Cocktail Slippers, River City Rebels, The Chelsea Curve at The Midway 8PM

October 4, 2025 (Saturday) Plymouth Punk Rock Market At the Mayflower Brewery Plymouth. FB event page

October 11, 2025 (Saturday) The Downhauls, Roxy and The Crisis, Gene Dante and The Future Starlets at The Middle East - Up - 8:00PM All Ages

October 11, 2025 (Saturday) Lyres, Mal Thursday Quintet, Tiber Bomb at VFW 6859 in Portland, ME check FB page for location directions

October 16, 2025 (Thursday) Moving Targets celebrate the release of their new LP and are hitting the road with Atlanta based melodic punkers in Billy Batts and the Made Men, with special guests Spiller 

October 18, 2025 (Saturday) Al Barile Day at Roadrunner All proceeds to benefit Dana Farber Cancer Institute ... info coming...

October 19, 2025 (Sunday) The Sound Cove presents the first ever Super Sonic Showcase with The Chelsea Curve, Cold Expectations, Speed Fossil, Happy Little Clouds, Corin Ashley and Eric Barlow at The Burren this is an EARLY show 2- 5:30PM. FB page.

October 25, 2025 (Saturday) The Annual Wreck-o-Ween hardcore/punk/thrash fest.at the C-Note, Hull Angs are playing as part of the annual Wreck-o-Ween hardcore/punk/thrash fest. More details TBA

October 25, 2025 (Saturday) An International Garage Rock Shakedown with Stupidity, Muck & The Mires, The Chelsea Curve, Pop!, at The Stone Church Music CLub, Newmarket, NH FB page.

October 26, 2025 (Sunday) Galaxy Cake, Pleasing Terrors, American Ocelot at The Jungle EARLY show 5-8PM

October 30, 2025 (Thursday) Stupidity, Chelsea Curve, Little Billy Lost, at The Burren

November 1, 2025 (Saturday) The Barstool Preachers, The Last Gang at Deep Cuts -CANCELLED!!!

November 14, 2025 (Friday) Steve Conte, Muck & the Mires, Gene Dante & the Future Starlet, Pink (acoustic) at Deep Cuts in Medford FB page.

December 4, 2025 (Thursday) Agnostic Front, Raw Brigade, Violent Way at The MIddle East Down

January 24, 2026 (Saturday) Hooligan Holiday Boston with The Oppressed - ALL AGES showat The Middle EAST 7PM doors. FB page

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