The Dogmatics: A Dogumentary is a big deal for us
Boston scenesters: You get the whole band story with plenty of music video samples
along the way. The video of the band’s Thayer Street loft is priceless
and absolutely crazy. Paul O’Halloran’s sudden
death is dealt with taste and gives the film an emotional weight. It makes their
later rebirth inspiring.
This week we have an interview with the film maker Rudy Childs.
Rudy has a long history with the band. As luck would have it he started doing
documentaries for metal bands, but when the band started playing again he saw
his chance to do a documentary on them.
Rudy is a colorful character with many interests and accomplishments
.. and a lot of crazy stories from his early days. Read the interview
by hitting the photo link above.
Recently, a lot of people on Facebook and Instagram were surprised to see a
photo of a music store with a stage that had a back drop of the front of The
Rat! The store is Shred City in Wilmington. Why that
stage? That’s what we went to find out. Turns out it’s all about
the vision on one man Tommy Ashcroft. We have an interview
with photos that tell the story of how he started Shred City.
As we have been watching the corporate world build concert halls not are not
friendly to local groups it’s refreshing and inspiring to see what one
person can do to bring music to his home town.
Hit the photo link above to read the interview and see photos of Shred
City.
The news of Tom Verlaine’s death hit social media on
Saturday night in a big way. Patti Smith's daughter Jesse announced
that Verlaine died 'after a short illness." and it’s been said that
friends, including Patti Smith, were at his side near the end.
Tom’s accomplishment was stunning. Marquee Moon is a
creative nova that hit in 1978. People were trying to figure out what punk was.
It was easy to say it was noise like the Ramones and Sex Pistols and dismiss
it, until the elegant Marquee Moon came out.
How did Tom get to that sound? How did he get that punk noir feeling into the
lyrics. There are so many choices that he made that went into that creation.
That’s the thing about artists, they can do individually what an army
of people can’t do – created a new expression that can captivate
millions. That’s why we miss people like Tom Verlaine, he was one of those
individuals. Irreplaceable. More on Variety website
Jim Sullivan continues to serve up quality writing about local
acts. These days his stories show up on the WBUR website. The latest is about
David Herlihy of O Positive. David has used
the Covid down time to write some new material. He has a five-song EP, Postcards
from Kindergarten, Vol. 1 coming out soon. “Invisible Girl”
has been released already. The video
for that is here
David, who is now a music business lawyer, knows it’s a different music
world out there. The network that boosted O Positive is dismantled. The
article in WBUR
We've told you about Hammered Saint, a band to watch. They
now have Curt Florczak on guitar. What a great addition! Curt
was previously in Greg Allen's Fringe Religion and The
Hi- End.
When we first heard Curt in Fringe Religion we were stunned by his solos. They
weren’t extemporaneous slashings but pre-thought-out crafted gems. They
were real ‘moments’. Our
interview with Curt
Hammered Saint is playing The Middle East Up for an early
show- 6-9PM. Tiger Bomb and Freeloader on
Saturday Feb 11.
We haven’t heard from Corolla de Ville in a while.
We are always looking for news on their long time project of a Phil
Haynen Tribute album. Phil’s group the Dawgs
were well respected and Phil’s songs have been covered extensively.
Corolla de Ville says that an announcement of the album is coming soon.
We’ll be on that the minute it comes.
Punk was considered as the cause of everything wrong with the world when it
started. Now there are children learning Ramones’ songs. The kids are
doing fine in the video, but the guitar player…come on, down strokes buddy,
no strumming! Gabba Gabba Hey
The Shang Hi Los received some press from the Boston Herald.
Jeb Gottlieb talked to Jen D’Angora. It’s hard to peg the Shang
Hi Los or know what they might come up with next. Jen talks about the aim of
the group in the piece “The direction definitely wasn’t planned,
it was completely organic.” As it turns out that is their defining characteristic
and what makes them so interesting. Read
the article here
Bandcamp Fridays has become popular. It’s feels good
to pick up some music and have more of the money go to the musicians rather
than the intermediaries.
The next one is this Friday, February 3. And then plan ahead
coz here are the upcoming dates: March 3rd, April 7th, May 5th, August 4th,
September 1st, October 6th, November 3rd, and December 1st. Bandcamp
VIDEOS......
Kid Gulliver is back!! “Kiss & Tell” is maxed
out pop and the video is maxed out fab, pop gear color. It’s all close
up of Simone and her swinging sixties clothes.
The Sheila Devine have had sporadic live shows at the Sinclair.
Vanyaland posted a video of the band doing a medley from their last show there.
It was a good quality one so we show it above. They go from their hit song “Hum”
to Danzig’s “Mother” to AC/DC’s “It’s a
Long Way To The Top” to Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head”.
That’s quite a run through. The
Vanyaland article
For many years he was known as the guy who got kicked out of the Sex Pistols.
These days bassist Glen Matlock is as busy as he wants to be.
He plays with Blondie. He has a healthy solo career. We saw him play solo at
the
Midway in 2014 , that was memorable.
This week he released a video of a new song “Head On A Stick.”
from his forthcoming album Consequences Coming to
be released in April. It's a lot about the last few years of political upheaval:
"It was done during the debacle that is Brexit and the rise and fall of
the turgid Trump episode in the US. These songs reflect my take on the whole
sorry mess that has ensued.” “Head On A Stick” sounds like
his Rich Kids material. There is a descending bass line that
sticks in the head. Glen looks handsome! Time is kind to this guy.
Danzig/Samhain member Steve Zing
has just released a video of the song “Destroyer" in advance
of the album The Waiting, by his group BLAK29.
It's actually the Kinks 1981 song “Destroyer.” The Kinks
borrowed from themselves in that song by reusing the “All the
Day All of the Night” riff. BLAK29 do a good job by keeping things
pretty much intact. Zing also has guest vocals by The 69 Eyes
frontman Jyrki 69 as well as musical contributions from Type
O Negative drummer Johnny Kelly and Prong mastermind and Danzig
guitarist Tommy Victor! And Mr. Danzig imself design the new
band logo.
If you have been around here long enough....and we meanas in the 80s....then
you remember Johnny D's in Allston. If you lived in the neighborhood
it was your other home away from home, It was a sad thing when Johnny D's closed.
It was a BIG thing too! The BGN cdid a photo story of that night: You
can see that here!
Bob says: "Johnny D's had such an awesome feel to it and it was like home.
T Max remembers, "I don't know what it was about the place.
It didn't have good lighting, it didn't have a good sound system, they didn't
have a stage, they had to move the pool table whenever bands played, but it
just felt great there!" and it did, it felt great there. I think much of
it had to do with the times too, And so it was. And so it ended on February
16, 1986 there on Harvard Ave. in Allston, MA. 10 bands performed that evening."
So here we go with installment #2 from Bob Martel (aka Bob Cellar)
- Ten bands and Bill Tupper as MC....these are never hear before audio
recording of Johnny D's closing night! The second band was The
Pets (with Evan Shore) WATCH
IT HERE
Later we'll have Last Stand, Moose and the Mudbugs (Ed "Moose" Savage),
The Five (Reid Paley), Scruffy The Cat, The Unattached (Mark Frasier), The Flies,
The Prime Movers (featuring Cam Ackland, Dennis McCarthy) and the last straw:
The Dogmatics, Piranah Bros. (swinging from the ceiling), Doug (Melcher who'd
had enough) ....The night ended rather unceremoniously when we were all SENT
home.
Rick Paige himself will be adding some remembrances along
the way as well.
Stormstress used a live show at the Middle East to get a material for the video of “Corpses Don’t Cry”.
We love the slow motion head banging at the three minute mark.
I WILL EMBED
RADIO......
There’s still time to catch Nat Freedberg on Skybar's
Rising show from last Tuesday. Nat played quite a few songs live. To
hear the show go to the WMFO
archive page and hitting Tuesday at 8pm then hit the archive button. This
Tuesday Skybar has the band Lurid Purple Flowers in the studio.
PODCASTS.........
Blowing Smoke with Twisted Rico has Reid Paley
as a guest. Reid was the gravel voiced singer for The Five,
a group that people were captivated by in the mid-eighties. Once hearing that
voice is all it takes to get hooked. We didn’t know a lot about Reid’s
career after his Boston stint so this was a nice catch up.
Reid grew up listening to jazz. He was in Pittsburg just before he moved to
Boston and The Five formed in Pittsburg. They moved to Boston and got help from
Joyce Linehan, who was also responsible for Reid's solo Sub
Pop single later. Why Boston? One of the band members new Phil Caruso of the
Neats and they were getting some college radio play.
The Five played with the Pixies at Green St Station. He stayed friends with
Frank Black and has done several projects with him. ReidPaley.com
We took in Sonic Overload this week. Right off we heard Seven
Seconds' “Remains to Be Seen.” That’s off the Walk Together
Rock Together album. Al Quint played it because it’s
been reissued on Trust Records. It’s released on a spatter vinyl version.
Trust
Records
Al even played “Hey Joe” by the Byrds in memory of David Crosby.
Sometimes you just have to check out the songs because of the group and song
titles like: Primitive Fucking Ballers doing “Covid Punks
Is Hippies” or the Homostupids with “Apeshit”
both are wild cuts of energy.
He also played a song by Sial a punk group from Singapore.
We saw them at
O’Brien’s in 2016. Then there’s some punk: Suburban
Studs “No Faith”, The Vibrators’ “Judy Says”
and Elvis Costello with “No Action,
A new one to us was Rocket Science doing “Burn in Hell” released
in 2020. Hear it below.
We also likedlocals Similar Items from Salem,
doing “Manufactured Man” (released in 2018) especially with the
lyrics printed on the Bandcamp page.
There is nowhere else you can get a mix like Sonic Overload
regularly programs. You can hear the whole show on the Sonic
Overload web page
NEW MUSIC/CDs......
The Muzzins have a new single titled “Send It Back.”
They don’t have a guitar, they make a full sound with their fuzzed up
bass and it works wonders. It’s bottom heavy but forward moving.
Part of the song reminds us of Devo’s “Girl U Want” but Devo
never worked up a head of steam like The Muzzins do for the last two minutes.
Looking for something new? – this is it. We’re figuring live they
ought to be wild. They are playing Atwood Tavern this Thursday, February
2 with Trash Rabbit, Feep and Beautiful Headquarters.
Sunshine Riot does some interesting things with songs.
“Parole Board” hit hard when you read the lyrics. Their
new song just released is called “Looking At The Past.”
What strikes us about this is the basic steady two chord set up that
gets kicked around with sudden dynamics. We don’t think you can
figure out what’s going on by listening to the lyrics but they
have a truthful gravitas to them where you can catch them. There’s
real turmoil going on.
All sorts of garage punk is coming out of Australia. Here’s one
new one Sick Fizz with their album We Fucked
This City On Rock and Roll. The hit to the rock dinosaurs
in the title is welcome right off. There’s just two songs released
at the moment but that’s enough to hear what they are up to with
their ear splitting fuzz rave up.
Rich Mirsky has been a lot of bands through the years. He
just released three songs from Love Handle, a group he was in, in the late eighties.
This band should have gotten some attention. The guitars have a nice bite to
them and the recordings capture that. We love the drums in “Liss and Hold”
and “Too Much Patchouli.” The lyrics to that later song begin, “I
met her in Union or Central Square…”
The Gizmos weren’t the only band from Bloomington
back in the day. Lost in time was The Jetsons who had
an EP out. It did find its way to Boston because we remember their song
“Genetically Stupid” being played on the radio. Hearing
that on this rerelease on Gulcher gave us a flashback.
The group is least convincing when they are trying to be real ‘punk’.
They were better in the spots where they were just quirky. In the group
was Jaimie Sever of the Unattached.
"Same Stars” is Girl with a Hawk’s first
release. It’s an emotional tale that’s all personal to Linda
Viens. Just reading the background text on the Bandcamp page gets to
you. It’s Linda’s voice that caries everything, it’s strong
and emotional at the same time.
It’s not punk but it’s for a good cause. The Old Town Crier
has a new live album whose profits will all go to the Pine Street Inn. The Pine
Street has been helping the homeless for as long as we can remember. A Night
with Old Town Crier is a crisp live album. The music is very much in the
Van Morrison vein.
Here's some good shows coming up .....
January
30, 2023 (Monday) The Funiture, Kremlin Bats, Brad
Barker Experience- at Charlie's Kitchen
February 2, 2023 (Thursday) The
Muzzins, Trash Rabbit, Feep and Beautiful Headquarters
at Atwood Tavern
February 2, 2023 (Thursday) Willie
Nile and The Nervous Eaters at City Winery Boston
- Facebook
page
February 3, 2023 (Friday) The
Casket Lottery, Taking Meds, Sky Tigers, The Endorphins - Middle East
Up
February 4, 2023 (Saturday) Black
Helicopter, Cortez, Z/28, Mollusk at The Midway - 8PM show - FB
page
February 4, 2023 (Saturday) The Shaskeen
Pub Presents: TREE, Inverter, Medicated Savage, Caliente
Pistolas -
FB page
February 4, 2023 (Saturday) The
Freqs, Landowner, Miracle Blood at The Middle East Up
February 9, 2023 (Thursday) Lover
of Eve, Linnea's Garden, Alyssum at the Middle East Up
February 10, 2023 (Friday) The
Shang Hi Los, The Dogmatics, The Chelsea Curve at Faces Brewery Malden.
FB
page
February 10, 2023 (Friday) The
McGunks, The Gobshites, The Welch Boys at The Midway
February 11, 2023 (Saturday) Freeloader,
Hammered Saint, Tiger Bomb with Cowboy Mach Bell as
emcee!! at The Middle East Up - EARLY show 6-9PM - FB
page
February 17, 2023 (Friday) Red On Red
Records Presents: Crow Follow, Cold Expectations at The Burren
for an early show at 6PM.
February 17, 2023 (Friday) Franz
Nicolay, Coffin Salesman, Your Friends In Hell at Faces -Malden
February 17, 2023 (Friday) Hixx,
Scott Damgaard Band, Phantom Ocean at O'Brien's - Tickets
February 17, 2023 (Friday) The
Imposers, Diablogato, Bobcat at The Worthen Attic, Lowell.
February 19, 2023 (Sunday) The
Crank-tones and The Fathoms at The Mindway for a Matinee
at 3PM - FB page
February 24, 2023 (Friday) Goth
/ Post-Punk Tribute Night with Gretchen & the Banshees
perform as Siouxsie & the Banshees and Staring at the Sea
as The Cure at The Midway. FB
page.
February 24, 2023 (Friday) Triple
B Records presents: Gorilla Biscuits, Restraining Order, Wild
Side, Vantage Point, Truth Cult, Wreckage - warning tix are $40!! this
is a 6 PM show. Middle East
February 24, 2023 (Friday) Actor|Observer,
In Good Nature, Inspirit and Summer Cult are doing
one of Bone Up's "Band Hangout" nights- what's a Band Hangout? Meet
the bands, listen to music, snag some merch, and drink beer! It’s not
a concert, but it’s just as cool as one! Starts at 7pm! Beer Release:
Fool’s Gold, hazy IPA, Food: Sekali, malaysian street food and congee
bowls - FB event
page.
February 24, 2023 (Friday) Waiver
Wire. baby bowler, Paper Tigers, Indoor Friends at The Jungle
February 25, 2023 (Saturday) Thrust
Club, Saturniids, Sorry Ma at State Park
February 27, 2023 (Monday) The
Roland High Life, Tiffy, Sorry Ma at Charlie's Kitchen
March 3, 2023 (Friday)Actor|Observer,
In Good Nature at Free Street - Portland, ME
March 4, 2023 (Saturday)Actor|Observer,
In Good Nature at Taffeta in Lowell, MA
March 5, 2023 (Sunday)"I
Am Not Gone" A Tribute To Asa Brebner LIVE - The Burren - Facebook
page
March 5, 2023 (Sunday)Actor|Observer,
In Good Nature at Alchemy. Provi, RI
March 10, 2023 (Friday) Freqs,
Mollusk, Hotel Black, Knock Over City at The Jungle
March 11, 2023 (Saturday) Grayskull
Booking & Hardcore Stadium present Slapshot, Crown of Thornz,
Risk, Neighborhood Shit at The Middle East Down
March 11, 2023 (Saturday) Linnea’s Garden, Soraia, Justine and The Unclean,
The Idiot Kids at The Jungle
March 18, 2023 (Saturday) The
F.U.’s, Cuidado, Duck & Cover, Black Helicopter at the Gerry
No. 5 Veteran Fireman's Association, Marblehead - FB
page.
March 24, 2023 (Friday)TREE @ Ralph's Rock Diner - FB
page
March 25, 2023 (Saturday) Condition
Baker, Classic Ruins, The Grandstand Jockeys, Sand Machine at The Midway
for a Matinee 3-7PM
March 25, 2023 (Saturday) The Freqs,
Deprogrammer Cult, Rue, Ghost Planet at The Worthen Attic, Lowell
March 31, 2023 (Friday) The Church
- The Hypnogogue Album Tour at The Sinclair FB
page.
April 20, 2023 (Thursday) Black
Flag at the Middle East Down - 2 sets- Set 1 the band performs the
album My War, Set 2 - Blag Flag classics. $30 TIX
hereFB
page
April 22, 2023 (Saturday) Welch
Boys, Loser's Circle, ChumHuffer, Cry Havoc, Scumbari at The Midway
for a Matinee at 3PM
April 23, 2023 (Sunday) Plymouth
Punk Rock Market - Spring 2023 edition! Mayflower Brewery Plymouth
- FB page to keep
up to date.
April 28, 2023 (Friday) Emo Night
Karaoke with live backing band & special guest Monica Whitlock
at Middle East - Downstairs.
May 6, 2023 (Saturday) Dark Spring
Boston Festival at The Middle East Down - line up coming - FB
page.
October 11, 2023 (Wednesday) The
Mission UK & The Chameleons: Deja Vu Tour
2022 Rescheduled to 2023!!! also on the bill Theatre of Hate
CONTACT US AT....misslynbgn@yahoo.comSend us your gig listings,
your anything else you've got!! You want your CD reviewed?? Contact us
for that too.
We interviewed David Bash on the week where his International Pop Overthrow is
coming to town. It's some backgroud on the history of the event and of course talk about POP..........
We bring you into the Rat Room at the Hotel Commonwealth.
Jimmy Harlold invited a group of scene veterans. It was a Rat reuion
with lots of stories exchanged. Get to see the room and the people.........
Johnny Angel writes a mystery novel Looking for Lady Dee steeped in Boston punk and Thrills history.
It's no apologys given for the punk lifestyle. ....
It appeared before us like a chimera and it's
still growing...it's the Pipeline 25th Anniversary celebration.
We interview mastermind Bob Dubrow about his background and
search for what motivates him as well as Pipeline history and
the show....
The Boston punk community comes out for a good cause.
Neighborhoods, Upper Crust, Dents, Dogmatics, Roy Sludge Trio, Ed
Moose Savage, Downbeat 5 and Classic Ruins raise some money and
rock the house at......
He's legendary and his surprise birthday party was legendary in turn. Only in your Boston Rock and Roll dreams could you come up with a night like this.......
In a case of reverse outsourcing Carl Biancucci of the Classic Ruins also plays bass in the English group Shotglass Killers.
He tells us about a gig at the 100 Club with a reformed Damned....
The Konks' hypnotic bashing was a smart mindlessness that you got addicted to. They are calling it quits and we'll miss 'em and there's no free clinic out there to help us either...........
Thank god for 110 Instamatics or we wouldn't have a lot of our early Boston punk photos. Kathy Flynn used hers to get some pics of the Rat and The Club and she sent them to us to share with you..........
One of the interesting things in the early days of Boston punk was seeing the attention grow around us. One watershed moment was when we heard that a Time Magazine reporter was going to visit the Rat. We didn't like the resulting article. But you can decide. Take a look at the ....
...
Let's get real. We are all getting older and will die. Do you ever consider how you will be remembered? I'm talking about your tombstone. It's morbid, it's in poor taste, it's .....
Crotch biting...head bleeding...dick jiggling...it's all in Miss Lyn's report (with photos to prove it) from the GG Allin 10 Year Memorial Tour at the Middle East....
Punk started 25 years ago. Did any of us think we would ever make it this far? Probably not, that was punk; nihilistic, "no future!". Here is a place to remember, and give a moment of thought to, those who didn't make it
this far...
The minute she hit the scene she was every male punk's heart throb. She was beautiful. She had a winning personality. She had a ...well...a...glow. That could be my heart talking because I, Blowfish, confess: I too am Judy's love slave. We didn't just love Judy, we worshiped her. So, now all of us members of Judyism have somewhere to meet and offer our prayers of unrequited love.
1977-The Damned were ready to piss on Blowfish and started to undress Miss Lyn! And people seemed to like it!! This interview IS outrageous...for then AND now!