Band In Boston

Here’s another one from the vaults. Ben and Alise came in with Reports and their relatively new endeavor Windy Smiles back near the end of ’07. Since then, they’ve gotten married and moved to Las Vegas. Which, in the middle of New England Winter, sounds like a truly brilliant plan.

The Faintest Ideas were our first visitors from across the pond – Sweden, to be exact. The latest we’ve heard is that they either broke up or went on hiatus right at the end of the tour, so this may be the last thing you hear from them for a while. Here’s to hoping they pick up the pieces. They fit 10 songs into just over 22 minutes – now THAT is efficiency!

Gotta go back to work tomorrow. My cleverness is sapped. Here’s a great band.

Reports always has something a little different up their sleeves. They decided to run the vocals through a delay pedal and guitar amp, just for giggles. I think it worked out.

Ayla and Davyd are a brother and sister from Oakland who share not only the letter Y in their names, but also a sense of songwriting and harmony that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Song List:

* Hollow’s Cove

* Up the Long Tracks

* Mismanaged Skies

* Swell and Still

* How’s Your Dad?

* Old River

Beatbeat Website

Happy 2009 everyone!

We actually made it – 31 episodes in 31 days. You know what? We had so much fun, let’s do it THIS month too!

We still have a lot of great music to put out, so we’re going to keep it going.

We can think of no better way to kick off the last of the oughts than with our good pals Akudama. Somehow, they managed to blow away their first session. Please to enjoy.

Song List:

* Everywhere At Once

* People

* Sun

* Thumbelina

We first heard of George when he was lead singer (maybe “vocalist” is a better term) for Mad Man Films, one of the few insanely loud angry bands that we can tolerate. And in this case, tolerate means love. That was why we were so blown away when we heard his solo stuff, which is some of the most soulful, heartfelt music you’ll hear for a long time. We were more than happy to pass along our trusty old Jukebox to him!

Song List (I’m going by memory, corrected list soon!):

* The Man In Me (by Bob Dylan, with a hint of When I Paint My Masterpiece)

* Yellow Bird/Blue Snake

* Bedtime Song

* The Tennessee Waltz (by Mary Ford)

* Ava

* Let Rrr Go

* Kaliga (by Hank Williams)

Robbie stopped by a while back on a solo tour. This time around, he came in with These United States, with whom he was touring. He’s also in Scourge of the Sea. And he plays frequently with the Tarbox Ramblers. Busy guy for a robot.  For his second session, he had a bit of accompaniment, mainly from Jesse from the aforementioned States.

Song List:

* Mover and Shaker

* City Scape

* Shape I’m In

* 100 Creatures

If you’re a fan of 100 Creatures (and you’re a total jerk if you aren’t), check out an excellent cover of it from Dickie Haydon’s session.

Flophouse Session #150 brings us a new title format. Hopefully it makes it a bit easier to scroll through sessions on your portable music-playing device.

Okay Thursday splintered off into two factions a while back – one kept the original name, and one became One Happy Island. This is the latter, and author or perhaps my favorite locally-themed line: “I could scale the stairs at Porter Station, ’cause I’m so full of pure elation.” You will be too. They certainly turned the Suck Knob all the way down for this one.

Song List:

* Boy In a Circle

* Anita

* Potential

* Laser Show

* Happiest In History

* Florida

They’ll be kicking off the new year at the Middle East on January 1.

One Happy Myspace Page

Part two of our two-fer, it’s Boston’s Pink Mantis. They win the award for most parts broken on the mini drumkit. It could have just been a quirk in the cosmos, or it’s quite possible that the little guy just couldn’t handle the pure rock might. Either way.

Song List:

* Mexico

* Mono

* Cactus Flower

* Castle the Queen

* Deserter

* Mr. Deedle

* Quintin