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The Glow and the Konks
Plus news on Converge, Some Girls, Octave Museum, and more
BY CHRIS RUCKER
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Stencil-crazed Boston punks the Glow celebrated the release of their debut, The Ghosts Are Out, with a packed gig upstairs at the Middle East last week. The album is on Brooklyn’s Bankshot! Records, best known as the former home of Leftover Crack, who are now on Hellcat. And though the Glow might be best known for tagging their name all over town, the disc is pretty good too: you can hear the foundation they acquired from years of paying dues in high-school hardcore and punk bands, but they also touch on everything from doo-wop to ’60s soul, Phil Spector to Elvis Costello, and they even throw in a little pre-Christie Billy Joel. If you missed the Middle East show, they’re playing what they insist will be a sold-out homecoming/high-school-reunion gig at the Beachcomber in Quincy on April 8. The Konks are a motley crew: Bob Wilson lost a digit, as legend has it, while swamp-rat hunting in Louisiana (an incident immortalized on the trio’s song "29 Fingers"); bassist John Porth, formerly of rockabilly kings the Racketeers, used to play a trash-picked upright bass; and drummer Kurt Davis, the man formerly known as Bullet LaVolta frontman Yukki Gipe, plays a snare drum in a milk crate. Formed in the back room at Mystery Train records — a shop whose employee-alumni list reads like a garage-punk Hall of Fame induction ceremony — the Konks were one of the last bands signed to the legendary West Coast indie label Bomp! by the late Greg Shaw, who may have invented the term "garage rock" and certainly defined its scope over the course of 30 years. The Konks celebrate the release of their homonymous Bomp! debut at the Abbey Lounge on April 8 with Andy G and the Roller Kings (ex–Devil Dogs/Cramps). After putting out an album, All My Friends Are Going to Death, on Converge’s Deathwish Inc. label, Some Girls, the hardcore supergroup fronted by former American Nightmare/Give Up the Ghost singer (and Law of Inertia music editor) Wes Eisold, are following Converge to Epitaph. An LP is in progress, but no release date or title has yet surfaced. Meanwhile, Converge’s April 16 gig — their first Boston gig since the release of their Epitaph debut, You Fail Me, and the de facto release party for Equal Vision’s reissues of their back catalogue — has been moved from the ICC Church to Harpers Ferry; it’s still an afternoon, all-ages bill, and advance tickets are now available at www.rockonboston.com . . . Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky interviews one of his heroes, Ken Andrews of unsung ’90s space-metal progenitors Failure, in the latest issue of the glossy metal mag Decibel. Brodsky confirmed last week that Cave In will release an eight-song disc on the band’s old label Hydrahead by summer’s end, but the band are unlikely to tour in support of it: drummer J.R. Connors is living in Germany, a broken wrist sustained last year has failed to heal properly, and he’s not expected to be able to play for at least a year. In the meantime, Brodsky will unveil a new band called Octave Museum — with Scissorfight drummer Kevin Shurtleff and John from Thee Electric Bastards — at ZuZu on April 20 . . . Eyes like Knives have four new tracks in the can for an upcoming release on a yet-to-be-announced label; one of those is also being released as part of eMusic’s "Crisp Songs" on-line singles series. And the band have a new split with Officer May out on Providence’s City of Hell Records. After gigs at SxSW and Miami’s Winter Music Conference, Eyes are riding a national tour in April and May, but mark your calendars: they’re planning a homecoming show (venue TBA) on June 2 . . . Apollo Sunshine’s new six-song EP, The Other Side of the World (a joint release between SpinART and Berklee’s Heavy Rotation Records), won’t have official release till later this spring, but they’ll be selling it at a "pre-release" party this Friday downstairs at the Middle East with the Lot Six . . . And the underrated super-talented local group Alienist Outfit called it quits last week, probably because their members have spiraled off in so many different directions: the rhythm section continues to keep time in On Fire, Chris Olds plays keys in Campaign for Real Time (also featuring former members of Garrison and Hip Tanaka), and Bert Foster is rocking the low end in the Fever Monument. Chris Rucker is the host of New England Product, which airs Sundays from 9 to 10 p.m. on WFNX 101.7 FM.
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