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THE SUN LEE SUNBEAM: They do their fishnet-and-lace-prom-dress garage metal at a CD-release party at Great Scott. |
What do you have to show for your summer? These local acts sacrificed weeks of perfectly good BBQ time hunkered down in studios making records just so your transition into season-appropriate New England bitterness could be a bit more bearable. Behold! The prime of the approaching fall local rock crop.
THE LIGHTS OUT | T.T. the Bear's Place | September 25 | Color Machine, this local quartet's new full-length riff-heavy popsplosion, collects everything from their previous EPs and tacks on five brand new songs, all recorded with the Luxury's Jason Dunn at his Mad Science studio in Allston. Which means it's been a full three years in the making. A video for recent MP3 of the Week "Gottagetouttahere" is in the works as well. | 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | $10 | 617.492.BEAR or www.ttthebears.com
DEAD CATS DEAD RATS | Middle East upstairs | September 25 | North Shore scuzz trio Dead Cats Dead Rats have been wrecking rooms all year with their fitful grunge punk, and we'll finally have a souvenir once they self-release their nine-song debut, Riff. DCDR sound like a gnarled mix of '80s Northwest noisemongers like Tad and the Wipers with speed-crazed, rubber-band vocals that haven't really been touched by anyone since Bad Brains. | 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | $8 | 617.864.EAST or www.mideastclub.com
YOU NEED NEW GLASSES | Middle East upstairs | September 25 | On that same bill, Watertown's You Need New Glasses unveil their Fart Proudly EP. Yes, YNNG rip loud-ass math rock led by depraved worked-up-vagrant vocals. They won't be hosting any more shows at their casa (maybe that Thunderhole brunch show was ill-advised?), but now they can devote more time to building on Boston's proud history of complicated rock with abstract harmonies, whirlwind drums, and a blissfully minuscule degree of commercial appeal. | 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | $8 | 617.864.EAST or www.mideastclub.com
MY STUPID FRIENDS | Middle East upstairs | September 26 | From a world where the idea of four guitarists with half-stacks seems completely reasonable come My Stupid Friends, the local supergroup project for which Waltham's Peet Golan taps his most shamelessly metal yah-doods. Golan and company create an unrepentant, knuckleheaded wall of sleazy (and flawlessly executed) rock on Rock, Rip and Roll. Expect rock kicks from every member of the band at their release blowout. | 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | $12 | 617.864.EAST or www.mideastclub.com
THE BYNARS | Great Scott | September 30 | These supremely mellow synth-poppers have been siphoning melodies from the Cars' fuel tank into some airtight EPs over the past few years (check last spring's Back from Outer Space), and a new one is due. No title yet, but they'll certainly have it figured out before their release show, at which they'll also debut a video from the EP produced by locals Quarter Productions. | 1222 Comm Ave, Boston | $8 | 617.566.9014 or www.greatscottboston.com
THE STATES: The crisp guitar lines say Radiohead, but the rest of their new EP says something else. |
DEAR LEADER | Paradise | October 2 | Aaron Perrino and crew have spent the year writing another suite of postmodernly world-weary epics, having set up shop at Camp Street in Cambridge to flesh out songs that Perrino wrote while living in Belgium last year. The album is titled Stay Epic, but "album" is a relative term — the band are making free singles available on-line through the fall. "We'll release a physical album in October, but that seems kind of pointless nowadays," says Perrino. "The Blueprint" and "Barbarians" are already out, eagerly awaiting your click. | 967 Comm Ave, Boston | $13-$15 | 617.562.8800 or www.thedise.com
ARMS AND SLEEPERS | Middle East upstairs October 7 | Arms and Sleepers' 10-song Matador (Fake Chapter) will go worldwide this October. The record (snuck out at a local show in late August) follows up their blip-rock atmospheric manifesto, the five-song EP The Motorist — already one of 2009's outstanding recordings. This new one ropes in a host of local mood maestros, like the Main Drag's Adam Arrigo, Caspian's Phil Jamieson, and Travels' Mona Elliott. Expect more eerie soundscapes and shy post-trip-hop rhythmic scribbles than you could conjure in your most NyQuil-soaked dreams. | 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | $10 | 617.864.EAST or www.mideastclub.com
THE SUN LEE SUNBEAM | Great Scott | October 16 | On the more fishnet-and-lace-prom-dress side of garage metal are the Sun Lee Sunbeam, whose Beneath the Burning Sky is getting released throwdown-style at the Pill. As on their previous album, Look for the Light, they teamed up with the veteran knob twisters at the Moontower studio in Porter Square. Head 'Beam Jessica Sun Lee spent the past year perfecting her witchy, goth-rock snarl; the rest of the band, meanwhile, were coalescing into one of the most gloriously brooding rock machines to emerge since the Abbey Lounge shut its doors. | 1222 Comm Ave, Boston | $5 | 617.566.9014 or www.greatscottboston.com
