Powered by Google
Home
Listings
Editors' Picks
News
Music
Movies
Food
Life
Arts + Books
Rec Room
Moonsigns
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Personals
Adult Personals
Classifieds
Adult Classifieds
- - - - - - - - - - - -
stuff@night
FNX Radio
Band Guide
MassWeb Printing
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About Us
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Work For Us
Newsletter
RSS Feeds
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Webmaster
Archives



sponsored links
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
PassionShop.com
Sex Toys - Adult  DVDs - Sexy  Lingerie


   
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend

Reign in beer
Darkbuster, 7L & Esoteric, WGC, and more
BY CHRIS RUCKER

If you title your debut album 22 Songs That You’ll Never Want To Hear Again only to win the Rumble, become everyone’s favorite drunk-punk mess, break up, then get back together because people are begging for a record that’s out of print and yet still spreading like wildfire (at least on the Internet) — if, in short, you’re Darkbuster — the first problem that presents itself is: what the hell are you gonna call your next album? So know this: the answer to that question was very nearly Songs in the Key of Gay. Fortunately, or not, management (not exactly a bunch of stuffed shirts: they’re handled by the domestic dream team of Mary Lou Lord and the Ragin’ Teens’ Kevin Patey) prevailed upon the band to come up with something else. But though the album coming April 12 will bear the title Songs Made Easy by Darkbuster, its artwork will still feature Lenny Lashley in a pose inspired but not necessarily endorsed by the classic Mel Bay guitar instructional manuals. Other things we can reveal: the album was recorded by Jim Siegel at the Outpost, and it features guest spots by Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey and the Bosstones’ Dicky Barrett.

"I’m sure Lenny can come up with some good quotes on how the record shows the growth and maturity of the band — particularly on the track ‘Balls the Size of Cantaloupes,’ " says bassist Mike "Sweet Pea" Gurley. Lenny, however, was unavailable, so Sweet Pea had to keep talking. "Just before every new record that Kiss put out, they would say this is their best record since Destroyer. So I’m gonna say this is the best record since Destroyer — period. Or maybe I’ll just say that this is our Destroyer. I don’t know if that’s a good idea, though, because as good as Animalize was, I don’t think Kiss ever did put out anything nearly as good as Destroyer."

Perfect: the record-release party is three months away and already dude isn’t making any sense. And which record-release party would that be? The one on April 9 at Axis with Far from Finished, the Skells, and the Ducky Boys: mark it on your calendar in blood and whiskey, then go sample the Clash-inspired first single, "Should of Known Better," at www.darkbuster.net. This show is looking to be a mix of kids and beer-throwing maniacs. Get your boots on!

7L & Esoteric released the critically acclaimed DC2: Bars of Death (Babygrande) in 2004, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to slow down: they’ve got at least four releases slotted for 2005. On their own, 7L and Eso went digging through the archives and assembled a "basement tapes" release, Looks like Reign, that collects unreleased material dating back to the Rebel Alliance days; it should be out soon. Then after completing a tour with label mates Jedi Mind Tricks and Outerspace last fall, they reassembled their inter-squad posse Army of the Pharaohs, who first reared their heads in 1998 and are now recording an album. AOTP include 7L, Eso, the Jedi Mind crew, Celph Titled, Apathy, and Planetary; the disc should be out on Babygrande this summer. And many of those folks have production credits on Welcome to Shaftville, USA, the debut by 7L & Beyonder’s new duo Vinyl Thug Music: the disc, an instrumental faux soundtrack, drops February 22, on Brick Records’ Brick Beat imprint. A self-released disc, Vinyl Thug Music 2, should be ready by spring. "We’re gonna be growing at a rapid rate in 2005," says Eso. What with "the AOTP record, 7L’s outside work, and some other surprises, we’re gonna be taking some faces off over the next 12 months."

Truth Serum’s Aliza Shapiro throws herself a birthday party this Wednesday at T.T. the Bear’s, with an evening of sad songs including a rare homecoming appearance by Willard Grant Conspiracy plus Lovers and Thalia Zedek. "The last two years have been big ones for me, and WGC’s, Lovers’, and Thalia’s CDs have been the soundtracks for both the ups and the downs," she says. "I don’t know why, but it’s always the sad songs that I’m drawn to. I’ve managed to miss most of [WGC frontman] Robert Fisher’s trips back to Boston since he left here. I love his music, his stories, and his voice, and I wanted to hang with him, so the first band I thought of was his. Thalia’s amazing, and her songs and covers are brilliant, and she’s amazing to watch on stage: pure cool and mastery of rock. Cubby [Berk] from Lovers has one of the most amazing voices, and I love her weird little stories and the dreams she illustrates in her songs. And her nervous energy is translated into the most hysterical stage banter ever. So that was the beginning of the concept. Another thing was that I wanted Robert to hear Lovers play because I don’t think he has before and I thought that would be good. I know Thalia and Robert love to play together too. I’m always trying to engineer the atmosphere for some kind of magic to happen both on the stage and off."

And one more show not to be missed: this Friday, February 4, Death Before Dishonor celebrate the release of their new Friends, Family, Forever (Bridge 9) at Roman’s in Brockton, with Wrongside, Blacklisted, Shere Khan, Colin of Arabia, and one of the final appearances of Connecticut’s Death Threat.

Chris Rucker is the host of New England Product, which airs Sundays from 9 to 10 p.m. on WFNX 101.7 FM.


Issue Date: February 4 - 10, 2005
Back to the Music table of contents
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend
 









about the phoenix |  advertising info |  Webmaster |  work for us
Copyright © 2005 Phoenix Media/Communications Group