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Local heat
Hot music for a cold winter
BY JONATHAN PERRY

It’s well known that hot amplifiers warm cold winter nights, and thankfully a veritable who’s who of local talent will be busy keeping us toasty and indoors — whether packed into the clubs around town, or huddled around the hi-fi inside our well-appointed domiciles — during the glacial months ahead. Let’s raise a glass by the fire and toast what’s on tap, then, shall we?

Ultimate prom-parking-lot-make-out kings the Rudds are putting the finishing touches on the follow-up to their homonymous 2003 power-pop gem, and are aiming for a late-March release, most likely again on Boston-based Sodapop Records. "So far, we have over 20 songs recorded for what could be a double album," says singer-guitarist John Powhida, the Rudds’ resident Prince-aholic. Powhida reports via e-mail that the CD, whose working title is Get the Femuline Hang On, "leans heavier on the soul and R&B tendencies of the group and will feature new bassist Tony Goddess (ex-Papas Fritas). So far, the Figgs’ Mike Gent, Bleu, and Paul Kolderie have all donated their time, mixing abilities, studios, and talents and have asked for nothing in return but the wacky good time of working with the Rudds." The lone cover among the plethora of originals, Powhida says, will be the Gap Band’s "Early in the Morning."

The Information, one of the fastest-emerging talents around town (they formed barely a year ago), are prepping for a late-January/early-February release of their debut full-length, Mistakes We Knew We Were Making (on the Cambridge-based Primary Voltage label). An advance listen to the disc’s 11 tracks reveals an altogether terrific debut that, like the six-piece outfit that authored it, shimmers and shimmies with an angular, post-punk energy (think: Interpol, Hives, Franz Ferdinand, the Rapture). The synth-dusted beats are big and bold, the guitars blast and crackle with electricity, and singer Max Fresen keeps each track’s essential pop pulse by never losing melodic momentum inside the maelstrom. Another outfit on the Primary Voltage roster, the Cyanide Valentine (led by singer Jake Zavracky, late of the Boston neo-glam metal kids Quick Fix), also are set to release their debut, Let It Rot, in late February. We’re pretty sure the title doesn’t have anything to do with gardening author Stu Campbell’s compost bible of the same name.

After clinching second place in the 2004 Rumble and retreating to Woolly Mammoth studios with producer David Minehan (ex-Neighborhoods) for four months of writing and recording, the Dents have set a February 8 street date for their full-length debut, Time for Biting (on Somerville’s Abbey Lounge Records). The band’s first single, "One More Time" (available for download at www.schnockered.com), is a spit-shined salvo powered by tight Ramones hooks and Runaways bluster. Before the disc hits the streets, the band will host a two-night stand at — yep, you guessed it — the Abbey Lounge on February 4 and 5 to celebrate the CD’s release. That weekend’s guests include Avoid One Thing, Pug Uglies, Suspect Device’s Jason Bennett, Muck and the Mires, the Tampoffs, and the Coffin Lids (whose own Live at the Abbey Lounge CD, also out on ALR, drops in March).

Hi-N-Dry, late Morphine leader Mark Sandman’s recording-studio-turned-label and flourishing artists’ collective, is gearing up for a busy 2005 with a slate of releases. Among them are: an as-yet-untitled March release from garage punks the Downbeat 5; Tabletop People, out in January, a two-CD pan-genre set of country, blues, roots pop, and jazzy rock jams by Session Americana, a loose-limbed collective comprising Billy Beard, Dennis Brennan, Billy Conway, and others; and mandolin master Jimmy Ryan’s Gospel Shirt CD, out in early April. Asa Brebner celebrates the release of his new Hot Air CD with a three-night stand at the Abbey Lounge on February 25, 26, and 27. Also, Dark of Days, the new album from the Monique Ortiz–led Bourbon Princess, is scheduled for an early-April release on Hi-N-Dry.

The Brett Rosenberg Problem issue their fourth album, Speed Metal from Montreal (on Somerville’s Q Division Records), on February 22, and will celebrate with a February 24 show downstairs at the Middle East. Rosenberg claims the album is "more hi-fi than anything else we’ve done." He says the BRP used the studio time won by placing third in this year’s Rumble to "make a live-sounding, piano-heavy rock-and-roll record that is a cross between the Knack and Crazy Horse." The Gentlemen’s new one, Brass City Band, comes out January 18 on the band’s own Gentlemen’s Recording Company imprint. The band takes over the Abbey Lounge for a two-night CD-release celebration on January 21 and 22.

Looks like singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, recently signed to V2 Records, will have to keep performing the songs from his moody, masterful Starling album (originally released in 2003 by Whately’s Signature Sounds label). V2 is readying the album for a February 22 re-release and will package it with a 4 Songs Live EP taken from a concert in Dublin, Ireland. For fans who already have Starling, the EP will also be available on its own, at a discounted price. Ritter will start recording his new album in March. The narcotic-minded psych-pop Boston quartet December Sound are set to release an EP this winter and will follow that with a full-length in the new year, Drink, Drug, Dream, or Die (on Boston’s Man With A Gun label). The Vinyl Skyway, singer-songwriter Michael Hayes’s post-Lemonpeeler project, are readying an as-yet-untitled EP for a late-winter release, following the band’s 2004 homonymous full-length debut.

Hot on the heels of finishing an eight-song EP, How About Never? (just released on their own Quality Rock Records imprint), Jason Hatfield & the Marmalade have completed a 14-track full-length and are scouting prospective labels, hoping to have it out in early 2005. Dear Leader will kick off a regional tour in support of their recently released All I Ever Wanted Was Tonight (Lunch) with a two-night stand at T.T. the Bear’s on January 28 and 29, and plan to wrap up the winter dates with a March 3 show at the Paradise, which will be recorded for an Instant Live CD. Boston power-pop combo Auto Interiors will follow up 2001’s No Frill Halo Flight (Warm Design) with an as-yet-untitled five-song EP due out in February or March. And expect a new single, "White Lights" (backed with a pair of B-sides), from Boston newcomers Passenger, to drop March 1.


Issue Date: December 31, 2004 - January 6, 2005
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