Category Archives: Rock Gods

Rock Gods #379: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

Millie in a Mustache wrote a new song. It’s her term paper on molecular physics, set to music, and she sez it’s for real.
“I’m a science geek,” Mill explains. “My school friends and my scene friends can’t believe I have other friends.
“But I really love music. And I really love science.”
So…
“First I wanted to write a song about why I cared about molecules. As you can imagine, that was the dumbest song imaginable. So I tried to do a, you know, metaphor thing. But that didn’t work either. Like really sucked. Then I realized that what I loved about science was the words, the math, the language. I’d just written this great paper, full of the phrases I love. So I set it to music, nothing fancy, on keyboards.
The song, tentatively titled “3*35.453 over 3*35.453 + 12.011 + 1.00794 = 89.094%,” is 45 minutes long.
“I’m working on the single edit,” Mill smiles, “but it won’t be the same. Molecular Science is a symphony, not a two-minute pop song.”

Rock Gods #378: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

Gnarled Roots wrote the book on jams that start as one song and then become another. Some would these medleys, but there’s so much space between the separate melodies that the tunes are related only by the music not happening to stop between them.
“It’s true,” admits bassist Bay Grimm. “we spend more time on the transitions than we do on the songs. I love it. It’s a real job for a rhythm section.”
Grimm and drummer “Sven” Pence have to reroute the tempos, sweeten the counterpoints and even change keys. The more jarring two songs would seem right next to each other, the more the band strategizes to smooth them out. “Yep.” (Bay again.) “We’ve been known to add a third song we don’t care so much about, so we can make it from one we like to another one more, what would you say—eloquently?
“It’s all about how you get there. We take the train one way, and fly back.”

Rock Gods #377: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

The Boofulls decided to play a bus trip, a “booze bus” out in the boonies. About a dozen of us went along, at 20 per head for gas and such. Guess we got our money’s worth because we never left the bus. For over four hours. That possibility had never occurred to any of us.
A four hour tour. A four hour tour. Luckily there was a bathroom, and a bucket, aboard.
The Boofulls sat in their bus seats at the back, and played through mini practice amps, while the amazingly skilled professional bus driver drove down country roads into the dark night. The noise was overpowering. We’re sure that many farmers that night reported us as a UFO.
Next time someone comes up with the concept of a booze bus, we’ll be sure to remember to ask if the windows open.
Tonight: XII:XXXV at the Bullfinch, with IV new songs… “New Doo Nite” at Hamilton’s with Ken Duncan & the No Nuts and Peter Pann & The Greyhounds… $19 Fare and Making Tracks at D’Ollaire’s. Neither has a new album out or any discernible reason for touring…

Rock Gods #376: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

The PossPulls went on the lam from a Bullfinch gig Thursday. They’d pulled in to the gas station on Cherry Hill and somehow (band members differ in their reports) got into a scary dispute with a van driver while buying macaroni salad. (They all agree that it was macaroni salad. Our treatise on why no one should eat macaroni salad before a big night at the Bullfinch will be published one day in a scholarly journal). The van pursued them out onto the parkway and, try as they migh, the band couldn’t shake him. Their soundcheck/set was high, so they headed toward the club. They went to park in the alley beside the Bullfinch, and the van pulled up right beside them. Just then, driver/drummer Jazzy Bill remember the little secret every band knows, but non-bands don’t: The “Dead End—Do Not Enter” sign is fake, an antique remnant from the days when the Keyes Locke Building was still standing. You can drive right through, safely turn down that little side road (Off Center Street) and park after you unload your gear.
Jazzy said firmly “Stay in the car,” stopped, made a move to turn off the engine. Mean van guy stopped, turned off his engine, got out of his car and walked toward the PossPulls’ vehicle (that old green station wagon that used to belong to the Lingereers.) Jazzy waited a few steps then, moved into drive and tore down the alley.
Whole minutes of cheers of exaltation ensued. Then there was an awkward moment of “Now what?!” Nobody ever picks up the phone at the Bullfinch, so the PsPls found a messenger—that little girl who lives across the street from the club—to tell Q they’d be late, and not incidentally to let the band know when the coast might be clear.
The little girl saw it as real spy stuff. She was all set to tell the van driver some wild-goose-chase place where the band had supposedly gone. That might have had some dangerous repercussions, and luckily was not necessary. Mr. Mean Van had given up quickly.
The PossPulls played that night, simply swapping sets with the other band on the bill, Peremptory (from Norwaytown). It was the set of their life. The story of their daring escape was woven into the stage banter. The band was laughing and making merry throughout, but we do believe we’ve never seen guitarist Slim Tom hold his axe in quite that defensive a manner before.

Tonight: Timon & The Tables and Planned/Service/Change at the Bullfinch… Restricted Area Keep Out at Hamilton’s; safe scare rock… The U News (formerly Union Shuttle) at D’Ollaire’s, with local openers The Guest Rewards…

Rock Gods #375: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

There was a long line to see MN Tickets open for Security Reasons at D’ollaire’s, which struck us funny since the band plays such short sets. MNT has had an upset hit with the novelty tune “Balloon Goon,” especially novel now due to the national news story about a real-life balloon goon who’s been running at helium-balloon vendors in zoos and yelling “You’re free! You’re free!” The Tix say their song has absolutely nothing to do with any of that—it’s about “a fat guy from our high school,” as bassist Ray Jersey delicately puts it. But they’ve been enjoying all the extra attention, and have sold nearly enough singles to buy a used van.

Tonight: Met No and All Lines at the Bullfinch (change in schedule)… Effective Immediately at Hamilton’s… An Evening with Webster B., of Commutrail, solo acoustic at D’Ollaire’s…

Rock Gods #374: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

Sibyl and the Infernal Regions insisted on performing in the Bullfinch basement Thursday, amid the kegs and receipts and extra glassware. They piped a visuals-free soundscape up from below via mics and soundpipes. The effect was lost on latecomers who didn’t realize what was going on and started asking “What’s that noise?” at inopportune times. It was a college-on-the-hill music project, naturally. Why couldn’t they have used a dining hall or dorm room? Because they already have. The Finch was stage three (of eight) of Sounds Behind. Listen for it soon at a hole in the ground near you.
Tonight: Strappy Sandal at the Bullfinch, with a new spring song in her step… Single Soul Pumps at Hamilton’s, doing the pip thing… Colorblocking comeback show at D’ollaire’s. Pay double and get to meet the band…

Rock Gods #373: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

Tippy Goldenfop is playing the Freedy Tea Room on College Lane, a place where no one but she ever plays—and where she herself hasn’t played in years, since she was known as Rose Hips.
“I sing with this massive R&B band now, all over the place,” Tippy infuses. “Festivals, weddings, everywhere. I don’t even have a home anymore; we’re always on the road. It’s the first time I’ve ever made money from music, really, but I missed those old coffeehouse solo gigs. So I called Freedy Jo and she let me play there again.” Nice of her, it turns out, because Tippy/Rose left Freedy Jo’s with a heck of a clean-up problem. “I swung my guitar and knocked a pot of tea off someone’s table. Luckily, they’d been nursing it for a while and nobody got scalded or anything.” Another reason not to bring the full band, then.

Tonight: Hobo Handbag and Nubuck Upper at the Bullfinch… Man Tailored at Hamilton’s; sexist girl band… Ruched at D’ollaire’s…

Rock Gods #372: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

Jimmy O’Goblin & The Greengages met a bird one evening as they walked down the frog.
The band is one of the few that has played the Kid Nature Playground Preserve in Sparrowton. Greengage drummer Sten’s mother is an administrator at the park, and while the band is still, as they say, green, they were afforded all sorts of special attention for playing there. They were on a outdoor stage with lights and a great sound system on the park’s main drag, which is known as “the frog” because it apparently sounds better than “the green.” The audience included busloads of local grade-schoolers, dozens of Sparrowton staffers and several parrots. There was a lot of extraneous bird noise (and people noise—you know who you are) during the set, but the young, awestruck band did not mind in the least.
“We had a dressing room!,” gushed Jimmy. Technically it was a caretaker’s shack, its roof dripping with bird poop. But still a high-flying adventure.

Tonight: Kitten Heel & The Jellies at the Bullfinch… Patent at Hamilton’s; another science party… Peep Toe, Ruched, Shaft Height, and UV Absorptive at D’ollaire’s, all ages…

Rock Gods #371: Adventures in Our Little Music SceneThe Sticker-Heads have a gimmick.

Perhaps you can guess what it is. You’re right, and it’s what got them kicked out of a club last Ash Wednesday. They’re hoping for a better, stickier reception Thursday at the Bullfinch.
The latest designs:
“Don’t Kiss Me Here.”
“My Other Forehead is an Ass.”
“Post No Bills.”
“I’m the Face.”
“Get Off of My Face.”
“I’m Looking Through You.”
“Stuck Up.”

Tonight : Our new favorite duo, Ted the Pink and Rogers the Fink, at the Bullfink… No Lift Lines, a ski-rock band, at Hamilton’s in what’s becoming the off-season… An Evening with Avowals and Denials (denying that they’re on the way down) at D’ollaire’s, for more than they charged when the band was still popular…

Rock Gods #370: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene

We know you’ve been wondering whatever happened to the little girl who lives across the street from The Bullfinch.
Well, she still lives there, still hangs out on the stoop. She still draws with talk on the sidewalk. She still has not taken our advice that she should start a band. Instead, she takes her chalk and sketches the bands she’s seen coming and going from the club. She draws clothes she wants to wear when she finally forms her own band. She draws herself and her friends playing their #1 rock song “Sun Butter and Mango Jam.” She draws and draws.
Tonight: Sword of Wood at the Bullfinch. Manic percussion… Christendom in Dublin at Hamilton’s for Irish Nite… An Evening With Brave New Family (not so new anymore, eh?) at D’ollaire’s…