Sophia's Rock Beat: 11/18/11-11/19/11

11/18/11 we did the two-show hop between The Middle East Upstairs for Future Carnivores, Brendan Boogie and the Best Intentions, Muy Cansado, and John Powhida International Airport and TT the Bears Place for The Dents and Muck and the Mires.

John
Powhida

Future
Carnivores

Lisa -
Muy Cansado

Future Carnivores, the new project from Bo of MeandJOANCollins - Future Carnivores video 1, FC video 2.

Brendan Boogie - this was his last show with any songs he's released previous to this show - a retirement of catalog - Brendan Boogie video 1, BB video 2.

Brendan Boogie
the end of
the pink era

Muy Cansado - always an enjoyment - Muy Cansado video 1, MC video 2 (and third video below).

John Powhida International Airport - making me laugh and shake as always - J. Po video 1, J. Po video 2, J. Po video 3.

The Dents

At TT's we caught The Dents reunion - they were really, really awesome (great garage-punk with sassy dual-female vocals) - I hope this one-time thing results in a many-more sort of situation! The Dents video 1, The Dents video 2
video 3 of The Dents:

 

Muck and
 the Mires

The Muck and the Mires were celebrating their CD Release for A Cellarful of Muck. I was excited to FINALLY see them after many years of knowing about them and knowing that I love them. I'm a sucker for garage rock and they are some of the best around anywhere (and they take it everywhere - always on tour somewhere exotic). They play the part perfectly too - all in matching shirts and vintage instruments that make it look like they were plucked right out of the '60s/'70s scene. And girl-drummer alert - Jessie Best is one of the best around - so awesome to finally get to watch her play (other than at One Night Band, of course). And they ended their encore with Commando by The Ramones - maybe my most-favorite Ramones song, if I had to choose and one not often heard covered! Muck and the Mires video 1 - video 2 is several songs that starts with the King of the Beat:

Bury Me Standing

Rachel of
The ARmy of TOys

Saturday 11/19/11 brought us to Church for Walter Sickert and the ARmy of BRoken TOys (we missed Chimpwork Orange, the night before)  but this night was themed as a mash-up of Batman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - which included fizzy lifting drinks at the bar and wallpaper you could lick for a taste! The night began with an acoustic set from James McAndrew (video) and a poetry/ambient set from Jasmine Dreame Wagner  and a preview from The Slutcracker - Slutcracker video. Then favorites, Bury Me Standing played their blend of "Balkan Gypsy Dirge-Core" - doing things to the marimba that are beyond imagination: Bury Me Standing video 1, BMS video 2.  Then the amaze-circus that is an Army of Toys performance - I think we got most of the set on video - posting playlist below - but here's a direct link to the encore (featuring Mali Sastri of Jaggery on piano) of an inspired performance of I Put a Spell on You.

Sophia's Rock Beat: 11/02/11-11/13/11

November has been a crazy month of crazy awesome shows that I'll be posting in two parts.

Part one begins at O'brien's - which I had not been to in a super long time and I was totally impressed with a lot of the improvements to the venue and the bands all sounded fantastic. It was the first night of Aloud's month long residency. Naked on Roller Skates kicked the whole thing off - video. NYC band, Deadbeat Darling played second - video. and Slowdim dreamily rocked us to the end - video 1, video 2. five songs from Aloud:

J. Krafty's Bigfoot

Next, we made our way to Church's 4th anniversary show on 11/4.  On the bill, Moe Pope + Quills (hip hop with live elements - including recorder!) video 1, video 2. The Cretins (authentic Boston pop-punk) - video 1, video 2. Black Helicopter followed with their awesome dirge-core - video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4! The infamous Peelander Z headlined the party, and they immediately won me - especially with So Many Mike! Video.

11/12 we bopped into The Burren for Joe Kowan/J. Krafty. video 1, video 2, live Bigfoot (listen to the new hip-hop version here) and a fun Biz Markie cover:


and here's a new thing. I'm obsessed with shoes, and now will be taking photos of shoes on stage:

The Cretins

Black Helicopter

Peelander Z

Shift Your Shopping!!! (...the song) #ShiftYourShopping

Shift Your Shopping is a large-scale campaign to get consumers to choose local and independent when making purchases this holiday season. From their "mouth" (i.e., website):

As customers, we are about to collectively spend a large portion of our annual shopping budget between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31. If you join us in shifting those dollars to locally owned, independent businesses, we’ll all generate 2-3 times as much economic activity in our community than if we had spent our money at a national chain. Across North America, that could mean billions of dollars of economic impact.[Web] [Facebook] [Twitter #ShiftYourShopping] [Shop Locally]

As with any good campaign with a local slant, we found out about SYS via Somerville Local First's involvement in bringing the campaign to Somerville and got involved the only way we know how...by writing and recording a song for the occasion.

May be distributed freely and used to create non-commercial derivative works of any kind to promote SYS.

Subject: My Photo in your blogg = violation of copyright (BUYING MJEML on Vinyl Part 11!)

This is in response to the saga of buying MJEML's _Volume One_ on vinyl (when it doesn't exist on vinyl).

----

From: "Tristan Diesel"
To: Epstein.Michael.J
Subject: My Photo in your blogg = violation of copyright

Dear Mr. Epstein,

I ask you - just once - to remove my PRIVATE picture from your blogg.

Unfortunately there is a copyright on this picture.

Thanks for your immediate attention to this request.

"Tristan Diesel"

-----

As you know, I had suspected all along that Nandha had taken over and possessed "Tristan." It is now very evident that this has happened. As the image in question ( http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/211404_786778237_115681_n.jpg ) has made ""Tristan"" unhappy, we are replacing it with an artist's rendition. We don't want Nandha to harm us! I shed a tear for our loss of the real, happy-go-lucky "Tristan" that we all once knew. WE WILL NOT ALLOW NANDHA TO DESTROY US!!!

BREAKING UPDATE FROM NANDHA 11/22!!!
Subject: Remove my name from your blogg

Hello,

I have checked your blogg. The photo that is online is still an adaption of my photo, please delete this completely. Also remove my personal name from your blogg. It still shows up in the google searches.

regards,

"Tristan Diesel"

---------------------------

Once again, Nandha has attacked and once again has foiled our plans. As we know that we cannot defeat him, we have changed all names from this one to "Tristan Diesel." We have also altered the original drawing by adding new features so that no one would recognize "Tristan." Nandha, you can beat us down, but we will get back up again!!!

-------------------------

UPDATE 11/23

Hello,
my name has been deleted from your blogg - fine. Nevertheless you must also delete it from your facebook page and any other social media plattforms and delete the edited picture from google picture searches too, so my name is not connected to your blogg anymore. The matter should then be resolved.

"Tristan Diesel"

--------------------

UPDATE 11/24

Comment one:

As you taking no action to remove the picture from the google searches, from facebook and google + I have flagged you on all plattforms.

Congrats to your "online campaign".

Comment two:

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/211404_786778237_115681_n.jpg

this link must be deleted permanently from your blog as it leads to the original photo which is linked to my name - I´m serious about all this!

Comment three:

Before I will take legal action against you Mr. Epstein, I will wait for google to reply to my request of deleting the photo from google picture searches. I forgot to mention that you will have to take your posts down from twitter as well.
goodbye.

------------------------

YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT US NANDHA!

Sophia's Rock Beat: Halloween 2011 edition

Much belated at this point, here's video from our Halloween adventure! It's Boston-rock-band tradition to pick a band and BE them for Halloween - this is not just playing the songs note-for-note, this includes dressing and stage-bantering and drinking like the act in question too! This year we caught four of these sets, and they were all stupendous!

10/29/11 at Church - a double-wammy of my two favorite acts ever! Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - as performed by Ad Frank and the Ad Seeds and PJ Harvey as performed by Desperate Kingdom - featuring Alana Sacks on vocals.

Ad Frank and the Ad Seeds - totally nailed it - highlights included closing number, The Mercy Seat and Henry Lee (featuring Sarah RabDAU doing Polly Jean Harvey's vocals on this duet).



Desperate Kingdom mostly explored the early catalog of PJ - lots of Rid of Me and Dry - with a quick stop to Stories... - they did an awesome job - a highlight was the drummer doing the falsetto "lick my legs" on closer "Rid of Me."

 

10/30/11 we made our way to Radio in Somerville for Parlour Bells' romp as Jane's Addiction and Whores at the Door as The Pixies.

Parlour Bells stuck to very early Jane's Addiction (no "Been Caught Stealin'" here!) and played an inspired set after getting approval from Dave Navarro himself!



Whores at the Door is a super-group featuring: Ashley Willard (of Radio and Boston Band Crush), Justin Emile Shapiro (The Big East), Nick Murphy (The Acre), and Jordan Tavenner (Black Button) - they did The Pixies proud (for a second year!).

Sophia Cacciola & Michael J. Epstein extras in film, Pie Heaven

Our buddy Aviv (from the awesome band, Pray for Polanski) is making a movie called Pie Heaven! As is the new way, the funding is coming from a campaign via Kickstarter - so do check out their Kickstarter page and consider donating - they are 88% of the way to their goal, but only have 10 days left!

Michael J. and I got to be extras in a bar scene last week. FYI Sam Light is not an 11:00AM sort of drink! I got the extra exciting job of slapping one of the main characters...several times! I had to get it right! Also, FYI - it takes a lot of gross-talk before I'm offended enough to slap you - as you'll learn by watching this video - YES, THE FOOTAGE OF ME SLAPPING IS ALREADY UP!!!:


Here's a short description of the premise: "Produced by four aspiring writers who met in a screenwriting workshop, this film follows two best friends, Ben and Emily, who embark on a competition to see who can truly please a woman better. But this is no ordinary bet for Ben, he's got much bigger plans."

Michael J. Epstein & Sophia Cacciola host On the Town with Mikey Dee on WMFO 11/16/11

Go "like" the On The Town with Mikey Dee facebook page! OTTwMD plays local Boston music and is on every Wednesday from 9pm-Midnight and almost always features a live band around 10:30 - it's on 91.5 WMFO - http://wmfo.org.

Send your CDs to the station SO THAT WE CAN PLAY YOU! and if you're extra nice - denote which tracks have swears (and likewise if all tracks are clean, please!)

WMFO
attn: Joel Simches
PO Box 65
Medford, MA 02155

Here's our playlist from 11/16/11!
And if you missed the show, and the amazing life performance from The Highway - you can listen to the archive - for one week only - here!

Time zone: Eastern

	9:06pm	Buffalo Tom “Taillights Fade” from Asides From (1988-1999) CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Beggars Banquet 2000) L
	9:10pm	J-Krafty “Bigfoot Likes The Ladies” from Single CD SINGLE (2010) N L
	9:15pm	Rob Potylo “Shera” from Something Happened At Horse Lake (Quiet Desperation 2011) N L
	9:20pm	Full Body Anchor “1 in 150” from The Restless EP CD/LOSSLESS EP (2011) L
	9:24pm	Tanya Donelly “Pretty Deep” from Love Songs for Underdogs (4AD www.mergerecords.com1997) L
	9:29pm	Aloud “Fan the Fury” from Fan The Fury CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Lemon Merchant Records2008) L
	9:30pm	Guitar Circle New England “Improv” SINGLE (2011) N L
	9:40pm	Jaggery “Paucity City” from Upon A Penumbra CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Jaggery www.jaggery.org2010) L
	9:41pm	Guitar Circle New England “INTERVIEW” SINGLE
	9:45pm	Guitar Circle New England “Eye of the Needle” SINGLE (2011) N L
	10:03pm	Ramona Silver “Better Than Being” from Trailers (Ramona Silver 1996)
	10:06pm	Guitar Circle New England “Where's the Nurse?” SINGLE (2011) N L
	10:16pm	Box Five “Scylla And Charibdys” from Leave the Earth Behind CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM(2010) L
	10:17pm	Streight Angular “HOTTIES” from After And Before CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Polk Records2009) L
	10:22pm	Static of The Gods “WHITE FLAG” from Knowledge Machine CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (delVerano2010) L
	10:30pm	Brendan Boogie & The Best Intentions “Baby Makes My World Go Round” from The Sweet And The Brutal CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Brendan Boogie & The Best Intentions 2009) L
	10:34pm	Muck and The Mires “TREAT HER RIGHT” from All Mucked Up (Best Of) RIVENDELL
	10:37pm	The Dents “ONE MORE TIME” from Time For Biting CD ALBUM (Abbey Lounge Records2005)
	10:43pm	Kayln Rock “Alex the Great” from passenger (2011) N L
	10:46pm	Ryan Schmidt “Night The Bells Rang (featuring Juliana Hatfield)” from Black Sheep, RunCD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Ryan Schmidt 2010) L
	10:51pm	The Highway “Live in Studio Dee” from WMFO
	11:36pm	The Grownup Noise “Just So You Know” from This Time With Feeling CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM(Adam Sankowski 2011) L
	11:40pm	Walter Sickert & The army Of Broken Toys “Hole in the Boat” from SteamShipKillersCD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (WIREFOREST 2010) L
	11:44pm	The Highway “INTERVIEW” SINGLE
	11:50pm	Naked On Roller Skates “SUGAR” from I Lost My Heart In The Battle CD/LOSSLESS EP (Naked on Roller Skates 2011) L
	12:00am	Parlour Bells “Pet Names” from Heart Beatings CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (2010) L

we also played our favorite PSA on Beetle Busters & by special request from Buggsy, we played the Smokey Bear PSA.