We don't have time to give you a big hoo-raw on how unbelievably fucking great New Bomb Turks were -- if you don't already know, then 1) you're an idiot, and 2) that's what Google's for. The quick: Ohio garage-punk legends, Crypt Records, Drunk on Cock, Epitaph, kaput. They played the kind of sloppy punk rock associated with total morons and degenerate drug addicts, but they used it to turn puns like "Born Toulouse Lautrec," thereby confounding most and pissing off not a few. They were half the reason the mid-to-late '90s didn't completely suck. (The other half of the reason: these guys.)

Before the Turks broke up, they struck up a friendship with the guys in the Spitzz, the Boston retropunk band that grew out of Showcase Showdown. And now the record that Spitzz made with help from the Turks is about to come out. (We're purposefully not saying too much about it because we'll be bringing you a post and an exclusive mp3 from the Spitzz record on Thursday.) And that led circuitously to the flyer above, which is for reals: New Bomb Turks reunited for two nights only, one of which is at the Abbey, the other of which is like a thousand miles away in Ohio. Slimy record store nerds in the other 48 states are gonna be puking themselves with jealousy. Immediately we shot Turks leader Eric Davidson an email to see what else they've got planned. Turns out, nothin': "These two shows (Boston and Cleveland) are just reunion shows. Just for kicks, as they say."

So how'd we get so fucking lucky? "Well basically, everyone was sorta back-of-the-mind mulling about a summer road trip, and the Spitzz were thinking about a record release party, and asked us if we'd wanna come visit and maybe play. They're great pals and it's always fun to see them. Plus they promised the Tampoffs would be on the bill. So there ya go." If you miss the Abbey gig and happen to live in the Midwest, you've got one more chance: "We're also doing a reunion gig opening for Radio Birdman in Cleveland on September 5, and that was cuz we all wanted to see Birdman on their reunion tour, and we're all originally from Cleveland so we figured we might be up there around Labor Day anyway. Basically, you show us a holiday or family party, and we'll see what we can do. But seriously, there's nothing more planned."

Check back Thursday for more on the Spitzz record, including an exclusive new mp3. For now, here's some shit you should've bought 10 years ago:

DOWNLOAD: New Bomb Turks, "Dragstrip Riot" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: New Bomb Turks, "We Give a Rat's Ass" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: New Bomb Turks, "I Got Your Bitter End" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: New Bomb Turks, "Out of My Mind" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: The Turks covering a bunch of other people's songs at some blog

BONUS: The Tampoffs, "All the Time" (mp3)

08/08/2006 13:55:18 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

 

Street heat: Ted Leo, Pharmacists. Mike Miliard's camera wants to be infra-red when it grows up.

 

And the award for most seamless segue between opener and headliner goes to...

 

Ted Leo, bounding onstage at the Middle East on Sunday afternoon during Drew O’Doherty’s cover of “Dancing in the Dark” and shimmying for a few moments like Courteney Cox before picking up his Gibson hollow body and joining Doherty to close out the song.

 

It was a 2 p.m. all-ages show upstairs, but the crowd at this one was a little different from the rowdies who populated the hardcore matinees of Leo’s youth: here was a sold out room full mostly of tender-faced teens — one of whom got a 15th birthday shout-out from stage, another of whom clutched her shoulders and swooned in Beatlemaniac hysterics as Leo powered his way through solo versions of songs from ’03’s Hearts of Oak (“The High Party”), ‘04’s Shake the Sheets (“Bleeding Powers”), and a well-chosen cover (Ewan Macoll’s “Dirty Old Town”).

 

The show was billed as a solo gig, but just as Leo approached the stomping Irish-jig climax of “Timorous Me” (from ‘01’s The Tyranny of Distance) bassist Dave Lerner and drummer Chris Wilson — otherwise known as the Pharmacists — ambled on stage (augmented with O’Doherty, who was once a Pharmacist himself) to properly enable the song’s efflorescence.

 

The band had just come off tour, and Lerner and Wilson were under no obligation to play, but they made the trip to Cambridge from Philly and NYC respectively because there was a lot of new material to test out. No one knows exactly when the next Pharmacists record will be forthcoming (“What is this, fucking VH-1 Storytellers?” Leo joked when someone had the temerity to ask from the audience) but apparently the plan is to let it gestate properly while some ideas are fleshed out and some other songs are pulled from Leo’s bag of tricks. But if the material we heard Sunday afternoon is any indication, it’s gonna be a corker.

 

There was the towering, powerful “Some Beginner’s Mind,” a demo version of which has found its way onto the blogs in recent months. “Catch You On the Way Down” has some ska-like flashes (Specials, The English Beat) and was powered along by Lerner’s nimble Motown-esque bass lines. The metal epic “The Lost Brigade” was supercharged by Wilson’s martial drums. And while “Who You Love” was straight-up mod rock in the Jam/Kinks/Faces vein and “Colleen” reached back (as many Pharmacists songs do) to the meditative, muscular melodicism of Thin Lizzy, “Crying Over You” was a departure of sorts: a heavy, sped-up dub reggae, with Leo pealing sheets of effects-laden noise from his guitar.

 

With eight minutes before the trio was obliged to vacate the stage (at 5 p.m.) Leo promised to use up ever last one of ‘em. And, verily, he did, charging into the knotty noise workouts of “Stove By a Whale,” swimming in that churning brine for a good long while. When the last note faded, the fans yelled and cheered then stumbled out, blinking, into the late afternoon sunlight.

08/08/2006 12:19:45 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

Reason no. 197 why the ILM board is better than SPIN and Rolling Stone and Blender and the Village New Times combined: a rash of Danzig haiku.

Examples:

Impressive man boobs
His large pectoral muscles
Remind me of my "Mother."

Picking a fight with
A much larger, less famous rocker
KAPOW! Down he goes.

Poor Danzig. Dude's house is a mess, ain't mowed the lawn since like 4p or some shit, got mad geeks in SunnO))) hoodies walking like an egyptian out there and whatnot. Not to mention, no one will leave him alone about the bricks:

In a run down house,
Big pile of bricks in the yard.
Even Beck complains! 

To all of the above, OTD hastens to add:

"Teenagers from Mars":
Who still listens to this crap?
Hot Topic douchebags.

Feel free to add your own Danzig haiku in the comments. If anyone comes up with something good, we'll send you some crap.

08/08/2006 00:39:14 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

MP3 of the Week: Bullseye, "Mick Jagger's Birthday Bash"

DOWNLOAD: Bullseye, "Mick Jagger's Birthday Bash" (mp3)

As imagined by a bunch of Pioneer Valley pre-teens, the party in question appears to take place in the future, and in Heaven: there’s a cool guest list (Dylan and Johnny Cash, Art Garfunkel and the Clash) and cooler party favors (guitar picks by Hendrix, a song by Stevie Nicks), but kind of a creepy vibe (the Stones sneak them ice-cream cones, Dee Dee Ramone phones home). The Bullseye line-up (average age: 11) includes the 10- and 12-year-old offspring of veteran musician, booking agent, one-time Donnas producer, and film-music consultant Greg “Skeggy” Kendall — which explains why the riff sounds closer to Smoosh than to Kidz Bop and more “Gimme Shelter” than either. The kids have already opened for soft-alt-pop megastars the Fray, and on August 11 they’ll open for Kristen Hersh's reunited Throwing Muses at the Middle East [Click for show details].

08/07/2006 19:58:25 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

Kidzapalooza

Perry Farrell is for the children.

Patty Smith: scary old grandma of rock

The original School of Rock

Preschooler with wifebeater/mohawk, at lower left: focused.

Broken Social Scene

Uh . . . Kidzapalooza's over, duders.

Wilco

Red Hot Chili Peppers

All photos (c) Carina Mastrocola

08/07/2006 19:08:32 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

Common

Dresden Dolls

New Pornographers

Wolfmother

Sonic Youth

Flaming Lips

Kanye West

While braving a faceful of snot and her most inopportune cold of the summer, our photog Carina Mastrocola managed to bring back the goods again. We got a note from her this morning that she'd just run into Mike Patton (see below), began conversing with him in Italian, and found him to be a swell dude. Above: the best of yesterday's rock on the Lolla fairgrounds. More to come. And if you're following along at home, the webcast continues today (beware, these are all Central time):

12:30 PM Sparta
01:30 PM Stars
02:00 PM Matt Costa
02:30 PM Ben Kweller
03:30 PM The Frames
04:30 PM The Redwalls
05:30 PM She Wants Revenge
06:30 PM Andrew Bird
07:30 PM Poi Dog Pondering
08:30 PM Wilco

08/06/2006 10:38:13 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

If you haven't already checked out this week's awesome Phoenix cover story on Berklee alum Brendon Small's new animated Cartoon Network heavy-metal series Metalocalyspse -- best. show. ever. -- we highly recommend you do so immediately, in preparation for tomorrow night's premiere (first seven minutes via YouTube, below). Great show, great article. The lady who wrote it for us, metalhead/librarian Larissa Glasser, knows of what she speaks: she's also in the totally brutal Boston death-metal band Hekseri. Fans of Kreator/Deicide/Norwegian dudes who burn churches should check them out. If you don't know what band they're covering below, your black-metal credentials are hereby revoked. Doom/grind fiends, GET FAMILIAR.

DOWNLOAD: Hekseri, "Don't Burn the Witch" (mp3)

WATCH: "We're here to make coffee . . . metal. We will make everything . . . METAL!": 

 

08/06/2006 09:55:01 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

Eels

VH1's outhouse confessional

Husky Rescue

Jeremy Enigk

Lady Sovereign

The Raconteurs

Ryan Adams

Hey, who's that dude in the bowler up there with the Violent Femmes? Wait, it can't be . . .

Oh, but it is.

Ween: alphabetical order rules!

ALL IMAGES (c) CARINA MASTROCOLA

Even after yesterday's kickoff -- from which the above photos were taken -- the crowds were out early this morning, showing up right at doortime for Day 2 of Lollapalooza 2006. Inside, his highness Perry Farrell held court for a morning press conference with photogs, journos, fans, and fest organizers. Looking like a suburban dad, Perry posed for photos with fans, played up the Kidzapalooza segment of the fest, and announced a last-minute addition to the kids' schedule on Sunday: Patti Smith. Egged on by Rolling Stone to speculate whether Lolla will ever tour again, he demurred by saying that he'd like to perfect the weekend-format fest first.

My opinion? Lollapalooza is pretty close to perfect. That's coming from someone with a press pass, but still: it's well organized, there've been no schedule changes, the prices are reasonable for food and merch. (The ice cream truck dispensing freebies to media/band members isn't bad, either.)

One likely answer for how they're keeping prices down: corporate sponsorship. Don't complain, though: thanks to a rather huge phone company, those of you stuck at your computers can stream the gig live by clicking here:

STREAM: Lollapalooza 2006 live (outside link)

03:30 PM     Wolfmother
04:30 PM     Nada Surf
05:30 PM     The Smoking Popes
06:30 PM     Common
07:30 PM     Dresden Dolls
08:30 PM     5 Songs from Kanye West's Performance
09:00 PM     Thievery Corporation

-- Carina Mastrocola

08/05/2006 14:36:52 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

We were supposed to put these up earlier in the week. Sorry. After the jump: snaps from the Phoenix's August "Excuse" throwdown with OTD faves Doomriders, Coliseum, and more.

08/05/2006 10:54:37 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

Everyone's favorite Boston metalcore singer turned Tom Petty-ish roots-rock heartthrob, dreamy ol' Jake Brennan, has put the wraps on his new record and will be playing a bunch of it during some sweet-ass opening gigs this weekend: tonight at the Paradise opening for Soul Asylum (we've forgiven those dudes for what happened after "Runaway Train," but that doesn't mean you have to), tomorrow at Ralph's Diner out in Worcester opening for Walter Schreifels, who is playing a solo show immediately following the Gorilla Biscuits reunion (holy shit!) that night at the Palladium. Both are conceptually perfect for attracting new Brennan converts: you assume both shows will attract grownup hardcore fans who aren't afraid of songs, and neo-Americana fuckups who aren't afraid of punk rock. Of the new stuff, Jake says, "It sounds unlike anything I've ever done. Very weird." Everyone says that, but we give the new Jake shit two enormous thumbs up -- his debut got waylaid in clean, showbandy stuff that felt like the kind of stuff you make when you're 40. The new songs are the raw-ass rocknroll shit he sounded like before Nashville got ahold of him. You can check it out at his MySpace page.

In addition to a bunch of new material -- you can hear some of it now at Brennan's MySpace page, though we wish he'd post up the song where X's John Doe stops by for guest-vocals -- Jake says he's dusting off an oldie but goodie from his days in Cast Iron Hike, his '90s post-hardcore band back when Victory didn't suck. We fucking loved that band, and anyone who was a fan of Schreifels' band Quicksand should check out CIH's newish MySpace page for the history. When we got Brennan's mass-email saying he'd reworked old Cast Iron songs in the manner of Bo Diddley, we thought he was just making random shit up to get people out to the gigs and called bullshit. But he says he's dead serious, and that he's got an arrangement of "Boxed" that's "all tremolo-y like Bo. It lends itself to that style." Crayyyyy-zee, duder.

DOWNLOAD: Cast Iron Hike, "Boxed" (mp3, via Myspace)
DOWNLOAD: Jake Brennan, "What Joe Strummer Said" (mp3, via MySpace) 

08/04/2006 15:07:53 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

You would think someone would tell us this beforehand, but no, we found out the same way you did -- by opening up the paper and seeing the ad. Because young Spitz didn't bother to scroll to the bottom of the LiveNation email list this week, which clearly stated that Justin Timberlake is playing Avalon on August 26. Holy crap. We can't front: there are gonna be like a dozen people over here dialing for tickets on Saturday morning, because with a show like this, a) you can't take chances, and b) if we later get on the guest list, we can Craig's List tix and double our annual salary.

We're not sure what we're more psyched about -- that . . . or this, Atlantic promobot or no Atlantic promobot:

DOWNLOAD: Justin Timberlake & T.I., "My Love" (mp3, via FluoKids)

 

08/04/2006 02:28:40 by On the Download | Comments [1] | Trackback 

Muse
August 2 at Bank of America Pavilion
All photos (c) Carina Mastrocola

08/03/2006 23:27:06 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback 

30 Seconds to Mars

Bouncing Souls

 

Damone

Helmet

Joan Jett plays to quote-unquote "punks"

Joan Jett's quote-unquote "punk" guitarist

Less than Jake

Senses Fail

Massconcerts' Scott Lee carts around the guys from Acacia Strain.

All photos (c) Carina Mastrocola.

08/03/2006 23:18:23 by On the Download | Comments [0] | Trackback