Three Must See Shows to Kick off 2011

As you can tell from our overflowing show list to the left, 2011 is putting it's best foot forward with an impressive line up of shows. With so many Live music options this winter we thought we would take a few minutes to point out a few that we're planning on making room on our dance cards for this month and recommend you do the same.

First and foremost we must call your attention to a show featuring two of our favorite purveyors of guitar pop and Pollardesque song titles, Boston's Hallelujah The Hills and former Vermonter Dean Wells' The Capstan Shafts. Both bands play TT The Bears on January 18th. Expect more hooks than your Granpa's tackle box, none of which will be rusty however. Buy tickets now via TT's /Ticketweb.



We're all kinds of excited to catch Boston's hard to pin down popsters Hands and Knees when they celebrate the release of their excellent new LP, Wholesome on January 27th with assistance from Doomstar!, Fedevess, and Weymouth's skuzz poppers, The Needy Visions. Grab tickets for the Wholesome album release.

Hands and Knees are still offering Wholesome on their Bandcamp page as a free stream, but we ask you to do the right thing and through them a few bucks and buy it.


Also check out this footage of Hands and Knees playing the pRIMORDIAL SOUNDS Showcase last month the the Middlesex Lounge, performing Dancing On Your Tears.

The fact that the shows we're most looking forward to all feature local bands is a testament to the current state of the Boston scene and we're not done yet. On January 29th we will find the excuse we've been looking for to catch a show in the newly opened Brighton Music Hall, when Mean Creek celebrates the releases of their new Hemophiliac EP,with Taxpayer, Girlfriends,and Dirty Dishes. Mean Creek recorded the new EP at Head Gear Studios with John Agnello (Sonic Youth). You can catch a glimpse into the recording process as well as the art of achieving the perfect drum sound, through a couple videos the band has posted to their tumblr site

Mean Creek - The Comedian