The Underground Submit IV|Beerfest| + Butterknife EP Release Show

We could fill up a month of Saturdays with the excellent Live happenings going down in and around Boston tomorrow night, featuring a legion of Ash Gray Proclamation endorsed acts. Firstly, Grass Is Green, Ovlov, and Fat History Month are playing Beerfest at O'Brien's Pub, Butterknife will celebrate the release of their new EP, Do The Needful with assistance from Boston's inventive noise rock concern, Guillermo Sexo at The Middle East and Young Adults, Chandeliers, BDRM Eyes, and The Living City at The Box Fort In Allston (go to the FB event page for further details/address).

Lastly tomorrow brings the 4th installment of The Boston Underground Submit, presented by Bodies of Water. 10 bands and a few pa's, with each band taking turns playing one song after another. Once each band has played a song, the loop repeats until the songs run out. Boston's rising dream pop trio Night Fruit, who recently released their terrific Dark Horse 7" will play as well as Mmoss and The Needy Visions, plus many more.

We plan on taking in as many of these shows as time and logistics will allow, we recommend you do the same. Choose wisely.

How's about a few musical selections, aye?

[Video] Butterknife - Restless [From Do The Needful out 1/28]

Forthcoming :: Terry Malts - Killing Time

On February 21st San Francisco's noise pop phenoms, Terry Malts will deliver their debut long player, Killing Time courtesy of Slumberland Records. We first discovered the Malts last spring through their excellent, I'm Neurotic 7", which featured three infectious noisy power pop tracks that struck a chord with us from very first spin. With a couple of singles and a six song cassette to their credit, the trio of Corey Cunningham, Phil Benson, and Nathan Sweatt convened in the studio and committed 34 minutes of new material to tape and then handed the songs over to Monte Vallier (Swell), to handle mixing duties. Slumberland has offered up a two song sampler of Killing Time, both tracks display the trio gift for staggering buzz-saw pop, while adding a little spit shine to their gritty and addictive tunes. We're keeping our collective fingers crossed that the release of Killing Time will finally bring the band to Boston.

Terry Malts - Killing Time Sampler by Slumberland Records

This Weeks Short Bursts :: Superchunk, Chandeliers, & Spook Houses

Any day is good day that brings us a never before heard track from N.C.'s legendary, Slack Mother Fuckers, Superchunk. This is the original version of Blinders, a track that showed up last year in a slighly rougher form, on the Crossed Wires single. As explained on Soundcloud earlier today the band thought the "slow version" sounded a bit like GBV, they ended up re-recording the track and issuing a sped up version for the single. But to our ears this is a creamy pop song and deciding which version we like better would be like picking our favorite ingredient of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. So we're content to enjoy both, repeatedly.

Superchunk - Blinders (Slow Vers) by MergeRecords

Allston's utmost purveyors of intricate post punk, Chandeliers have just unleashed a new track, Age Sex Location to the interweb, which you can download for free from their recently launched Bandcamp page. The track is taken from the trio's recent recording sessions for their forthcoming LP and has been part of the bands arresting live sets in recent months. Based on several listens in the last 24 hours to this "rough mix", this track has put the Chandeliers upcoming full length on a short list of records we can"t wait to hear in 2012.

Chandeliers will play this Saturday at The Box Fort in Allston, with Young Adults, BDRM Eyes, and The Living City.

It seems that every January, we inevitably discover a release that we completely slept on during the previous 12 months. This year our belated attention sits firmly with Ridgewood, NJ lo-fi quartet, Spook Houses. The band issued their debut, The Home EP 7" last spring and the EP features 4 earnest and intelligent pop songs. We've learned that Spook Houses are working on their full length debut, to be released on Evil Weevil Records later this year. We've embedded the entire EP below, it starts off with the title track, that features a striking deadpan vocal performance, the likes of which we haven't heard since Mr. Berman put Silver Jews on the shelf.

Transmissions :: Yale, MA - Danger City, Population: ME

Boston's rising pop punks, Yale, MA have just issued a video for Danger City, Population: ME where they get pelted with all kinds of flying objects, which includes but are not limited to, records, hockey sticks,skateboards, and an old Christmas tree. The track comes from the bands debut 7", Act Like You've Been There, which you can grab for free and legally here. The Danger City, Population:ME was directed by Daniel Danger.

Yale,MA will play at Great Scott on Valentines Day with The Jealous Sound.

When Night Falls :: Hallelujah The Hills, Ted Billings, Richard Davies, & The Blue Dress @ P.A.'s Lounge

Last Saturday we had the pleasure of presenting, along with our friends at Clicky Clicky Music, the formidable line up of Hallelujah The Hills, Age Rings' Ted Billings, Richard Davies, and The Blue Dress. Our first visit back to Somerville's P.A.'s Lounge since "The wall came down" proved to be a superior evening of music, filled with songs from yet to be released albums, all of which will hopefully find there way to us in 2012.

After opening their set with their latest single, the insanely catchy and the spelling friendly, Amateurs, Hallelujah The Hills played a sizable chunk of their soon to be released (we hope), third LP which included new tracks, Call Off Your Horses and the equally impressive, Hungry Ghost Extraordinaire. Hearing these songs Live, only furthered our anticipation for the bands forthcoming LP. Up against P.A.'s curfew, Ryan Walsh led the band through a few more songs at a furious pace and proved again why Hallelujah The Hills are such a gifted and exhilarating Live act. Age Rings', Ted Billings dropped in to debut tracks from his bands currently being recorded third album as well as material from 2011's Black Honey. Throughout the evening Billings' displayed a penchant for razor sharp lyricism and his nimble and soaring vocal talents. He even treated us to a cracking cover of Big Star's, Thirteen. Having spent time in Australia's noise pop legends, The Moles, chamber pop godfathers, Cardinal, and Robert Pollard's Cosmos, Richard Davies hit the P.A.'s stage with an expansive catalog to choose from, aided by the rhythm section from The Blue Dress. Davies' treated us to Love Like Rain , a song that will appear on Cardinals forthcoming 2nd LP, Hymns as well a cherry picked set list that highlighted some of Davies best compositions. Cape Cod's psych pop dynamos, The Blue Dress have been frequently written about on these pages, but inexplicably we had missed a few chances to catch the band Live. With an expanded line up, The Blue Dress did not disappoint. As much of the PA's crowd had their eyes on The Patriots play off game, The Blue Dress provided a worthy and noisy alternative, taking to the stage and emanating a cacophony of trumpet, violin, bass, drums, guitar squalls that showcased the bands discordant melodies and cathartic song craft.

*Thanks to all who came out, to the bands for playing and to our unfortunately absent co-conspirators at Clicky Clicky Music.

Clicky Clicky Music And The Ash Gray Proclamation Present: Hallelujah The Hills, Ted Billings, Richard Davies, And The Blue Dress @ PA's Lounge

We are completely chuffed to bring, along with our pals at Clicky Clicky Music, this formidable line up on Saturday at P.A.'s Lounge. Hallelujah The Hills are busy readying their third and from what we're hearing, finest LP. Expect to hear some tracks off the forthcoming set as well as the bands exemplary back catalog and we're hoping for one if not both tracks off their new-ish Fall single, Amateurs b/w The Girls Are Here. This will also the mark the bands last performance with drummer David Bryson. Earlier this week we had a conversation with Ryan Walsh which we will air on Saturday afternoon from 12-3 during The Ash Gray Proclamation Radio Hour(s). It's called show pre-show hype, believe it.



Ted Billings of Age Rings has just started recording his bands follow up to Black Honey, not to mention, the #3 album in The Ash Gray Proclamation Top Albums of 2011 over at Waltham's Watch City Studios. Lucky for us, Ted likes Saturday night rock shows and will join us for what promises to be a memorable solo set. Here's hoping we get a preview of the new album and plenty of the remarkable, Black Honey

Rock and Roll Is Dead by Age Rings

Perhaps like many, we discovered Richard Davies, via his watershed LP, with cohort Eric Matthews, Cardinal. But being the music obsessives that we are, we went back to uncover The Moles and forward to his superlative solo records and then of course there's Cosmos his collaboration with Robert Pollard, an absolute gem of the postal project variety. Cardinal is about to release there long awaited second LP, Hymns. You can grab the albums advance single, Looks Like Rain here. So the point of all this, is to say how completely honored and excited we are to have Richard as part of this bill.

When we first encountered Brewster's, The Blue Dress the band struck a chord with us, based on the duo of Patrick Tottenham and Timothy Sylvia's brand gothic and arresting psych pop. But then they went and started a full fledged band with expanded instrumentation and delivered a superb new EP, These Happy Golden Years, which you can read about here. We urge you to get in the door early for The Blue Dress' opening set which were told will contain some new material and when they finish a couple of them will hang around to provide bass and drums to the Richard Davies set.

Young Adults, Bambara, Ovlov, & Guilty Party @ Gay Gardens | Saturday January 7th, 2012

Although we already mentioned this show a couple of days ago, somethings bear repeating. Allston's post-punk heroes, Young Adults are set to play Gay Gardens on Saturday in what will be there last show in town until the emergence of spring. Young Adults recently announced through the magic of twitter, that there will be a new EP in 2012 to follow their masterful debut, Black Hole. Also in tow, will be Bambara , Guilty Party, and Ovlov. Check the FB event page for further details. Be sure bring a donation for the touring bands.

Let Us Out by YOUNG ADULTS

This Weeks Short Bursts :: Ovlov, Ringo Deathstarr, & Mass Solo Revolt

New Haven's noise pop heroes are coming! Ovlov are coming!
O.K., O.K., I'll calm down for a minute, but not for long, because ever since hearing the bands 2011 superlative EP, What's So Great About The City?, we've been waiting for a chance to hear these infectious and sleezy pop songs in a Live setting. Of course, we've had a few chances over the past year but we foolishly squandered those, but now it looks like (pardon the cliche) the planets are aligning in our favor. Recently, Chris Villon of our beloved Young Adults, reached out to Ovlov after one of the bands scheduled to perform with YA at Gay Gardens this Saturday was forced to drop off the bill. For more info on that show check out the FB event page. Ovlov will also return to Boston on January 28th for a show at O'Briens, before heading into the studio to record new material in February.


Austin, TX shoegaze titans, Ringo Deathstarr have donated a cover of Bad Brains', Sailing On to help raise funds for the family of Esme Barrera. Barrera an early fan of Ringo Deathstarr and an ardent supporter of Autin's vibrant music community was found murdered in her home on New Years Day. The band is asking it's fans to donate $1.00 to assist the Barrera family in the wake of this senseless tragedy.

Please go to: forouresmeb.blogspot.com to make a dontation. You will receive a high quality MP3 download of the new track.

Sailin' On by ElliottFrazier

When not running an ice cream shop in East Tawas, Michigan, Martin Brummeler writes and records fuzzy and melodic pop songs under the moniker Mass Solo Revolt. Recently Brummeler decided to jettison the full length record route and release his hook heavy, post-punk tracks at various states of completion to the interweb. Mass Solo Revolt are in cahoots with the excellent N.C. anti-label, No More Fake Labels, so we're hopeful that we may see a full length follow up to Bummelers 2009 set, Bend In Time at some point in the not too distant future. But for now, we're thrilled to have a new track from MSR. If It's Not Love, is a fatalist lo-fi anthem, that we're happy to pass along to your head holes.