We’re rebranding the “Totally Excellent Mid-January Cambridge Day-Approved Record Store Walk & You Better Dress Warm” as “Totally Excellent Mid-August Cambridge Day-Approved Record Store Walk & You Better Dress Cool” for this month, and we don’t need to explain why.
Makes sense though, because we’re shining the spotlight on a local record shop that rebranded in recent years. Big Dig Records (2325 Massachusetts Ave.), at the old Blue Bags Records spot, is close enough to Davis Square that you’d swear you were in Somerville. But this is North Cambridge, and Big Dig Records has called it home since the rebrand in 2022.
The shop packs a lot of music into its interior, using the popular “inventory island” footprint to maximize display space and keep record browsers circulating like laundry in the wash. Expect an inventory that runs about 80 percent vinyl, with the remaining 20 percent split among CDs, tapes and sundry accessories.
The house specialty is “rare and out of print titles,” which is what you call used records when you want to make the point that you’ve got an archivist’s sensibility and a commitment to quality. I bought a short stack of LPs at an affordable $5 to $10 a pop – Mott the Hoople’s “The Hoople,” O.C. Smith’s “Dreams Come True” and a signed edition of “Love Changes” and Walter Carlos’ “Switched-On Bach II” (one wasn’t enough!) – and took a close look at the condition of each. Not mint by a mile, though all except one will play without any noticeable crackle. Great value for the money.
Be forewarned that you will pay for heavy hitter classics, such as a $40 copy of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” or a $50 copy of Sonic Youth’s “Goo.” It wasn’t always clear what was driving up the price of these records. But if you had to guess, it was probably the edition. Probably the first edition. Or the weight of the reissue – the 180-gram record reissues provide extra durability. If that’s important to you, you’re going to pay extra for it.
Genres run the gamut, with choice selections in each category. Predictably, the deepest stacks belong to rock and jazz. Spotted a great $5 copy of Ramsey Lewis’ “Tequila Mockingbird,” which I just bought for three times that amount at an Allston shop. Buyer’s remorse! And don’t sleep on the niche picks in metal, modern classical, reggae and more.
Combine all of the above with a friendly and helpful staff. The guy behind the counter, by the way, is the frontman for Tyler & the Names, a kind of local cowboy psych garage outfit, who opened the Rockwell stage on Saturday at the recent Nice, A Fest. Nice! They have a gig coming up at Tavern At the End of the World in Charlestown – give it a look.
One last pro tip: the Big Dig Records’ website incorrectly posts Mondays as “closed” as of this writing. On the contrary, the store is open Mondays, and has been for as long as anyone can remember. Call ahead anyway.
Hit this
Friday: Paper Lady, Lazy Trail, Bunny Boy, Night Moth (Lilypad, Cambridge)
This columnist jumped on the BOS > NYC Amtrak to catch Paper Lady, along with a slew of other Massachusetts bands, at the New Colossus festival on the Lower East Side back in March. The gazey rockers were worth the trip, but no need to stray so far. The band is playing a local date at Lilypad on a four-stack indie rock bill. A visit to charming Inman Square is infinitely preferable to New York City in August, when the sidewalks are stacked high with hot, fragrant, melting garbage bags. Or did the mayor finally mandate bins? Night Moth features ex-Squitch members.
Wednesday: Oso Oso (The Sinclair, Cambridge)
Emo poppers Oso Oso roll through Harvard Square in support of their new album “Life Till Bones,” self-released on their own label Yunahon Entertainment LLC. The album, announced just a couple of weeks before the scheduled release Friday, will be their fifth album. On a heavier note, it will be their first album following the death of guitarist Tavish Maloney in 2021. The artist blurb on the event page at The Sinclair website is still hyping the previous release, recorded with Maloney, which is unusual when there is a new album to promote. Look for “Life Till Bones” at the merch table. Born Without Bones, oldsoul, and Pictures of Vernon play in support.
Aug. 16: The Ghouls, Children of the Flaming Wheel, Hired Thoughts, Dummy Ache (The Jungle, Somerville)
Did you miss The Ghouls when they won the Rock N Roll Rumble in May? No worries, the versatile heavy poppers swing back through town for an encore performance along the storied promenade of Sanborn Court. This time there’s no competition – just four indie rock bands getting together on a bill for a one-night barn burner. Garage punkers Children of the Flaming Wheel just dropped a single called “Ride All Day.” Hired Thoughts is FKA Golf Weapons. And Dummy Ache is an effortlessly great band name.
Live: Slo-Anne record release at Deep Cuts
Boston’s Slo-Anne threw a record release party Saturday to celebrate their latest EP “Whiplash” at Deep Cuts in Medford. The sister-and-brother duo spin out indie rock ditties. Of the brother, said the sister: “I make him do this.” Regular Carpenters vibes up in here.
The songs lean on driving guitar and spritely drums to platform observational meditations on everyday plaints such as cramps and shitty dreams. Sounds like the kind of night you’d have after eating bad shellfish.
The entire release party set is already available as a live album at Slo-Anne’s Bandcamp. Whatever happened to the “live” rock ’n’ roll album? Did it depart into the shadows after “Frampton Comes Alive”? There have been top-selling live records since. Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged” session is the band’s second-highest-selling album after “Nevermind.” But that recording shares the same essential trait as a lot of other more recent live recordings from big artists: sounds great, but a little too staged, too polished, too stiff to capture the real live experience.
With the proliferation of affordable sound recording software and hardware, you’d think the format would be more prevalent in rock ’n’ roll clubs. Instead, it’s just the usual lot of nitrous oxide-huffing ’heads and wooks keeping the bootleg lamps lit in the jam scene. Let’s bring back rock ’n’ roll bootlegs! Keep it gritty.
No word yet on bootlegs from the opening acts, Human Mascot and Hey, I’m Outside.
Human Mascot served up high-energy, heavy rock that took a weird and wonderful turn when the guitarist retuned to “all F sharps” (I think?) to play a tune he called “shit rock.” To be clear, “shit rock” seemed less the title of the song, more a genre unto itself. Sounds like No Wave.
Medford locals Hey, I’m Outside announced their forthcoming self-titled studio album, due in August. It’s full of some of the singles they’ve been releasing piecemeal over the past few months, plus new material. Think: a rock ’n’ roll three-piece with Stephen Malkmus timbre on the vocals, but more alt-Americana than classic indie rock. There’s enough twang on the track “Lived In Maze” to have you looking around Deep Cuts for a mechanical bull.
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
A stronger
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