Walk the walk. Punk the rock.
That’s my current motto because on April 12 we’re celebrating Record Store Day with local artists, music merchants, and, hopefully, you! Here are the basics of this two-part throwdown.
First, walk the walk. We’ve mapped some of our wonderful local record stores for a patent-pending Cambridge Day Record Store Walk. Construct your own route and see how many you can hit on Record Store Day. You may recall a similar call to action with last year’s “Totally Excellent Mid-January Cambridge Day-Approved Record Store Walk & You Better Dress Warm” article. Similar, except with better weather, on April 12 you can pick up specially marked copies of Cambridge Day’s print edition, The Week, in participating stores (Planet Records, vinyl index. and Big Dig Records). Grab ’em!
Second, punk the rock. Join da fam in da clurb for a show at Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender St., Riverside, featuring Jade Dust, Pushback, P.V. and Homeworld. Doors at 5 p.m. And bring one of the specially marked copies of Cambridge Week for discounted admission. It’s the perfect capper to the perfect Record Store Day.
It’s all happening on April 12. Which is also National Only Child Day, National Grilled Cheese Day, National Licorice Day and the start of Passover. You can celebrate all of the above – just make sure you set aside a few hours for some crate digging and a punk show.
Until then I will be continually whispering in your ear: “Walk the walk. Punk the rock.”
Hit this
Friday: Mark Erelli, Colin McGovern (Club Passim, Cambridge)
Folk rocker Mark Erelli has a sense of wonder. He also has a song called “Sense of Wonder,” which is featured on the event page for Friday’s gig. You know, one of those YouTube clip embeds. A wondrous technology, when you think about it. Anyone with access to a computer can upload a video, then plant it on any webpage. It’s a functionality that feels like a holdover from an earlier phase of Internet culture before the tech robber barons had found the perfect algorithms for pimping our attention spans. If YouTube operated like younger tech platforms, it wouldn’t play the clip you had actually selected. Instead, it would start playing a clip that artificial intelligence had judged was similar to the clip you had selected. Or it would force you to watch a 30-second advertisement before watching the clip, and not share the advertising proceeds with the artist whose clip you were waiting to see. Nothing kills the sense of wonder more efficiently than monetization strategies.
Sunday: Brandee Younger Trio (Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge)
Part of the Celebrity Series of Boston. Celebritydom seems like a terrible North Star by which to navigate music. But the series dates back to 1938, when it was called the Aaron Richmond Celebrity Series, so it carries the weight of tradition. Throughout the years, the series has presented performances by such big names as Benny Goodman, Igor Stravinsky and the Trapp Family Singers. Is harpist and composer Brandee Younger in the same league? She sure as hell is. The artist will make you take a fresh look at the 47-string instrument, squeezing soulful sounds out of the celestial harp. More than angel wings over here. Her latest album “Brand New Life” picks up the torch from another jazz harp great, Dorothy Ashby.
March 21: Jen Kearney (The Burren, Somerville)
Vocalist and keyboardist Jen Kearney has a single coming out: “Long Division.” Go hear it at The Burren. Presumably an original, not a cover of the Fugazi song? You can’t put anything past Kearney, though, who’s got range. Her “100 Songs In 100 Days” YouTube stunt in 2023 petered out after the 18th entry, as far as I can tell. But by that time she had already covered a Grammy’s Who’s Who: Beatles, Prince, Amy Winehouse, Bob Dylan, Aimee Mann, Soundgarden, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5 and more. A human jukebox, with plenty of originals to boot. You’re never quite sure what will play when you pop a quarter into the slot, but odds are it will be rocking, sultry and funkalicious.
Live: Boston Bitdown
Guest author Sam Haber joins the column this week to share some impressions of Boston Bitdown, the three-day chiptune and digital arts fest that unfolded Thursday through Saturday in Somerville (plus one night in Arlington).
On Friday, he experienced the glow of Glomag at the Capitol Theatre:
“As Glomag completed his setup, the theater seemed to come alive. Over the next half hour I was transported into the underground depths of a Berlin nightclub as he manufactured and sang nine synth-heavy tracks. Some of them were head-bopping, some of them were intensely psychedelic, all of them were unique. I got heavy ‘The Wall’ B-side vibes, like if someone had given Roger Waters a digital synthesizer. The on-screen visuals, assisted by music-synced lighting, created an intensely stimulating experience.”
On Saturday, Ultra Deluxe took the stage at the Crystal Ballroom:
“The lead singer was everywhere, the stage, the mosh pit, playing the retro-games that hugged the wall, all while delivering vocals at the top of their lungs. From the lyrical content I was able to hear, I gathered that the band was also strikingly socially conscious, on top of being totally insane. Against my best judgment I found myself moving along with the music. Legs, arms, boas and bubbles swirled in the pit below me.”
The prudent exercise of one’s best judgment is rarely a path to nightlife glory. Read the full review at Hump Day News. And thanks to Sam for documenting this wild addition to the local festival calendar.
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
A stronger
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