Am I getting ahead of myself?
The ink is still wet on the Cambridge Day Record Store Walk announcement. Walk the walk, punk the rock. The bands are pumped, the record stores are psyched, and we’ll all meet up for the end-of-walk punk show at the Cambridge Community Center on April 12. I’m counting down the days.
But if you read this column regularly, you’ll know that I’m an event listings junkie, always sniffing about for the next item on the calendar. And what sweet scent do I catch in the breeze? The sweet scent of Porchfest season, one of the most fragrant seasons of the year.
There might be sad and forlorn cities somewhere that can’t field enough local talent to present grassroots music bonanzas like Porchfest. Cambridge is not one of them. The cup runneth over in terms of arts & culture. Which is why it’s a real head scratcher that the city hasn’t hatched a Porchfest plan until recently. The inaugural Cambridge Porchfest (or “Deckfest”?) is projected to arrive around mid-July.
Better late than never. Porchfests have been a hit in Somerville and beyond. It’s got me thinking … Is there a way for Cambridge Day to get involved as a media partner, similar to what we’re doing with the Cambridge Day Record Store Walk? I love to use this column to cover local music events after they’ve happened. But there’s also so much that the newspaper could potentially offer on the front end: planning, promotion, logistics. Whatever it takes to trumpet our beautiful local music scene.
Attention, bands: If you’ve planned or are planning a shindig for a porchfest in Somerville or Cambridge, hit me up in the comments or shoot me a DM. Maybe we can engage in some creative collaboration and make a good thing even better? The sky’s the limit, but the clock is ticking, at least for Somerville Porchfest (May 10), so don’t wait.
First things first, though, see you at the Cambridge Day Record Store Walk on April 12!
Hit this
Friday: The Roscoes, Spruce, The Sleds, The Dead Flowers (The Jungle, Somerville)
A rock ’n’ roll four stack at The Jungle. The Roscoes released a single last month called “Salford Septic Tank.” I know this because they submitted the track for review at my other joint, Hump Day News. But they didn’t check the box that agrees to “Sign up for news and updates,” which is the second rule of the two-rule “Ground Rules” for submission. So I’m not writing it up. And I added a third rule: “Read the Ground Rules.” Am I a bastard? I don’t know. The only “news and updates” I send is a monthly newsletter. Social media is a devastated landscape. I’m trying to find another way to connect and build community. If you want to send me your music for review at Hump Day News, but can’t handle a measly newsletter in return, maybe it’s not meant to be.
Sunday: Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio, Spatial Decay (Lilypad, Cambridge)
A “This Music Presents” production, which is a good sign. The outfit has been putting on shows all over town and isn’t afraid to take risks, hosting unconventional acts in sometimes unconventional places. You know, places that aren’t jazz all the way through. Lilypad, on the other hand, is pretty much jazz all the way through. Expect a night of experimental music, a sound tech who will also sell you a PBR, and half-finished murals. The Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio is a treat with an uncompromisingly abstract and modernist vision. Spatial Decay opens.
Monday: Rebecca Black, Blue Hawaii (The Sinclair, Cambridge)
I admit that a morbid sense of curiosity provided the initial impetus to dig deeper into the Rebecca Black show. The artist entered the national spotlight in 2011 with the infamous single, “Friday,” which, along with its prefab music video, revealed a world of vanity music production that many Americans never knew existed. Money bought a professional sound and look for a tween who was visibly in over her head. The backlash was intense. And this was before people really started getting bees in their bonnets about “nepo babies.” So where is Rebecca Black now? On her Salvation Tour, criss-crossing the country, selling out midsized venues. If the “Cash Me Outside” girl gets a second act, why not Black? Blue Hawaii opens, a solid electropop duo out of Montreal.
Live: The Croaks at New Colossus
The outside’s in and the inside’s out. One more nod to coverage beyond our borders with an excerpt from my live reviews of the New Colossus music festival in New York City at the start of March.
Last week I excerpted a writeup of Somerville’s Otis Shanty, who performed at Baker Falls on the Lower East Side. This week I pull an excerpt from another local band, The Croaks. The band performed at Nublu Classic, one of those clubs that you don’t know is a club until you get inside. No sign, no exterior lights, no nothing except a drab storefront. And once you get inside, you’re still not sure you’re in the right place until the music starts.
The Croaks arrived onstage at Nublu Classic wearing 15th century horned escoffions on their heads, which tracks for a band whose latest single “Poppy” folks the punk in three-quarter time. The Boston four-piece have fun with their throwback aesthetic. A violin checked in for an extended drone ditty – hat tip to Lower East Side legends of yore Velvet Underground. Marginalized time signatures aside, it’s the rock ’n’ roll rhythm section under the hood that makes this engine purr. Bass, drums, flour, eggs and water. When the fronter ran out of medieval lays to spit, the band threw all the ingredients against the wall for an old-school, all-ages, VFW Hall-type punk phreakout finish. The bartender on duty, who never heard of New Colossus and hasn’t had a good night of sleep in weeks, was duly impressed.
I was impressed too. Read the full recap at Hump Day News.
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
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