“With its untold depths, couldn’t the sea keep alive such huge specimens of life from another age, this sea that never changes while the land masses undergo almost continuous alteration? Couldn’t the heart of the ocean hide the last-remaining varieties of these titanic species, for whom years are centuries and centuries millennia?”
What Jules Verne wrote about the briny depths in “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” holds true for the depths of the bargain bin at your local record store. Join me on a death-defying plunge down the staircase at 12 Eliot St. to discover what primeval elements of musical life swim in the depths at the Armageddon Record Shop in Cambridge’s Harvard Square.
We’ll skip over the sunny comforts of the shop’s well-organized and amply supplied “Metal” and “Punk” sections. They’re the shop’s specialty, and their bins are too lovingly arranged for the quarry we’re after.
Our sights are set for the used records in the section marked “Indie,” a desultory collection of bins whose contents resemble a beach after a ship has crashed at sea and its cargo has washed ashore. Dive, dive, dive into the briny depths to find the true treasure that lies beneath!
Depth gauge: 5,000 leagues. We come across Jennifer Lopez’s “This Is Me … Now” at $9.99. Pricey. An album packaged with its own Hollywood musical doesn’t count as “indie.” J. Lo has her diehard fans, who will pay anything. But there aren’t enough of them these days to stop her from canceling a recent arena tour due to low ticket sales. More importantly, what did P. Diddy’s former girlfriend know and when did she know it?
Depth gauge: 10,000 leagues. Stray Cats’ “Built for Speed” pops in front of the periscope at $4.99. Cheaper than a cup of gourmet coffee for a rockabilly nostalgia group from the early ’80s. A niche item for Brian Setzer fans on the hunt for his entire discography – he played guitar. The critics savaged this record. Robert Christgau didn’t pull any punches with Setzer, calling him: “a preening panderer, mythologizing his rockin’ ’50s with all the ignorant cynicism of a punk poser.”
Depth gauge: 15,000 leagues. We can barely make out Powell’s “Insomniac” in the inky darkness at $3.99. You don’t get a full album at this price; it’s a techno single “Insomniac” b/w “Should’ve Been A Drummer.” There’s an interesting backstory here. The DJ used a sample from Steve Albini (RIP), who signed off on it, but not without penning a now-legendary hate screed against dance music: “I detest club culture as deeply as I detest anything on earth.” There’s some historical value here.
Depth gauge: 20,000 leagues. The depths don’t get any deeper than the $2.99 that you’ll pay to obtain Peter Frampton’s “I’m In You.” Any deeper and Armageddon starts paying you to take the record home. The Frampton release followed right on the heels of the massive success of “Frampton Comes Alive.” The record company was seeing dollar signs and transformed the rocker into a teenybopper idol. He’s splayed out on the album cover, bare-chested, with a penetrating gaze that’s about as subtle as an emergency flare fired in your bedroom. If you can stomach the smug eroticism, this album’s a steal.
Surface, surface, surface!
Hit this
One of our “off the grid” summer festival highlights, Supaps Fest, happens in Lincoln Park on Saturday. Get the scoop on the punk jamboree and more excellent music dates with our summer festival guide.
Saturday to Sunday: Cambridge Porchfest (Cambridgeport, Central Square)
Ask and ye shall receive. A Cambridge version of Porchfest has been in the works at least as far back as last fall when members of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association started asking “Why not us?” and put together a grant proposal to make it happen. Hats off to all the hardworking volunteers behind the scenes. You can learn more about the artists, gig locations and set times for the Saturday piece of the puzzle at the Cambridgeport Porchfest site. Or you can explore the Cambridge Arts page to get the full two-day picture, including performances happening in Central Square on Sunday. Cambridge can now sit with the cool kids at the Porchfest table.
Monday: Pelican, Porcelain, Glacier (The Sinclair, Cambridge)
If you’re hungry for some heavy music before Somergloom (Aug. 7-9), Pelican has you covered. The “post-everything” metal band has been through the wars, walking a tightrope of success and tragedy since their start in the DIY spaces of Chicago, and they’ve made it through to the other side with their first LP in six years, “Flickering Resonance.” The album showcases gutsy, raw, rhythm-forward instrumentals that will sweep you off your feet. But please, no moshing allowed at The Sinclair. Extra points to the headliner for listing their Myspace at the event page. Openers Porcelain and locals Glacier add so much weight to this heavy music bill that the stage might collapse.
Wednesday: Tamar Korn & Kyle Morgan, Kat Wallace (Club Passim, Cambridge)
Easy listening and picking aplenty with the folk duo Tamar Korn and Kyle Morgan. Listeners prize their vocal harmonies, which dovetail around each other like birds in the breeze. The Club Passim date finds the group in the middle of a promotional tour for their new album “Darkening Green,” out Aug. 10. For fans of old-time country folk spiced subtly with a more modern edge. Opener Kat Wallace is a Boston singer-songwriter who’s taking a break from playing fiddle in Rachel Sumner & Traveling Light to belt out some of her own solo tunes on tenor guitar. That’s how you know someone went to music school: they call their guitar a “tenor guitar.”
Live: Maxim Lubarsky Trio at The Mad Monkfish
It was a sleepy Sunday in Central Square, except for the jazz lounge, which was wide awake with a special guest in the house. Brazilian percussionist Rafael Barata, whom the emcee introduced as “one of the best drummers in the world right now,” was sitting in with the Maxim Lubarsky Trio.
“Best in the world” – high praise! With an introduction like that you might expect a wall-to-wall drum-forward set. But bandleader Lubarsky keeps all the elements balanced and in their proper proportion from behind the piano. Moderation in all things. You don’t chug a bottle of fine wine; you parcel it out in sips, to be enjoyed with a good meal and good company.
Each musician got their time in the solo spotlight.
Lubarsky was a sparkler on keys. He must have enjoyed practicing scales when he was a child, because his melodies shine like rainbows, erupting with notes between notes between notes along the musical spectrum. But he can also dial it down, as he did during the quieter and more reflective moments of his original “Looking Out.”
Barata was impressive. His “solo” moments mostly came in the form of call-and-response with the piano or bass. Drawing from a deep well of musical knowledge, he traversed the history of jazz drumming throughout the set. He looked most at home, though, pedaling Latin rhythms. And the crowd sat up in their seats and took notice when he set aside his drumsticks midset and started smacking the skins with his bare hands.
John Lockwood was Steady Eddie on the standup bass. His playing produces a nice, round, meaty sound that warms up a room quickly and mediates the more exotic soloing at his right and left.
Lockwood is a regular’s regular at The Mad Monkfish. The emcee announced that the jazz lounge was coming up on its 10-year anniversary in September. Bassist, educator, gig hound supreme, he’s been plugging away at the jazz spot for all 10 of those years. If there’s a birthday cake, Lockwood deserves to blow out at least one of those candles.
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
A stronger
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