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Spin Down
Sunlight in Architecture; Meantone; Doug Wynne; Gregg Porter
Friday, 11 April 2008

a roundup of the most recent local releases

‘Sunlight in Architecture’
by Sunlight in Architecture

The project hatched in 2005, when singer-songwriter Garrett Soucy began filtering his minimal indie folk tunes through the practiced ear of producer Andrew Luckless. For over a decade, Soucy has served as front man for Maine-based band Tree by Leaf, and he brings a similar style to Sunlight in Architecture’s self-titled debut. Luckless, himself a singer-songwriter best known for his 1999 album, “Laundryfish,” fine-tunes the sound, and the two combine for a refreshingly original and stimulating disc.

Released earlier this year under Tree by Leaf’s host label, Long Ago Light, “Sunlight in Architecture” is an album worthy of repeated listens. Soucy’s songwriting blends equal shares of thoughtful lyrics and creative instrumentation that make each track equally delightful. No two songs sound exactly alike, and yet there is a cohesive feeling that runs through all 10 chapters of the album. Although the words are not always bright and cheery, a line from the second track, “Overstate the Obvious,” essentially sums up the overarching mood: “I’m not stoned, I swear to God, I’m just high on life,” Soucy moans in a voice vaguely reminiscent of Bright Eyes’ front man Conor Oberst.
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Skamasutra; Jenn Adams; John Balger
Thursday, 03 January 2008

‘Let Come What May’
by Skamasutra

The title track of Skamasutra’s new disc sounds very much like a Mighty Mighty Bosstones tune, except with more polished vocals replacing Dicky Barrett’s raucous growl. The Exeter indie band accurately replicates all the hyper reggae guitar riffs, New Orleans brass accompaniment and bouncing beats and rhythms of quintessential ska, rapidly shimmying through eight original songs and one cover.

The latest disc follows the band’s 2005 debut, “You and What Army?” The six band members have honed their skills and fine-tuned their tight sound over the last two years to produce an exceptional follow-up. Having formed the band as teenagers in the late fall of 2003, Skamasutra has matured with each performance, and its revolving door of members seems to have established a solid core, with Nick Gilbert on trombone and vocals, Steve Duhamel on alto sax and vocals, Dan Boisvert on guitar and vocals, Tristan Nowak on baritone sax, Jon Campbell on bass and Evan Lerch on drums.
The album’s opening lyrics establish Skamasutra as a band that has grown since its inception four years ago. “It just seems like yesterday when I was 17. / How could I have known then what my future would bring?” Gilbert sings, already reflecting on a still nascent musical career with plenty of promise. Gilbert’s singing truly helps to carry the music throughout the album, surfing over the tightly manipulated instruments with a clean voice that sounds somewhere between Sublime’s late singer Brad Nowell and Green Day’s front man Billie Joe Armstrong.
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Ryan Montbleau Band; Brian Parnham; Paul Dykstra; D. Gross
Thursday, 13 December 2007

Ryan Montbleau Band: ‘Patience on Friday’

Now a familiar face in the Boston area music scene, Ryan Montbleau has definitively established his voice with his second official full-band release, “Patience on Friday.” The 14-track album is an explosion of musical output, spouting forth with a seemingly inexhaustible fountain of rapid, rhyming lyrics and instrumental zest.

Unlike Montbleau’s earlier solo acoustic albums, “Patience” brings in a formidable cast of hired guns to heighten the instrumental craftsmanship surrounding the songwriter’s original compositions. At the heart of it all is Montbleau’s voice, a fresh confluence of urban and rural heritage, combining Stevie Wonder’s funky and soulful range with Ray LaMontagne’s folky, earthy tone.

The band includes Montbleau on guitar and vocals, James Cohen on drums, Jason Cohen on keys, Matt Giannaros on bass and Laurence Scudder on viola. The disc also features an eclectic entourage of guest musicians on a variety of instruments, including pedal steel guitar, saxophone, accordion, trumpet, violin, cello, trombone, synth and backup vocals. Particularly striking are two guitar solos from Stephane Wrembel, who invokes the old-timey jazz picking of Django Reinhardt on “Eggs” and “Grain of Sand.”
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Pondering Judd; Dan Walker; Randy Browning
Wednesday, 31 October 2007

‘Coalesce’
by Pondering Judd

Pondering Judd finished tracking its latest release on Oct. 16 and rapidly turned around a fresh CD, “Coalesce.” The album title references the band’s growth into a tightly knit group of highly compatible musicians. The members have achieved a sense of unity and confidence that makes the recording sound as professional as anything you’ll find at Tower Records, and their devoted local following will surely rejoice in the new disc.

Together since 1993, PJudd has certainly had time to evolve. On its Web site, www.ponderingjudd.com, the band describes its musical mission. “PJudd’s approach is simple: songs before individual performances; the whole before thyself,” the site states. Singer-songwriter Martin England, guitarist Mark Edgerly, bassist Brian Gosselin and drummer Steve Jacques have been playing together for close to a decade and a half, and the band has really begun to pick up steam over the last couple of years, completing its first U.S. tour with Ireland’s Sawdoctors in spring 2006. The group has released six discs in the last seven years.
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Audrey Ryan; Dan Blakeslee; Hotrod Fury and East Coast Tremors; Jason Spooner
Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Audrey Ryan
‘Dishes & Pills’

Originally from Bar Harbor, Maine, indie singer/songwriter Audrey Ryan has toured the nation 15 times since 2004. Now living in the Boston area, she has also toured in Europe and is signed to UK label Folkwit Records. With her second full-length album, “Dishes & Pills,” she brings energy, creativity and enhanced life experience to the table.

Ryan’s inventive songwriting, which adds surreal sounds and multifarious instrumentation to a solid folk-rock core, keeps all 14 tracks sounding mostly fresh and original. In addition to singing, Ryan plays guitar, keyboard, accordion, bass, lap steel, piano, violin, ukulele, glockenspiel and a number of other unusual instruments (she lists “kid megaphone” and “weird harp thing” among her musical tools). The disc also features James Borchers on drums and percussion, Stephen Brodsky on drums and bass, Alec Spiegelman on clarinet and John Moriconi on trumpet.
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TrapJaw Affiliates; Shagbark; Palefighter
Friday, 17 August 2007

TrapJaw Affiliates: ‘TrapJaw Affiliates, Vol. 1’

Any rap group that dares to start an album with a track titled “A Few Words From Skeletor” is sure to be outside the ordinary realm of rhythm and rhyme, and the TrapJaw Affiliates’ first compilation does not disappoint. After a strange, remixed clip from the cartoon He-Man, in which Skeletor addresses his evil minion Trapjaw, the album launches right into a bouncy, brass-laden beat that provides the foundation for “Show Me the Way.” The song is essentially an ode to the Affiliates, as members introduce themselves on their debut album. It’s chock full of priceless rap lines, like “We ain’t the worst or the best, but we better than you.”
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Jay Broyer; Wicked Automatic; Null Hype
Friday, 15 June 2007

Jay Broyer, “The Sound of U”    

The first punchy trumpet notes on Jay Broyer’s debut album, “The Sound of U,” make you expect something along the lines of an old Chicago jazz tune. But once the brass intro finishes and the acoustic guitar and drums join in, it’s clear you’re listening to a modern pop/rock album. The first track, “Midnight,” is anything but complex lyrically, but the competent arrangement makes it sound full and melodic throughout, with guitars and bass backed by crisp snares and intermittent brass chords.
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Roundhouse; Swaggerin’ Growlers; Adria; The Glam Rags
Wednesday, 09 May 2007

Roundhouse 

The second release from Roundhouse kicks off with an upbeat tune that blends elements of swing, blues, zydeco and rockabilly. The jazzy drums and bass lines are fit for a 1940s swing dance, while the bluesy guitar, harp and vocals make the music equally appropriate for a honky tonk saloon.
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manchester music
Wednesday, 08 November 2006
Manchester’s Moe’s Haven heeded the call to musical arms for last February’s RPM Challenge, and basically they’ve never looked back. They have since vowed to record 365 albums before the end of 2006.
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notes on new releases
Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Though you shouldn’t judge a book, or a CD, by its cover, the packaging on the eponymous release from the Allston, Mass., based Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys gives fair warning to those who would enter their musical world.
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Guy Capecelatro III, Corin Ashley, Chris Greiner
Wednesday, 30 August 2006
Guy Capecelatro III’s new CD, “February,” has a whopping 28 songs on it—one for each day of the album’s namesake month. Capecelatro plucks or strums his acoustic guitar throughout most of the record as he weaves his way through a maze of stories full of eclectic characters
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Scalawag, Rock My Soul & Ed Gerhard
Wednesday, 02 August 2006

Scalawag
Wheel on Steel
self-released
Manchester can seem a bit like a musical black hole unless you’re a big fan of metal and hardcore (in which case it’s the place for you!). Scalawag is a bit of an alien in that aggressive scene, favoring a more laid back, song-oriented rootsy/jam sound that appeals to folks who like good songwriting, yet prefer electric guitars to a coffeehouse acoustic style.

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New releases from Nat Baldwin, John Troy, The Franklin Kite and more
Wednesday, 05 April 2006

Avant garde double bass playing singer-songwriter Nat Baldwin is currently on a 30-plus date national tour which will land the singer on both coasts before it’s over. Baldwin is on the road in support of his latest release for the local indie label Broken Sparrow, “Enter the Winter.” Along for the ride are the like-minded Dirty Projectors, who employ Baldwin on bass as well. “Enter the Winter,” recorded under the watchful eye of Djim Reynolds’ “Estate” recording facility, keeps Baldwin’s bowed double bass and haunting vocal work in the forefront on Baldwin’s left-of-center indie folk. While his previous work was more sparsely adorned, this CD takes on some drums and horns, as well as a percussion driven foray or two into out-there jazz.

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new releases from Chris Merenda and Mainesqueeze
Wednesday, 02 November 2005

Full-time enrollment as drummer in his brother’s contemporary folk outfit (the up-and-coming Mammals, currently on tour with Arlo Guthrie), has not kept Chris Merenda  from recording and releasing a follow-up to his 2003 solo debut, “The Regimen.” While Merenda’s first effort was a genre-jumping affair, with a rather motley grouping of songs held together by power of his brash J. Mascis-inspired yowl, “Hello Freedom” proves the songwriter is beginning to land. 

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New releases from The Press, Funkfoot and New Shoes
Wednesday, 28 September 2005

New EPs from The Press, Funkfoot and New Shoes deliver clever rhymes, swanky rhythms and artful songwriting. 

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space dance
Tuesday, 16 August 2005

When the band Mating Dance started playing at last week’s open-air Tong, many in the crowd lining Pleasant Street were confused. The band’s faces were obscured by paint and masks. The drum set was cobbled together with a bucket and silver buffet pan and the saxophone seemed strangely out of tune. Their set started abruptly, with a metal pail being dragged across the ground. They looked and sounded like a hastily assembled garage band in a Bill Burroughs novel. Between songs, there was some hesitant clapping. Was the song over? When did it even start?

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spin down: Lex & Joe, Chaz Proulx, The Long Forgotten
Tuesday, 02 August 2005

As you might have guessed, guitarist and singer Lex Romaine and saxophonist Joe Riillo’s latest release, Live at the Chicory House, documents the veteran swing and blues duo’s grade-A live show. The album, recorded earlier this year at a nightclub in Lex’s hometown of Wilkes-Barre, Penn., does well capturing the pair’s affable and easy repartee, which they’ve honed during their 27-year musical affiliation (they go, officially, by the friendly shorthand Lex & Joe).

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Compaq Big Band and The Sanguine
Wednesday, 08 June 2005
The Compaq Big Band's 14-song CD Bandwidth marks the first commercial release in the 30-year-old jazz ensemble's history.
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Subject Bias
Thursday, 07 April 2005
Picking up where their first album left off, Subject Bias' sophomore effort, It Takes One to Know One, represents a steady step forward for the Portland-based indie rock outfit.
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the Human Flight Committee
Wednesday, 09 February 2005
Considering their introduction-a jagged, shifting eulogy entitled, "The Five Second Saga," which would fit neatly on any At The Drive-In record-the Human Flight Committee don't appear to be ashamed to borrow from their influences.
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