|
| |
|
|
The FNX/Phoenix Best Music Poll rocks Lansdowne Street, plus Hella and more
BY CARLY CARIOLI
|
|
|
|
|
The results are in, and tonight (June 3) you can join in the celebration of our annual FNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll winners on Lansdowne Street (617-423-NEXT). The line-up includes the Violent Femmes, Chris Belew’s reconstituted Presidents of the United States of America, Juliana Hatfield, the Rapture, the Von Bondies, the Stills, Stellastarr, Elefant, Laguardia, Midtown, the Fire Theft, Just Jack, and a local punk showcase featuring the Lot Six, the Street Dogs, BMP winners the Unseen, the Explosion, and Runner and the Thermodynamics. Meanwhile, our sister paper down in Providence celebrates June 13 at the Call (401-751-2255) with performances by local faves the Stereobirds, Mastamindz, M80, and Immune. Coming to the Green Room (401-351-7665) in Providence on Saturday and to T.T. the Bear’s Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Sunday: a bi-coastal bill teaming two reigning heroes of experimental rock. The West Coast instrumental duo Hella feel like heavy metal without ever resorting to its sound: the drummer flails in a style that feels like one long, sweaty Animal fill, and the guitarist makes up his language as he goes along, peeling off blurry, fractured riffs and odd textures on tracks with titles like "Welcome to the Jungle, Baby, You’re Gonna Live." By contrast, East Coasters Need New Body are a collective that functions like a human sequencer. They build peculiar dance music by recontextualizing recognizable spare parts — Waits-ian junk blues, spy themes, Devo-ish new wave, dadaist poetry, hot jazz, electro, free jazz, hip-hop, bluegrass, show tunes — and giving the detritus a swift kick in the rhythm section. Their UFO (File 13) might qualify as the art-student mix tape of the year. The Long Island girl-group trio Northern State flew the flag for Beasties-esque alterna-rap on their buzz-building 2002 EP Dying in Stereo (Star Time); on their full-length debut, All City (Columbia), which is due in August, the gals shout out to Gang Starr and feminism, lambast our current "bullshit war," and claim to have "smoked with John Kerry"! The disc features cameos by Hi and Mighty, Pete Rock, and the Roots’ ?estlove; on their sure-shot party jam "Summer Never Ends," the hook is sung by faux R&B loverman Har Mar Superstar. They’re on tour with the turntablist supergroup X-ecutioners, who on Tuesday will release another star-studded disc, Revolutions (Sony), and labelmates the Wylde Bunch, whose pop-rap confections are emboldened by a large and lively backing band. The bill hits the Asylum (207-772-8274) in Portland on Friday, the Living Room (401-521-5200) in Providence on Saturday, and the Paradise (617-423-NEXT) in Boston on Sunday. The Providence rapper B-Lite is blind (well, that’s his story) and also white (conclusively). But he worships Satan, spits strangely entrancing rhymes (less old-school than, say, demented nursery-school), and performs with the weirdest X-rated PowerPoint presentation you’ve ever seen. Catch him at AS220 (401-831-9327) in Providence on Friday and at ZuZu (617-864-3278) in Cambridge on Sunday.
|
