Thurs. March 18

Our pal, promoter and sometime promoter Billy Ruane, has been raving about Drug Rug for, well, centuries or so it seems. Sometimes, we’re late to the party, and that certainly was/is the case with Drug Rug, whom we finally caught last year at the Middle East. We liked. They’re at the Paradise March 18, sharing the bill with psychedelic Boston popsters Apollo Sunshine.
    We reviewed Drug Rug for the Herald last year. A distillation of our thoughts … Sarah Cronin used to mix sound at the Middle East Upstairs. Tommy Allen still tends bar there occasionally. But here they were Downstairs, the singing-and-guitar-playing duo was headlining the larger club, fronting the band they call Drug Rug, celebrating the release of their second recording, “Paint the Fence Invisible.”
    There was a little bit of country, a little bit of psychedelia, a little bit of the back-and-forth vocals swaps favored by X’s Exene and John Doe. And their harmonies could bring to mind the Mamas & the Papas and late-‘60s California pop.

Sun. March 14

Duncan Wilder Johnson has made quite a bit of noise in Boston, both with his now destroyed metal band, Destrut-a-Thon and his spoken word act. It's the latter persona that Johnson - and others - will embody, beginning Sunday March 14 at 3 p.m. at O'Brien's. Johnson says, "'The Spoken Word Hangover' is a once a month series celebrating the oral tradition that's been past on generation after generation since the Vikings scorched the earth. Storytellers, poets, comedians, and performance artists will grace the stage in Allston Rock City's den of destruction, O'Brien's."
A tradition going back to the Vikings (not the Minesota football team)? Let's put in the context of today's best-known punk-metal-spoken word artist Henry Rollins. How does is compare to Henry?

   "Well," says Johnson, "although I am obviously a fan of his and I am in a band and I do spoken word like Henry, I've been trying to distance myself from that for one main reason: I don't do what he does.  Henry's work lately is for the most part, conversational, politcal, and editorial." (JSInk note: Henry does run on at the mouth. Even if you're with him he taxes your endurance level and prompts inner cries like "Editor!") "My work lately is more pre-scripted and refined as I perform them. They tend to not be politcal, but more social comentary while critiquing myself and hopefully getting a few laughs.  Pieces like 'That Girl Can Take A Shit In My Car Anytime"' - JSInk: Sounds like a weepy moment - "and 'Jungblood Just Wanted To get Drunk' are more slice-of-life bits. I've also been working on a new release titled 'The Worst of Duncan Wilder Johnson,' where I'll re-release some old stuff for digital download with some brand new stuff.  When I had the idea to do this [series], I listened back to my old stuff and thought, 'This is good, but this other track could be better.'  So, I'm re-performing some old pieces with my older/wiser/better performer self and exploring the differences, while also recording brand new stuff."

Fri. March 19

There aren't that many CAN'T MISS events we stress here at JSink, because there really are so many viable options out there. But this is one: The 2009 return to Boston of the Feelies, the Haledon, NJ-band that made the late-1970s and 1980s so much more wonderful with its mix of jangly (pre-REM) guitar, nervous, twitchy rhythms, inspired covers (the Beatles' "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except for Me and My Monkey," Velvet Undeground), and a mix of resignation, bitterness, ennui and, yes, joy. The crazy rhythms drove you one way, the intertwining guitar lines of Glenn Mercer and Bill Million another and despite the subtext of anxiety and angst, there was a palpable sense of excitement. The Feelies reunited for a show July 1, 2008 at their old stomping grounds of Maxwell's and have, tentatively, at least, kept it going. They played the Wilbur late last year opening for Sonic Youth and they're headlining at Middle East Downstairs Friday March 19. Opening bands TBA. Tickets: $20.

A chat with guitarist-singer Glenn Mercer:
JSink: You broke up in 1991. Why do you exist now?
GM: There’s no easy cut and dried answer. Conversations Bill and I had over the years, there seemed there was more interest in the band recently. We’ve had a lot of requests for licensing the songs, and with the Internet it’s a lot easier to keep tabs on the fan base. So, it’s an evolution of conversations we’ve been having. It probably would’ve happened a lot earlier, but the main thing was Bill [Million’s] son had a major illness (he’s now recovered) preventing him from doing it, and there were logistics. Bill was in between houses in Florida. (He works as a locksmith at Walt Disney World.) Brenda’s in Pennsylvania. Everyone but Dave [Weckerman] has family. We don’t have the desire or logistics to do tour … When we first broke up we didn’t have much contact. In 2001, Bill and I talked again.

ongoing - March 28, 2010

It would arrogant of us to say we understood anything of what being in a real war is like. What we've learned, we've learned from books, music and movies. Particularly wrenching are the spate of books written from soldiers' perspectives during the first two World Wars. Music? "Death, blood and horror," Eric Bogle sang about Gallipoli in "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda." He accomplished something just as powerful in "The Green Fields of France" about WWII. (The Pogues did killer versions of both.) There's "Saving Private Ryan," the opening scene. There's "Platoon." And there's work set in museums, like "The Veterans Project," new large-scale video installation by Krzysztof Wodiczko (in photo) up at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Nov. 4 and running through March 28. It focuses on the experience of war in Iraq. Based on the artist's conversations with soldiers who have returned from Iraq as well as Iraqi civilians, the new work builds on their memories of the chaos and confusion of war. Since 1980, Wodiczko has created more than 80 projections of politically-charged images on civic buildings and monuments worldwide.

Sat. March 20

 One of Johnny D's favorites Michael Tarbox - leader of the band Tarbox Ramblers - returns to the Davis Square club, in two separate, but related, formats. The singer-songwriter-guitarist is celebrating a new solo CD, "My Primitive Joy." "The new album's a departure from The Tarbox Ramblers' roots sound," he e-mails us. "It's mostly acoustic, on the quiet side and with spare production. It is rooted in American traditional music weirdness.  It's mostly acoustic, and on the quiet side. It’s not rooted so much in old Appalachian or blues music, but it’s still a little weird. In many ways it reflects the folk and pop music I listened to as a kid. 
   "I began writing the new songs assuming they'd be on the new Tarbox Ramblers album. But as I wrote I realized that they were more explicitly personal than the music I play with The Ramblers. And a lot more quiet. So over time I started to think 'My Primitive Joy' should be a solo record. My feelings were confirmed when we began recording.  The songs had a spare, intimate sound very different from The Ramblers' music.  Many of the songs on "My Primitive Joy" are about the fragile quality of what sustains us.  And gratitude for what we share despite knowing that friends, lovers, family, perceptions and certain situations that give our lives meaning change. Seize the day ...

Sat. March 20

It's the fifth consecutive year for Brian O'Donovan's "A St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn." a lively Celtic event which features traditional and contemporary Irish music, dance and storytelling to celebrate the St. Patrick’s holiday. This year’s show, Saturday March 20 at Sanders Theatre, features legendary Irish fiddler, Frankie Gavin, and his band, De Danann; world-renowned Celtic guitarist, Tony McManus; and harpist and Berklee alum, Maeve Gilchrist. The event is O’Donovan, the host of WGBH's "Celtic Sojourn" for over 25 years, to exlain the genesis of the event, how it's grown, what kind of mood he wants to establish and how Irish culture and music has grown in America over the years.
O'Donovan e-mailed us: "The St. Pats Day show was really a reaction to the myriad questions I would get each year from listeners:  What do you recommend we do around St.Patrick's Day for music? I would regularly look around the calendars for answers, and while there were high quality concerts of individual performances here and there, the scene was really made up of over-the-top extravaganzas on the one hand, like Celtic Women or Celtic Thunder and Lightning, or as of now, six nights of the Dropkicks at House of Blues.  On the other hand, a lot of bar music.   Absolutely nothing wrong with any of the above, but I was aware that our weekly audience was more into the type of music they hear on the show. Traditional and contemporary, exploring
celtic music's roots and branches. 

ongoing

Don't know about you, but when I was in high school my history courses concerned the US and Western Civilization. There was almost the unspoken agreement that nothing else mattered and, as a kid, I didn't really question it. Didn't all that matter concern these areas? Hopelessly naive and stupid, I know. But I'll also confess I didn't get much more world history in college - that's when we specialize, y'know - and what I've picked up I've done on my own. I'm kind of enjoying Newsweeks new, more worldly focus - even if the articles are brief, there's acknowledgment that in this self-absorbed land of ours, other places and people matter. I bring this up because I went to the opening party/screening at the Museum of Science for the film "Arabia," where 2000 years of Arabian history is compressed into a 45-minute film.

Mon. March 22

We've had a lot of fun at Japan Nite. No, it's not a sushi special - it's an annual club tour of young - and mostly female - Japanese bands put together by Audrey Benton that once again stops at T.T. the Bear's. This is the 15th year of the tour and it stops locally on Monday March 22. Japan has produced some wonderful rock bands from the Yellow Magic Orchestra to Shonen Knife to the Boreoms, all skewed by a non-Western sensibility. (Which is to say, Japanese bands tend to pick up rock cues from the west and warp what they pick up in a pretty cool way.) This year, we've got Chatmonchy, Red Bacteria Vacuum, Dolly, Omodaka and OPkamotos. We'll turn the descriptions over to Benton. We love these capsules. Chatmonchy - "definitely the top of all girl bands in Japan and also one of the biggest bands who did Budokan two-night concert. You'll see how adorable Eriko is and how all three girls are skillfill and the uniqueness of the sound." Red Bacteria Vacuum - "this hard rockin' all-girl punk trio will give you nightmares!" Dolly - "named after the famous cloned sheep, Dolly is a visually and sonically intriguing 'Visual-kei' band. I am sure you will enjoy their costumes and make-up as well as their music. Omodaka - The Otaku wizard of electronic music. Check out his new video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozdGYpcdVJk. (I saw Omodaka last year and thought he was a hoot.) Okamato's - "The spirit of the Rolling Stones lives on in these 19 year old Japanese rockers." Oh, and there's on more band TBA.  Tickets also TBA. Expect the show to start around 9.

10 Brookline St., Cambridge, 617-492-0082 www.ttthebears.com

Wed. March 24

Howard Zinn - historian, activist, friend - appeared a number of times in this space, as regular readers know. Most recently, it was about the screenings of Zinn's "The People Speak" movie, the celeb-studded doc he maded with Chris Moore. It aired on History late last year. (Down lower in this item, I've included a version of a piece I wrote about the readings Zinn and company staged at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in late 2007.) Zinn, who died Jan. 27 at 87, was, of course, best known for his revisionist history, "A People’s History of the United States."

   The book, Bruce Springsteen told Rolling Stone,"had an enormous impact on me. It set me down in a place that I recognized and felt I had a claim to. It made me feel that I was a player in this moment in history, as we all are, and that this moment in history was mine, somehow, to do with whatever I could. It gave me a sense of myself in the context of this huge American experience and empowered me to feel that in my small way. I had something to say I could do something. It made me feel a part of history, and gave me life as a participant.”
   It’s exactly what Zinn  - Boston University Professor Emeritus - tried to instill in his students going back to the 1960s. And over the past few decades he attracted liberal musicians – like Springsteen, Billy Bragg and Eddie Vedder - and actors to his work. Few things help spread an intellectual’s work as celebrity endorsement. Especially when the celebrity has credibility in his or her own right. And Zinn - as passionate as he was about his beliefs - was a kind and generous man. He didn't live in a left-wing ivory tower. He didn't consider himself the Authority and his followers as his fan base. (Anyone who's followed political theorists or any stripe know this is not often the case.)
   One thing not as well-known about Zinn is that he was a playwrite. He wrote three plays, about Karl Marx, Emma Goldman and the arms race, and they're going to be packaged in a book, "Three Plays: The Political Theater of Howard Zinn" and released mid-March. Also, at Suffolk, there's "A Tribute to the Theater of Howard Zinn," March 24 at 6, with actors Chris Cooper, Anthony Estrella, Will LeBow, Catilin Langstaff, Elise Manning and Dossy Peabody reading from the plays. Zinn's son, Jeff, who runs the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, will have an onstage discussion about his father's work as a playwrite with my former colleague at the Globe, theater critic Ed Siegel.

I asked Ed his take: "How does Howard Zinn measure up as a playwright? He could never have given Roy Cohn the great lines that leftist playwright Tony Kushner gave him in 'Angels in America.' He couldn’t have made moral ambivalence a virtue the way that Tom Stoppard does in 'The Real Thing.' Or left the audience with the sense of dread that Edward Albee does in play after play.

Thurs.  March 25

 The Austrain-born Lukas Ligeti is a 44-year-old composer and electronic percussionist who's the son of noted composer Gyorgy Ligetti. He's performed with famed boundary breakers John Zorn, Henry Kaiser and Jim O'Rourke. His concert music has been commissioned by the America's Composers Orchestra, Bang On a Can and Kronos Quartet to name but three. On Thursday March 25, Ligeti plays the Axiom Gallery for New and Experimental Media in Jamaica Plain. There he'll be solo, playing his electric marima with cushioned mallets. The album he's touring behind is "Afrikan Machinery," and it's sort of a Philip Glass meets Brian Eno in Africa, with all sorts of polyrythmic and polytempo structures in the mix. A recent LA Times review said, "Ligetti represents, under a Clark Kent exterior, a new generation of musical Superan - a globally minded, technologically adept, technically sophisticated composer who also happens to be a virtuoso performer and accomplished improviser." The Scotsman, in the UK, notes he "neatly ridges the classical-modernist-world music d"vide." Ligeti himself says, "My imagination, not only in sounds but also in shapes and colors; and my longing for places far away, especially for the continent of Africa to which this music is a loving tribute." Maybe that's not the best quote syntax wise, but you know what he means. There's a hypnotic quality - some in the crazy rhythms, some of the synth drones - that is truly mesmerizing. Tickets: $10, starts at 8.

Axiom: 141 Green St., Jamaica Plain, 617-676-5904 www.axiomart

Thurs. March 25 - Mon. April 1

We've been embarrassed; we've been grossed out; we've been titillated and, yes, on occasion bored. (The latter is the real failure in this world.) But this year, theorganizer of Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF) Anna Feder promises, "This event is going to be mind-blowingly good." She does warn the semi-quesy out there that the most outre films, like "Life and Death of a Porno Gang" show at midnight. Remember, we're not talking "Sundance" here. Characters tend to be sex-crazed, violent, drug-addled or all of the above. Good behavior is rare.
  The 12th annual Boston Underground Film Festival - started by old JSInk pal David Kleiler Sr. - runs Thursday March 25 through Monday April 1, at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge. They include some of what are considered festival highlights, including several genre sections (grindhouse cinema and queer cinema), as well as special guests, including actress Mink Stole and fabled underground filmmaker George Kuchar. The festival gets into high gear with a free preview party on Tuesday March 9, from 6:00-8:00 PM at the Stuart Street Playhouse in Boston. (Open to one and all, no VIP begging needed.)

   Feder's choices: "Perhaps the most notable grindhouse film is the East Coast premiere "Stuck," (in photo), writer and director Steve Balderson’s homage to grindhouse era women-in-prison films, featuring an appearance by Mink Stole, who performs in the film with Karen Black, ex- Go Go guitarist Jane Wiedlin, and belly dance goddess Pleasant Gehman (aka Princess Farhana)." JSink note: Yowee. The voluptuous horror of Karen Black indeed! Note 2: Mink Stole will receive the festival's first "Underground Lifetime Achievement Award.  "The film faithfully reproduces the genre with a modern, tongue-in-cheek twist that features all the hallmarks of a classic prison movie, complete with a wrongly accused heroine, hard boiled dames, diabolical alliances, forbidden love, cat-fighting cuties, a sadistic warden, and corrupt prison guards. Both Balderson and Mink Stole will attend the screening.

 Fri. March 26 

Guggenheim Grotto - a duo from Ireland, Kevin May and Mike Lynch - hit the states last January '09 and they're back again in our parts tonight at the Real Room in Burlington Friday March 26, They began as what you might call a folk-pop duo. That's still at the core of what they do, but on their second disc, "Happy the Man" they explore suble electronic and sampling techniques as well. They're not Daft Punk or KMFDM, by any means. But if their debut, "... Waltzing Alone," was noted for its mellowness, this one will be noted for is upbeat sound and feel. This despite, well, you know, the sadness all around us. "There's a lyrical threat throughout the album," says primary songwriter May, "in that many of the songs explore our habit of holding onto things - lovers, a place in time, resisting change - and the sadness that brings us." That hit us is the the gut and in the head - 2008 was certainly the kind of year where more than a few of us wanted to hold onto things that were slipping away. But Guggenheim Grotto doesn't wallow in the sadness. They start the disc with a quote from Buddha on perfection, and then move on to detail what isn't. Like dreams dashed. But the music is softish; it often has the breeziness of a '60s Beach Boys tune, an gentle uplift that works an effective contrast. ""We wanted to sing joyfully about sadness in the world," is the way May puts it. "With this album, I made a conscious effort of working in ideas, thoughts and musings on self-awareness and enlightenment into the songs."  Reference points: Damien Rice and (from "Once") Glen Hansard. They're currently finishing up a new disc, "The Universe is Laughing." Expect to hear new songs at the Real Room.
     Here's a bit from the review I did for the Boston Herald last year when they played the Lizard Lounge ....