I sense a lot of anticipation out there for the results of the Best Music Poll.
OK, I admit, there was some grumbling as well -- for a few things that may have
been perceived as miscues: bands were placed in the wrong categories, bands
omitted (of course). But the fact is, we tried to fit the best bands in town
onto the ballot. The loud music slots fill up quick, right? Everyone loves
loud. So we had to pull the ol' switcheroo and find a place for the deserving
loud bands we couldn't fit in that category. That dilemma arose in a few
different areas on the ballot.
We tried to honor effort as well. If a band is out busting its ass trying to
punch a hole in the scene, well, it deserves recognition, an A for effort.
Conversely, if you're a good student in school but don't participate much in
class, you're gonna get points taken off your grade. Nobody just sits back and
cruises through a semester and gets rewarded for it. It doesn't matter how good
your band is. It's got to be out there. It's got to be something locals need to
reckon with. All the bands on the BMP ballot are local forces, bands that are
good for the scene, bands that fertilize their turf, bands that have the best
chance of growing into something worthwhile. You can gripe about it -- that's
what people like to do, and it seems it's what comes naturally out of many
mouths. Hell, I'm a griper myself on occasion. But when those barbs fly around
town, one mouth to one ear, and so on down the line, it's like a cancer. Shit
spreads and it becomes very unhealthy. It's best to keep it positive. I guess
that's enough of that.
Anyway, the voter turnout this year is excellent. It's really encouraging to
see how each of the bands featured in the poll has tried to rally its
constituents and urge them to vote. In fact, the sense of community surrounding
each band, not just the ones on the ballot, is truly a testament to the bands
and the support system they've established for themselves. It's also proof
that, like a kite needs wind to get its tail off the ground, so too does a
band. But when it's up, if the wind is steady, it stays up. Let's hope that the
bands in town find enough support to stay up and flying. Does that sound
cheesy?
TRAFFIC JAM. The futurock boys in Grüvis Malt are
hitting town again, playing Lupo's this Friday. They're embarking on a tour of
the Northeast in support of their Lakeshore Records debut, With the Spirit
of a Traffic Jam. It's an all-ages show with Rane and Rocktopus. If you
haven't seen 'em yet, Grüvis has a cool, progressive hybrid, part
jazzy-fusion innovation, part rock, part jam, part hip-hop. On the new album,
they added the able explorations of Incubus' DJ Kilmore to the mix. He's one of
the hippest turntablists in rock, and was recruited to add scratches on deep
album cuts "Nonsanity 2037X" and "Destination." We want to wish the sextet well
on the tour -- send them off with a bang.
WHAT'S IN STORE? Now that the Crowns have faded into that tattooed
graveyard in the sky, Jason Kendall has a little time to think. Yeah,
there's his new band the Deterrents, but that hasn't gotten up to his
usual warp speed yet. To take advantage of the lull, Jason is putting together
a plan to bring bands into his place of employment, the In Your Ear record
store on Thayer Street on the East Side of Providence. "I get tons of calls
from bands looking for gigs," says Jason, "so I talked to [owner] Chris [Zingg]
here at the store and we came up with a plan to hold in-store appearances!" The
first event is on Tuesday (the 28th) at 5 p.m. It'll feature a band from North
Carolina called Rocket 350, a good, downhome rockabilly crew in the
spirit of the Crowns -- half straight-up, half revved-up. "It would be great to
get people out and seeing touring bands in a different venue," says Kendall,
who plans to book bands regularly at IYE. One future show will feature an
all-girl indie outfit from Portugal.
QUIET RIOTS. Speaking of bookings, Jeffrey and Carin from post-folk
luminaries Iditarod were sick and tired of trying to play their
"delicate" music in noisy bars and clubs, so they did something about it.
They've decided to helm, or "curate" a monthly series of quiet music at AS220
in one of the gallery rooms! The Quiet Music Series, an intimate live music
serial, will be hosted by the Iditarod in the cozy upstairs confines of
Providence's favorite art space. Be sure to mark your calendars for premier
underground folk and hushed improvisation in a rarefied atmosphere. You missed
the first installment; it happened yesterday. Though it's old news, it included
the experimental hypnotica of Charalmbides from Texas, the trancey Iditarod,
and psychedelic folksters P.G. Six from New York. Installment number two will
go down on Thursday, June 20 and will feature Landing (CT),
fisheyelens (Ottawa), and Tigersaw (MA). It's a cheap night out
and a pretty innovative idea. Feel free to dive in, but don't bring your noisy
friends.
WANDERING EYE. Tonight (the 23rd), the Marlowes will play the
Blackstone, making Cumberland with the hop and skip from Providence. This
Saturday at the Met Cafe, the Forgotten, a Bay Area band on BYO/TKO
Records featuring members of Lars Frederiksen's Bastards, will headline a
kick-ass punk extravaganza with the Ducky Boys and USM, as well
as Providence's own Midnight Creeps.
Next Thursday (the 30th), Jake's Bar & Grille on Richmond has a pretty
ambitious booking. Brazzaville, a hard-to-categorize confluence of bossa
nova, prog pop, and quirky world rock, will take the stage. One of the pundits
over at the New York Times called Brazzaville "vagabond pop for fans of
Morphine, Tom Waits, Spain, Leonard Cohen, and Tindersticks," which is a nice
string of alluring references. Apparently, the band is on a world tour via an
old steamer filled with a rotating band of musicians and artists that will play
port cities around the globe. The show starts at 9 p.m.
Planet Groove is working out a few new tunes and new bassist with whom
to lay down their fat bottoms. Twenty-one-year-old Nick Wade is the brother of
keyboardist Aaron Wade, and by all accounts is "a great addition to the Planet
Groove family."
E-mail me with music news at big.daddy1@cox.net.
E-mail me with music news at big.daddy1@cox.net.
Issue Date: May 24 - 30, 2002
