Show Reveiw: Britney's Spear at Radio Bean

Last night, I headed to Burlington to see a band from Clark oddly enough. I've been meaning to write about Britney's Spear and their EP for some time now and now I can write about their show. The show started with one of the band's guitarists, Tom Hamill playing his brand of atmospheric, layered solo guitar work. I've seen Tom play a couple of times before, and it seemed to me that he's stepped up his solo performances. He rocked out a lot more and seemed to enjoy what he was playing. If you were to ask me out of hand whether or not I liked that genre of music I would probably say no, but I really enjoy what Tom does. It is alternately soothing and agressive. Sometimes it seems to swirl around you as he builds layer upon layer of effect-laden melodies and other times he loops an aggressive riff and adds intricate lead work over the top of it. He played five or six songs and at the conclusion, those in attendance clapped appreciatively for the calm before the storm as Alan Grunberg and Zach Schnitzer joined him on stage to complete the line-up.

Watching Britney's Spear live, is like watching punk get born again. Sonically it is absolute chaos. I've been describing it to people as Black Flag covering the Stooges, but it's so much more than that. For every minute that is 8-cylinder, loud fast rules hardcore, there's two minutes that nod more towards Hamill's more complex solo work. These guys are deeper than your daddy's punk band and they just keep getting better live. They were a little louder than the crowd at Radio Bean was prepared for and the bartender was handing out ear plugs. By the end of the set, my friend Matt and I were the only ones still in the building but a crowd had gathered on the sidewalk outside watching through the windows. Even with the crowd thin, Britney's Spear would not be denied. They crushed their way through a set which included the songs from their self-titled EP as well as a few new songs. The new songs show more potential than a AAA hitter with 50 home runs, especially their recently written set closer "Face Fuck the Police" which ended with Alan screaming sex talk into a mic, before sticking it into his mouth and writhing around while his guitar screamed feedback.

Its scary to think that Britney's Spear is less than a year old and has already reached this level. The songs are face-melting, the swagger is for real, and self-conscious posturing is non-existent. Never has punk-as-fuck seemed so effortless.

Tom Hamill - If You Were Real

Britney's Spear - Into The Neighborhood

Britney's Spear - Old Wolves Tale

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I honestly don't know how you can buy the albums other than contacting them through their myspaces here and here.

Blake Schwarzenbach-y Goodness - scratch that - AWESOMENESS GET EXCITED PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!

Sean Bonner has some pretty awesome rumors about Thorns of Life's upcoming album over at his (pretty cool) blog. He also shot that video apparently.

Jawbreaker - Chesterfield King

Jets to Brazil - Mid-day Anonymous

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Jawbreaker
Jets to Brazil

Sheep. That is all.

The Tiger Lillies - Sheep

Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy

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The Tiger Lillies
Okkervil River

Books into movies news

The San Fransisco Chronicle today has an article discussing the 2011 release of the movie based on the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis. It will be directed by Steven Soderbergh and will star Brad Pitt as Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Bean. It was a great book, but I'm not a hundred percent sure I see how it will translate well into a movie. On a final awesome note, apparently former Boston Red Sox backstop Scott Hatteberg has been brought in to portrtay himself which for my money is all the movie needed to make it worth seeing.

In a second, suprisingly related news item, punknews.org has informed me that deals are being struck to make a movie out of Frank Portman's book King Dork. Now King Dork was actually a pretty good book on its own, but what makes this even more exciting (and what got it on punknews) is that Frank Portman is Dr. Frank from San Fransisco punk band The Mr. T Experience. This also means that both these stories were in some way San Fransisco connected which gives me more ideas for songs to post with them.

The Mr. T Experience - King Dork (To be honest not one of my favorite songs by them but I felt like I had to)

The Magnetic Fields - Come Back From San Fransisco

Jawbreaker - Condition Oakland (So effing excited to get to post JAWBREAKER aka GREATEST BAND EVER)

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The Mr. T Experience
The Magnetic Fields
Jawbreaker

I Fear For My Bruins

With a little more than 10 minutes left in the game its beginning to look as though the Boston Bruins will fall to 1-3 in the series with the Carolina Hurricanes. I realize I should be keeping up the faith, but when I can't watch them on TV I only assume the worst. I was a bit perturbed to see that Steve Montador had taken a penalty just when we needed to swing the momentum our way. Well done Steve, you clown doctor. In other news, at last check the Celtics were getting stomped, but at least the Red Sox are currently winning. Jason Bay is a clutch, three run homer hitting machine, I don't care what Around The Majors says (below average fielder my ass).

Dropkick Murphys - Time To Go

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Dropkick Murphys