The David Wax Museum, The Broken River Prophet, Jimmy Ryan, Mission Of Burma (photo by Bryan Bruchman), and Asa Brebner.
Racing to get this up. Kinda stupid, as the first bands are playing now. Oh well. I’ll try to do better next time. Tonight – David Wax Museum (cool Mexo-Americana) are at Toad; Jimmy Ryan & Hayride! tomorrow night at Lizard Lounge; and Friday night is the very cool and entertaining singer-songwriter-guitarist (and I would say comedian as well) Asa Brebner at Sally O’Brien’s in Union Square. Boston’s Mission Of Burma play at the Paradise Friday and Saturday nights; and The Broken River Prophet are at PA’s Lounge on Saturday.
David Wax Museum and Tom Thumb @ Toad – Tuesday Jan 12 (tonight).
Calling themselves “Mexo-Americana”, The David Wax Museum consists of David Wax (guitar/jaranas/voice), Suz Slezak (fiddle/quijada/voice), Jiro Kokubu (dobro/mandolin), and Greg Glassman (percussion/voice). Their music is a nice mix of Mexican folk and Americana, with influences ranging from Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt to Calexico; Uncle Tupelo and Hank Williams to rural Mexican folk music. They’re absolutely wonderful and I’m betting this is a fantastic ensemble to see live, especially in a tiny cozy place like Toad. Definitely see them if you can.
Jimmy Ryan & Hayride! @ the Lizard Lounge – Wednesday, Jan. 13.
I think I now see why so many people have turned off to MySpace. I wanted to check out Jimmy Ryan, who’s been in the Boston music scene for years (he founded The Blood Oranges in the ’80s), and plays a cool “alt-hillbilly” style of music with mandolin, mandocello, and sometimes fiddle. His core band includes Duke Levine on guitars, Andrew Mazzone (Family Jewels, The Modes, Dennis Brennan, Caged Heat, Twinemen..) on bass and Billy Beard on drums. Instead, when I get to his page, I’m assaulted with this horrible gangsta-rap shit. Note to Jimmy if he sees this: delete those two messages from that dickhead rapper, ok? You’ll be doing yourself and your art a huge favor. In any case, after you can locate and shut off the offensive garbage, you’ll get a nice taste of Jimmy’s front-porch picking, old-timey style of singing and that ‘loose and slighly sloppy’ rocking. As he says himself “The Faces pickin’ with The Stones and Bill Monroe in a firehouse yard… hillbilly honky tonk rock”. Fun stuff. And definitely not gangsta-rap. Not even close.
Asa Brebner, Larry Flint & The Road Scholars @ Sally O’Brien’s, Union Square, Boston – Friday, Jan 15.
Singer-songwriter, ace guitarist and Boston legend Asa Brebner (The Modern Lovers, Robin Lane and the Chartbusters, the Grey Boys, The Family Jewels) will be performing on Friday at Sally’s in Union Square, Somerville. He’s a terrific guitarist and a fun guy. His new album, Sueznos De Los Muertos will be coming out soon on Hi-N-Dry.
Mission Of Burma, The Konks (Friday), Bunnies (Saturday) @ the Paradise – Friday, Jan. 15 & Saturday, Jan. 16.
Photo by Bryan Bruchman
Another Boston musical tradition, Mission Of Burma, will be at the Paradise Friday and Saturday. Delightfully noisy and rambunctious, they still sound pretty ferocious for middle-aged men. For those not in Boston and/or not familiar with them, they started way back in 1979, growing out of the band Moving Parts, which included guitarist Roger Miller, bassist Clint Conley, and keyboardist Erik Lindgren. Erik went on to do his experimental stuff, and Roger and Clint – along with Peter Prescott (drums) and Martin Swope (sound engineer) – formed Mission of Burma. They disbanded in 1983 (I’ll give a plug here to the very lovely Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic, a side project of Roger Miller’s and Martin Swope’s), then regrouped in 2002, with Bob Weston (Shellac) replacing Swope. They released The Sound The Speed The Light last year on Matador Records.
The Broken River Prophet with The Ugly Efflings, The Northeast Sky, and St. Helena @ PA’s Lounge – Saturday Jan. 16.
The Broken River Prophet (based in Allston) are very lovely and dreamy, and that’s not much to go by, I know, but it’s not them, it’s me. Have a listen; they sound really good. They’re playing along with The Ugly Efflins (who I can’t find any information on), The Northeast Sky (from Somerville; they have an album due out in the spring), and St. Helena (who will also be at The Middle East on February 3.
share this:
Leave a Reply