Rita & Lolita

LENGTHY QUESTIONS

Rita: In a galaxy far far away… Lolita: Hey, the latest Star Wars movie The Force Awakens came out last year. You sound like you are in a rut. Rita: I live in a rut. Stop by anytime. It’s a great way to introduce our Question of the Month. What is the farthest you’ve ever traveled to play or see a show – and fill us in on the details. Hey, Carter can you stop spinning discs and tell us your answer? CARTER ALAN (WZLX): I traveled to Berlin to see Roger Waters  play Pink Floyd’s Wall at the Berlin Wall.  This occurred July 1990 just months after the Berlin Wall fell and Germany reunited. Unforgettable. I felt like a peace emissary standing at that crossroads of history, dancing with the East German troops to “Run Like Hell.” Howzat? Okay? *** JOHNNY ANGEL (Johnny Angel Wendell & the Fabulous Knuckerholes): 3000 miles. Abbey Lounge. I wanted to sing Blackjacks songs again. *** CHRISTINE OHLMAN (Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez/ The Saturday Night Live Band): Provence, France. In one word, opulent.  A wedding with GE Smith, The Coasters and US All-Star band for the granddaughter of the US Ambassador to France and the grandson of the Russian Ambassador to France with an international jet-set audience. *** PHIL IN PHLASH (photographer): Okay, I flew from Chicago to upper state New York in a thunder storm on Halloween. When I took off a plane crashed in a cornfield outside Chicago! I thought I would die. The plane tossed and dropped altitude. A wicked storm to photograph PHISH! In one word – fantastic or maybe fantabulous! Why? ’Cause it was a cosmic costume party. All the fans were dressed – there was a Halloween contest for best costume – and I was hired to photograph. One of my photos is on a Phish album. Very trippy time for all and like a weird dream for me. I think something was in those cookies…

NOTABLE NOTABLES

Rita: Everyone who meets me at a nightclub loves to talk to me and thinks I would make the perfect bartender. Lolita: That’s because pour rhymes with whore. Okay, time to separate the drunkards from the alcoholics, start squealing you pig! *** A new band with old friends. THE NAKED I’S consists of ASA BREBNER, JOHN PFISTER, TRICK WALLACE, DAVID CHAMPAGNE, GEORGE HALL and JOE DONNELLY. They play punk rock covers. Come drink, dance, clap, sing a long, take your clothes off. *** Newport’s SUSAN COWSILL just named 2015 Offbeat Magazine‘s best female vocalist. Her upcoming album, Love Is Strange, with MARK  LINDSAY (Paul Revere & The Raiders), under the name LINDSAY COWSILL,  will be released on April 7th with a release party in Marlborough at the Best Western Royal Plaza Trade Center a few weeks later. Plan ahead. *** Have you seen RUBY ROSE FOX and THE GLORIA STEINEMS yet? RUBY ROSE FOX, JULIA MARK, MALLY SMITH and COLLEEN MCNAMARA had a great Valentine’s Day night gig at Atwoods Tavern. *** STEVEN TYLER has a new charity called Janie’s Fund. A big voice for abused girls. Tyler was overheard saying “Janie’s got a gun and now Janie’s got a friend.” *** SEAN MCNALLY from Cringe Productions has been the man behind the great celebrity series at Johnny D’s as the club winds down to its closing this month. ROBIN LANE, JON BUTCHER and JOHN CAFFERTY all had superb shows. Back in the day, Sean managed SAM BLACK CHURCH, and booked hardcore local shows with SLAPSHOT, BAD BRAINS, AGNOSTIC FRONT, BIOHAZARD and FUGAXI. The club is closing its doors with a second line brass band procession through Davis Square on Sunday the 13th. Leading the charge is THE REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE led by KEN FIELD. Boston’s costumed improvisational brass band is celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary this year. Also scheduled is Somerville’s SECOND LINE SOCIAL AID & PLEASURE SOCIETY BRASS BAND – a 25-piece New Orleans style group who are also the founders of the HONK! Street Festival *** The Brendan Behan Pub is on the market for three million dollars. Although not many bands played there in the past decade, in the late ’80s and early ’90s it was a great place to see acts in Jamaica Plain. *** THE HOT TAMALE BAND was in The Hasty Pudding “Woman of the Year” award parade in Harvard Square. MICKEY BONES, SCOTT SHETLER, and MARK CHENEVERT really rock in a New Orleans type of way. *** More than just a pretty face with a dry and intelligent wit, the kind thrifty reverent and most amazing go-go dancer JENNY JASMINE (The Band That Time Forgot) is also an accomplished sculptress. Her work (Maestre) was recently featured as part of a D’Armour Museum of Fine Arts exhibit. *** Blues diva SHIKIBOO BOSTON has just finished her new single “Dried Up” with DANNY ZUG, LAWRENCE TERRY, and STEVE WEJULI-OUNDO. The tune is basically about taking someone for granted to the point they left the relationship. *** Boston songwriter/multi-instrumentalist sideman MARK ERELLI is releasing For A Song on April 8. It’s full of introspective folk ballads and Grammy winner PAULA COLE sings on two of the 12 songs. *** Have you checked out the new Worcester band STRIPPED DOWN? MOLLY GREEN, GEOFFREY OEHLING, and JOE D’ANGELO really rock. *** Comedian/Musician CHANCE LANGTON recently recorded a great demo of his soulful ballad “Love the Babies” from his score for the upcoming movie/musical. When six-string legend ROY BUCHANAN used to come to town on tour in the ’80’s he’d always call Chance up to join him on guitar for a tune. Fun Chance Langton fact: He signs all of his communications “C of L.” *** MICHAEL NAIMO of Naimo Gallery (18 Commercial St, Salem, MA) invited us to his Second Thursday Creative Nights. He’s asking artists to hang art on his walls, musicians to come sing their songs, poets to get it out for all to hear, actors to do their monologue, and film makers come show their shorts or clips. *** Vendors wanted. Acoustic musicians wanted. On Mass. Ave in Cambridge every Saturday. The Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery has a mission to organize support and present the creative efforts of local artists and musicians from the Cambridge community. The gallery encourages artists of all backgrounds to share and celebrate their uniqueness and talent from different cultures, genders, ages and academic backgrounds. *** KRISTA METTLER from Skye Media and Design turned us on to a great Vermont group DWIGHT & NICOLE. He plays electric guitar and sings harmonies to her passionate and soaring vocals. We dig their songs “On Top of the World” as a duo and the slow blues “Slow Blues” with a full band. *** NIKI LUPARELLI is bringing her show “One Night At CBGB” to Oberon in Cambridge real soon. Three tribute bands covering The Ramones, The Talking Heads and Niki will front a band as Fat Blondie. The event will be mc’d by KEN REID and featuring lovely ladies of Burlesque a Go-Go. *** DANNY BEDROSIAN (Secret Army/ George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic) recently released Motherfunkin’ on his Bozfonk Moosick label. It’s an amazing mash-up of re-mixes and formerly released tracks that is a collaboration between Danny and artist Steffen Klausen aka DANISH REMIX AUTHORITY. It’s a primo party record. *** Berklee cats DEAD POET SOCIETY are going on their first ever international tour supporting Sputnik. Think Queen of the Stone Age meets The Foo Fighters. No frills rock. JACK UNDERKOFLER (vocals/guitar), JACK COLLINS (guitar), NICK TAYLOR (bass) and WILL GOODROAD (drums). *** Former frontman of The Great Divide KEVIN CONNOLLY released the roots rock “Suitcase And A Rifle” video from his 2015 CD Ice Fishing. *** Connecticut blues guitarist extraordinaire JAY WILLIE tells us his band is in the studio working on their next release. His long time drummer BOBBY T was pounding for THE JOHNNY WINTER BAND during the ’80s. *** North Shore’s BUCKET OF BLUES BAND has been together for eight years. They will be playing at the Fourth Annual Blues for Veterans show at Liberty Park in Woburn in the middle of September. They’ve got four lead singers: LARRY POWER vocals/guitar, BILL CUMMINGS vocals/bass, LEROY PINA vocals/drums and JACK REARDON vocals/harmonica. ***JON MACEY (Foxpass) and LYNN SHIPLEY have a new band HUMMINGBIRD SYNDICATE. CHRIS MACLACHLIN is the bassist and you might remember him from HUMAN SEXUAL RESPONSE.

MORE LONG AND SHORT ANSWERS

Rita: Enough with gossip and factoids Time to sober up and get serious again.  Back to our Question of the Month. Hey Jon we were just talking about you how about  you stop rehearsing and answer our question? What’s the longest you ever had to travel for a gig? JON MACEY (Hummingbird Syndicate): The furthest I traveled to play was to Chicago from NYC. A one word description? Loaded. Because that is how I was back then. The band was Tom Dickie and The Desires. Had a semi-hit tune. Three Boston guys based in NYC and signed to Mercury in the early ’80s. *** ASA BREBNER (Robin Lane & The Chartbusters): The farthest I’ve ever gone to play a gig was The Senajoki music festival in North Finland with Jonathan Richman. In one word it was surreal. Playing a show after driving for two days through the land of the midnight sun which hovered ceaselessly in the sky with Andy Paley on drums to a huge audience of mohawk, green hair wearing, recent punk rock enthusiasts, most of whom were staggering  drunk and puking their guts out while we tried to translate from the Finnish into local Medford dialect like : ”Sven- you can’t fuckin” drive!, You ah too fuckin’ hammered.. you can’t fuckin’ drive..” was surreal. I chose this gig because it was funnier. The show in Perth was farther. *** CHELSEA BERRY (Chelsea Berry): I drove fourteen hundred miles to play a show in Minasota. Was the first on a tour but that part of the routing was bonkers. Probably my fault.  In short,  I remember the gig as heartwarming. A guy from my hometown of Chugiak, Alaska, and a woman from Gloucester, MA (where I’ve been living for the last eight years), both now residents of Stillwater MN, came out to support me. *** BILL COPELAND (Bill Copland Music News): I traveled to Greenfield, MA, from southern New Hampshire. Briefly, it was dazzling. Birds of Flame (a western Mass tribute to the Mahavishnu Orchestra and other fusion giants of the ’70s and ’80s) performed their progressive rock-fusion jazz material and a fresh interpretation of Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein.”

INSIGNIFICA

Lolita: Whenever anyone mentions a monster I think of you Rita. Don’t frighten anybody but it’s time to let you spread the word again. *** Long time entertainment journalist JIM SULLIVAN is now working hard to help bands spread the word. BOSTON ROCK/TALK is a live music/interview show, co-produced by RALPH JACODINE and Jim. Videos have been shot at Comcast Studio in Norwell, or clubs, or at The VerbHotel/Hojoko. Four or five songs done by the artist and 20 to 25 minutes of chat with Sullivan. We think of it as an Inside The Actors Studio for musicians sort of deal. It’s serious, but witty and fun and exclusively on XFinity On Demand in New England. You can get it on YouTube after thirty days. *** Lead singer BILLY HOUGH of Boston’s GARAGE DOGS and LILI TAYLOR won an Earphone Award from Audiophile, for their narration of Michael Cunningham’s A Wild Swan audio book. Billy also scored the music for it. The Garage Dogs have two songs in Oren Moverman’s movie A Time Out Of Mind which Billy is also in. *** North Shore guitarist GARY HOEY just back from the Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp with WARREN HAYNES, TONY IOMMI, and STEVIE VAI. At a recent show at The Whiskey A Go Go on Sunset Strip in L.A. they were joined by ZAKK WYLDE. *** If you are near Coventry, RI, don’t miss RAM acoustically strut his stuff every Tuesday at Pond Pub & Pizza and every Thursday first at Tee Plaza and then at Garden Zen. A big man in a small state. *** Check out ADAM KHALIL and his new band THE RELEVANT ELEPHANT. We dig their single “Rock ‘n Roll Band.” *** Happy belated 60th birthday to MUZZY from BEATLEJUICE and happy belated 18th to his son TIM MUZZY. *** The daughter of Indy songstress and Salem native MARY LOU LORD, ANNABELLE LORD-PATEY is the next generation of talent. At a recent performance at Koto in Salem she was joined on stage by another young musician from The North Shore MATT MINIGELL. *** FRANK CYR former keyboardist with Blockyard has the next generation of talent in his son DALTON CYR. His song “Invisible” is cool pop/rock and is a pretty passionate ballad. *** CLUB LINEHAN A GO GO with KENNE HIGHLAND, MIKE Q QUIRK and JOE QUINN reunited last year. They insist they never broke up. They also played at Q’s 50th birthday party at The Cantab. *** Congrats to guitar ace DAN LAWSON for winning the 2015 Limelight Music Award’s Album of the Year with guidance and musical expertise from Rod Stewart impersonator RICK LARRIMORE at Dreamland Studios. *** Medical update concerning BRUCE FREEDMAN the former manager of the West Hartford Agora Ballroom and his fight with cancer. Sadly, the doctors can’t do much more for him except to make him comfortable. Sometimes life really suck’s and then you die, folks. *** Check out Beehive soundman DENNIS D’ANGELO‘s production on a nice metal ballad “Footprints” a great cut featured on the new release from PERFECT MARK. Check out the cool five-string fretless bass sound. *** Plan ahead. SCISSORHEAD is a four-piece band from Portsmouth, NH, fronted by singer/ songwriter IRONLUNG. The group has a strong libertarian viewpoint and defines itself as playing “acid mountain music.” They are coming to Great Scott’s at the end of May. *** Check out STONE GIANT. A great modern classic rock band. Sorta like Zep meets Sabbath meets Jack White meets Deep Purple. They are busy working on the follow-up to  their last year’s release Wolf. *** National acts MICHAEL ALLMAN, CHARLES NEVILLE and JEFF PRITCHELL  played locally at Johnny D’s and in their set they performed BRUCE MARSHALL‘s song “If Dreams Were Money.” The song won an ASCAP songwriter award in 1991 and Bruce got forty hours of free studio time at Synchro Sound which was owned by The Cars at the time. Bruce told us that although he didn’t make it to one of Johnny D’s swan song shows, he’s happy at least one of his tunes did. *** MELISSA FERRICK had a killer gig at the Me & Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead. We love her cut “I Don’t Want You To Change.” A great song. *** PETER WOLF came out for the encore with The Bruce Springsteen Band at The Garden. Bruce was playing The Isley Brothers’ classic “Shout” when his wife Patti Scialfa saw Peter at the side of the stage and invited him up to join in on the fun. Wolf’s next release A Cure For Loneliness is due out next month. Get ready for the cure. *** JOHN FERRY from Bim Skala Bim also plays in DUPPY CONQUERORS – a Bob Marley tribute band. *** Metal pop band SWEET CHEATER are back together and shook the roof of The Tank in Agawam. The band is still all original members including MIKE CHAPPEL, MARK RAHILLY, TOM FLAHERTY, CRAIG JACKSON and TOM LEGER. Tom also plays in THE BROOKLYNS. *** GREEDY GEEZER has re-surfaced with his Garage Night formerly at The Granite Rail in Quincy. It is now at The Raynham Flea Market every Sunday. THE TOKYO TRAMPS will be there and so should you! Meanwhile The Tramps are finishing their latest release and aren’t sure if they want to look for a deal or release it themselves. Stay tuned. *** Brighton surf rockers B11 are busy working on their next album Vitamin For The Soul. Expect it out later this year. *** Carly Simon’s long-time guitarist PETER CALO  recently played at Carnegie Hall backing one of his hero’s ERIC BURDON from THE ANIMALS. He even got to play “House of the Rising Son.” *** Check out the new hip-hop collaboration from MR. LIF and EDAN for his new album Don’t Look Down. The song is called “Whizdom” and it features our homie BLACASTAN. *** Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez working on their seventh CD The Grown Up Thing scheduled to be released later this year. *** The Spotlight Tavern is a great Beverly club. The sign above their new back bar says “Only You Can Prevent Empty Venues. Support Local Music.” *** Believe it or not The Cantab in Central Square isn’t just famous for MICKEY BLISS‘s  Club Bohemia. Tuesday nights feature the best on the bluegrass scene and Sunday has a blues jam hosted by HOT SAUCE. *** SOUP is the latest incarnation of MIKE LIFE VENTURA from Worcester. Known for singing in STONE SOUP and LIFE WITH DANIMAL in the ’80s, today’s group consists of drummer ROGER HODGKINS from Boston and Worcester artists bassist PAUL O’DAY, guitarist TED CABANA, and  MIKE SINGER on keys. Check out “Lipstick Letters.” *** Also from Worcester, LARRY PRESTON from ’80s bands THE PRESTON PORTER BAND and ZONKERAZ is now a a known artist painter in North Hampton. He managed The Firehouse when it was across from The Centrum. BOB ALLEN the well known scenester from out on the other side of Rt. 128 tells us Larry is “an awesome guitar player, artist and a wicked cool dude.”

LAST AS THE CROW FLIES ANSWERS

Rita: Speaking of wicked cool dudes let’s ask LOUIS ST. AUGUST (Mass) to answer our Question of the Month: I flew from Logan airport Boston, MA to perform at The LA Amphitheater in California in 1989. In one word the show was “AMAZING.” Not because it was sold out with 15,000 screaming Stryper & Mass fans or that Mass rocked the show but because I was standing on the same stage that my childhood idol Roger Daltry had stood on the night before as he performed with The Who! *** HEATHER RICE-FAHEY (Lizzie Borden & The Axes): The farthest I have gone to play a gig was Monterey, CA.  I went out to audition for Quincy Jones in LA after my first year at Berklee and stayed in L.A. for the summer.  My friend, Dan Rothchild, present bass player for Heart and son of Paul Rothchild, the producer of the Doors, was my bass player.  It was an amazing summer.  Best part was recording one of Dan’s songs and having his father produce it.  I think the farthest gig in Mass was the one we played at Westfield State College.  Boy do we have stories from that gig!  We played Lilly Tomlin’s birthday party.  It was Lilly, her friend and her dog. *** MO KAVANAUGH-LEGER (The Brooklyns): The Brooklyns played with Sweet Cheater in Chicopee MA. One word description, “Dusty,” Why? It was an outdoor gig, we played on a flatbed, and it was a Bike Run benefit for a little girl. It was an awesome time. *** MR. CURT and MS. DONNA: the farthest was North Adams. The MASS MOCA concert. The feature was Robin Holcomb, an amazing singer/songwriter/composer/pianist from Seattle, who was in residency there. She’s never played in Massachusetts, just NYC. Tis a pity.  The performance was transcendent.  Why? It was a cafe setting with a cushy couch right in front of the stage and we floated away with each new piece she introduced with her trio… like wow! *** Rita: Great answers! Sounds like a good time to end the column. Lolita: See you again in April!