new events. summer 11.

06/03-05 HILLSTOCK MUSIC FESTIVAL

06/07 Comcast Center - Mansfield, MA

PHISH

06/08 Toads Place - Hamden, CT - ALL AGES

AGAINST ME! / LEMURIA / SCREAMING FEMALES

06/09-12 BONNAROO MUSIC FESTIVAL

06/13 O'Briens - Allston, MA

BILLY RAYGUN / RATIONAL ANTHEM / THE NEW WARDEN

06/14 Slaughterhouse 5 - Dover, NH - ALL AGES

BIG EYES / BILLY RAYGUN / RATIONAL ANTHEM

06/28 Middle East Upstairs - Cambridge, MA - ALL AGES

BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY! / CHEAP GIRLS

07/09 Slaughterhouse 5 - Dover, NH - ALL AGES

HUNCHBACK (REUNION) / BLACK WINE / MIKEY ERG

BILLY RAYGUN / THE YOUNG LEAVES / MORE?

07/14 Middle East Downstairs - Cambridge, MA - ALL AGES

RX BANDITS / MAPS AND ATLASES

07/23 Comcast Center - Mansfield, MA - ALL AGES

311 / SUBLIME W. ROME (SORRY HAD TO LOL)

07/30 Great Scott - Allston, MA 18+

EL TEN ELEVEN / TERA MELOS

08/07 Great Scott - Allston, MA 18+

JOAN OF ARC

08/09 Comcast Center - Mansfield, MA - ALL AGES

BLINK 182 / MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE / MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA

08/15 Ezra's - Portsmouth, NH - ALL AGES

THE DOPAMINES / NEW CREASES / BILLY RAYGUN

08/16 Starlab - Sommerville, MA

THE DOPAMINES / NEW CREASES

HILLSTOCK 2011

this weekend i will be attending the first day of the hillstock music festival put on by friend alex billig (goat) in his native brooklyn, ny. my brother is graduating on saturday so I will have to come home for this momentous occasion, but friday is packed with wonderful artists.

for more information go to http://www.neverbreakdown.com/hillstock/

summer is starting to settle in and it feels wonderful.

cinco de mayo, roughly 3:11 am

I'm learning not to make poor excuses for myself because now, I have to be a responsible adult. I'm coming close to graduating college and there is a lot that I have to think about. I've been given a pretty immense opportunity. With my money, I am going to be investing in a house where I will live with my best friends. In this space, we will be able to explore ourselves creatively in ways we never have before. It sounds silly being put like that, but it's true. Over the past few years, I've been steadily drawn into an underground music scene that has taught me how I can express my thoughts on music in so many different ways. Now I will finally have a space where my friends and I can do this together.The task is surely daunting, as this investment is life changing. But I haven't felt so right about something in such a long time.

School is tough, but my courses have had an unexpected amount of resonance lately. I can feel what I have accomplished in the past four years, and I feel really good about it. Singing with the university chorus as well as the chamber singers has been quite inspiring. The feeling of knowing that I can actually call pitches is quite an eerie thing, that I never imagined doing. Something I want to do is have a free choir, no auditions much like the university chorus [see also: kimya dawson's olympia free choir] I don't have an advisor- I have had very few juries- I need to talk to someone, but it scares me. I'm not concerned with the fact that I wont finish school in four years- neither are my parents.

I jumped the gun a little bit with the physical zine and I'm disappointed about that. But what I realized, is that I need to make the first issue really count, so it's going to be a bit longer. I have a lot of content to use but still a lot to collect. I want people to read this and enjoy it, so I am going to put a good effort into making sure that happens. I think a good goal would be to have a quarterly zine, one for every season, and shoot to have the first one out by summer. I am proud of my friends and what they do, so I want people to see it! Hopefully by the time that the fall comes around, we will have a fully operating zine factory in our basement, as well as a screenprinting studio and much much more!

As far as projects to be determined go... I've been putting a lot of thought into the completion of interrobang's much delayed album. But one thing that I can't understate is that I'm glad that we've taken this time because I have learned so much from this whole process and I would never regret it. Sure it would've been nice to have it out two summers ago, but I knew so much less than. In the time that interrobang has been on its hiatus, my views on underground music have shifted radically. Not only that, but the way that I relate to people through music has completely changed. This has in turn made me reassess the reasons I play music with people and given it a whole new meaning in the best way possible. I miss playing music with interrobang, and I really hope that we can do it again soon. As far as the album goes, my personal goal is to have it out by this summer.

All the while I am keeping myself occupied with writing new songs of my own, and even playing them out every so often, which is quite exciting. I've realized that some musicians just need more than one project just so they can mutually survive off of each other. I love playing heavy music, but at the same time some of the music that has the most profound impact on me is of a completely polar opposite quality. Tim Kasher needs his Good Life to keep the balance of Cursive. It's a really interesting thing to think about, but I'm glad that I've been able to put my finger on it. Something that I will be able to work on extensively in my new house will be recording, which makes me really excited. I envy certain friends who have that ability to express themselves through their own recording, which is something i've never really been capable of. But through the process of recording the interrobang full length, thoughts and observations on production and engineering have piled up, and I'm really happy about how my ears have grown in that way.

friends zine the blog spot is by no means dead. what happened, is that I fully realized what it really takes for me to do what I had previously envisioned, takes much more time than I thought. Sometimes you can't just rely on people for content unless that person is yourself, in which case I am an awful procrastinator and school doesn't help much at all. Here I go with the excuses, I knew they would come somewhere. Time is what I need to do this, and I really would love for people to contribute! Check the about section for my email and get in touch! Once I finish school I will likely be posting on here pretty regularly and hopefully the physical friends zine will finally manifest. Going to see the Measure's last brooklyn show on saturday with Adam and Chet. I am so excited about this!! Hopefully I will be able to review that soon.

happy cinco de mayo
-colin

friend: james gentile

I met this ol' boy in the spring of 2006
and started playing music with him soon after.
His latest endeavors aside from supplying the low end to Shire,
when he isn't away at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn
I believe, in my honest opinions
are some of his best works since i've known him.
This is the pure James Gentile experience
and I am really glad he has been expressing himself in this way.
When we played music together sometimes his statement would be sacrificed
for the sake of keeping together a 7-13ish? piece ska punk band
who just couldn't handle the complexity plain and simple.
Our brains weren't ready for what he was writing,
but now you can experience the genius unfiltered.
Here James plays his newest composition in his native Brooklyn, enjoy!


also if you were wondering what how this boy came to be...

FZ Mixtape - Vol. 1

Friends Zine Mixtape Vol.1 by csbriggs

new events.

04/01 Wacky Kastle - Allston, MA - All Ages

LUAU / TMF / THE INHALERS / PINK PARTS

04/03 Madison Arts Barn - Madison, CT - All Ages

THE FLAMING TSUNAMIS / CALL IT ARSON /

MY HEART TO JOY / SLINGSHOT DAKOTA / BRUNT OF IT

04/15 Dos Amigos Burritos - Dover, NH - All Ages

BRAVE LITTLE ABACUS / SHIRE

04/16 Outskirts House - Brighton, MA - All Ages

THE FELLOW PROJECT / GO SELL DRUGS

THE NEW WARDEN / YALE, MA

04/23 TT The Bears Place - Cambridge, MA - 18+

LEMURIA / JOYCE MANOR / WHITE WIVES

04/30 Outskirts House - Brighton, MA - All Ages

KILL CONRAD / BABY GRAND / CANVAS / JAKE JENKINS

05/11 Middle East Upstairs - Cambridge, MA - 18+

LAURA STEVENSON AND THE CANS / FAKE PROBLEMS

INTO IT OVER IT / POMEGRANATES

05/13 Club Hell - Providence, RI - All Ages

A WILHELM SCREAM / NO TRIGGER / OUTRAGE /

HALF HEARTED HERO / GHOSTTHROWER

05/19 Dover Brick House - Dover, NH - 18+

THE QUEERS / BANNER PILOT

05/21 Wilder Hall - Hingham, MA - All Ages

SHIRE / BRAVE LITTLE ABACUS / JACKSON CROW

JOE CAPEN / TRAVIS SOMERS / CHRIS O'GRADY / MORE

05/22 Middle East Downstairs - Cambridge, MA - All Ages

CONVERGE / DROPDEAD / BURNING LOVE / TRAP THEM

how do you contribute?

NAME: Jovani Villegas

AGE: 19

CURRENTLY RESIDING: I live in Allston

CURRENT PROJECTS: Currently playing guitar in a new band called Fragments that I started with my friends Joe and Anthony from The Town Line and Zack who drummed for Ghost I’m Gone.

PREVIOUS ENDEAVORS: I played bass in a pop punk band from Worcester, MA called Ghost I’m Gone

HOW DO YOU CONTRIBUTE? I like to book shows in my basements and at random venues all over, let bands crash at my place and help however I can, and book acoustic shows for solo acoustic acts that wanna come by.

SOMETHING YOU ARE PROUD OF: Well in November I had a show in my basement where Brave Little Abacus, Shire, Ghost I’m Gone, and Len Bias played and it was in support of rallying up donations to independently start a newspaper/zine sort of thing on our campus and freely spread student creative and academic writing called “The Intoxicated Inquirer”.

WHAT HAS INSPIRED YOU TO CONTRIBUTE? I’ve always wanted to be involved and active in helping out music that I love by friends that I love and just helping goood bands and people making good music, so the fact that I was never able to before because I lived at home or in a dorm, now that I’m able to I have been much more inspired to contribute to promoting good music.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY LISTENING TO? I’ve been kind of switching between a two things but mainly it has been Latterman, Cheap Girls, Get Bent, and Paul Baribeau, that and a shit ton of Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass.