Show Worthy 4/6-4/12

I had an idea to do some sort of regular concert e-mail or post or something like that. Basically, anything to draw attention to shows that are worthy of your eyes and ears in the Boston area in addition to that concert listing column over on the right. So I'm going to attempt to do a weekly Sunday post where I'll highlight some shows coming up within the next week. This is not meant to be inclusive by any means. I'll probably stick to the experimental side of things, but there are always exceptions. Like Mates of State are playing this week. Everyone loves Mates Of State. If you don't, fuck you. You should.

I don't think I'll normally have this many shows listed but this week seems to be chock full of great shows that I can't go to. Especially Friday.



Mates of State at Mercury Lounge, NYC 5-21-08 via Bao Nguyen
Tuesday, April 7
Mates Of State, Black Kids at House Of Blues ($20, 8:00, all ages)
I'm trying not to endorse this show for two reasons. I'm not a fan of Black Kids, nor am I a fan of House Of Blues. But Mates Of State are so cute and awesome. They put on such a great live show that it's probably even worth it to spend $20 and see them in a club as big as HoB. If you haven't seen them yet, you should. Trust me.




Tuesday, April 7
Peace, Loving; Hunted Creatures; Nature; Ophibre at Church (free, 8:30, 21+)
This is gonna be my pick for the week. It's presented by The Whitehaus Family Record and it's frreeeee. You seriously can't pass this up. You know how awesome Ophibre is and he put out that split with Hunted Creatures not too long ago that was fantastic. You pretty much don't have a good reason to miss this show, unless you're going to see Mates Of State.




Wednesday, April 8
Prince Rama Of Ayodhya, Many Mansions, Jealousy, Concord Ballet Orchestra Players at O'Brien's ($7, 9:00, 21+)
Another Whitehaus related show. Both Prince Rama and Many Mansions put on wonderful live shows. I've heard great things about CBOP and have been meaning to see them for a while but just never got around to it. If I were you and free Wednesday night, I'd check this show out.



Parts & Labor at Middle East Upstairs 12-12-08
Friday, April 10
Parts & Labor at Oxfam Cafe (free?, 8:00, all ages?)
I will be at this show. I don't know who else is playing, if anyone. Both the band's and venue's Myspace only list P&L as playing. Even if they are the only band, it still makes it 100% amazing. Aaaaand it's probably free.



Eliza Blaze at Spring Iron Pour 2008 via Eliza Blaze
Friday, April 10
Spring Iron Pour with Justin Crosby, Fractillian, Peace & Quiet, The Silver City at MassArt Courtyard (free?, 7:00, all ages)
Dude. It's a bunch of great bands that play live while iron is being poured. And I'm pretty sure it's free. That's all you need to know.



The Books via interrobang
Friday, April 10
The Books at The Boston ICA ($25, 7:00 & 9:30, all ages)
You know The Books. You love The Books. Electro-acoustic field recording shit for $25 in a nice auditorium.



Brendan Murray at Hell Hoarse Kavekavity Sessions via ex-atari-kid
Sunday, April 12
Brendan Murray, Oneohtrix Point Never, DJ Howard Stelzer at Great Scott ($7, 9:00, 18+)
Intransitive Recordings is putting on another one of their (his) soon to be famous fucking amazing ass shows. Brendan Murray is releasing a new CD and Oneohtrix Point Never is the guy from Astronaut and Infinity Window. Howard Stelzer (the man behind Intransitive) will be DJing. According to some other sites, Red Horse and Eat Cloud are also supposed to be playing and DJ Won't should be spinning as well. If that's true, then this show is going to be fucking epic. But Great Scott's website doesn't mention them so neither will I. Either way, you should go.

Mates Of State - Re-Arrange Us

Mates Of State - The Re-Arranger



I have a place in my heart for pop music. Generally, I like it mixed with other genres (metal, noise, etc), but every now and then, I love me some straight up pop. And Mates Of State are usually the ones to give me my fix. Ever since I was introduced to Team Boo at my radio station in 2003, I have been a big fan. And while I feel like it would be near impossible for the Mates to ever let me down, it's still nice to know that their new record, Re-Arrange Us is just as fantastic as their last one, Bring It Back.

Bring It Back was a big departure as we saw Mates Of State using more instruments and layering the voice tracks, giving them a much more lush sound. While Re-Arrange Us isn't a significant change by any means, they are still able to refine their new sound, making more focused songs that are as catchy as ever. I mean, the semi-title track, "The Re-Arranger," is possibly their best song ever (yes, I actually mean that).

So no, their sound hasn't really changed. If you liked Bring It Back, you should have similar feelings towards Re-Arrange Us. And in case you were worried that Mates Of State started writing lyrics that actually makes sense, fear not. Things are just as vague and poetic as before. Like in "Get Better," with "I propose a less serious boat. But don't mistake it for a party of jokes." But every now and then you get the idea of something important being said. Again in "Get Better," it starts off "Forget all your politics for a while." Sorry guys, but I don't really care for politics in my pop. Although, maybe it's been there all along and I just haven't noticed it.

Re-Arrange Us finds Mates Of State in prime form. They're growing up (they have two kids now) and so is their music. It's as good as anything they've done and I still want to sing along to all of the songs even though I don't know the words. Luckily, there's a lot of "da das" and "no nos" so I'm safe for now.

And there's interchangeable album covers! They have the frames on the first sheet and on other sheets they have different pictures of them. Hooray for fun!

And here's the seriously weird video for the single "Get Better," directed by Steve Choo.