NEW YORK v boston

or on second thought...

and yeah, NYC has been a cultural mecca for musicians and artists and everyone while boston is just where people go to college. not really a fair fight, I say. I like more boston bands than NYC bands though. and I mean bands currently playing/touring, forget the cities' heritage...

Well, fuck, man. I don't live in Boston -- shoot me (and probably haven't been there since `93, either....actually it was `95). I'm sure there are great bands comin' outta there. Hang me for not knowin'em, why don'tcha!

For what it's worth, despite being Massholes, I love a lot of Boston bands. I'm not trying to turn this into a grudge match (`cos we'd win....bahahahahahaha). Seriously, who cares where a band is from...so long as they're good?

On a differente note -- not that I'd know about it -- but does Boston have a Hip Hop scene? And if so, have any names sprung from it?

True.

"Some great bands but no scene."

Why is a scene necessarily so important? I mean, yes, a thriving community of like-minded artists can usually only offer great things, but there have been instances of bands developing in a completely isolated, insular environments and producing music of staggering originality, no? Why is "the scene" so lionized?

Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch?

ALEX in NYC got one WRONG!!!

Does this happen often?

I am still new to ILM.

And by the way, Alex, I hope your wife is feeling better :(

check out:
http://www.brickrecords.com/
they're pretty much at the forefront of Boston hip hop.

so yeah, boston's hip hop scene is a bit brighter than the rock scene these days (or at least making more waves outside of boston). too many fuckin bands that would describe themselves as "rawk" so as to lighten the load of actually having ideas. the more tattoos the better. blech..

but here's some really great boston bands that may or may not be known outside of town (I have no way of knowing): The Beatings, Charlene, Lockgroove, Certainly Sir, Soltero, Helms, 27, Suntan, Neptune, Karate, The Ivory Coast, Isis, The Common Cold, The Burning Paris, California Stadium...

that's all I can think of off the top of my head, but there's more.

sure NYC would win a grudge match. what wouldn't NYC win in? its so much bigger and has so much more stuff. I should hope that more great bands would come from NYC than boston. with so many more resources and people, it would be a crying shame if the quality of NY's musical output were to be dwarfed by a much much smaller town.

but like someone said, who cares where a band's from, as long as they're good, right?

Chicago.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean they're all of the same caliber. I mean, look back at the late 70's CBGB's scene and you have great bands like the Ramones and Blondie....but you also had crap like The Shirts and the Tuff Darts. In Seattle, sure you had Soundgarden, Mudhoney & Nirvana, but you also had Grunttruck and Skin Yard. In prime British Punk London, you had the Pistols, the Damned and the Clash, but you also had fuckin' Subway Sect and Chelsea. Not everyone is a winner.

-- hstencil (hstenci...), February 11th, 2003.

Surely you jest! Deep dish? C'mon. Get with it man. If you haven't had a regular slice from Famous Ray's then you haven't lived.

I believe this would be a true statement if you subscribe to the theory that the bigger the hair the greater the band.

For those scoring at home, I actually like both Chicago and NY-style pizza.

coming from new zealand i don't understand this, but isn't "coming from new york" different to "based in new york" or "living in new york" or even "formed while in new york" ?

Now to the really important stuff... The best pizza in the world is definitely from New Bedford! The second best is, of course, from Bridgewater.

True, which is why I left out Talking Heads (who ostensibly formed back at Rhode Island School of Design), Television (both Verlaine and Hell were originally from the South), Bad Brains (originally from D.C.) and Pussy Galore (ditto).

Keep Manhattan out of Brooklyn!
_M

Just all sorts of stuff going on all the time.

"Surely you jest! Deep dish? C'mon. Get with it man. If you haven't had a regular slice from Famous Ray's
then you haven't lived."
-- brendan, February 11th, 2003.

"I live in NY, and yes, I've had a regular slice from Famous Ray's.
For those scoring at home, I actually like both Chicago and NY-style pizza."
-- hstencil, February 11th, 2003.

- --- --- --- --- --- ---- ---- -

Really, I am glad we are finally at the crust of the matter.

RAY'S VS. ORIGINAL RAY'S VS. FAMOUS RAY'S VS. ORIGINAL FAMOUS RAY'S

Ok, these are all obviously different pizza places. Can someone clarify for me which one is the GOOD ONE???? And exactly where is it. From what I remember, they were all kinda near 1st or 2nd and E. 14th...thankfully on the south side of E. 14th, because I think I would have melted like the witch in the Wizard of Oz had I crossed the street and been north of E. 14th, or at the very least would have been lost.

Now that I live in California though when I visit Boston and eat at Pizza Regina's I am like, "Man, that was great pizza!"

It's all relative once you move west.

One of New York's quintessential experiences is pizza. New York invented pizza and still does it better than anyone else. Ray's serves the definitive New York pizza -- soft, medium crust -- the perfect support system for the fresh mozarella piled on top, keeping everything in its proper place until it reaches your mouth. Most people fold the pizza in half lengthwise (the better to keep the gooey cheese from cascading onto the floor). It is the ultimate expression of the cheese-lover genre, the major force in New York. Pizza with an attitude.

My dear Alex,

A lot of times the scene is a lot more interesting than the bands or their music.

I'd like to say it's a "toss up"

but when it comes down to

http://www.aceofheartsrecords.com/images/burma_vs_cover.jpg

VS.

http://www.newyorkfirst.com/img/products/rayspizza1.jpg

..you may decide which one you think is more YUM

but hands down the winner will always be

http://missionofburma.com/bgu/original/jliannaness.jpg

and this is why BOSTON will always beat NY

http://missionofburma.com/bgu/original/page1.html

Boston fighting New York is like the Judean People's Front fighting the People's Front of Judea....what we *REALLY* need to do is realize we are all siblings and combine our efforts against the REAL enemy: THE WEST COAST!!!!

Now you've crossed the line! Though our pizza, cheesecake and bagels have much to be desired, life out West beats the living hell out any life I had back East. The weather is better. The pay is better. The drugs are better. And, there are as many New Yorkers here as there are in New York!

• 
  http://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/storydetail.cfm?ID=1476
  The sophomores, in an attempt to remind the freshmen of their true place in the hierarchy of classes, kidnapped the 1932 class president and lit the bonfire a night early. In response to these insults, pajama-clad freshmen gathered on the Green shortly before 8 p.m. on May 29. According to a Providence Journal report written that night, the freshmen started their celebration by smashing windows in Hope Hall, then headed down College Hill, setting off fire alarms along their path. As the freshmen snake-danced their way down Westminster Street, some fired revolvers into the air, while others carried red flares and lit Roman candles.

  Emboldened by "a disorderly town element," as the BAM commented in its coverage of the melee, the students quickly clashed with police. Before almost 1,000 onlookers, police officers pushed students back from the Arcadia ballroom as they attempted to storm past a barricade. The freshmen then turned toward the trolley tunnel and threw rocks and firecrackers at the sixty patrolmen now blocking its entrance. "The police charged," the Journal reported in the next day's edition, "swinging out with their nightsticks, hitting students and spectators alike."

• 
  http://www.vad.freehosting.net/urbansites/us_providence_ri_eastside.htm
  The tunnel was apparently still in use in 1978, according to the notes from the Inventory of Historic Engineering Sites. It was easily accessible, and the accessibility was taken advantage of in particular by RI School of Design students and Brown students. At some point, presumably around when the Seekonk bridge became a permanently vertical structure, the trains stopped running.

  A large party in the tunnel (an annual event for RISD students, apparently) sometime in the early 90s (1994, according to the grapevine) got out of hand, and police attempted to quell it. A police car was overturned in the melee, the local press reported that satanic rituals had been the norm for the subterranean celebrators, and the tunnel was closed with thick corrugated steel, pierced at each end only by a locked door. The locks have since been removed; as of the summer of 99 both ends of the tunnel are open.
  

Isis

Thanks to a Frank Kogan mention of them I picked the album up. Not quite what I was expecting but still very good (Chuck Eddy's description of how concerts for bands like these should be sit down art events was spot on -- but unlike Godspeed, I have a feeling I wouldn't fall asleep).

Yeah, but in San Francisco you can smoke pot in the venue.

Sure, everyone's moving back east to smoke a Newport.

So what? New York had Lydia Lunch so you.... OH CRAP?!?!? I guess you do win!

Don't forget the obligatory _____________(insert your favorite monrity group here) bashing.

See, that's what it's all about, baby.

Forced exposure should open a shop here, or at least merge with Twisted Village.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/later/show/index_20041112.shtml

The Bravery
The Bravery are New York's latest coolest band and they're making their TV debut on Later. Their band name & songs are born out of the post 9/11 fear ridden NYC.

Does this band have a reputation back in NYC or they just a bunch of lucky chancers with good management?

Seemingly having come out of nowhere, they've pretty much knocked the City upside its unsuspecting head with their four week sold out standing room only residency at Arlene's Grocery

Which says everything, I suppose. I've never heard of them. I'm going to assume they're the kind of bland band that has the right haircuts, get's hyped, get's on Conan and has a record deal before anyone actually listens to the music. Then everyone will forget about them in a year. It happens all the time.

Rolling Stone:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6487762?rnd=1097123339652&has-player=unknown

I heard a Bravery track today on BBC 6 Music sounded a bit generic dancey-punkfunk-rock circa 2002 - like an inferior version of Radio 4.

was that paragraph in fact taken in its entirety from a leftover strokes bio?

and there are 10 or 12 seats/barstools scattered about, so you've got to bring in AT LEAST A DOZEN PEOPLE before it truly becomes standing room only. do that four times in a row and you too can have a major label deal.

I'm looking at you Dropkick Murphys (and to a lesser extent, House of Pain).

fresh from selling out the Lion's Den twice....

last seen filling the Continental to the rafters...

How come I had no idea you moved to Boston?

New York's loss...I saw Terry Riley and Michael Harrison perform for prepared and just intonated pianos in the back of a piano store a few weeks ago. We need more minimalist keyboardists...

Right?

PS, How many noteworthy Boston bands consist of actual Bostonians (or at least Mass. residents) vs. how many noteworthy New York band consist of actual New Yorkers (or at least NY residents)?

Oh, and lady got a job here.

I live on the Fung Wah bus these days...

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf600/f622/f62201ron0b.jpg

is so close to

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf900/f956/f95625eef61.jpg

which, I think it's clear from the illustration, is the finest place for the rock and roll music.

The New York Synthpop Festival 01.14.05

Lo-Fi Entertainment Presents

The New York Synthpop Festival 01.14.05

01. Design/Build
02. Eisdrive
03. In-A-Sense
04. Xero/G
05. halovox
06. Freezepop
07. Brand New Idol
08. The Mystic Underground
09. Platform One

Friday, January 14th

Rare
416 West 14 Street
(between 9th Ave & Washington Street)
212.675.2220
http://www.rare-nyc.com

Also appearing: DJ Volitans and DJ Arimos

CD giveaways courtesy of A Different Drum!

Bands start performing at 8:00 p.m.
Admission: $10 - 18 and over

http://www.lofientertainment.com/parties

For more information on the bands:

Design/Build
http://www.myspace.com/designbuild

Eisdrive
http://zebox.com/eisdrive

In-A-Sense
http://www.angelfire.com/music5/inasense/index.html

Xero/G
http://www.xero-g.net/index.htm

halovox
http://www.halovox.com

Freezepop
http://www.freezepop.com

Brand New Idol
http://www.brandnewidol.com

The Mystic Underground
http://www.themysticunderground.com

Platform One
http://www.platform-one.com

DJ Volitans
http://www.owos.net

DJ Arimos
http://www.arimos.com/

are any of these artists well known in NYC? or worth checking out?

I thought there was a "This is Boston..."/Boston Hardcore thread but I'm not finding one...

Gang Green reunited last night:
https://www.facebook.com/johnny.mullin/videos/10156776040605822/