We were initially planning to go all loosey goosey (An actual official term, by the way) with live coverage of this year’s Rock & Roll Rumble which basically amounts to a maybe we will/maybe we won’t mentality following our annual preview pieces of the Boston institution. Then we took some time to process what we witnessed and thought “Oh, fuck it!” and decided to dive in with one big mega post of all of Week 1’s treasures (Hyperlinked headers to our preview posts so you can find all the pertinent band links and music). So enjoy? And SPOILER ALERT: We will be mentioning the winners here (Dubbed in the appropriate regional dialect as “Winnahs”) in case you haven’t had a chance to catch up on your DVR yet.
[Read more…]RNRF X Rock & Roll Rumble: Week 2, Night 6
The end is nigh! Yes, you read that right! Following these last 4 daring artists, the stage will be set and whittled down to just 6 who will battle it out over at Sonia in the Semi-Final Rounds before the Grand Finale this May the Fourth. Do you have a favorite yet? Well, hold off just a little while longer and sit right back and you’ll hear a tale… of the last four artists to take the Preliminary Round stage at Middle East Upstairs on April 13th:
[Read more…]RNRF X Rock & Roll Rumble: Week 2, Night 5
The end is in sight! Of the Preliminary Round, that is. But before we get to the end of this particular round, we’d love to introduce you to the four fresh new faces (Well, more than just 4 cuz BANDS) who’ll be getting their Rumble on during the penultimate Preliminary night:
[Read more…]RNRF X Rock & Roll Rumble 2024: Week 2, Night 4
Week 2 of the Rock & Roll Rumble starts NOW! Well, for us and in the interest of this posting it does but in actuality it starts on Thursday, April 11th back at Middle East Upstairs with the first 4 of 12 fresh bands scheduled to appear during the final Preliminary Rounds. Are you sad that the rounds are almost over? Have a favorite yet? Well, here’s some more fodder to confuse and confound all those decisions you thought you already made:
[Read more…]Robotic Hawks Get Down To The Business Of Rawk On Their Way To The 2024 Rock & Roll Rumble With New EP All Business
It’s Rumble SZN, everyone! And with that comes a time to not only revisit some artists we’ve already covered here (Like in our massive Preliminary Round preview pieces that have been steadily popping up recently) but for some of those same artists to drop timely new material ahead of their showcases. Like Hudson, NH’s Robotic Hawks who have a new EP slated to arrive slightly ahead of their opening night set on the last night of the Preliminary Rounds over at Middle East Upstairs on Saturday, April 13th.
[Read more…]RNRF X Rock & Roll Rumble 2024: Week 1, Night 2
We made it through Night 1! Or we will. For now, we’ve just made it through the first post about the Preliminary rounds so there’s a long way to go both in our postings and in, y’know, the actual shows that have so much behind the scenes work put into them ahead of time (Thanks, Anngelle Wood and Boston Emissions among others) before bands even hit the stage. Like they will once again at Middle East Upstairs on Friday, April 5th (See what we did there???) Anyway, our purported cleverness aside let’s see what Night 2 holds:
[Read more…]RNRF X Rock & Roll Rumble 2024: Week 1, Night 1
Can one have multiple “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” parts of a year? Like, we dig the hell out of October. Because Spooky Szn. And November. Because it’s our (Read: RNRF) birthday month. So, Fall in general. But this sweet spot in in April when the Rock & Roll Rumble returns and Salem Horror Fest is right around the corner is quickly becoming our JAM!
[Read more…]Local Look ’24: The RNRF Guide To Some Of What’s Incoming From Some Of Your Favorite New England Artists
This past year we decided to do things a little differently as we approached our year end round up as we felt that a lot of local talent gets overshadowed when we do our annual year ender so instead of doing just one MASSIVE list to include everything that we thought was rad we divided the list in two so that both National and Local acts got time to bask in the glow of their 2023 achievements. With that over, and working out pretty well, we felt the need to do the same when it came to our new year preview so prepare yourselves for the inevitable informing that’s to come in this New England-based look at some of what you can expect from your local faves.
[Read more…]Singles! Tysk Tysk Task, “Intolerable”
It’s too early to have a “Song Of The Year”, right? How about “Song Of The Year” contender? Because Lowell’s Tysk Tysk Task just upped the game and their game considerably with what they’re about to drop.
[Read more…]23 For ’23… But Locally! Or “23 MA-Based Bands (And Then Some) You Should Already Be Listening To”
We initially decided to do this in order to alleviate some of the stress of that other ’23 list we have going on but then we cut out the local stuff and decided to go through our archives for the year and what stood out of what we reviewed/featured that came out of Massachusetts…. and came up with an even more massive list. In other words, oops?
[Read more…]