Welp. We kinda backed ourselves into a corner doing a Week 1 Rock & Roll Rumble live recap (Read it here) and thinking it was possible to skip doing the same for Week 2, right? Look, we’re not going to sugarcoat it for you. You missed some gems if you decided to stay home when the Preliminary Rounds of the 2024 Rock & Roll Rumble from Boston Emissions wrapped up, okay? And that’s alright since you have us looking out for you in a grand way with this live rundown of what happened across Nights 4, 5, & 6 of the annual Rawk Fest. So with that, sit back, relax, and let us regale you some more of what went down over at Middle East Upstairs in the hopes that you’ll be purchasing your tickets to the Semis at Sonia as soon as you finish reading! Do we have a deal? And again, links to our preview posts in the corresponding headers so you can grab all the pertinent music and more from these killer local artists.
[Read more…]RNRF X Rock & Roll Rumble: Week 1 Preliminary Round Live Recap
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…]RoseR Is Ready To (Rock & Roll) Rumble On Steps
Lowell produces some great shit. A lot of which gets lumped into the “Boston Music Scene” that does indeed tend to encompass a lot of the MA area but ya gotta give credit where credit is due and, from our experience at least, Lowell is getting to the point where there’s a need for a “Lowell Music Scene” category brought into the convo. RoseR’s latest is another reason for that.
[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 3
Moving right along aaaaaand we’ve made it to the end of Week 1 and the competition is already FIERCE! On this particular night we’ve got veterans of the Boston Music Scene battling against relative noobs (Read: novices) that still sound like they’re 4 albums deep only a few years into a burgeoning career. And with that said, we present the 4 bands representing Night 3 of the 2024 Rock & Roll Rumble:
[Read more…]Singles! GUT HEALTH, “CONVERSATION LOST”
If you thought that GUT HEALTH’s debut single, “RUNAWAY HIGH”, was out of this world then just wait until you hear the follow-up. For those just tuning in, GUT HEALTH is a 508-based supergroup featuring members of Herra Terra, Ian Sweet, Gloss Goddess, Orange Island, usLights, and Not Bad Not Well to name a few. In fact, our initial edit of new track “CONVERSATION LOST” said that vocally they were similar to Not Bad Not Well until we realized that they share the same singer in Gregg Kusumah-Atmadja (For the record, we proudly own it when we fuck up or dive right in on the rare occasion when we’re not being more thorough).
[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.
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