Matty King’s Top 5 Ways for Rockers to Celebrate Halloween

Matty King from the Boston band, The Lights Out, recently took some time out to give five ways rockers can celebrate Halloween. I for one, did not know you could make a scrabble board sexy. I do believe we need to prod Mr. King on how in the world that is done.

The Lights Out will be celebrating Halloween this year as Man-donna. Yep, that's four men dressed up like Madonna, singing her songs in all their glory.

Photo by Michael J. Epstein

#1: Drinking
Halloween is one of those times of year where you can just let it all hang out and do completely irresponsible things in the name of celebration. Exactly what gets celebrated on Halloween is pretty much left up to the celebrator, but when all is said and done, it’s usually done by consuming copious amounts of alcohol. Honestly, this can be done at any point during the year, but Halloween is the one time you get to do it surrounded by girls in sexy costumes. Which leads us to # 2…

#2: Dressing Up
I’ve always been a little hesitant to don a costume on Halloween, often dismissing such ventures as childish until I discovered that women’s adult costumes are ridiculously sexy (my lady friends call them “slutty”). I’ve found myself far more willing to throw on an Indiana Jones costume when it ultimately involves mingling with Sexy Vampire, Sexy Strawberry Shortcake, Sexy Tennis Player, Sexy Nun, Sexy Cheerleader, Sexy Chilean Miner, Sexy Alice In Wonderland, Sexy Firefighter, Sexy Scrabble Board, Sexy Fairy, Sexy Pirate, Sexy Ladybug, Sexy Freddie Kruger, Sexy Football Player, Sexy Optimus Prime, Sexy Catwoman (actually, is there any other kind?) Sexy Devil, Sexy British Flag, Sexy Nurse and Sexy Gladiator. All of these are actual costumes that you can actually buy, by the way. I didn’t make a single one up.

#3: Pumpkin Carving
I suck at this. But that doesn’t mean that you do! While you may not be able to carve a perfect representation of a Death Star, if you’ve got a half way decent band logo, why not try hacking that out of a pumpkin?

#4: Bobbing For Apples
Why not?

#5: Play or Attend a Halloween Show

Photo courtesy of The Boston Globe, photo by Barry Chin

Over the last few years in Boston, a Halloween tradition has sprung up where bands pick up musical costumes for one night, putting down their original songs to perform as another famous artist, complete with dressing up and everything. As far as I know, this is a fairly unique phenomenon, and I’m not sure if it’s taken hold in other cities the way it has here. When all is said and done, it’s a fantastic time to see your favorite bands performing as someone completely different. It’s not a tribute show; it’s a Halloween show. This is an important distinction to make as the bands who participate in such endeavors tend to be all-original bands who do this for one night only. If you’re in Boston this year, I totally recommend heading down to Church on Saturday 10.30 to catch a number of all male bands performing as female artists. It should be the scariest thing you see all Halloween.

Matt King plays bass in Boston rock quartet The Lights Out. After headlining a showcase at CMJ, signing a licensing deal with MTV Networks, being featured in an ABSOLUT® Vodka commercial and opening up Gillette Stadium for the New England Patriots’ season, the group has enjoyed an incredible year. The band is supporting its new EP, “Rock Pony,” by touring extensively, and plans to release it second LP, “Primetime,” on 1/1/11.  Click Here to Read More..

Green Light Go Fresh MP3 Friday: NXNE Style

In honor of NXNE this week we are giving you a few mp3s of showcasing bands on the GLG roster.  Feel free to post any of the approved songs below on your blog or tweet to your friends. Not on our email list to receive these directly and want to be? Send an email over to info(at)greenlightgopublicity.com

Neutral Uke Hotel
“King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1” (Neutral Milk Hotel Cover)
Genre: Indie rock, Cover song
For fans of: Neutral Milk Hotel


Golden Bloom
"Doomsday Devices"
"Doomsday Devices" The Motion Sick style, in honor of Mike Epstein and Matt Girard who play with Neutral Uke Hotel"
Genre: Indie rock, power pop
For fans of: Wilco, Ben Kweller, Click Here to Read More..

Thank You, Good Night: Avi Wisnia at The Triad Theater

Only with Avi Wisnia will you get a concert that includes limited-edition kazoos (!), Magnolia Bakery cupcakes, and Cyndi Lauper covers all in one night. In his own words, Wisnia shares with us his own personal review of his NYC CD release show for Something New, June 3 at The Triad Theater (national release date for the album is June 29).

"One of the many reasons I love New York City: New Yorkers are not afraid to kazoo. I had one of the best crowds I ever had at my CD release party. We started off the evening with a kazoo-along (everyone who attended received limited-edition Avi Wisnia kazoos) to the song "Rabbit Hole." There were even some people who brought their bunny ears from the video premiere a few months back (catch it now on YouTube!). The band and I played songs from the new album, some from my first EP and even a brand new world-premiere of a Cyndi Lauper cover. It helped that we had saxophone, flute, cello and trumpet to round out the evening and make it a huge party."



"The vibe in the room was incredible, and the space was the perfect venue for this celebration, though we all agreed that the theater looked like something from the Muppets - and I certainly would not have minded a cameo from Gonzo. We ended the evening with the title track "Something New," with the males singing Chicago, over-lapping the females singing Sade, while the band jammed and wailed on the tune. If it would have fit, I would have invited every single person up on stage. and bless the soul of whoever brought Magnolia cupcakes, which were passed around as we all hung out afterward to party down in the theater. There's nothing I like more than making good music with good people, and New York, you made it one of the most fun shows I've ever played. Thank you, and good night."

photos by Becky Dorwin-Kipnis

"Thank You, Good Night" takes a birds eye view of what it's like for a band to play a show that can only described as a pinnacle experience for the band themselves.

Click Here to Read More..

Neutral Milk Hotel Fans: Cheap Thrills Gives Pair of Tickets Away to Neutral Uke Hotel Show Tonight!

For all you darling Neutral Milk Hotel fans in Boston who were shut out of the Neutral Uke Hotel show tonight at the Armory, Cheap Thrills is giving away one pair of tickets to tonight's show when you name your favorite Neutral Milk Hotel lyrics. So what you are waiting for?

 The Boston Globe produced an excellent feature that highlights (among others) tonight's sold-out Neutral Uke Hotel show at The Armory in Somerville, MA, performed by Golden Bloom's Shawn Fogel and guests.

Oh, The Boston Phoenix also chose Neutral Uke Hotel as a pick of the week, even though it is all sold out!!! We can't stop saying that!

In the Boston Globe piece "Covered in Glory," writer Jonathan Perry discusses three, dare way say, "cover bands," all with Boston-area shows in one week. In a span of a week, three musicians/bands will salute Todd Rundgren, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham.

First this week, there was Road to Utopia: A Tribute to Todd Rundgren, helmed by musician Gary Backstrom. With a nine-piece band, the evening paid homage to the '70s power-pop pioneer 's extensive career from his early days with Nazz to his popular solo work and that unfortunate Utopia phase (ugh).

Perry also talked to Golden Bloom's Shawn Fogel about tonight's show and Fogel's ukulele take on indie icons Neutral Milk Hotel's album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

“It’s one of my favorite records ever,’’ says Fogel, whose guitar-pop outfit Golden Bloom sounds nothing like NMH. “And the album doesn’t just have fans. The people who love that album are obsessed with it.’’ So our Golden boy told the Globe. He went on; “I think its easy for people to look at it and say, Oh, it’s a gimmicky, shtick-y thing — and it’s not,’’ Fogel says. “One of the things that makes the Aeroplane album incredible is the layered production and all the really fuzzy distortion and tape loops, and the nonpolished nature of it. But under all of that, these are unbelievable songs. That’s the goal of the project: to strip these songs down and get people in a room to share their love for this album. If everything goes well, it’ll feel like a campfire singalong.’’

If you haven't gotten your fix, Perry presses you to see the awesomely titled Buckingham cover band The Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society, Saturday, May 15 at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge.

Golden Bloom will be back to Boston on May 20th to headline The Middle East Upstairs and word has it a Neutral Milk Hotel cover ala ukulele may make it into the mix.

Amazing. Eat your heart out AC/DC and Led Zeppelin cover bands. This is how it should be done.



Click Here to Read More..

Golden Bloom's Shawn Fogel Covers Up with Weird Al

It’s nice to know that someone still likes to play a good old prank and crack a joke for April Fool’s Day. On Saturday, April 3, Shawn Fogel will take the stage at the Lizard Lounge as part of the April Fool’s version of The Cover-Up live music series. Hosted by Brendan Boogie and co-organized by Andrea Kremer, the Cover-Up is a live music series based in Boston, where stars of the Boston music scene pay tribute to favorites from the past.

Shawn Fogel, leader of Golden Bloom will dust off some of Weird Al’s “hair raising” greatest mock pop hits and play them in his own divine manner. No stranger to playing a power pop hit, Shawn Fogel played the SXSW Beatles on Ukulele party last week. The power-pop sensibility and bright energetic melodies earned Golden Bloom a 9 out of 10 from BLURT Magazine for Fan the Flames, released August 18th, 2009. Spin Magazine said of the first single off the upcoming full-length, “’Doomsday Devices’ feels like a great b-side from the [Wilco] Summer Teeth era.” Selecting an unorthodox approach, Fogel worked with producers Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Mates of State), Roger Greenawalt (Ben Kweller), and Dylan Magierek (Mark Kozelek) on the latest album.

The full line-up includes:
Sidewalk Driver as Spinal Tap
Oranjuly as The Monkees
Golden Bloom's Shawn Fogel as "Weird Al" Yankovic
Nate Leavitt & Brendan Boogie as Tenacious D

In addition to the music, will be live comedy by Tim McIntire, Lamont Price, and Ken Reid. Click Here to Read More..

Naked Hearts Joins The Voice Project

Naked Hearts join in a recent who's who of artists on board with The Voice Project. Who's the who's who? For starters, Mike Mills of REM covering Billy Bragg, Joseph Arthur covering Peter Gabriel, Andrew Bird covering Mass McCombs and Joe Purdy covering REM. And that's just to name a few.

What's the Voice Project?

 From The Voice Project site:"The Voice Project is an attempt to support these incredible women and the peace movement in Uganda, and an effort to see how far a voice can carry.  We have two main goals, to AMPLIFY the message in their songs in order to support the peace movement, and to assist them in their efforts to EMPOWER themselves economically in order to better their lives, create real social change, and to sustain peace.Music and word of mouth, it can end wars, it can change the world. These incredible women have shown us that. Pass it on."

But most importantly, who is the Naked Hearts? Simply the super-cutest boy-girl duo, smartest pop stuck-in-your-head hook writers we've heard in a long time. Any band that's going to tell me to "Turn the f*cking stereo up," well, I'm on board. Check out the songs for yourself and tell us if you agree. 

Head on over to The Voice Project to see how you can help! Click Here to Read More..

Golden Bloom and The Motion Sick Give Free MP3

When one band covers the other band's music, who is it really giving away the song? It's a bit confusing, especially when they do a mutual song swap. In this case we're giving it a 50/50 split with a free mp3 download of the Golden Bloom covering The Motion Sick's "30 Lives". It will be available for one week only so get it while you can!

Compare and contrast by checking out The Motion Sick's original version here. Click Here to Read More..