TELL Record Release: D-tension and the Secrets, The Daylilies, TELL (Album Release), Charming Arson - 18+, $15 Advance / $20 Day of Show, 8:00 PM Doors
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D-Tension & The Secrets
D-TENSION & THE SECRETSD-TENSION: GUITAR AND VOCALS
WILLIE CONRAD: LEAD GUITAR AND BACKING VOCALS
JARED HOLADAY: GUITAR, KEYS, SAX, AND BACKING VOCALS
KEITH VALCOURT: BASS AND BACKING VOCALS
JOHN KOKAS: DRUMS
D-TENSION & THE SECRETS IS A ROCK AND ROLL BAND FROM LOWELL, MASS FRONTED BY VETERAN SINGER/SONGWRITER D-TENSION. THE BAND WAS FORMED DURING COVID LOCKDOWN AS AN INTERNET COLLABORATION AND EVOLVED INTO AN ACTUAL BAND THAT HAS BEEN PLAYING LIVE FOR TWO YEARS. THEIR DEBUT RECORD, D-TENSION’S SECRET ROCK & ROLL PROJECT, WAS RELEASED IN 2021. THE VIDEO FOR THE LEAD SINGLE, “KENMORE SQUARE” – AN ODE TO THE GOLDEN ERA OF BOSTON ROCK – HAS THOUSANDS OF VIEWS ON YOUTUBE. THE BAND’S SOUND IS BASED ON CLEVER LYRICS, CATCHY HOOKS, TIGHT ARRANGEMENTS, AND LOTS OF HARMONIES WITH STYLES RANGING FROM TWANG TO HEAD BANG. THEIR NEW RECORD, TALES FROM THE PUB, IS DUE IN APRIL 2023. THE FIRST SINGLE, “THE NO NAME SONG” IS GETTING AIRPLAY ON STATIONS NEAR AND FAR.
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The Daylilies
The Daylilies are a band composed of living relics of Boston rock and roll history, including Ad Frank (…and the Fast Easy Women, Lifestyle), Matt Klain (Mistle Thrush), Mike Quinn (Reverse, Dragstrip Courage), Adam Goodwin (Joe Turner and Seven Levels, PermaFrost) and Maine native Laura England Klain (The Feather Lungs, The Sweet Terror). Drawing on this extensive and highly impressive experience, their sound can most easily be described as “pop,” though electronic rock, post-grunge and new wave are also frequently accurate. Cell tower triangulation finds their sound somewhere between Garbage, The Cars and Low.
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TELL
Musician and novelist David Wildman was called “Amazingly original and wild-ass awesome” by Chuck Palahniuk.
Now he’s rocking COVID with soulful songwriting in “Stir Crazy”, a new album from his fiery trio TELL.
TELL features cinematic pop/rock songs with killer dance beats and a nod to Eighties icons like Midnight Oil and Television.
“Stir Crazy”, the infectious-in-a-good-way title song and video, present the story of someone bottled up in a familiar hell. It’s rendered with stylish wit and high-energy guitar riffs that both shimmer and roar with the mixing magic of Paul Q. Kolderie, of Radiohead and Pixies fame.
Each of the 9 tracks has a story to TELL. In “Citizen of the World”, set to drop as a single May 4, a man has everything except love. “Rosemary Goes Away” says the past must be destroyed to move forward. In “Eyes Grow Wide” an unusual child brings hope for the future, “My Kind of Lie” truth loses all meaning, and an old friend cracks up completely in the big, epic closer “Followed by Helicopters.”
Author/rock critic Brett Milano writes: “If you’re a first-class songwriter, being shut down just might wind up turning you loose. The songs here present flawed but recognizable characters, all making their way through a desperate era. It’s a lot like real life in these times, only catchier.”
TELL’s sound features Wildman’s striking guitar hooks and passionate vocals that channel Tom Verlaine and David Bowie. Jay Raffi provides the distinctive touch with his standout wild pretzel bass approach, and the divebomb drumming of Chuck Ferriera drives it all forward.
Raffi and Wildman’s musical alchemy has been developing for years, playing together in various bands on the Boston scene. With this release they are operating at the pinnacle of their powers, despite barely seeing each other face to face while putting it together.
Wildman wrote, recorded and produced most of the tracks during the Covid, working with his home computer, laying down crunchy guitar and lush landscapes of keyboards and vocals. Paul Q. Kolderie heard the rough of the title song “Stir Crazy” and volunteered to mix it. That drew the attention of the fine folks here at Lunch Records.
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Charming Arson
Fuzz drenched poetry, slick licks, and hints of eastern mysticism
There’s no difference between a great song and a great story. Both should thrill you and alter how you see the world. That’s the vision of Charming Arson. This Boston-based alt-rock power-pop quartet wants to excite your imagination and feed your mind. Soaring guitar licks and expressionist lyrics are the yin and yang in their songwriting alchemy. The song as story; the story as song.
Charming Arson was hatched over a few beers at the Burren in Somerville, MA, in February of 2020, when Dave Cameron and Dave Gould decided to rekindle their musical flame.
Both had played together in the late 90s in Zoot, an alt/prog-rock trio that worked the Boston scene hard until the untimely death of their guitarist, John Haley. Cameron and Gould parted musical ways, but never stopped talking about how they would one day fire up the tubes. Years later, brooding in that Irish pub over empty pint glasses and the mellifluous yearnings of uilleann pipes, they realized they were idiots for not doing this ten years earlier.
First band practice occurred on March 5, 2020, which just so happened to coincide with an up-and-coming respiratory virus named after America’s #51 selling beer.
For the next 18 months, as the Cervecería Modelo brewing company launched a marketing counteroffensive2, band practice consisted of Zoom meetings and GarageBand file transfers. In the summer of 2021, the band, now a four piece3, convened at Quiethouse Recording and recorded their first EP/album, Breathe in Joy. One year, six songs, and a few shows later, the band returned to Quiethouse for their follow up, the soon to be released Cabaré Apocalypse. “Haley, you’re my comet,” dedicated to Zoot’s late-guitarist, was the first single.
Charming Arson’s current lineup is Stefano Bellezza4 on lead guitar, Dave Cameron on guitar and lead vox, Aaron Clark on bass, and Dave Gould on drums. Everyone sings backing vocals, especially Clark5.
With the upcoming release of Cabaré Apocalypse, Charming Arson leans into their commitment to melodic guitar rock aimed straight at your poetic imagination. Your spiritual imagination too. It’s all part of the same muse that draws you to what makes you feel alive. Glad to be alive. That’s where this band can take you.
Make it loud. Make it beautiful.