Here at TeaParty Boston, we’ve made it our mission to showcase only the best local music that Boston has to offer. When we were planning our weekly residency project at the Lizard Lounge this past winter, we had a lot of bands to choose from, but only a handful were selected. Viva Viva definitely made the cut. They rocked with Leisure to a sold out room, and have been staying busy with a new recording project, as well as planning some dates at Boston’s top venues.

We recently sat down with them to talk about what it is that rising bands in Boston do, and even got some advice for new bands. They recently released their first full-length release, self-titled which is available online.

Viva Viva will be playing at Great Scott on June 16th, and will also be playing at the Middlesex Lounge on June 21st, joined by their friends the Naked Gods.

- Matt Rohr

Hey guys, thank you for taking time to meet with me in the studio. What are you guys working on in here?

Dan: We’re working on songs right now that will eventually become a release that we’ll put out in some manner, one way or another. We don’t have a name for the new release, and it’s kind of far off in the distance, but we’re working on writing and recording new stuff.

Chris: We we’re talking about different ways that we could put it out too, maybe do some 7” records…

D: We’re really just waiting till we have a solid body of work and then we can listen to it all together and decide from there what the best way to put it out would be. It will be under 10 songs when were done with the sessions, we’re hoping for around 7 songs. We also just put our first record online through our bandcamp, and we’ll have physical copies of the record soon. We’re working on vinyl–no promises or expected release dates–but that’s something were looking into. On may 31st the record also went up on iTunes, and a few other web-based music stores.

How would you say you typically approach your songwriting, being a larger group of 5?

D: Chris and Dave write most of the music, but of course we have our parts.

C: We’re working on three songs right now, and I wrote two of them, and Dave wrote the other. We pretty much just went into the practice space, and banged around with it a little, and everything just kind of took its shape. Everybody helps with the arrangements. I’ll have a pretty good idea, but they help me smooth it out. It really goes on a song-to-song basis though, some songs I’ll just have on lock from the get-go, but we’ve been together for a while, so we kind of know what’s appropriate.

Are there any artists that you would say have really shaped who you guys are? Or maybe some artists that are unrelated to your sound that you just really like and have inspired you?

C: Personally, I don’t really follow what’s going on with music now, I don’t know who’s “big” or anything like that. There’s definitely nothing new that has inspired me. I try to listen to music that isn’t what we really sound like, though. Our music kind of fills that gap with me. I try to make music that I’d want to hear and enjoy, but I heard this expression the other day that I definitely agree with, and that’s “we’re not trying to re-invent the wheel, just keep it rolling.”

You guys have a few Boston dates in June, but are there any plans for a tour coming up?

C: We’re gonna take the summer off, and then maybe around the fall we were planning on doing some sort of tour, or string of dates. We’ve only done one tour, and it was mostly in North Carolina.

D: That tour went really well because we were with our friends’ band the Naked Gods, who will actually be playing with us in June, on the 21st. They’re from down there, and we went around with them. We were really lucky cause they have a great following down there, and we did five shows around a weekend there. We were lucky cause there are a lot of booking agents who just don’t know what the fuck they’re doing. We’ve gone to New York and played awesome shows, and we’ve also gone there and played to absolute shit.

C: We played sold out shows that were around 300 people, and it was incredible. That’s unheard of for a band like us.

How did you all meet one another?

D: Well it all started through music that we were working on separately, in different bands and such.

Dave: It was kind of like we were all sick of the bands we were in, and we thought to ourselves, man I want to play music with those people. We just kind of looked around and were like, they look cool, oh, she plays keys, let’s get her, etc. It just kind of snowballed together.

C: A while back I was actually playing in a different band, and I cancelled one of my shows just so I could see these guys play. (laughs)

Are there any moments that were really monumental to the band so far? Or maybe some moments that you look back on and think, “well I’m never doing that again”?

D: You gotta really watch who you get in bed with, per se, when it comes to the business aspect of things. You have to have some sense of self preservation and a good business sense because it’s really easy to get suckered in by fast-talking types and people to talk a big game and can’t back it up. You either have to really trust who you’re working with, or do it on your own. You kind of have to get burnt once or twice to learn from your mistakes too.

VIVA VIVA plays Great Scott on June 16th and  Middlesex Lounge on June 21st

WET BANDITS

The Wet Bandits are DJ Durkin and Evaredy. While they were both booking steady gigs on their own, the two turntablists decided to up the ante with a collaboration when they experienced a fateful “mind meld,” leading to their informal debut as a duo during the groundbreaking Together Festival.

This Wednesday, they’ll be spinning alongside Bodega Girls’ King EvRock and Mac Machine at the inaugural COOL RANCH monthly dance party at Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge. We hunted them down to get the scoop on where they came from, what they’re doing and what’s next.

–Jessie Rogers

You’ve both been DJs-about-town for a bit, but as a duo you guys are fairly new. What made Wet Bandits happen?

Durkin: I first had the idea to try a four turntable thing as a last ditch effort to rescue my failing night at the new Milky Way last summer. At the time Evaredy and I were doing the occasional gig together in Portsmouth NH or at the Enormous Room in Cambridge, so I asked if he was down to try it out. We started rehearsing and realized that we had a sort of mind meld thing going on. We could improvise and have fun with it without trainwrecking or falling too far into nerdy turntablism stuff. After the Milky Way party we decided to give ourselves a name and rock more parties.

Evaredy: Yeah, the four-turntable thing happened pretty naturally. I had done multi-turntable stuff before, but never in a straight party rocking setting, which I believe is harder to pull off. We really liked what we were hearing so we continued building on it.

What was it like to play the first-ever Together Festival? Was that your first show?

Durkin: Our showcase at the festival was fun. We did a DIY style YMCA party with an awesome lineup. It was technically our first Boston show under the name The Wet Bandits. We had done the Milky Way show, but it was more of an experiment and we didn’t have a name at that point. Our actual first show was in Portsmouth, NH at the Red Door in November of 2009. I am really proud that we were part of the first TGTHR. It’s only going to get bigger and better.

Evaredy: That show was great! I guess that is where we decided that The Wet Bandits was going to be the name. I’m grateful that we had a chance to be a part of TGTHR, and like Ryan said, it’s only going to get bigger and better.

What are your thoughts on the DJ/Electronic music scene in Boston?

Durkin: Boston is a grind! It’s a small scene with a lot going on so you really have to bring the ruckus and promote like a mad man to get heads to come out. I feel like that makes everyone step their game up. We have a lot of talented DJs and producers. I feel like the whole city is poised to blow up soon.

Evaredy: There is so much talent here. You definitely have to step up and work hard to keep up with it.

What’s on the horizon for Wet Bandits?

Durkin: After Cool Ranch, we are tag-team DJing Zuzu on Friday night and Enormous Room on Saturday night. Only two turntables, but we’ll still bring the Wet Bandits party spirit. We’re probably going to do a mixtape soon… Who knows? The Wet Bandits are elusive.

Evaredy: Hopefully more gigs and fewer irons in the face.

How fucking psyched are you for Cool Ranch?

Durkin: This is actually the first time I’ve ever played Middlesex so I am psyched. We are going to burn shit down.

Evaredy: I can’t wait for the party!

—–

Coming up next month…

“Do you enjoy partying until the “breaka breaka dawn”? Do you enjoy being in a sweaty room surrounded by stud muffins and beautiful dames? Do you want to hear jams from Judas Priest and Chromeo in the same night? If you said “yes” to any of these questions, you need to get hip to this: Bodega Girls Present: Cool Ranch on Wednesday, April 28th. A new dance night brought to by the record collections of the slimiest, band of tricksters in Boston…Bodega Girls. Hot jams will be heard, memories will be made, sins will be committed…all you have to do is show up and look pretty. And shake it.” – EvRock

Brooklyn’s Naked Heroes play rock n roll music. They may be married, but George Michael Jackson and Merica Lee are not exactly Mates of State. Their lo-fi, DIY sound is bigger than that of most duos, with Lee’s cymbals crashing down from the heavens while Jackson’s yowling vocals and driving guitars sneaking in from down under to hit you somewhere below the belt. Whether it’s on the wildly percussive “Opposable Thumb” or the rootsy, anthemic title track off their album 99 Diamonds, Naked Heroes take the classic approach to rock. We say: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it—just sex it up a whole lot.

We got some Q&A time with Lee and Jackson as they gear up for their first-ever Boston show this Wednesday at the Bodega Girls’ weekly Lo-Fi Hedonistic Dance Party at Middlesex Lounge.

–Jessie Rogers

Hello Naked Heroes! Introduce yourselves.

The Naked Heroes are Merica Lee on drums/vocals and George Michael Jackson on guitar/vocals. We are from Brooklyn, NY and play ass shakin’, soul redeemin’, head bangin’ ROCK ‘N’ ROLL.

This will be your first time playing in Boston. How crazy excited are you?

We are totally amped and especially excited to rock Beantown with our friends in the amazing Bodega Girls. This will be the party to end all parties.

Does your band name hint at your performance attire?

We come out and rock your face off your face. We get sweaty doing such dirty business so sometimes we need to shed some layers. The best is when the crowd has shed some layers as well. There is nothing better than when we look out and everyone has their shirts off, dancing, sweating and celebrating together in one big primal orgy of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

How did you get into the party rock and roll business? What was the catalyst that started Naked Heroes?

We met at a bar in the East Village in Manhattan. We just happened to be sitting next to each other at the bar and there was a Rod Stewart video playing on the TV. We then starting talking about the pure sexiness of Rod the Mod. After chatting for a bit it turned out we both played music, so we decided to get together, buy a bunch of cheap wine and go jam and storm the heavens. We’ve been playing together ever since.

Your album is free! That’s badass, why are you being so generous?

With mp3’s and file sharing and the interwebs, the game has changed. The idea of selling a recorded performance in a digital format has just been completely devalued monetarily. We record live and we record extremely fast so that keeps our costs down. We don’t really buy mp3’s and none of our friends do either, so we decided to just throw it out there and have people spread it around. There is no manufacturing cost other than the initial recording. We’ve had over 40,000 downloads of “99 Diamond” and it would have cost the same if 15 people downloaded it.

The great thing about recorded music being this fluid, almost disposable thing is is that the live performance becomes all the more valued. It brings it back to the way people experienced music for most of history. Recorded music occupies a very small period in time which had it’s financial heyday, padded some peoples pockets and let them snort blow off groupies tits in their swanky private jet, but that party’s over. Get on the bus.

In addition to the free mp3’s, we have a limited edition picture disc 12″ vinyl record coming out late March on Drug Front Records. We’re extremely excited for this and it will feature the genius artwork of Benjamin Marra who did the artwork for the digital version as well. You have to make it special in this day and age, otherwise people just won’t give a fuck. Too much shit, too much noise. Too many shitty fucking bands.

Can you talk about the writing/recording process?

The majority of our stuff comes from playing together in the practice space. We go in and the first thing we do is crack a beer and just jam. If we get something that is grooving we’ll start singing some shit on top, gibberish stuff. The tone of the music will usually dictate the tone of the lyrics and a lot of the time we will keep the original off the cuff lyrical stuff. “Feel Me Slide” never had written lyrics, the lyrics that are in the song were written the first time they were sung on the fly in one take when we recorded the demo in our apartment. Never changed ‘em.

Our big thing is trying to keep alive and fertilize that initial spark when you come up with something and your internal critic is passed out. The moment when you are purely excited and just doing. The recording process is similar in the sense that we record live, vocals and all. It’s really strange that people find that exotic. Most people go into a recording studio and become retarded and way too self aware. When we finish a take of the song, we are pretty much done. The amps are in the room with the drums and a P.A. for vocals—Stooges “Funhouse” style. No headphones, just us playing in the room and if you walked in you could just take a seat and dig on it.

What are you listening to right now? Are there any new acts you’re excited about?

Grand Funk Railroad is in heavy rotation right now. Rory Gallagher, Sam & Dave, John Lee Hooker. Shit that grooves, stuff that doesn’t forget that there is roll in the rock.

As far as new bands, Bodega Girls know how to bring the party, Kylesa knocks us into submission and Runny brings the weird.

What can we expect from your show on Wednesday?

You can expect to see 2 people rocking the fuck out and having the time of their lives.

DOWNLOAD: The Naked Heroes – 99 Diamond

Full disclosure: TeaParty really loves Southern Belle. It’s probably no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. After their entrancing performance at our Haiti earthquake relief benefit, we signed on to help out with their Broke After VDay show at Middlesex Lounge earlier this month and invited them to play alongside another TPB favorite, Mystery Roar, for the final installment of our TeaRoom Tuesdays concert series at the Lizard Lounge. We finally got a chance to talk with frontman, multi-instrumentalist and producer Isom Innis about the group’s history, and promising future.

Innis himself is a story. He’s a talented songwriter, a total sweetheart and a survivor. An endearing smile rarely leaves his face as he momentarily focuses his frenetic energy to tell us about growing up in Nashville, England and then Colorado.

He spent his early childhood playing drums to Yes, the Beatles and Pink Floyd records in a Nashville basement. That is, when he wasn’t tagging along on the road while his father’s country band toured the states.

When his parents split up, his mother remarried and moved the family to Oxford, England, where he took piano lessons (showing an early penchant for remixing, he frustrated his teacher by never sticking to the sheet music, instead playing “what sounded good”) and was exposed to bands that would offer a counterpoint to his country music-oriented experiences.

“That’s when bands like Oasis, Supergrass and Radiohead were literally conquering the world,” he says of that time, “England had a huge effect—all my favorite bands are from the UK.”

When the family crossed the Atlantic again, it was to settle in Colorado where his stepfather was a pastor at a church. Innis recalls the day that his then-estranged biological father showed up at their home, only to be taken in by his stepfather to be part of the church band.

“He went through a crazy period,” he says. “He’s an amazing musician but he kind of went off the deep end and there was a period in my life where I didn’t see him for about 6 years. But he came back to Colorado and started playing piano at my stepdad’s church and I was playing drums and my mom sang.”

That same sense of incorporation and community comes across when Innis talks about forming his own band. Southern Belle is built of friends, curated from his favorite local acts (drummer Erik Lund plays in Old Abram Brown, while guitarist John Ryan fronts With Engines), and the line-up reflects his feelings on the Boston music scene in general.

“It’s just a supportive, friendship-based community, which is cool because you don’t feel so alone. You’re not isolated when you’re playing,” he says. “In a music scene you can play a show in front of two people and not feel that bad about it because you did it with a couple other bands that are your best friends.”

But Southern Belle is not that band borne of a group of friends jamming together in a dorm room. Innis takes a deep breath and tells me about how his previous band fell apart minutes before a big showcase at CMJ in 2007: “It was really scary because I had been doing this band for 5 years of my life. When I came back to Boston I was in a really weird place because I suddenly had nothing.”

But that’s not entirely true. A remixing project for some friends yielded a few tracks he ended up keeping for himself. Months later, Innis posted the songs on MySpace just before heading back to Colorado for heart valve replacement surgery (“I’m part machine,” he often jokes. It’s only too fitting in a person who plays electronic music about heartbreak) and, via the majesty of the Internet, Southern Belle was born.

“I’m from Nashville and my sister’s name is Isabella. So I took my southern childhood and named it after my sister,” he explains, “I knew I could not go back on it. I could never not be satisfied with it.”

After a long and painful recovery, Innis returned to Boston and was anxious to play live. One gig yielded nearly a dozen more as well as some great opportunities like opening for Neon Indian and support from marketing and promotions company, Planetary Group.

The future of Southern Belle looks bright, but Innis is hesitant to get too caught up in the momentum. “I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We’re still this little tiny band that no one knows about.” We’ll see about that.

–Jessie Rogers

DOWNLOAD: Southern Belle – Walkout.mp3

Southern Belle plays TeaRoom Tuesdays at the Lizard Lounge with Mystery Roar on 2/23

Southern Belle – Conditional Love from TeaParty Boston on Vimeo.

Here’s our weekend to-do list. Print it out. Check it off. Enjoy.

–TeaParty

THE REX COMPLEX

[ ] Savor a Delicious Victory with the Rex Complex

[ ] Get a jump on that “be more worldly” resolution with Zili Misik,

[ ] Say Happy Birthday to David Bowie

at The Pill w/ DJs Ken & Michael V. at Great Scott

[ ] Finally check out the badassery that is the Armory at Pop Goes the Armory

with Golden Bloom, Brendan Boogie and The Future Everybody’s Nate Rogers

[ ] Get way too much indie rock for only $3 at The Wandas show

with Jeddo Stars at Tommy Doyles

[ ] Secretly wish that Julian Casablancas would play that Christmas song

at Paradise Rock Club

SIDEWALK DRIVER

[ ] Make some joke about two of the three bands having automotivesque names at Precinct (that’s 66.6%, yo!)

[ ] Congratulate Conservative Man for making it to Boston, against all odds

at their EP release show with The Luxury, Organ Beats and This Blue Heaven at The Middle East Upstairs

[ ] Feel artsy for at least one day at Draw Drawings Everyday

Opening reception 6-10PM at Washington St. Art Center in Union Sq.

[ ] Dance your most delicious at Strictly Butter with DJ KON

at Middlesex Lounge

[ ] Hear what a Christopher Walken-approved bassline sounds like at the Wallcreeper show

with Earthquake Party, KC Quilty, Pelvis McGillicuddy at P.A.’s Lounge

[ ] Let Laura Cortese warn you about 2010 at Club Passim

with Jason Myles Goss

VIVA VIVA Photo by Fanny courtesy of myspace.com

 

[ ] Spend some art sex death time with VIVA VIVA

and The Duchess & The Duke and Medication at TT the Bear’s Place

[ ] Force your awful vinyl collection on the general public at Sunday Spins

at TOAD 3-8PM

[ ] Then stay later for Treat Her Right with Jim Fitting & David Champagne, joined by Tim Gearan, Billy Beard, and Steve Mayone

at TOAD 9PM

So, we’ve whipped up a list of local goings on. Organized by neighborhood and presented in the most straightforward fashion we could come up with, behold the bounty that Boston has to offer on this last night of 2009.

Happy New Year!

– TeaParty

(P.S. We know we didn’t list everything, feel free to plug your own events in the comment section!)

BODEGA GIRLS

BOSTON PROPER

What: Bodega Girls w/  Ninja Sonik, Wasted Talent and DJs Paul Foley, Knife, Mac Machine and Saucy Lady
Where: Good Life
How Much: $35
Why: Champagne toast at midnight, and “Wasted Talent will provide teen ape and wrestling antics”… whatever that means.

What: Thunderdome MMX
Where: Villa Victoria Center for the Arts
How Much: $25 at the door, $20 if you dress fancily
Why: PBR toast at midnight, photobooth by Lara Callahan, three countdowns at 12, 1 and 2 “because that’s the best part anyways.”

MAGIC MAGIC

ALLSTON

What: Mean Creek/Magic Magic/You Can Be A Wesley/Earthquake Party!
Where: Great Scott
How Much: $10 advance tix / $15 at the door
Why: Kickass local indie rock, man.

What: Mr. Brownstone w/ Township
Where: Paradise Rock Club
How Much: $25
Why: The GnR tribute band will be performing Appetite for Distruction in its entirety.

What: Rescue Nite Presents: NEW MOZ EVE
Where: The Model Cafe
How Much: Free with RSVP
Why: “There will be people drinking, there will be people dancing, there will be people making out” and it’s FREE.

JAMAICA PLAIN

What: CASH4GOLD w/ DJs Just Joan and Monster Carl
Where: The Milky Way Lounge
How Much: $15
Why: Late night “golden” snack menu, and it’s a chance to use up that gold facepaint before its 2010 expiration date

TIM GEARAN

CAMBRIDGE

What: Tim Gearan Band w/ Treat Her Right
Where: Lizard Lounge
How Much: $25
Why: Because you can’t stand that electro crap the kids are dancin’ to these days.

What: Soul Clap
Where: Middlesex Lounge
How Much: TBA
Why: Because you love that electro crap the kids are dancin’ to these days.

What: Ellis Paul
Where: Club Passim
How Much: $30 / $28
Why: Um… folk legend?

JASON ANDERSON

SOMERVILLE

What: Jason Anderson & The Best w/ Math the Band, Strand of Oaks
Where: PA’s Lounge
How Much: $10 for 18+ / $7 for 21+
Why: Look at that picture. Just look at it. That’s sheer joy, folks.