THE PATH TO AN INDIE SLEAZE SUMMER
Today Junior takes you on a journey of fun, love and loss, and growing up in their selftitled album. Released on April 20th (nice) this album is perfect for a summer roadtrip playlist. Brothers Harry and Mike O’Toole, alongside bassist Tony Ambrose, have pulled off an excellent rendition of indie sleaze. They fit right in with bands like Dinosaur Jr., Phoenix, and the Strokes. The album has such a sing-a-long quality that I was singing most of the words on my second listen. With the punchy drums, the elaborate guitar riffs, and the sick guitar solos, Today Junior really takes me back to the 2010’s.
The lyrics really stand out to me. A lot of the songs are structured in a “Hot Fuss” by The Killers sort of fashion—repetitive but in a good way. The repetitiveness creates the easy-to-sing-along to quality. My favorite songs are “Sweet Little Nothings,” “Brain Fog,” and “Where Will We Wander.”
In my interpretation, “Sweet Little Nothings” is a song about loving someone so much it kinda ruins your life. You’re thinking about them all the time, tripping over yourself, unable to get anything done. The guitar riffs and drums were a little funkier and edgier in this song than the rest of the album.
“caught in the current suffocating, staring up at you, drowning down, into your heart, I’m breaking apart, just a fool for you, I can’t take much more”
I think this line really captures the simultaneous exhaustion, desperation, and craving that comes with having a crush.
“Brain Fog” is a great homage to smoking weed. When you’re exhausted, life keeps beating you down, it’s so nice to just not have thoughts for a while.
“would you wanna, stay here or go, out back and smoke some marijuana, we’re wastin’ time, and it feels so fine”
I love the concept of relishing in not doing anything for a while. Any trace of an antiproductivity stance is something I will always support.
The final song of the album, “Where Will We Wander,” is a wistful reflection on aging and change. It feels like a goodbye to young adulthood or a goodbye to your 20s. The bassline really pops out in this track and it compliments the guitar melody quite well. “different times, come and go, golden days fade away, we were young, we were young, but we’re older now, time is running out, hard to say we’re leavin’ all the ways we were”
I like the message of being a little reluctant to let go of the past but also looking forward to the future.
The first song of this album is called “In Massachusetts,” and in the last track “Where Will We Wander,” one of the lyrics is, “in your mind we’re still in California.” This line shows that this album tells you a story. You’re going to feel the full range of emotions listening to this album. When I was listening, I could imagine myself on a summer roadtrip, on the beach, in the rain, crying in my room. I will absolutely be dancing to this album for a while. This album better be in your summer playlists.
Oh and catch them at one of the biggest local indie music festivals, Nice, a fest, this July with their new bassist & BCN graphic designer Hannah Blauner!
GANNOPY URENA
BCN IS ON PATREON!!
Friends, I have to admit that fundraising platforms can be triggering. The gofundmes, kickstarters and indiegogos tend to send a shock of fear and guilt through me cause I want to support everyone and I simply can’t afford to. Patreon does not do that to me for some reason and I think it’s because like BCN, it’s monthly. So I can plan out my charitable giving, to multiple creators even, and keep it all within budget. See, your budget represents what you value, and if you care about supporting the creative culture of Boston and paying artists, now is your chance to plug in and get OUT! There are too few platforms where contributions go directly to artists in the community
So, yes, this month we launched a Patreon and we invite you to sign up if it’s within your
means. Next month we are going to publish the BCN 2023 budget to show you all what our goals and wishes are for this year. For Patreon, our goal is just 100 subscribers, which would nearly cover the costs of paying all of our artists like writers and illustrators for their work on the Compass. That’s about $1,000 a month. Super manageable we think. The printing is halfway covered through grants, and our part time administrative team is securing enough sponsorship to cover their own compensation. So after all these years it’s a work in progress and we are so glad you are part of it. See you next month for some budgeting and goal setting fun! Year 13, let’s goooooo.
--------------------------------------- SAM POTRYKUS
BCNHOMEDELIVERY! yourGetthepaperdeliveredto frontdooreachmonth, andotherhotperksonour brandnewPatreon!foundationOurgoalistocreateastable forthepaperthat canpayforproductioncosts, staffandalltheamazingartists whocontributeeachmonth.https://www.patreon.com/ BostonCompass Newspaper
to take careful precautions when going out to public events! Follow the venue’s requirements regarding vaccination/negative Covid tests and masking instructions! Always double check the event online just in case they need to cancel!**
music & audio
5/2 Knitting, Squitch, Paper Lady, Grace Givertz
@O'Briens Pub
8PM 18+ $12
5/3 Tossed Aside, Sinister Feeling, Fraud, Shock Treatment
@Ralphs Rock Diner
8PM 21+ $12
5/4 - 5/25
Freestyle Thursday
A weekly jam session for musicians of all backgrounds and genres. All skill levels are welcome. Bring your own instrument, but they have some if need be. Please message @kinrosscommunitycenter on IG for location and updates. Jamming ends at midnight.
@Kinross Community Center
9PM All Ages FREE
5/4 Arts At The Armory
Spotlight Series Presents
David Wax Museum
@Arts at the Armory
7PM-11PM All Ages $25
5/4 Scorpion Porch, Foxfires, Sink, Compress @10Forward (Greenfield)
7PM-10PM All Ages $10
5/5 EXIT Presents Kayla Silverman, Ruby-Sage, Ana Schon & the Reunion
@EXIT Galleries
7PM All Ages $15-$20
5/6 Cathedral Ceilings, Hilken Mancini Band, Lupo Citta
@Midway Cafe 8PM 21+ $10
5/6 babybaby_explores, Donna Revving (FKA Ultra Chapelle, Vulpes Vulpes, Velvet Dreaming benefit show for FANG Collective!
@Democracy Center
8PM All Ages $5-10, No one turned away for lack of funds!
5/6 Nia Suhn Album Release
Party with Aaron Bates, Liz Raki, Amanda Shea, Choppa Tha Beatboxa, Soneta
@The Record Co.
6PM $15/20
Trophy Wife, Tiberus
@EXIT Galleries
7PM All Ages $ome Cost
5/8 Bars Over Bars
Presents: Faucet Flows A Thrift Hiphop Showcase ft. The Strange Merchants, Rey Spyder, Musicman, Project Gurl and more!
@The Faucet Thrift
7PM All Ages $10
5/10 Fully Celebrated Orchestra w/ Jasper Hobbs + Persistent Fools
@Midway Cafe
8PM 21+ $5
5/11 Dumbass Youth & Forbes Graham
@O'Briens Pub
9PM 21+ $12-15
5/12 HIRS, Rong, The Cost of Living, Thighs
@O'Briens Pub
10PM 21+ $14
5/12 Robbery, Sink, Impulse Control, Compress @Rat Trap (Holyoke)
8PM All Ages $10
5/12 EXIT Presents Barefoot Young, Otis Shanty, Hereboy
@EXIT Galleries
7PM All Ages $ome Cost
5/13 Roxbury Community College Presents a Hip Hop Documentary film screening + live local Hip Hop Celebrate 50 years of RCC with a 4PM showing of Public Enemy doc 'Welcome to the Terrordome' with conversation with local hip hop artists to follow, then at 7:30PM live performances by Paul Willis, Red Shaydez, REKS + DJ Troy Frost.
@Roxbury Community College Media Arts Center
All Ages FREE
5/13 Illegally Blind
Presents System Exclusive, Boston Cream, Kathy Snax
@Lilypad
Own, Life of Crime, Opposition
@Taffeta (Lowell)
6:30PM All Ages $15
5/20 Kermit's Finger, Jonee Earthquake Band, Charmed & Strange, The McCritters
@Midway Cafe
3PM All Ages $10
5/20 Electric Street
Queens, Midnight Creeps, Shellshag, Scare City, Sherman
@Ralphs Rock Diner
7PM 21+ $5
5/20 Cake Factory Presents
ximena, Tonyman, Alfredo, Final Object
@Cantab Lounge
6PM 21+ $10
5/22 Dead Bars, Perfectly Lethal, Hell Beach (first show)
@FACES Brewing
7PM All Ages $5
5/22 Superheaven, Cloakroom, Pony
@Crystal Ballroom
7PM All Ages $ome Cost
5/22 Pet Symmetry, Retirement Party, Camp Trash
@Arts at the Armory
7PM All Ages $ome Cost
5/25 IBOOKTHINGS
Presents Tsunami Of Sound, Jonee Earthquake Band
@Notch Brewing Biergarten
7PM 21+ FREE
5/28 Arts at the Armory
Spotlight Series Presents Bill Frisell, Tony Scherr, and Rudy Royston
@Arts at the Armory
7PM All Ages $40-50
5/29 En Attendant
Ana, Adult Learners, Hands and Knees
@O'Briens Pub
9PM 21+ $12
6/22 - 6/24 Boston Art & Music Soul Festival (BAMS)
Get youR tickets now to one of the best annual fests Boston has to give!
Featuring performances by Tim Hall, Nate Nics, Tori Tori, Notebook P., Cake$wagg, Kei and more!! Plus tons of activities for the whole family including vendors, food, drink, live art + graffiti exhibition. Many ticket options available from FREE to paid VIP seats!
@ Franklin Park, Playstead Field
10AM-8PM All Ages FREE-$300
Queer Women In Music Boston is a labor of love via The History Project www.historyproject.org which documents Boston’s LGBTQ history. QWIMB seeks to document, archive, promote, love, cherish, and support queer women and the gender expansive community in Boston’s music scene…past and present. Find out how to support and get involved at www.qwimb.org + follow @queerwomeninmusicboston
performance art
Thru 5/21 Central Square Theater has assembled an amazing ensemble of local talent for Tony Kushner's groundbreaking play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Don't miss! Tix at centralsquaretheater.org
@Central Square Theater
$25-68
Thru 5/14 Apollinaire Theatre brings Clare Barron's memory play on pre-teen ambition, Dance Nation to Chelsea Theatre Works.
Tix @apollinairetheatre.com
$15-30
5/12-5/14 HER | alive. un.dead by Emily Koh. A multimedia opera and surrealist drama, coproduced with Guerilla Opera that follows two Chinese-American women who meet in the afterlife and explores conflicts between their Western upbringing and Chinese culture. Multiple showtimes and tix available at www.paoartscenter.com
@PAO Arts Center
All Ages $15-$55
5/12-5/13 The Bard's timeless tale, Romeo & hit the legendary Strand Theatre in Dorchester. Tix www.commshakes.org
5/17-5/21Nehanda explodes on the stage with music and movement
5/26 Slut Trek a night of drag, burlesque, live music, pole, and fan service to one of the most prolific and loved science fiction series of all time, Star Trek.
@ONCE Somerville
7PM-11PM 18+ $20-45
6/2-6/4 African Fashion Week Boston Every year some of Boston's best cultural fashion designers, activists and artists weave together an experience that manifests the rich African tapestry of New England. After much anticipation, African Fashion Week Boston happens this June with a cultural experience that will resurrect the diaspora in you. Ft panel discussions, fashion shows, cultural dance, marketplace and more! Learn more at www.afwboston.com
@The Guild Works
5/2-5/31 The Coolidge screens their 7 favorite Jim Jarmusch films ALL MAY. Stranger Than Paradise 5/2, Down by Law 5/10, Mystery Train 5/16, Night on Earth 5/17, Coffee Cigarettes 5/24, The Limits of Control 5/30 and Only Lovers Left Alive 5/31.
@Coolidge Corner Theater
7PM $16.25
5/2-5/30 Catch iconic collabs from Scorsese and DeNiro on the big screen for only 7 bucks every Tuesday in May with Taxi Driver on 5/2, Raging Bull on 5/9, Goodfellas on 5/16, Cape Fear on 5/23 and Casino on 5/30
@Kendall Square Cinema
7PM $7
5/8+5/14 Harvard Film Archive’s celebration of the founding father of African cinema, Med Hondo, wraps up. Catch Black Light on 5/8 or his doc Polisario, A People in Arms on 5/14 @Harvard Film Archive
7PM FREE
5/8 Come of age in Black America, Chicago 1964 at Cooley High with Motown as the soundtrack.
@Coolidge Corner Theater
7PM $16.25
5/12-5/27 Experience the poetic world of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's films. Don't miss his masterpieces Taste of Cherry on 5/19 or The Wind Will Carry Us on 5/21 @Harvard Film Archive
7PM FREE
5/25 Parker Posey time capsules part of ‘90s NYC in the film Party Girl.
video & film
5/26-5/27 Crimes of Passion is peak Kathleen Turner in Ken Russel's sultry and controversial film. After midnight showing!
@Coolidge Corner Theater
12AM $16.25
5/2-5/30 REPARATIONS
'Repair Action Hour'
For just one hour a week
5/1-6/30 Workers Statues in Chinatown by Wen-ti Tsen pays tribute to the workers who have uplifted Boston Chinatown through their essential labor over the decades. The four sets of clay models Tsen has developed for the project represent four different workers from the Chinese immigrant community.
@PAO Arts Center
5/1-6/30 Call and
Response: Illustration in Uncertain Times features illustrations and graphic designs by seven local AAPI artists including Deborah Johnson and Payal Kumar who have used their craft to speak to this complicated moment. As with other kinds of labor, these artistic gestures offer critical support to the community by giving voice to different experiences and encouraging care.
@PAO Arts Center
5/26 Holding Space: Meditations on Queer Experience opening reception for this upcoming local art exhibition. Expect music performances and an open screening of local queer filmmakers. Drinks provided! Exhibition on view
5/19-6/25 12PM-4PM
@Assemblage Art Space
6PM All Ages FREE
Until 7/30 May Stevens: My Mothers Paintings featuring the artist's birth mother and "spiritual" mother that explore the relationship between the personal and political.
@MAAM 12PM-5PM
Repair America Collective will meet to organize to end cycles of harm within our communities through reparations for Black Americans that are descendants of chattel slavery. Every Tuesday!
Face masks required.
@Democracy Center
5:45PM All Ages FREE
5/6 Wake Up the Earth Festival + Parade
Come together as a community to inspire change in how we interact with the Earth in this pressing time of rapid ecological change. Featuring vendors, performances, parade, family activities, food and drink!
More info at www.spontaneouscelebrations.org
@12PM-6PM All Ages FREE
5/13 Wrong Brain Presents Spring Bizaare an arts and crafts fair for the weird, unusual, wacky, alt and unconventional. Take a spring trip up to NH and have a ball!
@Millspace 11AM-5PM All Ages $1 Masks required
5/28 Boston Vinyl & Variety
Pop Up Record Market ft. vinyl vendors, live vinyl cutting, custom amp demo, and merch swap!
@Fields West
5PM-10PM
All Ages FREE
Girl Magic Meets is a space where womxn empower each other through collaboration, photography, and sisterhood. This platform is for womxn to use to explore and express their true selves with the support of like-minded individuals through themed photo shoot meetups and events centered around building community. Stay up to date at www.girlmagicmeets.co and follow @girlmagicmeets
Take-A-Zine, Leave-A-Zine has a new location! Check out this incredible community resource where you can trade your coolest zines for even cooler ones! They just set up a new street box at Gallery 263 in Cambridge that you can access 24/7. They even have a discord if you wanna get involved or learn more!
More info on their IG @takeazine
CALL FOR ARTIST-INRESIDENCE! Gallery 263 invites artists of all media and experience levels to apply for this opportunity, which will take place this summer. The residency is a non-livein opportunity and will be awarded to one artist who will have sole use of our 700-square-foot space and amenities. The residency, which includes a $250 stipend, will culminate in a one-week solo showcase. Deadline to apply 5/21. More info at www.gallery263.com
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! 4th
Annual Trans Resistance March & Festival help with their upcoming event on June 3rd at Franklin Park Playstead 12PM-5PM. Check out all the open positions at www.transresistancema.com
opportunity community
visual art
See Your Art Here?! send your work to adrian@brain-arts.org ` bostoncompassnewspaper.com/ get-involved Help us make this thing! Amplify new voices! It's in the Water Now
dumpis.splaniel
by Daniel Alejandro
@ MGlenhaber @ sketchygothandz
Greenhouse Affect by Mehitabel Glenhaber
@jamjarastronaut @dunndrewit SEASON 4
Interdimensionality by Ben Doane
MASSACHUSETTS MINUTE
Kadeem Delivers 'Who Cyan Hear Must Feel'
call the matriarchs and patriarchs of [my] family frequently using the phrase to remind [me] to slow down and listen to the adults around [me].” The proverb is famously used as a warning to those who don’t listen, relaying the idea that if you don’t listen now, you must be prepared to feel the consequences later on. Kadeem repurposes this sentiment as a warning to those who’ve overlooked him in music, recycling this emotion by creating an undeniable body of work that will finally allow him to be felt.
The sophomore slump is a phrase that’s commonly used to refer to students, athletes, television shows, films, and artists who grow complacent following their first successful go. Whether it is from a perceived notion of vehemence, experimentation gone wrong, or straying too far from the original recipe for success, the sophomore slump has proven to be detrimental to many people throughout time. Though there are many examples out there which supplement this idea, Mattapan rapper, Kadeem, refuses to be subjugated to this curse. Following the aura of achievement that surrounded his 2019 album “World Sport,” he makes his triumphant return to the battlefield with a masterful piece of work titled “Who Cyan Hear Must Feel.”
The adage “who cyan hear must feel” derives from a Jamaican idiom that Kadeem heard frequently throughout his life. In a statement he shared prior to the release of this project, “[I] re-
Sitting at a total length of 28 minutes with nine tracks, ‘Who Cyan Hear Must Feel’ may appear as short and sweet upon first glance, but a listen through the album unearths much more depth than there is initially perceived to be. Kadeem recruits a long list of collaborators to fully-furnish the project, something which shows in the variety of accomplished soundscapes and well-manufactured verses that help to round this release out. Tasked with the sonic structure of this project were Thelonius Martin, All1ne, Gyroman, Snipeman, noPulp, Hasaan Barclay, God. Damn.Chan, and the man himself—Kadeem. Ranging from downbeat, reflective sounds like the instrumental featured on “Pacesetter,” to the nostalgic, balanced beat on “Imported Goods,” this tape provides the grounds for a number of temperaments that Kadeem and company can tap into.
In addition to the list of producers present here, Kadeem also brought on a handful of rappers to see ‘Who Cyan Hear Must Feel’ into its final stages. Caliph, Avenue, Latrell James, Cash-
mere P, SPNDA, and Ariel Rush all lend their pens to this project, with each delivering verses filled with potency. “Imported Goods” was the lead single for the album, and not only provides a peek towards what Kadeem had coming, but brings together four of Massachusetts’ best MCs under one roof. Hearing Caliph, Avenue, Latrell, and Kadeem trade verses on this track is like watching the 2008 Boston Celtics fall into sync with one another, championing the city along the way. Not only is this special for this project, but it speaks volumes for the music scene prevalent in Massachusetts. This project isn’t just a win for Kadeem, but a win for a creative community that is longing for a spot at the table.
Following the arrival of ‘Who Cyan Hear Must Feel’, Kadeem plans to perform in Boston on May 5th at Odessa alongside local beat makers Loman and Lightfoot. If substantial raps are something of interest to you, then we strongly suggest popping out to hear some of this project live. In the meantime, you can listen to “Who Cyan Hear Must Feel” on your favorite DSP, or by purchasing a copy of your own on Bandcamp.
SHAMUS HILL
Article: Rocks Docks & Blocks
