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forrealtumblr: ffoodd: An Donut (by Blumie the Koala) AN...

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:37:57 -0400

ffoodd:

An Donut (by Blumie the Koala)

AN donut? Really?

Yes, AN donut. Not a typo. This is a Japanese donut with red bean filling, and that’s what it’s called. (I’m the photographer. I ate this, and it was delicious.)

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - Arrival Two of my Michael J....

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:07:00 -0400

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - Arrival

Two of my Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library bandmates, Sophia Cacciola and Michael J. Epstein himself, have another musical project (well, several actually, but I’m just going to tell you about one of them right now!) Their band Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling is thematically tied to The Prisoner, a 60s cult classic spy-fi TV show from the UK. For the past two years, they’ve been working on an ambitious video project - a shot-by-shot recreation of the opening sequence of The Prisoner. It is finally complete, and I must say, it’s pretty ridiculously awesome. Check out the video embedded here, and then head over to donotforsake.com/arrival for more goodies, including production stills and a version of the video with the original The Prisoner sequence playing simultaneously in the corner for your side-by-side comparison pleasure!

The Revolution Will Be Typewritten

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:53:23 -0400

The Revolution Will Be Typewritten:

Sorry for the long absence! I’ve been going to a lot of shows - and playing in a lot of shows as well - but life has gotten in the way of posting photos and such on here. I recently began writing about the arts (and food!) for CBS Boston, though, so feel free to keep an eye on the arts section on Mondays and the food section on Wednesdays to check out my posts there. My first arts post, linked here, is a profile of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra, which is exactly what it sounds like :)

Short snippets from the road

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:15:00 -0400

A full recap with plenty of photos will be posted when we get home, but for now, here are some discussion topics and happenings from our first day on the road on the Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library/Golden Bloom/Neutral Uke Hotel tour. This update is coming to you from a hotel room in lovely Drums, Pennsylvania.

vagazzling (or is it vajazzling?)
cats flushing toilets
Stadium Buddies™
baby monkey riding backwards on a pig
animals with two penises:

sharks
rays
koalas (two-pronged. And lots of them have chlamydia.)

“Are you alert enough to drive? No texting…or sexting.” -Shawn’s mom

On tour!

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 08:59:00 -0400

The van leaves in a couple hours! My band, The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library, is going on a week-long tour with Golden Bloom and Neutral Uke Hotel. We kicked it off with a sold-out show at Brighton Music Hall last night (as well as an epic cross-town rush to play a couple songs at Club Passim for their Iguana Fund Night, which was also sold out, I think!)

Tonight we’re at the Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn.

The rest: The Grog Shop in Cleveland, Schubas in Chicago, Gabe’s in Iowa City, a Daytrotter.com session in Rock Island, IL, a Laundromatinee.com session in Indianapolis, Garfield Artworks in Pittsburgh, and World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

So excited. This is my first time touring!

If you’d like to see us, you can find more details on the Facebook event page, including ticket links where advanced tickets are available. I’ve heard that the Brooklyn and Chicago shows are already very close to selling out.

Ridiculous amounts of photos and video will be posted when I return!

Comments enabled!

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 16:26:03 -0400

Just added Disqus commenting. Now we can chat :) Feel free to leave love or hate mail (or something in between) on any of my posts!

Bury Me Standing at Lizard Lounge (Cambridge, MA) on 4/7/11 Also...

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:00:00 -0400

Bury Me Standing at Lizard Lounge (Cambridge, MA) on 4/7/11

Also on the bill: Brian Carpenter & The Confessions (view post)

View the full album here.

Brian Carpenter & The Confessions at Lizard Lounge...

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:00:00 -0400

Brian Carpenter & The Confessions at Lizard Lounge (Cambridge, MA) on 4/7/11

Also on the bill: Bury Me Standing (view post)

View the full album here.

Trabants at Boston Underground Film Festival opening night party...

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Trabants at Boston Underground Film Festival opening night party at T.T. the Bear’s (Cambridge, MA) on 3/24/11

Also on the bill: Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band (view post)

View the full album here.

Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band at Boston...

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band at Boston Underground Film Festival opening night party at T.T. the Bear’s (Cambridge, MA) on 3/24/11

Also on the bill: Trabants (view post)

View the full album here.

Out of the Woodwork: an acoustic night at Milky Way (Jamaica...

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Aviv (Pray for Polanski)

Jeff (Big East)

Justin (Big East)

Michael (MJEML/Space Balloons)

Sophia (MJEML/Space Balloons)

Nick H. (The Boots)

Nick M. (The Acre)

Out of the Woodwork: an acoustic night at Milky Way (Jamaica Plain, MA) on 3/2/11

Performances by Aviv Rubinstien (Pray for Polanski), Michael J. Epstein (Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library, Space Balloons, and more), Nick Murphy (The Acre), Jeff Vachon (Big East), Justin Emile (Big East), Nicholas Hashem (The Boots), and friends

View the full album here.

On Saturday, February 26th, 2011, The Michael J. Epstein...

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

On Saturday, February 26th, 2011, The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library played our CD release show to a sold-out crowd at the 600 (I think)-person capacity Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge, MA). I haven’t played for a crowd that size since the days of high school theater and district music festivals. Strangely, this wasn’t scary at all - just exciting!

Ryan Schmidt started off the night, we followed, then Endway played, and McAlister Drive finished, with some help from the Simmons Sirens.

When I joined MJEML waaaay back in…June, I definitely didn’t foresee a show of this magnitude happening so quickly (or at all, really). It wasn’t immediately clear that Michael’s vision would work out; we all came from very different musical backgrounds and I do remember leaving the first few rehearsals thinking, “Well, that was fun, but how’s this going to come together?”

Michael wasted no time in booking our first gig, and the pressure was on. We pulled through and kept moving forward. Being a part of this band has been full of wonderful surprises and opportunities, and I’m hoping things will continue along this path. But even if this is the peak of it all in terms of audience size/response and interest from people other than our mothers, it has been wonderful pretending to be a rock star for the last eight months! I’m so proud of the work we put into the recording, and to release it at such a great show was thrilling beyond expectations.

My boyfriend, Joel, shot this photo of me at the show, and I edited it. The full set of photos from the show is on Facebook and Flickr, whichever you prefer. (Hint: If you’re looking to download high res versions of anything, choose Flickr.)

Here’s the set list from the CD release show, in case you’re curious. We decided not to play our Nick Cave cover, The Weeping Song, a disappointing but probably-for-the-best decision. You can hear our recorded version here.

Civil Engineering
4th Grade Book Report Blues
Oh Emily
Stranger
Small Crack
Every Time I Visit You, It Rains
Holy Ghost
Amylee
Lymph Nodes

If you’d like to see us play, our next show is at Brighton Music Hall on April 20 with Neutral Uke Hotel (a ukulele-based tribute to Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea) and Golden Bloom. It’s the kick-off to a week-long tour for all three bands, which leads me to another bit of news that I’m going to sneak in here even though this was meant to be a recap of the CD release show…

Golden Bloom is one of five finalists in a contest to have an upcoming tour “greened” by Reverb. If Golden Bloom wins, we’ll all get to tour in an environmentally friendly van, which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. The contest is unfortunately voter-driven, so I’m going to awkwardly beg you just this once to vote for Golden Bloom here and help us make our (MJEML/Golden Bloom/Neutral Uke Hotel) tour “green.”

The Highway at Precinct (Somerville, MA) on 2/25/11 Also on the...

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Highway at Precinct (Somerville, MA) on 2/25/11

Also on the bill: The Real Makers, Pistol Shrimp, Somerville Symphony Orkestar (photos)

Somerville Symphony Orkestar at Precinct (Somerville, MA) -...

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Somerville Symphony Orkestar at Precinct (Somerville, MA) - 2/25/11

Also on the bill: The Real Makers, The Highway (photos), Pistol Shrimp

I’ve posted this photo before, but since it was posted by...

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 10:16:39 -0500

I’ve posted this photo before, but since it was posted by fuckyeahphotography, I wanted to reblog their post so I could thank everyone who has liked/reblogged it! :) For my other posts about Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, click here.

This is not an unbiased review by any means - DNFMOMD is made up of the fabulous Mike and Sophia, who are also my band-mates in The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library - but you should definitely check them out. The band is themed on The Prisoner, a 60s spy show with a cult following, and every song refers to an episode. I’m consistently impressed by Sophia’s ability to sing, play drums, and look fantastic all at the same time, throwing in neat little flourishes and drumstick twirls while maintaining a rocking beat and screaming gutturally. Mike provides a darkly intense bass line, along with some back-up vocals in at least one song. Even though we all join together and play “baroque pop” indie folksy music every week, when I see them up on stage in DNFMOMD, I’m a little bit terrified. And I love it.

fuckyeahphotography:

Sophia of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (Great Scott, Allston, MA - February 2011)

Follow my Tumblr, boston bop!, for live music and performing arts photography, videos, and more.

You can also find me on Flickr and Twitter.

MJEML live on the radio tonight...

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 09:03:14 -0500

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library will be performing a full set live on Tufts University’s 91.5 WMFO tonight (Wednesday 2/23)! We’ll be going on air around 10pm as part of the On the Town with Mikey Dee segment. If you’re not near a radio, you can tune in online on the WMFO website. This is going to be my first radio experience! I’m excited!

Several of the MJEML librarians were on the radio back in September 2010 prior to our debut show, but I was at work at the time and sadly couldn’t join in the fun. You can check out mp3s from that segment here.

MJEML in the Weekly Dig...

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

MJEML in the Weekly Dig...:

We’re profiled in the Dig!

Photo by Kelly Davidson! (That’s me on the right in the red glasses.) Check out Kelly’s website (I’m a big fan of the Rock Parents collection!) and follow her on Tumblr!

Here’s an excerpt from the article that explains the origin of our band name:

For a while, all Michael J. Epstein knew was that his life was one deserving commemoration.

It struck him one day as he wandered the halls of the Ronald Reagan memorial building in Washington, D.C., Epstein, a staunch conservative and lifelong admirer of the Gipper (okay, not really) paused for a drink from the Ronald Reagan memorial water fountain. He threw a tissue into the Ronald Reagan memorial wastebasket. He washed his hands using the Ronald Reagan memorial soap dispenser. Suddenly, it was all so clear.

“I thought, ‘Someday I will have a project that I will call the Michael J. Epstein Memorial Something,” he says.

Last year, Epstein decided that he would be denied his memorial no longer, despite the notable handicap of not being dead yet.

A Live Music Challenge

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:12:55 -0500

As I’m getting more involved in the local music scene, I’m getting friendly with more musicians than ever before, and I’m finding that nearly all the shows I attend are bands of acquaintances and friends. While I love supporting people I know and bands I enjoy, I feel like I should be making more of an effort to get outside of my usual scene and check out bands I’ve never heard and to which I have no connections. It’d be great to check out new venues as well.

Starting on March 1, I’m challenging myself to attend at least two shows a month with line-ups that are completely new to me, preferably outside of my typical preferred musical genres, and as an added bonus, I’d like to check out at least one new (to me) venue a month. The Middle East is great, but I want to find the neighborhood spots, the hidden gems, the unique spaces.

In posts from here on, I’ll be using the tag “new to me” to indicate bands or venues I’m hearing/visiting for the first time.

Do you find yourself falling into a similar routine, supporting the bands you already know but neglecting to seek out new ones?

If you live in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area, what are your favorite hidden gem, hole-in-the-wall music venues?

Music Tonight

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:46:15 -0500

I’ll be at rehearsal tonight, but if I were free, I’d go to this. If you’re free, you should definitely consider checking out this show at Great Scott (Allston, MA).

9pm, 18+, $7

Mighty Tiny

Ketman

Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion!

I’ve been a fan of Mighty Tiny’s creepy mask-wearing circus rock for quite some time, and I got the opportunity to play flute on a track for their upcoming album. (To see my other posts about Mighty Tiny, with photos!, go here.) I’ve never seen Ketman, but I’ve heard great things about them, and I’ve seen several of their members perform with various other awesome projects. I know nothing about Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion!, but I have a special fondness for bands with uncomfortably long names, since I am in one myself. Based on a quick Google search, it appears that they perform with bandanna-covered faces. Between the masks and the bandannas, this show is sure to be Halloweenily creepy and wonderful.

Are you going to a show tonight?

MJEML in TimeOut Boston...

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:13:00 -0500

MJEML in TimeOut Boston...:

It’s a good day for the band! This morning, our Sleepover Shows session went live, which I posted about earlier today. This evening, we were written up very kindly in TimeOut Boston, and I’m just loving some of these quotes.

Interview: The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library

A local music impresario’s baroque-pop orchestra experiment

By Barry Thompson

…And although things preceded by the phrase “all-female” tend to pan out well, troubling omens arise from words like “inexperienced” and “nine-piece.”

In practice, the Memorial Library swiftly recorded Volume One, one of the best local albums in recent memory, and the greatest album by a library-themed baroque indie-pop band of all time…