Throwback Thursday

Believe it or not, doing these Throwbacks every week is hard work. Our quest to bring you a vintage video that all at once incites nostalgia, drops a bit of knowledge, and is most importantly entertaining, is no easy task. So difficult in fact, that these throwbacks have been known to spark up a bit of controversy in the music office.

Just the other day an especially heated debate occurred whilst brainstorming for today’s trip down memory lane. With suggestions ranging from Creedence Clearwater Revival to The Pretenders, to even Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” (to be used at a later date, rest assured), talk somehow found its way to everyone’s favorite band, Radiohead, and the musical merits of their first single, the 1992 hit “Creep”.

Let’s just say there were some strong opinions flying around. The lines were drawn between the “authentic” Radiohead fans, siding with the band on their dislike of the song and its notoriety and those that simply enjoy the tune, shying away from all the pretension attached to it. We thought we’d take it upon ourselves to stir the pot a little by featuring the oh so controversial song as our Throwback clip of the week. Yes, we know we’re potentially opening the floodgates for some serious hatin’, but we more than welcome it. Whether you hate it or love it, don’t be shy we wanna hear from you. Enjoy the video and please, lets try to keep things civil.

WERS TOP 5 OF 5/26/09

1   GRIZZLY BEAR   Veckatimest   
2   ELVIS PERKINS IN DEARLAND   Elvis Perkins In Dearland   
3   CONOR OBERST AND THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND   Outer South   
4   M. WARD   Hold Time  
5   PHOENIX   Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

check out the Top 30 albums of the week on wers.org

Throwback Thursday

Our Throwback Thursday clip this week comes from English rock band Joy Division with their 1980 video “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. Although one of the band’s most popular and successful singles, the song and video is widely considered as the band’s swan song due to its release after the death of lead singer Ian Curtis, which soon followed the restructuring and re-naming of the band to New Order. Perhaps the opening and closing of doors at the beginning and end of the video can be seen as a metaphor for the end of one highly influential and groundbreaking band and the beginning of another that would dominate the 1980′s post-punk elecrto dance scene? Or you know, maybe not. We’ll leave it up to you to decipher all the hidden meanings or just enjoy the video!

Top 5 of 4/28/09

1    YEAH YEAH YEAHS    It’s Blitz   
2    ELVIS PERKINS IN DEARLAND    Elvis Perkins In Dearland   
3    PHOENIX    Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix   
4    BONNIE PRINCE BILLY    Beware   
5    CAMERA OBSCURA    My Maudlin Career

Check out the Top 30 albums of the week on wers.org

WERS TOP 5 of 4/15/09

1  VARIOUS ARTISTS  WERS Presents Music For The Independent Mind, Vol. III
2  PHOENIX  Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
3  YEAH YEAH YEAHS  It’s Blitz
4  ELVIS PERKINS IN DEARLAND  Elvis Perkins In Dearland
5  VARIOUS ARTISTS  Dark Was The Night

Check out the Top 30 albums of the week on wers.org

St Helena: Brand New Songs Performed Live On WERS

St Helena's Patrick Teahan. (Alexa McMahon/WERS)

By Ross Dallas

Boston band St Helena performed at WERS today for Local Music Week. They’re fresh off a release show for their new album, Slow Jack, which they played Saturday at the Cantab Lounge in Central Square, Cambridge.

“This EP is a really, really good introduction of what St Helena is,” front man Patrick Teahan told WERS. “This will be a foundation from where we’ll keep raising up a bar.”

The band comprises Teahan on guitar/keys/vocals, Shawn King Devlin, drums, Keith Wales, bass/vocals, Magen Tracy keyboard/vocals, and Chaetan Newell, guitar/vocals.

At WERS they talked with host David Weaver about the Boston music scene and their new EP.

St Helena started their set with “Appian Way,” a track from Slow Jack. The song evokes the tones and timbres of Dean Wareham’s post-Galaxy 500 band Luna, and Teahan’s voice and style bring to mind Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. It’s no surprise that both Luna and Neutral Milk Hotel are listed as influences on the group’s MySpace page.

They continued with “Peppered Assault on Reality,” from their 2005 release Happy, then ended by playing “Piper Laurie,” a song inspired by the 1961 film The Hustler, and named after its starring actress.

Between songs, Teahan said the members of St Helena, some of whom started performing together in 2003, have grown closer over time.

“There’s a lot of camaraderie amongst the five of us,” he said.

Tracy spoke of an even larger sense of fraternity within the city’s local music scene. She’s experienced a strong sense of networking and communication among local artists in the Bean.

“It’s a good time in Boston right now,” she said.

For now, St Helena is on a “radio campaign around New England and New York,” says Teahan. They’re booked for a series of gigs from April through June, and then they’ll start recording again later in 2009. Teahan is also in the early stages of launching a musician’s resource web site.

Windmills Spin Songs Of Hope

Windmills rock Local Music Week, 2009. (Abby Okon/WERS)

By Paige Trubatch

During Windmills‘ performance at WERS for Local Music Week, a sense of camaraderie, humor, and honest uplifting music settled peacefully on-air. The “very gentle and sweet boys” (as guitarist and lead singer Nick Moreweicki jokingly referred to them) played a set of three songs.

“Pop Song” is an appropriate title for the opener with Moreweicki’s raw yet fluid vocals, gleeful demeanor and drums that seemed to push your upper body with the rhythm. Nate Babbs knows what he’s doing back there on the drums. His crisp, prominent playing was the highlight of the set.

Next came “The Good Man,” a song which Moreweicki describes as his most political song. What started out as a Biblical track, “The Good Man” (off of Leave You Go, Let Me Be) soon took on various influences, particularly war. The song features Babbs’ mesmerizing drumming along with Moreweicki on guitar and vocals, Eric Hillman on piano and Ken Woodward on the upright bass. “The Good Man” is simultaneously relaxed, energized and introspectively peaceful. Hopeful, too. It bumps at the end, sending the listener soaring.

Even without lyrics, the group’s optimism comes across, particularly through Babbs, whose drumming evokes a marching band. You can’t help but smile and let out a sigh of relief. Relief from what I’m not exactly sure. But it’s there, and you feel better.

Lastly, the band performed a new song called “Skipping Stone,” which starts slow, but quickly regains the momentum of the previous two tracks. Once again, the song was accented with Babbs’ cymbol twinkling and brushing technique, while Hillman provided similar piano effects.

Windmills admit that they do not get to play together often. It’s difficult to get the four friends together when they all live in different places (Moreweicki and Babbs are originally from Minneapolis). When they do get a chance to perform in Boston, they prefer to play at Lily Pad in Cambridge.