T.Scene Newsletter: Jan 2012

We haven't written as much about "t.scene" in a while, probably because the term has lost some specificity in the past few years... We used to sporadically post T.Scene news on the Geocities version of this web journal.

But we'd like to bring it back officially as of this post, partially because we're self-absorbed and we like to write about our bands and our friends' bands, but mostly because T.Scene has unexpectedly become VERY active of the past few months, which has been sparking our interests.

So this will be the first post in what hopefully becomes a monthly feature that we're titling "T.SCENE NEWSLETTER" (in conjunction with T.Scene releases), a new feature-ette with news & info on unsigned bands who we just happen to be friends with. It will mostly include straight-up news and not as much sarcasm. And we'll BOLD certain words to make it look more official.

Our top story at this hour is the "8TH ANNUAL BERFEST," coming next weekend to Brooklyn, Boston and Danbury. Its curators set up a badass lil website listing all the bands and venues: http://www.berfest.com. The roster includes artists who appeared in Hot Mix 2011 (i.e. GRASS IS GREEN) and a few who appeared on our T.Scene comps (i.e. HOVERAL).

The second night of Berfest is surely Boston's hottest ticket for this coming Saturday (we're not joking about that). But it also (sadly) will include a "farewell" set from OVLOV, who last week announced "indefinite hiatus." Also prior to officially calling it quits, they unleashed one last EP onto Bandcamp comprised of two unreleased studio tracks that were frequently performed in their live sets...

Here's the hot new posthumous Ovlov...


"Chicken Coop" was one of their first songs from 2008, while "Small Voices" started appearing in sets as early as February 2010. In case anyone's starving for other non-released Ovlov tracks, Youtube has live performances of "Gargamel" and "Car Commercial" as well as covers of Fountains Of Wayne's "Sink To The Bottom" and Nirvana's "Been A Son."

Day 3 of Berfest should prove exciting as well, with planned reunion-sets from HOME MOVIES (who have performed sporadically since 2008) as well as a reunion from HOVERAL, marking their first live-set since February 2003...

T.Scene has been planning on hosting a Hoveral compilation at some point, and there's a good chance it's coming in 2012... Get ready for that. In the meantime, Bernie's official demos collection is still available (as long as Mediafire doesn't get raided by the feds). ("Bernie [demos]" is essentially "Hoveral's early demos" prior to their switch from a 4-piece to a 3-piece, and their name-change, in the fall of 2000.)

Along with Ovlov's recent split-up news (as well as similar split-news from T.Scene fav's QUILTY and CASIOROSSI), Northampton's GRAPH played their final two shows last weekend in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, but not before unleashing one final EP for the kids, happily titled "EP 3," which rules since it appears to actually be their 5th EP (unless we're missing something)...

Here's the hot new posthumous Graph...


In happier news, a new addition has arrived to the T.Scene family in the form of SPEEDY ORTIZ (currently including former members of Quilty, Graph and Ovlov). Now a 4-piece band, their first ever set as a 2-piece from November 2011 was recently uploaded to Shea Stadium's blog. We posted a link to the set back on December 30th. We hope to post copious show announcements from these guys in future T.Scene Newsletters, but for more frequent updates we recommend liking them on Facebook.

THE SMOOTH HANDS have joined forces once again, lovingly embracing for the first time since god-knows-how-long-ago (probably 3-4 years) for a Christmas EP. It's obviously no longer Christmastime, but The Gift Horse will surely be treasured by every young child with sparkling eyes for future Decembers...


In celebration of the new release, they've also uploaded their gorgeous 2005 LP I Love You So Much onto Bandcamp: http://thesmoothhands.bandcamp.com/album/i-love-you-so-much. All joking aside, this is probably the magnum opus of the entire T.Scene catalog... Like "top albums of the 2000's" kinda shit. But don't tell them we said that. (R.I.Y.L. Daniel Johnston, Guided By Voices, songs about relationships, porn). At some point in 2012, T.Scene also plans to release a live LP from The Smooth Hands taken from a set in 2007. The package (hopefully) will also include a bonus live set from their one-time-only collaborative performance with TATER NO! (one of those bands where all the songs were about cats).

Coming in February (if all goes well) we just might have some info on LOWT IDE's long-awaited 5th LP Tag Sale (in the works since late-2009), as well as news on DEAD WIVES' forthcoming live EP.

That's it for this hour... Once again, we'd love to make this a monthly feature, and we hope none of our friends hate us too much for writing about their bands. WORD UP.