T.Scene Newsletter: Feb 2012

Time for our monthly t-scene newsletter... Our top stories at this hour, covering the news of 1/23/12 through 2/23/12:

The news we're most excited for right now is the announcement of our first NEW COMPILATION release in nearly 10 YEARS.

Over the past 2 years, Taste My Kids has been posting various T.Scene releases on mediafire, mostly comps of re-packaged material, as well as newer releases from Ovlov, Dead Wives and Quilty. However, for the first time since Trumbull Scene Volume 2 (compiled during the summer of 2002), a new actual physical release is coming to fruition.

Its title is SLUT LIFE, and its line-up of artists is currently set to include JEFF PECK, GRAPH, POOLS ARE NICE, TWO INCH ASTRONAUT, THE SMOOTH HANDS, LORD CANTI (featuring ex-members of OVLOV), ELVES, JAMIE FOUND OUT, NATIVE MODE, SPEEDY ORTIZ, DOWCET, DEAD WIVES, LOWT IDE and a few more artists that are currently unconfirmed. It's initially set to be a cassette-only release (with no initial digital release on Bandcamp or other various forums).

As of right now, we can only guarantee that Slut Life will be available at the shows of all the bands who appear on it. More information, including a full tracklisting and artwork should be available here in our next T.Scene Newsletter. In the meantime, check out the recent redux version of Trumbull Scene: The Big Hits:


Now officially a 4-piece band, SPEEDY ORTIZ continued their reign of terror with a couple weekend-long mini-tours in early February. A few more of these should continue throughout the remainder of February and March as they prepare for Sports EP, their first official release as a full-band and the follow-up to The Death Of Speedy Ortiz from late last year. To help promote their forthcoming shows and Sports EP, Speedy launched a livejournal account as their first official website a few days ago. Recording is scheduled to begin in mid-March. In the meantime, catch Speedy rockin-the-fuck-out at these dates:

Friday, Feb 24: Big Snow, Brooklyn NY (PERSONALITY CRISIS)

Saturday, Feb 25: Alternate White Haus, Brooklyn NY (with KRILL, LOST BOY & CINDY LOU GOODEN)

Sunday, Feb 26: Arlene's Grocery, Manhattan NY (with SLOTHRUST)

Thursday, March 1: Great Scott, Boston Mass (GRASS IS GREEN's release party for the long-awaited Ronson LP -- we've heard there will be cassettes available in limited numbers! As well as CD's obviously.. Also featuring ARVID NOE and SNEEZE!)

Friday, March 2: Poland St, Portland, ME (with Grass Is Green, THE WALDOS, FALLS OF RAUROS, CORRESPONDENCES)

Sunday, March 4: Pianos, Manhattan, NY (with Grass Is Green, REDDWARF, MAGNETIC ISLAND, and SLOTHBEAR)

Wednesday, March 7: Western CT State University Student Center, Danbury CT (with FAT HISTORY MONTH, FLORIDA=DEATH and POOLS ARE NICE)

Thursday, March 8: Starlab, Boston Mass

Sunday, March 11: Midway (with Fucktrots)

Thursday, March 22: Sierra Grille, Northampton, Mass (with PILE and Fat History Month)

Wednesday, March 28: Flying Object, Northampton, Mass (with Grass is Green)

Thursday, March 29: Shea Stadium, Brooklyn NY (with DIEHARD, SHARK? and Grass Is Green)

The 8th annual BERFEST - held throughout the last weekend of Jan 2012 - was a huge success once again, with its sold-out 2nd night in Boston (on January 28th) meeting expectations as one of the best shows of 2012 so far, including a strong headlining set from PILE, a set comprised of nearly all-new material from GRASS IS GREEN, a farewell-set from OVLOV with first-time appearances from two covers (Dinosaur Jr's "Feel The Pain" and CKY's "To All Of You"), and brilliant opening sets from Boston favorites FAT HISTORY MONTH and SCOUTER.

However, the slightly-less-publicized 1st and 3rd nights of BERFEST were surprisingly just as eventful. The Sunday-show in Danbury included the next in a series of reunion sets from HOME MOVIES, as well as the debut performance from NATIVE MODE, a new project featuring ex-members of THANK YOU MR. KEATING who had previously performed in a few various shows to support their last LP The Baxter Special (one of our favorite unsigned albums of 2010).

Native Mode's new website can be found here: http://nativemodemusic.com/

HOVERAL's reunion set at Berfest was also full of surprises, with the set list including 2 Smooth Hands songs, a Bernie song, and - probably the biggest surprises of all - a NEW Hoveral song, tentatively titled on their setlist as "Why Bother." No comment from Hoveral regarding this signaling the band reforming in a more permanent setting, but the set is available in full on Youtube for anyone who missed it. Here's a link to Part 2 of their set, which begins with the new song:


Various news from DEAD WIVES was announced throughout February:

On February 1st, a new remixed version of their compilation Crud (originally released in October 2011) was uploaded to their Bandcamp page, marking their 2nd official release...

On February 8th, they announced on their facebook page that Crud would also be available on cassette, alongside another cassette-only split-release with LOWT IDE. The split-release is titled Alanis More-Cassette / Jomo Coffin. Both will be available at a series of Dead Wives shows planned for late-April and throughout May of 2012.

Plans for a Dead Wives Live EP has been scrapped. Instead, they have begun preparing the official follow-up to 2011's Scuz Bucket EP, which should be finished in time for their shows in April and May. More info on this coming soon.

No huge news from Lowt Ide at the moment, although they have been continuing recording of their long-awaited 5th LP Tag Sale, with one new song appearing soon on the Slut Life comp.

That's our news for this hour. More coming in March, or possibly even sooner. Leave us comments! Later.