…..In curating an FMA blog Boston Hassle’s main objective is to shine a light on overlooked and forgotten New England music oddities and gems; new commingling with not so new; breathing new life into bands and albums and songs that should be cherished, but rather have been crushed by our horrible mainstream culture…….
Check out the blog that BOSTON HASSLE curates over @ the FREE MUSIC ARCHIVE. A wild worldwide community of music enthusiasts thirsting for the good and interesting stuff, just as we do… We feel honored to be asked to curate even a small corner of that great, rabbit hole of a site/ project.
Our latest post is about the 2003 or 20o4 demo by the Cambridge band NIGHT RALLY. Interesting guys all, making interesting music @ a time when the Boston underground music community was more fractured, and more incongruous with its own self.
Below is an excerpt from the post, read the whole thing RIGHT HERE!
Another band encountered in the basements, and other off-the-beaten-path venues, as well as the bars and clubs of Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville (the latter @ the time just beginning to move toward being a land of much live music).
NIGHT RALLY were a unique band for multiple reasons. For one, their post-punkian pop throb was a truly collaborative effort, where band members Luke, Farhad, and Devin not only shared playing and songwriting duties, but singing duties as well. Even here on this demo the singing effort is split up amongst the lot. Secondly, the sound they mined – a pulsing, jittery thing crowned by celestial guitars, and full of anxious yelps trading off with mellow croon – was an abberation at that time in Boston’s underground music scene. The band was of the variety that, while perhaps preferring the more informal settings of a Bodies of Water or Honeypump booked underground show, were nonetheless also comfortable in the bar live music setting. And so the band was one of the few of its moment that bridged the gap between acceptance by the underground/ diy music community and the more pop and “indie music” oriented Boston rock club scene and its ilk.
NIGHT RALLY’s demo has always been my favorite recording by the band. Initially it found its way to me via the underground venue I was involved with, The HOSS, probably handed to me on an evening when the band played, or not…
