Tag: Suicide Bill
Providence Monthly & 75orLess: The 2015 Providence Playlist
[abridged version below]
The music scene in Providence – and throughout Rhode Island – is insane. We’ve got more badass, super talented and hardworking musicians per capita than any other city in the world (don’t look that up, just go with it). But what’s more is we’ve got everything covered. Folk, rock, hip hop, punk; name a genre, cross pollinate it with another, hell just start making things up (Death-funk surf-rap!) and there’s almost definitely someone in RI doing it.
So where to start? We’ve assembled a crack team of musicians, promoters and supporters all plugged in to the local scene to give you your official 2015 local playlist and to tell you who you should be keeping an eye on. We’ve also got our five favorite records of the year, plus a look back at some shows that we felt best represent the eclectic nature of music in Providence.
Mark MacDougall, founder of 75orLess Records
1. “Stay” by Bob Kendall – Longtime Newport legend Bob Kendall is an indie pop magician, with echoes of REM, The db’s, and George Harrison.
2. “Double Nickels on the Dime” by Groundhawgs
3. “Huge Bruise (Live at Dusk)” by Black Oil Incinerator – Crusty gentlemen blowing out your eardrums with catchy hooks buried beneath an avalanche of amps and pedals.
4. “Credit Score” by Jodie Treloar
5. “Damn Unicorn” by Suicide Bill and the Liquors – A short, heartbreaking ballad; it’s the undiscovered anthem for all the schmucks you know still getting up at 5am every day for a job they hate.
Feng Shui Police
A trio of Brown University too-young-to-care weirdos from Newton, MA who have managed to successfully channel the influences of Half Japanese and Pavement with the charm of Jonathan Richmond. The local champions of Spazzy doo-wop and Elephant 6-influenced pop hooks. They are currently recording the follow-up to their 75orLess EP Thank You. –Mark MacDougall, founder of Providence indie music label 75orLess Records
Groundhawgs – Lets Get Dark
75OL-211 Groundhawgs – Lets Get Dark CD
$8.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1 Mr Walks On Water
2 Dogs of El Agustino
3 Lets Get Dark
4 Double Nickels On The Dime
5 Floored
6 Mercury and Mass
7 Apartment Down The Hall
8 Oblivious
9 Out Of It
10 Darkwaters
The Hawgs are back with a deftly crafted batch of NUMBERS that will quench your thirst for TIGHT, HARD ROCKING, POST PUNK FARE. From the get go to the final bell, LET”S GET DARK will scratch your rock itch!
The Noise reviews I am Tom Cummins, Suicide Bill & the Liquors, and Coma Coma
SUICIDE BILL & THE LIQUORS Cricket Wisdom
12 tracks
Low-budget Big Star worship abounds here. The fact that this is their fifth album and it sounds like a clunky demo might be worrisome to some, but I think it works. They never land square on the beat, their timing is always slightly off, the solos have duff lines here and there, the vocals slip out of tune, and it always sounds like it’s all happening in a basement next to a leaky water heater. These guys are not swashbucklers, they’re bunglers, but endearing bunglers with decent record collections and open hearts who probably remember their friends’ birthdays. Most of the songs are about how girls don’t dig them, which is cool. A few of the songs – funny/sad power-popper “No Friends,” the Husker-y “Cool Fail” – would be hits if somebody, you know, more competent recorded them. Overall, I’d say Cricket Wisdom squeaks by on low-watt charm. It’s not as good as I’d like it to be, but what is these days? (Sleazegrinder)
I AM TOM CUMMINS Holiday 3-Pak
3 tracks
A cruel person might suggest that “Squirrel Song,” with its ukulele accompaniment and spacy keyboards, is like something a mentally challenged person might conjure up—but I beg to differ; it takes a good deal of talent to come up with and put across this faux-naif approach. “Downy Woodpecker” is another supposedly poignant encomium to the natural world, replete with aah-ing chorus. “Resolve to Start Again” is a bit like a terminally depressed Mr. Rogers decrying the commercialism of the Christmas season. Short and sweet, but, all in all, a bit twee for my taste. (Francis DiMenno)
COMA COMA The New American Dream
10 tracks
If you like indie rock, I would say this album is above par. I’m not sure why, I just feel like if you like stuff like this, it’s a prime example. The end. (Sleazegrinder)
Suicide Bill at Jimmy’s Saloon
with Father, Misty, and the Big Rock, Anthony Daniels
Jimmy’s Saloon
Memorial Blvd.
Newport, RI
9pm
Suicide Bill & the Liquors – Cricket Wisdom
75OL-199 Suicide Bill & The Liquors – Cricket Wisdom CD
$7.00 S&H Included
Digital download available here
Track Listing
1. Irish Eyes
2. Feel Like
3. Womb Tomb
4. Damn Unicorn
5. No Friends
6. Quality Control
7. Rock Roll
8. Foolish Amputee
9. Cool Fail
10. Roll Call
11. Tourist T-shirt
12. Cricket Wisdom
Suicide Bill and the Liquors are back with their 5th full length album release on 75orLess.
Rock/Roll in the basement by balding guitar players who should know better.
It’s now 2015.
Have Suicide Bill and the Liquors learned a thing or two?
Absolutely not.
Only crickets have the wisdom.
Suicide Bill and the Liquors – Suicide Comes Alive
75OL-159 Suicide Bill and the Liquors – Suicide Comes Alive CD
$7.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1 Bill’s Alternative Country
2 The Independent Man
3 What’s Up Nobody?
4 Real Problem
5 Onion Guy
6 W.O.N.E.N.E.
7 Fire Engine Red
8 Blind Girl
9 Biscuit City Bliss
10 River Friend
11 Nothing Makes Bill Happy
Want to know what 2 or 3 drunk folks usually endure at a Suicide Bill show? Want to know why the hell Bill won a singer/songwriter award in the Providence Phoenix? “Suicide Comes Alive!” answers all the big questions and raises a few new ones. Eleven new live and semi-alive songs featuring Bill and his guitar with backup shouts and percussion from The Liquors make up their 5th record. Bill’s brand of loud-acoustic/alt. rock has never been stronger than it is here. Three of the songs also feature great guitar and harmony-vocal work from the most elusive member of the Liquors, Ray Pruitt. Once again, Suicide and company make a record that sounds good cranked up in your car while you deliver stuff — probably pizza or newspapers. Have fun on your route.
Six Star General, Broadcaster, Suicide Bill, Lloyd’s Llamas
SIX STAR GENERAL
BROADCASTER
SUICIDE BILL
LLOYD’S LLAMAS
Firehouse 13
Providence, RI
Groundhawgs – Warbirds
75OL-148 Groundhawgs – Warbirds
[sold out]
Digital download is available here
Track Listing:
- Tops
- Annie
- Warbirds
- Birthday
- Whore
- Chosen One
- Eastern Year
- Box of Rats
- Heaven
- Strike the Bell
- Pontiac/Cheers
Nostradamus foretold of it in his quatrains…. The Mayan Calendar predicted it… and so it has come to pass… THE GROUNDHAWGS! The long dormant rock outfit who made such a defiant and jubilant noise in the late 80’s and 90’s, have returned to this island Earth with a new full length LP titled WARBIRDS. It’s massive riffs, surgical strike hooks, and melodious choruses threaten to shatter the North American continental shelf, and or change the face of ROCK as we know it. DROP, COVER, and ROLL KIDS… GROUNDHAWGS WARBIRDS IS HERE! TOPS!!!
Suicide Bill and The Liquors – Good Morning Breakfast, Fuck You Lunch!
75OL-107 Suicide Bill and The Liquors – Good Morning Breakfast, Fuck You Lunch! CD
$7.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
- Don’t Say Anything
- Might as Well Go To Cleveland
- Red-Faced at the Ladies Airport
- I’m Not a Thin Guy
- Miss-a-sippee in RI
- We’re The No-Leaf Clover
- Baker’s Dozen
- I’m a Riot
- My Miz-ree
- You Said You’d Appreciate It If I Don’t Come In Your Bar No More
- White Shadow Bitter
- Hurricane Bill
Lo-Fi rock and roll songs specifically recorded to be played very loudly on the stereo of a delivery vehicle. Do you like sloppy music with some kind of feeling? Suicide Bill and the Liquors do and try their damnedest to present 12 examples on this record. The songs sound pretty good on the CD player in Bill’s work car and the cassette deck in your Mom’s Escort.
Suicide Bill and the Liquors – The Devil Said “Hi” To Bill
75OL-064 Suicide Bill and the Liquors – The Devil Said “Hi” To Bill CD
$7.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
- Hermit
- The Devil Said “Hi” To Bill
- Smart Enough
- GODKNOWSYAWRONG!
- Temp. Absent
- Another Month of Sundays
- Fri. Night Pizza!
- Crawl
- That’s Not What A Good Boy Does!
- Actress
- Diamonds Don’t Wash Up On The Shore These Days
- U Forgot!
- Suicide Summer
Suicide Bill and the Liquors offer you 13 songs recorded in the basement. Hopefully you give in and take them.