Shortly after the release of their second album Street Light Shine Brooklyn's finest power pop meets New Wave band The Shirts performed at Boston's Paradise Rock Club on August 27, 1979. The show was recorded for a radio broadcast by local station WBCN. The tapes were digitized by Wout de Kruif (Dutch Tape Transfers) and demixed/remastered by retired sound engineer Prof Stoned.
Anil Prasad interviewed keyboardist Richard Barbieri for his Innerviews website about Japan, Porcupine Tree, his solo career and his latest album Hauntings:
I’m always searching for that little spark that lights the flame and leads the way. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been a lot more introspective and thinking about things. Also, this has to do with my age and the kind of career I’ve had. I look back a lot and try to make sense of things, and I do tend to internalize.
I realized I was quite obsessed with this nostalgic feeling I had for things, and not just for things that happened, but for things that didn’t happen. They would get into my dreams as recurring events, places, and characters. It got me thinking about reality and how much of it is real.
Belfast based electro-punk act Chalk laugh at the idea of less is more on their Crystalpunk album. Ross Cullen (vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, bass, guitars) and Benedict Goddard (guitar, synth) have hunted down every empty space in order to hammer down their message of handling crippling anxiety, pain, and pretending not to care.
Their wall-to-wall keyboards almost smother the guitar and the bass barely hangs on. By inserting techno and industrial elements they aim to entertain by hitting their audience over the head in an unrelenting way that will work well in a crowded club, but it falls it bit flat in the comfort on one's home. They will surely sell a lot of copies at the merch table, having banged the crowd into submission.
