Years ago my cousin gave me two CDs by the Israeli band Teapacks (usually spelled "Tipex" before they settled on "Teapacks" as their official transliteration) and they became one of my favorite bands even though I'd never seen them live. A sort of Middle Eastern Funk style with Israeli folk & rock elements, and clever lyrics sometimes reflective and often funny.

The music video to the right is hatachana hayeshana (The Old Station), their ode to the old central bus station in Tel Aviv, a place knew more from my summers in Israel in the 80s than from when I actually lived there. Tel Aviv's new bus station (the largest bus station in the world) opened in 1993, and when I spent a month in Israel in 1994 the transition was not yet complete. Everyone was complaining about the poor design of the new station, the confusion caused by having some bus routes at one and some at the other... and missing the character of the old station. It had a lot of "character" :)

That video is also notable for having one of the only sane, valuable comments ever seen on YouTube:

The chrous means:
I used to stop at the old station,
and it felt like a different country.
A country whose reality is on hold (or: is waiting)
as the rain falls and the sun burns.

The song is about the old central bus station in Tel-Aviv as a symbol of blue-collar, Mizrahi culture, including references to music and food, poverty, religiosity etc. All of this, in contrast with the rest of the country, supposedly Europeanized and modernized.

While I wasn't paying attention, Teapacks continued their rise to stardom in Israel, moving on to incorporate hip-hop, afrobeat, punk, and more into their songs, now in multiple languages. This year, they represented Israel in Eurovision 2007 with the song on the left, Push The Button. It apparently caused a bit of controversy when one of the Eurovision organizers wanted to ban the song because he thought it was a direct reference to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Band leader Kobi Oz says the song is about "living in the shadow of danger and laughing in the face of terror."

Here's an impromptu interview with Oz where he explains other reasons why Push The Button is too weird and chaotic for Eurovision. Some other songs:

• Od Shabat / another Saturday (Hebrew)


• 12 Points (live, Hebrew/English)


• Two songs with Sarit Hadad:
  Kshe ani itcha ani kmo dag (When I'm with you I'm like a fish)
  & Lama alacht mimeinu (Why did you leave us?)

Now Teapacks is touring in the US!

Unfortunately I missed telling you about the Bay Area shows, and Los Angeles is tonight.

Los Angeles: Oct 17, 8:30pm, Avalon Hollywood Theatre

Miami: Oct 20, 8:30pm, Dave& Mary Alper JCC

New York: Oct 21, 8:00pm, Highline Ballroom - Oyhoo Festival

Washington DC: Oct 23, 8:00pm, The State Theatre

Cambridge, MA: Oct 24, 8:00pm, Middle East (downstairs)

Ithaca, NY: Oct 25, 8:30pm, Cornell University

north Jersey: Oct 27, 8:30pm, Kaplen JCC, Tenafly NJ

Philadelphia: Oct 28, 8:00pm, The Trocadero Theatre

I'd probably go to several of these, except I'm going to Minneapolis October 24-30, so I'm going to go to New York for the Oyhoo festival.

Once again, it's FLUTTR Effect, Count Zero, and Humanwine, this time at the Middle East tomorrow night. And this time with The Cautions, a rock band that I remember from a couple of shows they did at WBRS a few years ago. Pretty good straight 4-piece rock. Their web site says their style "pays homage to" The Cars and Elvis Costello and combines that with some grittier 90s sorts of bands - I think that's pretty accurate.

For more on the other three bands, read my post about the last FLUTTR/Count Zero/Humanwine show, a few weeks ago at Harper's Ferry.

Saturday, June 25th
The Middle East (upstairs), 472 Mass Ave
Central Square (red line and a buncha busses)
9:00pm doors
9:15pm Humanwine
10:15pm The Cautions
11:15pm Count Zero
12:15am FLUTTR EFFECT
18+, $8

Last night after the show, I talked to Vessela for the first time in probably more than a year, and asked what she's up to. It seems she and Troy have put all of their other projects on hiatus to focus exclusively on FLUTTR EFFECT. So no more .WAV, Marimbira, Venus Window, or anything else, for now. Instead, they're planning a month long tour this fall for Fluttr Effect!
They plan to start in Chicago and travel west, through Colorado, and on to the bay area and Los Angeles. They'd love to play a show or two with Molly Zenobia (Molly, are you reading?). Probably no Pacific Northwest on this tour, unfortunately. Anyway, all of you out there in the areas they're likely to get to, pay attention to their web site or here on cosmusic for the tour schedule.

In the meantime, they're doing another show with Count Zero at the Middle East upstairs (Central Square, Cambridge) on Saturday, June 25th.

P.S. I noticed, on the flashing light bar at Harper's, that Rebirth Brass Band are playing there June 16th and 17th. Damn, I'm gonna be away! This is my favorite New Orleans brass band.

Tomorrow night, at the Middle East upstairs, Incus's DarkWorld Cabaret and Bodypainting Festival, featuring

• Incus (goth)
  
• FLUTTR (electric marimba rock with electric cello)
  
• DJs addambombb and DevNull
  
• belly dancing, body painting, poetry...

Thursday, September 9th
The Middle East (upstairs), 472-480 Mass Ave in Central Square, Cambridge, MA
9:00pm - come early to get painted
18+, $8 - Fans with Cans: bring nonperishable food, get $2 off admission

The Legendary Pink Dots have a show in Cambridge next Tuesday night. Pioneers of dark psychadelia, somewhere on the verge of pop, synth, and ambient, sometimes instrumental and sometimes vocal, they have indeed become legendary. In case you don't know what they sound like, they very helpfully have an MP3 of 5 minutes from a live show for download from their web site. They've also got a bunch of other samples there - do listen to a few.

The Dresden Dolls will open with a short acoustic set. Amanda of the Dolls has referred to Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots as "my favorite songwriter to walk the earth," and "amanda's childhood hero," among other things, and the Dots have been very influential in her artistic life. Back in the winter of 2001/2002, when Amanda was still doing a wide variety of work before the Dresden Dolls took off and started monopolizing her time, one of my favorite of her projects was Hotel Blanc, a play she co-wrote and put on with the shadowbox collective. It was inspired by the music of the Legendary Pink Dots, and used them for a lot of the soundtrack. In her senior year of high school, Amanda wrote a play called "Asylum", based on the album of that name by the Dots. It was rejected from a competition because the judges decided it was "performance art" rather than "theater".

The Dresden Dolls have toured with Edward Ka-Spel before, but this is the first I remember them playing a show with the whole band.

The Legendary Pink Dots
with a short opening set by the Dresden Dolls
Tuesday, June 1st, doors at 8:00pm
At the Middle East (downstairs)
480 Mass Ave., Central Square, Cambridge
18+, $15

You can buy tickets online through ticketbastard, or get them without service charge at the Middle East Box Office, open daily 1-7pm. I called the box office and they said they don't think it will sell out.

---

Amanda has a solo set this Saturday night at the Lizard Lounge on Mass Ave in Cambridge (about halfway between Harvard and Porter Squares). Also playing are Garvy J (former members of the elevator drops), and weirdo comic Eugene Mirman. NYC comedian Patrick Borelli will MC. $7, 21+, doors at 9 pm, amanda on at 10:30 pm sharp. There's a free performance 7:30-8:30 by "Soul Low" before the show. As with most Lizard Lounge shows, it'll probably sell out, so if you plan to go, buy tickets now.

A great Italian metal band with goth-industrial leanings, and fun to look at too: Lacuna Coil is playing at The Middle East (downstairs) this Wednesday night. It's an 18+ show, yay! I'm pretty sure they're keeping to the usual Middle East schedule: Doors at 8pm, first band on somewhat after 9pm, last band on around 11:30 or midnight. The bill is Lacuna Coil, Dog Fashion Disco, and Rubikon.

The Dresden Dolls are performing tonight at The Middle East downstairs!

They are without rival my favorite Boston band of the past few years. Amanda Palmer (who you may have seen as a living statue in Harvard Square) on piano and vocals, and Brian Viglione on Drums, performing songs written and arranged by Amanda. "Punk Cabaret" is how they describe their style; I'll add intense, goth, and very accessible, with a strong punch. Weird twisted interpersonal relationship lyrics, and on-stage presence full of humor and power. Also, they're both very sexy :)

petra_quince described the Dresden Dolls as, theatrical performers in perfect syncronicity. Amanda Palmer's voice a line of fluid running over the chiaroscuro of drums and keyboard. Lyrics like fingers that walk delicately up your spine only to rake down without warning. (You can read her post about the first Dresden Dolls show I took her to, here)

Tonight's show is 18+, $10 at the door.
Doors at 8pm, show starts at 9pm, Dresden Dolls scheduled for 10pm. In reality that very likely means they'll be on as late as 10:50pm, but who knows, they might be on time, so don't be late and miss them :)

The other three bands playing tonight are Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, World/Inferno Friendship Society, and Ho-Ag.

[Added after the show: The Dresden Dolls ended up doing their set 11:35 - 12:35. So much for being on time :) It was hot and packed with people, but the music was great, and they did three new songs.]

Sorry for being so quiet recently, and I hope y'all have found some of the musical things that I've missed posting about. I've been out in western MA, the Catskills, Vermont, and at various big social events. The little scraps of time I've had online, I've mostly spend on practical details such as where I will spend the night, who I'm driving from where to where, etc., and in promoting Howard Dean. I'm waaay behind on LiveJournal.

One thing I noticed while partially catching up on some of my friends' journals today, petra_quince's review of last month's PAN 9, the one I posted about here. I love her writing!

The Dresden Dolls are playing tomorrow night at The Middle East. I'll post more about that later tonight or tomorrow if I get a chance.

The Dresden Dolls won the WBCN rumble semifinals over the weekend, so now they get to perform in the finals. Which, annoyingly, is this Thursday night - the same night as .WAV and FLUTTR at the Sky Bar. The show will be at the Middle East downstairs. 18+, $12, $10 if you buy tickets in advance.

9:30 - Apollo Sunshine
10:30 - The Dresden Dolls
11:30 - Baby Strange
12:30 - Vendetta Red (headliner, not competing)

It's a hard choice, but I'm going to .WAV and FLUTTR, because:

• I've never seen .WAV live yet
  
• Dresden Dolls play more often than either .WAV or FLUTTR
  
• I don't know anything about the other three bands at the rumble finals, which makes it a choice between two bands I love, vs. one band I love and three bands I don't know.

I'm going to save my big Dresden Dolls hype post for the next time I plan to actually go see them myself.

I'm going to be away this weekend, but if you're here in Boston and looking for some music, I recommend a couple of shows on Saturday night. One's folk, the other is rock, so you can go see both if you're ambitious - folk shows tend to end around the time that rock shows begin.

Jennifer Kimball is playing Club Passim in Harvard Square on Saturday at 8pm. $15, $13 for Passim members, and like all shows at Passim, all ages. Jennifer Kimball used to be in a duo with Jonatha Brooke called The Story, which later became a band, and it was she who got me into the habit of going to see lots of live music. I used to go to every Story concert I could, until Jennifer left the band. She's one of the best harmony singers I've ever heard.

Also on Saturday night, the Dresden Dolls are in the next round of the WBCN rumble, at the Middle East. The sets are: Blake Hazard at 9:30, Apollo Sunshine at 10:30, Kingsize at 11:30, Dresden Dolls at 12:30. 18+, $10, at The Middle East downstairs, in Central Square (near TT's, Manray, Phoenix Landing, and Mary Chung).

The Dresden Dolls are definitely my favorite Boston band currently and in the past several years. I'll probably write more about them here some other day.

If you like celtic fiddling you may want to see Eileen Ivers and Ashley MacIsaac at the Somerville Theater on Friday night. Though I don't know what the current state of the projectionists' strike is - they want to unionize, and if that hasn't been resolved yet, there may be a picket line.