thePULSEBands, clubs, artists, and businesses that you may not have heard of yet…but that we think are going to make a name for themselves really soon ~ and you get to hear about them here, right before they make it big!
DUO
Herra Terra
By Tine Roycroft
Think of the sexiness and delicious sin of Depeche Mode grooves. Toss around the sensuality and prowess of Madonna as her tongue licks out intense lyrics. Now add two 22-year-old hotties as singers, guitarists, keyboardists and drummers and you have Herra Terra sliding their rhythmic fingers up and down your back. And you know you like it.Herra Terra, a Worcester-based band, is made up of John Tonelli and Gregg Kusumah-Atmadja and if the duo must be classified, they fall under many categories.“Our music is a fusion between rock music, electronica, electro,” said Tonelli. Pulse reached him as he was driving in his Toyota Yaris from Providence back to his home city. He was being your typical bad boy by talking on the phone as he drove. But he was on speaker phone, so we’ll forgive him.
“Our music is very 80s-esque, but that’s a hard question to answer. Our music is basically intangible.”
These days, Herra Terra gigs out at the Spiritual Haze Hookah Bar, Providence’s Club Hell and Boston’s Middle East, performing crazy passionate songs such as “Ejection Seats” and “Make a Scar.” And they live the ultimate artistic life. The two high school pals live together with Master Michael Grady, a hypnotist (who was, incidentally, featured in the January issue of Pulse).“It’s great,” Tonelli said of his living situation. “If we want to make some music, we can go into the next room and cook something up on the keyboard.”And according to Tonelli, living with a hypnotist has a few perks too.“He helped me quit smoking. And man, I was smoking forever. For like ten years,” he revealed.
Herra Terra has quite a bit on its plate for 2009. The boys have decided to write at least 20 songs by this summer, which is a feat for any artist. They will continue performing and try to expand their network. Playing Herra Terra’s sound is somewhat challenging in Worcester, Tonelli noted, simply because the city is known for its amazing hard metal bands. But that in no way discourages him or his partner. In fact, the two have so much faith in what they have going that they’re looking to make it a threesome. Sure the boys can make wonders with drum machines, but they crave more.
“We’re looking for a drummer,” Tonelli said. “We typically start creating music by concentrating on a beat and then adding other instruments in. It all starts with a pulse and we go from there.”
www.myspace.com/herraterraBAND
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BAND
Nate Wilson Group
By Tine Roycroft
The Nate Wilson Group has its roots deep within the soil of classic rock. They’ve learned great lessons from rock favs such as Cream and Led Zeppelin. They pay homage to neo-classic and stoner rock contemporaries like Wolfmother, The Black Keys, Dead Meadow, and The Raconteurs. Their psychedelic candied music styles seem to expand your mind while making your foot tap. And with the recent release of their debut album Unbound, they’ve only just begun.
The group consists of bassist Tommy Lada, 27, drummer Thomas Arey, 30, guitarist Adam Terrell, 35, and of course Nate Wilson. He’s 33 and in charge of the vocals and keyboards and is lucky enough to have a band named after him.
“The whole idea started at Stone Church near the University of New Hampshire,” recalled Wilson. Each week, different groups would perform ~ and since Wilson hosted the events, naming the band after him simply made sense at the time.
“The main reason it has stuck,” Wilson admitted “is because I’m terribly afraid of coming up with a crappy band name. There are so many out there, so the Nate Wilson Group was an easy cop out, I guess.”
And his bandmates don’t seem to mind. Yet.
The group will have been officially together for two years come St. Patrick’s Day and ~ despite still being in the honeymoon period ~ are touring like fiends, keeping a tight and strict schedule and playing in NY, VT, Virginia, MA, ME, and Rhode Island.
A piano teacher by day, Wilson says that he is happy with the progress of the band and proud of the music. Songs like “The Long Ships” encourage you to sit back in the oldest and most tattered of comfy chairs with a favorite cup of courage and just take the world in, while “Hear the Echoes” makes you want to stand up simply to get down.
“I write a lot of the music first,” Wilson said of his creative process. “Lately, I’ve been recording a ton of stuff on my laptop. I usually have five or six songs in various stages of completion. And then when I think I’m close enough, I punish myself for a few hours by writing lyrics, which is the hardest part.”
No matter how close others may feel a song is to perfection, Wilson says the real test of a song is when the group performs it live. The prestige of the club or the size of the crowd doesn’t even matter, he said.
“Often the best gigs happen when you least expect it,” Wilson said. “Sometimes you can be on a big stage under the lights in front of tons of people and the gig can totally suck. But some of the best times I’ve ever played have been on some cramped stage in front of 10 people. There’s some Zen involved there.”
For more info on the Nate Wilson Group, go to www. NateWilsonGroup.Net
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CD
Griffon ~ Rebels with a Cause
By Alison Zawadski
Formed in a modest practice space in Framingham, Griffon has been bringing the Worcester area a different kind of rock and roll for three years now. The band, which recently welcomed its newest member, Bobby Clifton of Anchorage, AK, deftly blends hard rock music with the jarringly unique voice of frontman Brian Dollaway. But it’s what that voice has to say that’s the truly intriguing part.
“Griffon’s message has always been to embrace the light instead of the dark,” said Fitch Proctor, drummer and spokesman for the band.
Griffon insists on steering clear of the anger often found in other hard rock bands’ lyrics. This determination to remain positive is evident on the band’s 2007 self-titled EP on tracks like “Tears of Burgundy,” and “Good Fight,” the latter a song about the band members’ struggle to better themselves.
But don’t be fooled by their soft side; the band’s music leaves no doubt as to which genre they fit into ~ they’re rock all the way. Powerful guitar riffs and a solid rhythm section have established Griffon ~ nominated as one of Pulse’s Best Rock Acts of 2007 ~ as one of the area’s favorite hard rock acts.
And as the band’s music continues to spread throughout the area thanks to airplay on WAAF, WBCN and college radio stations across Massachusetts, Griffon’s members stay grounded and try to remember to appreciate the recognition they’ve received and the life they’ve been afforded.
“We look forward to doing as much as we can to help people enjoy the life we sometimes take for granted,” Proctor said of the band’s efforts to give back through its charity, Griffon Lives Life. The charity supports local organizations that offer help to those in need. To raise money, the band has been selling bracelets at shows and the proceeds have been going, so far, to Massachusetts Advocates for Children, specifically the Autism Project.
“We’re really trying to push the Griffon Lives Life charity. The bracelets go for $4, but often people will give more,” Proctor said. “We want to be a positive difference in people’s lives. We really like MAC because it’s a great, young, grassroots group. We like supporting [the treatment of] autism because it affects more people than you would notice.”
The band’s next show, and first as a five-piece ensemble, is Friday, Feb. 20, in Pawtucket, RI at KC’s Tap.
For more on the band, head to www.myspace.com/GRIFFONband and
www.griffonband.net (coming VERY soon!).
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By Alison Zawadski
Grand Evolution seems to come screaming out of the 90s drenched in the memory of teen angst, but all grown up.
Hailing from Uxbridge, this quartet’s fourth effort, All We Have Is Now, is filled with catchy pop tunes and laced with lyrics oozing heartbreak and anger.Reminiscent of the female-fronted bands of decades past, Grand Evolution puts a unique spin on an old classic ~ classic, that is, for those of us who grew into our musical selves in the 90s. At a time when pure rock music has faded into the background and been replaced with genres like pop-punk and screamo, Grand Evolution delivers a refreshing look back to a time when music was stripped, simple and wonderful.
The simplicity of the band’s structure (its four members all perform multiple roles) and the way that minimalism is mimicked in the music is one of its biggest strengths. There is nothing more captivating than brutally honest lyrics paired with a beat you can bob your head to and guitar that you play along with in the privacy of your car while driving down the highway.
Whether you’re 18 or 38, Sarah Kollett’s lyrics on All We Have Is Now are relatable and embody the kind of bravery we all wish we had at the time of a breakup. On the CD’s opening track, “Make My Day,” she sings, “I’m better than what you take me for,” and makes us cheer for her.But Grand Evolution doesn’t make the kind of whiny grunge we remember, but rather a new brand of kick-ass, stand-up-for-yourself power ballads that more mature audiences can relate to and embrace. The guitar on “Mayday” will make any rocker proud and “The Mission” is the ultimate ode to growing up and looking back on how you got to where you are.
Kollett’s fighting words are, in part, coming from the despair the band felt after its guitar space burned to the ground in the summer of 2007, taking with it all of the instruments and equipment inside. All We Have Is Now is the band’s first effort after recovering from this disastrous situation.
From beginning to end, All We Have Is Now offers something different and intriguing on each track and adds up to a solid hour of really good music.To judge for yourself, visit grandevolution.com or check out myspace.com/grandevolution
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CLUB
The Boiler Room: Keeping it Industrial
By Rachel Shuster“Selim did it again!” That’s right, Selim Lahoud, owner of The Boiler Room, located in the Canal District at 70 Winter Street in Worcester, has made his mark on the Worcester nightlife scene once again. Previously the owner of the popular Red, which opened in 1988, Lahoud is not new to the nightlife scene or to how to make a club successful. Having sold Red, he’s now ready to make The Boiler Room our city’s newest hotspot.
Lahoud describes The Boiler Room as “a lounge, not exactly a bar or club.” Open since this past Thanksgiving, the 3,000 square foot lounge has already attracted many patrons. “So far, people really like the atmosphere. It’s relaxing and people like how it is unusual and different. They like the concept.” In the making for several years, the lounge has seen fast success.
So what’s so “unique and different?” Well, in no other lounge will you find that everything in the place is completely recycled. “The location of is actually the old boiler of the Haywood Mill building, hence the name, ‘Boiler Room,’” Lahoud says. The bar and entry way are made from old beams, the benches are from a temple that Lahoud formerly owned, the tables (on which you can find people dancing on regularly!) are made from barrels, and all the wood found in the lounge has been completely restored and rejuvenated from other locations. “It’s a new kind of lounging. It’s an industrial lounge,” Lahoud says. The stylish and chic atmosphere definitely stands out and lends a tremendous amount of character to the place.
Open 9:30pm – 1:45am, Thursdays through Saturdays (for now), The Boiler Room offers something different each day. Thursdays are focused on dancing and relaxing to local music, while Fridays are full of music from all over the world. As for Saturdays, “We have a DJ but on Saturdays we also have individual musicians and live entertainment. It’s a very ‘Studio 54 vibe’ on Saturdays,” Lahoud explains. He also shared that he is in talks to open an area next to the lounge that will serve food as well, so stay tuned!
Lahoud’s goal was to build a unique place where people can come and enjoy themselves, a place to draw people ~ whether they are locals or from neighboring towns ~ into what Worcester has to offer, a place that is extremely customer-oriented, a place that people will remember and continue to visit. And with Lahoud’s expertise, it’s no surprise that The Boiler Room does just that. See you there!
