thePULSEBands and artists that you may not have heard of yet…but whom 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!
BAND: The Black Raspberries
By Alex Kantarelis
So many bands today are trying so hard to bring something new to the table ~ and failing miserably. Let me introduce you to The Black Raspberries, a rock band that doesn’t follow trends and instead plays straight from the heart, and have been doing so for the past 4 years. Oh, and by the way, they’re still in high school.
The band is made up of 4 Burncoat seniors: Michael Gaudette (drums), Matt Sivazlian (guitar and sax) Victor Freitas (bass), and vocalist Giuliano D’Orazio. The guys got their start when they were just freshman. “We just started covering classic rock stuff and jamming. Then we started doing some songwriting. We recorded some stuff, and started doing some independent recording ourselves,” D’Orazio said.
They have already accomplished quite a lot for such a young band, including playing out all over the Worcester area and opening for Flock Of A-holes at the Lucky Dog about once a month.
Most people in high school are still working hard to master their instruments, but The Raspberries have already self-released 2 full length albums and recorded their 3rd, called Us Against The World, which they are currently shopping to labels. Their influences range from Led Zeppelin to Rush to Michael Jackson, and their sound consists of classic rock and metal guitar riffs while staying poppy and upbeat ~ and all while hitting you with the catchiest of hooks. Yeah, it’s safe to say that they are a total package. “[Our sound is] based heavily on older, classic rock stuff, but it has more of a modern influence,” D’Orazio said. “We try to be serious while still not taking ourselves too seriously,” he added.”
Now that high school is coming to an end, the guys aren’t showing any signs of stopping. All members are going to college in the area and plan on continuing the band while in school. “Right now we’re just focused on finishing our education and having fun while we’re doing it,” D’Orazio said. But once college is finished, they plan on doing the band full time. “We want to become a national act. It all comes down to bringing our music to everyone who wants to hear it,” he said.
Keep an eye out for The Black Raspberries, as the next few years will surely be very bright for them. And catch them on March 5 at the Gal Light Café in Dudley, MA.
www.myspace.com/theblackraspberries
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GRADUATE: Hot Day at the Zoo
By Tine Roycroft
A typical New England winter brings snow, ice, pain and suffering on an existential level, let’s face it. But Hot Day at the Zoo, a band based in this blustery state, has a great sound and a great new album to warm up our otherwise dismal weekends.
In early January of this year, Hot Day at the Zoo released their third album, Zoograss. It’s fun, it’s invigorating, it’s bold and it’s live ~ recorded at the Waterhole in Saranac, NY back on Valentine’s Day of 2009. The group includes Jon Cumming (banjo, dobro, vocals), Michael Dion (guitar, harmonica, vocals,) Jed Rosen (upright bass, vocals), and JT Lawrence (mandolin, vocals). Dion and Cumming handle the majority of the song writing.
JT Lawrence, the group’s mandolin player and youngest member at 23, sat down with Pulse to talk about the new album and explain just what Zoograss is.
“The best way to describe Zoograss is that it’s an all string band, so no percussion,” he said. “Bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin. It’s more of a ragtimey, blues and jazzy sort of bluegrass.”
Zoograss delivers songs that seem to fit any mood and inspire a sort of “broke but ain’t broken” smile whenever you hear the harmonica or the strum of strings.
Take “Mercy of the Sea.” It’s a lively song about facing life head-on, no matter what the repercussions may be. The string work can only be described as extraordinary as the boys’ fingers fly. They literally have the power to create that one moment in time when everyone is dancing to the music and no one is looking like a fool.
The band’s bluegrass influences are truly heard in “Full of Sin” as they display great vocal harmonies in the catchy choruses and even simple thumping (no drums, don’t bust a percussion pulmonary artery!) to add just a bit of extra beat to the song. The boys know how to work a crowd and it’s evident with this tune. No unnecessary chatter, no pandering and meandering during breaks between songs ~ instead, HDATZ plays with the audience through music. They tease with vocal styling, they impress with technical prowess. And the crowd goes wild.
“Old Mill,” a little ditty about gathering with a couple of the boys, dabbling in a bit of smoking, drinking and story talking is a song that fits best at the end of a long night of partying. It makes you want to grab your closest buddies and do a simple two step.
This album follows their two others, Cool As Tuesday and Long Way Home. According to JT Lawrence, the boys met in Lowell, MA. The members had seen each other perform with other bands and at local open mics before deciding to make HDATZ come to fruition. Lawrence, a native of California and the final piece of the puzzle, had moved to New Hampshire and answered the band’s ad for a mandolin player.
But the real mystery is how the band got its unusual name. Lawrence explains:
“I wasn’t there,” he said upfront. “But I’ve heard the story so many times. When they started the group, they were practicing in Mikey’s house and it was in the middle of summer time. All of the guys were crowded into this itty bitty room with no air conditioning. And they got so sweaty and stinky in the practice room that folks would come in and say, ‘Man, it smells like a zoo in here.’ So they decided to call the band Hot Day at the Zoo.”
Don’t let the name or the story fool you, girls. These guys are talented, cute and most likely smell springtime fresh. Plus, they suffered for their art, which is always a turn-on.
For more information on Hot Day at the Zoo, go to HotDayAtTheZoo.com.
