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Back in 2007 I saw a band named Antiques play P.A.’s Lounge in Somerville. At that show, the only people to show up were me, my four friends, and maybe two other people. It’s not exactly an anomaly for a band to find themselves playing to an empty room at that place. But in this situation it was so painfully obvious to everyone in attendance that this band clearly should have been playing to a packed club and not six clowns such as ourselves. They were that good. So then and there I decided that I had to write an article about them, one that would put these boys into the spotlight they so richly deserved. And I did. The article was called “Dynamic Duo” and it was in the “Music and Clubs” section of the paper. It, of course, made the band stars, just as Jon Landau’s piece in The Real Paper (!) catapulted Bruce Springsteen to stardom back in ‘74. Now the Antiques name is familiar in every living room across this fine nation. And as a result, the two main members of the band, drummer Tim Griffiths and singer/guitarist Steve Vallarelli, have a huge house out in Northern California right next to Tom Waits’s abode, where they have since taken to filming a reality show, about what it’s like for two bandmates to live and make music together, with Tom Waits as their neighbor. The conceit is not all that interesting right off. The juicy bit is this: Steve is married and his wife lives with them! It’s really kooky, take my word. Sometimes they invite me out to Cali to have a smoke and a chat. They of course pay for my plane ticket. It’s very nice, indeed.
Everything that comes after the word “It” in the eighth sentence of that last graph is false. But in a decent world, it would all be true, except for the reality show part, which was me going a little overboard. What happened after the article ran is much more mundane, but that’s okay. The bandmembers are still in Massachusetts, living in the same houses they were living when I met them, as far as I know. Steve is still in law school, as far as I know. There is no reality show, as far as I know. And the band is still killing it in the same clubs they were killing it in last year, that much I know for sure.
We recently chatted with Tim Griffiths by phone, who was in Michigan visiting his dad, about a show the band is playing on Monday night at Charlie's Kitchen and a new album coming out called No Fortune.
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CROSSING OVER 5 years ago April 18, 2003 | Dan Kennedy discussed what he thought was “perhaps the most astounding media story to come out" of the Iraq War. “This past Sunday, Jules Crittenden, the Boston Herald reporter embedded with the Army’s Third...
Last week, Slate's video editor Andy Bowers posted a video of his self-nominated "Stupidest Bike Lane in America," a lane in Western Los Angeles that runs a mere 275 feet before disappearing suddenly and completely amidst busy LA traffic...
Daily street art posts have been minimal lately, due to my recent absence from the office/country, but I'm back and voilà ! I've brought street art pics back pour vous .
From the fifth arrondissement of Paris, Hemingway's old stomping
grounds...
It was born in New York City. But since then, the flash mob whatshamacallit has spread -- so that now these things are just about everywhere. Yes, it seems like with each passing week, another group of people randomly drop their pants while riding public...
RAIN ON THEIR PARADE 5 years ago February 21, 2003| Seth Gitell wondered if the imminent invasion of Iraq could turn into a quagmire of urban combat like the 1993 debacle in Mogadishu, Somalia. “There are scores of optimists (mainly in the Pentagon) who...
In Boston (Cambridge): Stenciled-on musicians are brightening those bleak, concrete walls Awesome pics by sushiesque , who also captured a heartbroken Loch Ness monster. We miss Elliott and Kurt too, Nessy. Not in Boston (???): Christine Autturio, my...
Maybe not, but it could be a good distraction at least. From the inbox:
I recently discovered that the Library of Congress has a Flickr page , and I can't stop looking at it. Srsly. I need to be banned, or I'm never going get anything else done. Here are a few of the best flicks - visit the actual page if you like...
In Boston (swirly, drippy snake in Inman Square): Photos by me. Not in Boston (Hawaiian street art): (I had to look here to get it). All photos by a Honoluluan called dubside .
Queens of the Stone Age does "In the Fade" at First Act Guitar Studio, proving they are just as awesome acoustically as they are plugged in. James Parker reads a poem about Britney Spears's wild night with Criss Angel, backed by a bunch of jellyfish....
Half of Street Style had heaps of fun at Thunderdome IX with DJ Assault ("The Street Narrator") last Friday at the Greek American Political Club . Although we can't claim to be as handy with our Cannon point-and-shoot as the sartorial X-tine Atturio ...
© Christine Atturio JON STORY : 22 years-old, lives in Brookline, works at Urban Outfitters. SNAPPED : Smoking on his break. STALKED : We like fedoras, fingerless gloves, plaid , blue jeans that are actually blue, and boys that patiently answer our indulgent...
© Christine Atturio CHIAKI STORY : 20-years-old, B.U. study abroad student from Tokyo SNAPPED : Kenmore Square STALKED : She knows how to work with proportion and volume. And we’re seriously impressed by her tights-under-shorts combo, which the Fug Girls...
Phoenix editor Lance Gould talked to the guys from the Sandbox on WFNX this morning about the proposed spanking legislature in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and, uh, Pat Benatar. Listen to it here. LISTEN: Gould on the Sandbox (mp3)
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