Red Hot release captures local sound
(The Collegian: Feb. 16, 1996: p.5
by Mike Burke)
1996 hasn't been the best of years for local music, especially with the virtual shut down of the area's premier local music club, the Bay State Cabaret. But this Saturday the scene will be as alive as ever as Nohopollooza hits the Grotto at the Red Hot cassette release party. Eight of the best local bands are teaming up for a night that will go down in local music legend.
The eight band mega-show is in collaboration with the release of the "Live in the Living Room" cassette compilation on Red Hot Records, a new label run by Aimee Swift and Amy Greene, both of Pirate Jenny. The new cassette is the third Red Hot release, after a Pirate Jenny cassette and 7" single.
"Live in the Living Room" features 12 local bands all of whom recorded one song each in Swift and Greene's living room last December. Eight of these bands will take the stage this Saturday night. According to Swift, the cassette was put together as an inexpensive way to spotlight the local scene. More releases such as this one are expected in the future.
Not since the release of Chunk's "Hotel Massachusetts" compilation in 1993 has one release so well captured the sound and essence of the local scene. Saturday night's show should be an ideal way of catching up any local music that you may have missed.
Among the many live highlights are University of Massachusetts' own the Mitchells, who recently performed an impressive hour-long set in Butterfield last weekend. Other artists performing are Tizzy, Pirate Jenny, Pangloss, Stringbean, Encyclopedia Brown, Diana Davies, and the Ray Mason Band.
