Musicians get to talk that talk

Networking draws rockers of many different persuasions

Scott McLennan
Entertainment Columnist

The Net is nice, but beer and billiards are better.

Such was the case last week, when a horde of area musicos turned off their computers and met in the flesh at Boston Billiards on Worcester's Grove Street to do nothing more than gab. Over the course of two hours, CDs swapped hands, musicians from opposite ends of the spectrum met face to face and guys who have more bands on their resumes than a sitar has strings compared notes with players just figuring out how to promote oddball weeknight gigs.

Two cyber outposts paying attention to the local music scene, www.volcanoboy.com and www.whizspark.com, presented this "networking mixer," and in the process cooked up something that wasn't geeky in a chamber of commerce way, yet created a forum that has become increasingly rare in the age of e-mails and online message boards.

"People need to actually see other people. Meet face to face," said Duncan Arsenault, who launched the music-oriented Web site www.volcanoboy.com, and is probably familiar to most as the drummer for the Curtain Society.

Unlike the usual moan 'n' groan sessions organized every couple years, this new forum seems optimistic and focused on the potential for good things to happen in the local music scene.

Arsenault said the meetings are being planned for the first Monday of every month, and the locations will be shifting. The next meeting is set to happen Feb. 7 at SPQR, 82 Winter St., Worcester. Details are available at www.volcanoboy.com and www.whizspark.com, which is a site that allows users to self-promote and plug into networks of people with similar interests.

Setting up the living, breathing gathering on neutral turf was a great idea, as none of the music-club people felt as if they were working, and none of the musicians felt like an interloper in someone else's house.

For example, if you wanted a bit of punk news, a couple of the Numbskulls were over in one end of the room. By the time you walked over to them, you got tidbits from jam-band types that play at Tammany Club, heard about the latest metal project set to hit The Lucky Dog Music Hall and caught wind of a monster bill of pop talent descending upon Ralph's Chadwick Square Diner in a couple weeks.

There has never been a shortage of diehards, try-hards and blowhards providing fuel for the local music scene. But stripped of agendas and axes to grind, all these different types of people got the new year off to a pretty good start.

Personally speaking, the Volcanoboy-Whizspark gathering chipped away whatever crust built up in 2004. To paraphrase The Who, it looks like '05 is gonna be a good year. Here's why:

Expect new records from Huck, the Curtain Society and the Numbskulls, bands with solid track records are all planning on releasing new music. Huck's next batch of power pop features several tracks produced by Cracker frontman David Lowery. The Curtain Society has been sitting on its next dose of art-bent pop awaiting proper packaging, distribution and release plans. The Numbskulls laid down five tracks already with Roger Lavallee at Tremolo Lounge, and the pride of Worcester's punk pack is planning another multistate tour.

Keep an eye out for new projects boasting veteran players. Groupaction is looking for a February release of its debut CD "Triskaidekaphoolia," according to guitarist Kurt Stephens, an alum of Worcester's venerable Black Rose Garden. Groupaction circulated a four-song sampler that kicked in a garage-rock kinda way.

Veincage is a new act bringing together elements of Chillum and East Coast Psychos. The new band is as hard-sounding as its predecessors, but flaunts traces of Gorillaz-style rhythmic flow.

Among those looking to make waves in 2005, Craig is ready to make its move from weekly residencies to higher-profile gigs. The groove-oriented rock group last year played steadily at The Lucky Dog Music Hall, Tammany Club and Shrewsbury's Milan, honing a sound that is steeped in classic rock influences but delivered with fresh energy.

Soul Movement is another comer cooking up a soul-funk sound every Tuesday at The Lucky Dog Music Hall, 89 Green St., Worcester. The ever crafty DJ Shame spins tunes around Soul Movement's sets and has sat in with the band. Shame is also in possession of a new CD, "Sampleland," in which he recast a bunch of samples used in other songs into a couple of long-flowing funky soundscapes.

Later this month, rapper Hank Scorpio is returning to club work, this time backed by a full band. Scorpio and crew have a Jan. 20 date lined up at The Lucky Dog, opening for hair-metal homage Mullet Head. Talk about worlds colliding.

Actually, such happy collisions seemed to be the main point of bringing together the disparate elements of Worcester's rock scene in the first place.

'People need to actually see other people. Meet face to face.'

DUNCAN ARSENAULT WEBMASTER, DRUMMER

Scott McLennan can be reached at

http://www.eworcester.com/entertainment/talk.html