Greetings and salutations, friends! It's been a while hasn't it? How are you doing? Getting up to any exciting mischief this fall? Let us know...

Well, after months of procrastination I finally got around to putting up my favorites of the hundreds of pix from the Perennials' summer residence. Check our photogenic asses out in the Photos section!

AND DON'T FORGET the Perennials will be back in business (as the Strokes) on All Hallow's Eve at Great Scott. If you missed us as the Libertines at last year's Pill Halloween show, you will NOT want to miss this!!! We'll be playing in the headlining slot, with the Kinks (Wonderful Spells), Elastica (the Sun Lee Sunbeam) and the Pill's resident DJs rounding out the night.

BTW, while I have your attention I'm playing a free solo show tomorrow night at the Mideast Corner with Steve Fournier from Bread and Roses and Dr. and Mrs. Van Der Trammp. It starts at 10 pm. I'm also a guest DJ at Dance Your Ass this coming Monday, with Panda and Chris Amaral from the Cold Beat. DYA is the first Monday of every month at the Plough and Stars in Cambridge.

We still love you all, despite our reluctance as of late to appear as a group. That said, make sure to check out Brandon and Omar's new band THOUSANDS. They're playing around town quite a bit, and are definitely deserving of your attention.

Best Wishes,
John "Flax" Von Bittrich

Hey yall,

Make absolutely sure to come out tonight (Friday) for the first EVER Perennials show in lovely Jamaica Plain. It goes down at the MIDWAY CAFE (Washington St. near Green St. T stop) at show o'clock...

The Perennials will be headlining, and the talented and charming Living Sea will kick the festivities off, but the REAL story is the two absolutely FANTASTIC touring acts who are rounding out the bill...

First off will be a New York-based league of synth-pop superheroes called Mathematicians! Click the link and check out "Binary Girl" for the best bit of Devo-meets-OMD Casio candy I've heard in years.





Next up is Prizzy Prizzy Please, from the Midwest's DIY mecca; Bloomington, Indiana.



 PPP have toured through Boston once before, and joined the Perennials at the Oxfam Cafe with our buddy Totally Michael (iheartcomix!) and the dearly-departed Aaron Burr and the Swamp Pistols.



 Ask anyone who was there. Prizzy Prizzy Please... absolutely... STOLE. THE. SHOW.



 

Their arsenal of hyper-technical, high-energy soul jams like "Dino Police" and "Campfire Girls Weekend Party" were quirky, diverse and positive without being pretentious or cloying or overly-hippie-friendly in the slightest. Below is a video of them playing live. PLEASE. I URGE YOU. Bask in its glory.





After you do, you'll do the right thing and come to the Midway tomorrow night.








Fondest Regards,
John Von Bittrich Flax

First, the begging...

The fine folks at Zig Zag paper products have made us one of 9 bands up for 4 free ads in CMJ Magazine, a song featured on their website and a spot on a CMJ CD compilation at http://www.zigzaglive.com

The internet has been kind to us. Help some brothas out so Mike doesn't have to sell his plasma to pay practice space rent anymore!

You don't gotta sign up for nothing, just go to http://zigzaglive.com and click the red white and blue button that says "vote for bands" then pick The Perennials!!! All you need is an email address, and you can vote every day!

And then of course there's the fun stuff... COME HANG OUT!!!

Come on out the night of Monday the 12th to see The Perennials' debonair front man spin a set at the Plough and Star's new monthly dance night, this month's installment of which is lovingly known as BUMP YOUR ASS OFF!!!

The Plough and Stars is a wonderful little Irish pub right on Mass. Ave between Harvard and Central Square. John will be sharing the turntables and the appetizers with Laura and Ryan the Terrible. Expect a set rich in 60s freakbeat, 70s mod-punk, two-tone, new wave, soul and even more high-energy awesomeness to get you over the Monday blues... This is a 21+ event.

and then...

A Friday night in Central Square is a night fraught with difficult decisions. There is so much to do in such a small strip of land that one could easily lose one's bearings in a sensory overload and end up cowering at home… Well fear not, weekend warriors and committed party animals, because the Middle East Upstairs has the answer to your first-world woes!

Die Mannequin is a Toronto trio with a hip-shaking heaviness that is pure sex appeal. The group's new EP was produced by MSTERKRFT and they've toured extensively in Canada with the likes of the Deftones, Sum 41 and the new Guns n Roses (?!). The Perennials will be playing with all the energy of a pen full of march hares with a case of red bull, and pulling out hook after hook like your grandma's crocheting circle! Get there early for openers Guillermo Sexo, who are releasing their second full-length of multilungual male/female psychedelic shoegaze eros, and popsters Silent Service!

The madness goes down at 9pm, admission is 18+ and it's $9 to get in.

Come on out the night of Monday the 12th to see The Perennials' debonair front man spin a set at the Plough and Star's new monthly dance night, this month's installment of which is lovingly known as BUMP YOUR ASS OFF!!!

The Plough and Stars is a wonderful little Irish pub right on Mass. Ave between Harvard and Central Square. John will be sharing the turntables and the appetizers with Laura and Ryan the Terrible. Expect a set rich in 60s freakbeat, 70s mod-punk, two-tone, new wave, soul and even more high-energy awesomeness to get you over the Monday blues... This is a 21+ event.

Come on back to Central Square that Friday to see the whole band shake the Middle East Upstairs with Die Mannequin, a Toronto trio with a hip-shaking heaviness that is pure sex appeal. The group's new EP was produced by MSTERKRFT and they've toured Canada with the likes of the Deftones, Sum 41 and the new Guns n Roses. Get there early for Guillermo Sexo (it's their new album release!) and Silent Service. This is an 18+ show and starts at 9pm. Get in touch with us if you want more info about either.

The Perennials' 1,000th Myspace compatriot is not a single compatriot at all.

The Closet Fairies are a Salem-based pop-punk combo whose songs bridge the shouting and bash-it-out intensity of 90s No Idea Records stuff with some old school West Coast touches (thinking Angry Samoans factor in here somewhere).

They've just released a new two-song 7" and it is quite snazzy looking. You can see them at Baby Safe Haven in Somerville, MA on October 18th with local heroes The Ringers and touring bands from the UK, Minneapolis and Canada.

As a gift for their special placement in the swelling ranks of our comrades, the Closet Fairies will receive a package from Flax including a mix CD, some buttons, and some random stuff from the floor of his apartment.

Our next shout-out/prizewinner will be lucky number 2500, a number which we should reasonably hit by the end of this weekend.

New Model Army have had to cancel their entire US tour after their visas were denied... Now I'm not sure whether it was US or UK officials responsible for this travesty, so I'm just gonna go ahead and blame the US:

I promise you fuckers that I will break whatever laws I want in this country and cross your borders at will. You can't stop me. I'm more dangerous than Al Quaeda and the Fantastic 4 combined and I'm bringing however many ounces of liquid on your plane as I feel like! My shoes don't NEED bombs in them, because I can put them RIGHT UP YOUR FUCKING CUSTOMS AGENT ASS.

Get MY fucking band's show cancelled will you? Bring it, bitches! Rupert Murdoch and Agent Keegs can suck my swollen ballz!

Love,
Flax/Perennials

Are you wondering who will be the "big bands" to watch in the upcoming school year? Need some hip up-and-comers to namedrop to impress that pitchfork-trolling dorm-mate?

Come to TT The Bear's on Pearl St. in Central Square, Cambridge MA on this Thursday the 23rd of August for an 18+ show that will cost $8 and start at 9pm

This show will feature four of the catchiest groups this side of a BU petri dish in Roxbury!

WILD LIGHT: In the last year Wild Light have played shows at the Orpheum with the Arcade Fire and at Avalon with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and their songs are more than suitably "big" sounding for both those mega-venues AND this headlining spot. This is the only show they've got listed for the forseeable future, so come check em out before they get snatched up by whatever's replacing the OC in attempted soundtrack cred this fall.



THE DIAMOND MINES: Also playing their last show for well over a month is The Diamond Mines, Who according to the Northeast Performer play "...twitchy pop songs that would be right at home in the first generation of new wave...thinking man's punk...everything modern alternative rock should be, but so rarely is." These guys have been steadily building a Boston following for years now and are poised to do BIG THINGS in '08, mark my words...



THE ACTION PAINTERS: Hailing from Williamsburg, Brooklyn comes recent Spin Magazine band of the day The Action Painters. Newsday says that their new EP "has the fresh, invigorating sound of early '70s power-pop, though it also has an alluring dark streak." There's no telling whether this band will follow in the footsteps of their many Brooklyn contemporaries and smash up the pop charts, but if they keep writing shit half as catchy as the song "Sooner or Later", I'll pretty much guarantee it.



THE PERENNIALS: The Perennials have spent most of the year recording and gigging, steadily building towards the late-year release of a 23-minute EP of massive, sprawling guitar-pop-post-punk goodness. The Perennials Are Forever EP is not out yet, but the band is receiving increased label interest based on their new interim single "Blacklight" and a recent slot in the venerable Flophouse Sessions, which features ace recordings of new tracks like "Delirium Tremont" and "Carrion On..." This will be their first time at TT The Bear's since the sold-out show with the Thermals and Read Yellow in Spring, so let's help them make this one even more exciting.