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On The Calendars “Noah Don’t Like Rock”

It’s hard to pin-down what's been seeping into the airwaves of independent music scenes across this country’s underground music hubs. You could call it a rediscovery of musical roots, or an obsession with the balladry of the everyman. Songs that seem to tell stories of mundanity, heartbreak, work, and loss as though they are crude jokes at the dinner table. I’d call it a twang. Somewhere in the basements, porches, and boiler rooms once dominated by the ferocious stylings of math tinged pop-punk or shadowed by the everpresent cloud of painfully hip zoomer-gaze, songwriters and musicians have returned to the great American musical tradition. Right now, an avid Allston house show attendee is unplugging their Zoom Multistomp and posting a Craigslist ad soliciting someone, anyone who can play the pedal steel. Country is back in the lungs of the Boston underground, and The Calendars don’t give a fuck.

Let’s be clear: what you hear on The Calendar’s poignant third album “Noah Don’t Like Rock” is far from anything that would play on country radio, or anything you’d likely associate with most of the country music you’ve heard. It’s hard to know how serious the record’s country genre denomination on streaming platforms really is, and it seems that’s the way the band likes it. The sound of “Noah Don’t Like Rock” is as touched by 1990s indie rock tape pioneers like Eric’s Trip or The Microphones as it is by outlaw country’s greats like John Prine or Townes Van Zandt. The album’s first track “The Announcement” lays an in-memoriam for a canceled TV show over faded acoustic guitar and Phill Everum style backing vocals. It’s bizarre how much melancholy is packed in “I just thought about how, even the most raging rivers, will one day be bone dry” in a song dedicated to Adult Swim personality Joe Perra. What is decidedly country about this record is its attitude. “Noah Don’t Like Rock” is concerned with two extremes: the absurd and the soul crushingly real. On one hand there are songs like “I was an Accident” which outlines fears and inadequacies that are common in young adults of a certain disposition. “I was an accident, not in how I was conceived, in how I turned out to be.” The song never takes itself too seriously, which is likely what makes it feel so authentic. Lines like “My folks raised me well, they did everything right, despite their best efforts I turned out to be an antichrist” drip with the humor and self depreciation you’d hear from only your most disaffected friends. What the songwriting achieves here by masking the legitimate fear of inadequacy with an apathetic joke is a tinge of sadness that feels grounded and genuine. “Secretly Horny” is also concerned with one of youth’s most universal stories. The song sees our protagonist meet a stranger at a barbeque and immediately be attracted to them. “When our eyes locked, my heart just stopped and I knew I wanted you.” It then follows that relationship as it grows into a close friendship and recounts a conversation where they both share their once held attractions to each other. It’s a ballad of the missed opportunity and it leaves you feeling the way an experience like that would. The song’s final “I woulda never knew that you were secretly horny too” takes you to that awkward space between intimate friendship and desire that is familiar to so many. On the record’s other extreme are gems like “Swamp Monster”, a story told from the point of view of a solitary swamp creature attempting to interact with humanity. What begins as a strange story of an outsider condemned to cower in the swamp, turns into a critique of an over industrialized world as the monster compares his consumption into the swamp with humankind’s descent into greed and development. “I Killed A Man at Tavern in the Square” again toys with the absurd, this time set to an oh-so-country walking chord progression that transports you to the once beloved Allston late night establishment. If anything, a murder outside the TITS shows you how much fun The Calendars can have.

I’ve long wondered what endears me so much to “Noah Don’t Like Rock.” I listen to it often, I’ve shared it with all of my friends, I get drunk and play it for strangers at Green Line stations, I recommend it on first dates with women I don’t know very well. In short, I like this record so much it’s off putting. I haven’t found an album out of Boston’s underground that I connect with more. It’s sweet when it has to be and ironic the rest of the time. It’s funny. it’s smart, and it’s somehow both light and sad. It’s “country music, no not that kind.” The Calendars could make a stone experience the peaks and valleys of human emotion. If you haven’t yet, listen to “Noah Don’t Like Rock.” Set aside the half hour and let yourself sink into the tape hiss. I guarantee you won’t regret it.

-Rio D.

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Ep. 1 - The Modern Faces, American Ninja Warriorz

Today's inaugural episode of The Big Dig featured a dive into Boston power pop powerhouse The Modern Faces. Their 2022 self titled record blends crunchy pop guitar hooks with bitingly grungy choruses. The instantly lovable Open Door, the jangly power pop of In 3s, the unrelentingly cathartic anger of Krakatoa this album has everything except room to breathe. "So pathetic/ I spent a year in therapy just trying to pull myself through/ No dianetics or book of Mormon could change the truth." Moving onto this week's new release we have the dirty and revolting sounds of the ever entertaining four-track band American Ninja Warriorz whose second record of the year "Death to Shoegaze" harbors critiques of Boston's affected and rapidly gentrified DIY scene while preserving the band's fuck-shit stylings and gung-ho songwriting approach (see Berklee Bitch Boyz and Deth to Shoegaze). Finally, we ended our show with 90's Boston indie rock staple Swirlies who gained prominence playing shows with scene legends like Dino Jr.

Again, thanks for tuning into The Big Dig, Thursdays from 9-10 AM Eastern Standard Time on WECB Radio on Internet. Keep digging, see you next week.

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Welcome to The Big Dig

Here at The Big Dig (Boston's best new DIY music discovery blog) we believe there's a large void in this great city's underground music scene: good music. Actually, we think that's untrue (clearly). The Big Dig is sick of hearing that our beautiful sanctuary of a city is an artistic Superfund site, but we wouldn't fault you (ignorant little Boston transplant music listener) for believing it. The bottom line is– most of us don't hear much of what's being played in the basements of rat city, or in the parking lot of the Soldier's Field iHop, or in one of this great city's three remaining community spaces. I suppose what we mean is, we are here to help. Once a week on WECB internet radio Thursdays from 9-10 am (and available on streaming soon) we invite the sounds of Boston DIY into your living room, car radio, fifteen dollar smart speaker. Demo tapes, artist interviews, show reviews - The Big Dig is concerned with the hyper-local. We are driven by a love for our city and our scene, and the we desire nothing more than to share that love with you.

That's all for now,

T.M. and R.D.