Giveaway: 2 tickets for Answerman, at Faces Brewing Co., Malden, MA 4/22/23

We love free concerts here at If It's Too Loud..., so we're obviously going to love to pass on free tickets to our readers as well! This time around we're giving away two tickets to see Answerman, The Grubs, and The Love Shamans at Faces Brewing Co. in Malden, MA on April 22 courtesy of RTT Presents. Faces is a great venue and is one of those breweries stepping up to fill in the void of small venues closing in and around Boston as of late. And this is a fantastic triple bill of pure rock featuring the psychedelic garage rock of Answerman, the classic/garage punk mix of The Grubs, and the psychedelic garage punk/soul of The Love Shamans! To enter, just email us your full name at ifitstooloudblog@gmail.com with the subject line "Answerman" to enter. We'll contact the winner the morning of Friday April 21!

To find out about more killer events at Faces Brewing Co., check out their website.

Answerman - "No Complaints"

Photo by Pat Piasecki

Following up on their previous single "Black Heart," Boston's Answerman have released "No Complaints." While I described the previous song as "... doused with psychedelia without any traces of hippiedom...," the new song is a little more hippie. It's an unexpected sound, especially seeing how "No Complaints" starts with a driving beat and hard rock guitar, but that sound slowly softens into a more mid-90's Boston alt-rock boom sound. This new track still has that garage rock edge we loved in "Black Heart," but it's more Lemonheads than The Stooges, while still having a little bit of The Stooges. It's nice to see a band branch out their sound so much within two singles, and has us even more excited about what Answerman will do next.

Sam Pitino says of the upcoming album:

“Thematically, the album touches on such a wide range of human conditions: Love, loss, lust, depression, anxiety, disappointment, forgiveness. And we all experience these things everyday, in real life situations: Our romantic relationships, our friendships, our workplaces, our politics. It's a whole world. And when you take a step back and start to put things into perspective, you see that there's so much gray area and nothing is black and white. But the gray area is the part that's interesting – that's where you can immerse yourself and create stories that hopefully resonate.”

You can listen to "No Complaints" below. Black Light Poster is due out April 21. For more on Answerman, check out the band's website. The band has an album release party coming up on April 22 at Faces Brewing Company in Malden with The Love Shamans and The Grubs.

Answerman - "Black Heart"

Photo by Pat Piasecki

We tend to cover a lot of garage rock here at If It's Too Loud..., particularly if it's from Boston. A lot of that tends to fall into the power pop category and can stay fairly traditional. Answerman are pure garage rock, but they leave the typical Boston garage rock sound behind while still sounding like a Boston garage rock band. "Black Heart" just has this swagger to it. The song is doused with psychedelia without any shred of hippiedom attached to it. It's not quite punk, but that's only because it's surprisingly groovy. The song is like this unique mixture of The Hives, The Stooges, and Jello Biafra. As dark as the song gets, it stays a really fun rock and roll song.

Vocalist and guitarist Sam Pitino says of the new single:

“‘Black Heart’ is about living with depression and anxiety. It's about the thoughts that keep repeating in our heads while we're in that hopeless state. It's a feeling that we can all relate to – you just retreat inside your head and get on this treadmill of negative existential thoughts. It's not a good place at all. You feel trapped, alone, isolated and like there's no way out.”

You can listen to "Black Heart" below. Black Light Poster is due out April 21. For  more on Answerman, check out the band's website.