If It's Too Loud...

We try to stay fairly positive over here at If It's Too Loud... and just bring you the best new music that we stumble on. We don't want to do the snarky music critic thing and mock hard working bands trying to make it just because we think we're funny. But every so often a band we used to love releases something so horrible that we're forced to warn you about how bad it is. Once again, that band is Weezer. I used to love love LOVE Weezer. They're the band most people most closely associate with me still to this day. They just released the first song off their upcoming 11th album. That song, "Feels Like Summer," is awful. Just plain awful. They're a band that's been around for 20+ years and they're not even targeting teens and 20-somethings anymore. This sounds like a play for tweens, like they're trying to get on a Disney Channel or Nickelodeon show. It's the kind of song that you see a band on stage playing instruments, but you don...

With TT the Bear's closing forever this Saturday, I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of the iconic Cambridge rock club. Some of my most cherished musical memories took place within its walls. It is going to be missed greatly. Back in 1997-1998, Rivers Cuomo played some small, side project shows in the Boston area. The band had a rotating line-up, but this one in particular stands out. Weezer drummer Pat Wilson came out to join the band for this show, and it also included soon to be Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh. To show how far Weezer had fallen out of the mainstream post- Pinkerton , tickets were available to see half of Weezer at a 300 person club. By this point the casual fans had strayed off (an earlier show at TT's in October had some fratty guys asking where the mosh pit was before the band started) and this was just filled with die hards. It was a short eight song setlist, and of course it consisted of Weezer favorites such as "Getchoo," "No O...

Via Facebook For anyone who doesn't know, last week is was announced that Cambridge, MA club TT the Bear's was closing this summer after over 40 years. This might be the first club closing to truly upset me. By the time I was regularly going to shows (1996?), The Rat was catering to mostly punk and hardcore bands, and Avalon and Axis were always the bigger, corporate clubs (even though they've been replaced by the even more corporate and gigantic House of Blues). TT's had an equal love of national and local bands, and felt like a home base to bands like Letters to Cleo and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper even as they got too big to play a 325 person club. For an example of how great this place was in the late 90s, check out the ad to the left. Jennifer Trynin, Allstonians, Velvet Crush, Boss Hog, Bikini Kill, and a Squirrel Nut Zippers/Magnetic Fields double bill in less than 2 weeks??? Plus, it was the site of the legendary Pixies/Lemonheads pairing on "nu muzik"...