RETURN OF THE BOSSTONES

I occasionally check out Amazon.com's upcoming release schedule, and I noticed a Mighty Mighty Bosstones collection, Medium Rare. The band has been inactive for a few years now: it seemed that their time had sort of passed: they looked like they were about to break huge, they didn't, and some important band members left the group (guitarist Nate Albert, who co-wrote a lot of the music, trombonist Dennis Brockenborough, who also sang backing vocals and sax player Kevin Linear). And of course, Dickey Barrett now calls L.A. home, due to his gig as hype man on Jimmy Kimmel's show.

So, I was surprised to see that they got together this past December to do another of thier legendary Hometown Throwdowns. For those who don't know, the Throwdown is a gig (or series of gigs) at a small club (or clubs) in Boston around Christmastime. I traveled to Boston for this twice, and never regretted the hundreds of miles of driving, the hours on the road, whatever. Once I drove up for the show, watched the show, and then drove home (I might not have done that if I didn't have tickets to see a solo acoustic Bruce Springsteen show the following day...).

Anyway, it's kind of annoying: I didn't read about this anywhere in the music press. I know that someone from Sleater-Kinney plays drums for the guy from Pavement. I know there's some band called Vampire Weekend that people like. I know that Lil' Kim and Remy Ma don't like each other. But I hadn't heard about an actual awesome band reuniting. That's depressing. I've seen a lot of rock bands in my day, and on a good night, the Bosstones were among the best. And they usually had good nights. I've seen them more than ten times, easily.

They've never been considered hip, but that's mainly because they started their fanbase organically, without any help from the rock hipster press. The rock hipster press doesn't like anyone who they didn't help create, period. They'll make it seem like the Bosstones are a bunch of dumb jocks or something. But those of us who have gone to the shows, we know the deal.

Considering that they come from a scene that has had it's share of skinhead problems, it's pretty ballsy that they had the Anti Racist Action League representing with tables at all of their shows. Sebadoh doesn't do that, do they?

Anyway, enough sour grapes. Obviously the band won't be a full time thing due to Dickey's new day job, but I hear they're playing New Jersey at a big, sort of punk rock festival. Even if they just do a half hour, I'm there.