Ultra Deluxe tracks European Parliamentary debate at O’Brien’s Pub on Monday, 8 July 2024.

Battlemode and (T-T)B sandwich the triplestack bill.

The Jamaica Plain Music Festival is coming!

Also known as the JP Music Fest. That’s got more zing.

It will be the 12th edition, coming your way in September, and each year is organized with tender love and care by a neighborhood community that loves live music and knows how to have a good time. This is a bottom-up affair, by and for the people, and it needs your support.

If you missed the annual Smell The Love fundraiser, you can still donate below!

If you missed the fundraiser show in March at the American Legion Hall with Rick Berlin, Colonel Broccoli and the Legion Basement Band, and Fantastic Trees, you can still donate below!

If you missed the annual classic fundraiser John Casey’s JP Bar Wars at Midway Cafe, you can still donate below!

Do your part to keep Jamaica Plain fresh AND funky.

Tiny Telephone Boys (aka (T-T)B, I think) back at it with new songs in pocket. New songs, same old skool Nintendo rig dishing out samples and backing tracks. Otherwise, straight ahead three-piece indie rock with a strong synth line. A broken string can’t stop them. Ganon, Ganandorf, or whatever Ganon-variant you can think of can’t stop them. An apropos start to what was advertised as a chiptune night.

The touring headliners Ultra Deluxe outta New York, New York. The city, then. What part of the city?

The duo sported some glitch-meets-twee elements, but were otherwise the least chiptune band on the bill. Doesn’t matter much. More of a post punk, electro rock duo with backing tracks and a melodica.

Plenty of samples of European Parliamentary debate, revolving around hot topics like the failure to acknowledge and provide an appropriate policy response to the genocide underway in Palestine.

For half a second you wonder why an American band is pulling samples from European Parliaments, rather than the American Congress. But then you reflect for another half second and remember that that sort of discussion is not even being aired stateside. The pro-genocide camp is full bore “you’re with us or against us,” and they’re the loudest voices in the room.

OK, back to chiptune. Battlemode rocks a Gameboy during live sets and it’s not just for show. The thing is wired for live performances, playable in real time.

In other Battlemode news, the longtime duo was performing in its new incarnation as a trio. The third musician, a guitarist, adds a more conventional rock n roll element to electro pop mix. Like you always hear, it’s not what you have, it’s what you do with it. The guitar got put to good use, lending a meat & potatoes texture to the shiny synth landscapes of the classic jamz.

Maybe some of the meanest electric violin I’ve ever heard from this group on Monday night?

Rumor has it a new single called “Playlist” is dropping in the second half of July. Check it out on your favorite platforms, or just put your ear to the ground and listen to the beating heart of Mother Gaia.

Photo Gallery