Sometimes, I get my hands on a badass tape and then I realize that I've never seen the band and I have no frame of reference for what this band meant to the people in their scene. That's fine. I realize that I could just leave it at that and give you the download link. No one would lose any sleep over it, but that's not really how I like to do things. I got in touch with my good friend, Terry to see if she could dig up some info and she was happy to talk about these dudes for a bit. You may know Terry from her completely awesome band, FOREIGN OBJECTS or you may remember her writing from this blog when she schooled us all on RED THREAD. Either way, the rest is all written by her.
I feel like once, long, ago, there was a time when a new band didn't pop up every weekend...at least around here ("here" being Boston). It's hard to remember but I swear it happened. Summer of 2005. when the now-long-gone (at least as a show space/record store) Regeneration was getting ready to start doing shows upstairs, three new Boston bands played their first show together in the basement. It had been a while since a bunch of new bands had started, so having three play one show was exciting. One of the new bands was called SOCIAL CIRCKLE (POISON CONTROL and CONVERSIONS were the others.) I'll never know what the deal with that extra "K" was, but SOCIAL CIRCKLE ripped through their set with a bunch of fast sloppy songs...punk with a Southern California edge that teetered on the punk/hardcore line, clean guitar tones and snotty vocals. Their original line-up (which changed after the first EP I believe) was a lanky, weird bunch. Boston has always been notorious for having fairly divided scenes. Hardcore kids are hardcore kids and the punks are punks. But, when SOCIAL CIRCKLE came to be, there was suddenly this band that toed the line; a band that both hardcore kids and punks liked. Spikes and flip-flops. The gap was a little smaller and, dare I say, it closed up when the band played. With lyrics about people who make you want to throw up, not wanting to go to work and fucked up cops, they became an instant Boston favorite. Everyone can relate to that. Similar to what I said in the write up about RED THREAD, there was something charming about a lot of Boston bands at this time, something about the way they played and the things they talked about that made people flip out, made people feel like friends and made their shows a sweaty mess. Something about the way everyone came together to see them play. It was a thing and we were making it happen.
"Standing on the corner,
Blue shirt, red face
No such thing as law and order,
You're just a big disgrace!"
Need I say more?
Thanks to Barker Gee for loaning out the tape.
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