“If you’re a weirdo then bless your heart.”
The guys in Young Adults have a message for all you newbies coming into Boston for the first time: Quickly acclimate yourselves with Allston Rock City.
“Get to know Allston because you’ll be spending a lot of nights piss-drunk there forgetting people’s names and talking about nothing,” says Chris Villon, vocalist for the Boston-based post-punk trio.
“Allston is crucial for new music, both in and out of the clubs. Get trashed at a basement show and puke on the lawn outside and hate yourself while questioning your meaning in life.”
Ah yes, nothing says “back to school” quite like a vomit-drenched basement throw-down. And don’t be too shocked if the house band is Young Adults.
The trio—which also includes Villon’s brother, Kurt, on drums, and Danny O’Neill on bass—have been making a racket from scummy three-deckers to sticky-floored clubs across New England since they met as school kids in Brookline (for those new to the city, that’s a leafy suburban-type of town just beyond Fenway Park between Boston University and Boston College).
“We’ve known each other since birth,” Villon says from Northampton (that’s a hipster/hippie town in western Massachusetts near UMass-Amherst). “We’re all from Brookline, where we learned to resent wealthy people. We’ve played in hardcore and punk bands together in high school and now we’re doing this thing. We’re nice guys.”
The group’s latest EP, Born in ’91, is a hard-driving, couch-surfing post-punk throttling that sounds inspired as much by Sonic Youth as Wavves. Droning, reverb-laden shoegaze one minute, anthemic garage punk the next, the group fittingly dubbed it a “cassingle” in a nod to punk’s tape-trading heyday.
Asked if he foresees an ironic resurgence of cassettes on the horizon, Villon says: “Nah, not with Spotify and smart phones taking over. But there will always be a stubborn resistance to anything new and intangible.”
The trio is recording a new EP and will play a show on Thursday, August 30 at T.T. the Bear’s Place (this is an indie band venue in Cambridge’s Central Square, which you’ll likely first stumble into accidentally because the show at the Middle East you’re going to see is sold-out). The band also has a CMJ showcase in the works.
What does he love about the Cambridge/Boston scene? “Friends and people who are adamant in the belief that our band is awesome,” Villon gushes. “For me personally? Tripping over my own guitar cable, forgetting lyrics to a song I wrote, and screwing up my ‘guitar solo.’”
Pressed for one final message to incoming students, the sardonic frontman offers: “First off, everyone who isn’t a student resents your existence.
“If you’re a norm then you’ll be fine pursuing your business degree and frequenting Tavern in the Square, but if you’re a weirdo then bless your heart.”
There are weird places in Boston for creative-minded folk like you and I. You just need to ask someone who looks like he’s been sleeping in his clothes for the past week or works at Bagel Rising. Lastly, don’t stay here for too long or you’ll hate everything.”
YOUNG ADULTS
THU 8.30.12.
TT THE BEAR’S PLACE
10 BROOKLINE ST.
CENTRAL SQ., CAMBRIDGE.
@YOUNGADULTSBAND
TTTHEBEARS.COM
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