BY MIKEY MIGO
Holidays almost lose their meaning these days. Sadly, the first things to come to mind for people is that Christmas is Santa and presents, Easter is colored eggs and bunnies, and Thanksgiving is turkey and football. There's plenty of history behind these traditions that we're forgetting. Today I want to take a deeper look into the history of Thanksgiving. As we're vaguely reminded by grade school recitals and television shows looking for a gimmick this week, it goes back to the Pilgrims. Thanksgiving was first celebrated with a shared feast between the natives and the pilgrims in 1621.
*Wait! Don't click a link!
With an oh-so-witty tagline that fortunately references turkey; I know you were expecting more entertainment. But now that you've been bored with an educational intro, let's get to the point. All of this Pilgrim stuff went down in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Instantly, when thinking of the Pilgrims I think of Plymouth Rock. I know I'm missing the literal meaning, but this got me thinking about "Plymouth Rockers". Are there any famous musicians from Plymouth? What's the "scene" like? Does Plymouth in fact rock? So I research.
The town of Plymouth is reasonably big at a population close to 60,000 people, but it's pretty much thirty or so miles away from everything as Boston, Cambridge, and Providence (RI) are all nearby. Other than the pilgrim stuff, the only fact that stood out to me was that its home to the only nuclear power plant in Massachusetts. But there's got to be a music scene, right? Upon looking the town up, I could only find one semi-notable music connection to the town. "Phoenix" Farrell, the bassist of Linkin Park, was born there and spent the first five years of his life there before moving to Mission Viejo, California. That really doesn't count. I mean the guy most likely never picked up a bass in his first five years of life, he moved to the other side of the country, and his nickname is that of a whole different town.
So unless I missed someone, which I probably did, there's no mainstream success story hailing from Plymouth. With that, we look to the current scene. Obviously one can't cover an entire "scene" in just a few paragraphs, but here's a look at three bands you'll find in Plymouth, MA:
Band: Stephen MacDonald & The Okay Win
Genre: Folk/Indie/Rock
Link:MySpace
Stephen MacDonald's myspace page shows a lot. The song with the most plays is "Church Town", a down tempo song that is well sung and a pretty pleasant listen. My favorite of the bunch is "I'm Your Tree" if not purely for the harmonica breakdown. Every song sounds like a trailer for a Juno/Wes Anderson/hipster independent film. Not necessarily a bad thing. The imagery and style of the group is your typical indie band, but they're touring and seem to have their shit together. This is not a genre I normally seek out or really enjoy most of the time, but MacDonald's vocals are perfect for what he's doing. You can catch "Stephen MacDonald & The Okay Win" at gigs across a good portion of New England over the next few months.
Band: Nobodys Hero
Genre: Metal / Emo / Screamo
Link:MySpace
Instantly I can tell that this band isn't just another "local band". Their page is nicely done, they have plenty of listens and friends, and have some pretty cool looking shirts. They claim influences from "Fall Out Boy" to "Scary Kids Scaring Kids" so I'm hesitant being a rock fan myself. Then I see a song titled "Every Time A Penguin Dies a Zebra Gets…", which I assume is "it's stripes" but it doesn't give a full title. They DO sound like what they're influenced by. So much that I bet I could play this song for an unknowing ear and they'd ask "Did Fall Out Boy put out an edgier album?" These guys are talented musicians and while not my cup of tea, for fans of screamo/emo this band should be on your "who to watch list". You can download their full length album for FREE on their page.
Band: New Ditty
Genre: Rock / Happy Hardcore / Blues
Link:MySpace
The band's bio starts with "Who could have ever known that Plymouth Rock, home of America's pilgrims, would also be home to an earth-shattering, rock/metal band?" That's just what we're looking for today. These guys are putting their best foot forward and have played hundreds of shows across New England, some festivals, and some benefit shows for RAINN respectively. Their song "Bipolar Bear" was on a Metal Edge magazine sampler CD last year and was the first song I gave a listen to. It's kind of like a modern metal version of a Motely Crue song. It's not bad, but just not clicking with me. There are a few rough mix tracks up from what I'm assuming will be a future release. "Patience of Krejci" sounds like Nickelback meets Pantera oddly enough. They're well crafted musically, but seem to be going for that typical roughneck blues rock sound. With polishing and time, they could probably get on Top 40 radio. There are a dozen "gritty bar rock" bands in every area, but this is probably the go-to one in Plymouth.
Plymouth pretty much has a similar rock scene as most of the towns across the country that I've encountered. There's some talented, some not-so-talented, and seems like a lot of good times are had. That's something to be thankful for.
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