Get Inspired! Battle of the Bands Deadline is Tomorrow!

With the deadline for our Battle of the Bands contest rapidly approaching tomorrow, we thought we’d try and stimulate those creative juices by digging out a couple of hidden gems written about the South End.

The idea is simple: You will hear these songs, and, in a reckless fit of civic pride, become possessed by the impulse to submit a video entry to our contest by tomorrow.

In case you forgot, .

Now, back to the South End-centric jams at hand. We put on our rubber gloves and shoved our hands way deep into the dustbin to pull these oldies but goodies out of the realm of the forgotten.

For copyright reasons we can’t embed the videos directly, but click the links below to hear what musicians of yesteryear had to say about the South End.

The Dogmatics—Thayer Street

The Dogmatics were a Boston-based band active during the mid-1980s, and had a loft on Thayer Street, which, at the time, was a far cry from the beautiful and cultured area it has become since. The band’s first full-length album, released on Homestead Records in 1985, bore the title “Thayer Street” in honor of the band’s South End digs. This track is the titular offering from that album. The band ended its run in 1986 under tragic circumstances when bassist Paul O’Halloran was killed in a motorcycle accident. Interestingly, singer, songwriter and guitarist Jerry Lehane is the cousin of popular crime novelist Dennis Lehane.

Beacon Street Union—The South End Incident

We went a little further back for this one. Beacon Street Union was a psych-rock band active during the 1960s, and took its name from (surprise) Boston’s Beacon Street. The band’s members all attended Boston University, and while they met with minimal commercial success, they did manage to pen this spaced-out track that captures a sense of fear and foreboding fairly well. It’s not clear what, precisely, The South End Incident is referring to, but is sure sounds creepy. Not to mention, in a big nod to the DIY bands that would follow, Beacon Street Union is reported to have tossed bags of flour around onstage during live performances as a sort of low-budget fog show.

And once again, don’t forget to submit your band’s video by tomorrow for the chance to win some free studio time and a gig at The Harp, among other things!