Music on the Elm Street Stage

ArtBeat: Sat., July 21st

12:30PM — Laura Bullock
Somerville’s own, Laura Bullock’s songwriting reflects a longing for redemption and a striving for significance in the very normal moments of daily life. On stage, she connects with audiences like friends over tea. Her songs that combine her sweet and simple voice, beautiful guitar work, and lyrics filled with depth and history. “In layman’s terms, this Boston-area songwriter knows how to write some pretty impressive folk-pop.” ~WERS, 88.9 FM

1:30PM — B for Brontosaurus
B for Brontosaurus is a three-piece of Somerville musicians. Abe, Ben, and Joanna play drums, guitar, and bass/keyboards, respectively, while vocal duties are shared. They have lived and played together in Somerville for over two years. Their songs, which they describe as “sweet and raucous and loud and quiet”, reflect their varied influences, from 60s proto-punk to indie-pop.

2:30PM — Boston Typewriter Orchestra
The BTO is a collective endeavor that engages in rhythmic typewriter manipulation combined with elements of performance, comedy and satire. Up to this point the orchestra has played exclusively manual typewriters; however, they recently have added two IBM Selectrics typewriters to the mix. The combination of the strong key-strike sound with the low latency of these machines will allow the BTO to experiment with a new “plugged” sound.

3:30PM —Peter Parcek
Peter’s daring, incendiary, and soulful style is a distinctive hybrid that weaves threads of rock, jazz, country, folk, blues and more into a rich tapestry of melody, harmony and daredevil solo excursions that push all of those styles to their limits without sacrificing an iota of the warmth that manates from Peter’s own personality. Peter calls his approach “soul guitar,” an appellation that alludes to his playing’s depth of feeling and character, as well as its deepest roots in classic American music.

4:30PM — Shepherdess
Shepherdess plays what they call “part heart-felt folk/part balls-out rock.” The quartet includes Hilken Mancini (Fuzzy, Count Me Outs, Punk Rock Aerobics) on guitar, vocals, and loops; Emily Arkin (The Operators, The Tricunx, Somerville resident and SAC board member) on violin and baritone guitar; Mike Savage (Fudge, Cherry 2000, Count Me Outs) on drums; and Winston Braman (Thalia Zedek Band, Consonant, Magic People, Fuzzy) on bass. The band just recorded a full-length to be released on Kimchee Records.