Jamaica Plain News (https://www.jamaicaplainnews.com/tag/rick-berlin)
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Lullaby of Forest Hills...11PM
Posted by Rick Berlin on Monday, June 22, 2015
The current phase of noisy night work on the Casey Overpass is scheduled to be finished on Thursday. Meanwhile, if you haven't experienced the sounds, click on the Facebook video above shared by JP's Rick Berlin to hear what you're missing. See all our Casey Overpass/Casey Arborway coverage here.
Rick Berlin "I hate everything but you" from Warren Farm Films on Vimeo. JP rocker Rick Berlin has influenced a lot of other musicians. In Tuesday's Herald, Amanda Palmer wrote a mash note to hearing Berlin's "I Hate Everything But You." I don’t remember where I first saw Rick Berlin. But if memory isn’t failing too hard, it was at Jacque’s Cabaret, and it was part of my early rock and roll education.
JP, a neighborhood devoted to letting its freak flag fly, contributes dozens of faces to the new Rick Berlin video for "(I Don't Care) Whatcha Think (About Me.)"
Watch the video and you'll see familiar faces and places from around JP. Who knew line dancing was a thing at Doyle's? The video also features Boston landmarks outside our neighborhood, like Jacque's Cabaret. For an HD version of the video, click through to Vimeo. The song is from "When We Were Kids," the latest album from Berlin and the Nickel & Dime Band.
The 2014 edition of the Jamaica Plain Music Festival is in the books. Residents thronged Pinebank Field despite high temps of 91 and a fast-moving storm that caused organizers to shut down the festival slightly early. The last two acts weren't able to perform. Here are a few photos of the big day:
Previous items on Jamaica Plain News about the Music Festival:
Your Guide to the 2014 Jamaica Plain Music Festival
Final Lineup for 4th Annual Jamaica Plain Music Festival
Take the Trolley to the Jamaica Plain Music Festival
Music Festival Fundraiser Nets Nearly $1,000
Before It Raises The Roof, Here's How the JP Music Festival Raises the Money
JP Bar Wars: A JP Music Festival Fundraiser
Throwback Thursday Photo of the Day: The White Squirrel of Jamaica Pond
[selfie]
Back in the 1980s, when Boston bands like Aerosmith, The Cars and J. Geils were topping the charts nationally, a flourishing ecosystem of not-quite-so-famous groups were struggling farther down the pyramid. "There were another 2,000 bands trying to claw their way up the food chain," said musician and author Terry Kitchen, whose new book and CD, "Next Big Thing," is set in that world. Kitchen writes from experience. And he'll be delivering a book talk and playing songs Thursday night at the JP Branch Library. And while the Boston scene as a whole is the star of the narrative, JP plays a role near the heart of this rock n' roll story.
What happens when you roam the streets of JP asking strangers to let you video them for 10 seconds with no talking or smiling? It's magical. And a little heart-breaking. That's why Jamaica Plain rocker Rick Berlin used the resulting footage for this video for "Something Breaks My Heart." "I ran around Jamaica Plain, into stores, bars, restaurants, outside, inside and asked friends and people I’d never met to let me film 10 seconds of their face, close-up, not speaking or smiling," Berlin wrote in a email about the video's backstory.
Jamaica Plain is probably too many things to too many people to have one theme song. But "I Love My Street" by Rick Berlin and the Nickel and Dime Band comes as close as I've heard. Berlin, the neighborhood's best-known musician, loves JP. He loves it down to the school kid flipping a bird out the bus window at a dog. It is one fierce love.