May 10, 2011

C.D. on Songs:

I am sure the others are very nice, but it’s kind of my thing to play favorites when I have one, because they become my favorites for very good reasons. Like Mascara, who is so awesome you will think he comes from another planet, but so accessible you’ll decide you must be from his planet.

http://www.bostonbandcrush.org/2011/05/cd-on-songs-schooltree-orange-grove.html

C.D. Di Guardia

FEBRUARY 2010

Hearings:  Top 5 for February 2010

MASCARA

FOUNTAIN OF TEARS 12-SONG CD

• DRAGONFLIES
• LESTER
• B261
• LISTERINE
• CARRY ME
• DEEP IN PALM BEACH
• AINADAMAR
• RETARDED
• HIGH SCHOOL
• BARS IN CAMBRIDGE
• TEXT2VOICE
• TULSAGIRL

Chris Mascara is nothing if not completely original and unpredictable. Growing up as a "child prodigy" on organ, in Florida, Mascara found his way to New England to study religion at Tufts University. Since then, his appearances in the Boston theater productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Aqualung, along with fronting his own band and more recently being hired by Harmonix [creators of Guitar Hero] to shoot motion capture of his image for animation of the frontman characters in their popular "Rock Band" game, have established him as a creative force in the Boston music community .

With new band members, Bo Barringer on bass & vocals and Matt Graber on drums, Chris Mascara unleashes his latest 12-song creation, Fountain of Tears. As you can well imagine, Mascara's songs are elaborate musical productions in a bold, operatic sense. Although there are only 3 musicians carrying out the proceedings (aside from the mandolin playing by Hendrick Gideonse on "Dragonflies") Mascara creates an orchestral vibe to the music that's stark, ethereal and electrifying. His voice is haunting yet revealing as he leads his trio in to uncharted rock & roll territories. Listen to Fountain of Tears with an open mind and enjoy an unusually, inventive album you won't soon forget. [D.S]

MASCARA
Mr. Fibuli’s Records
Fountain of Tears
12-song CD

Well, many of us have been waiting a long time for Chris Mascara to make his power move, and this is it. Of course, being something of a mystic, he tells the truth, but tells it slant, right from the get-go. “Dragonflies” is a seesawing and powerful opening incantation. “Retarded” is a lovely, lost, mildly unsettling song. “B261” is a rocking, Bowie-variety anthem about Jackie Wilson, late of the Brunswick label, who tangled with mobsters and lived to meet a truly ghastly denouement. The coldly, brilliantly anthemic “Carry Me” is both majestic and inspired—the one song I keep coming back to again and again. Other selections offer a variegated soundscape. A few are more than mildly unsettling: the ghoulish “Lester”; the eerie and astonishing “Listerine”; the spooky “Deep in Palm Beach.” And at least two songs are full-blown disturbing: the angular “Ainadamar” and the scathing and scarifying “High School.” Perhaps not conciously, Chris Mascara’s compositional strategy seems to be to utilize dissonance to selectively defamiliarize the ordinary: wrenching it from its everyday context to make us question the foundations of what we ordinarily take for granted. In that way he is powerfully in the tradition of artists such as Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu, but is, nonetheless, sui generis. This is a mixed bag of a song collection, but the first nine songs are compelling enough to hold us for a good long while. (Francis DiMenno)

Posted by Bryan on Jan 29, 2010 »

Friday, January 29th @ Middle East Upstairs

Mascara might be the closest thing Boston has to a local rock Supergroup (You know, now that the Holidad All-Stars are no more) Chris Mascara is the lead-singer avatar for the Rock Band games, and is doing work with Blue Man Group this year. He’s recruited two of the best and most recognizable musicians in town to help out on his original material, Bo Barringer of MEandJOANCOLLINS, and Matt Graber, one of Sarah Rabdau’s Self-Employed Assassins. Should be a great show, it’ll be the CD Release for the new album Fountain of Tears, as well as a tour kickoff. Also playing are Ho-Ag, Super 400, and Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.

FRI 1/29

9:30pm
Ho-Ag, Mascara, Super 400, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling
at Middle East - Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$10 / 18

There is a serious amount of rock that could figuratively cut your head off. The Ho-Ag guys unleash wild, scuzzy angular rock with plenty of riffs to hook you in. Mascara* is all over the map in a progressive yet potent way deserves the power-trio handle. Even though many pints were involved, I think Super 400 were mainly responsible for blowing my mind at the Abbey Lounge one night; they're another power-trio that gets a little jammy in the best possible manner. The band size will probably increase as the night unfolds, because the arty, spy-punk duo of Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling should get the awesomeness rolling.

* If you think Chris Mascara isn't a charismatic performer, then you're wrong. It's that simple, because he was the model for the lead singers in the first two versions of the "Rock Band" video game. He's also the singer in Blue Man Group's "How To Be a Megastar" band. See?

BOSTON BAND CRUSH

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Show/Contest Crush: Mascara (CD release) / Ho-Ag / Super 400 / Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling at the Middle East this Friday / win a pair of tickets!

If this one has somehow slipped under your radar you might want to get it checked out. The buzz is at chainsaw levels for Mascara's new album, Fountain of Tears, and the bill for this Friday night's CD-release show at the Middle East upstairs is guaranteed to pack, and rawwwwk, the joint:

Mascara
Ho-Ag
Super 400
Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (say, we know them!)
Friday, January 29th
The Middle East Upstairs
480 Massachusetts Ave // Boston, MA
18 // $9 adv & $10 dos // 8pm doors

PLUS! We've got a pair of tickets and Mascara's new CD (Fountain of Tears) to give away to one lucky winner! To enter, just leave a comment on this post (say anything you like!). We'll pick a winner Friday morning by random drawing. DON'T FORGET TO CHECK BACK FRIDAY MORNING TO SEE IF YOU WON!!

We even previewed a song from Fountain of Tears a few weeks ago in C.D. on Songs. Remember?

More about Mascara...

You have probably seen Chris Mascara perform, though you may not know it. Throughout 2007-08 he modeled moves for all lead singer avatars in blockbuster games ROCK BAND and ROCK BAND 2. Singling him out for his dynamic presence, Game creators Harmonix shuttled him to New York to perform marathon motion-capture sessions in the "spandex suit of lights." This year, BLUE MAN GROUP drafted Mascara (yes, his real last name) for grooming as lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in the "How To Be a Megastar" international touring band, recognizing his chops as a tailored fit for their imaginative rock spectacle.

To collaborate on his original material, Mascara recruited A-list Boston rockers, bassist Bo Barringer (Me&JoanCollins) and drummer Matt Graber (Sarah Rabdau) in 2007. Recorded by David Minehan (The Neighborhoods) & David Westner at Woolly Mammoth, the newest release, Fountain of Tears, is mixed by ShimmyDisc mastermind KRAMER, legendary for his work with Bongwater, Galaxie 500, Ween, Low, Urge Overkill, Butthole Surfers. After discovering MASCARA on MySpace, the Rolling Stone Producer-of-the-Year was so wowed he insisted on working on their new album.

Labels: Ashley Willard, CD giveaway, contest, do not forsake me oh my darling, Ho-Ag, mascara, middle east upstairs, super 400, ticket giveaway

Posted by Ashley Willard at 12:09 PM

Boston Phoenix On The Download

MP3 of the Week

MASCARA, "B261"

Next Friday will see the release of Fountain of Tears, the latest full-length installment of fabulously bent garage prog from Boston's own MASCARA.  Chris Mascara tells us that Fountain pays track-by-track tribute to a host of trailblazing iconoclasts and tragic heroes, from murdered poet Federico Garcia Lorca to undersung soul singer Jackie Wilson.  The latter is honored here with "B261" (the number a reference to his anonymous grave marker), and it's no "Lonely Teardrops" - "B261" is a charging beast of trantrum-esque vocals, barreling drums, and temperamental guitars caught up in beastly tunings.  Maybe it's just because it's Kramer on the boards, but the whole thing whisks us back to simpler times in indie rock, when all we craved was controlled confusion - of which there'll be plenty at Mascara's Middle East release party next Friday, January 29, with Ho-Ag, Super 400, and Do Not Fosake Me, Oh My Darling.  If you can't make it, class up your iPod and grab "B261" at thephoenix.com/onthedownload.  You can also hear it this week on New England Product, our local rock throwdown, Sunday nights from 11pm to midnight on WFNX 101.7 FM.

Feature Crush:  C. D. on Songs, 01/14/10

Mascara - "B261"

Christopher Mascara (yes, that is is real, unchanged name - or at least that's what he told us) is, above all, a showman. He's such a showman that the Rock Band guys (yes, Rock Band again) had him don one of those spandex suits with ping-pong balls on it to motion-capture his moves. "B261" is the real deal, however, with no digital animation or special effects.

This really isn't a problem, Mascara is a special effect unto themselves. Each song - and this one is no different - is like its own little mini-show. Maybe that's what they're getting at with the title of this record (that comes out in five short days) - Mascara seems able to flip a switch and launch a fountain of tears, laughter, hysteria and every other extreme emotion with little effort. "B261" is no different, hitting like a series of explosions embodied not just in Mascara's vocal calisthenics but the entire ensemble's ability to ramp things up, explode, and then simmer for a while before the next trip up the ramp.

"B261" is like a repeated series of trips up and down, jumping off a ledge only to dust itself off and do so again, and bringing us along for the ride the whole way. We get the feeling that you'll want the full picture on this one, so you can catch Mascara on January 29 at the Middle East. It'll be hard to miss them.

Winter warmers

By MATT PARISH  |  December 30, 2009

Here we are, finally — winter. This is where those New England training wheels come off and you decide whether you're truly a local. Sure, some bands take the easy route and have album releases through the summer, enticing you to shows with back-patio barbecues and all-night rooftop after-parties. In January? Not so much. These bands have nothing but their jams to draw you in, but take a listen — they are totally worth the wet socks.

MASCARA | Middle East upstairs | January 29 | Mascara's Fountain of Tears might be one of the year's weirdest local offerings. Not '80s Boredoms weird, but like Joni Mitchell's head-scratching jazz phase, as played by a spaced-out garage-prog band that drives a van with a wolf mural. CEO Chris Mascara leads the trio through this maze of left turns and campy echo-chamber melodrama. There's a seven-minute noise-drone monologue about high school insecurities, but that's nothing compared to the overall Gang of Four-meets-Andrew-Lloyd-Webber deal going on here. Bring your dreamcoats.
472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 9 pm | $10 | 617.864.EAST or www.mideastclub.com