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.