Boston's Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling have released their first music video for the song Episode 1 - Arrival. The band, which is two-thirds of the way through a project to write and record a song for each of the 17 episodes of the cult 1960's tv show, The Prisoner, released their second EP, Questions Are a Burden to Others, earlier this week.
The music video for Episode 1 - Arrival is a shot-for-shot recreation of the opening sequence of The Prisoner. The project took 11 days of shooting and nearly 2 years of planning to create. It was shot in Boston and New England with an eye to replicate as nearly as they could the London/Wales/1960s landscape of the original. Lead singer/drummer Sophia Cacciola took on the role of Number 6 (played originally by Patrick McGoohan) - see the classic Lotus 7 replica racing around downtown Boston as the story of the unnamed protagonist unfolds as she angrily resigns from her intelligence position only to find that she can't get away quickly enough to avoid being gassed and chased by a giant white ball.
Friendly People’s debut, self-titled 3-song EP gives a concise taste of a promising young Cambridge, MA-based band. Their jangly indie pop is peppered with hints of Americana, roots rock and folk with vocals that owe a debt to Neil Young. The EP’s clear highlight is its opening track—their namesake song—“Friendly People”. It’s a tremendous, positive track buoyed by a horn section in the bridge which lends a mariachi feel. “A Lot of Work To Do” brings out Harvest-era Neil Young, starting as a plaintive acoustic ditty which builds slowly into a passionate electric number. Closing track, “Branches”, follows the same acoustic-to-electric path. As the song builds, it introduces tribal rhythms that are reminiscent of 80s indie-punk legends, the Volcano Suns. Friendly People are scheduled to record their debut full-length in March. If the Friendly People EP is indicative of what we can expect from this young group’s next batch of tunes it will be a record to keep an eye on later in 2012.--George Dow
