The Great Bandini
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The Great Bandini

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"Record Review"

The Great Bandini-The Great Bandini. This Boston band cites Badfinger, Sloan and The Beatles as influences, and rocks a bit harder than them. In addition to power pop, they mix in an 80s new-wave influence as well. Choice cuts: the Sloanesque “Maintain Relaxation”, the Raspberrieish “Are You In Love With Him?”, and the driving “Testa Mia”, which recalls Ted Leo. But my real favorite here is “No Reply”, which captures the rocking side of Big Star’s sound. All hail The Great Bandini! - Absolute Power Pop


"LP Review"

The Great Bandini-The Great Bandini. This Boston band cites Badfinger, Sloan and The Beatles as influences, and rocks a bit harder than them. In addition to power pop, they mix in an 80s new-wave influence as well. Choice cuts: the Sloanesque "Maintain Relaxation", the Raspberrieish "Are You In Love With Him?", and the driving "Testa Mia", which recalls Ted Leo. But my real favorite here is "No Reply", which captures the rocking side of Big Star's sound. All hail The Great Bandini! - Absolute Powerpop


"WBCN Rumble Preview"

If one were to assemble a crack team of local musicians to make your project "rock" at maximum power, it would consist of The Great Bandini members--and they often are the musicians of choice. All have played with numerous top-notch artists including The Pills, Bleu, The Everyday Visuals, and Jake Brennan & The Confidence Men. Together, they make some modern rock magic laden with buzzing guitars and tasty vocal harmonies. - The Bostonist


"Sidemen step forward with Great debut disc"

Go to see any band, and nine times out of ten, the sideman is probably the most talented guy on stage. A group of longtime Boston musicians may have had the same idea when they formed an alliance as The Sidemen. Scott Janovitz and Eric Barlow had played in Jake Brennan’s band, Matt Burwell had been with the Pills and Chris Zembower with Bleu. The band soon took off, and they reformed, Voltron-like, into a super rock robot called The Great Bandini. Metro caught up with Janovitz, who is set to release his band’s self-titled new wave pop and classic rock-colored debut full length this week.

Seems like there has always been a heavy classic rock influence in your music throughout various bands. What did the rest of the Bandini guys bring to expand your songwriting horizon?

And this was my attempt at a more modern rock band. Damn. No, you can’t escape the influence of the music you love and grow up on. ... But we quickly adapted our writing to the strengths of the band. For one thing, everyone can sing. ... So, I started putting together songs with counter melodies and lots of harmonies. I can’t speak for Barlow, but I was inspired by the way Chris and Matt play to write more rhythmic, angular stuff. Choppy guitars, trashy organ lines ... If I was thinking of anything classic rock, it was more ’70s than ’60s. The Jam, The Knack, that kind of thing ... though, I guess those bands, in turn, were very ’60s influenced. I forget the question.

Seems like its been an exciting race to finish the record. Is Great Bandini always so last-minute?

We are the loosest band on earth, easily distracted, and time just seems to slip away from us. We booked a record release show in order to motivate ourselves, but it didn’t kick in until about two weeks ago, when we realized we had to, you know, finish the record. Even just by the standard of musicians, we really have to get it together. That said, it is more exciting to have a record that is fresh to us than to sit on it for a couple of months and be tired of it.

You’ve been playing in bands for a while now. How long until you qualify for Elder Statesmen of Boston rock status?

I’m not sure what the requisite number of years is, but I’ll make it eventually. Maybe someday I can present a Boston Music Award. Barlow and I only agreed to do this in an attempt to reach that level. I think we blew it by getting into a band with really young dudes. - The Metro


"Band on the bus."

Some things are just meant to happen.

The musicians who make up The Great Bandini - Eric Barlow, Scott Janovitz, Chris Zembower and Matt Burwell - all had steady gigs playing with various Boston bands, but they were all looking for something they could be more of a part of, something they could call their own.

"Scott and I were in a band called Jake Brennan and The Confidence Men and having a pretty good time of it, but one night we started talking about how we missed singing lead and writing songs," Barlow said. "We talked about doing something on our own, but never went too far with it. Then one day our friend Matt called up and asked what we were doing because he had a friend of his visiting and they were looking to jam.

"It sounded awesome right away," he added.

The four guys got together whenever they could to play and soon word started getting around about them. Finally someone asked if they were going to play a gig and Barlow and his band mates figured, why not? So they played an early show at The Middle East, calling themselves The Sidemen in honor of all the other bands they played with, and much to everybody's surprise they were a hit.

"It was a great show. Everybody liked it" he said. "When it was over, we sat down and talked about the idea that maybe we ought to put some more effort into it and see what happens."

That was a few years ago, and while they still work with other bands, the guys in The Great Bandini are still dedicated enough to the sound they make to keep playing despite the fact that two of the members live in New York and two live in Boston

"You know we must love doing it because we're taking the Chinatown bus back and forth to make gigs," Barlow said with a laugh. "It's not practical, but we love doing it. Hopefully people who come out to see us live feel that its worth it, too." - Boston Now


Discography

"Advance Copy" EP, 2007.
"The Great Bandini" LP, 2008.

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Bio

Somewhere between classic pop and manic new wave lies The Great Bandini. The Boston quartet got together in late 2005 and began writing songs in the tradition of Badfinger, Sloan, The Knack, and the like (but not The Like, who they like, but are not like). They called themselves The Sidemen, all the members having been supporting musicians in well-known local rock outfits: Singer/guitarists Eric Barlow and Scott Janovitz were with Yep Roc artists Jake Brennan and The Confidence Men, while drummer Matt Burwell was in The Pills, and he and bassist Chris Zembower both played with Bleu. When it became evident that this was more than a side project, the band name was changed to The Great Bandini, in honor of Arturo Bandini, author John Fante's classic and appropriately absurd protagonist. They spent the next year working on new material, playing buzzed-about, high-energy shows around the northeast, and recording their recently-released, self-titled debut album. The band was a finalist in the WBCN Rock and Roll Rumble and won a 2008 Boston Music Award for Best Song (for "One and One").