Best friend and hero Felecia & the Dinosaur is visiting Boston this month & we have a show together –

Join us SATURDAY, FEB 18th @ THE BURROW in Allston. It’s a house show with good folks & free rock and roll music, so what could possibly stop you from wanting to come??

I need to update this website. I look different now from all the pictures on here. I have this sweet ‘hawk that’s really fun to thrash around on stage with, and that my parents hate. No one told me rebellion continues into your twenties! Here’s a video of me performing in the fall with said ‘hawk, though I’m growing it a lil’ fuzzier on the sides now for winter! … like anyone who cares about my music needs to hear about my grooming habits.

Hope to see you on the 18th. Love to all!

xo

I’ve been heavily involved with the Occupy movement since early October when I first visited Dewey Square in Boston because Amanda Palmer was playing at the encampment. Nothing has been the same for me since then; you might say I’ve been “occupied” with direct action, engaging my communities locally and globally, and helping facilitate the Occupy Boston Women’s Caucus, which has been an amazing experience and brought my life even more purpose than I already felt I had.

I hope to share more about my Occupy experiences/insights as time goes on (though, if you’ve followed me on this blog for long, you know I can be incredibly inconsistent with posting!) but for now I am issuing this call to action: if you are in the Boston area, please come to the Occupy Boston Women’s March this Sunday at noon. (Here’s the Facebook event!)

We have some really cool entertainment planned during the march, as well as some amazing spoken word and music afterwards in Dewey Square (Letta Neely, Spectra Speaks, Idalia, Zilla McCue and Gemma Cooper-Novack). We are expecting over 1,000 people and hoping for it to be an inspiring and eye-opening day of advocacy, awareness, and support for disenfranchised communities and under-served voices.

This is your chance to help make change in the world. This is your chance to be a part of a movement that has the potential to change our nation’s rapid downward spiral. This is your chance to stand up for what’s right — whether you identify as a woman or just someone who believes that everyone should be treated equally.

Invite all your friends and join us at the Occupy Boston Women’s March on Sunday!

xo Allison

PS — The video below is from my first day at Occupy Boston. “The Ukulele Anthem” sums up my views on music (and saving the world!) amazingly…

Below the cut you’ll find the text of my speech. I’m hoping also to get it up on Youtube. along with “Morning Song (Faithless & Free)” that I also performed.

Thanks so much to everyone who spoke and attended (Sidewalk Sam is the man!). I feel honored to be counted amongst talented people determined to share their art with the world.

……..

I dabbled in creating music through my childhood, making up rambling rhyming songs about whatever I was thinking about at the moment. In 8th grade I wanted to be like Avril Lavigne, and since I couldn’t skateboard for the life of me, I started playing guitar. I spent a couple years covering emo songs and attempting to write out my own teenage angst. Then, my senior year of high school, my best friend Lauren was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and music’s role in my life changed from that of a pastime to something that kept me going on a daily basis.

I started writing some songs about what was happening and how it feels to be there for a friend who’s dying. Art can not alter the outcome of an impossible situation, but it can positively affect those trapped within that situation. Ultimately, I couldn’t do anything to change the course of events for Lauren, her family, and all of our friends. But I started writing music as an outlet, and that grew into me creating something bigger in honor of all of our lives and struggles.

Lauren died right before I graduated from high school, which as you can imagine, was completely terrible and left me to struggle with grief and depression. But the one thing that flourished was my music. More than ever, in the darkness, I was able to channel my pain and frustrations into creation. I started writing more and got to be more confident and comfortable with what I was creating. I started to share my music with friends, family members, and people in my communities.

It was really scary at first. Music (and art in general) is very personal, and sometimes exposing your art can make you feel naked. But it never occurred to me to NOT share my music. I wanted to affect the world in a positive way. I pushed through the discomfort and insecurities to continue to play, write, and eventually perform. Now, four and a half years later, I have written countless songs, performed live at least 50 times, and essentially found my identity in music making. Using music to work through hard times was what finally gave me the confidence to share my art with others. I found that my art could positively influence other people, and over time my purpose for writing music shifted from simply emoting and getting my own shit out, to singing out to the world around me and attempting to connect to others in a universal human way.

And because I put myself out there, that’s what happened. I put my music on the internet; I played at campfires, in coffeeshops, on sidewalks. It didn’t take long to learn that when I shared openly, people shared themselves openly back. One girl named Shannon wrote me a Myspace message (so vintage) saying she related to one of my songs about losing a friend to death. We messaged a bit and eventually this exchange led to me playing a show with her best friend, who became one of my best friends and turned out to be the best songwriter I’ve ever met. It means a lot to be able to touch people with your art, but I’d never realized how much you can learn and gain from these people in ways you’d never expect.

In a tough situation indicative of how life simply is not fair, being inspired by music empowered me to make my own. Making music allows me to feel like I’m a part of something bigger than myself — art as a whole. Making music connects me to individuals and groups of people I’d otherwise never meet, let alone personally affect.

So I am here to tell you that you can be a superhero in the form of an artist. I make music. And maybe you make music too, or crazy 3D holograms on shiny objects, or you dance or you write or you sing or you perform, or maybe you haven’t found your art yet. I know you’re there, sitting and listening to what you think is MY story about how I make art, but that’s not quite it. My songs aren’t my songs at all. Once I get them out, they become something that anybody else can always have and connect to. There aren’t designated artists put here to handle all the world’s creativity. Michaelangelo making art is the same as Andy Warhol making art which is the same as tiny little kids making art which is the same as Lady Gaga making art. It doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you are creating. How many people like it can’t be your first concern, because the point of art is finding freedom in expression. People liking your art comes secondary, because once you really put yourself into something you create, you WILL connect to others. And if you’re willing to share yourself with people through your art, you are empowered to change their lives and change the world.

When I applied to give this talk, they asked me to sum up my message in one sentence, which was this: you can make art, and if you want to change the world, you must. One of my favorite quotes is as follows: if you have revolutionary potential, you have a moral imperative to make the world a better place. To me, that translates, make art. Answer the call. Take what you have been given in the world and figure out how to share it with others in an amplified way. Create by yourself. Create with others. And share what you make with everyone.

Don’t be scared. Or if you are, that’s fine, but get over it. And if you can’t get over it, then be brave. Don’t be afraid to create shitty art, because the more shit you produce, the more likely you are to come up with the best shit you’ve ever made. Anything can be inspiration for your art. Things that make you feel good, bad, angry, weird, things you see and sense, stories, dreams, drugs, sex, rock and roll, the government, magic, science, society, terrible things, beautiful things, love, or whatever. Take what you have — especially when it feels like nothing — and make something new.

Let go of your insecurities. Get out of your head and into your soul. Answer the call to art and become a part of something bigger than you; embrace a power inaccessible to lone individuals. Create, create, create, and help make the world an inspiring place to live.

xo Allison

Download it for free on Bandcamp!

2. I MADE MY ELECTRIC DEBUT AS NEOPOLITEEN

9/25 @ the Great Scott w/ Hilly Eye, Big Nils, New Highway Hymnal

3. COMING SOON: RELEASING A NEW SINGLE WITH HIGH FIVE CLUB

Me, Bryce Falcon & Emily Lupinacci. Think dreamy & poppy.

As usual, sorry for not being a better blogger and thank you to everyone who shows such amazing support by downloading the music, sharing it with friends, coming to shows and generally just caring about independent music. I am incredibly grateful and this support has to do with my recent surges of inspiration. If we haven’t met yet or you haven’t seen me play, I hope this changes soon so I have an opportunity to thank you in person.

‘Til next time … xo

PS – I BEEN TWEETING UP A STORM, FOLLOW ME.

Photo by Andrew Bisdale (http://abisdale.blogspot.com/)

We’re playing a free house show tonight in Allston (Highgate St, get in touch for exact address) with HEDFUX. HEDFUX is a hardcore punk band who sings through a megaphone. This show is as Allston as it gets.

We will be debuting a new song.

RSVP!

It may seem hypocritical of me to degrade the results of a contest I volunteered myself for. It’s possible that my ego is just bruised by the fact that not everybody who hears my music is instantly charmed by my sheer sincerity and sometimes howl-y voice. That said, when it comes to art, objective evaluation is total bullshit.

The most powerful part about sharing my music with others has been the privilege of making them feel deeply, personally connected to something I’m technically responsible for creating. (I say technically because I believe in the collective unconscious and that songwriters are just vessels for human expression, blah blah blah.) Getting three out of five stars on “artistic merit” means nothing compared to having a stranger speak to you about how your music affects them emotionally, in real life.

Obviously, making commercially successful music is another story. It does unfortunately seem to require standardized views of what’s good, what’s artistic, what’s valid. Thankfully, the internet has done some amazing legwork in expanding peoples’ musical taste pallates!

Just keep creating. Whether it’s music, movies, stories, poetry, visual art, keep making it. Do not succumb to the insecurities that inevitably arise from others criticizing, getting bored, not caring to begin with. Reach inside yourself and turn inside out and be brave enough to share yourself and what you create.

Part II: “Secret Sounds,” “Maps” + bonus surprise for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” fans…

Thanks so much to Michael Nusbaum for these videos.

• Show at 8, we play at 11
• $10 cover
• RSVP here.
• And bring a friend!

Photo by Lauren Metter (http://www.laurenmetter.com)