Anchormen, Aweigh! XXII

The Anchormen show and Handstand Command anniversary has attracted some attention in the local rock press. In the Boston Globe, we earned a brief mention in the Go! Weekend column that says, basically, that if you can't get into the sold-out Stephen Malkmus show, you should go to the Anchormen show instead. Woot! And in the Boston Phoenix, the Anks rate as one of the Editors' Picks. After blipping past the Rock 'n' Roll Rumble, the Phoenix says the following:

Meanwhile, Somerville's favorite geek-punks, the Anchormen, continue their advocacy for the overeducated, underemployed, and attention-deprived indie masses on Nation of Interns (Unstoppable Records), an album of smart-assed history lectures set to a squall that veers from MC5-esque fuzz blasts to chimp-rocking post punk blurts to something approaching melodic satisfaction. Tonight they'll celebrate the disc's release with their compatriots in Somerville's Handstand Command collective, the Operators, as well as Asian Babe Alert and the Reaganauts, a group of Northampton indie-rockers playing Minor Threat and Black Flag covers.

"Chimp-rocking"! For Media Dieticians not in the Boston area, Chimp Rock is actually a bonafide musical genre -- one that is even mentioned in Trouser Press. Comprising bands such as the Swirlies, the Dambuilders, Fat Day, and Kudgel, which even released a record called "Chimp Rock Is Dead," the scene spanned Boston and Cambridge in the early '90s.

I don't know if the Anks are quite Chimp Rock material -- I mean, the Swirlies! Fat Day! -- but it's certainly flattering to be held in such high company. Calloo.