Category Archives: News

Delegation: The Remixes

New Music Announcement!

Starting Tuesday September 14th and concluding on November 30th, we released a song a week from our new album “Delegation,” a collection of remixes of your favorite all-typewriter band from your favorite non-all-typewriter musicians. Guests include: Blood Wine or Honey, Sexparty, U People, Bob Nastanovich from Pavement, Brian Dewan, ZIZZA, Full of Hell, Jake Zavracky, among others.

Check us out on Bandcamp!

We are delighted to collaborate with these talented and diverse artists. The opportunity to recontextualize our music has not only deepened our love of these tracks, but expanded our own vision for future music. We are honored to share these tracks with you, and look forward to your support this fiscal quarter and beyond.

From the boardroom to the mailroom,
-BTO

In Memoriam

I first met Jeff Breeze on the night of January 10th, 2009. The Boston Typewriter Orchestra was playing at a venue called the Whitehaus, which was literally someone’s Jamaica Plain apartment in a two-story house. Despite holding regular events, I get the sense that doing so probably wasn’t kosher as they were secretive about giving out the address. It wasn’t even on the flyer. It was a slushy night and I remember kids shucking a bucket of oysters at the kitchen table.

Jeff was impossible to miss when he walked in the room: tall, barrel-chested with a (let’s face it) skullet and a pink sweater. If he and the band exchanged more than introductions and pleasantries, I don’t recall. It was fairly low key meeting him and a fun night.

A month later he sent us an email inviting us to perform on his radio show Pipeline!, which highlights new music from New England bands and includes a live performance. The station is located in the basement of an MIT building, broadcasts on WMBR 88.1FM and airs Tuesdays at 8:00pm. Jeff ran it for 17 years.

At the time, his last name either wasn’t mentioned, didn’t register with me or I disregarded it as coincidence. On March 24th, 2009 we performed a half-hour set that I recall going really well; a few surprises, some unexpected laughs, and a great opportunity. After we played, he asked us if we had any shows lined up, one of which was a private fundraiser at a golf course in my hometown Stow. When he mentioned that he had grown up in Bolton, I asked whether he was related to one of my substitute teachers from elementary school. Turns out she’s his mother and I told him about how I had gone to a Ministry concert with one of his younger brothers back in high school. So Jeff and I grew up in neighboring towns and went to the same high school, but he was one year too old for us to have crossed paths and started college when I started high school.

In August of 2009, I needed to step away from the group. Being in grad school and handling the grueling logistics of, yes, a typewriter orchestra were starting to wear me down. During my time away from the group, I think I only saw them perform on one occasion before Jeff joined the group in 2013. I rejoined in 2015 and Jeff would be my bandmate for the next five and a half years.

Jeff’s contribution and impact on the group cannot be understated. He worked tirelessly in every facet of what it means to be in a band, effectively handling most of the management. The ties he had built for decades in the local and interstate music scenes were invaluable in navigating the live, touring and recording experience. He ran the band’s Instagram account like clockwork and his photography kept it fresh, current and engaging. He handled and laid out the design for all of our merch, culminating in the release of our most recent album. From the album design to the lockgroove in the vinyl to the hidden track to the writing and stellar performance, Jeff is all over it. 

During rehearsals and in live performances, he almost always sat directly to my right. Whenever I was a bundle of nerves worrying about sound, performance or even whether we should be doing the gig at all, Jeff was a calming and confident presence. In the BTO sound palette, he supplied a lot of the odd supplemental percussion and his irreplaceable deep voice was our backup and response vocal. His tradeoffs with Jay in “Breaktime” were always a guaranteed laugh. While I mostly tried to focus intently to keep the wheels on the careening bus that is our live shows, Jeff would occasionally crack me up with an unexpected and obnoxious noise or some mechanical failure. When we were recording a series of bumpers for the Beyond Yacht Rock podcast, he accidentally sent a desk bell flying across the room with a big, dumb clatter to the ground. I laughed so hard, I was wheezing. This take can be heard on the track “50 States in 50 Podcasts”. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve typically been one of, if not, the youngest in any circle I happened to run in. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who exuded a big brotherly quality like Jeff did. And reading some of the remarks online, I know I wasn’t the only one who felt this because at least two or three other people warmly described him the same way: like a big brother. For my part, this certainly came with the knowledge that we had the shared experience of growing up a few miles apart, separated by a county border, in rural Massachusetts. When I rejoined the group, I was delighted to learn that he lived just a few short blocks away from me in Somerville. I walked past his place almost daily and one of the last times I saw him in person was to listen to the new album in his apartment. It sounded massive and I knew we had a release we could be really proud of.

He had an enviable and encyclopedic knowledge of music that can only come from a profound love of the art. He amassed countless records from his regular trips to yard and estate sales and bought indiscriminately while keeping an eye open for any good deals on passable typewriters or other instruments. He had a particular affection for Harry Nilsson.  

He enjoyed trips to Revere Beach and Long Island, pick-up softball games at Foss Park and watching curling. He was well traveled in the United States and was a terrific writer. 

He kept a running blog as an ice cream aficionado and could tell you where to get the best cone wherever you might be. He had talents in the kitchen and had a knack for knowing where to find any kind of food or ingredient. One day I was lamenting how you can’t find Utz Crab Chips in any stores in New England and he directed me to the Christmas Tree Shop about a mile away from my apartment. Sure enough, they were there. Once, while being a dork, I jokingly asked him if he considered himself a bon vivant. Of course he did.

During the pandemic, I was working on a transcription of some choral music and was soliciting some mix advice. Jeff put a bug in my ear to try to rework the song “Pipeline” in a similar fashion because he was looking for a new take on it for bed music. I was flattered that he used it for the last few months, my messy timing and amateurish mix notwithstanding.

Jeff’s last Pipeline! broadcast was November 3rd, 2020. He signed off by saying “Be safe. Be good”. Rest in Power, friend.

– Derrik Albertelli

Obituary for Jeffrey W. Breeze

Bolton-Jeffrey W. Breeze, 47, passed away suddenly Sunday, November 8, 2020 in his Somerville apartment. He is survived by his parents Roger and Leslie Breeze of Bolton, brothers Timothy Breeze and his wife Rebecca of Milton, and Peter Breeze and his wife Eileen of Northborough, along with nephews & niece Tommy, Maggie and Declan.

Jeffrey was born in Baltimore, Maryland and later grew up in Bolton. He graduated from Nashoba Regional High School, Class of 1991 and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia. Jeff was an editor and writer for many magazines.

He had an absolute love of music and was very involved in the Boston Music scene. Jeff performed as the proud bass member of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra and led all efforts of promotion. In August 2020 Jeff and fellow orchestra member, Alex Holman appeared on the Kelly Clarkson show. The Orchestra was able to record during this pandemic a new vinyl record – Workstation to Workstation.

Every Tuesday night at 8 PM since 2003, Jeff hosted and directed MIT’s WMBR Pipeline! radio show live. Each week he would introduce a new local band who would appear live on the show. Somehow, he followed up with each band and would often promote their new engagements on air. He was working on this Tuesday’s show over the weekend.

Jeffrey also had an ice cream blog and one of his favorite locations for Indian Pudding ice cream was at Rota Spring Farm in Sterling.

Jeffrey loved the Long Island beach house and got up early every morning to capture the sunrise. In the afternoon he would be found digging for clams, whether it be for the half shell eating, stuffed clams, or making Gramps’ clam chowder.

Curling was also a special interest for his statistical mind, learning almost every international team and their roster. He enjoyed the opportunity last year to try his own hand at curling with the Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland.

Jeff was always ready for a pickup game of softball or wiffleball. He played softball every Saturday with his brother Tim and their team at the Somerville fields. Whenever he found a wiffleball he would find someone, often his nephews to play with, whether it be catch or hitting the ball as far as possible.

Family was important to Jeff. He never missed the chance when anyone was off to see out of state relatives to be part of the journey. Jeffrey cared about everyone and found ways to show it continually.

Our Type of Album

There really is not much repertory for a typewriter-based ensemble. Once you get past Leroy Anderson, the landscape is rather barren, adorned only by flourishes that are as non-musical as most uses of a theremin. So, needless to say it takes a while to add something significant to that, especially with a practice only once a week, and a random hope of remembering riffs if the recorder isn’t going full time. When we got enough ideas together, this time we booked a real studio to see if our magic could be captured.

The results are in and Workstation to Workstation is the record that we have been hoping to make for years. Thanks to the work of Converge’s Kurt Ballou we were able to capture the thump as well as the thwack of our machines, and the results sound as massive as we were hoping. It’s even bigger on vinyl with wide grooves giving plenty of space to those thumps. You can buy the vinyl, or a download, or an array of options on our bandcamp page.

Links? We’ve got ’em for ya:

bostontypewriterorchestra.bandcamp.com
www.instagram.com/bostontypewriterorchestra
twitter.com/bostypeorch
www.facebook.com/pages/Boston-Typewriter-Orchestra/244268159799

Streaming Links for your service of choice: music.apple.com/us/album/workstation-to-workstation/1529757213
open.spotify.com/album/4ab4xnl92vY7iAuJ3VPUVn?si=cKipKl-hTre3LkTbaIG2qQ
music.amazon.com/albums/B08GZN74BD
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw5SiTR-31WZh-S2Vx_O3KeYi1nfzNoX5

Don’t Let The Stars Get In Our Eyes…

Something about Boston Typewriter Orchestra intrigues people. Some see us as a novelty and total lark, or else can’t discern our music from background noise like a Zoom filter. True story: as Alex and I were preparing for this interview, we tried to practice playing via Zoom. I heard his first key strike and then I could hear his breathing. Apparently the default setting for Zoom finds what we do to be just noise and filters it out. Our hopes of learning the tricks to performing in a world full of lagtime were not answered, but we did figure a way to fake it for our appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show

Tune in Monday, August 17 to your local NBC affiliate in mid-afternoon, and hopefully you can catch a minute or two of us back on national TV again! or just view it here:

Pre-orders for our new album Workstation to Workstation are also now open on our bandcamp page! Vinyl records and downloads and a special for those who want to dress like their favorite BTO member!

Let’s Meet Up

Sometimes when we play shows we get stuck waiting for things to happen for far longer than our performances ever are. When we went to Chicago last year to open a benefit dinner for the American Writers Museum, we pulled a total “hurry-up-and-wait.” With our instruments set up, we were relegated to a Green Room in the Four Seasons, and while we were well catered, we didn’t have much of anything to do. What we did have were a bunch of phones and a song that we decided to make a video for….

We handed off the footage to George O’Connor, and he matched what we made to the audio from our recent sessions at God City with Kurt Ballou. More video ideas to come as we slowly release these songs through the course of 2020…

Checking the Inbox

So we went on a Corporate Retreat this fall up to Salem, where we spent a few days at God City Studios under the watch of Converge’s Kurt Ballou. Using his studio and some innovative techniques to their best, he recorded a bunch of our new songs which we begin unveiling today with this wonderfully short teaser of a song that has been animated by Zak Kirwin

Vale Richie Madallo

I thought the strangest part about running a band website is the moment when you switch a band members designation from the ‘active’ to ’emeritus’ position, but the truth is having to add ‘memoriam’ to that list is like devastation. Richie Madallo wasn’t an original member of the band and he hadn’t played with us since our first trip to the Burlington VT Book Fest, but his nimble fingers were a treat to add to our mix from the first moment that I met him when he came and subbed in for a show when our numbers were low and Jay implored him just enough. He was a percussion wizard with roots in the Boston punk scene having played drums for the Bones. He grew up in East Boston’s Orient Heights neighborhood, and it was on the public school bus there that he and Jay met and forged a lifelong friendship that was founded on music.

 

BTO recently lost one of it’s own, Richie Maddalo, the guy with the huge grin on his face, Richie was a dear friend and percussionist like no other. He brought creativity and style to anything he performed on, for us he was a maestro on the Remette typewriter. BTO will be performing along with Joe Harvard in Richie’s honor on Saturday, April 28 at the East Boston YMCA on 45 Ashley St., East Boston, a short walk from Orient Heights station on the Blue Line, starting at 7:30PM. Light refreshments will be served. Expect some Bowie throughout the evening Admission is free,

Typing in the Holidays

So we’re expanding the scope of things… Usually December is a winding down of the year, but this year has been crazy and 2018 is already shaping up to be even busier. So instead of merely playing a couple of songs as a lark at the Christmas Cavalcade, we’re also helping the JP branch of the BPL celebrate the holidays, and we’re doing a show with some good pals from Chicago, Bitchin’ Bajas, that will serve as a quasi official record release party for us.

12/7: First up of the three is the trip to Jamaica Plain where we’ll serve the local community with a proper dessert of sound after a potluck at their branch of the Boston Public Library. The room fits only about 100, and I’m not sure if you need to bring food to share to be let in, but this will be the most casual of the shows, with a limited PA, so if it’s not your natural neighborhood, maybe you shouldn’t try to fight your way down to that end of town.

12/13: Last of the three chronologically is the 13th Annual Christmas Cavalcade. It’s always a crazy time and with Johnny D’s razed last week, it’s gonna be at Once again this year. Proceeds go to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition, so that’s a great cause, but if you’re coming just to see us play, well, know that we’ve got a very short set in the early part of the night and that we’ll dust off a popular Christmas ditty that we’ve played out the past few years, let Alex do his twisted interpretation of a Night Before Xmas, and we’ll have a new holiday tune to show off celebrating those that died on the holiday.

12/10: The other show, well, this is our big record release show at a dance studio in Cambridge’s Central Square, and it’s the one that everyone should come to see us play. We’ve been trying to find a good chance to bring our record out to the locals beyond those that supported us on Kickstarter or Bandcamp. When my pal Cooper told me his electronic band Bitchin’ Bajas was coming to town to play Studio @ 550, it seemed a perfectly bizarre fit for our all-analog manual typewriter attack to join forces with their droning melodic swells. This one will have us playing first and we’re planning to play a set designed for the heads who are there for the tunes, so we’ve got a few ideas up our sleeves on just how to shock and awe. Bring some extra cash as we’ll have records and t-shirts for sale and we’ll be around to hang out after you figure out how to reattach your jaw.

Thursday December 7 6pm
JP Branch Annual Holiday Party
Boston Public Library JP Branch
30 South Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

Sunday December 10, 2017 9pm
Record Release Party (FB Event Page)
with Bitchin’ Bajas, Prone, Erika Nesse
Studio @ 550
550 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA
$12 advance / $15 at the door

Wednesday December 13 doors at 6pm, music at 7pm
13th Annual Boston Christmas Cavalcade for the Homeless
with Livingston Taylor, The Chandler Travis Philharmonic, Merrie Amsterburg, The Boogaloo Swamis and more!
Once Somerville
160 Highland Ave, Somerville MA 02143
$20.00 in advance, $25.00 at the door, all proceeds go to Somerville Homeless Coalition

Typewriters on Vinyl

Maybe you’re a long time fan who bought a CD from us at a concert back in the digital age. While those songs have circulated around the internet since, even we haven’t had them at shows for more than 5 years. In the meantime we’ve been coming to terms with this streaming era, releasing individual tracks to the world as soon as we hone them to a point where we are no longer wholly embarrassed by them.

We’ve finally figured out that as much as people like hearing our music, there is something about being able to hold our music in their hands which gives them the power as well, so we have released a 10″ vinyl recording with 4 of our most recent tracks on it. It’s up to you what you want to do with it, but we think that even if you don’t have a record player, Brian Dewan‘s cover makes for some great artwork for your wall.

If you want to purchase these tracks follow the links to Bandcamp and for a mere $15 we can get records in the mail to you within days, and digitally Bandcamp will let you download them in moments. If there’s enough furor, we may get more posters and t-shirts printed as well, and Brendan really wants to get this put on a cassette as well…

Not Quite Noble Endeavors

We have certainly done things in our past that have earned us varying degrees of infamy, but this effort might just be the most ignominious of all. Somehow we have been tapped with the opening slot for the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Awards. While Folks are filing in to one of the most acoustically sound spaces in Cambridge, we’ll be on stage typing and tapping away in an effort to divert them from being able to decipher seat and row numbers. If you’ve never heard of this before, well, it’s like the scientific equivalent of the Razzies. Certainly not Nobel prize worthy, this awards people for genuine scientific achievement of preposterous premises.

While ticket prices are a bit prohibitive to a casual science dilettante who wants to see us play for 20 minutes, the whole thing will be broadcast on the Improbable Research web site and should be up on their You Tube page after the ceremony for us to share.

Thursday, September 14 5:40pm sharp
The 27th First Annual Ig® Nobel Prize Ceremony & Lectures
Sanders Theater, Harvard University
Cambridge MA