NEWS:

05/29/09
Brighton, MA is going to play a few dates through the midwest with The Appleseed Cast... if you're not familiar with Appleseed Cast check out their myspace! myspace.com/theappleseedcast

04/22/09
We've picked the tunes and takes culled from the Schubas Residency recordings for our upcoming live release.  It was tough to cut it down to a single set length with so much great playing, but cuts were made just the same.  The disc will reflect well these shows which saw three different lineups playing four strikingly different sets.  Tunes will include material from our EP, our full-length Amateur Lovers, and a couple unreleased tunes we couldn't leave off.  Mixes should be ready to print in the next couple weeks.  Stay tuned.

In comparison to the past couple months, May is looking pretty open for BMA.  But "open" for us is still relatively busy.  The Old 97's asked us to help support their two Cubby Bear shows here in Chicago on the 2nd and 3rd of May.  The show on the 2nd is already sold out, so grab a ticket for the performance on the 3rd.  The following Friday, we'll be headlining up in Evanston at The Space.  We've been hearing a lot about this venue and are excited to play the room.

02/03/09
Brighton, MA's Bet You Never Thought was featured on Gossip Girl last night! You can catch it online here.

12/17/08
Brighton, MA announces their upcoming residency at Schubas. BMA will be playing every Monday in February at Chicago's Schubas. All events will be free...

12/16/08
Sunblinded to be featured on ABC's Eli Stone - if you're not familiar with the show, Johnny Lee Miller (Sick Boy in Trainspotting) stars as a lawyer with a special gift. You can catch some of the episodes online, but make sure to tune in on Dec. 30th @ 8pm CST!!

12/10/08
Brighton, MA featured on www.daytrotter.com you can read the article above...
daytrotter.com/article/1517/the-flawed-men-that-become

12/01/08
Recently Matthew Kerstein sat down with a recent interview with Jon Graef of Chicago Innerview. You can pick up a copy of the magazine pretty much anywhere in Chicago or read the interview online at www.chicagoinnerview.com

CLICK HERE for BMA Online Store!!

Press Quotes for Amateur Lovers

READ:     Skope Magazine's review of Amateur Lovers | Metromix (Int. w/ Jim & Matt) | Daily Herald | UR Chicago | Columbia College | New City Chicago | Chicago innerview

LISTEN:  Free downloads available at brightonma.net/promo | daytrotter.com | Recent interview with KDHX in St. Louis

WATCH:  Streaming video of BMA live by RollingStone.com

Brighton, MA
SOLD OUT!!
Download album through itunes!!

BIO: A man who runs with the wolves – or a pack of men who run with the wolves – are most notably of a different breed. They are of a different cut and wake up in mornings with the aftertaste of blood that kind of reminds the buds of pennies, along with the red meat it came from and cockleburs stuck into their greasy and matted hair and there’s a constant consternation of how it all happened, again. It’s a reoccurring scenario after the dreams have been killed, put down for another night’s sleep during the broad part of the day, for that’s when the exhaustion sets in and things get blurry around the curling edges.

Brighton, MA is a band that runs with these very wolves and operates under brilliant night lights, just letting the feelings and the temperatures act themselves out in their music as if they can control them little more than one can control a flood or an ice storm. It’s as if they have no choice in the matter, getting overtaken by some of these grander ideas of personal legitimacy, making good on love and the passage of time that somewhere along the way turns it into history. People, whether they let themselves do it or not, have so much that they can think deeply about that should stop them stiff in their tracks and all of the riddles and puzzling combinations of others, their words and letters, that living throws at them should be draining.

Matt Kerstein and his crack squad of players – guitarist Jim Turek, guitarist Joe Darnaby and drummer Sam Koentopp – sink themselves into a general mood that feels like sad chandeliers, a cold frost and men sipping glasses of brandy or whiskey in glasses that are almost always empty and in rooms that are dimmed and staring back with an anxious tension. The songs on Amateur Lovers and their new brothers are a combination of these scenes and the anticlimactic (or most interesting) narratives that have shown the characters as the flawed, yet resiliently trying men that everyone starts out as and winds up as through no lack of effort. These are thoughts that build into a kettle of steam that announce their presence over the course of time, seeping out slowly without the whistle. These are thoughts that one catches himself thinking and knows not where they came from or how they found him, just that they’re right or they’re more right than wrong. Kerstein has one of the most engaging voices and lyrical minds anywhere and Brighton, MA has already made an album that should be recognized, not necessarily alongside other albums that are marveled over, but sharing quarters with prized literature, the pleasure and pain of solitude and mankind’s corrupt beauty.
Words by Sean Moeller - www.daytrotter.com