Burrito Metal & Pizza-Tween Twee: Bent Shapes talk food, playing final Sound Bites show of 2013

Summer’s almost over and this weekend is the last show of this year’s Sound Bites Series at South Street Seaport. The final band was supposed to be Leapling but had to pull out, unfortunately. While I’m sad they can’t play, I’m very very happy to have Boston’s Bent Shapes fill in at the last minute. It’s kind of appropriate, actually, as both bands are on Father/Daughter records. Bent Shapes’ new album, Feels Weird, just came out this week and is full of the kind of smart, hooky, highly-quotable songs that gives indiepop a good name. You can stream the whole thing via Spotify (or P4k for the time being) and a few songs right here:

Alright here are the details of Sunday’s show. (August 25.) It’s at the Front/Row stage at South Street Seaport on the corner of Front and Fulton. (It’s where Smorgasbar is.) I’ll be DJing from around 3PM and Bent Shapes will be on at 4PM sharp! It’s free, there’s a giant astroturf field you can stretch out on, the weather will be sunny and beautiful Why wouldn’t you come down?

I should say that Bent Shapes are also playing Cake Shop on Saturday as part of a crazy-good show that also has Gross Relations, Butter the Children and Two Inch Astronaut. You should go to that AND come to Sound Bites.

Bent Shapes’ Andy, Supriya and Ben indulged my questions about food and their answers are below. Food tubes will be available at Smorgasbar, btw.

Summer is prime farmer’s market time. What’s your favorite vegetable? And why.
B: I like zucchini, because it’s so versatile. It’s good grilled, cooked into ratatouille or jagacida, or baked into muffins with chocolate chips. Can’t go wrong.
S: I like broccoli because it tastes so nice in pizzas, soups, as a stand-alone item, oh jesus christ just everything! I might mention avocado but note that it is a fruit or a nut or something, I dunno.
A: My favorite food in the world in salad, so I will go with “mixed greens” as my favorite.

What’s your least favorite and why?
B: Never met a vegetable I didn’t like.
S: Celery because it is fucking awful, although I like it pureed to oblivion in soup context etc., etc.
A: I think “wedge of iceberg lettuce” is the most depressing sounding thing on the menu.

Bent Shapes just released their debut album. Did any particular food fuel the making of it?
B: We ate at Shanghai Village in Arlington, MA quite a bit before sessions, but the $5 Suffering Bastards had a lot more to do with it than the food, I think.
S: Yes, anything distillable and always fresh greens.
A: Also, we ate a lot of barbecue, which sounds pretty awful. Can you imagine eating ribs and then doing vocal takes? I can.

Has food ever influenced your songwriting?
B: Sure. You are what you eat. I was ingesting too much caffeine during the writing of this one, but I just quit coffee, so maybe my contributions will be mellower in the future.
S: We’ve brushed against burrito metal and pizza-tween twee.
A: We used a lot of food props in the Panel Of Experts video, does that count?

Any good food-related band anecdotes?
B: We used to go for ice cream after almost every practice, but we’re getting too old for that shit now.
S: I never fucked with that shit.
A: *sigh*

Who is the best cook in the band?
B: We all have our specialties, I think. Andy makes a mean brunch.
S: I make a mean weettucini weefredo (is that ok?).
A: I make a mean brunch.

What can you tell us about eating in Boston?
B: We’ve got some great restaurants. I think the diversity in the neighborhoods we call home guarantee variety, too, which is cool.
S: It is one of the destinations of our greatish country in which the winter food makes you fat AND the summer food makes you fat.
A: God Bless America.

What’s your favorite local restaurants?
B: Top 5 on my side of the river are probably Cantina La Mexicana, Dosa Factory, Sound Bites, Veggie Galaxy, and Chilli Garden.
S: Go to the Publick House in Brookline, order the macaroni and cheese, add broccoli, accompany the aforementioned with an Houblon Chouffe Belgian IPA, go on with your life knowing you’ve felt the pinnacle of satisfaction and nothing else matters now.
A: There is a diner in Watertown called the Deluxe Town Diner. Very very delicious. Le’s is a Vietnamese chain here in Boston and it’s also quite niiiiiiiiice.

What’s your go-to hangover food?
B: I’ve only been hungover once or twice, but I mostly just moaned a lot and ate dry toast in bed.
S: The snooze bar on the alarm clock. Cuz, yunno, “Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar eats you.”
A: WATER

What food would you imagine Bent Shapes music being paired with?
B: Some sort of food tube (burrito, dosa, calzone)?
S: Yeah, probably Indian-fusion, which is my fault entirely. Something authentically inauthentic.
A: Def a food toob.