For Immediate Release
June 1, 2005 (Somerville, MA)

HANDSTAND COMMAND 5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
A BENEFIT FOR THE SOMERVILLE ARTS COUNCIL

Date: Saturday, June 18, 2005
Time: 8pm to close
Place: PA's Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave., Union Square, Somerville
Cost: A mere $8 (and for a good cause!)

About the Handstand Command
Five years ago, the women and men who would come to make up the Handstand Command music collective looked up from their zine libraries and noticed that the great city of Somerville was, shall we say, "between bands." They vowed that things would change and gathered into three groups to form: mostly-female, post-punk bawlers The Operators; all-male, pop-punk trawlers The Anchormen; and co-ed cabaret-disco-funk-punk cat-callers Scrapple. Other bands joined in the fight, hoping to avoid hyphenated-punk subgenres: Sinkcharmer, The Tardy, and a host of other randomly decided and ill-advised recombinations (we understand that this is now called a "mash-up").

About the Event
To commemorate the cinqueanniversary of the start of their labors, these three founding Handstand Command bands are coming together for what may be their final respective shows at PA's Lounge in Union Square, Saturday June 18th. Newer, fresh-faced Handstand Command bands Asian Babe Alert and Albumen will also be joining the bill. In addition to the marathon of rock, the celebration will offer many other festive trappings: snacks, giveaways, and perhaps even drunken toasts.

All proceeds from the show will go to benefit the Somerville Arts Council. For more information about the Somerville Arts Council and its public programming, visit www.somervilleartscouncil.org

More Handstand Command Action
And though the three founding bands of Handstand Command will play rarely if at all in the future, the indivdual members of the collective remain active--perhaps hyper-active--in the local scene. Area D (of Scrapple) launches new night of DJs, dancing, and bands called Musk--Wednesdays at the Midway in JP starting June 8th. Along with Mark E. Moon (aka Jef of The Anchormen), the two form Plunge into Death, about to release their first album on Mister Records. Emily Arkin (of The Operators) can be found playing violin with Hilken Mancini (solo, of the Count Me Outs and Punk Rock Aerobics) at the Abbey Lounge July 20th. And Paul(The Operators/Sinkcharmer)'s performance with Albumen marks the start of a band poised to dominate the Adirondacks (where he recently moved).

Past Handstand Command anniversaries have consisted of consistently sold-out shows and residencies at PAs, the Abbey Lounge, The Choppin Block, the Zeitgeist, and the Milky Way.

For more information about the event, visit:
http://www.handstandcommand.com/anniversary.html

Bess Paupeck
Publicity and Events Coordinator
Somerville Arts Council
City Hall Annex
50 Evergreen Ave - Somerville MA - 02145