Acts to Follow
Our annual round-up of the city’s rising musical stars.
 Photo Credit: Dominic Lavin
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Central Mass. slackers Dom had barely scratched the local club scene before they snagged a major record deal and toured the world this past year. “It’s been really wild,” says singer/guitarist Dom, who claims he eschews his last name to avoid creditors. “I never imagined that I would play the Sydney Opera House on acid.”
For a foster kid who spent his teens bouncing between homes, it’s a long way to have come. “It’s kind of surreal, like I died and went to heaven,” says Dom, who grew from selling homemade beats from his computer to captivating the blogosphere with his psych–garage
pop band.
The band’s debut EP, Sun Bronzed Greek Gods, spawned cheap, synth-kissed ditties, like the lifestyle send-up “Living in America.” And the new EP, Family of Love, rides the same chill wave, though Dom’s particularly high on his “cosmic” remixes. For “Telephone,” he was going for “Mariah Carey teeny-bop with weird sensory parts, little insinuations of being dark.”
He’ll continue that direction with drummer Bobby, bassist Erik and keyboardist Ming Ming. And they’ll be free agents next May. Says Dom, “As an artist, the biggest struggle is being understood. Money is important, but it’s more [important] having control over everything.”
 Photo Credit: Deborah Seide
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One of the problems with prog rock is length. Looking to curtail the marathon songs of his outfit the National Blue, Reuben Bettsak launched Guillermo Sexo as a chance to work on a smaller scale. “It was more beat-based, like combining psychedelic rock with Latin rhythms,” says the guitarist, who, in a nod to the Panamanian side of his family, sang some songs in Spanish on the band’s debut.
Today he’s the only original member of Sexo, which sports influences from punk, ’90s shoegazer rock, ’60s English folk and avant-garde classical. Even so, “I feel like I’m doing a lot better at not throwing everything out there,” Bettsak says. “Maybe because I’m kind of A.D.D., I get bored staying too much within guidelines.” Secret Wild, the band’s fourth album, combines disparate elements like dreamy acoustic strums, slamming postpunk and singer/keyboardist Noell Dorsey’s
haunting warble.
Yet Sexo spins a surprisingly cohesive blend, even with strong musical personalities. Elliott Anderson can throttle his Fender bass. At a recent gig, new drummer Ryan Connelly (from the spacey Americana combo Mount Peru) wove tribal drums into the mix with the departing Jay Weixelbaum. Transitions are par for the course, and, as Bettsak says, “It still feels like we’re gaining momentum.”
