Stop Calling Me Frank deliver the Market Basket anthem we’ve been waiting for
‘MB Anthem (The Market Basket Song)’ gives us more for our rock and roll dollar via Rum Bar Records
OUT NOW: Listen to ‘MB Anthem’ via Spotify // Bandcamp
Sing it with us: ‘Everybody’s going to the Market Basket… at… the… same… time!’
Listen to Stop Calling Me Frank on Bandcamp
And for the record, Stop Calling Me Frank stand with Arthur T. ‘Artie T.’ Demoulas
BOSTON, Mass. [September 26, 2025] – Everyone loves to talk about the so-called quintessential New England experience, like eating lobster rolls on the Cape, going leaf-peepin’ up in New Hampshire and Vermont, or catching the Red Sox beat the Yankees’ asses at Fenway Park. But not too long ago, Terry O’Malley of Stop Calling Me Frank got unexpectedly caught up in perhaps the most New England experience imaginable – he was stuck in traffic behind a bunch of cars all headed to the local Market Basket.
“I saw a line of cars stopped on a highway off-ramp that leads to a plaza with a Market Basket,” recalls the saxophonist of the venerable Boston rock band. “I said ‘Everybody’s going to the Market Basket!’ sort of as a joke, but I liked the way those words scanned.”
Tapping into the New England zeitgeist of our modern day, one lined with salmon-colored checker board floors, maroon jackets, and a whole lot of savings, Stop Calling Me Frank soon had a proper rock and roll banger on their collective hands. The sweaty, beer-fueled, and sax-driven rock and roll band now unleash “MB Anthem (The Market Basket Song)” on Friday, September 26 on Rum Bar Records.
Of course, this rabble-rousing ode to the beloved grocery chain, a classic Stop Calling Me Frank cocktail of jittery hooks and bratty punk-rock urgency, arrives (admittedly unintentionally) at a controversial moment in Market Basket’s history. It hits the streams just over two weeks after the company’s board of directors infamously voted to oust beloved longtime CEO Arthur T. (“Artie T.”) Demoulas over disagreements on how to run the once-family business.
“All I know is that I love the employees of the Market Basket, and the employees love Artie T.!” says bassist Dan Caspariello. “So I'm already on their side for this one. The other thing that boggles my mind is how much more money do you need? It’s all about greed.”
O’Malley, Caspariello, and Stop Calling Me Frank as a band, assert with conviction that this song is for Market Basket, its long-standing culture, and the legions of people who have shopped, with unwavering dedication, at one of the 95 stores around Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine since the grocery store was first founded way back in 1917.
“Until very recently, this small chain inspired a lot of loyalty from its customers,” O’Malley says. “The board and the owners are making a needless Greek tragedy out of this. Artie T. has shown repeatedly that he was leading the company well. This song is not an endorsement of the current Market Basket board of directors and its ownership policies!!!”
What is is, however, is an endorsement of Massachusetts culture, and that’s something Stop Calling Me Frank have been celebrating since their early clubs days in the Boston music scene, where their addictive, high-energy brand of garage, soul, & punk-infused rock ‘n' roll was a mainstay at long-gone places like The Rat, Chet’s Last Call, and T.T. The Bear’s Place.
In the usual Stop Calling Me Frank style of loud-fast-fun, the 100-second-long “MB Anthem (The Market Basket Song)” follows a streak of hyperactivity from the band, which got back in the proverbial van just before the pandemic after 25 years out of the Boston scene. In January of this year they released The First Six Years compilation, a callback to those early days, and followed that up with a pair of animated singles in April’s gritty “Good Enough” and July’s punchy “Where You Gonna Hide.”
The band – O’Malley and Caspariello rounded out by vocalist Lennie Donohoe, drummer Eddie Barese, and guitarists David Forbes and Jeff Ousborne – knew they had something special when O’Malley first came to them with the music and lyrics of “MB Anthem.”
“The first verse came right away,” he adds. “I quickly gave up trying to rhyme ‘basket’ repeatedly and focused on internal rhymes. The guys liked it right away, but it was still a work in progress. I was still tinkering with the exact word order even while we were recording it.”
A bit of “Frankifying” was done by the band, adding their own special flair to the composition, and the track was complete. Recording took place at engineer Ed Riemer’s Edsbarn studio in Canton, about six miles or so from the closest Market Basket in nearby Brockton. The band plans to head back there later this fall to record a few more songs that will appear on a new Stop Calling Me Frank album, but in the meantime, the gentlemen are focused on “MB Anthem.”
And why wouldn't they be?
“The Franks are super excited to tell the world about our love of the Market Basket,” says Caspariello, a Somerville resident who loves going to the wild and infamous Union Square location. “It belongs to us, our friends, neighbors, and family. It truly is a special place. No other supermarket can touch them in price and freshness. The employees are always obviously really happy which is rare these days… always willing to help out; like I might ask ‘what's the juiciest orange right now’, and they tell me.”
And “MB Anthem” has been a massive live favorite wherever it gets played, from The Dogmatics’ album release party blowout over the summer in Waltham to smaller dive bar and club shows in Lowell and Jamaica Plain.
“Right out the gate this was getting a huge reaction from the crowds,” Caspariello. “People would say ‘That song is so cool! Love that one!’ We knew right away we had something special! People love the honesty of it and the tongue-in-cheek humor of it. People just love the place! Again their prices and freshness of their fruits and vegetables and meats just cannot be beat by any other supermarket! ”
Of course, since Market Basket is mostly a phenomenon north of the Mass Pike and across the Merrimack Valley, there are some empty patches in the region, especially along the South Shore.
“We don’t play too far afield, so most of the folks at our shows know about Market Basket,” O’Malley concludes. “But I don’t think it got much of a reaction when we played it in Plymouth!”
Stop Calling Me Frank are:
Lennie Donohoe: Vocals
Eddie Barese: Drums
David Forbes: Guitar
Jeff Ousborne: Guitar
Dan Caspariello: Bass
Terry O’Malley: Saxophone
‘MB Anthem’ production credits:
Performed by Stop Calling Me Frank
Music and lyrics by Terry O’Malley
Engineered by Ed Riemer at Edsbarn in Canton, MA
Released on Rum Bar Records
Stop Calling Me Frank short bio:
Stop Calling Me Frank came together in the wild 1980s punk rock scene of Boston. Their music still reflects that early, high- energy, loud-fast-fun attitude, as do their rousing live shows. Influenced by usual suspects: Little Richard, The Fleshtones, The Sonics, Ramones, Otis Redding. This is garage punk rock-and-roll, with giant guitar riffs, a honking sax, and guys singing "Baby!” really loud.
‘MB Anthem (The Market Basket Song)’ artwork:
Media praise for Stop Calling Me Frank:
“‘Good Enough’ should be the rallying cry at all SCMF gigs from now on. Finally something to get behind.” _Boston Groupie News
“With its mix of rock, powerpop, garage rock (hear that saxophone honking) and a mild form of punk rock there's not one song on this selection that does not have that deep groove. A groove to move to, dance to, party to. Spider In My Beer .. offers that in abundance.” _WoNoBlog
“Look, this is a wonderful record. 10 songs of the purest, most unadulterated fun you can have while tooting a sax and thrashing a guitar, but it's way, way more. See, appropriately for a record called Haberdashed this is all about the adornments, the trinkets. The opener, the utterly glorious opener, ‘South Of Somewhere’ has three verses. Each one mentions a jukebox. The three songs it namechecks: ‘Little Red Corvette’, ‘Benny And The Jets’ and ‘Desolation Row’. Let's get real here. That’s a hell of a selection, right? Right.” _Maximum Volume Music
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