Township, "Sandy" (Flophouse Sessions, Feb 2008)

Jen and Andy, the betrothed Somerville duo behind the fantastic Band in Boston Podcast, have recorded many of our favorite local indie bands for their "Flophouse Sessions" -- a series taped live in the pair's living room, on stripped-down gear, and given away free on teh internets.

DOWNLOAD: Hooray for Earth, "Warm Out" (mp3)

Hooray for Earth: odd band. Get 'em drunk, and they're liable to belt out a Justin Timberlake hit, or maybe one of Jacko's. Left on his own, their singer has been known to crank out Magnetic Fields covers. In their own right, HFE have carved out a unique niche that's equal parts indie breadth and metal brawn, like a second coming of Queens of the Stone Age.

"I Sent Away" has been kicking around on YouTube for a few months, but Mr. Frank Black/Black Francis is finally getting around to releasing SVN FNGRS, the sex-and-birth(?!)-obsessed mini-album from whence it comes, on March 7. Not a moment too soon: we were beginning to get bored with trying to pong Frank's head into the bucket over at his fancy new website

. . . but will he bring Daft Punk? Y'know, this just might be enough to make up for Bon Jovi at Fenway. From the inbox:

Kanye West: Glow in the Dark Tour

With Rihanna, Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D.

At the Tweeter Center

Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 7:00 pm

Tickets are $26.

At the time of his death, on February 24 at the age of 60, Christian freak-folk luminary Larry Norman was working on an album with guests including Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock and the Pixies' Frank Black, the latter of whom said, upon Norman's passing, "Larry was my door into the music business and the most Christ-like person I ever met."

Wow, it's feeling so 1993 right about now. We lost track of Kim Deal after the last Pixies tour wrapped, and thus were wholly unprepared for the leak, over the weekend, of a brand-spanking-new Breeders album to the internets. Sure, this is the Kelley Deal version and not the Pod-era Tanya Donelly version, but nope, we're not complaining.

As expected, Only Living Witness have announced a second reunion show, after their June 14 gig sold out in a weekend. They'll now do a second show June 21, also at the Middle East Downstairs. More on the reunion here and here. Ticketing info TBA.

From the inbox:

From: ejstevenson

Date: February 21, 2008 2:05:52 PM EST To: XXXXXXXX Subject: ONLY LIVING WITNESS REUNION

DOWNLOAD: Hallelujah the Hills, "Don't Take the Law Into Your Own Hands But Take Mine In Yours" (mp3)

On the eve of their biggest national tour to date (stops include SXSW and a Daytrotter session), Boston indie heroes Hallelujah the Hills forsook the bedroom and entered an actual studio for the first time ("My 8-track will never forgive me," laments frontman Ryan Walsh), emerging with two brand-new songs to hold us over until they record album no.

(c) Matt Teuten

(c) Rev. Aaron


(c) Matt Teuten

(c) Rev. Aaron

(c) Matt Teuten

(c) Rev. Aaron

(c) Rev. Aaron

No more or less morbid than usual, Stephin Merrit deigned to scowl at our photographer(s) at the Somerville Theater last weekend. Somebody leak the bootleg, already.

About a Son: the trailer


Frances: Mama's girl

Happy Birthday, Kurt. Perhaps you've heard: plans for a Universal Studios biopic based on Charles Cross's definitive biography Heavier Than Heaven continue to unfold, apparently without Scarlett Johannsen as the young Courtney Love

Jonah: basically more awesomer than us.

According to J. Jonah Jenkins, Only Living Witness's reunion show -- news of which was first broken here -- has sold out. For those lucky ticketholders, opening bands for the June 14 gig at MidEast downstairs will be Motherboar, Blacktail, and one more TBA.

For the purposes of the reunion, OLW will be Eric Stevenson (drums), Craig Silverman (guitar), Jonah Jenkins (vocals), and Bob Maloney (bass).

Thanks to Tia, our new obsession has a name, and it is LEMUR. Now you and your DJ friends can rock the same ridonculously fantastic super-futuro interface that Daft Punk rocks up in the pyramid, and that Thom Yorke is talking about buying. List price: a mere three grand. One device -- scratch that, one enormously fucking cool device -- that'll handle "sequencers, modular synthesizers, virtual instruments, VJ software, 3D animation tools and light control."

All photos by Carina Mastrocola

Above snaps from last night's rawk show at the DCU Center in Worcester. Bonus snaps: the bottom two show Davey Grohl rocking out for the wife and their kid. Awwwwww. PS: Is it us or is Pat Smear looking a little bloaty?

Bonus track: the FNX dudes talked to Dave before the show. Here's some video:

Talk about burying the lead. In an interview with Billboard devoted to Bon Jovi's near-proximity to the DeKalb shootings, Jon Bon mentions in an aside that his band's current tour does not yet have a final date planned:

"I've got two choices," Bon Jovi says. "We've got the Giants, Soldiers, Fenways (stadiums) on hold or we stay in Europe because of the state of the economy.

Dan Deacon, reigning Prince of Awesomeness, brought both kinds of mayhem to MassArt late last month: the kind that involves long, hypnotic, frontal-lobe-destroying multimedia mindfucks; and then the full-frontal, lights-out, digital body music that turns art students into pole dancers. We've got clips of both below: first, an excerpt from "Ultimate Ryeality," his settings and manipulations of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, which works way better live than on DVD