No secret here: Google and YouTube, arguably the two most powerful entities on the web, are way, way behind in the live-streaming video space. While they've lagged, UStream and Livestream -- to name just two companies in a rapidly-evolving niche industry -- have made live broadcasting an everyday part of most bands' digital arsenal.

Sure, MATT & KIM are confirmed Brooklynites, but they're also native New Englanders -- and, as Matt told a packed crowd at the 500-capacity Lansdowne across from Fenway Park last night, "this is the only place I feel at home." Sure, he probably says that everywhere. But it's also true that he grew up going to shows in Boston, and hell, you know us -- we'll claim anyone for this town.

We've been racking our brain but have yet to find an analogue for OWL CITY, the only rock band we can recall to perform live without use of a single amplifier. (Someone only half in jest suggested that perhaps they don't travel with amps because they can't physically lift them.) In their defense, rock accoutrements are completely superfluous to OC's brand of pristine, frictionless digi-pop.

Tomorrow, the debut album from the young, supercute Toronto electropop singer-songriter LIGHTS gets an American release; last night, she was at the Middle East. Mike Awesome was on hand to get some snaps and a couple video clips, including her single "Ice" and a cover of the ol' Phil Collins standard "In The Air Tonight."

The Bravery: we had them pegged as such middle-of-the-road, missionary-position kind of dudes. I mean, you've heard the songs: were you expecting serial Killers or just a bunch of suburban strivers with a decent record collection? Sure, they've been known to get in a bar-fight or two, but even after they debuted a Misfits-y new song called "Hatefuck" at our Best Music Poll concert this summer, we didn't see them as the kind of guys who'd write a verging-on-rape-fantasy punk song with a low-budget gore video worthy of Something Weird.

CAVE-IN's don't-call-it-a-comeback continues next week with a pair of West Coast free gigs sponsored by Toyota -- but this morning the band announced it'll be playing non-auto-bailout gigs in New York, Boston, Providence, and Philadelphia, with support by Trap Them and Narrows.

We've also received word that the band will be releasing a DVD of its July reunion show at Great Scott in Boston

We're still not quite sure how it all happened. Here's the Villa Victoria Center for Arts, a renovated church nestled in a charming South End nook, effectively hollowed out and packed full of the latest rave technology: audio-reactant video projections, holographic LCD screens, multiple bars, loads of PBR, limitless Red Bull.

As you can hear Hamilton Leithauser say, the song in the video above from Friday night's Walkmen show is one they had written fairly recently. They didn't provide a title, either. We'll have more on these shows later, but after the jump, we've got video of "The Rat" and "In the New Year."

More photos here and here.

According to Pains of Being Pure at Heart keyboardist/singer Peggy Wang, one of her friends was letting the New York band’s show at the Middle East downstairs double as his bachelor party. This was news to Wang — she considers her band’s shows as perhaps “the least debaucherous thing ever.

Thom Yorke, who unveiled a new song just last week for that Marc Mulcahy tribute, also debuted a new song just yesterday during a solo set at the Latitude Fest in the UK (during which he reportedly also played songs from Eraser and In Rainbows), which he prefaced by suggesting it might be a good time for people to "go for a piss."

Phoenix, "1901" (live at the Paradise)

More to come on Phoenix's blowout at the Paradise last night. Until then, we have a ton of video of these guys, starting with their last song of the night, "1901," which is fast becoming their big hit. After the jump, enjoy another song from the Paradise, and another version of "1901," this one from their visit with the Sandbox at the WFNX studios at One Financial Center recorded just this morning. 

And as a bonus corporate synergy reminder, if you listen to WFNX's Sandbox morning show, you could potentially win tickets to see these guys in NYC (with Passion Pit opening, no less). Details to be found here.

Oh, and by the way, you can vote for "1901" as Best Song in our Best Music Poll right now: