Last night's BOSTON MUSIC AWARDS was a stripped-down affair at the LIBERTY HOTEL -- yes, the joint formerly known as the Charles Street Jail. An appropriate setting, perhaps, for a long-running local-music event that feels like it's on probation. The awards presentation zoomed by in a mere half-hour with only a handful of presenters and fewer categories than in previous years -- they've done away with the traditional distinction between "local" and "national" acts, which is an easy thing to do in a year with no new albums by Aerosmith, the Dresden Dolls, or DROPKICK MURPHYS (who still managed to win Best Punk Act).

Philly rap foursome CHIDDY BANG -- who've made a name for themselves in their hometown for rhyming over such hipster staples as Radiohead's "Nude," Kid Cudi's "Day and Night" and MGMT's "Kids" -- have dropped a new track based on the hook from (multiple Best Music Poll nominees) PASSION PIT's "Better Things." We don't expect to hear it on JAM'N, but it's nice to know that someone outside Boston still thinks there's cred to be had by bumping these dudes.

PASSION PIT | May 15 at the Pill @ Great Scott, Allston 

The first we ever heard of PASSION PIT was from Brenda O'Keefe, then Great Scott's in-house publicist, who ran around telling anyone who would listen that she'd just heard the greatest new band in the universe. So perhaps no surprise that Great Scott eventually became, as much as anywhere, Passion Pit's home base -- or that GS was the place the band chose to grace with the obligatory semi-secret hometown show before heading out on the road to become big stars. The Pill host (and Herald columnist) Michael Marrotta made like they were the opening band on a Tuesday, but even an actual opening-band-on-Tuesday mistake (um . . . someone forgot to plug in the bass?) couldn't mask some geniune holy-shit anticipation -- how un-Allston-hipster-like is that?

AFTER THE JUMP: lots more video from Friday night's show. 

According to their Twitter account, PASSION PIT will be playing Great Scott tomorrow night, returning to their old stomping grounds, The Pill, before they start touring behind their ultra-hyped debut Manners (out Tuesday), which you can now hear in its entirety on MySpace. Line starts . . .now?

1. HANDS AND KNEES, “YOU GOT POP, YOU GOT STYLE” (mp3)
2. THE EVERYDAY VISUALS, “HEAL ME”
3. GROWLERS, “ALL BUT THE BONES”
4. PASSION PIT, “LITTLE SECRETS”
5. SARAH BORGES AND THE BROKEN SINGLES, “NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU”

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Hands and Knees play Great Scott on April 30.

Their debut album hasn't even been released yet, but PASSION PIT are already towering over Kanye, Bat For Lashes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Sonic Youth on a national chart. That's right: for at least a week or so, the Pit have been esconced as the #1 slot on the "Hot Artists" list at the mp3-blog aggregator Elbo.

Future of the Left

Passion Pit, "Moth's Wings"
Pitchfork premiered these local dudes' newest track. Do they remind anyone else of Animal Collective's recent stuff at all, or is it just me? Previously on On the Download: Passion Pit, "The Reeling."

White Denim, "Mirrored and Reverse"