We were way late to the Paramore bandwagon, and only picked up on them a few weeks before Riot! hit stores this year, but for shit's sake, you knew we were gonna love this band: shamelessly pop, adorable teenage girl singer, and a hit song that bounds onto Top 40 radio despite being a) complicated, b) sung by a girl in a rock band who's not Avril Lavigne, and c) a song that casually smashes to smithereens a host of stereotypes about what nice girls are supposed to sing about. Emo's currency is misery, sure, but in "Misery Business" Hayley's selling pleasure: the guilty pleasure of stealing some douchebag's boyfriend, for one, but mainly it's about the sheer pleasure of singing for/about pleasure -- that "feeels soooooo gooooooooood" in the bridge might be 2007's most joyful moment on record.

We'd been lobbying our sister station WFNX to add "Misery Business" for months, never dreaming that they actually would -- in what we can only assume was a desperate bid to get OTD to quit badgering them about it already. Truth be told, we didn't care so much about hearing Paramore on the radio -- we just wanted to get them to come play one of FNX's secret shows and then film it. Which, unbelievably, is exactly what happened.

So: Everyone else in the office (except Mike Awesome, who pressed play on camera two) is embarassed by our love of this band. Fuck 'em. The kids are alright. One of the things we love about emo that everyone else seems to hate is that it keeps bringing better and better singers back to rock and roll from all the other places they can find work these days -- 20 years ago a girl with a voice like Hayley's wouldn't have been caught dead in a punk band, and 10 years ago she'd have been in, what, Dream or Sugababes or something. Don't get us wrong: this is a girl who can hold her own. She led singalongs like the all-ages-circuit pro she already is, took questions from the audience on the big topics (bananas or cheese? Michael Jackson or Mr. Rogers?), and from a few behind the scenes glimpses we're convinced that this girl is running her own shop: she's the one managing tempo problems and shushing the drummer, at least. Which is usually the boss's work, if we remember correctly.

WATCH: Paramore, Interview [video on YouTube or imeem]
DOWNLOAD: Paramore, CrushCrushCrush (Live in Boston 11/24/2007) [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: Paramore, Pressure (Live in Boston 11/24/2007) [mp3]
DOWNLOAD: Paramore, Misery Business (Live in Boston 11/24/2007) [mp3]

The Rat's Last Stand: November 15, 1997

Any good scenester can tell you that November 15, 1997 was the date of the final gig ever played at Boston's legendary, notorious punk club, the Rat. The final band onstage was, appropriately enough, Gang Green, who probably drank (and sold!) more beers at that joint than anyone. Yes, the bathroom was as bad as everyone says it was. Yes, every ridiculous show was as ridiculously good as everyone says it was. Discuss.

But here's a bit of trivia for our punk-rock friends. Had the club stayed open for another two weekends, can you name the bands that were scheduled to appear during a hardcore-kid's dream weekend? OK, here's the ad that ran in the Phoenix the week the club closed:

UV Pro: Astro Teen Burqa Force

IF YOU GO:

• DJ Rndom & VJ Robotkid, UV Protection, Longknives, and Awesome Brothers
• Saturday, February 3
• Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Dr., Cambridge
• 8 pm, $10, all-ages

Yes, it's a bad day to be a 'droid in Boston. But while the BPD sweeps up after a Mooninite invasion, our favorite home-grown robot-rock outfit are gearing up for a takeover. UV PROTECTION performances are models of synchronization — they wear identical uniforms, unleash robotic dance moves, and organize their brief, Kraftwerkian songs around an odd counterpoint of voices, like cyborg opera divas stuck on “automatic vibrato.” So, sure, you can read UV Pro as a parable for art in the age of mechanical reproduction: they promote the cause of individuality by embodying its opposite — conformity — and create weird-science sex appeal by dramatizing the sound of fleshy bodies enslaved by machines. Their new album Clean Modern Comfortable exposes the stylistic tyranny at the heart of modernism, suggests that isolation is the price of convenience, and spins your head right ’round like a record, baby, right ’round. Check the now sound from way out, then point your teleporters at Art Interactive in Central Square for the CD-release party on Saturday night.

DOWNLOAD: UV Protection, "Space Elevator" (mp3)

All photos (c) Byron Smith

Speaking of how Fueled By Ramen rules the universe, the kids were dying to let us let them shoot Cute Is What We Aim For, who we'll all be talking about in a few months as the next Panic! at the Disco. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. First, they had to play the obligatory packed-solid, buzzed-to-death church show up in Allston, just so all our fave scenesters could say they Saw Them Way Back When. OK. Done. You were there. Tell all your friends. We've got the pictures to prove it.

STREAM: Cute Is What We Aim For, "There's A Class For This" (windows media, sorry)

The recently reunited Smoking Popes absolutely, uh, smoked last night downstairs at the Middle East at their first show in town in “like eight years,” according to frontman Josh Caterer. As one of the best and most under-appreciated power pop bands of the ’90s, Caterer, his brothers — guitarist Eli and bassist Matt — and drummer Mike Felumlee deftly married big power chords and big hooks with Josh’s distinctive Kermit-the-Frog-meets-Morrissey croon. The band broke up at the end of 1998 but got back together last November for a show in their hometown of Chicago that was filmed and released as a CD/DVD, At Metro (Victory), last month.

They’re currently in the midst of a full-scale reunion tour, and at the Middle East, they sounded as though they’d never stopped playing together. Josh and Eli opened the set with a mesmerizing version of “Pure Imagination,” the Willy Wonka song that appeared on the Popes’ brilliant 1997 album Destination Failure. Afterwards, they were joined by their brother Matt and drummer Ryan Chavez and switched into full rock mode, the band’s brawn and Josh’s graceful voice arrestingly juxtaposed. Other highlights included a rousing version of “I Know You Love Me” and a new song that is apparently going to appear on a new full length (!) and sounded like vintage Popes — rhythmically and melodically catchy and anthemic without being histrionic. The night’s most poignant moment came when the audience sang along to “You Spoke to Me,” Josh’s ode to a band that changed his life: “I drove all the way from Carpentersville just to see you here tonight and it was worth it . . . I’m just glad I got to see you.”

-- Will Spitz

"I'm not that good at pictures," protested lil' man Alex Whalen-Brown
right before our cameraman took this photo. 



Photos by Matt Teuten.

Look, before you start, you're preaching to the choir, OK? Dudes come up from Rhode Island talking "punk rock band with a violinist," we're not just gonna yellowcard the fuckers, we're gonna red-card 'em and they're out for the rest of the game. We hear you, brah. But give us a second on this here band VERBANA DARVELL (yep, not only are they punks-with-violin, they've also got a name that sounds like a cheap hooker trying to make it in a Broadway chorus line). Perhaps we were willing to give V.D. (oh, man, it never ends) a chance because back in the '90s there was a punk-band-with-violin called the Dambuilders from these parts who were actually really fucking great. In any case, our dude Gulla gave these kids the thumbs up down in the Providence paper and we myspaced 'em and they sent us this track and, shit, it's pretty damn cool. Spazzy, metallic, the violinist may actually have heard of Stockhausen. They've got a record out produced by Hot Rod Circuit frontman Andy Jackson, they're good kids, they tour, they're playing the ICC Church today with the Number 12 Looks Like You and Boston's newest Epitaph signees, Vanna. You should go see them and make nice.

LISTEN: Verbana Darvell, "Faint Attraction" (mp3)
LISTEN: Vanna, "Dead Language for a Dying Lady" (mp3, via myspace)