Bang Camaro at Avalon

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

The Cinematics

Silversun Pickups

Photos by Caitlin E. Curran

Most overheard comment when OTD first walked down Lansdowne St. last night: "Kings of Leon aren’t playing?!" Yep, KOL backed out at the last minute (minus many cool points for them) but it was truly their loss because the crowd at Best Music Poll was plentiful and apparently fueled by Red Bull - nearly seven hours after they trickled in, as the Cinematics played an ear-splittingly loud cover of a Beck track from Sea Change on the outdoor stage, Axis was packed to capacity as Silversun Pickups began their explosive set 15 minutes early, explaining that they were bored backstage and everyone was there already anyway. Ridiculously awesome live versions of “Kissing Families” and “Three Seed” ensued, a welcome reward for their sweaty, tired-yet-psyched fans. For some, the Best Music Poll can function as the extreme sport of concert-going – the champions are the ones who endure all (roughly) eight hours, and brave crowds, lines and stern doormen to see as many bands as possible. For others, it’s just an excuse to get drunk and listen to good music on a weekday. More on everything that happened – Bloc Party turned Lansdowne into a for real block party, and Bang Camaro put all of their Guitar Hero-head fans to shame - via Will Spitz’s full review and innumerable amounts of awesome photos (and video!), coming soon.

This, dudes, is going to sell out quickly. We'll have VIP tix to give away eventually, but do you really want to rely on OTD's spotty blogging schedule to get into this?

FNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll Concert 2007
June 6 at Avalon, Axis, Bill's Bar, and outdoors on Lansdowne Street
Tickets $32.50

Bloc Party
CYHSY
Kings of Leon
The Bravery
Silversun Pickups
Say Anything
Shiny Toy Guns
Cinematics
Snowden
+ winners of 2007 Boston BMP Poll TBA

DOWNLOAD: Bloc Party, "I Still Remember (Unplugged, live on FNX)" (mp3)
[download more from this session]

DOWNLOAD: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, WFNX interview (mp3)
[download more from this session] 

DOWNLOAD: Silversun Pickups, "Lazy Eye (Unplugged, live on FNX)" (mp3)
[download more from this session]

DOWNLOAD: Say Anything, "Alive with the Glory of Love (Unplugged, live on FNX)" (mp3)
[download more from this session]

IF YOU GO:

• Okay Thursday, the Channels, the Snowleopards, Halfnelsons
  Friday, October 27 at Bill's Bar, Boston

Just when you thought moons-in-June love songs had lost their lustre, Boston's the Channels spin the solar system into a picture-perfect metaphor for unrequited desire. As sighing harmonies wash over swooning indie-pop, the moon quietly pines for the prettiest planet in space – though she, of course, has the hots for the sun. "She digs his light and his heat, and that’s fine," the moon croons, "Cause he’s gonna burn out eventually and someday soon/The earth will orbit the moon and say hey/She'll appreciate the things that I do, like make waves." It's the kind of great song that sets you off on bullshit tangents about how, yknow, no one writes great songs anymore but this one dammit THIS ONE is a GREAT SONG. As Stephin Merritt might say: how fucking romantic.

You can download a few more chunes by the Channels (albeit not in sterling 192k like the one above) at their MySpace page, and then catch them playing Bill's Bar tomorrow night (Friday) for the FNX/New England Product night. Also on the card: the Snowleopards, who we've been going on about lately, and rightly so. If you haven't been reading this week, go check out the video of what happened to their Boston Music Award that Robbie Roadsteamer stole, or just right-click-save-as to hear their latest unholy/web-only rock and roll manifesto:

Sooooooo . . . we'll try this again. Last time we posted an unreleased Snowleopards song, the Boston Music Awards named it song of the year or something. We're back with another, and it's rock and fucking roll. We fed it into the Lester Bangsinator and here's what it said: "Heidi Saperstein sexes Zeppelin banshee wail up with the Stooges' troglodyte stomp until the juice runs down my leg." Riff, riff, riff, awesome turnaround, riff, riff, riff: simple, bludgeoning, as subtle as a heart attack. Seriously, this is better than the whole last White Stripes record. It's going to radio next week and it'll be on their next record, our early '07. Make sure you buy it. Also go see them at Bill's Bar on October 27.

DOWNLOAD: Snowleopards, "Hipmatize Me" (mp3)

IF YOU GO:

• "Make It New" 2nd Anniversary Party two live acts, four DJs, including Juan MacLean
  Middlesex Lounge, Cambridge
  $5
  
• "Paper" featuring XXXChange and Rockwell
  Bill's Bar, 5 Lansdowne St., Boston
  $5

Clone yourself. We don't know what to tell you. Possibly you've already seen the Spank Rock DJ team and so can somehow justify missing XXXChange & Rockwell tear shit up tonight at Paper. Possibly you've seen former Six Finger Satellite guitarist (the) Juan MacLean work the decks like he was born gay and black in Detroit and so can justify missing him tonight with the rest of the absurdly talented "Make It New" crew (not just saying that because, and all). As it is, we still have no idea which one we're going to. Coin toss?

Make It New crew includes our own David Day, the hardest working columnist in Boston, who not only spins awesome shit but works really hard to make things happen, like giving Juan a home in what was, after all, Juan's hometown -- a place he hadn't felt welcome in 10 years. Read about the extensive list of DJs and goings-on over at the Squar3 blog. Present from the Make It New crew: Juan Atkins (yes, Juan MacLean's namesake) giving one of the classics a workover:

DOWNLOAD: Inner City, "Good Life (Magic Juan Remix)" (mp3 via sQuar3 Productions blog)

Photo: Rita Lombardi.

Bonkers party snaps by Mike McKay at Brilliant Mistake.

MSTRKFT
October 12 at Paper/Bill's Bar

For those of you who thought Paper was faded permanently into early-2006, MSTRKRFT (or at least a recognizable fraction thereof) descended on Landsdowne Street to restore the night to its glory-days program of sell-out crowd and stellar atmosphere. The crowd is similar to the Harpers’ Ferry days, with a median age creeping up on 20 and eerily reminiscent of a hardcore show three years ago (except, y’know, there’s more than two girls there). Lord knows how it happened, but somehow Paper has trained an audience of young punks to appreciate forward-thinking dance music. If last night’s event are any indication, we’re one step closer to never having to hear “Baby Got Back” again. File under: return to form.

First off, Bill's was packed. The opening set by resident DJ E-Marcé (rhymes with par-tay) set the tone for the evening with a barrage of electro remixes – the good shit by international heat-makers like Digitalism and Sinden, plus some by past guests (Krames of Cobra Kai, Boston’s own Red Foxxworth). One act conspicuously absent from this list was the night’s main event.

Unless you’ve been stuck under a crate of Joanna Newsom records for the past 18 months, you’ve probably come across a MSTRKRFT remix of your favorite Pitchfork-approved “dance”/”punk” product, or at least figured out that MSTRKRFT = a duo featuring some dude from Death From Above 1979 plus some other guy. Adapting the full frontal attack and sheer volume of DFA79 with the electro aesthetic developed by Daft Punk in the late ’90s, they’ve steadily blurred the line between rock and electronic music, creating a sound that is agreeable to both sides. (If this sounds familiar, ask yourself what the other DFA have been up to lately.) Although MSTRKRFT are, relatively, the new kids on the remix Bloc, their Annie and Metric reworks are already showing up as frequently as such dancefloor-enabler-to-the-stars as Paul “Phones” Epworth, Tommie Sunshine, and Jacque Lu Cont.

Due to an illness, most likely brought on by a relentless touring schedule, the famous MSTRKRFTR -- Jesse from DFA79 -- was unable to attend, and thus the duo was slimmed down to an uno for the evening (half-STRKFT?). This hardly seemed to be an issue as Al-P turned in on of the finest sets that Boston has seen in a while. Blending classic and contemporary electro with original productions, he guided the crowd through tracks that most DJs wouldn’t dare play for fear of losing momentum. (Not that I was scribbling notes or anything, but the scorecard would’ve included that Alan Braxe/Fred Falke remix of Kelis’s “Bossy”, some Black Strobe, lots of Daft Punk.) Each successive track was met with an enthusiastic ball of sweat and pumping fists. Unlike your typical rock-star set, this one scored high on actual technique: from mixing and levels to song selection and crowd control, you would be hard-pressed to find a misstep in the full two hours. Yet it really seems as though Paper ‘s crowd was genuinely into what Al-P was playing rather than just how he was playing it.

The times they are a changin’, as the mainstream culture continues to inch it’s way back towards electronic music, nights like this are becoming more and more common. And with the help of acts like MSTRKRFT and parties like Paper your nights out on the town are going to get very interesting. It would seem that it’s time to knock the dust off your parachute pants and warm up your glowsticks, the rave is on its way.

-- Mike McKay

No downloads yet from Stephen "Cave In" Brodsky's solo/band album The Octave Museum -- which HydraHead, at least, is treating as an album title, not a band name -- but songs are streaming at their MySpace page. It's the best thing he's done since Static Intellect, which never came out so we don't know why we keep bringing it up, except that it's real good. [DETAILS: BRODSKY, JABE AT PA'S]

If you need our help in downloading MSTRKRFT tracks, you just aren't trying hard enough. We have no expectations for what they'll do tonight, but we're pretty damn sure it's going to be awesome. Even if they just show up and play all their remixes. [SHOW DETAILS, MORE ON MSTRKRFT]

In case the Elle spread didn't change your mind about the midget, maybe you'll take our word for it: Mac Big Digits reviewed the Streets gig for the fishwrap, and we'll add our two cents to his opinion. She was pretty good, completely endearing, fucking adorable.

In lieu of the leaked track from a couple weeks back, she played a new song we still haven't tracked down yet. Since we couldn't find it, here's the legal freebie Spank Rock remix from Choc Industries:

DOWNLOAD: Lady Sovereign, "Hoodie (Spank Rock Remix)" (mp3)
SLIDESHOW: Lady Sovereign and the Streets at Avalon

Also, our dudes over at Paper are packing it in for the summer after tonight (expect a back-to-school blowout when september ends). But they're going out with a bang, bringing up Spank Rock-affiliated Baltimore dj Aaron LaCrate, who held down the B-More Gutter Music mixtape we were raving about a while back.

Photos: 1-6, Dashboard Confessional at City Hall Plaza (c) K. Bonami, except Carrabba (c) Byron Smith
Photos: 7-10, Paper/Excuse at Bill's, (c) Matt Teuten

Loose ends from last Thursday's emostravaganza, with the free FNX/Snapple-abbetted Dashboard gig on Government Center, followed closely by the afterparty: the debut of the Phoenix's monthly Excuse shindig at Bill's, in this case hosted by the girls and boys of Paper. Extra special thanks to Therefore I Am and She's the Car for rocking out. Full story in the fishwrap on Thursday or now online.

Top: She's the Car. Bottom: Therefore I Am

DOWNLOAD: Therefore I Am, “I Get Nervous In Cars” (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: She’s the Car, “Vibeke” (mp3)

We take an interest in scenes of all flavors, and right now the one that’s got the most juice in Boston is the teenpunk underground that’s grown up around venues like the ICC Church and bands like Vanna and the Receiving End of Sirens. More on Vanna and their Epitaph debut coming in a few days; a long overdue interview with TREOS coming later this summer. And right now, we introduce you to some kids we think you should know.

Previously available only on a vinyl split-single with their Epitaph-bound metalcore pals Vanna, Therefore I Am's “Nervous” is new-century pop-metal done right: one part Iron Maiden-y guitar duel, two parts soaring emo chorus. This time around, though, the kids aren’t drinking Jager and worshipping Satan; they’re just trying to stay sober and righteous. (Note also the intro, recorded live on the Boston College arm of the Green Line.) If you're in New England, they're probably playing a VFW near you in the next two months.

We've gotten to know She’s the Car, a super nice girlgroop, through their lead singer/keyboardist Grace, a good girl who's fallen in with a rough crowd. Asked for a one-sentence quote we thought for a minute and said, “Lilith Fair for emo kids?” To which Grace mentioned that she had in fact been to Lilith Fair. We're trying to do the math: she must've been, like, seven? We suspect a budding Tori Amos in 2006 would sound a lot like this. Truth be told, the only band they remind us of even vaguely is a Providence all-girl band called Can't Face the Falling, and as it turns out, both bands are friends (to give you a sense of how tight this whole scene is, both girlbands lent members to sing vox on the Vanna record.) She's the Car are veterans of Soulfest ("New England's Premier Christian Music and Teaching Festival"), and if you've got a problem with that, you can take it up with us. Over here at OTD we're like, second-generation agnostics, so get the fuck over yourselves. If kids can figure out how to love God and Metallica, we're all for it. Also, it's kinda sweet on this song the way Grace sings, "We will take you to a higher, brighter floor/with softer beds," as if they're the Lord's rock and roll nurses -- and not that we believe in God or anything, but if we did, we would believe fervently that He would have lots of rock and roll nurses in His employ.

By now most of you have heard of Paper, the weekly dance night that’s packing emo kids by the hundreds into rooms like Harpers Ferry, Club Lido, and the Middle East. We went to a few and decided we wanted to party with these kids as soon as fucking possible. So when the Phoenix asked us to set up some shows -- which we’re now doing on a monthly basis -- we called up our dude Eric and put together this show coming up THURSDAY at Bill’s Bar. Stay tuned for details. Each month we’ll be highlighting a favorite club, DJ, band, or promoter. Any of our acquaintences who want to get involved, let us know through the usual channels.

Photo by Mike Byrne

DOWNLOAD: The Blue Bloods, "Dying Day"
 
Vintage Boston street-punk is alive and well . . . in Belgium, of all places, where the I Scream label has been snapping up local faves from Slapshot and the Ducky Boys to Darkbuster and blue-collar hardcore dudes the Blue Bloods. Name-dropped by Rancid, they've come back from a lengthy self-imposed hiatus to see their 2004 album Death of a Salesman get a belated US release, and they're playing their first show in over a year on Friday at Bill's Bar as part of the New England Product/ThePhoenix.com concert series. [Details]

DOWNLOAD: Hooray for Earth, "Simple Plan" (mp3)

The band formerly known as Raymond makes a huge leap forward: new name, dirty-as-shit guitars, bubbletechno synths, and anthemic moping. Quite possibly the missing link between Magnetic Fields and Andrew W.K., though left to their own devices, they call it something completely different: "Blur, Nirvana, and Enya breaking things at a video arcade in hell." Coming sometime this year: a self-titled album recorded with engineer Brian Brown (Juliana Hatfield, Pilot to Gunner). Fresh off a SXSW showcase and a three-week tour with Porsches on the Autobahn and the Unbusted, they're playing the WFNX New England Product/ThePhoenix.com party on Friday (read: tomorrow) at Bill's Bar. [More details] Sarah Tomlinson ran into the bass player, and the following exchange ensued:

Q: Does your album have a name yet?

A: It is self titled. Since we changed our name from Raymond to HFE this year, we figured it made sense. Ya know, start fresh, and at the same time beat the new name into people's heads.

Q: Where did you record it?

A: all over. Honestly it was mostly done by Noel (our singer/songwriter) in our practice space. But to list the proper studios that were used: Tracking was done at The Moontower in Cambridge, Briggs Bros. Studios in Framingham, and Witch Doctor studio in Salem, MA. I think Witch Doctor is now defunct. Mixing was split between the Windham in Bellows Falls Vt. (this is the new incarnation of what was Ft. Apache) and then Attercop Sound in Seattle, WA. We worked with local engineer/producer Brian Brown. Noel produced the record and Brian co-produced. Brian also mixed the record. Brian has done a bunch of local and national artists. You can find him on allmusic.com. Also, I think his discography page is in our top 8.

Q: Are you shopping it?

A: The plan is to shop it while we release it on our own locally and drum up a BUZZ or whatever.

Q: Are the songs from your Myspace page on the album?

A: Yes

Q: Do you have any fun surprises planned for the Bill's Bar show -- cover songs? fireworks? jello shots?

A: We plan to smash faces... or something. And maybe after we can all do jello shots together.

Tickets to this thing go on sale this Thursday. Watch this space for pre-sale links.

Now let's talk about the Best Music Poll ballot for a second. For reasons that are lost to history, the one category where OTD really holds an sway in the nominations are in the metal categories. And so first of all, we'd like to apologize to Doomriders, who made the local metal album of the year (perhaps the national metal album of the year), and did not get nominated for a damn thing in this year's BMP. It would be great if we could blame this on some facelss set of judges or arbiters of good taste, but as it happens, them was us, and OTD just plain forgot. About our favorite metal record of the year. For the entire two hours it took to eat pizza and come up with the BMP list. Oops.

There's nothing we can do about it now, the ballot having been locked, loaded, set in stone, and stocked with audio clips, photos, links, and other sorts of thing you usually can only find only at OTD.

So for everyone who ever glanced at the ballot and went, "What the hell happened to my favorite ______ band," well, we feel your pain. We're also taking the only recourse available to anyone in such a situation. We're launching a write-in campaign for Doomriders.

It's the least we can do.

That said, the rest of the ballot -- which is to say, the parts OTD didn't flake out on -- are pretty rad. For the first time this year, you can listen to audio clips of (almost) every artist in the poll, which means even if you didn't have an opinion on the world music category before you came, you may have one by the time you leave. We've also linked the local artists to their profiles at phoenixbandguide.com, where in many cases you can download OTD-worthy exclusive mp3s. (In fact, we're gonna steal some shit from over there and pass it off as our own later this week.)

Vote or die, bitches.

DOWNLOAD: Doomriders, "Black Thunder" (mp3)
VOTE: 2006 Best Music Poll

The latest denizens of Boston's powerbook-pop underground to join the mysterious Compound 440r collective, the Westward Trail are not without precedent in these parts. Their pre-owned synthpop tones play nicely with We Are Cassette, and in a budget crunch they could probably go halfsies on a guitar player with Mobius Band or Certainly, Sir. What makes their brand new "Steady Hands" so face-meltingly dope is the way they rock that shit arena-style: if you want to hear what Europe's "The Final Countdown" would sound like as a twitchy blank-wave anthem, click here.

You can catch the band this Friday, April 7, as part of thephoenix.com/New England Product series at Bill’s Bar, 5.5 Lansdowne St in Boston with Porsches on the Autobahn and the Texas Governor.

DOWNLOAD: The Westward Trail, "Steady Hands" (mp3)

We refuse to believe anything published today, anywhere. Which means we're not convinced that Ben Sisto is killing off Honeypump (and its board), although there's a press release to that effect up now. The fact that we're all throwing a show tonight called "Second Chances" does not mean that we have any inside-baseball on whether he's serious or not.

Speaking of second chances, we refuse to believe our old pal Nick has gotten the axe. And if in fact he did, then we'd like to point out (again, without quotation marks) that Riff Raff is getting crucified for making shit up at the same time that the practice of making shit up is going mainstream, due in no small part to his efforts. Case in point: today, AOL goes all Riff Central on Britney and K-Fed. Yes, we noticed the disclaimer, but still.

With all that uncertainty in the world, there's only one thing to do: party like Spring has sprung down at Bill's with Jason Forrest and our dudes Certified Bananas.

DOWNLOAD: Jason Forrest, "My 36 Favorite Punk Songs" (mp3, via MySpace)
DOWNLOAD: Certified Bananas, September Mix (mp3)

Last spring, when future FNX New England Product host Dave Virr wanted to celebrate the 6th anniversary of his "British Accents" show, he got members of the Halogens and Baby Strange together for a one-off, just-for-fun project: an Oasis tribute band called, appropriately enough, Faux-Way-Sis. They killed, but then something even more interesting happened: they all realized their common influences and formed an actual band, the Luxury.

This wouldn't be particularly noteworthy, except that they're really fucking good.

To repay the folks what put them together in the first place, they're debuting their amazing leadoff single, "Seven Stories," as an OTD exclusive. (Also available over at Phoenix Band Guide ). Despite their lineage, this isn't Britpop homage: it's closer to the American underground pop of Husker Du and R.E.M., updated for a generation raised on Snow Patrol and, shit, who knows, maybe even Fall Out Boy. Add these guys immediately to the short list of Boston bands -- Taxpayer, Aberdeen City, Protokoll -- who are equipped to meet the stylish and anthemic demands of the 21st century indie-rock proletariat. Seven stories? Feels like 8 Miles. You can -- and, really, you should -- go see the band performing Friday at Bill's Bar, 5.5 Lansdowne Street in Boston.

DOWNLOAD: The Luxury, "Seven Stories" (mp3)

Honeypump message-boarders threw a hissy when Protokoll disabled the download function on their MySpace page last week, in advance of the Allston post-punk band's signing a singles deal with an undisclosed UK label. OTD, though, is all about second chances. The Protokoll dudes checked in from SXSW to share the best track from their 2005 EP (take that, MySpace!): morbid frontdude moaning like the second coming of the second coming of Bela Lugosi, while an undertow of lighter-than-Air synths leavens the mood from garish to damn near sweet. If these guys aren't famous by 2007, someone over there in England isn't really trying. Check them the New England Product/ThePhoenix.com showcase on Friday at Bill's Bar with 8mm Fuzz and a band that needs no introduction to regular readers of this blog, Blanks.

DOWNLOAD: Protokoll, "Holy Divine" (mp3, via Phoenix Band Guide -- sorry about the filename)

Lawyers, architects, administrators, and family men by day, *AM Stereo pull the ol’ Bruce Banner at night and transform into a drunken, rockin’ Hulk of a band. Once labeled by a friend as “disaster rock,” the band’s sound is a testament to the members’ long-running love affair with the loose, jangly, post-punk, pre-alternative college-radio rock of the 1980s and early ’90s. “Drink Club,” the lead track on their new Can’t (Gentlemen’s Recording), is a funny, touching, anthemic ode to booze and buds that’ll have you looking for the repeat button and the fridge. ThePhoenix.com and New England Product team up to bring you *AM Stereo with the Brett Rosenberg Problem and Saturn Effect this Friday, March 3, at Bill’s Bar, 5.5. Lansdowne St, Boston; visit phoenixbandguide.com for more free *AM Stereo mp3s.

DOWNLOAD: *AM Stereo, "Drink Club" (mp3)

Lawrence has never been known as a hip-hop hotbed, but TERMANOLOGY stands poised to put the city on smash. In recent months, the 23-year-old Puerto Rican wordsmith has garnered attention from the likes of MTV, Allhiphiphop.com, and The Source, and for good reason: hot off his award-nominated Hood Politics mixtape, he's dropping a new collaboration with producer DC, Out the Gate (St. Records/Showoff). Term's a student of rap music, not just of the rap game, and the imprint of everyone from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to Big Pun can be heard in his hybrid of socially conscious and gangsta styles. He and DC celebrate the release of the new disc with their crew, ST. DA SQUAD, local legends ESOTERIC and AKROBATIC, PROSPECT (of Terror Squad), LEE WILSON, and the SKITZOFRENIKS. DJ DEADEYE and Showoff honcho STATIK SELEKTAH (who was up at 50 Cent's superbowl party!) will be manning the wheels of steel at Bill’s Bar, 5.5 Lansdowne St, Boston | 617.421.9678.

LISTEN: Termanology & DC, "This Is Hip Hop" (mp3)
LISTEN: Termanology & DC, "Motion Picture" (mp3)
LISTEN: Termanology & DC feat. Checkmark and Ghetto, "Never Be the Same" (mp3)
WATCH: Termanology & DC, "Motion Picture" (.wmv)

MP3 of the Week

LISTEN: UV Protection, "UV Protection Theme" (mp3)

Previously available on the Internet and on tiny plastic discs, the debut album by these avatars of electropop future has finally been re-released on . . . old-fashioned wax? Yup. It still hiccups like Devo scoring Doctor Who with an all-woman cast. Or like Le Tigre meeting operatic-disco queen Klaus Nomi and forgoing feminism in lieu of chemistry. Nothing, of course, approximates the hyper-theatrical UV Pro live show, which you can catch Friday as part of ThePhoenix.com/New England Product series at Bill’s Bar.

1. Looking forward to this one: Phoenix faves Beat Circus -- the mad Waits/bop carnie-jazz apocalypse supergroup -- debut "a new set of songs about saloons and graveyards in the Gold Rush sung through pipes and bullhorns" at T.T. the Bear's Place, with Brian Carpenter and Alec K Redfearn joined by "special guest banjoist/vocalist" Adam Glasseye. Also, of course, OTD fave Casey Dienel on the undercard. She sent out a myspace bulletin a few days ago looking for a piano; hope she found one.

LISTEN: Beat Circus, "Big Top Suite Pt 2 : Clowns" (mp3)
LISTEN: Casey Dienel, "Frankie and Annette" (mp3, OTD exclusive)

2. Full disclosure: Phoenix's Will Spitz is in AGE RINGS, and this is a problem, because OTD actually likes them, which means at some point we may actually have to write about them in the fishwrap. (*unlike some other places OTD could name, we actually frown upon writing about our friends in print. That's what blogs are for.) For the time being we'll give you the poster. Coming soon: mpfrees. Tonight: at Bill's, on first.

Sure, the RUDDS have impeccable ’70s and ’80s references — lots of bands do. But few people are more fun to watch than frontman John Powhida. When he jumps off the stage, unleashes his falsetto, and does suggestive things with the mike, he’s plugging into the time-honored rock tradition of straight guys pretending to be gay. Which brings us to the second Rudds album, Get the Femuline Hang On, a disc about having it both ways — being funny and serious, doing heavy rock and old-school R&B. On “Astrological Sign Choker” they’re in hairy-chest glam-metal mode. Rad. Catch the band headlining ThePhoenix.com/New England Product series this Friday at Bill’s Bar with Ryan Lee and the Mindless, who we just wrote about in the Phoenix a couple weeks ago.

LISTEN: The Rudds, "Astrological Sign Choker" (mp3)
LISTEN: Ryan Lee and the Mindless, "Obey Me" (mp3)

READ: Phoenix interviews the Rudds
READ: Phoenix interviews Ryan Lee

The guys in Taxpayer came of age in the same North Shore scene that spawned Cave In and Piebald -- but, being a teeny bit younger, bounced from hardcore to emo to "pink floyd shit" before settling on statuesque, anthemic pop with a commercial sheen: they're the type of dudes who have been known to put the best looking guy in the band closest to the camera for press photos, even when he's not the singer. Let's not be mad at that. Instead, let's talk about songs that take where Minor Threat wanted to go in '82 -- half of them, by their own admission, wanted to be in U2; the other half wanted to be in, well, Fugazi -- and weld it to the frigid stratospheres and star-crossed vocal melodies of Coldplay and OK Computer-era Radiohead. The tune below has already been a favorite over at WFNX, and tomorrow (January 6) the band kicks off a weekly New England Product/PhoenixBandGuide series at Bill's Bar, 5.5 Lansdowne Street, behind Fenway Park (and more importantly, around the corner from our office). Call 617.421.9678. Also on board this week: Static of the Gods, Choo Choo LaRouge.

:ISTEN: Taxpayer, “When They Were Young” (mp3)
LISTEN: Static of the Gods, "Small Molecules" (mp3)
LISTEN: Choo Choo LaRouge, "The Kind of Noise" (mp3, via MySpace)

PREVIOUSLY:
Phoenix reviews Taxpayer's Bones and Lungs.
Phoenix reviews Lunch Records' 4x4

Coming this Friday: the first in a weekly series of ThePhoenix.com/WFNX/OTD (!) shows at Bill's Bar. Actually, we just kinda jumped on the bandwagon for some shows that FNX New England Product host Dave Douglas booked. Schedule (subject to change) as follows. We've got guest list if anyone wants to go, just hit us up in the comments section or email onthedownload at phx dot com. We'll have mpfrees up on Thursday.

Schedule thus far:

All shows 21+, doors at 9pm, $5 cover

January 6
Taxpayer
Static of the Gods
Choo Choo La Rouge

January 13
Muck & The Mires
The Radio Knives
World's Greatest Sinners

January 20
Bon Savants
Aloud
The Everyday Visuals

January 27
The Rudds
Ryan Lee & The Mindless
Blanketeer

February 10
Ad Frank & The Fast Easy Women
Anushka Pop

February 24
Aberdeen City
The Living Sea
The Russians