For those of you reading this at work: the weekend ain't over yet, snitches. Many of you will have Tuesdays bookmarked as Hearthrob night, but they're going early this week to accomodate a dude who we'd postpone Christmas to see. Even if you don't listen to SINDEN's UK radio show or have the funds to fly over the pond to catch his resident sets at Fabric, you've probably encountered his remixes, sets, image, and likeness on this blog and many others (those Mad Decent guys, for example, are obsessed). His Counterfeet label, with Dave "Switch" Taylor, is runnin' thangs.

And, of course, he's now MIA's DJ. Really, we tried to put that part off as long as we could. But now that it's out there, we expect to see hipsters in spades.

If there's a line out the door at M-sex, walk a little down the street. On any other Monday, we'd be directing you to the Enormous Room, where tonight's "Beat Research" is also awesome: our friend Brian Coleman, of Check the Technique fame, is holding down the early set with "beats culled from his Vinyl Dungeon . . . A Random Pantload of Ill '80s Hip-Hop Instrumentals. Subheadline: a Tribute to Leccos Lemmo, the Dub Hop Show and the man called Magnus." Science!

DOWNLOAD: Sinden, "Beeper" (mp3)

Monsterous edition of THUNDERDOME tonight, bringing Baltimore Clurb legend Scottie B and Spank Rock's Chris Rockswell to the decks, along with resident headbangers Micl Ptvn, Mistaker, and DJ Die Young to represent the home team. Special live-video guests: Robotkid (ask him how much the new Harmonix game Rock Band is gonna rule) and Matt Boch. Beware: it's at a new venue this month, and taking a cue from Robotkid's email, we're throwing in a map below instead of mpfrees.

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The National
June 21 at the Middle East Downstairs
All photos by Matt Teuten

It was difficult not to root for the National at the start of last night’s show, when six scruffy, average-looking dudes walked onstage, shyly and graciously, without a trace of hipster-ness - perhaps a sign of their Cincinnati roots, though they now reside in Brooklyn. It was the first of two sold-out shows (the other is tonight), on a sold-out tour, and this is new territory for the not-so-new band. The National released four incendiary albums and became accustomed to playing half-full (or less) venues before their fifth album, Boxer, came out last month (and leaked well before that) to a virtual storm of hype and critical acclaim - all of it well-deserved. There’s nothing particularly complex about Boxer - it’s lead singer Matt Berninger’s baritone voice (often compared to Leonard Cohen), brooding piano, guitar and strings, combined in a vaguely Smiths-influenced Americana-type way - except maybe for lyrics like “I’m sorry I missed you, I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain,” which are simultaneously mysterious and yet all-too-familiar. But simple songwriting is the National’s brilliance. That brilliance didn’t necessarily translate to the stage, however, no matter how badly anyone wanted it to. Crowd chatter and sounds drifting down from the Middle East upstairs threatened to swallow the National on slower numbers, such as “Slow Show” and “Brainy,”  though the dedicated crowd shouted along heartily on “Fake Empire,” and “Murder Me Rachel,” one of the band’s signature old live favorites. Full review to come soon.

Mistaker brings the Rub up to the Middlesex Lounge tonight -- always a good time. And if you happen to notice a bunch of sweaty bloggers with ping-pong paddles, just don't even bother asking.

Speaking of the Rub, those dudes are making history -- more to the point, they're 11 (eleven!) volumes into their "The Rub History of Hip-Hop" mp3-mix series, which is so good we can't believe they're giving it away for free. Consider it remedial homework for anyone who wasn't alive -- or who was otherwise engaged with Duran Duran -- during rap's first decade. Essential from front to back, but we have a special place in our heart for 1984-1986, for our money the best three years of rap music, or any music, between 1967 and 1991.

DOWNLOAD: The Rub Hip Hop History 1986 (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: The Rub Hip Hop History 1985 (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: The Rub Hip Hop History 1984 (mp3)

Get the whole series and tracklists here.

UPDATE: Alas, a March blizzard can indeed keep the PRV v. BOS showdown from going down: word came down around 5:30 that Thunderdome is officially postponed. Look for a new date in a week or two.

THUNDERDOME.
THUNDERDOME.
THUNDERDOME.

There. You've been reminded. Not even a March blizzard can keep the PRI v. BOS showdown from destroying the Elks tonight. See our previous post here for more cheerleading. Certified Bananas make their Lodge debut, go check their MySpace for recent remix wizardry. Here's the seven-minute hall-of-fame intro that Winnipegians put together for Max and Sam during their recent Canadian jaunt, during which Dennis Quaid apparently showed up?!

DOWNLOAD: DJ Co-Op, "Completely Bananas" (mp3)

In other developments:

1. Canadian heat to warm your Nor'easter-froze ass: bazonkers new mix from Jokers of the Scene, via Discobelle:

DOWNLOAD: Jokers of the Scene, "Jokers Is Playing That Blog House Mix" (mp3)

2. Chris Lemon-Red gets the scoop on Fools' Gold, the new label from A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs: that Kid Sister joint has been wrecking our iPod for months, can't wait for the vinyl.

3. If you haven't already, go download the latest Mad Decent Radio podcast, featuring the latest Weapons of Mad Destruction from B-more phenom Blaqstarr.

4. Kinda digging these Kidz in the Hall remixes where they throw Omarion's current smash "Icebox": "over "Sweet Dreams", and then cement their next-Kanye status by jumping on a John Mayer track.

DOWNLOAD: Omarion, "Icebox (Kidz in the Hall remix)" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: John Mayer, "Waiting on the World To Change (Kidz in the Hall remix)" (mp3)

5. Fader throws out a Ronson-ized remix of "Smile" on which Wale answers her whining and delivers the line of the week: "her mouth was an orphanage."

DOWNLOAD: Lily Allen feat. Wale, "Smile (Mark Ronson DC Remix)" (mp3)

6. Pour one out tonight for Brad Delp. Herald claims the final straw was something to do with Boston drama. But what are the dudes in Beatlejuice gonna do?

DOWNLOAD: Wayne and Wax, "More Than a Stealing" (mp3)

7. TOMORROW: IF ANYONE'S STILL ALIVE AFTER THUNDERDOME:

Bruce v. the Mooninites

Ever since we heard about Hollertronix taking root at the Ukranian Club in Philly, we'd been dreaming about a Boston party scene flowering at grimy, non-club-like venues. The obvious corollary was the Elks Lodge in Central Square: two basement rooms, no attitude (unless you count the gentleman's no-cursing rule enforced by the bartenders), a two-o'clock license, and -- dude -- paneling. When the Certified Bananas crew started heating up Enormous Room, this was the dream: a monthly at the Elks, with every party DJ in town getting drunk, throwing caution and genre out the window, making a sweaty roomful of kids lose their shit.

The future is now. Mistaker has laid the groundwork with three increasingly ridiculous editions of THUNDERDOME, a night with no rules and ample helpings of cheap booze, druggy video projections, and bass. Lots of bass. Volume 4 is now set for March 16, and the Providence-vs.-Boston theme brings together our absolute favorite party people in New England under one roof. Yeulch. Clear your fucking calendars.

Meanwhile, DJ-C and DJ Flack have been shredding the fringes of experimental party music at the E-Room every Monday night, building towards something bigger. Now we know what that something is. Their inaugural "BOUNCEMENT" night -- named for a DJ-C mixtape that pretty much changed our lives -- is going down March 30 at . . . the Linwood? THE LINWOOD?!

This is such a good idea.

Although it's marginally less destroyed than it was several years ago when it played home to beard-metal goons, biker-punk apocalypticians, and Southern-fried boogie-rock leviathans, the Linwood is still 100-percent roadhouse. It's physically impossible to walk through the door and not get hammered. The room just demands instant retardation. And BOUNCEMENT is genetically engineered to take advantage of it. You've got Montreal's GHISLAIN POIRIER headlining, and he's been here enough that he ain't just a face from the blogs anymore. The dude has turned out parties here with astonishing regularity, with a rep based more on jam-packed E-Room nights than on Fader/Vice clippings. For pure spirit-of-the-moment circus factor, this will also be the first post-Mooninite performance of ZEBBLER, a/k/a the dude with the dreadlocks who accidentally punk'd the entire fucking city of Boston. In his pre-lite-brite-terrorist days, Zebbler was a working video artist, and he'll be on hand to graphicalize with frequent Glitch Crew compadre Sean Stevens.

This is a good month.

Pre-party film screening featuring Tyrone Tanous's silent documentary Survey [click for trailer at Google video] at an undisclosed location. Party time at Shine with David Day, Mistaker, Baldur, and DJ Die Young.

DOWNLOAD: DJ Die Young, "Electro-Lite Promo Mix" (mp3)

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)

Retard Disco-style geek-rap phenomenon JUICEBOXXX brings his spazztastic, totally rad, straight-outta-Milwaukee steez to town tonight, and nobody could be more psyched than our favorite DIY partytime crew BIG DIGITS, who own this shit locally and are "presenting" -- but not performing -- tonight's gig. In any case, they would likely have been in the front row even if they weren't involved, and if anyone needed more incentive to get out the crib this evening, the Juicy one is bringing DRE SKULL, his partner-in-crime on a legitimately bonkers new single, "Sweat," that comes out this month and bosts a flipside remix from Spank Rock's XXXChange. The missing link between hipstery-Baltimore club rap and the dorkus message board rappers who love to love it? "Sweat" just might be that jam. The boys get wet tonight at Heartthrob, the industry-night party that's been taking back Tuesdays and blowing up the spot over at Middlesex Lounge.

DOWNLOAD: Juiceboxxx and Dre Skull, "Sweat (teaser)" (mp3, via myspace)
DOWNLOAD: Dre Skull, "Got Your Money (Freestyle)" (mp3)

In general, we think Mastodon going to the Grammys is pretty hot shit. For sucks, though, is that a conflict in schedule means the Converge/Mastodon show scheduled for Lupo's in Providence on February 11 is cancelled. For sucks, that is, if you live in Providence. If you live in Boston, somewhat better news: Converge have booked a replacement gig at the Cambridge Elks Lodge on February 11 with Doomriders (yes, this means a two-a-day gig for Converge bassist Nate Newton).

Before we get all wowsers about this gig, let's cut to the chase. You know what every kid in Massachusetts is thinking right now: Converge + all ages rat hole   (see correction below) = bloodshed. It's sorta like having Slayer play Axis or something. When you raise the testosterone level to three gallons per square inch, you're not gonna end up with a peace rally. We imagine the scene could end up looking not unlike their new video for "No Heroes," only without the pretty little white birdies and with a whole lot more crumbling walls. Kids, let's try to keep it posi, 'k? You fuck this up, there'll probably be no all ages shows on that side of the river for like three years.

CORRECTION: Cambridge Elks is not all-ages anymore. Elks Lodge events coordinator Robin Goodhue checks in: "We do 17+ as that's the law in Cambridge. Last time we ran into trouble with underage kids being beligerent because they showed up to Reagan Youth thinking it was all ages. PLEASE have staff refer to www.myspace.com/cambridgeelks to read what we are about . . . Not every show is 17+ as well we do 21+ and 18+." Our bad. Doubly stoked that there's a Cambridge Elks Myspace page, though. Hot shit.

WATCH: Converge, "No Heroes" (via YouTube):

Klosterman at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square.

...

CK: I can’t tell you. You know the only people who contacted me though? Credit-card companies. You have a great idea to make money that preys on people’s stupidity, credit-card companies are there. I didn’t give it to them.

CK: I don’t want to fuckin’ help credit-card companies.

Me: Who would you give it to?

CK: Who do I hope contacts me? A product I really really support. Mountain Dew. Some product I would like to help. Or Nabisco. I like Nutter Butters.

Me: Nutter Butters?

CK: You don’t like cookies?

Me: No, I love cookies, but if I had the Best Marketing Idea ever, I wouldn't give it to a cookie company.

CK: Oh yeah, I love them. I support their ideology. Nutter Butters: they're shaped like peanuts, but flat! It’s a good product. It’s the best store-bought cookies there is.

...

On David Letterman...

CK: The one person if I interviewed that I’d be nervous about would be David Letterman. When I was young -- when I was in sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth grade -- watching the David Letterman show, nobody I knew had my sense of humor and this guy did and he was on television. And he was from the Midwest; it was a really big deal to me. I feel like it would be hard for me to interview him because if you interview David Letterman, there’d be a lot of tough questions you’d have to ask him and I’d want to ask him questions he would want to answer. I’d be very nervous.

Would you ask him the hard questions first?

CK: I’d have to. That’s my job, that’s why I’d hate it. Just because I wouldn’t want to, I’d still have to do it.

Me: But nobody is telling you that you have to ask the hard questions first.

On being approached in public... I ask if this happens a lot and then mention how I'd read one blogger saying that he'd run into Klosterman and he was rude. He asks what the blogger actually said.

[As we discuss paying for the bill that's just arrived (fyi: I expense it), I explain that even if he doesn't feel famous, music bloggers would be inclined to post about running into him, because, well, he is Chuck Klosterman.]

READ, LOOK: The Gossip, Erase Erata at the Middle East.

READ: Mates of State at the Middle East.

READ, LOOK: Jose Gonzales and Zero7 at Avalon.

From the inbox:

The show that was originally scheduled for this Sunday at The Middle East Downstairs has been cancelled. The show has been re-scheduled for Wednesday, November 15th, 2006. Refunds available at point of purchase or tickets may be used for the rescheduled date.

Wednesday, November 15th
The Middle East Downstairs
18+ $20adv/$25dos
Leedz Edutainment presents:

Lupe Fiasco, Prone 2 (CD Release)
J-Rize
Soular Prominence
Hosted by Mr Peter Parker
Plus special invited guests

DOWNLOAD: Lupe Fiasco and Jay-Z, "Pressure" (mp3, via Still Listen to Gangsta Music)

The lily pad - boston's beloved forum for original, creative music - has been forced to cancel all shows until further notice.  due to noise complaints, the cambridge licensing board is obligated to follow the letter of the law in serving the lily pad with a 'cease and desist' order.

a hearing will be scheduled and the venue is currently rallying support from the community.  the licensing committee could not be reached, as it is already closed for the weekend.  we expect to have more details on monday.

since its opening in march, when it replaced the zeitgeist gallery, the lily pad has begun to flourish as a venue honoring creativity and quality by showcasing the best new original music from boston and beyond.  performers have included the best of the new york avant-garde, such as the claudia quintet, as well as members of boston strongholds like reverend glasseye, humanwine, and the dresden dolls.  but equally valuable are the performers who may have no other forum in the boston area.

if you could please forward this or point me in the right direction to anyone who might be able to help, whether by providing media attention or bribing the licensing officer (that's a joke), it would be greatly appreciated.  

Cambridge License Commission, 831 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-3068, Phone: 617-349-6140.

i should also mention that if the community shows its support, we can help overturn the order.

here's what people can do to help:

1. write a letter of support for the lily pad, stating that the venue is a vital asset that is necessary to the community, and that it does no harm.  letters can be sent by mail to the following address:

Richard V. Scali, Chairman
Cambridge License Commission
831 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139-3068

or via email:

license@ci.cambridge.ma.us

2. make a secure donation to help offset legal fees, either in person or by mail (internet donation opportunities coming soon):

the lily pad
PO Box 398096
cambridge, ma 02139

This is it, duders: the long awaited record-release party for Sprang. For once, we can save or accolades on the Certified Bananas dudes, since the fishwrap did it for us. Urrbody will be there, including the below-mentioned Ghislain Poirier; that's Enormous Room in Central Square around 10:30. Keep in mind, the last time CB played, there was a line around the block at 9:30. And mark your calendars: after a year of fitting into the Enmormous Room schedule on a whenever-we-can-do-it schedule, they've finally settled on second-Friday-of-the-month, forever and ever amen.

Philly’s Hollertronix crew or Brooklyn’s the Rub have been doing their street-accepted DJ thing for longer, but CB, educated at Brown and still based in Providence, have done more to stretch the definition of DJ blends than their predecessors. In the process, they’ve redefined what a club night can be.

“There’s a lot of other DJ teams that do that as well,” Posner says over the phone from Providence. “But we come from more popular stuff, maybe even cheesy stuff. We play it only because we like it and that’s what we’re into.” What they’re into is putting Don Omar atop a Green Day riff, or working Soul Coughing inside Dirt McGirt. This month, the two are traveling across the US in support of their first mix CD, the self-released Sprang. The tour ends with their residency at Enormous Room this Friday, May 12, with special guest and fellow beatslinger Ghislain Poirier . . .

. . . Poirier, who recently produced tracks for Lady Sovereign, says in an e-mail, “I basically decided to start my irregular monthly night ‘Bounce le Gros’ when Certified Bananas came for the first time in Montreal. It was one of the most packed crowds ever. . . . It was insane. Just insane.

“I think their main quality is they are musically flexible. They can go from a really obscure track to a huge pop track in five minutes. They sincerely love pop music and indie music with all the links in between. Also, as tag-team DJs . . . well, it’s like having two hard drives on your computer.”

کنسرت آزادی ایران

A few months back, we told you about 127, Iran’s most popular underground band. We mean underground, like, literally. Playing music in a country where rock and roll is only semi-legal, they’re forced to practice in a soundproof bunker on the outskirts of Tehran.

As the world frets about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the country’s teeming youth population — there are 48 million Iranians under the age of 30, more than two-thirds of the population — has its own concerns. The mullahs may have loosened, a little, their draconian restrictions on pop music. (Concerts are allowed on campus occasionally, although dancing is verboten.) But this sop to the country’s restive youth is a flimsy cover for their ruthless crushing of political dissent.

On the Harvard campus on Saturday, the Iran Freedom Concert, featuring sets by Marcus Miller, Major Major, Blanks, and others hopes to remind people of the problem. Harvard, in conjunction with campuses across the country, wants to expose the Iranian regime's repression of its students, and show solidarity for the student movement and its struggle for civil rights. Between bands, speakers will include Akbar Atri, a veteran of Iran's student movement who got out of the country just in time, and Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, the country’s youngest female Parliamentarian and a visiting scholar at MIT.

The concert aims to draw attention to “the scores of students, bloggers, journalists and dissidents, who have been wrongfully jailed and tortured for exercising their freedom of speech,” says organizer Emmanuel Benhamou, of the Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance. “We also want to show Americans that an indigenous student movement exists in Iran, that is broadly backed by society.”

Will this keyed in youth demographic eventually hold the key to a better future for their country? Will they ever get the chance? As 127 singer/guitarist Sohrab Mohebbi told me, "I have no idea what the country will look like in 20 years. All I can do is wish for the best." In the mean time, you can do more than that. Be at Harvard’s Leverett House at 9pm on Saturday. It’s free.

LISTEN: Blanks, “Oh No!” (MP3)
LISTEN: Blanks, “Homunculus” (MP3)
READ: Blanks Infinite Remix Project

Partly a shameless "House of Jealous Lovers" ripoff, and partly a genius extension of dance-punk's 15 minutes of fame, "Pouncer" is not your average DFA cloning experiment gone awry. Sure, all the basics are there -- the hi-hat-kissed snare beat, the gangrene-guitar stabs, the falsetto-ing dude who sounds like he's feeling up the third rail. But Blanks., Allston's newest dance-dance revolutionaries, are too knowing, and too damn handsome, to leave it at that. If the original version doesn't have Lower East Side trust fund babies smashing their disco balls into coke mirrors, the synthy remix -- by We Are Cassette and Eject maestro DJ PTVN -- ought to do the trick. Check them out next Monday, March 13 at Great Scott, with Hot Chip and Big Digits.

DOWNLOAD: Blanks., "Pouncer"
DJ PTVN, "Pouncer (Do Not Eat Mix)"