Oh, Mission of Burma, what have you done?

In a few short years, the hallowed history of ancient Boston indie-rock has gone from "you hadda be there" to "you've gotta be kidding me." Sure, it seemed like a great idea at the time: we got to live out some fantasies by seeing Burma at Lili's, the Pixies at the Paradise, the Lou Barlow Dinosaur at Avalon. Hey, aging hardcore junkies get theirs all the time -- Gang Green reunites whenever the hell they can get a VFW hall to book 'em -- so what's wrong with a few thousand proto-grunge fans forking over a few quid in exchange for the fantasy of not having moved to Boston been born a little too late?

When we get past this grisly mess, historians will likely observe that the Boston alt-rock revival officially jumped the shark when Evan Dando was allowed to put out a solo record credited to the Lemonheads, the single of which is a 20-year-old song that wasn't good enough for the Lemonheads the last time around.

Thanks to Burma, who made old people smile by miraculously picking up where they left off, now everyone thinks they can just get back together and make new albums and they'll be good. Or at least not embarassing. The original Dino trio -- Mascis, Murph, Barlow -- have spent the past month "at Bisquiteen, the recording space at J's house in Amherst, Massachusetts. The album, to be released on a label yet to be determined, will be produced by J Mascis, engineered by John Agnello and Justin Pizzoferrato, and mixed by John Agnello." In case you don't have the re-issues in front of you, this'll be the first album by that lineup since Bug. Last week NME finally got Frank Black to admit the Pixies are rehearsing in January for their first disc since Trompe Le Monde. That is, "if we can persuade Kim (Deal, bassist) to come out of her house," Black is quoted in NME. "We offered to go to her but we figured if we book the rehearsals she'll show up." (Black also bitch-slapped the Pixies doc onOFFon -- sorry, loudQUIETloud -- for making "it [look] like this whole tour careered into this drunken stupor with David. It really wasn't like that at all - he was really solid for, like, 90% of it.")

Which, OK, fine: all those guys need is a couple of Pitchfork 8.5's and they can send their kids to college. But you know what this means, right?

It means there's probably going to be a Mighty Mighty Bosstones reunion. And then how will you feel about yourself?

p.s., all that said, OTD would pay gazillions to see a reunion of the Tanya Donelly/Kim Deal Breeders. Pretty pretty please.

WATCH: The Pixies, "Where is My Mind? (1988):

WATCH: Dinosaur Jr., "Freak Scene (1988)":

The question about the infamous Cramps gig at the Napa State Mental Hospital isn't so much who in their right mind let the band in -- it's who in the hell let them back out?

WATCH: The Cramps, "Human Fly (Napa State Mental Hospital, 1978)"

WATCH: the Misfits, "Halloween (live)"

Whether its gathering them like a sorcerer to conjure strange and strangely moving incantations, or collecting them to make statements in support for file-sharing, Halsey Burgund is obsessed with the human voice, and what it can tell us about ourselves.

He uses the voices he records — strangers’ voices, talking about the things nearest to them, be they profound or mundane — like instruments, and the compositions he creates with them, woven together with evocative and atmospheric music, make him one of the most singular and intriguing artists at work in Boston today.

Tonight, Burgund will be premiering his latest piece, “One Hundred and Four Thousand,” at Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain at 8 p.m.

It’s meant as a way to “explore the cemetery’s contemplative nature as well as the relationships that various cemetery ‘dwellers’ have to their surroundings,” he writes. “For listeners, the music and voices will mix with the ambient sounds, smells and sights they encounter as they make their way through the cemetery on paths of their choosing.”

He tells us:

I created this piece by stitching together fragments of interviews of cemetery visitors and employees - conducted on the cemetery grounds in the Spring of this year – with traditional instrumentation to yield an original piece of music intended to be heard while at the cemetery.  For the live performance, I will be playing marimba and piano as well as using sampling technologies to trigger the voices.  I will be joined by Peter Bailey on guitar and MIDI guitar, Javier Caballero on cello, Bennett Miller on upright and electric bass, Michael O’Connor on sax, flute and clarinet and Bekka Schellenberg on violin.  We will be using live electronic manipulations to recreate some of the desired effects as well as take it one step further by using surround sound to put the audience right in the middle of the piece.

LISTEN: “Remembering the Dead”
LISTEN: “I Just Want to Be Recycled”
READ: Halsey Burgund in the New York Times

The Sean-era White Zombie was pretty great, especially up until and right after MTV caught on. They still hadn't completely shook off the gravedust of the downtown art scene -- Rob Zombie hadn't graduated to real props yet, just Pee Wee's Playhouse-sized cartoon cutouts -- and, um, La Sexorcisto was pretty monstrous. The Manson video is top-5 dead or alive -- crunk + goth turned out to be pretty prescient, and the song is way better than the Rihanna version. French rappers will attest to this fact.

WATCH: White Zombie, "Black Sunshine (Live on Halloween)"

WATCH: Marilyn Manson, "Tainted Love"

As songs about vampires go, "Bela Lugosi's Dead" isn't really enough work for even one ghoul, let alone like seven dudes. But if you're going to put Nine Inch Nails on the road with Peter Murphy and TV on the Radio, you know you're gonna eventually end up with some kind of dreadful, hands-across-America version of the goth national anthem. The weird thing is watching them all do it in daylight -- and, even weirder, totally killing it. If you can somehow make it though that monstrosity, we're rewarding you with the best goth song ever written in the history of goth songs. Plot: man gets a letter says his wife is dead, comes home to inspect the corpse, is surprised to discover that he may actually have loved the old hag after all, picks up his suitcase and walks off into oblivion.

WATCH: Trent Reznor, Peter Murphy, and TVOTR, "Bela Lugosi's Dead"

WATCH: Son House, "Death Letter Blues"

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:

Is the singer from My Chemical Romance trying to look like Billy Corgan? Why would a human being do such a thing? More pertinent question: we understand why young persons would go apeshit for some emo band's classic-rock move -- plus it's Halloween, children like costumes -- but what was with all the old people at Axis last night? "Honey, get a babysitter: we're going to see My Chem!" Weirdness.

Thanks to Andrea for smuggling a camera into and out of the venue in her pants. Warning: the sound's a little off, but rumor has it they were confiscating little girls' memory cards, so it's a small miracle anything made it out . . .

WATCH: My Chemical Romance, "The Black Parade (Live at Axis, October 25 2006)"

Ahh, the classics. Halloween and garage-rock go together like Monoman and getting old and fat. The Mummies, a bunch of lo-fried fratrockerz wrapped in toilet paper, are the band Rob Zombie always wanted to be -- or at least wanted to be for like three weeks in the '90s when Geffen made the mistake of giving him own label, remember that? -- and some of you probably haven't seen the video for "Monster Mash," nor will you ever need to again, but the dude playing drums with the fibulas and the grim reaper on bass is pretty crucial. 

WATCH: The Mummies

WATCH: Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, "Monster Mash"

Deja vu all over again: Who at Garden

Petra: keeping her mouth shut.

Not like we can afford satellite radio or anything, but thanks to Sirius's freebie campaign we heard Pete Townshend walk off the Howard Stern show this morning in a huff, after Robin made mention of those old child-porn charges (like we're supposed to forget about 'em just because he was acquitted.) Townshend enemy/"business partner" Roger Daltry stuck around and did a few verses with Fred Norris on guitar. This, folks, is what passes for all the promotional hype anyone can muster in support of Wire and Glass, which brings them back to the scene of earlier crimes on December 2. Even if you care not a whit, you ought to read James Parker's fantasmagoric review, of which we will lend you a snippet:

It’s been 24 years since the Who released a studio album. To put it another way, their last full-length, the 1982 stinker It’s Hard, is old enough to be this one’s father. And the Who are now two: with the death of bassist John Entwistle, coked to pieces in a Vegas hotel room in 2002, the strange marriage of Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend severed its last tie to history and became pure dialectic — big chest versus big nose, the pint-sized blusterer against the looming boffin who writes all the tunes. Endless Wire is their latest synthesis: 19 tracks, the last 10 of which form a full-length mini-opera — yes, that’s right — called Wire and Glass. And it is a true child of the Who-niverse, immediately recognizable and as thrillingly up-its-own-ass as anything they’ve ever done. >>MORE

And if Howard needs replacement Whos, hell, we got plenty. For starters there's Petra Haden -- daughter of Charlie, sidewoman to Foo Fighter and Decemberist alike -- who's at the MFA tonight playing one of less than a half-dozen concerts in which she attempts to pull off a live version of her insane all-acapella album Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out. She's offered a tip on her next direction by also working up a version of the Beach Boys classic "God Only Knows" for the tour, which will feature her with the Sellouts, a 10-piece choir comprising members of various LA bands that she and her sister have befriended in the years since That Dog. And, just in time for Halloween, she's also posted this fucking amazing version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to her site (go here to hear the stream . . . web rip, anyone?)
>>PETRA HADEN SHOW DETAILS.

Really, Petra should hook up at some point with Boston's the Silver Lining, who seem to share a few -- OK, all -- of her touchstones. As heard on that song we posted a while back, the Silver Lining know their way around a Beach Boys harmony, and for Halloween they're dressing up/playing out as -- you guessed it -- the Who, at TTs on Satuday. (That's the same gig as the Rudds doing their Hall and Oates set. Monsterous.)
>>SILVER LINING SHOW DETAILS.

DOWNLOAD: Petra Haden, "God Only Knows" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: The Silver Lining, "Cemented Steps" (mp3)

Quick, before Google takes them down: it's the first annual (and maybe the last) OTD Halloween video countdown. We're posting two a day through October 31. Suggestions welcome in the comments. Today: Slayer and Elvira circa 1988; Wu-Tang/Prince Paul horror-rap collabo circa early-'90s:

WATCH: Slayer, "South of Heaven" (via YouTube)

 WATCH: Gravediggaz, "Diary of a Madman" (via YouTube)

Image: Bradley's Almanac

Broken Social Scene covered Dinosaur Jr. at their semi-secret Brandeis U show last week. Bradley's was there and upped the whole set, then pointed us at some YouTube links:

2. Boston blogger Rbally is packing it in -- which is bad news for all of us who've come to rely on him for our torrent-length live-show downloading. You have until Thanksgiving to hoard all the mp3s you can, from '58 Johnny Cash to Be Your Own Pet. Do not sleep.

3. Ho-Ag is playing a Halloween show as DEVO this year and if you don't think they're up to it, you probably haven't heard that Pipeline! set they did a couple weeks ago where they performed an entire set electronically. That "huh?" sound you hear is every other band in Boston going, "How did they do that? And where did they find the time?"

4.Regular readers of this blog -- or anyone who actually attended the Boston Music Awards -- may recall that Robby Roadsteamer ran off in mid-awards-ceremony with a trophy that rightfully belonged to the Snowleopards. Most people assumed it was part of the act. Which is was, sort of -- except that Robby actually kept the damn trophy. Did he actually give it back? Go watch the video . . .

DOWNLOAD: Robby Roadsteamer meets the Snowleopards (.wmv)

5. Barcelona street art blog by OTD's friend Jasanne.

DOWNLOAD: Gwen Stefani, "Wind It Up" (mp3, via Beauty N The Beat)

Gwen Stefani leaked her new Neptunes-produced single "Wind It Up" to radio in NYC and LA this morning, pimping the December 5 release of her second solo disc The Sweet Escape and officially beginning the windup to the '06 Christmas shopping season. (It may have leaked to some messageboards as well.) Your watercooler talking points:

• Gwen is doing more than anyone since Jay-Z circa Hard Knock Life to bring Broadway to hip-hop (or vice versa)? After unloading a Fiddler on the Roof knockoff on Love. Angel. Music. Baby., she's now gone with a leadoff single that samples Julie Andrews yodelling in The Sound of Music. Coming to New York next season: Twyla Tharp's If I Were A Rich Girl: The Songs of Pharrell Williams.
• Q: Gee, everyone says Fergie's just a C-grade Gwen, but after you get past the robot-doll part, doesn't Gwen's flow on this song sound an awful lot like Fergie's on "London Bridge"?
  A: Yes, but that's just poetic justice for Fergie stealing the Ludacris freestyle from Gwen's remix last year.
• From the press release: "This album is surprisingly different than the last one. I started recording it last year before Kingston was born and it’s definitely evolved over the last year. The dance sound is very 'now.' It's modern . . . not so retro."
• We know Kingston will be listening to this. But will he be listening to this?

You have probably heard by now about the 45-minute long track that James Murphy a/k/a LCD Soundsystem did for Nike as an iTunes-only download intended for people who run (presumably, for people who run in Nike sneakers). We were very surprised about this because we've seen James Murphys tummy and we never would have guessed him for a runner, let alone a . . . martial artist?! From the press release:

Driven to create something outside of the limitations imposed by commercial releases, Murphy’s own interest in running and his experiences in fight training and jiujitsu informed the conceptual framework of the album: "In testing, I found that 'hard, fast, propulsive' music was NOT the best running music for me… Sometimes the best way to keep running is to find the parts of the run that are actually rests – that while you’re still running, you’re viewing some of the run as soothing and recuperative, rather than constantly feeling like you’re running for your life."

Unsurprisingly, there have been cries of "sellout" or cries resembling "sellout" or whatever. Now Murphy himself has posted on the DFA UK message board to reassure the faithful: it's all good we own the masters plus they gave me a Nano. Cred rebuilding: goes out of his way to big-up Starburys!

"Just saying--no, you don't have to buy any nike or ipod shit if you don't want it. i mean, i have the ipod version 2--the brick with the wheel on the front--that i put a new battery in. they DID give me a nano when i did this, which is kind of cute, but feels a little disposable.

the thing is, i don't really own any nike stuff. i have one pair of basketball shoes that were on sale in cape cod for $21, but that's it. i wasn't going to do it until i realized what it was--45 minutes of disco that someone would have the capacity to release for me.

the best thing is that dfa gets it back in like 6 months, so we can put it out on vinyl etc. it's pretty sweet. i'll probably get in trouble for talking so candidly about it, but whatever. what's the worst that can happen? i don't get to make another 45-minute disco jam for nike?

nike just wanted some "content" for this new thingy they made--there wasn't a lot of music that was long enough to put on the running things, and "mixes" can be uninspiring, so they started asking people to make tracks for it. seemed like an obvious thing for me to do, nike or whomever.

anyway: have you all heard about the starbury shoes? stephan marbury from the nicks is one of my heroes and he made these totally amazing, super-cheap shoes for kids that don't have dough. google that shit."

Incidentally, Nick Sylvester is frothing at the mouth about this track like that Japanese guy on Heroes who can see the future -- apparently he predicted the convergence of fitness, downloadable music, and hipsters -- introducing the ripster -- over a year ago. Also, he's right: commissions are the future of music. Also, get over the Voice bullshit, Nick Sylvester is still Lester Bangs 2.0 and you're not.

Nike's lawyers are scrambling lawyers to take this thing down as quick as people put it up. You might dig around Hipinion for clues. Also, if anyone has the DFA remix of Justin Timberlake's "My Love" please post in comments or IM us immediately.

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)

It's been a long time coming, but after a long roller coaster ride the S-O-V is finally blowing up. There was a moment, back when her NYC debut ended in a puke-stained tank, and her subsequent US minitour bombed, where it looked like it was going to kill the buzz that greeted her first two batches of UK singles. And yes, we joined the chorus of doubters. But her extremely ingratiating, post-DefJam-signing gig at Avalon a few months back had us hopping back on the bandwagon. And now, with her video for "Love Me or Hate Me" sitting at #1 on TRL, the whole thing seems ridiculously obvious: of course American teenagers will go bonkers for an adorable British teenager who spits her face off over Colecovision electro beats! Don't bother qualifying it, let's just get on with the coronation . . . 

Step one: read the Phoenix interview:

"I tried to get involved, you know!" pouts Sov in a cockney accent that would make even Eliza Doolittle furrow her sooty brow. "I wasn’t wanted, but I’ve done it in my own way, like. I started, like, MCing to UK garage, you know. And then UK garage formed into grime, man, and I was still MCing frew all of that, yeah. And, you know, like, I had a bit of a couple tunes out, yeah, but people weren’t spinnin’ it anyway! Like, because no one liked it! So that’s, that’s, you know, I ain’t get rejected, but I was more like the odd one out, jeknowwotImean?"

Two minutes into our brief interview, I think I do. As her comments zip from indolent to indignant to innocent and back again, Harman sounds like a conflicted teen who wants to charm the world one minute and spit on it the next, a conflict that’s united disenfranchised youth across the Pond since the teenage John Lennon was inspired by the barely post-teen Elvis Presley.

Step two: cop that shit. We've got an album track, and also SOV's people attempted to AIM everyone the new Missy Elliott remix of "Love Me Or Hate Me" but demand proved so high they just gave it to Pitchfork instead. It is COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS. (Remember how the M.I.A./Missy thing was kinda ehh? This is not like that at all.)  

DOWNLOAD: Lady Sovereign, "Gatheration" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Lady Sovereign, "Love Me Or Hate Me (remix feat. Missy Elliott)" (mp3)

Step three: If you want to holler at yr girl before her Paradise performance on October 26, our bretheren at FNX are running a contest for a chance to meet the midget. To enter, hit the VWGreenRoom site and answer a few trivia questions, or if you are a text-messaging American you can text the letters "VW" to 22122 [rules gobbledeegook over here].

Bonus Materials:

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

DOWNLOAD: Diecast, "Fadeaway" (mp3)

For their new Internal Revolution (Century Media), Diecast upgraded their rhythm section and came out singing -- not to mention swinging. Their latest stylistic makeover moves them several rungs up the Mass-metal depth chart, retooling standard-issue hardcore with Eurometal's sleek, precision-calibrated dueling guitars and thrash-pop sing-a-longs where frontman Paul Stoddard sounds more Jeckyl than Hyde. Dudes in Killswitch Engage t-shirts will probably buy you beers if you play this on the jukebox. Soon to hit the road with Sepultura, Diecast play October 22 at Cabot Street Pub in West Springfield.

Abhorred

Revocation

Hekseri

Watchmaker

Alex Onslought, pictured with cash money

Return to the Pit Benefit Extravaganza
October 18 at O'Brien's
Photos courtesty of . . . who else?

1. We told you we'd let you know as soon as it was here: the title track from Converge's forthcoming No Heroes, complete and uncut:

• Converge, "No Heroes" (mp3)

2. While we were digging that up, we came across a bunch of newish/unreleased Tom Waits, from the 3-disc, vault-emptrying Anti set Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards:

• Bottom of the World (mp3)
• Road to Peace (mp3)
• You Can Never Hold Back Spring (mp3)

3. Essential DJ sets of the month:

• DJ C, Blentcast Part 1 (mp3) and Part 2 (mp3) [tracklist part 1 and part 2]
• Tittsworth, Discobelle mix (mp3)

4. They said it couldn't be done: club-droppable Man Man remix. Bonus: Amanda Blank minus the Spank Rock.

• Man Man, "Engrish Blood (Pink Skull Remix)" (mp3)
• Spank Rock, "Bump (Pink Skull Remix)" (mp3)

5. Malcolm Gladwell narrates his latest New Yorker piece on whether computers can predict hits -- the print version of which includes, buried in the middle, the best, scarieset capsule description of that Platinum Blue technology we've yet enountered: a mathemetical explanation of why Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy":

The computer calculated, first of all, the song’s Hit Grade—that is, how close it was to the center of any of those sixty hit clusters. Its Hit Grade was 755, on a scale where anything above 700 is exceptional. The computer also found that “Crazy” belonged to the same hit cluster as Dido’s “Thank You,” James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful,” and Ashanti’s “Baby,” as well as older hits like “Let Me Be There,” by Olivia Newton-John, and “One Sweet Day,” by Mariah Carey, so that listeners who liked any of those songs would probably like “Crazy,” too. Finally, the computer gave “Crazy” a Periodicity Grade—which refers to the fact that, at any given time, only twelve to fifteen hit clusters are “active,” because from month to month the particular mathematical patterns that excite music listeners will shift around. “Crazy” ’s periodicity score was 658—which suggested a very good fit with current tastes. The data said, in other words, that “Crazy” was almost certainly going to be huge—and, sure enough, it was.

• Malcolm Gladwell, "So Predictable" (New Yorker flash video)

IF YOU GO:

• Watchmaker, Extinction Agenda, Abhorred, Revocation, and Hekseri
  to benefit returntothepit.com
  O'Brien's, 9pm, $7

We ourselves have been known to make use of the services of Return to the Pit, especially when we need photos of anything metal-related. Judging by the photographic evidence, Aaron and Carina have consumed more metal than any people we know. They are also very good photographers and swell people and you should go to their show tonight at O'Brien's, tip the bartender well, and tip the photographers even better. Seriously. Lord knows we're not paying them enough.

If simple good will isn't enough of a draw, fear not: there are lots of bands playing whose logos are completely unreadable, which is how you know they're really, really fucking metal. Watchmaker are good even though you can read their logo. Regular readers may remember Boston black-metallers Hekseri from their Venom cover we posted a while back. Don't take our word for it. . .

DOWNLOAD: Watchmaker, "Scaffold of Deception" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Extinction Agenda, "The Grace Defile" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Abhorred, "Forever War" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Hekseri, "Don't Burn the Witch" (mp3)

Elsewhere tonight:

• Good Charlotte and Pink Spiders at Avalon.
• Supersystem and Zombi at the Middle East.
• Blood Brothers at Newbury Street Newbury Comics, 8 pm.
• "All Skate: Rollerboogie Benefit" with DJs San Serac, Mark E. Moon, and Joseph Colbourne at Chez Vous, Dorchester.
• Soul Estate/Man Terror listening party at News Cafe.

It's been over a year since we checked in with the Soul Estate squad, but former Wiseguys/Hangmen3 disciple Man Terror has kept his game up in the studio, spitting out mixtapes every couple of months and building his movement from the Orchard Park projects outwards. Our backpacker friends are hereby warned that you will not find any emo shit on here, although you will find Chubby Chub drops, Disco D beats, and other types of events associated with non-indie rap music. Soul Estate is staging a takeover tonight from 9 to 11 pm over at News Cafe, and if even half the rumored guest list pans out it's gonna be one of the famous-rap-producer-trainspotting events of the year. In the meantime, in case you haven't been contacted by the Soul Estate movement, we highly recommend downloading all three volumes of their street mixes . . . now.

DOWNLOAD: Soul Estate mixtape Vol. 3 featuring Man Terror, Baby Mo, Captain Hess, Young L.O., and Cool Gzus (full album .zip)

Elsewhere tonight:

• Good Charlotte and Pink Spiders at Avalon.
• Return to the Pit Anniversary Party with Watchmaker and Hekseri at O'Briens.
• Supersystem and Zombi at the Middle East.
• Blood Brothers at Newbury Street Newbury Comics, 8 pm.
• "All Skate: Rollerboogie Benefit" with DJs San Serac, Mark E. Moon, and Joseph Colbourne at Chez Vous, Dorchester.

Social Distortion
October 16 at Avalon
Photos by Nicole Tammaro

IF YOU GO:

• Tanya Donelly
  performing songs from This Hungry Life (out today!)
  12:30 pm at Newbury Comics/Government Center

Tanya Donelly's got dirt on OTD, so let's air it out right now: she was present for a Super Bowl party (one that eventually ended in Patriots victory) where OTD got so stressed out that we ended up puking in a certain music editor's bathroom. OVER A FOOTBALL GAME. IN FRONT OF A WOMAN WHOSE GAP AD (IN HER UNDERWEAR!) USED TO HANG ON OUR DORM ROOM WALL.

Last time we talked to Tanya she was kind enough not to bring it up, and instead spilled the dirt on her slept-on studio album, the tricky balance of motherhood and marriage, and her plans to record a more political followup. She also talked about the batch of political songs she'd just written but had consciously left off Whiskey Tango Ghost, intending to record them live -- which she did, which is now This Hungry Life. "It was hard to yank those songs off," she said back in the summer of 2004. "Because I did have a crisis of conscience, this being a time in our history when making an autobiographical album is maybe a little selfish. I'm as politicized as I'm capable of, because I don't do that very well. It definitely could do more harm than good coming from me. But they're songs sort of dealing with the shame and culpability that I think we're all sort of experiencing on the national level."

DOWNLOAD: Tanya Donelly, "New England" at Fluxblog
DOWNLOAD: Tanya Donelly, "Kundalini Slide" at Bradley's Almanac (scroll)
BE HER FRIEND: Tanya Donelly at MySpace

Tanya Donelly's life in YouTube:

1. Throwing Muses, 1988. Young, hot, and fucked up: the weirdo half-sister who rambles on endlessly, the floofy hairdo, the Baywatch t-shirt-dress. Holy crap.

2. The Breeders, 1990. "When I Was a Painter." Kim Deal hogging spotlight, but dude . . . you have Pod, right? Right?!

3. Belly, 1993. "Feed the Tree" on Letterman, back in the days when the World's Most Dangerous Band insisted on sitting in.

4. With the Catherine Wheel, 1995. "Judy Staring at the Sun," rrrreeeemix. Killer. The video is all about the spacesuit.

5. With Juliana Hatfield. Everyone remembers that Kay Hanley did the score for the retooled Josie and the Pussycats. No one remembers that Tanya and Juliana dueted on this version of the Josie theme for Saturday-morning cartoons, apparently hosted by Drew Barrymore? 

6. Solo. "Keeping You." Great song . . . questionable dress. High School Musical geeks will recall this from the episode of Summerland where Zac Effron's dad goes to rehab.

We've grown accostomed to seeing Diddy "like you never seen him before" -- see: the infamous "Pee Diddy" clip -- but the world's most solipsistic rap mogul has topped even himself with DiddyTV, the custom YouTube channel that's been bringing us all-Diddy, all the time in the countdown to Press Play. A big sigh of relief, then, that the wait is over -- has been for a minute, actually; teenagers have been downloading it since last week -- and the album is in stores. At last: no more montages of behind-the-scenes hijinks, gratuitous celebrity shout-outs, and artsy-smartsy B&W BET trailers. Can we get straight to the ridiculous club-destroying big-budget video mayhem? Why yes, yes we can.

DOWNLOAD: Diddy, "Come To Me" (mp3, via Discobelle)
WATCH: Diddy ft. Nicole Wiernerschnitzel, "Come To Me":

Oh, right: now the local angle. New hed, plz: CLINTON SPARKS JOINS TEAM DIDDY

If you missed Clinton behind the decks during Diddy's set at the NFL's kickoff bashment, shame, shame on you. Boston's mightiest mixtape kingpin lip-synchs on nat'l television (or whatever the turntable equivalent of lip-synching is) and you don't tune in? Lucky you: thanks to tivo, NFL network reruns, and YouTube, smashtime's prime-time debut will live forever. Also, if the football jumpoff was a tryout, Mr. Sparks seems to have passed with flying colors: he's been officially retained as the A-Trak to Diddy's 'Ye, the Jay to his Run, the . . . you get the picture. Recently confirmed by the annual Mixshow awards as the syndicatd DJ of the year, he'll be the guy taking over the ceremonial position on the ones and twos during Diddy's comeback tour, which is sort of like the rap equivalent of being the Queen of England -- not too much work, lots of prime visibility -- only with better perks. Some people give Clinton a hard time for not big-upping more Boston dudes, but we're not those people -- anyone who gives yer boy L.T. the closing track on the semi-official Kanye West mixtape is officially enrolled in the Boston-stand-up movement. Now that Boston's dude has the ear of the Bad Boy 4 Life and whatnot, we are hoping someone -- anyone -- gets signed.

WATCH: Clinton Sparks with Diddy on the NFL Kickoff

OTHER THINGS TO DO ON TUESDAY:

• Jolie Holland at the Paradise
• Tanya Donnelly at Govt Center Newbury Comics, 12:30 pm

• IF YOU GO:
  Daniel Handler and Stephin Merritt
  performing songs from The Tragic Treasury: Songs inspired by A Series of Unfortunate Events
  7 pm, Natick High School [Google Map]

While you're holding your breath for those two new Magnetic Fields albums, we can not discourage you enough from picking up a copy of the second CD by the Gothic Archies -- The Tragic Treasury, comprising Stephin Merritt's contruibutions in song to the audio book versions of Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events -- and beating a course for Natick High School, where tonight Merritt will be joined by Daniel Handler (on accordion!) for an  exceedingly rare concert of those songs. Certainly small children should be protected from this concert at all costs, even though the concert itself is free. There is certain to be a Merritt there, dressed like a villain, and a Handler, depressed to the edge of suicide. If health professionals are involved, there will be grief counselors and buckets of Zoloft at the end of each row. From a video interview that somehow hasn't made it onto YouTube (or Handler's official site) yet:

Stephin Merritt: Do you think the music on The Tragic Treasury is appropriate for children?

Daniel Handler: Absolutely not. I don't think the music on the Tragic Treasury is appropriate for anyone.

Stephin Merritt: It's not really appropriate to begin with.

Daniel Handler: No. It's scandalous. It's unnerving. Certain pitches in it that will guarantee mild to severe discomfort. But lyrically
its full of discussing things that children should remain inncocent of for as long as possible.

It's rare that an author and a musician should share a sensibility so completely -- sadly, in this case that sensibility is despair. If you thought this dude was bringing Paxil back, you ain't seen nothing yet. A few examples of the Merritt/Handler performance style below via YouTube.

WATCH: Stephin Merrit and Daniel Handler, "Scream and Run Away"

WATCH: Stephin Merrit and Daniel Handler, "Smile, No One Cares How You Feel" 

WATCH: Stephin Merritt and Daniel Handler, "The Night You Can't Forget"

ELSEWHERE TONIGHT:

• Social Distortion at Avalon.
• Shadows of Knight, the Romantics, and the Charms at Axis
• Art Brut, the Spinto Band, and Tokyo Police Club at the Middle East

Bad Ash

The Red Chord

Mongrel

Municipal Waste

The Acacia Strain

Gwar

Rock N Shock Day 2
With Gwar, the Red Chord, about a dozen other bands, and a shitload of horror movie geeks
October 14 At the Palladium and the DCU Center, Worcester
Photos courtesy Return to the Pit. See more here.

Bouncing Souls, Street Dogs, World Inferno Friendship Society, Whole Wheat Bread
October 14 at Avalon
Photos by Carina Mastrocola