"Basically,we have done eveything that we had ever wanted to do as a band," says Read Yellow's Evan in a Lemming Trial post. "All we ever wanted was to make music for our friends. Fortunately for us, it went beyond just playing parties in Amherst basements. The four of us are in agreement that now is a good time to bow out."

Fenway Recordings' Mark Kates confirmed today the group is breaking up.

Read Yellow's remaining shows are March 3 at T.T.'s with the Thermals (already sold out), March 9 in Brooklyn, and then a final gig March 22 at the Middle East with Lock & Key (a band with whom they were profiled for the Phoenix back in 2004).

DOWNLOAD: Read Yellow, "Model America" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Read Yellow, "Bigmouth Strikes Again" (Smiths cover, mp3)

2/28/2007 12:23:56 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Damien Rice at the Opera House
Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $32.50/ $42.50/ $47.50
On-sale Friday, March 2, 2007 at 10:00 am

Ben Gibbard (Death Cab), David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), and Jonathan Rice at the Somerville Theatre
Monday, May 7, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $25.00
On-sale Friday, March 2, 2007 at 10:00 am

Jet at Avalon
Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Tickets are $20.00
On-sale Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 10:00 am

Roger Waters performs Dark Side of the Moon at the TD Banknorth Garden
Monday, July 9, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Tickets are $47.50/ $79.50/ $132.00
On-sale Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 10:00 am

The Fray, OK GO, and Mae at the Tweeter Center
Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $25.50/ $40.00
On-sale Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 10:00 am

Rasputina
April 11 at the Regent Theatre, Arlington
Tickets $16.50
On-sale Saturday, March 3 at 10 am

Kristen Hersh
April 21 at the Regent Theatre, Arlington
Tickets $16.50
On-sale Saturday, March 3 at 10 am

ONSALENOW:

March 27: The Ponys, Black Lips, Turpentine Brothers at TT's
March 27: Menomena at Great Scott
March 28: Bloc Party and Albert Hammond Jr. at the Orpheum
March 30: Cold War Kids and Tokyo Police Club at the Middle East
March 31: amiina at the MFA
April 6: Adult. and Erase Errata at Great Scott
April 7: Xiu Xiu at TT's
April 7: Big Bear at Great Scott
April 7: Iggy and the Stooges at the Orpheum
April 7: Lily Allen at the Roxy
April 9: Kaiser Chiefs, the Walkmen, and Annuals at Avalon
April 10: Peeping Tom and Miho Hatori at the Paradise
April 10: Junior Boys at the Middle East
April 11: Klaxons at Great Scott
April 14: RJD2 and Busdriver at the Middle East
April 15: The Books at the Somerville Theatre
May 4: Peter Bjorn and John at the Paradise
May 4: Ted Leo at Avalon
May 11: Arcade Fire at the Orpheum
May 11: LCD Soundsystem at Axis
May 23: Gwen Stefani with Akon and Lady Sovereign at the Tweeter Center

2/27/2007 5:40:37 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Photo by Sisto

Think of last night as the dress rehearsal: it was the show that got added after tonight's sold out, so yeah, the room was only half-full, and Low B cancelled due to the weather in Philly (which somehow didn't prevent the Re-Up Gang from making the trip north from the City of Brotherly Love). The thumbnail description: Clipse running through full versions of nearly every song you'd want to hear (we took a quick smoke break, maybe they did "Hello New World" while we were gone), with Ab-Liva and Sandman bringing a fresh package onstage when the rhyme supply began to run low. The only visible skeptic was the Herald's Chris Faraone, who bravely called bullshit on the evening's proceedings. Chris may be an indie-rap snob, but he wasn't wrong, necessarily: Pusha T and Malice were professional and on point, but their art takes place primarily on the notepad (Faraone would dispute even that: "it's ok for commercial shit," he winced). We have a soft spot for smart, earnest indie kids who sweat the technique: they remind us lots of their existentialist/rockist cousins from indie-punk's early-'90s heyday, always quick to draw out the distinction between craftsmen and salesmen. You know OTD: we're always trying to stretch the rules to suggest that the game is now played on multiple platforms, that the stage is not just the six feet between the DJ and the PA, but also the space where all that other mess happens -- the critics' polls and the YouTube vids and the blog buzz and the merch table and the message board hype. Which is to say that Clipse made their meaning long before they stepped on the plywood, and all they could do once they were there was live up to it, or not, as best as anyone can with two turntables, a couple of microphones, and a sampler set on glock-shot. Grade: B+.

That said, we expect to hear differently from Ben "This Is The Best Two Nights of My Life" Sisto, who appeared to know more words to these songs than we do, or at least is a better lip-syncher. Swing the point-of-view away from the dude who gives out the grades and it was a really good night to be fan-boying and ka-shmoozing. We're pretty sure it was either Ben or TD from Big Digits who shouted "Swagger Jacker!" from the side of the stage, which Pusha seemed to get a kick out of. (We stand corrected: See TD's update in the comments.) Most embarassing moment before Clipse took the stage: the part where the DJ dropped "Jump Around" and everyone sang along. Embarassing like when your police force mistakes Mooninites for pipe bombs.

Which brings us to tonight, live, sold out: our prediction is higher energy and more fun, because when it comes down to four dudes nailing an hour's worth of solid material, the only variable is in what people bring with them, and no matter what that turns out to be, there will absolutely be more of it.

2/27/2007 3:09:23 PM by On the Download | Comments [1] |  

NEMHF 2006 (2006, day 2) (2006, day 3)

The lineup is in for the ninth annual New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, and the big news (other than that the fest has scaled back from three days to two) is that the second day of the festival will function as a 25th birthday party for the legendary Metal Blade label. If you were listening to thrash in the '80s, you pretty much bought anything with that logo on it: if you're really lucky, you might have a copy of the label's first release, the Metal Massacre compilation that marked the debut recording of some band called Metallica. After more than a few years in the wilderness, the label's made a comeback by signing a shitload of really great new-wave-of-metal bands, including Massachusetts' Unearth, Beyond the Embrace, and the Red Chord.

NEMHF will run April 27-28 at the Palladium in Worcester, and we're hoping the Metal Blade dudes will be trying to outdo the Roadrunnner anniversary party a couple years back. They're promising "a once-in-a-lifetime performance that will bring together musicians from Metal Blade's stellar roster of bands." We have no idea what that means: if you go by the Roadrunner model, it means "all-star jam session on famous covers," which actually wouldn't be that bad.

Tickets go on sale Thursday, March 1 via www.tickets.com: $35 for single-day, $65 for the whole enchilada.

In other news: there's a Christian screamo band called The Devil Wears Prada. How fucking hysterical is that?

Here's the confirmed lineup so far:

FRIDAY, APRIL 27: Dimmu Borgir, Bury Your Dead, Devil Driver, Satyricon, Walls of Jericho, Kataklysm, Kylesa, Skinless, The Devil Wears Prada, All Shall Perish, 100 Demons, Nora, The Human Abstract, Still Remains, Thy Will Be Done, Nachtmystium, December Aeterali, Merauder, Death Before Dishonor, Suicide Silence, Beneath the Massacre, Skeleton Witch, Stick to Your Guns, The Faceless, Blood Runs Black, Dead Hearts, xDeathStarx, Palehorse, Bloodlined Calligraphy, and The Funeral Pyre

SATURDAY, APRIL 28: Unearth, Cannibal Corpse, the Black Dahlia Murder, the Red Chord, Job for a Cowboy, Lizzy Borden, Goatwhore, I Killed the Prom Queen, Shai Halud, Since the Flood, Demiricous, Hallows Eve, Cellador, Beyond the Embrace, The Architect, Animosity, Psyopus, If Hope Dies, Ed Gein, The Absence, Gaza, Forever in Terror, Apiary, Sons of Azreal, the Destro, and the Network.

2/26/2007 1:40:59 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Killswitch Engage

Dragonforce

Chimaira

He Is Legend

Killswitch Engage, Dragonforce, Chimaira, and He Is Legend
February 24 at Avalon
Photos (c) Carina Mastrocola

If you flipped through those photos casually, we want you to go back and check out how focussed Dragonforce's beer-through-a-straw game is. We are awed. Also, they fly. Holy shit.

Killswitch were without guitarist Adam D. due to a severely herniated disc sustained on the last KSE tour. ("If I didn't get emergency surgery, I was risking the possibility of paralysis below the waist," he emailed fans not long ago. "I opted to get surgery instead of crapping my pants for all eternity. I think it was a sweet move.") Which didn't stop the show from selling out a week in advance. Nor did it stop Boston metal royalty from showing up, including Shadows Fall's Brian Fair, the Seemless guys, and . . . Aerosmith's Tom Hamilton? Without photographic confirmation we'll have to take Carina's word on it, but she triple-pinkie-swears it was him.

(Also, was that Killswitch's lawyer we saw bro-ing down with the Bang Camaro dudes later that night? Big tings for dem boys...)

In the meantime, in lieu of the usual get-well-soon-gifts -- sweatpants, porn, Oxycontin -- Adam D. is asking for a different sort of care package:

I would like to personally thank the KILLSWITCH ENGAGE fans for all of the signs, chants, blogs, and love...it means a lot to a fat crippled retard like myself. Hopefully, I won't be gone for too long. But, until my return, I will need all of your beef jerky for strength. Please send me all of your jerky to my 'Jerky Across The World' campaign, and together we will rally for good health through dried meet products. Please send donations to:

The Adam D. Jerky Across The World Campaign
c/o Mike Gitter
Roadrunner Records
902 Broadway, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10010

2/25/2007 9:36:20 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

We had this date marked on our calendar like two months ago as the pileup of the first quarter: as just an example of how much crap is going on simultaneously, Frank Smith and Rev. Glasseye managed to schedule farewell-to-Boston gigs (both bands are moving to Austin) without realizing that the other one was doing the same thing on the other side of the river. Glasseye: "We tried to pull Frank Smith over to the Middle East so it could be an official 'Gone to Texas Showcase,' but they were unable to move. It is both a comedy and tragedy."

"Yea, thats funny, huh?" says Frank Smith's Aaron Sinclair. "[Glasseye] actually got in touch and we tried to get the shows together but we had both already booked the different clubs and we felt bad about backing out. Is that guy any good?"

Meanwhile, at McGann's over at North Station, BIG DIGITS pile on with Epitaph's BUSDRIVER-- by coincidence, the guy who gets mentioned most when you go, "Gee, who the hell is Cadence Weapon gonna hang out with at Epitaph?"

DOWNLOAD: Busdriver, "The Troglodyte Wins" (mp3)

Lindsay and the Student Council are throwing Yoni Gordon's rec-rel show at the Lizard Lounge, but what caught our ear was the new Mark E. Moon mix she pointed her MySpace peeps at on account of Mark E. is DJ-ing the shindig tonight.

DOWNLOAD: Mark E. Moon, "Valuable Hunting" (mp3)

We, of course, will be over at the Bang Camaro/Damone showdown at the Paradise, cursing ourselves for missing Killswitch Engage's first big Boston gig at Avalon tonight....

2/24/2007 5:30:35 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Cadence Weapon, "Sharks"

Cadence Weapon -- MC, P4K reviewer, remixologist, mp3 blogger, big Bad Religion fan -- signed to Epitaph last week: will he become the Spank Rock of Canada? His Breaking Kayfabe is out in the US (finally) on March 13, to coincide with SXSW buzz-building. That rap-act-with-punk-aesthetic thing? Rollie: "I think I got that."

Related links: Here's Rollie talking to the CBC. Message board threads: PunkNews, Hollerboard.

DOWNLOAD: Cadence Weapon, "Sharks" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Cadence Weapon, "Black Hand" (mp3) 

2/24/2007 11:03:03 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

The Bad Plus, "Physical Cities"

The Bad Plus, "And here we test our powers of observation"

The Bad Plus, documentary excerpt

Thanks to everyone who sent YouTube clips -- the winning ones are above, and those dudes are all headed to the Bad Plus show on Sunday at the MFA.

2/24/2007 9:45:19 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

DOWNLOAD: Brain Failure, "Coming Down to Beijing" (mp3)

Yes, BRAIN FAILURE are from Beijing, not Boston, but we’re making an exception for the Clash of mainland-Chinese punk rock, for three reasons: 1) This has been a second home for the group ever since Dropkick Murphys leader Ken Casey took them under his wing — he produced their US debut, American Dreamer, as well as their half of the new Beijing to Boston, a split EP with Big D and the Kids Table; 2) Their label, Japan’s Bad News Records, just opened an office on Newbury Street; 3) If the bark on verses two and three sounds familiar, that’s because it belongs to none other than ex-Bosstone Dicky Barrett, who comes out of retirement to complain that "This place ain’t the same, the bars are foreclosed/My friends live in the suburbs, there’s no good shows." By the end of the song it's still unclear whether Dicky's gonna take 'em up on their offer to hang out in China for a while, but if this punk rock thing doesn't work out, maybe these guys can try their hand at trade diplomacy.

BUY: Brain Failure and Big D & the Kids Table, Beijing to Boston
REVIEW: Chinese Rocks: Brain Failure, January 24, 2004 at the Cambridge Elks

2/22/2007 12:21:19 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

IF YOU GO:

• The Bad Plus
  Sunday, February 25
  Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston
  7:30 pm, $25
  617.369.3300

The Bad Plus may do witty covers of "Smells like Teen Spirit," "Heart of Glass," and the theme song from Chariots of Fire, but it's all backed up by muscular playing and a terrific sense of the strange. They also have the best hoodies of any jazz band on the planet. The trio followed a killing Newport Jazz Fest set last August with a terrific set at the Regattabar in the fall, so they shouldn’t have any problems cranking it up for their debut at the Museum of Fine Arts's Remis Auditorium this Sunday.

We've got three pairs of tix to give away, here's the deal: first three people to post a Bad Plus youtube clip in the comments (SLTS doesn't count!) get a pair.

2/22/2007 11:34:41 AM by On the Download | Comments [3] |  

 

Andrew W.K., February 20 at Harpers Ferry
Photos courtesy Throwed

Video interview and live footage coming Friday . . .

2/22/2007 10:14:17 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

As speculated yesterday by MTV, the Van Halen reunion is now "on hold," according to Pollstar. MTV said yesterday that a Sammy/DLR performance for the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction is still on. But Metal Hammer quotes the Rocky Mountain News as saying that the Hall performance "may be in jeopardy."

Send your condolances to Wolfgang.

In better news, the brothers Reid have not yet cancelled the first Jesus and Mary Chain shows in almost a decade. Currently they're down for just three: Coachella and two more in Madrid and Barcelona. You have questions, Jim Reid has answers. From the press release:

1. why are you doing the show now?
"Well, I would say 'why not?' there are many reasons really. Firstly it's taken this long for me and William to get to a point where it would be realistic to do it, and to some degree each of us assumed the other wouldn't be interested, and it was only after we talked about it that we realised this. Also Coachella were very persistent."

2. The last show was in 1998?
"Yes, the last Mary Chain gig was in 1998 and was such a bloody awful mess, too much drink, too many drugs, nobody seeing eye to eye on anything and the band just blew up, and I suppose you could say this is another good reason for our reformation, cause that was no way for the Mary Chain to end."

3. William lives in LA and you live in Devon?
"You can imagine the problems this presents."

4. Who else is in the band?
"On bass it's Phil King, on drums it's Loz Colbert, and on second guitar is Mark Crozer, and of course myself and William."

5. Will there be more shows and an album?
"I really don't know. Maybe. I think we would like to and we're looking at another show or 2."

6. Are William and yourself working on solo albums?
"Yes, both are at the recording stage at the moment, and both will hopefully be out later in the year."

2/21/2007 9:49:51 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Worth a shout-out: Lily Holbrook downstairs on the Red Line at Park Street last night was bananas. Her album Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt rated strictly meh when it crossed our desks about a year and a half ago. Not for lack of a voice, because she's got a real sweet one -- not even Mary Lou ever cut through subway rumble and idle chatter the way Lily's did as we came around the corner on our way to the Bang Camaro shindig. Lily's got that real effortless, piercing, soaring thing going on -- like whoa. Her songs ("gothic renaissance faire folke" -- C. Eddy) never really connected with us -- why'd she have to go and make things so complicated? -- but we're ready to give them a second listen after watching her go house on Ozzy's "Momma I'm Comin' Home" and the Cure's "Just Like Heaven." Shit had grown men getting all lumpy and kids stealing their moms pocketbooks to throw change at her and crazy dudes eating popcorn who recognized her from the article the Metro ran, by coincidence, that same day. (We should've whipped out the camera phone for evidence, but . . . we're soft. Sorry. Here's a ) She lucked into a Harvard Square express train so the platform was twice as crowded as usual, but it's been a long time since we saw someone completely transfix 300 random commuters with finger-picked covers. That's fucking entertainment. This is also our passive-aggressive way of trying to get her to record some of that underground shit for us to give away in the ever-popular mpeg-III format. If anyone sees her, tell her to holler.

DOWNLOAD: Lily Holbrook, "Cowboys and Indians" (mp3)

2/20/2007 6:43:20 PM by On the Download | Comments [3] |  

John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae
Orpheum Theatre
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $35.00 / $49.50 / $59.50
On-sale Saturday, February 24, 2007 at 10:00 am

The Pogues- THIRD SHOW ADDED!!
At Avalon
Thursday, March 8, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Tickets are $53.00
On-sale Saturday, February 24, 2007 at 10:00 am

Well, that's quite a short list, so we'll add this juicy tidbit from the inbox: LCD Soundsystem, May 11 at either Axis or the Paradise. Onsale and definitive venue TBA. In the meantime, here's quicktime and Winmedia links to the video for "NORTH AMERICAN SCUM":

WATCH: LCD Soundsystem, "North American Scum" (Windows) (Quicktime)

2/20/2007 5:21:56 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

SMOOCH SMOOCH: Lady lightning.

Bang Camaro packed about 150 people into the Middle East upstairs last night for the debut of their first officialisimo music video: a clip for their smash hit single "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" lensed by Adam Moyer of TV's American Chopper, who offered his services after catching the band's first-ever show at the Paradise last year. For everyone who wasn't there, check it in widescreen right here (and while you're at it maybe read the interview):

WATCH: Bang Camaro, "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" [video]

We also managed to lay hands on a copy of the group's debut CD, which contains four songs you can't pay-download (yet?) off MySpace. The full band (minus their New Zealander bassist, who was in New Zealand) played four or five songs and as usual, they brought the stadium to the club. The choir got drunk enough on free Stoli that they didn't seem to notice when the after-show DJs switched from hair-metal to Strokes tunes.

All of this is part of the buildup to the full monte Saturday night at the Paradise, when all hell will break loose. Tickets are going briskly, you might not want to sleep on this one.

2/20/2007 5:09:41 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

OTD's President's Day Ticket Giveaway marathon continues....

Some of you may have heard about Close Calls with Brick Walls, Andrew W.K.'s import-only follow up to The Wolf. If you don't live in Japan, you probably haven't, and you'd be forgiven if you'd assumed that Andrew had fallen off the face of the earth.

The truth is much, much weirder.

Rumors abound that Mr. W.K. has undergone a radical stylistic transformation, that he has gotten a musical transfusion and perhaps even a haircut, that a new and improved AWK will be relaunched in the near future. We can confirm none of this. However, by all outward appearances Andrew seems to be exploring new career avenues: his last several public appearances have been speaking engagements of one kind or another. For one such sold-out appearance, "Ask Andrew Live," he had fans send him questions in advance, then chose a single inquiry at random and offered a 20-minute-long extemporaneous answer. He's adjusting that scenario next month at PIT-NYC with a three-week "lecture series" and Q&A session entitled "The Joy Trilogy." And then there's this: invited to perform alongside My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, and Weird Al Yankovic at New Jersey's mammoth "Bamboozle" concert this coming spring, Andrew instead asked to give a speech outisde the doors of the venue prior to the concert -- a talk described as "a statement on pure fun, as part of [Andrew's] pep rally to celebrate life, love, and music."

In the meantime, Mr. "Party Hard," Mr. "Party Til You Puke," Mr. "It's Time To Party," has finally started hosting some parties. He made his DJ-ing debut last month in NYC, took over the decks at the infamous hipster confab Misshapes this past weekend, and will arrive at our own "Throwed" on Tuesday, alongside Spank Rock's Chris Devlin and Paper's E-Marce.

We had a bunch of list spots to give away for this, and then half the office decided they want to go. If that's any indication of how hot a ticket it's gonna be, we advise you to get thee to Harpers EARLY.

So yeah, we've got very, very limited guest list spots for this -- if you want one, follow these instructions:

Download the song below, then log into the comments and tell us where it's from.

DOWNLOAD: Andrew WK Mystery Track (mp3)

2/19/2007 1:47:23 PM by On the Download | Comments [5] |  

Under Byen, "Af Samme Stof Som Stof"

Pretty stoked for the next leg of the Museum of Fine Arts indie-rock concert series, which kicks off with Denmark's UNDER BYEN. The meticulous orch-pop group, whose name translates as "Below the City," have won a dedicated international following, inspiring the wags at Pitchfork to describe them as "like Björk and Mogwai falling down a well together." With Sweden's Frida Hyvonen and Perro Del Mar, they're bringing a Scandinavian indie-pop caravan to the MFA on March 2.

We've got four pairs of tickets to give away: first four people to holler at us in the comments get a pair, and remember to use your real email address this time so we know how to get at you.

DOWNLOAD: Under Byen, "Af samme stof som stof" (mp3)
DOWNLOAD: Under Byen, "Siamesisk" (mp3)
BUY TICKETS: Under Byen, Frida Hyvonen, Perro del Mar, March 2 at the MFA

2/19/2007 12:14:34 PM by On the Download | Comments [5] |  

Oh no they didn't.

Oh yes we did. We had our dude Jef Czekaj, of Nickelodeon Magazine fame, duncecap-and-kazoo us a poster for the most highly anticipated event of the winter: the Clipse's two-night tour-kickoff celebration at the Middle East, brought to you by the Boston Phoenix's "Excuse" concert series, and yours truly.

So here's the contest: the above poster contains more than a half-dozen references to lines from Pusha T and Malice's masterpiece, "Mr. Me Too." You know what our favorite one is 'cause we already mentioned it. The first three people in comments section to quote a line from the song that is referenced in the poster get a pair of tickets. It's that simple.

If you miss out, a few tickets are left for the just-added February 26 show. February 27 is already sold out.

OK, here's a hint:

2/19/2007 11:53:36 AM by On the Download | Comments [10] |  

After the jump: a shitload of photos by Carina Mastrocola from Saturday night's emo-rap confab at Avalon. Suggested drinking game: full beer whenever you see an article of Johnny Cupcakes gear.

2/19/2007 9:15:42 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Oh no they didn't.  

We wondered how long it was gonna take before someone raised a stink about this year's Pazz and Jop cover, in which Dylan rolls over TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone with a Segway or some shit. There are certain types of caricatures that rub you the wrong way, and this was certainly one of them. The expected shitstorm has arrived in the form of the Voice's letters page, including one from Antibalas/TVOTR dude Martin Perna, who calls the illustration "racist, unfunny, mean-spirited, and inaccurate," and adds, "Intentionally or not, this cover sends the all-too-familiar message to people of color: Make something too unique, make something outside of your assigned place-role, and get run over by a white man."

That is not even the half of it. We're sitting here trying to pick which graf to excerpt, but you've really got to read the whole thing, because it's pretty genius, including this line: "I could complain about how you drew Kyp outfitted like the Nutty Professor rather than his true fly stylish self." Damn straight, what's up with that?

OK, here's the nut graf:

[Cover artist David] O'Keefe and his colleagues may not have meant to intentionally be racist. They probably meant to be funny, like the University of Texas law students, Clemson University undergrads, or white college students nationwide who plan and publicize their blackface or "ghetto parties," then act surprised that people find their actions offensive and unacceptable. That this picture could be drawn and not questioned or vetoed by any of the people who saw it prior to publication shows the level of ignorance and racism that persists in leftist institutions like the Voice that continue to posture as hip and progressive. It reveals that among decision-makers at the paper there is not one single person with any sort of racial consciousness or sensitivity who had the power or courage to send that picture back to the drawing board.

Jesus. As if Pazz and Jop didn't have enough problems this year. It sure would be easy, knowing the score, to let the Voice off the hook for this one. Because after all, just put yourself in the shoes of a Voice editor: you're trying to compete with a younger, hipper poll across town and the winner comes in as . . . fucking Bob Dylan. You'd probably feel as if Bob Dylan (and the 55-year-old-rockist base he rode in on) had just flattened you like, like . . . like a scary angry clay jew running over a defenseless clay African American musician! Well, actually, that's probably not how we would have phrased it, no. Nope, not even remotely. Sorry, Voice, can't back you up on this one.

This probably won't help, but Cami just reviewed Kyp's solo gig at Glasslands last night, perhaps to prove that there's no hard feelings? We don't know anyone else on that staff, but we can tell you definitively that Camille Dodero does not hate black people. And since she's too shy to run it, here's our blackmail photo of Cami throwing herself at Kyp (right, background) and professing her undying love of all things TVOTR during her first month in Brooklyn . . .

2/19/2007 8:05:34 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Today's developments:

• E!: Salon to sell locks of Britney's hair on eBay
• Britney fans shaving head in solidarity with their star
• Kelly Clarkson: "OK, are y’all kidding? She does not have a shaved head. Are you for real?”
• US Magazine: Inside the Salon
• Access Hollywood: Britney Shaves Her Head
• Britney: "I don't want anyone touching me. I'm tired of everyone touching me."
• X17: Britney's cry for help
• YouTube: Britney at the tattoo parlor after shaving her head

The story of Britney Spears, from her first single to her last breath, has been the story of pop music writ large: as we wrote in a review of her 2001 concert tour, it's the tale of a young girl abducted, raped, and ultimately destroyed by the American dream. DeLillo's Great Jones Street has that image of the record spinning and pulling its victims into a black hole: the dark vortex of rock and roll that ends with Elvis dead on the toilet, Cobain wrapping his lips around a greasy barrel. Pop music has its own dark gravity: the crushing, splitting weight of mass media and mass desire, the all-watchful eyes. Britney is the story and the storyteller, and these are beginning to feel like her final pages. The story she tells us is the war of two selves wihin her: the one she was born with and the one that was manufactured for her. She tells this story as if the battle between actual and simulated selves is being played out at the cellular level, in the flesh, like a cancer that works its way in from the surface. There are very few people who are unfortunate enough to live out, in flesh and blood and in real time, abstract philosophical arguments about the nature of human agency. Fewer still who survive. The timeline of her rejection and denial over the past week reads like the work of an author who is anxious to bring her protagonist quickly from despair to demise, and the tale is full of authorial details: the small slight of being slighted by a fashion designer; the large failure of abandoning rehab after only a single day; that she sat crying in the car beforehand; that when the beautician refused to shave Britney's locks, the star did it herself; that she viewed herself in the mirror with shock, that she worried what her mother would say.

Bald Britney, as a daily news story, is being treated as typical tabloid fodder: drunk starlet makes another bad decision. What has always made our skin crawl about Britney is that at some instinctual level she is always performing. (Call it a side effect of living a life where the cameras are never off.) So is it mere coincidence that her Sinead-like dome, evoking the image of the gulag and the concentration camp, or at least THX-1138 and V for Vendetta, seems to echo one of the Britney's most persistent themes: her sense of herself as being held in captivity? Who keeps her? She's rarely made Prince-like statements condeming the traditional keepers, the managers and record labels and publicists. But in her performances, in knowing glances and in songs like "I Was Born To Make You Happy," she indicts her audience with a smile. Like Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks, cognizant of her own doom, she invites us to watch, she forces us to confront our complicity in her undoing. If shaving her head was an act of self-multilation, it was also an act of self-sacrifice, and an act of violence against that image which connects Britney to her audience: if you had to put the act into words, the bubble over Britney's head would read something like, "I killed Britney Spears." If these are Britney's last days, then all of us watching, all of us who have watched, will have her blood on our hands.

2/18/2007 11:43:24 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Details continue to emerge about the new NIN disc, Year Zero (April 17, Interscope), including a fairly sophisticated ARG that includes the requisite Lost-afarian dupe sites, multiple narrative subplots about new world orders or something, and, what the hell, a leaked mp3. We're sorta digging "My Violent Heart", which has the soul of the old P.E./Bomb Squad stuff: sirens, noise, static, thurst, heavy on message and stingy on melody. All in all, the perfect NIN valentine's gift.

In late-breaking news, NIN ARG-ies are now decrypting backwards text and piecing together references to hobbits. In light of all that activity, it seems a little silly to point out that a tracklist for that old-fashioned CD-type thing has been released, and that the first single, "Survivalism," has been rolled out to radio and to MySpace. (iTunes soon; CD single March 5.) The tracklist for Year Zero, according to the band, which of course could be obfuscating misinformation to throw the hobbit-chasers off their game:

01 hyperpower!
02 the beginning of the end
03 survivalism
04 the good soldier
05 vessel
06 me, i'm not
07 capital g
08 my violent heart
09 the warning
10 god given
11 meet your master
12 the greater good
13 the great destroyer
14 another version of the truth
15 in this twilight
16 zero-sum

2/17/2007 2:18:58 PM by On the Download | Comments [1] |  

 

2/17/2007 12:37:10 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

That dude MISTAKER has cued up AC/DC, Tina Turner, and Justice for your listening pleasure. Call the bomb squad. Special NYC guests TROUBLE & BASS. OTD will be trying to get someone to play the new NIN thunder.  

DOWNLOAD: Mistaker, "Thunderdome Mix" (mp3)
WATCH: Thunderdome, the party trailer

2/16/2007 4:39:52 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Photo credit: Caitlin Curran.

Full report from the Hasty Pudding's Woman of the Year parade over here. Also, because we've been looking for an excuse to post it, the nine-minute "director's cut" version of "What Goes Around," which has been described as the next best thing to a Justin/Scarlett sex tape:

2/16/2007 11:29:09 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

DOWNLOAD: Mean Creek, "Hands Behind Our Heads" (mp3)

Chis Keene and Aurore Ounjian were kicking around town as an indie-folk duo called, in true Damon & Naomi fashion, Chris & Aurore. But lately they’ve been fleshing out their songs with a full band, and they’ve rechristened themselves MEAN CREEK. Their debut, Around the Bend (on Boston-based Clubhouse Records), finds them filling out Dylan-esque roots-rock ballads with boy-girl harmonies that hark back to the heyday of mid-'90s post-grunge pop. Yes, that's pretty much the bass line from the Beatles' "Taxman" in "Hands Behind Our Heads," and not even Dando and Hatfield could’ve swooned more sweetly in the chorus. Cop the product, then mark yr calendars for the CD-release party next Thursday, February 22, at the Middle East with Christians and Lions, Bugs and Rats, and Movers and Shakers.

2/15/2007 2:12:23 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

In a nice little internerd loop, a thread on Hollerboard about the Hives/Timbaland track we posted yesterday turned up this clip of the Hives on Swedish TV last October . . . which may just have made the Hives our new favourite band, again. They cover seven songs in nine minutes (including one of their own), Pelle's got bleached hair, and they pull off a transition that puts them in the OTD hall of fame: the Hellacopters' "Gotta Get Some Action (Now)" into Three 6 Mafia's "Stay Fly." Close readers will notice that the Hives butcher everything but the Hellacopters song -- they even flub "Hate To Say I Told You So" -- but we love this live-band-attempting-DJ-mix concept and love it even more for including a Compulsive Gamblers song. Certified bananas.

2/14/2007 11:55:38 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

It's been a while since we've laughed this hard at someone's music video before we've even seen it, but when Mike Gill called us up to tell us he'd directed a new Piebald video where the band rolls around town ghostriding their whip, we had coffee coming out our nose. Perhaps we shouldn't have been so shocked that Piebald listens to hyphy . . . . no, no, we're completely shocked. We have no fucking idea where this is coming from. Must have something to do with Pitchfork.

We won't be totally happy until Travis trades his Rivers Cuomo glasses for stunna shades. But this is quite a start: who'da thunk suburban indie geeks would give Mistah F.A.B. a run for his money? You snicker, but has FAB ever ghostrode his whip to the pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and the motherfucking moon? While juggling grapefruits on the hood? Then got stalked by a wizard who turns his guitar player into a dashboard ornament? Also featuring Nikola Tesla, Rudolf Diesel, and ex-Lost City Angels and current Murder Mile singer Ron Ragona as a TV newsman who reports on the ruckus.

WATCH: Piebald, "A Friend of Mine"

2/14/2007 1:38:55 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

In a surprise to no one, the Explosion have gained their emancipation from Virgin Records, who declined the honor of releasing the band's new, presciently-titled album Bury Me Standing. In retrospect, this anticlimactic end to the Virgin/Explosion marriage makes this article we wrote a few years ago seem pretty silly. Sigh.

In a message to fans, the band says they walked away with the rights to the album and hope to see it put out eventually. (SideOneDummy, you listening?) In the meantime, you can stream three new songs from the album, "Image of a Son," "NYCD," and "All the Best," at the Explosion's MySpace page.

From the inbox:

We are writing you from the dead of winter here in Park Slope Brooklyn, with a long over due update about the Explosion and our record, Bury Me Standing. As some of you may know, the record label that we have been working with for the past 3 years, Virgin Records, has decided not to release our new album, and release us from our contract. To some that may be bad news, but to others (who know about the perils of major labels) know that it is not such a bad thing. The good news, is that we have gotten the record back from Virgin, and are in the process of finding a label that may put it out.

We will keep you updated. Thanks to all of you who have been writing (over and over again) to find out what is up with the record. We hope to have it out ASAP.

2/14/2007 1:16:32 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Somewhere, surely, Randy Fitzsimmons is fuming.

There was this brief moment between the time Veni Vidi Vicious came out and the time, more than a year later, when the Hives got famous, where it seemed like they were going to become a completely different sort of band. The flipside of the original "Hate To Say I Told You So" single -- the one that came out on Gearhead -- was a weird, Kraftwerk-like instrumental called "The Hives Are Law, You Are Crime." It had keyboards and drum machines on it. This was in 2001, before 9/11 and "House of Jealous Lovers" and all that shit.

Of course you know the rest: pausing only to make a couple of amazing videos, they eventually became freakishly successful and then decided to make a great punk-rock record instead of becoming pop stars.

So what the hell are they doing on the new Timbaland jawn?

Well, to be honest, not much. "The time has come!" howls Howlin' Pelle, while a single-string 'lectric-blooze lick winds around his ankles. That's about the only words the Hives get in edgewise: a few seconds later, Timbo bellys in, lobs a 120-bpm WMD at the dance floor, and pushes both the beat and the band before him, like a man throwing someone out of his house. Then he loops the guitar, steals the mic, and starts fast-rapping like Twista. There is a whirlwind of chest-thrusted consonants shaking like strippers in mid pole dance, and then it's over, and Pelle is hamming up an adlib as he's being escorted from the studio.

What this means for Timbaland, you imagine, is a message: "I can work with anybody!" What it means for the Hives is less clear, although it's nice to know they're alive.

DOWNLOAD: Timbaland feat. the Hives, "Throw It On Me" (mp3, via BPF)

2/13/2007 11:35:35 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

THE SHINS: "Phantom Limb"

The Shins at the Orpheum Theatre
Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $30.00
Onsale Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 10:00 am

Fall Out Boy, +44, The Academy Is . . . , Paul Wall & Cobra Starship
Thursday, May 31, 2007 at 6:00 pm at the Tweeter Center, Mansfield
Tickets are $23.50 and $39.50
Onsale Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 10:00 am

The Police
July 28 at Fenway Park
Tickets $225, $95, and $55
Onsale Tuesday, February 20 at 10 am

Clipse and Low-Bee (Hollertronix)
February 26 at the Middle East, Cambridge
Tickets $20, $22 dos
Onsale Friday, February 16 at 10 am

2/13/2007 6:25:16 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

The one thing we haven't hated about the Grammys these past couple years has been the metal nominations -- and that's saying a lot coming from an OTD who was permanently scarred by the debut 1988 metal award going to Jethro Tull over Metallica. We'd trace the uptick back to Shadows Fall's out-of-nowhere (yet entirely right-fucking-on) nomination three years back; since then the Grammys have followed up by nominating Killswitch Engage ('06) and Mastodon ('07). Call us pragmatic or just old for not being mad at Slayer winning on what can only be considered lifetime-achievment grounds.

Three years after their Grammy nomination, Shads are finally readying their major-label debut. It's taken long enough that bands like Mastodon (who are better) and Lamb of God (who are cheesier) have already trampeled the old indie-metal glass ceiling. Hipsters have already moved on to weirder and artier fare; Killswitch have taken the Massachusetts metal miracle to as commercial a peak as it is likely to go; and that leaves a lot less wiggle room for the band that kinda started it all.

But even if we no longer dream of Shadows Fall whalloping an unsuspecting nation upside its collective head, we still love rooting for the home team. And we'll be looking for satellite-radio rips on Friday, when Sirius broadcasts the world-premiere of Shads' debut single, "Redemption" -- at least to hold us over until the song hits iTunes a few days later. The album, Threads of Life, bows on April 3, which means it should be leaking on the internet . . . . any minute now. (YSI, anyone?)

As previously reported, Shadows Fall's next local gig is April 4 -- yes, the day after -- when they'll be opening for Stone Sour and Lacuna Coil. Someone should man up and let 'em switch headlining slots for the night.

Threads of Life's tracklist, according to Atlantic:

1.      "Redemption"
2.      "Burning The Lives"
3.      "Storm Winds"
4.      "Failure Of The Devout"
5.      "Venomous"
6.      "Another Hero Lost"
7.      "Final Call"
8.      "Dread Uprising"
9.      "The Great Collapse"
10.     "Just Another Nightmare
11.     "Forevermore"

2/13/2007 6:17:50 PM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

Nevermind the Ashlees, here's the Avril: and yes, she did steal your boyfriend.

The thing about the job of being a pop star is that, first and foremost, it's a job. And for a 26-year-old with a gazillion records under her studded belt, that's probably the healthiest way to think about her chosen field. Lavigne, newly married and evidently under the care of a stylist, has already proved that she cleans up nice. Like all young starlets she's been tagged by the paparazzi, drunk and piling into the passenger side -- but at least she keeps her panties on. The favored musical direction for such a young lady in third-album mode would be to extend an olive branch to the pose of maturity: maybe give Linda Perry a ring and plot a return to the muted AAA acoustic ballads that made her sound so precocious on Let Go. You can imagine her handlers gathering round, heaving a collective group sigh, and advising, "Oh, grow up, dahhhhling."

Thank fucking christ that didn't happen.

The new Avril Lavigne single, "Girlfriend," sounds like nothing she's ever done. If anything it's a regression -- or not so much a regression, since this wasn't how she began. Maybe more of a prequel. We're following her back to high school, back to pre-married life, back to a conjuring of a self she's never laid claim to but that, coming after two albums of self-depricating angst, feels like her due. Think of it as her "Milkshake." Meet Avril Lavigne: boystealer, girlfriend-wrecker . . dancehall chatter? The fuck?

Avril's always done her best work in tandem with hotshot writer/producers, and she's never needed good ones more than she does now. The field is ever more crowded, and she's complicit in the success of her biggest rival for teen queen. Heads have mostly forgotten that she co-wrote the title track on Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway, and that Kelly's best-selling single, "Behind These Hazel Eyes," was cut from nearly t