Meh, no big deal, right? I mean, who needs METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH, and ANTHRAX when we here in Boston have BACKSTREET BOYS and the effing NEW KIDS coming to Fenway Park this summer? Take that, House That Steinbrenner built.

Now, while I know there is no love for anything Yankee-related 'round these parts, it would be pretty cool if Mariano Rivera walked on stage to the opening chords of Metallica's "Enter Sandman," as he does before closing out games in the Bronx.

Beneath New England’s long-established hardcore, metal, and indie scenes lies the increasingly vital subculture of noise and power electronics. Once or twice a month, an unsightly, intimidating crowd packs into a dingy basement in Allston or Somerville, where they stand shoulder-to-shoulder and exchange barbed, sidelong glances as they jostle for space at the front.

Bunch of rad shows this week, and so we have a bunch of wet hot American phlipcam action for a gross, muggy day here in Boston. The clip up top features CRAFT SPELLS, which dropped their feel-good summertime jam "After The Moment" early in their set last night at the WZBC Spring Concert at Great Scott in Allston Dance City.

Upon first hearing KAL MARKS, it’s easy to think he’s some train-hopping troubadour from a far-away, land-locked region of the country. But the layered-and-looped strains of rickety plugged-in folk and blues on his original bedroom recordings were actually the creation of a twentysomething Allston dude who frequently plays local DIY spaces.

Mount Peru are at the Middle East Upstairs this Friday

Seems like we just can't get any love from our Best National nominees. (Only one, Wiz Khalifa, makes a stop in town this week.) But that's ok, we know they're busy. We'll just hang with all the Boston acts working hard for those Best votes all week long.

Gang Gang Dance: July 8 @ Brighton Music Hall

On Sale Friday, April 29

Prince Royce | June 12 at the House of Blues, Boston | $37.50-$50 | On sale at 10 am @ livenation.com

The Goo Goo Dolls | Jul y 19 at the Bank of America Pavilion, Boston | $20-$45 | On sale at 10 am @ livenation.com

Tim McGraw + Luke Bryan + The Band Perry | July 24 at the Comcast Center, Mansfield | $23.

Before I moved to Boston seven years ago, I knew more about the local rap scene than most outsiders, but my knowledge was still limited to cats who were making big splashes on the greater subterranean scene. No doubt that among that exalted group of exports were the Porn Theatre Ushers, an MC-producer duo that brought something entirely new and even different.

I don't even know where to begin with the new video from HOORAY FOR EARTH. Honestly, this "True Loves" clip, which premiered today on P4K, might be the best music video since god-damn "November Rain." NOVEMBER FUCKING RAIN. It was created by Young Replicant, a Los Angeles- based production team of directors Alex Takacs, Joe Nankin, and Hermes Trismegistus.

I'm rolling downhard Lazy Avenue and re-posting my blurb from 8 Days A Week, an excuse to hype tonight's show in Allston RC and post these two videos, which have been on a constant loop pretty much since getting back from SXSW a few months ago. One hell of a show, this one.

Just when we were about to anoint Foster the People’s "Pumped Up Kicks" as the official Summer Jam 2k11, along comes CRAFT SPELLS with their tropical indie love letter "After the Moment."

They made it: Almost.

What was supposed to be an eight-hour ninja album session at Mad Oak Studios -- christened #8in8 on Twitter, a hashtag that went on to become the name of the internet's newest supergroup -- went well past the allotted curfiew of midnight.

This morning the cool, classy cats in MYSTERY ROAR released a smooth new single, "Overboard," available for the name-yo'-price download over on Bandcamp. The release also features a break-down remix of their dope jam "Fantasies," courtesy of Tuck Digz, who can be found around town drumming like a beast for Cambridge sky-gaze trio Endless Wave.

Holy shit remember a few years ago when BANG CAMARO blew up Harvard Square at the MayFair party? There are now confused single-parented 3-year-olds walking up and down Mass Ave because of that performance. If you missed it, peep the video above, then clear your Sunday slate this weekend for the 28th annual MayFair in Cambridge, a pretty decent offering of local rock (they often are, we have to admit) and musical sideshow attractions.

I first encountered "Oh Bondage, Up Yours!" on one of those punk compilations pervasive in the early '90s. To a miserable 14-year-old trying desperately to identify with something, anything, most of the songs cluttering the CD seemed like medicine -- strangely aggressive, somewhat boring initiation rites on the way to bona-fide punkrockerdom.

Just a little more than a year ago we dubbed party-starters Provocateur an "eroti-pocalyptic electro-pop juggernaut." Last March's Bad Blood & Brushfire was a moody, hyper-synth'd taxicab ride connecting the slick dance floors of Allston, Cambridge, and Jamaica Plain to the seedy afterparties that kept the glittery nights alive.

Fair warning: we haven't been keeping track since the beginning, but we think AMANDA PALMER, BEN FOLDS, OKGO's DAMIAN KULASH, and NEIL GAIMAN are about four songs into their 8-songs-in-8-hours recording session up at MAD OAK STUDIOS in Allston.