Hotline vs Seamless

Another day, another Hotline column: Cassavettes alive, Piebald farewell, big ticket concerts coming to Boston.

Also, tonight Queen B and I are going to the Seamless: Computational Couture fashion show at the Museum of Science. It's already sold out, so it might be fun, though I'm skeptical about this "wearable technology" tagline. Maybe Boston should worry about "wearable anything" before looking to the future. BUt hey, Steven from Project Runway 4 is emcee, and Red Sox pitcher Manny Decarmen is one of the models. We'll see.

House of Blues coming to Boston

Patrick Lyons is selling off his Lansdowne Street Music Hall project to the House of Blues. Here's my story. Apparently, my reporting led the Lyons Group to tip off the Globe, who then was spoonfed details by the (former) nightlife giant. So if you want to read the news exactly how Lyons wants you to digest it, go buy the Boring Broadsheet.

Who said Cam Janssen can't score?

Welcome back Cam, we missed you. Now get Mike Rupp off the Devils' 4th line and go beat someone's ass. Then hit the clubs with Johnny Oduya and get some ass.

Spin AOTD: The Bell

Green Light Go publicity turned me on to The Bell, a haunting new Swedish trio that sound something like the Chameleons while sprinkled with Mew's pixiedust. "Make Some Quiet" is a really incredible album for the winter misery, and you can read my further raves today in my Artist of the Day feature for Spin.com.

Rambo IV Kill Chart

Eddie Murphy can see the future

We all know that the New York Giants defeated the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Title Game by kicking a game-winning field goal in OT. But what few realized was that Eddie Murphy very specifically predicted this victory 20 years ago. Craziness (Thanks to Phil Ferro for the hookup)

Best Buy is all over this shit

Don't get me wrong, I've made a few "10 Pills I Took Without You" and "Addicted to crack since Brokeback Mountain" jokes this morning, but there's something so utterly ghetto fabulous about Best Buy printing out a memo on an 8.5x11 page and throwing Heath Ledger's DVDs on a blue-cloth draped table near store entrances.


Props to Esh on Lemmingtrail for the picage

If it's in the papers...

Busy week so far on the newsroom homefront:

-- New Lansdowne Street venue delayed, Lyons Group mum on the matter : Few know what the deal is, but the replacements for Avalon and Axis won't open until the baseball playoffs begin, at the earliest.
-- Acton Jazz Cafe set to re-open, with boost from community : Gwenn Vivian closed up last week, but musicians rallied and a weekend of benefits is in store.
-- Hotline Wednesday: Dropkicks Departed guitarist; All Points West Fest; Rock of Love's Heather at Felt : All the news that's shit to print.

Why So Serious?

Heath Ledger dead, damn

I'm no Walter Kronkite with this item, but yes, it appears Heath Ledger is actually dead. I've been looking forward to the new Batman probably more than anyone, but if anyone starts equating the Crow with the Joker I'm going to go all Renfro on everybody and lose it. That movie will in fact rule, but now shit's gonna get blown WAY out of proportion.

RIP to a good actor, and fairly sexy dude. Seemed like a nice guy. Now, why can't Amy Winehouse just die already. (Why am I being told an Olsen twin is ionvolved in Ledger's death? Perez? What?)

Norwegian post punk invades Allston

For years, Norway was known for two things: 1) being that "other country" in Scandinavia, and 2) the home of inspirational hockey player Espen "Shampoo" Knutsen. Well, now they got a noisy post-punk band with a cool, death metal-like name to add to the frigid resume. They're called Ungdomskulen, and they're at O'Brien's tonight with the Perennials. Might hit this up if the lady ends up working late.

The Coachella 2008 Vanya List

As expected, the Coachella Festival lineup was announced late last night (read my ponderings in today’s Herald).

You can peep the whole shebang here, but here’s my immediate must-see list: The Verve, Does it Offend You Yeah?, Midnight Juggernauts, Reverend & the Makers, Boyz Noise, MGMT, New Young Pony Club, Justice, The Field and Sons & Daughters, a band whose CD I received yesterday and just learned was produced by Suede’s Bernard Butler. Interesting.

So it's a very electro-heavy festival for me this year. Or maybe my tastes are directing me away from Joe Jackson and Roger Waters. Boo hoo.

Legendary sports run in Boston

The Boston Globe has a great photo essay detailing Boston sports teams' collective record since the Red Sox lost Game 4 of the ALCS. Well, the Sox, Patriots and Celtics have played 57 games since that cold night in Cleveland back on Oct. 16, and have won a jaw-dropping 51 of them.

Yeah, a 51-6 record since Oct. 16.

In other news: Remember when Boston had a hockey team?

Portishead to play Coachella 2008

Though the official line-up won't be announced until tomorrow, URB Magazine is reporting that UK trip hop duo Portishead will headline this summer's Coachella Festival in Indio, California.

Radiohead has also to have been rumored to take part in Coachella, but word is the band will headline an East Coast version of the two-day festival, held at New Jersey's Liberty State Park across the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan. Organized by Goldenvoice/AEG Live, the "Coachella: East" will operate under different nomenclature. Here's hoping My Bloody Valentine is included in tomorrow's "Coachella: West" news, making a Portishead/MBV a worthy headline team and further confirming Max Infomation's notion that we as a culture are sentenced to relive the '90s for all eternity.

Regardless, this is exciting shit, as I haven't seen Portishead since 1997 at Hammerstein Ballroom, and I will forever hate myself for passing up tickets to see Beth Gibbons and Geoff Barrow at the Roseland a year later, when they performed with an orchestra on the floor and recorded a live album and DVD. But the Hammerstein show was among the best I've ever seen.

Also worth noting is that a new Portishead album is expected to arrive in April. Though without a proper title, a bunch of new songs were performed in December at the All Tomorrow's Parties fest in England, including "Wicca," "Mystic," and "Machine Gun." It was Portishead's first live performance in a decade, and the new album will be the first of new material since the eponymous album dropped in 1997.

Gay for Johnny Depp's "Belief in God is So Adorable"

Video of the Day accolates extend to NYC experimental hardcore band Gay for Johnny Depp, whose video for "Belief in God is so Adorable" is pretty fucking Anton Corbijnesque. I keep waiting for David Gahan to jump up, screaming something about feelin' me. Now I do prefer the GFJD songs sung in falsetto over the maniacal screaming, so clearly I mark this as their best release yet. Dead-sexy shit for your unsexy Friday afternoon.

Grab some dirty lube and check the video here on YouTube: Gay for Johnny Depp's Belief in God is So Adorable.

Acton Jazz Cafe closes, and other Hotlines

Another music venue rises to the great big amplitheater in the sky, as the Acton Jazz Cafe has suddenly closed. It's come about this morning that the "financial difficulties" I reported in today's story are ultimately tax-related. And to think, I've been spending time in the northwest area as of late. Looks like I'm regulated to Papa Razzi when summoned up to the sticks to see the lady.

Other highlighted stuff from this week, perhaps my most productive in months:

- From Thursday: Roxy capacity hearing delayed, TTs is the new ManRay, Mission of Burma tickets for auction
- From Wednesday: Redline gets jazzed, Lyons VP Elevates, Deep Blue Comeback?
- From Tuesday: JUstice gig undersells Boston market, Rock of Love II notes

Anyone need a vagina couch?

If anyone is in the market for a hand-made Vagina Couch, please give Miss Willow of Mendocino, California, a buzz as soon as possible. But be warned, it's "stained." Here is the full listing, from Craig's List San Francisco:

For Sale - beautiful pink "vagina couch" that I made in art school and no longer have space for. The couch is large: measures 5' 3" long, 3' 3" wide at the middle, and stands 2' 3" tall (and is heavy like a couch). The pics are from my portfolio and are several years old; as a result, the couch has some scuffmarks and stains around the bottom from being moved, but otherwise is in excellent shape. A professional upholsterer helped me build the couch, so it is also functional and durable as a piece of furniture. The couch must be picked up in Mendocino, a 3-hour drive north of SF. I am asking for $600 and a loving home! Call Willow at 802 579 9456 or reply to posting.

RIP Brad Renfro

Sad news, as Brad Renfro is dead, according to TMZ. Renfro was 25, and was most known for his roles in Bully, Apt Pupil, and my personal favorite movie of all time, Ghost World. Rumors are this was drug related. Bummer.

Apparently he just finished filming the movie version of Bret Easton Ellis' "The Informers," which if faithful to the book of random stories should center around drug abuse (and, uh, vampires).

Band of the Month: Passion Pit

If you’ve stood near me for three seconds in the past few days, surely I’ve doused your monocle with spooge over Cambridge’s Passion Pit, some out-of-nowhere indie-synth dance shazz that I’ve had on steady repeat since Brenda at Great Scott schooled me last week.

It might just be my elevated state of mind, or the attachment “I’ve Got Your Number” has seemed to take towards a new ladyfriend (still <3 that chorus), but outside of that one dope MGMT song, I don’t think I’ve listened to anything else since Friday night. And, during last call at the pill, I may have drunkenly told everyone to go home and continue the dance party in their bedrooms while listening to the ‘Pit. It happens.

The sound can be described as anything from "Off the Wall"-era Michael Jackson to lo-fi synthpop to sparkling big beat party jams for hot summer days on the asphalt playground. Who the fuck knows, I hate describing things. Just listen to it, and you’ll see it doesn’t sound like anything else brewing here in frigid New England. Rumor has it the singer, the piercingly falsetto’d Michael Angelakos, wrote and recorded the entire EP in one night as a present to his girlfriend, restoring innocent hope throughout the jagged land.

Oh, and they’re live at the pill March 7, but I assure you I fell in love before I booked the show. They’re also at Great Scott next Saturday with the Basstown crew, so roll on that. It’s exciting times in the oh-eight, and now I have the soundtrack to it (No wonder I was listening to the Libertines to close out 2007, and now I’m all tripped out smiley-faced on this shim-sham of wonderment).

Back on the scene, crispy and clean

Back from vacation! Spent in sunny Allston and various pitstops across the greater Boston area. What a week.

Clearly, 2008 is already shaping up to be an incredible year, and within 15 days I think I’ve smiled, laughed and felt ASOA (all sorts of awesome) more than I had in the dormant, cash-in-your-dreams year of 2007.

Between a torrid love-affair-turned-sudden-relationship, the freedom to roll how I pleased and the pressures of work evaporated from above, it was truly a week for the ages. I was going to keep a running blog of the full-frontal awesome that bore all before me each sunny day, but I elected to steer clear of any real writing. I will say that on Wednesday afternoon, watching a Britpop video hour on MTV2 followed by Game 2 of the Devils-Wings ’95 Stanley Cup Finals (THe game where Scott Stevens almost killed Slava Kozlov) on the NHL Network was pure bliss. Not a highlight, because of those there were several, but definitely a fine moment. For a while, I thought that all that was broadcast during the day while I’m in the newsroom were the original Star Wars trilogy, Britpop videos and Devils highlights. But maybe it was just my week.

Other thoughts:

- Caught the premiere of Rock of Love II last night, and I’m already petitioning it to be renamed "Cock of Love," because half these broads are men. Aubry looks like a cross between a space alien and a beat-up version of Stevie Rachelle of Tuff, and Angelique *has* to be a dude. Kristy Joe and Megan are sure-fire finalists, but Megan had already won "Beauty & the Geek 3," so what the fuck is that about? I am psyched that Lacey, Heather and Rodeo all come back to kick some tranny ass in the coming weeks.

- If you have a spare bag of izm laying around, go rent Smiley Face. Basically, Anna Faris spends an hour-plus being stoned off her head, trying to get to Venice to repay a dealer, and the shenanigans that ensue are sure to cement the flick as a pothead classic. It was directed and produced by Greg Araki, which gets me all gooey as I’m one of the few people who absolutely loved "Nowhere," "Doom Generation," and even fucking "Splendor." The Karate Kid’s Billy Zabka even makes a cameo.

- I’m hearing Justice tickets sold out in an hour, and now they’re on shit like StubHub for as high as $212. Jesus Christ, already. But hey, I think I paid $30 to see Fischerspooner at Irving Plaza in 2001, so I guess it's all relative. At least I'm guest listed for this.

Vaykay break II: new pill flyer

A new year at the pill means new parties, new shows and new flyers, and the first of 2008 features the lovely miss Erin Murder, shot by me (and my badass new camera) in the Barrows West. xo the pill

Vaykay break: Justice in Boston

I'm taking a break from doing nothing to post this, because fuck me, vacation just keeps getting better. French electro house duo Justice is hitting the fucking Dise this March:

Saturday March 15, 2008
MySpace Music Tour featuring
Justice with Busy P and Fancy
doors at 8 PM; 18+ show - ON SALE 1/12 at NOON


photo from elchicodelaleche's flickr

More to come in a day or two... Vacation has ruled pretty hard, and I'm suddenly in love with life again. Sweet 2008. xo.

Vacation!

For the first time in ages, I have a week's worth of vacation. Aside from getting Lola spayed Monday morning, I really don't have any plans, though I'm debating going down to Newark on Tuesday to see the Devils in the new barn. That is all. To quote Peter from Office Space, "I did nothing, and it was everything I ever thought it could be."

Someone get my first-ever crush Belinda Carlisle on the line...

28 Degrees Taurus

One of my fav new local bands is 28 Degrees Taurus, who release an EP tonight at Great Scott (and a full-length Feb. 7 at TTs). Get the deets on this pretty damn epic shoegazing trio, which combine Slowdive and Sonic Youth with traditional Japanese folk music, in today's Herald column. I'm going to try to swing by the show after Skye and I hit up Pyotr's gig at Church, my new favorite venue in the Fens.

Also, I am on vacation in two days. Things are looking up up up...

Sing-Sing call it a day, fuel Lush reunion speculation

British indie-pop outfit Sing-Sing (starring guitarist Emma Anderson from Lush) have called it quits after two albums, the first of which, 2001’s “The Joy of Sing-Sing,” should have vaulted the sugar-pop gals onto mainstream radar. While they’re still the best band to be named after a correctional facility, I maintain that “Panda Eyes” is still one top tune, and it far outpaces anything Miki Berenyi has done in this crazy ol’ post-Lush world. I was constantly awaiting that Sing-Sing breakout single, but it never came. The official word from Emma and vocalist Lisa O’Neill:

"After 10 mostly very happy but sometimes very difficult years we have decided to 'call it a day' (i.e. end) with Sing-Sing. In 2006 Emma moved to Brighton, East Sussex where she is involved in music publicity and last year Lisa wed her long-term partner Run Wrake, moved to the Kent countryside and is enjoying her newly found freedom as a mum and freelance graphic designer. Even Mark van Hoen, our erstwhile producer, is moving to the USA later in 2008."

The notice ends with this teaser, no doubt worded to get the remaining handful of Lush fans all worked up:

"As for the future musically? Well, never say 'never'...... Emma has some plans regarding her next move so if you are interested in that then please stay on this mailing list as 2008 might have something very exciting in store."

Very exciting, eh? Like exciting as in "Oh lovely, another indie record," or exciting as in "HOLY SHIT LUSH IS BACK TOGETHER?!?!" Time will tell, but if we’re getting new My Bloody Valentine material in 2008, how can a reformed Lush be far behind?