[tomorrow in allston] Burglary Years, live at the pill @ Great Scott 04.26.13

Back in February, Boston was hit with a blizzard. It was a Friday, and the storm was expected to peak early Saturday morning; but by 8pm that night, it was a total white-out. After talking with Tim the Great Scott bar manager and my DJ partner, Ken, we decided to open the venue and host our weekly dance party, the pill. We made it free, and figured we'd draw a few dozen cabin-fever folks who lived within a few blocks. It was a pretty cool night, much more subdued than usual, much more a gathering than crazy ol' dance party. We all joked that regardless of what happens in Boston, nothing prevents the pill, a party going on 16 years, from hosting its Friday night.

Fast forward to a few months later, and this past Friday we decided to not open. Great Scott remained closed, the pill did not happen (I can't remember the last time that was the case -- maybe September of 1997?). We decided, out of respect to what was happening around Boston, that it was no night for celebrating, even as people hit the streets to misguidedly chant "USA! USA!" It felt like the Pats won the Super Bowl.

So with all that in mind, we are really excited to get back in the saddle tomorrow night. DJ Ken and I will spin the dance party, and we're joined by one of my favorite new Boston bands, BURGLARY YEARS. Check them out below, and our weekly pill promo and a live clip follows after the jump.

::: the pill
::: friday, april 26 :::
::: burglary years :::
back in action with one of our city's finest new modern rock bands; we love you, boston

Boston, how goes it? Thanks to everyone for understanding why there was no event this past Friday, even after the manhunt ended and things settled down. Yes, people were out "celebrating" around when we usually open doors, but we didn't share that particular mindset.

But we’re already looking ahead to this week, and we're back in action this Friday, April 26, with a live set from Boston modern rock band Burglary Years, one of the finest new acts to catch our attention in 2013. Michael V first saw them at T.T. The Bear’s Place in February on a bill with Beach Fossils and Orca Orca, and since then the band’s blissfully detached 2012 demo has been on constant rotation, both on WFNX (RIP) and our personal playlists, and in particular their swirling, dusty single “Lifesaver.” Check out a live clip of it from their November show at the Democracy Center in Cambridge below.

Burglary Years, which feature ex and current members of underground acts like Circe, Debaser, Maura, and more, have been described as everything from dream-pop to shoegaze, but we hear equal traces of shared heroes the Smiths, Cure, and Jesus & Mary Chain in their engaging and warm sound. We even suspect the band’s name derives from the 1998 Morrissey compilation album, but we haven’t been able to confirm such rash suspicions.

As the band prepares a split 7-inch with Procession and a debut LP on Ohio indie label Mayfly Records, we’re beyond excited to have them join us this Friday at the pill.

DJ Ken & Michael V spin the modern indie dance party before and after the band. Yes, it's okay to dance. These are our times. We love you, Boston. xo

[in my head] Jagwar Ma "Man I Need (White Label Version)"

As someone who still spins Britpop songs well into 2013 (the pill, yo, plug plug), it doesn't take much to get me excited about music that harkens back to the Madchester Era. So naturally, it took about 20 seconds of this new single from Australian duo JAGWAR MA to work me up into a mad-fer-it frenzy. All our friends are here -- traces of Primal Scream, the Mondays, the Roses, Andy Weatherall, Ashcroft -- just getting down under to one of the slickest beats we've heard outside the EDM world.

No Boston date yet, but my spies say our city's talent-buying crew have already made contact with Windish, their US agency.

Sweet Mary this is the new Anglophile anthem... especially right before the six-minute mark, when it all goes hazy. From the pill here in Boston to Popscene and the Queen Is Dead out in San Francisco, this needs to own modern indie dance floors this summer. You know, after the Daft Punk & Pharrell joint, of course.

Bump it...

And while we're here, let's check out their first single, "The Throw."

[tonight in allston] The Milling Gowns @ the pill

Excited to welcome The Milling Gowns to the pill tonight, a nice gloomy post-punk/pop session fit for a rainy spring Friday night. Check out the promo bio from the pill boston dot com, and see you in a few hours at Great Scott.

The Gowns' 2012 EP Something Dangerous Loves Me was one of my favorite releases of last year...

[tomorrow in allston] LOVELIFE, ex-Viva Brother, live @ the pill at Great Scott

It is what is it, it is what it is, but I kinda loved Viva Brother, even got them on the phone with the Phoenix when "Darling Buds of May" hit the scene a few years ago. So I'm excited to host Lee Newell's new band Lovelife live at the pill boston tomorrow night at Great Scott. Check out the "Your New Beloved" music video, premiered on MTV Hive, and then promo from the pill boston dot com after the jump.

friday, march 29

LOVELIFE

lee from viva brother + ally from mirrors reintroduce a smooth electronic pop vision

Lee Newell is a pop phenom. After clutching the UK Indie world by the popped-collar throat a few years ago with Britpop revivalists Viva Brother, the Slough-to-Brooklyn vocalist and songwriter has resurfaced with the smooth synth-pop sounds of LOVELIFE, which makes it’s Boston debut with a love gig at the pill this Friday.

Newell apparently has left loud bombast of grit-pop behind in London, and now the New Yorker teams with with Ally Young of Mirrors for LOVELIFE electronic r&b leanings of LOVELIFE. Recent EPs El Regresso and the Fourth Floor -- both available for free download at the LOVELIFE homepage -- have reintroduced Newell to the world, but his keen sense of melody and smart saccharine pop are still well intact. Songs like “Your New Beloved” (check out the music video above) and “She Makes It Look So Easy” are sultry synthpop Jams with a capital J, a city-scraped soundtrack of back-alley afterparties and Sunday morning hangovers. It’s a natural evolution, and LOVELIFE now finds Newell comfortable in his new skin.

“The fact is, if I was successful from those Brother songs I would be unhappy,” Newell told the Guardian last year after their split. “But I’m here now and I’m not successful, but I am happy. I don’t strive to be the biggest band in the world any more. I just strive to write, be with my best friends as much as I can, and if music will one day pay for that, that would be amazing." But he cautions: “When everyone tells you you’re the next best thing, you go one of two ways. You either start believing it or you fight it. And I went with it.”

In a somewhat coincidental twist, this is the second straight week the pill’s theme involves artists sued over their names: last week was our hugely successful Suede Nite, which this week’s party with LOVELIFE brings to mind Newell changing his former band’s name from Brother to Viva Brother a few years ago after an Australian band cried foul. I guess that’s better than a jazz singer.

In any event, see you Friday: pill resident DJs Ken and Michael V spin the modern indie dance party before and after the band. Look sharp xx the pill

[tonight in somerville] Appomattox @ Radio, with Soccer Mom, Future Carnivores, and Tartufi

A few weeks ago I wandered into Great Scott just after dinnertime one weekday and an old APPOMATTOX record was playing from behind the bar. I hadn't heard from the band in a while after they left Boston for the shittier pastures of New York several years ago, but I was immediately struck by the guitar-pop greatness their mid-2000s song "Either Way." Shit, I think I booked them at the pill way back when (2006?) based on this song alone, calling them "Fugazi with higher ambitions." Well, either way it's ok, because "Either Way" is a total jam and still holds up, hookier than a Joy Division bassist.

Now Nick Gaynier and his crew are back in town for the first time in at least a year, a sort-of homecoming tonight at Radio in Somerville, with a fresh batch of new-to-us songs and more of the kinetic rock-pop energy that gave us the same rush back in the mid-2000s that those sweet 5-Hour Energy Boost bottles do now. Without charging us $3.49 for each high.

Also on tonight's bill are Vanya noise-mongering faves Soccer Mom, the rock romanticists Future Carnivores -- they have a new video for "What's Unbelievable" that is worth your time -- and San Francisco's Tartufi, who I haven't a clue about outside these props from Spin. Solid bill all around.

Here's a new track from Appomattox, called "Radiator." Ask them to play it tonight.

[tonight in allston] Suede Nite @ the pill

Good Friday rolls around every year, but a great Friday in which Suede's debut LP celebrates its 20th anniversary is a very unique experience. So as the stars align in this Boston nuclear sky, the pill raises a glass to the legendary UK rock band tonight at Great Scott. DJ Ken and I supply the dance party, and we'll feature two live tribute sets to Brett Anderson and the boys. Things are happening. Here's the promo gospel from the pill boston dot com, and apologies for the blatant lyrical references.

friday, march 29

suede nite 

paying tribute to the 20th anniversary of suede’s debut record with live sets from the london pravda and the suedeheads

What does it take to turn you on? Twenty years ago, as it does today, it was Suede’s brash blitzkrieg of a debut album that took us over. Released on March 29, 1993 and having kickstarted the UK’s Cool Britannia revolution that raised two fingers up to the frowny face of grunge, it was Suede’s hyper-sexualized modern glam rock record that shaked to the trumpet in spawning singles like “Metal Mickey,” "The Drowners,” and “Animal Nitrate.”

As fate would have it, two decades later Suede are again igniting a dormant British rock scene, as their brilliant sixth studio album Bloodsports just last week crashed the Top 10 of the UK pop charts. This Friday, the pill salutes one of its favorite bands with two ultra-unique live tribute sets: one from the London Pravda, who walk in beauty like the night and reprise their glammed-out early-‘90s Suede spin initially launched at our 2006 Halloween show; and an electronic-pop turn from the Suedeheads (featuring Sean Drinkwater of Freezepop/Lifestyle) which was conceived in the late-‘90s and has not performed live since.

To celebrate all this love and poison, the London Pravda this week released a cover of Suede’s lost 1996 b-side ballad “Another No One,” and a few weeks ago the Suedeheads posted a startling psycho-for-drum-machine synth-pop romp of the immortal “Stay Together.”

Further augmenting the night as high as the council estates that shine like the morning, resident DJs Ken and Michael V will add extra flash dashes of hit-bit-shaking Britpop classics to our dance party sets, and we’ll screen the Suede music video DVD, Lost in TV, propping up the bar (it looks so easy) with appropriate visuals.

Also be sure to check out Michael V’s exclusive interview with Suede’s Brett Anderson in one of the very last issues of the Boston Phoenix (RIP), where the legendary frontman discusses getting his demon back, the art of the comeback after an 11-year absence, and how Bloodsports truly is the record that should have followed Coming Up in the late-‘90s.

So join this Friday at Great Scott in Allston for Suede Nite at the pill, like big stars in the back seat, like skeletons ever so pretty. Look sharp – because we’re young, because we’re gone. xoxo the pill

[easter tradition] Spinning 'I Am The Resurrection' by the Stone Roses @ the pill

When a dance party exists for more than 15 years, like the pill in Boston has every Friday since 1997, weird little traditions emerge. One of my favorites arrives on Good Friday, Easter weekend, when DJ Ken and I, and before me at the Upstairs Lounge, DJ Jen, close the night with The Stone Roses' "I Am The Resurrection." We'll likely dust it off tomorrow night at Great Scott for our Suede Nite party.

Shout out to our boy JC.

Shit gets me every time.

the pill 03.22.13: The Floating Heads EP release dance party, tonight @ Great Scott

It's been two weeks since I've been able to spin at the pill, and one week since I lost my job. So it's pretty fucking obvi that I'm looking forward to tonight's dance party, which features added electro-pop stylings from The Floating Heads. Thanks to Chris Ewen for holding it down for me last week, and you can dance to his sets every Saturday night at Heroes at TT The Bear's.

Here's the promo gospel for tonight's party, from the pill boston dot com:

***

The Floating Heads are ready for their close up. The Boston electro-pop duo of Jessica Sun Lee and Leo White have a bit of a history around town, and with each other. Besides being, well, married, they’ve been known for musical dalliances in our city and beyond, showing up here and there with the likes of Stereo Soul Future, Secret Satellites, and most notably, at least to our modern indie dance party, indie rock glitter-slingers the Sun Lee Sunbeam.

The ‘Beam was a frequent guest of the pill for many years, celebrating a few record releases and even performing as Elastica at our 2008 Halloween party. Now, Jessica has traded her guitars for synths and a bass, and after initially launching the Floating Heads as a bedroom-born solo project, she’s enlisted Mr. White for added textures and increased depth in their glossy electronic banger compositions (hey, it’s better than newlywed house chores) that will be a perfect complement to our dance party structure. Together, Sun Lee and White re-polished the Floating Heads' earliest tracks and present them to the masses this Friday at the pill.

Sizzling fuzz-bombs like “Beautiful Girls,” “Sundown,” and especially “Lifelike Living” were a favorite of Michael V’s Boston Accents radio show on WFNX (RIP), the latter earning Song of the Day honors and added acclaim and fanfare. And speaking of Michael V, he’s back in town this week, returning to the pill booth alongside DJ Ken after a week at SXSW down in Austin.

Friday’s release party with the Floating Heads kicks off a four-week stretch of live guests at the pill, including next week’s Suede Nite with the London Pravda and Suedeheads, the Boston debut of Lovelife (ex-Viva Brother and Mirrors) on April 5, then the atmospheric post-punk of the Milling Gowns on April 12. Spring is nearly here, and the pill is ready to bloom again.

Look sharp xo the pill

VAN002: The New Highway Hymnal Boston + New York record release parties

The best new rock and roll band is not only on my own VANYA RECORDS, but they are also releasing their debut 7-inch this weekend at the Pill in Boston and Public Assembly in Brooklyn. Prepare for liftoff with THE NEW HIGHWAY HYMNAL.

Vanya Records launches in September; VAN001: Bearstronaut "Moniker/Shannon" 7-inch

Been awfully quiet on the Vanyaland front, and for good reason: Things are still fantastic at the "day job," as music editor of the Boston Phoenix, the Pill is still banging out the modern indie dance party every Friday at Great Scott, and lastly, I've decided to start a small boutique record label out of my bedroom, releasing my awesome friends' awesome music digitally and on vinyl.

Ladies and germs, I present to you: Vanya Records.

The first release: "Moniker/Shannon" gold vinyl 7-inch by Boston's post-pop electronic quartet Bearstronaut, a dance-centric group I've long been fond of and no stranger to the Pill (several live appearances, "Wire" release party, The Rapture @ Pill Halloween 2k10). The record -- VAN001 -- drops this September.

Listen to the track here.

the pill ::: Summer of Shitshow 2k11 with Girlfriends (07.29) + THe Hush Now (08.12)

new pill flyers, new shows: Dirty Bombs, Rituals

Oh hai. Once again, here's where I blow my written loads -- The Boston Phoenix and On The Download. And yes, the Pill still happens every Friday night at Great Scott.

Coming up @ le pill...

protokoll 04.01.11

YES.

Feb. 18: Pulp Vs Michael Jackson Nite @ the pill

To mark the 15th anniversary of Jarvis Cocker storming the '96 Brit Awards stage to protest the God complex displayed by a performing Michael Jackson, we at the pill have decided to have our second battle on Feb. 18: Pulp vs Jacko.

It follows last year's heralded Blur Vs Oasis dance floor throwdown, which commemorated the 15th anniversary of the dual release of singles "Country House" and "Roll With It," respectfully. Oasis won that battle, for the record.

Expect a shitfuckton of Pulp, and a fair shake of early Michael Jackson to counter the Britpop razzmatazz. Honestly, this should be an interesting night, and while the pill has never played a Jacko tune before (except on Halloween where we sometimes bust out Thriller), we're willing to open up the playlist in the name of the battle. Here's the flyer, and actual video of the incident follows after the poster jump.

The Pill wins a 2010 Boston Music Award

Named Best DJ/Dance Night in the 2010 BMAs. Love you, Boston xoxox

the pill :: december 2k10

Photo shot by Michael V.
Flyer designed by Michael V.
Peter Saville worship by Michael V.

Boston Music Awards 2010

Hey ho, the pill is nominated for a BMA in the Best DJ/Dance Night category. Public voting runs until Monday. Yeah, I could've posted this a bit earlier. No, there isn't a Facebook event page. Win or lose, I'll be drunk at the Liberty Hotel on Dec. 5.

pill update: Mystery Roar 12.10 and pi'11 NYE

Here's some upcoming events at the pill as we head towards NYE pi'11, including Mystery Roar on Dec. 10 and New Year's Eve with Freezepop and Videodrome Discotheque... Weekly updates are at the pill boston dot come, where you can also sign up for the Thursday night mailer.

(Miss you, Vanyalanders -- in this crazy new world order, my rants, writings and music and dance party ragtime can be found in the pages of the Boston Phoenix each week and online at On The Download at thephoenix.com. xo).

Halloween 2010

It's baaaack. Advance tickets on sale Saturday via greatscottboston.com:



The pill Halloween Show history:

2009: The Daily Pravda as Radiohead, Televandals as the Clash, The Honors as The Smiths and Lindsey Starr & The Chemical Smiles as the Sounds

2008: The Perennials as the Strokes, Wonderful Spells as the Kinks, the Sun Lee Sunbeam as Elastica

2007: The Daily Pravda as David Bowie, Mako as the Stone Roses, the Lie Society as Blur and the Perennials as the Libertines

2006: Lifestyle as New Order, the Daily Pravda as Suede, the 8mm Fuzz as Echo & the Bunnymen

2005: Emergency Music as the Velvet Underground, Protokoll as Bauhaus, the Chainletter as Joy Division

2004: The Information as Depeche Mode, the Bon Savants as Pulp, Emergency Music as Blur, the Cignal as Primal Scream

2003: The Information as the Cure, the Cignal as the Happy Mondays

08.13.10: Blur vs Oasis Nite @ the pill

Oh hey, this is coming up (pardon the Suede pun)... To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Country House vs Roll with it, the pill -- who else? -- hosts an epic dance floor battle between Blur and Oasis jams, with other assorted Britpop gems tossed in the mix while the two combatants show off their videos on the big screen. Modern life is supersonic.