Boston, I love you

I've been a resident of your city for 13 years, and nothing has ever felt more like home.

We are Boston. <3

Let's "Get Lucky": Daft Punk broadcast pop's first Song of the Summer contender

If you know pornography only when you see it, then likewise, you know the annual Song of the Summer when you hear it. Two years ago it was "Midnight City" by M83 (which got a late jump, first surfacing in July 2011) , then last year it was the now-ubitquitous "I Love It" by Sweden's Icona Pop. Hell, "I Love It" is a song so still on fire it threatens to be this year's SOTS for the mainstream (I heard a Boston-area Top 40 DJ call it just that a few days ago, damn, and after the NBC The Today Show appearance and Girls cameo, there's no sign of slowing down).

Well, after this weekend, we have a one-minute glimpse into what is the first contender into the 2013 SOTS sweepstakes: French electronic duo Daft Punk's collab with Pharrell and Nile Rodgers on "Get Lucky," which on Saturday night was teased both on the big screens at Coachella in the California desert and on small screens around the world during Saturday Night Live. Leave it to Daft Punk for stealing Coachella headlines without even performing, and getting late-night SNL viewers all worked up twice now.

Good god of fuck, this is some white-hot stuff. This is massive, a party record barreling toward Earth, and having picked up huge momentum in the last 48 hours. Pop armageddon awaits.

Any why? Because you instantly want more. Cue AT&T girl: "We want more we want more."

Also because the snippet is incredible, and already racking up nearly a million YouTube views.

With all the hype and advance promo, I was just about getting tired hearing about the new Daft Punk record. This immediate wiped away all the annoyance and just enraptured me. I can't wait for May 21, when Random Access Memories is released, via Daft Life Limited/Columbia Records.

Happy 47th birthday to Samantha Fox

Solid day for birthdays today, a pool of blown-candle fun that includes James Franco and Ilya Kovalchuk. But the one that caught my attention, the same way she caught my eye as a pre-pubescent boy growing up on Long Island in the late '80s, is SAMANTHA FOX, who today turns 47 years young. Honestly, I'm kinda surprised is still alive.

Oh, Sam, you taught me a lot about sexuality when I was 10 years old, and I'm still kinda fucked up over it. I always joke that Belinda Carlisle was my first celebrity crush, but Samantha Fox was probably the first woman I ever wanted to sleep with. And I was way too young to be thinking about that kinda shit. Regardless, the top shelf of the magazine rack at the stationary store on Bay Shore Road once held all of my dreams and fantasies hostage.

But beyond that, this is also one of those moments when I look back, think of all the various shades of rock and metal I was listening to at the time (Manowar, Slayer, Skid Row, Faster Pussycat), and wonder if the seeds to my obsession with dance-pop were planted without me even realizing. I had 1988's I Wanna Have Some Fun and 1986's Touch Me on cassette. Then again, Top 40 pop music is easy to listen to when you're beating off to the Spencer's-Gift-bought posters on your wall.

[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...

Whitcomb guitarist overcomes hospitalization to shred the Rumble, plus other thoughts on a drunken, naked, and hair-cutting Night 4

Growing up in the late ‘80s and early 90s, I always tended to love the first song on a cassette’s Side B. It always felt like the best barometer for that album, the band’s real choice to kickstart a string of songs, as opposed to the first track on Side A, which likely was a single selected by the label in order to move units.

With that in mind, the Rock And Roll Rumble kicked off its Side B last night at TT The Bear’s, the second half of preliminary week that continues tonight with a Friday night explosion lineup of White Dynomite, the Suicide Dolls, the Field Effect, and Coyote Kolb.

And it was an explosive re-start with several theatrical subplots: Mount Peru applying a sweet intelligence to crafty roots rock in the opening slot, making us all feel a bit smarter; an eventually victorious Lifestyle attempting to create an electro-pop dance party at a rock fest, showing off veteran pop poise, and charismatic frontman Sean Drinkwater even cutting off his mullet mid-set; and Twin Berlin’s buzzsaw closing tilt, where singer/guitarist Matt Lopez led his ripper garage rock band in stripping down to their underwear (we saw Lopez's bare white ass at the end) and even sharing a between-song kiss with his guitarist. It was definitely the first man-on-man snog of this year’s Rumble, and hopefully won’t be the last.

Oh, then there was the brown-paper-bagged Mystery Bottle at both bars, birthing $3 shot all night (down from $4). I likely drank most of it.

But none of these Thursday night subplots were more impressive and endearing than Whitcomb guitarist Sean Libby holding it down on stage roughly 48 hours after being released from Maine Medical with pneumonia and pericarditis, a serious condition that brings severe chest pain and inflammation around the pericardial sack around the heart. (Vanyaland, MD: I’m not a doctor, but I did stay at a Rock and Roll Rumble last night.)

Last weekend, Libby started to feel ill, coming down with a bronchial infection, fever, chills, and headache. By Monday he was in the hospital.

“I caught a bad cold, and it turned into pneumonia,” Libby told Vanyaland after Whitcomb’s towering metal set, which the TTs stage could barely contain. While his Portland, Maine, bandmates were aggressively blanketing the stage, with Motherboar’s Kenny Irwin joining them at one point for a double-vocal assault, Libby remained still in the far left corner.

“It had no affect,” Libby said of his illness. “I was a bit lightheaded at first at practice. At one point we weren’t sure if we were going to cancel [our Rumble appearance], I thought if I was feeling like this on stage I wasn’t sure. But we really wanted to come down here. We ran through our set twice last night, and by the second time I was feeling better. I woke up this morning and felt a lot better.”

Rumble organized Anngelle Wood told me earlier in the evening that she and the band didn’t want Libby’s illness to have a “sympathy vote” factor with the judges.

But during their 30-minute performance, an odd sound-clash table-setter for Lifestyle’s synthpop, it didn’t matter. Whitcomb’s loud, engaging set was a showcase for what the band does up in Maine, where they take the poems and words of 19th century writer James Whitcomb Riley and create musical themes and storylines set to metal.

Whitcomb confidently previewed new record The Conqueror, out April 20, and one of the EP’s tracks, the magnetic “To A Skull,” was one of the best of the night. They’ll no doubt dust it off again either at next week’s semis (if they secure a wild card slot), or May 11 at their record release party at the Asylum in Maine. They’re also at Ralphs’s in Worcester on June 1.

2013 Rock And Roll Rumble Halftime Report; Night 4 to 6 tonight through Saturday @ TTs

As the Rock and Roll Rumble rages on tonight at TT The Bear’s for Night 4 of the preliminary round, yesterday was the battle’s traditional Day of Rest. And we sure as fuck needed it. The New Highway Hymnal, Camden, and Eddie Japan took home their respective nights, and will move on to next week’s semis, unless one has a gig up at a seafood joint in Gloucester (maybe Eddie Japan could help open one of those new Asian-Latin fusion hotspots up in Salem).

With the day of rest comes a day of reflection, and here’s the Vanyaland Halftime Report. Yeah it should have been posted yesterday, I know. But allow it to not only collect our scattered thoughts on the first three nights, but rev up the rock engine for this evening’s tilt, starring Mount Peru, Whitcomb, Lifestyle, and Twin Berlin. Side note: Being allowed to witness the conquering heavy metal of Whitcomb right before Lifestyle synth-pops us back to 1988 is going to be an aural mindwarp, and proof positive why this whole shebang rules in the first place.

Random thoughts from the Rumble’s first three nights:

1. No reports of anyone getting laid so far at this year’s Rumble, but the T.T. The Bear’s Place microphone was beautifully fellated during Endation’s opening set Monday night. Singer/guitarist Ants Conley, already blessed with the best hair of the tournament, nearly deep-throated the entire fucking thing during their last song, "Medicine Bed." Clearly, the mic was hard and ready to pop: Endation’s relentless set was a 30-minute crunch lesson in how to kick a room’s ass with nothing but furious, impassioned dungeon music, and it was an unsettling wake-up-call experience for the 9pm early-birds. Between Conley and drummer Matt Graber, no two people in Boston sound larger.

2. Extreme never played the Rumble, but Nuno Bettencourt’s nephew now has: Adrian Bettencourt Andrade is the bassist/keyboardist for Herra Terra, who hit synth-rock cruising altitude almost immediately Monday night and never came down. Also I lost a bet when they set up all their gear within the 15-minute changeover.

3. In my A to Z recap earlier this week I mentioned that Lifestyle’s Sean Drinkwater last played a Rumble in 2001 with Freezepop, and that’s might be some sort of intermission record. Of course it wasn’t, this is Boston, where rock music has existed for 329 years. Eddie Japan’s crew took that shit waaaaay back, as guitarist Eric Brosius once Rumbled with Tribe back in 1988 (good grief, Orel Hershiser was President) and guitarist Bart LoPiccolo did the deed with Scattershot in 1990. There were bloggers in the room who weren’t even alive back then.

4. That wasn’t the only connection to Yesteryear: New Hampshire’s Supermachine earned high marks for a hard rock performance that stood out on Tuesday’s slate, issuing a no-nonsense bar rock approach that skillfully ignored any trend of the past 20 years. Singer David Nebbia was a commending presence, but it was equally hard to ignore guitarist Jay Fortin (and his cool hat) and bassist Paul Jarvis, who both played in Scissorfight, a Rumbler of ‘97. Bonus points to Supermachine for having a song called "Pill Cruise." I take mine every week.

5. In the prediction game, Luke O’Neil is two-for-three in picking Rumble winners so far, his only “miss” being that he didn’t pick any winner from Night 3. EDIT: Looks like Eddie Japan just showed up in his "winner picks," so we'll buy his story that he simply forgot to list them at the bottom. In his tl;dr rundown, he says of EJ: Seem like they have the type of sprawling gimmick that usually goes over well. That a much greater endorsement than the simple "no's" he gave the other three, so we'll accept it. Now back to our regular business... Calling Hymnal and Camden I guess bodes well for Ruby Rose Fox, Twin Berlin, The Field Effect, and Coyote Kolb. The latter two both play Friday so folks there’s your Wild Card.

6. We got the first cover of 2013 on Night 3, when Blackbutton bowed before the Cobain Gods and unleashed Nirvana’s “Breed. Much better than bringing the Dropkicks into this.

7. Speaking of Blackbutton, they were also the first band to provide stage visuals, but weren’t supposed to be. Lysergic Factory Lightshow were hired by the New Highway Hymnal to add trippy sights to the band’s psych-punk sounds, but one of its members blew a drama fuse early Sunday night after a dispute with organizers over setting up a merch table. After tossing vulgar insults at the door guy and telling organizer Anngelle Wood they’d See Her Next Tuesday (spoiler alert: he won’t), the Lysergic dudes left and ended any chance of ever stepping foot inside T.T. The Bear’s Place ever again. In related news, the New Highway Hymnal are currently looking for someone to do visuals for their semi-final appearance next week.

8. The rest of Night 1 went off without a hitch, as the Okay Win took on the dirty business of opening the whole joint with a three-guitar indie-pop serenade. Cancer Killing Gemini’s music continues to soundtrack some fucked up knife-fight space-orgy in my head, and Velah delivered a crisp set that recalled shoegaze without letting that one element define the overall thing. Also, Velah's performance furthers Jen Johnson’s place as one of the most gifted vocalists in Boston.

9. Midway through Eddie Japan’s opening number “Pushing Years” on Tuesday, I literally could not tell if lively frontman David Santos was singing in English or Spanish. It ruled.

10. They also had 11 people on stage for their finale, making them the Latin-flavored lounge-pop version of Bang Camaro. Or Polyphonic Spree. Or some other large ensemble band that sounds nothing like Eddie Japan but gets referenced here because music journalism is stupid.

11. A few days ago I went over the importance of having a good song, and the great one that the Deep North performed Monday night. Well Blackbutton has one too in “Still Kids.”

12. Speaking of Night 3, it’s clear that Glenn Yoder can pretty much do no wrong (Except win his night of course, ha!). But the spirited root-rock performance by the former Cassavette and his new Western States was one of my favorites ever for a preliminary round. Yoder’s great song is clear and obvious: the Chevy-baiting Americana jaunt of “Younger Brother” is a pleasurable listen. Bonus points are issued to Yoder’s awesome bassist Cilla Bonnie and her amazing facial expressions. It was a treat watching someone have that much fun on stage.

13. I wasn’t a judge Tuesday night, but I felt like anyone could have taken Night 3, whether it been eventual winners Eddie Japan and their sweat-swinging upbeat pop, the clenched-fist rock of Supermachine, Yoder’s ability to twang in a non-offensive way to folks who just don’t twang, or the gritty grunge guitar pull of Blackbutton, who might have been at a disadvantage going on last Tuesday night, because it was clear the room was fatigued after three impressive performances that ranged the musical spectrum.

14. I was a judge on Monday for Night 2, however, and having the last slot didn’t deter Camden, whose uber-slick brat-rock really stole the show. And that was hard to do with the Deep North, Herra Terra, and Endation all throwing down their own thing. Camden’s songs are as catchy as Tuukka Rask’s glove hand, and no doubt many were singing “Talk talk talk talk / Talking on the telephone” on the rides home to our residential safe spaces.

15. This week rules. Good job, Rumble, good job Boston.

Press paws on this pet project: Boston bands replace musical instruments with cats

Yesterday Boston writer Michelle Buchman passed along a Sports Balls Replaced By Cats tumblr that found many mates on the ol' pitch playing around with kitty instead of that big round thing. Unlike Aston Villa, it was a huge success.

But it seemed Michelle and I had the first thought for a sequel: replacing musical instruments with cats, and allowing Boston to be the first in feline line. Whiskey and boredom is rarely this positive and productive.

Bent Shapes, Quilt, the Field Effect, Speedy Ortiz, Mutual Benefit, Emily Reo, and of course, Michelle -- this meow's for you.

So inspired by my new favorite tumblr, Sports Balls Replaced With Cats (which I will probably forget exists tomorrow) I took some of my favorite Massachusetts area bands and replaced their musical instruments with cats (and one dog, because I like dogs too. Sue me.) Enjoy, everyone. I’m glad my Wednesday evening drinking whisky and photoshopping was well spent.

Final Boston Phoenix "Writers Meeting," tonight @ ZuZu

Today is a Rumble day of rest, but it's also a day of mourning. I'm hosting my final Boston Phoenix "Writers Meeting" tonight at ZuZu in Cambridge. No stories or Top 100 lists or special features to debate and discuss, so we'll all just drink and dance. All are welcome. DJ sets from everydayisamixtape and some PHX peoples.

Hire someone you won't.

[it's free and starts around 10pm]

[awesome video alert] Kingsley Flood "Sun Gonna Lemme Shine" / 05.03.13 @ Brighton Music Hall

Boston roots-rock act KINGSLEY FLOOD have a sweet new music video, premiered today by the fine folks at the AV Club, and it's the best clip of a male character wearing a women's dress since Tim Booth of James messed around with gender roles in 1993's "Laid." In fact, this could very well be a prequel.

If it wasn't for that awesome party at the end where everyone is accepting and having fun and holding hands and participating in what seems like one of those Allston DIY concerts the internet is all about lately, this little kid just might end up as an adult in handcuffs and freaking out over failed relationships at his dirty-ass kitchen table. It's a slippery slope, youth. Even more slippery when pirates are involved. Wait, what?

According to AV, which doesn't really get into the whole pirate thing, the "Sun Gonna Lemme Shine" music video "was inspired by a recent New York Times story about boys wearing dresses and features 25 sassy 7-year-olds who might just have a future in music video acting."

Speaking of futures, the Floods have a bright one on the immediate horizon: they're at Brighton Music Hall on Friday May 3 to celebrate the release of infectious new record Battles (it's a re-sked gig after their first attempt was blizzard'ed out back in February), and they make their Newport Folk Festival debut (read: fuck yes) in July when they arrive in Rhode Island to perform along with the likes of Beck, Feist, the Lumineers, Father John Misty, Amanda Palmer, and others.

Fine work.

In My Head: The Deep North "Wake Up" + the impact of a great song (sorta Rumble recap)

Photo by Chrissy Bulakites

Last night, before having the honor of judging Night 2 of the 2013 Rock And Roll Rumble, I sat on a Rock Shop panel talking to bands about how to get press or spins on the radio. I've participated in this discussion before, both at previous Rock Shops and at Berklee College of Music, and my initial response to the overarching question is basic: "Write a great song." It generally gets some awkward, muffled laughs, until the crowd sees I'm serious.

Want to get your band written about: "Write a great song."

Want to get your band heard on the radio: "Write a great song."

Want to get people, writers, DJ booking agents, groupies, anyone, interested in your band: "Write a great song."

I didn't bust out that line last night (I blame my hangover), but I was immediately reminded of it a few hours later when THE DEEP NORTH took the stage as the second act of Night 2. More on the overall night, and thoughts on Sunday's opener, in my Rumble Halftime Report coming tomorrow, but I'm still struck about how a great song transcends everything, from favoritism to fancy press photos or connections or whatever. After a warm opening song to start their set, the quintet then launched into "Wake Up," a majestic, beautifully polished rock anthem that at its peak is as tall as the sky. Rebecca Frank's vocals are engaging; the song just pulls you in. The night ended up going to Camden, whose bratty, speedball guitar-pop was inspired and slung with ease, but I'm sure the Deep North walked away with a lot of new fans. Actually, the galactic electronic rock of Herra Terra and Endation's raw rock crunch served those bands very well, as well. It was a great night of music at TTs.

But yeah, back to the point: you write a great song, and people will notice. And they did. I included the Deep North in my Boston Phoenix Class of 2013 feature based on this song alone.

And Glenn di Benedetto, fellow judge of last night's Rumble, wrote a few minutes ago on Facebook: "This song right here. In Parlour Bells, I value memorable songwriting often with an infectious pop/rock aesthetic, so when a peer band achieves that so wonderfully I can't help but be in awe of it."

Indeed.