[tomorrow in ??????] Fat Creeps 12-inch split release show @ ????

There's probably a betting pool to see how long it would take me to mention FAT CREEPS here on the ol' VLand. If you had April 4, congratulations! The beloved North Shore garage rock trio are still making noisy waves, and a few months after MTV got all sweet on their latest video "Daydreaming," which also go the AVA treatment from me when it popped, the ladies and dude are now set to release a 12-inch split with Western Mass' ZUBU! off Feeding Tube Records.

They're opting for the basement show treatment for this release, and you know how HOT a topic that is around Boston these days, what with the cops all acting the fool over DIY spaces around our creative neighborhoods.

So... we won't tell you where it is, you'll just have to figure it out, yo. But we can tell you that Don Gero, Omnivore and Guerilla Toss are on the bill. And it starts on the early side of things, so bring dinner and a post-meal snack.

We can also tell you that the Creeps rule and the new jams are just as tasty: the aforementioned "Daydreaming" and the WFNX-fave "Dad Weed." Word up.

Also, in case you missed it, check me out getting SLAPPED in their previous video, for "Cherry." I miss last summer. And sexy pizza.

[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

Updated flyer: GOZU @ Radio 05.03.04.13

Here's some updated artwork for the GOZU record-release party next month at Radio. As I mentioned earlier in the week, Vanyaland and Boston Bloghead are stepping in for WFNX/Boston Accents as co-presenters.

Nice to see the new logo making the rounds, even nicer to be a part of such a great show. Two of them.

[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.

In My Head: Merchandise "Totale Nite" EP // performing @ TT The Bear's 06.09.13

Tampa rock band MERCHANDISE are either in an enviable situation or an unwinnable one, a band that seems to already have something to prove while actually just getting started. Last year's Children Of Desire EP was a startling debut, a moody, desolate, and at-times brilliant spin on modern post-punk and indie rock led by the majestic 11-minute epic "Become What You Are," which not only was my favorite song of 2012, but my final act of No Rules Radio for WFNX a few weeks ago when I queued it up in the system for over an hour and walked out for the last time.

The lyrics to that gem, "I'm a mother's son, I'm a rolling stone / I don't want anything, that I have to own" seemed to echo my sentiments towards the station's misguided suits better than any extended middle finger. It was that type of raw captured emotion that made Children of Desire so palatable. Outside of Japandroids' battle cries, 2012 wasn't really a stellar year for quoting lyrics in fits of rage or passion. Apologies go out to all the graduates who had to fill their yearbooks with something else.

Anyway, now Merchandise is back with a fairly quick turnaround record, the five-song/33-minute Totale Nite, out now via Night People and streaming in its entirety via the YouTube link above. It continues Merchandise's skill for detached melody, and droning, seemingly-endless sonic-journey songs that don't feel quite as long as they are. The Smiths reference is already dated, but a lot of these tracks, like last year's collection, have a loose, distant cousin in the feel of "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me." And while the "they're from Florida?!?" card has been played countless times before, it's raised here not that in surprise this band is from the middle of the cultural wasteland Sunshine State, but in that these songs have a frigid chill to them. Sunny pop this is not, a winter band this very well may be.

Since last year's release the band has added a member of two, and one of the highlights of this recent SXSW excursion was seeing them at the Viceland party, joined on stage by a saxophonist and while changing up some of the lyrics, able to convey live the type of removed sincerity so expertly displayed in the bands recordings.

After several listens, Totale Nite doesn't have the immediate gravity of a "Become What You Are," but it easily feels more balanced, and with a greater texture in sound and wider approach (hey there harmonica!), practically eliminating any genre label limitations. It's nice evolution from the last EP, and deserving of just as much praise.

MERCHANDISE perform at T.T. The Bear's Place in Cambridge on Sunday, June 9, with Destruction Unit and Milk Music (that's quite a show). Tickets are $10 in advance and are available here.

A Vanyaland quiz for NHL Trade Deadline Day: Hockey Prospect or Female Porn Star?

In honor of today’s NHL Trade Deadline, I’m resurrecting one of my favorite non-music Vanyaland features -– ladies and germs, I welcome you to the 2013 Hockey Prospect or Female Porn Star quiz! Below are 20 entries, and you are asked to determine whether the name listed represents a current hockey prospect toiling in the minors across Canada and the US, or a lusty porn actress currently toiling in and around Los Angeles.

(Handy Hint: There are 20 names, so it breaks down to 10 prospects and 10 porn stars. Hint #2: Despite there being many cocks on the New York Rangers, Carmen Cocks is not one of them.)

As an added treat, we have expanded the field for a first-ever Bonus Round: a Male Edition, down below.

Note: A perfect score would be a 26, in honor of the great Patrik Elias. Answer key down below.

NHL PROSPECT OR PORN STAR?

1. Reece Scarlett

2. Riley Reid

3. Morgan Rielly

4. Riley Boychuk

5. Hunter Bryce

6. Devon Lee

7. Chase Balisy

8. Jayden Cole

9. Harri Pesonen

10. Dylan Rider

11. Cody Lane

12. Robin Lehner

13. Jamie Devane

14. Brook Little

15. Linden Vey

16. Kale Kressy

17. Bailey Blue

18. Carmen Cocks

19. Mika Tan

20. Calle Jarnkrok

BONUS ROUND: MALE EDITION

1. Zach Hyman

2. Evan Stone

3. Steven St Croix

4. Rocco Grimaldi

5. Brock Beukeboom

6. Long Dong Silver

***

***

ANSWER KEY:

1.NHL; 2. Porn; 3. NHL; 4. NHL; 5. Porn; 6. Porn; 7. NHL; 8. Porn; 9. NHL; 10.Porn; 11. Porn; 12. NHL; 13: NHL; 14: Porn; 15: NHL; 16. NHL; 17. Porn; 18. Porn; 19. Porn; 20. NHL

BONUS ROUND: 1. NHL; 2. Porn; 3. Porn; 4. NHL; 5. NHL; 6. Porn

Daft Punk make Coachella announcement?

Well, April just got real, if indeed this isn't another belated April Fool's joke like the Daft Punk / Justice / Chemical Brothers faux tour poster that made the rounds earlier today. But, Daft punk or no Daft Punk -- and us getting Daft Punk'd or not -- I gotta figure out a way to get to Indio next weekend. Still must see thew Stone Roses and New order. blur, too, I guess.

Update: Vanyaland 2.0 coming soon

I'm really bad at keeping secrets, so here it goes: Vanyaland is currently getting a major facelift, and will re-launch later this month as Vanya Media partners with Paul Armstrong of Redefined as well as Media Boss Television.

VLand 2.0 will have a stable of writers (not just me) and photogs, as well as features, listings, spotlights, downloads, video, and some very unique interaction capabilities for an online music magazine.

The old site looks like the 1800s compared to what's in the works. Stay tuned.

Potential relaunch party: The RIBS + Color Channel gig at Great Scott on April 20, since it's Vanyaland Presents, and all. Plus it's 4.20.

In My Head: The Bynars "All I Wanna Do Is Have Some Fun Tonight" / 04.24.13 @ Great Scott

It seems like only yesterday THE BYNARS performed with an up-and-coming fun. at the Lansdowne Pub as part of the WFNX Disorientation 2011 series. Since then, the where-are-they-now? fun. have virtually disappeared from the music landscape, drowning in obscurity, playing for dozens (including long-suffering girlfriends) while intent on penning their own Behind The Music-type of comeback. Meanwhile, the Boston-based quirk-pop band the Bynars have tirelessly honed their nerd-rock craft around Massachusetts, releasing intricate pop music with even more intricate music videos, and the tasty fruits of their bountiful labor finally re-surfaced today with the 12-minute one-stop electronic cruise ship "All I Wanna Do Is Have Some Fun Tonight," a synthpop jam that's an EP unto itself. And no, Sheryl Crow is not invited to this party.

The track is the first single from the Bynars' upcoming sophomore LP, X vs. X, which, if this song is any indication, is roughly three hours long.

"AIWDIHSF" gets real good around the seven-minute mark, kinda like how the outro to Flock of Seagulls' "Wishing" grabs hold of the listener and spins them around the dance floor inside your smart phone. If only they had smart phones in the mid-'80s.

Peep the track, then catch the Bynars at Great Scott on April 24 with Andre Obin and others.

Boston musicians pay respect to Jason Molina with "Farewell Transmission" tribute

Led by recording studio and independent record label Mystic Steamship Co., a group of Boston musicians, including members of Bent Shapes, Earthquake Party, and Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion, came together recently to pour out some song for Jason Molina, who passed away unexpectedly March 16 from alcohol-related organ failure. He was 39.

The seven-minute "Farewell Transmission," the opening track from 2003's Magnolia Electric Co. record, is a haunting tribute, and was posted online earlier today with the following message.

Tribute to Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia / Magnolia Electric Co.

Upon hearing the terrible news of Jason Molina's passing, Ben Potrykus (Bent Shapes) approached us about recording a tribute to Jason. This ended up being a very special recording session, and a great way to get our friends together to celebrate and mourn the loss of an artist we all hold very dear. This was recorded mostly live featuring members of Bent Shapes, Earthquake Party, and Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion.

PLEASE DONATE TO JASON MOLINA'S MEMORIAL FUND AND LISTEN TO HIS ASTOUNDING BODY OF WORK. BOTH OF WHICH YOU CAN DO HERE.

released 02 April 2013
Recorded and Mixed at Mystic Steamship Co.

Engineered by Evan Murphy
Produced by Ian Doerr

Ben Potrykus: Vocals and Acoustic Guitar
Andy Sadoway: Drums
Mike McCullagh: Lead Guitar
Scott Jones: Electric Guitar
Ian Doerr: Electric Piano
Supriya Gunda: Bass and Vocals
Mallory Hestand: Vocals