Category : Music

To all the schmucky mooks with backwards Sox hats at the show last night: saying “I’m not clapping my hands, but I’m saying yeah” and comments like that make you look even dumber. Quit.

CYHSY had a big space to fill moving from a sold-out Paradise to an even more sold-out Avalon. They succeeded their expansion with a thick, chugging, U2-on-ether method of indie funrock. Provincial and coy, they seem to make you want to out-drunk them, especially with trying to keep up singing along. “Let the Cool Goddess…” was the first number, and it instantly warmed everyone over. “…Yellow Country Teeth” scared a lot of the fratboys, and I enjoyed it. “Details of the War” was poignantly quieter than the others, and broke any remaining tension.

Unfortunately, too many new and unfamiliar songs in the latter half of the set started to fizzle the crowd, making us hungry and cranky, and it wasn’t until the encore closer, “Heavy Metal”, that we got that last satisfying bite.

I was impressed by CYHSY’s Doves/Femmes/U2 impersonation, they’ve definitely made strides since their show @ TT’s. Still a little work to be done, though.

So we got a free show courtesy of Amy and Jack Daniels on a Monday night that I just happen to have the next day off. Explicit details to follow. We hit Qdoba before the show and rolled the ‘Dise like it wudn’t no thang, got our freaky drink on, and began gankin’ JD schwag from the JD chicks.

Some Southern-ass band (I’m guessing Tennesee), called Joe Smith or Jacque Jones or something, opened up for a boring, snoring, choring ten songs or so.

Then Das Neue Pornographiken rolled on stage, sans Nekolicious, and busted through some serious West Canadian Coast throwback rockstock. AC “Don’t Call Me Slater” Newman was the real deal, chugging his jambastic headrock through a tunnel of marketing and pseudo-sex appeal. Shirts! Crap! Jack! It was worth every rip of street cred and light-hearded headbang to get to the encore of magnificence rarely seen since three days ago.

Go Canada.

Wolf Parade kicked off their latest tour on Friday @ The Dise, debuting new songs and tricking out old ones. It was a Friday night and the crowd was buzzed, so needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed dancing around like a jackalope with my head cut off. I couldn’t tell you the names of the new stuff, but they played them smartly and got an excited response. The new junk seemed a little more refined, but more aggressive at the same time. They’re not as catchy, and they’re denser.

The NC State Wolf Parade rocked an encore, and ended on a charmingly chamberized “Dinner Bells”. They sounded pristine, thrashed around like puppets in our cruel game, and got my spring concert season’s ball rolling with a heave. Screw the other wolf bands. This is the only one, as far as I’m concerned.

XM’s Subsoniq had a really good interview with Ben Harper last night. Looks like it’s gonna be replayed again today and Sunday.

Joe from Hot Chip says: “Our Gorillaz remix is now available on white label and mixes of Jim Noir, Adem and Stephen Malkmus should be surfacing soon. Also, we will be completing the second volume of ‘Mixtures’ this week so expect to see that appear in the next month or so.”. Sounds good to me.

Here’s what happened to the Walkmen piano. It sold for $1,025, which is about a buck a pound.

What it’s like @ Gorillaz Live. I’d definitely go, but it’s in freaking Harlem. And Harlem isn’t very close to Boston.

Thom Yorke disses industry for Arctic Monkeys. Or not.

Bloc Party to play Toronto with Broken Social Scene. It’s on June 24th, and Bloc Party ‘Marshalls’ get pre-sale rights tomorrow @ 10 AM.

TV on the Radio – “Province” (mp3)
If you didn’t know, David Bowie is on this track.

Band of Horses – “Funeral” (mp3)
Absolutely soars.

Hot Chip – “Boy From School” (mp3)
It’ll make your neck sore.

Grandaddy – “Skateboarding Saved Me Twice” (mp3) Soothing, digi-solar flow.

Flaming Lips – “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” (mp3)
Anthemic super crackola.

Love Is All – “Make Out Fall Out Make Up” (mp3)
Feisty punk gem.

Editors – “Feel Good Inc.” (Gorillaz cover – mp3)
A little change of pace for the new year.

And to preview: Walkmen - “Louisiana” (mp3)
Hurry up and leak… I mean release the album!

Hot Chip – The Warning – Schwing.
Band of Horses – Everything All The Time – Alt-c hauntrock
Office – Q & A – 90′s mellow britrock
TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain – You tell me.
White Rose Movement – Kick – 80′s synthy artpop
Morning Runner – Wilderness Is Paradise Now – Ground beef
Golden Dogs – Everything In 3 Parts – 50′s fratboy synthrock
Hard-Fi – Stars Of CCTV – Lock, stock & thief rock
Mojave 3 – Puzzles Like You – Slow dive.

2006 is already on pace to be extremely solid and blown out. Radiohead & Rapture alone are enough for me.

So last night, thanks to some excellent contest-winning prowess by our resident West-sider Special K from Jane Magazine, a bunch of us got our own private concert from that supafly Norwegian dancequeen, Annie. That means two hours of chillin at Great Scott with Annie and an open bar and all the Jane schwag you could handle.

The fact that I have no pictures or video of this simply means we had a great time. Is there any better way to spend a thirsty Thursday than five feet from a Scandinavian electropop vixen doin her thang? I think not. I think the magazine hostess gal taking pictures of the whole deal got a shot of Annie watching her own “Chewing Gum” video on tv. Solid.

She played the good ‘uns plus a song she said is coming out in the next month, which is “Crush” I think, but not positive. Sounded good though. I chatted up the DJ guy on the stage afterwards and he was cool as hell, as I’m sure they all are. God bless Norway and their free-show playin’, Great Scott rockin’, bootylicious hot-to-trot pop tarts. Ahh, så, så het.

Some chick wrote a really crappy review of the free Subways show last week. Much like the terrible Air review that I tore up, this one makes me wonder why the Globe pays them. It’s the blandest, sophomoric review I’ve read in a long time. I even held back. Click pic for breakdown.

Out of nowhere, or more specifically, England, comes Hot Chip with some highly charged bouncepop worthy of DFA’s cash. I sloshed through a rainstorm down the hill to Great Scott pretty excited about the show to begin with, and they exceeded all of my expectations.

Hot Chip’s liveness involved a shoulder-bouncing dude on the right, some shirtless guy playing guitar, a singer and another DJ dude, which means they’ve got enough energy between themselves and their synths to shock a lightning bolt. The crowd was having it, enough for two encores and to be left begging for more.

I got there late and missed a few of the songs I wanted to hear, assuming they played them, but they more than compensated with the rest of their set. I hope they come back soon and blow some sneakers off.

Film School gets taken to school by thieves. Their van and all of their equipment inside of were stolen from the hotel parking lot. As the dude from Morning Theft suggests in the comments, “two people sleep in the van at all times”.

Ice Cube to tour America He’ll be hittin’ Boston on May 10th at Avalon. See you there.

Looks like Pete Doherty has a middle tooth. Ha!

Najwa is HOT! Huh?

HQ CYHSY MP3s from FRA. Ahh.