Laughing All The Way To Church: The Clicky Clicky Video Interview with Ben Deily of Varsity Drag

Frankly, we've been asking bands to work with us on doing something creative with interviews for so long (who has the time, anyway?) that when Ben Deily of local pop-punk goliaths Varsity Drag proposed a video interview we were floored. And the fact that the clip above is hysterically funny and includes bassist Lisa Marie Deily and drummer Josh Pickering (Mr. Pickering ably standing in as the reader of our questions) is icing on the cake. It contains an introduction soundtracked by classical music and subtitles, fercrissakes. So if you were wondering any combination of the following, we suggest you sit back with a beverage and watch the 14-minute clip above: the status of Deily's scoring a production of Hamlet; the likelihood and timing of the rumored Lemonheads shows celebrating the band's first three records; Mr. Deily's memories of the last time played a show with Moving Targets' Kenny Chambers. Varsity Drag, of course, will share the stage once again with Kenny Chambers this Saturday, for the big, big rock show event, during which the Drag will play its own stuff, some new stuff, some old Lemonheads stuff, and who knows what else. To quote fictional southern brothel operator Porky, "here comes your night to remember!" Our heart-felt thanks to Ben, Lisa and Josh for the time and energy invested in this video. Varsity Drag headlines Church Saturday night and is slated to perform 'round midnight. Church is located at 69 Kilmarnock Street, Boston. Tickets!

Varsity Drag: Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | Flickr

Selected Previous Varsity Drag Coverage:
Varsity Drag with Soccermom | PA's Lounge | 10 April 2010
Review: Varsity Drag | Night Owls [MP3]
Be Prepared: Varsity Drag | Night Owls | Date TBD
And Then This Happened: Varsity Drag | Middle East Rock Club | 8/7/09
Remarks: Varsity Drag, Grownup Noise, Winterpills
Review: Varsity Drag | Rock and Roll Is Such A Hassle: Live in Europe
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, March 2009
Varsity Drag @ O'Brien's, August 2008
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, February 2008
Free Range Music: Varsity Drag, May 2006

Review: Varsity Drag | Night Owls [MP3]

It neither sounds like it was recorded in a metal shipping container, nor does Night Owls completely hew to the straight pop-punk for which Varsity Drag fronter Ben Deily has long been known. But beyond the fully actualized production and more thoughtful compositions, fans of Mr. Deily's music will recognize a more subtle difference between the 2006 set For Crying Out Loud and his reconfigured Cambridge, Mass.-based trio's new collection. Simply put, For Crying Out Loud was an "if" record, but Night Owls is a "then" record. The former's biggest tune "Summertime" commences with the line "if you'd be mine, I'd find the time..." That record's opening anthem "Skinny Ties" is entirely predicated on supposition: "I'd give up all of my skinny ties, give up cheese omelets and curly fries..." Where Deily does not yearn on For Crying Out Loud ("the place just ain't the same without Billy Ruane..."), he cracks wise, sending up the last decade with "1999." Throughout Deily maintains a wish or a laugh's distance, stays to the left side of the comma.

Night Owls, by contrast, opens with the lyric "And so the years went crashing by..." and then examines various crashes one after another. And with that declaration Deily steps over the comma into the hindsight of unenumerated mornings after (or, more likely for a night owl, afternoons after) and confronts his emotions straight on. Calling Varsity Drag's new record introspective doesn't go far enough to describe some of the psychic scab-ripping herein. While Deily doesn't name names or proffer genesis stories, the meaning of lyrics including "I let you down to save myself... like an animal" is not cloudy. That said, it isn't all fear and (self-)loathing: the title track describes the phosphorescent glow of a new relationship with sentiments so positive they approach a giddy serenity. What does this difference between Deily's "if" and "then" worlds signify? Maturity? Personal peace? We'll leave that for individual listeners to ponder.

As we stated supra, the differences between the aforementioned sets are not limited to more intense lyrical themes. On Night Owls Mr. Deily -- now abetted by Lisa Marie Deily on bass guitar and Joshua Pickering detonating the cans -- reveals musical ambitions that fans were likely unaware that the punk statesman harbored. Old timers will recall Deily's affecting acoustic ballad "Postcard" from the latter days of Lemonheads Mach 1 (and featured on last summer's live release from Varsity Drag). On Night Owls Deily offers "Postscript," a Bacharach-esque and lush guy-piano-strings number. It is apparent that Mr. Deily has been thinking about making these songs nearly as long as he has been feeling them, and while he selected former Lemonheads producer Tom Hamilton to mind the faders and the knobs, Night Owls is a significant sonic step forward for Deily. The smart chord and key changes, keen production details and more orchestrated compositions make that plain. The vocals buried in the background of "Animal" are genius (particularly at the line "I know I failed my darling"), the layered acoustic and electric guitars of "Richard's Gone" deliver a completely satisfying, crystalline crunch, the aggressive attack of "In This World" (whose guitars recall Rush's "Fly By Night" in brief moments) entirely gratifying. Varsity Drag recently returned from two weeks in another country (namely the U.K.) and -- although there are no pending live dates currently listed at the band's MySpace dojo -- the trio is presumably now plotting the promotion of Night Owls to fans in the States.

Varsity Drag -- "Animal" -- Night Owls
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[buy Night Owls from the band right here]

Varsity Drag: Internerds | Bandcamp | YouTube | Flickr

Previous Varsity Drag Coverage:
Be Prepared: Varsity Drag | Night Owls | Date TBD
And Then This Happened: Varsity Drag | Middle East Rock Club | 8/7/09
Remarks: Varsity Drag, Grownup Noise, Winterpills
Review: Varsity Drag | Rock and Roll Is Such A Hassle: Live in Europe
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, March 2009
Varsity Drag @ O'Brien's, August 2008
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, February 2008
Free Range Music: Varsity Drag, May 2006

Exclusive: Varsity Drag Live Set, New Album Coming

Stellar news, inconvenienced but loyal rock fans: not only is Varsity Drag, the delightful indie-punk vehicle of Lemonheads co-founder Ben Deily, playing the Cantab Lounge basement in Cambridge, Mass. this Saturday night, but also we can report that the trio will release later this year a live record titled Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle. The set, recorded at The Weekender in Innsbruck, Austria in 2007, will be issued by the Cambridge, Mass.-based act's European label Boss Tunage through all the usual digital storefronts and in a limited CD run. We heard it is "surprisingly ass-kicking," and after sampling several preview tracks we can confirm that. That giant graphic above very well might be the art that goes with the record, and since we've gotten it exclusively, and since we know the vision of certain readers isn't what it used to be, we made it all big. Fans will recognize the title of the live album as the name attached to Varsity Drag's 2007 tour, a poster for which you can puzzle over here at BenDeily.com.

Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle, itself of unknown release date, precedes by an indeterminate length of time a planned sophomore set from Varsity Drag. The new set could be released by year's end if all goes as planned; Deily and his rotating crew of merry men and women released its first record For Crying Out Loud in 2005. An advance EP of certain new material -- probably a digital-only release -- will be issued sooner rather than later to incite sizzle for the new full-length. Said new recording will likely feature the drumming of Deily cohort Josh Pickering, who previously beat the skins manned the four-string thunderstick in Mr. Deily's '90s vehicle PODS and who manned the kit for the trio at the most recent Drag gig we took in, namely the Pat Leonard tribute late last year. We have an unconfirmed track list for Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle, which we paste below for your reference. Note that a couple of those tracks are hyperlinked -- these are MP3s, made available to us through the kindness of Deily himself. Which of course, makes rock & roll slightly less of a hassle. And that much more awesome. Varsity Drag appears at Cantab Lounge this Saturday with Mr. Sister, The Motion Sick Broken River Prophet and St. Helena.

1. Skinny Ties
2. Summertime [right click and save as]
3. Uhhh (Lemonheads)
4. Billy Ruane
5. Starfish
6. Miles Of Ocean
7. Burying Ground/2 Weeks In Another Town (Lemonheads)
8. Falling (Lemonheads)
9. Blackout [right click and save as]
10. 7 Powers (Lemonheads)
11. Ever (Lemonheads)
12. Postcard (Lemonheads)
13. Powerless
14. New Strings
15. Second Chance (Lemonheads)

[buy Varsity Drag, PODS and other Ben Deily-related recordings right here]

Previous Varsity Drag Coverage:
Varsity Drag @ O'Brien's, August 2008
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, February 2008
Free Range Music: Varsity Drag, May 2006

Review: Varsity Drag | Rock and Roll Is Such A Hassle: Live in Europe

This week’s Varsity Drag set at the Middle East seems to be a pivot point for the band’s leader Ben Deily. While Friday is the record release party for Rock and Roll Is Such A Hassle - Live in Europe (Boss Tuneage), the new set was recorded by an earlier lineup of the band. The current lineup -- including Lisa (Mrs.) Deily on bass and (bass player for former 90s-era Deily band Pods) Josh Pickering on drums -- is preparing to hit the studio to record a full-length album for release in the fall (this writer, as they say, has heard a few of the early demos and some of the new songs performed live, and they are killer). If that weren’t enough, there’s the accompanying second Varsity Drag European tour slated for October.

Even if it is a sort of clearing off the decks, when Deily co-founded Lemonheads with Evan Dando back in the day, they were all about great punk rock with heart and wit, with Deily’s songs arguably dominating the highlights. For Deily, that’s what it’s still all about. When Deily relocated to the west coast in the '90s there were a few years of hiatus before we were finally able to hear a few demos via the Internet (this was about 10-ish years ago, and even then the intertubes weren't what they are now), and it was thrilling stuff: "Skinny Ties," the blinding "Miles of Ocean," and especially the catchy paean to Boston rock in the person of the titular scene legend/impresario "Billy Ruane."

These tracks and more were released on the mini-LP For Crying Out Loud by UK punk label Boss Tuneage in Europe in 2006 leading to a 25 date tour through Germany, England, France, Spain, and Austria that is chronicled by hilariously by Deily on his tour diary (read it here). To hear Deily tell it, this was the classic tour of its kind: long drives, weird food, sometimes empty clubs, sometimes packed clubs, no food, and the occasional random exceptional well-treatment by local promoters.

You hear all of this in the complete presentation of their February 8, 2007 set at The Weekender in Innsbruck, Austria on the new disc. Bursting out of the blocks with For Crying Out Loud's "Skinny Ties," and traveling back and forth through time to the set-closing rave-up, "Second Chance," a gem from Lemonheads' debut LP Hate Your Friends, ...Hassle is a career-spanning retrospective of surprising coherence covering 20 years and Deily is still full of a nervous energy that continues to manifest itself in sharp, driving songs and vibrant live sets.

The energy here is especially surprising when you consider that all this racket is coming from a trio and that this is a straight-from-the-soundboard recording. This is no bootleg, though. What it is is an exceptional, consistent, sweaty, bier-soaked, raw-as-the-day-it-was-made, warts-and-all you-are-there document. Are there rough moments? Only of the sort that happen when you have the guts to make a live record without benefit of overdubs and other nonsense. Besides… they do make the beer stronger over there. You can get your copy on Friday night. -- Michael Piantigini

Varsity Drag -- "Postcard" -- Rock and Roll is Such A Hassle - Live in Europe
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Download Varsity Drag's Rock and Roll is Such A Hassle - Live in Europe right here.

Varsity Drag: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Previous Varsity Drag Coverage:
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, March 2009
Varsity Drag @ O'Brien's, August 2008
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, February 2008
Free Range Music: Varsity Drag, May 2006

That Was The Show That Was: Varsity Drag with Lump | O'Brien's

We are indignant. Where is the profile for Boston indie rock superlatives Varsity Drag? Sure, we are more than pleased that we are able to stand five feet from Lemonheads co-founder Ben Deily's trio as it performs on one of the smallest stages in its hometown. But as a fan, we are conflicted by the access. Varsity Drag's material is on par with Mr. Deily's best tunes written with the band that made him "famous" (we're thinking "Uhhhh," "Anyway," "Two Weeks In Another Town," the ballad "Postcard"), but his current outfit seems to enjoy greater acclaim in Germany or even Australia than at home. Why Varsity Drag doesn't have the following that would allow it to headline shows at, say, The Paradise is beyond us.

On Friday night the act, anchored by Lisa Deily on bass and explosive drummer Mike "Panama" Quinn, treated a few dozen faithful to spirited takes on half the material from the 2006 set For Crying Out Loud, as well as about as many new tracks (or at least new to us, it looks like all the material is on the out-of-print Ben Deily compilation All These Years Gone By: Selected Songs, 1986-2001) and classic Lemonheads cuts. We always feel especially fortunate to hear the latter material, because -- as we wrote here in February -- by the time we got turned on to Lemonheads Deily had just exited the band, making it impossible for us to have seen him perform the songs created while he was with the act that Evan Dando later rode into the spotlight (Dando's current incarnation of The Lemonheads intends to release an album of covers in September).

As it had when we saw the band at The Cantab earlier this year, Varsity Drag reached back for Lemonheads' "Burying Ground" and "Second Chance," and then it threw in :: clicky clicky :: favorite "Anyway" and "Falling" for good measure. The set commenced with two of the biggest Drag anthems, the scratchy pop delight "Skinny Ties" and the powerfully wistful "Summertime." Not long after the band played its ode to legendary scenester Billy Ruane, who we recently saw storm the upstairs room at The Middle East with a tray of fresh baklava. At O'Brien's we tugged on Deily's shirtsleeve prior to showtime and he reports the band has no live dates booked until November, and he is hopeful to make substantial progress writing songs for the next Varsity Drag album in the meantime.

In the top supporting slot for the night was recently resuscitated Massachusetts power-pop quartet Lump, who turned in a surprisingly sludgy and rocking set. We're not sure if all the sludge was intentional, as the sound guy was inattentive enough at first to leave guitarist Rock's (no surname for Mr. Rock) mic out of the mix for the first few numbers. In reviewing our pictures from the night (flickr set here) we were amused to see that between the rocking out, the shorts and the lighting that Lump reminded us a little of Helmet, visually. In reality Lump is sonically more akin to bands like Small 23. We aren't overly familiar with Lump's repertoire, but we showed up hoping to hear the classics "13" and "Tatters" and we weren't disappointed. And closer "Primrose" was an immaculate noisefest that hope to witness again sometime soon. Lump is writing new material and aims to cut a new record as soon as it has enough new material to fill it. For now, head over to the foursome's MySpace dojo to stream the musical goodness.

Varsity Drag -- "Summertime" -- Live On WAAF, 2008
Varsity Drag -- "Skinny Ties" -- For Crying Out Loud
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[buy For Crying Out Loud from the band right here]

Varsity Drag: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Be Prepared: Varsity Drag | Night Owls | Date TBD

Cambridge, Mass.-based pop-punk stalwarts Varsity Drag have completed, delivered, announced the title, and dropped a bit-bit preview of their second full-length of new material Night Owls. Pics are posted at their Facebook page, and we're happy to snap up and re-post the front cover here for your inspection. Friend up the band if you want to peep the back art, which discloses the following track listing:

1. Animal
2. Night Owls
3. Richard's Gone
4. Galaxies
5. In This World
6. Hammer
7. Long Way Home
8. Morning
9. Post Script

The set was mixed/engineered by the inimitable Tom Hamilton, who helmed most if not all of the early Lemonheads records, depending on what your personal definitions of the words "all," "early" and "records" are. Night Owls will be issued in Europe next month on a date to be determined by Boss Tunage. Varsity Drag hopes the set will be available in some way shape or form to promote it during its upcoming UK tour, which runs from 3 Oct. through the 10th. They even go to Cardiff. A complete set of dates can be inspected at the band's MySpace dojo right here. Varsity Drag issued the live set Rock N' Roll Is Such A Hassle over the summer. Our own Michael Piantigini reviewed it right here. The debut For Crying Out Loud, originally issued by Boss Tunage in 2005, was recently reissued on f'ing glorious 10" vinyl.

Varsity Drag: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Previous Varsity Drag Coverage:
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, March 2009
Varsity Drag @ O'Brien's, August 2008
Varsity Drag @ Cantab Lounge, February 2008
Free Range Music: Varsity Drag, May 2006

That Was The Show That Was: Varsity Drag, Soccermom | PA's Lounge

[UPDATED with Varsity Drag set list below] Varsity Drag's fiery Friday night headlining set at PA's Lounge was notable for a number of reasons. First, the Cambridge, Mass.-based indie punk stalwarts have maintained the edge to their live show that they brought back from their fall UK tour. Second, the band has apparently fully integrated charming cellist Aliah Rosenthal into its stage show, adding a surprising new dimension to songs we'd never heard him play on. And for fans afraid that the addition of electric cello can only portend ill, un-rocking things for Varsity Drag: fear not. Mr. Rosenthal most certainly rocks.

It was also notable that The Drag played not one of fronter Ben Deily's classic Lemonheads cuts. We suspect that says more about the depth and quality of the Varsity Drag catalog at this point than it does about Mr. Deily's affinity -- and the collective affinity of fans -- for the older tracks. And while our calls for "Ever" at the close of last night's set went unheeded, we were more than pleased with the final selection, Varsity Drag's infrequently aired, wholly gripping cover of The Cure's annihilating "Push" from 1985's The Head On The Door record. As part of its UK label's 20th anniversary Varsity Drag has also been working up and recording a cover of Ipanema's "White Cat In A Snowstorm." The Drag's live performance of the tune was searing, and we look forward to hearing the recording of the track. According to this recent interview Deily gave, Varsity Drag is planning an EP that will contain the Ipanema cover as well as four bonus tracks from the sessions for the band's superlative 2009 long-player Night Owls [review here].

Soccermom, who we profiled here earlier this month, were a revelation. The quartet's quietly determined stage presence belies its dense, visceral guitar attack. Indeed, the recordings we've heard that will grace Soccermom's forthcoming debut single only approximate the squawl and punch of the live renderings of Soccermom's compositions. The tracks on the single, "High On Dad" and "Bill Cosby In Glamorous Chains," bring to mind the relatively more controlled and architected sounds of Polvo. But Soccermom on stage through brute guitar force earn comparisons to the music of the earliest incarnation of Lilys (1991-1992) and even Rodan, although perhaps with less of the melodic sense of the former or the dynamic rhythms of the latter. We look forward to seeing these guys a lot more in the future. Soccermom is slated to play O'Brien's May 5 as part of the E.R. residency.

Varsity Drag: Internerds | Bandcamp | YouTube | Flickr
Soccermom: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

That Was The Show That Was: Varsity Drag | Cantab Lounge

While the sleeping habits of our local rock luminaries are truly none of your business, we think if there is a teaching point to be drawn from last night's air-tight, rock-steady performance by Cambridge-based indie-punk trio Varsity Drag, it is that if your drummer wants to nap before the show, go ahead and let him. Recently ensconced Varsity Drag timekeeper Josh Pickering apparently did just that last night, and when the band took the stage at midnight he set things off with incendiary, sometimes punishing drum work and a firm command of the backing vocal harmonies. We don't break out the phrase "two-fisted pummelation" often -- at least not outside the context of Grant Hutchison -- but we feel like what we saw last night from the drum stool qualifies as just that. Mr. Pickering's energy fueled the evening and locked down the guitar and bass, and the proceedings punched along and turned on a dime with precision. The band, fronted by guitarist Ben Deily and abetted by bassist Lisa Marie Deily, ran through highlights of its 2005 set For Crying Out Loud, selections from Mr. Deily's wonderful contributions to the Lemonheads oeuvre, two new tunes and apparently a Soft Boys cover.

The evening commenced with the infectious anthem "Summertime" and closed with the Lemonheads classic "2nd Chance." The set was filled out with fan favorites "Billy Ruane," "Miles Of Ocean," "Two Weeks In Another Town" and "7 Powers." It was the heaviest of several performances we've seen by the band, and we believe the band wears it very well. With Pickering now ably executing harmonies, we're hoping "Hello It's Me" works its way into the band's live set, as we can't recall whether we've seen that rocker performed live. The new number "Animal" stood out for its strong dynamics; it seemed the song was as much about the music itself as opposed to the music being simply a jaunty bed for lyrics, in a way we don't recall seeing from the trio previously.

Varsity Drag, as readers know from this post Thursday, are prepping the release of the live set Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle this July, as well as a digital-only EP of new material to tease a full-length that could be completed by year's end. Fans will be pleased to learn the Drag has taken delivery of a new pressing of the For Crying Out Loud 10" and new t-shirts from its European label Boss Tunage, and we recommend getting your mitts on at least the former as soon as possible. We don't see any pending shows listed at Varsity Drag's MySpace outpost right now, but we may have heard and promptly forgotten some relevant banter about forthcoming shows last night. As is our wont, we snapped some digital photos last night and you can watch a slide show of the stuff that passed muster right here. As far as other goodies go, we've got the live recording of the band's minor Boston radio hit "Billy Ruane" that will be offered as part of Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle when the set is released. So check it out.

Varsity Drag -- "Billy Ruane (Live)" -- Rock & Roll Is Such A Hassle
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[buy in-print Varsity Drag rock and roll music right here]

Varsity Drag: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

That Was The Show That Was: Varsity Drag | Cantab Lounge

Oh the cumulative hours -- possibly days -- we spent in our adolescence singing along to the songs of Ben Deily. Mr. Deily co-founded and co-fronted The Lemonheads with that better-known alternahunk in the mid-'80s, and Deily's heartfelt pop-punk compositions were highlights of the band's earlier, edgier catalog. Prompted by a viewing of the video for The Lemonheads' take on Suzanne Vega's "Luka" that made its way onto "120 Minutes" or "IRS's The Cutting Edge" (or whatever the only good show on MTV was called besides the old "Saturday Night Concert"), we engaged with The Lemonheads catalog and were attracted immediately to Deily's "Ever" and "Anyway." By the time we were hip to Deily's jive, however, he had already left the band and Evan Dando was about to release his exceptional major-label debut Lovey, which in our opinion is vastly superior to the breakthrough set It's A Shame About Ray (incidentally, the best Dando track, "Paint," is exiled to the relatively hard to acquire Favorite Spanish Dishes EP -- but we digress from that admitted digression).

Longtime readers will recall we were thrilled to discover Deily's most recent musical return in 2006. But for some reason we mistakenly presumed after perusing his web site that when he mentioned living in Portland, that meant Portland, Oregon, you know, where all your favorite stars of indie rock live (Malkmus, Daniel, etc.). So we didn't harbor any hopes of seeing Varsity Drag any time soon. Turns out, of course, that Deily lived in Portland, Maine, and now his advertising career has brought him back to Boston. And so it was that Varsity Drag topped a bill last night in our 'hood, so we strolled down in time to catch a volatile set from rawpowernewwavegrungerevivalists Perennials and then one from the Drag itself.

The trio opened its set with should-be-hits from its potent 2006 debut For Crying Out Loud and closed out the night with a handful of Lemonheads tunes. It was nice to hear that Deily's papery tenor can still hit all the notes, and the only downside to the rollicking set was a dodgy patch cord that dropped the sound coming from Deily's Gibson SG now and then. The surprise of the night had to be newish drummer Mike Quinn, whose effortless and fluid playing style and obvious enthusiasm was particularly infectious. When Deily led the band -- which also includes wife Lisa flanking on bass guitar -- through the Creator classic "Two Weeks In Another Town," the person with the widest smile in the room was Mr. Quinn.

We snatched the set list on our way out the door, and it is scanned and posted below. Varsity Drag has no further live dates announced, but watch the band's MySpace dojo for inevitable updates. A larger question remains: is there another Varsity Drag record in the offing? We snapped some photos during the set that you can look at here. Below we are posting an MP3 of the melodic VD anthem "Summertime," as well as Deily's early Lemonheads gem "Uhhh."

Varsity Drag -- "Summertime" -- For Crying Out Loud
The Lemonheads -- "Uhhh" -- Hate Your Friends
[right click and save as]
[buy For Crying Out Loud from the band right here]
[buy Lemonheads records from Newbury Comics here]

Varsity Drag: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Agenda: Varsity Drag "Night Owls" Release Show, Et Cetera

Perhaps there is a subset of rock 'n' roll fans who either like being told what to do or recognize that they benefit from such firm direction. If this sounds like you, listen up: the editorial team at Clicky Clicky has quietly conferred and has set the agenda for the coming weekend in Boston, a weekend as chock-a-block with high-grade indie rock as we have seen for some time. Our approved itinerary goes like this: you will see Joe Pernice at Lizard Lounge Thursday at 8PM _sharp_ (this is an early show and we've read that tickets are moving); on Friday night you will go to Church and see Varsity Drag's record release show for the late '09 pop punk gem Night Owls; and on Saturday you will go see Mission of Burma. Sure, there are some alternate plans. We know certain among you would rather sever a minor appendage than miss the Wrens show at Middle East. That's fine. After some soul searching the team has agreed that at this point you can probably skip a Burma show without fearing that they will take another 18-year hiatus. Maybe.

Varsity Drag, as you may have read in these digital pages, released a sophomore set (if you don't count live albums, perhaps you do, so be it) in the UK late last year called Night Owls (is the graphic starting to make sense now?). It was even named one of 2009's best by our own Michael Piantigini [full review here]. The Cambridge, Mass.-based trio is giving the collection a proper "how do you do" for the Americans Friday night. We think as far as physical media goes, the U.K. release is it, sadly, but Varsity Drag has made Night Owls available for download via its Bandcamp page here, so you still have an opportunity to express your appreciation for a job well done. For some time the band was also offering for free download a crackerjack live radio set via Bandcamp, too, but we think the offer has expired on that. Which is all the more reason for you to grab the MP3 below from same. See you Friday, at Church.

Varsity Drag -- "Night Owls (Live)" -- Live Owls: Varsity Drag Live On WMFO
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[buy all manner of Varsity Drag records here]

The One Thing At SXSW Worth Seeing: Original Lemonheads Ben Deily And Evan Dando To Reunite After Two Decades

[PHOTO: Joshua Pickering, used with permission] After two long decades apart original Lemonheads principals Ben Deily and Evan Dando will reunite in Austin Thursday at the annual South By Southwest music confab. Beyond solid confirmation floating amongst our social networks, we have no further details (no venue, no time). But we suspect that if you monitor something like the Varsity Drag Twitter feed, you'll find details spring up -- hopefully before show time. Boston-area fans had been expecting to see Varsity Drag perform an acoustic set Thursday at the Somerville Armory, but obviously that gig has been scotched in favor of the hastily planned, history-making event.

Deily left Lemonheads in the late '80s just prior to the band's superlative major label debut Lovey, for which Dando assumed the helm of the group, which group would ascend into the wider public consciousness on the strength of the excellent It's A Shame About Ray (Ms. Juliana Hatfield's vocals on "Rudderless" still give us chills) in 1992. As clicky clicky readers know because of our microscopic coverage of the act, Deily launched his most recent band Varsity Drag earlier this decade and has two wonderful full-lengths and assorted live sets to show for it. The Drag still breaks out Deily's Lemonheads classics, and we're posting one below to celebrate the occasion we sadly will not witness.

Varsity Drag -- "Uhhh (Live WMFO)" -- Live Owls: Varsity Drag Live on WMFO
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[buy Varsity Drag records from the band right here]

Lemuria, The Young Leaves, Varsity Drag And Ex-Magicians | TT The Bear's Place | 21 May



As we quipped on the Facebooks a couple weeks ago, summer doesn't begin until you've seen Varsity Drag performing their monster jam "Summertime" live. So summer begins, for us anyway, Tuesday night at TT's when the Cambridge, Mass.-based indie punks support Buffalo's finest, indie pop heroes Lemuria. Also performing are Holliston, MA punks The Young Leaves and locals Ex-Magicians, making this Tuesday night most steadfastly alright for rocking. More details at this Facebook event page, we assume. Maybe?

Lemuria is touring ahead of the release of its third long-player The Distance Is So Big, which Wikipedia tells us was recorded at least in part with legend J. Robbins and which will be issued June 18 on Bridge 9. That title will sound familiar to fans who have already discovered the band's new tune "Oahu, Hawaii," which was premiered at NPR this past week. Spoiler alert: the album title is ripped right from the chorus of "Oahu, Hawaii." The nine-year-old trio's current spring tour terminates on the 31st in Pittsburgh, and Lemuria already has a UK tour booked for late July/early August, and plans for a west coast tour of the U.S. after that. No rest for the wicked, eh. If you can't be arsed to click through to the NPR link above, check out the embed below of "They Are Who I Say They Are," the slow-burning b-side to the 2010 single "Chautauqua County," which was also released by Bridge 9.

Clicky Clicky faves Varsity Drag's appearance will be its first in many moons, and perhaps the first since the band's cracking split single with Chestnut Rd. was released in mid-January. The Drag's side of that release -- also embedded below -- featured the new, Ben Deily-penned pogo-anthem "Mind Like A Sieve," which we are once again embedding for your aural entertainment. There are some exciting things afoot in the larger Varsity Drag ecosystem, and as soon as they can be made public we'll certainly let you know. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for a new record from the Cambridge, MA-based triumvirate. Also below for your listening pleasure is The Young Leaves' excellent "Alive And Well" single from 2012 and Ex-Magicians' single from January "Adirondack Bound."

Now Sound: Varsity Drag's "White Cat In A Snowstorm"

Fans of Boston-based indie punk pace-setters Varsity Drag have been tantalized for months with the prospect of the release of the trio's take on "White Cat In A Snowstorm." The song was originally released by defunct U.K.-based Drag labelmates Ipanema, whose fronter Darren "Wiz" Brown died suddenly in late 2006. The song made its way into Varsity Drag's live sets as far back as April, when we saw the band deliver a thrilling headline set at P.A.'s Lounge in which the song was an electrifying highlight [review here]. Varsity Drag finally released the track today to its Bandcamp domicile and you can download "White Cat In A Snowstorm" right here for free or a fee, depending on how altruistic you're feeling at the mo'. We've embedded a stream below.

We won't say the song is surprisingly heavy, because really, the band's live shows have been bringing more and more energy every time we've seen them over the last year or so. But it is, in fact, heavy (and we suppose it is a bit surprising, since the song was tracked in fronter Ben Deily's home studio). Mr. Deily's guitar tone has a crunchy metal edge that he doesn't often indulge, and certain sections with precise dynamics (particularly drummer Josh Pickering's cymbal grabs at 1:20 or so) complement well the aggressive edge. Varsity Drag's "White Cat In A Snowstorm" is slated to be released on a long-planned compilation being put together by the threesome's U.K. label Boss Tunage, and Varsity Drag has toyed with the idea of releasing the tune later as part of an EP that would also include outtakes from the sessions for its most recent full-length Night Owls, which was released in late 2009 [review here]. The band's only current live commitment is a show at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ, Aug. 26.

Today's Hotness: Fields, Logh, Varsity Drag

>> UK act Fields claims a new vinyl single it will release later this month will be the first ever to feature an etched b-side that contains a code fans can use to digitally access one of two non-album track b-sides. One of those b-sides is a cover of My Bloody Valentine's "When You Sleep" (which reminds us, we heard something very interesting about My Bloody Valentine earlier this week, which we hope to share once we get further confirmation). Anyway. The a-side of the tangible version of Fields' single is "Charming The Flames," and it will be released March 26. The other choice of digital b-side is a track entitled "Cold Hearted Machinery." A purely digital version of "Charming The Flames" will be released this coming Monday. The quintet will issue their debut long-player Everything Last Winter in the US May 8 via Atlantic, although the set will street a month earlier in the UK. And for local fans, Fields play Boston's Paradise Rock Club. Look for us there, as Fields' 7 From The Village EP, was one of our favorite records of 2006. We reviewed it here.

>> Swedish slow-core sextet Logh is streaming its forthcoming single "Saturday Nightmares" at its MySpace hutch here. The production of the tune sounds crisp and zesty, although its piano-driven opening smacks a bit of REO Speedwagon power balladry. It will probably be a huge hit with the "One Tree Hill" set, but it will take us some time to get used to the tune's decidedly non-guitar orientation (actually, in looking for a link to prove the "One Tree Hill" thing, we found that "Saturday Nightmares" is already being used in promos for another nighttime teledrama, "Brothers & Sisters" -- ummmm, yuck). You'd think for a sextet with three, count 'em, three guys named Matthias (two on guitar and one on bass) that at least one of them would have said during the mixing session, "Yeah, this is great, but where did all the guitar tracks go?" Hopefully there is some rock to be heard on Logh's forthcoming set North.

>> True: when pondering the early incarnation of The Lemonheads as we are wont to do now and again we sometimes believe we favor Ben Deily's compositions over those of more well-known alternahunk Evan Dando. Well, at least on the expanded version of Hate Your Friends. Deily's tunes "Ever" and "Anyway" are pop-punk classics. Devoted readers may recall our surprise and delight at learning last year that Deily was currently playing music with an act called Varsity Drag. The Drag have been touring across the pond recently and clips have been popping up on the YouTube. Imagine how stunned and pleased we were to see the clip below of Varsity Drag tearing through the old Lemonheads chestnut "Anyway." Awesome. There's more VD on the YouTube here, here and here. We've linked to these before, but check out some Varsity Drag MP3s while you rock out to the YouTube clip:

Varsity Drag -- "Skinny Ties" -- For Crying Out Loud
Varsity Drag -- "Billy Ruane" -- For Crying Out Loud
[right click and save as]

Today's Hotness: Varsity Drag, Pia Fraus, Dikembe

>> So rarely does a song rate on our proprietary Spicoli/Sneaker Rockness Axis (which, briefly, means a song rocks us so hard that listening to it makes us want to hit ourselves repeatedly in the skull with a sneaker a la "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" protagonist Jeff Spicoli), that we had to look up the small number of instances in our archives (we'll shortcut it for you: 1, 2, 3). But this new number "Mind Like A Sieve" from Cambridge, Mass.-based Varsity Drag is just such a rocker. It's 92 seconds of fourth-gear punk-pop, and it evidences Drag fronter Ben Deily's success at tapping the vibrant well-spring of rockulence that helped him write killer Lemonheads tracks like "Uhhhh" and "Anyway" and "Ever" and etc., etc., about a quarter of a century ago (ummm, holy shit). This new tune features on a forthcoming split 7" EP with a trio called Chestnut Road, and other Varsity Drag recordings on the platter include a cover of Versus' "Let's Electrify" and another new-ish original from Deily called "Particle Horizon (The Dark Matter)." But wait -- there's more Deily! Toulouse, France-based Chestnut Road covers the Cantabrigian's Lemonheads composition "Falling" on their side of the EP, which also includes the absolute belter "Bicycle" (which sounds like Goo Goo Dolls back when Goo Goo Dolls was good) as well as a tune called "Fade." Stream both "Mind Like A Sieve" and "Bicycle" via the Bandcamp embeds below. It bears mentioning that "Mind Like A Sieve" was written for the big Lemonheads reunion record that was announced in the fall to be helmed by Ryan Adams; we're not sure what the status of that is, but we do know that Mr. Adams proposed the last three notes of "Sieve." There is as yet no pre-order information for the EP, but we will certainly update you on that once the information becomes available.





>> We suppose it is a healthy realization, coming to terms with the fact that you just can't hear everything. Even so, it's nice when a label gives you a second shot, which is one of the things we think about when we stream Pia Fraus' amazing "Feeling Is New." The tune lodges breathy vocals within a dense wall of guitars in a very pleasing manner that recalls the best moments from the Chapterhouse catalogue, to pick a random example of vintage shoegaze excellence. "Feeling Is New" is one of 13 songs featured on a forthcoming compilation being released by Portland, Ore.-based Shelflife Records under the title Silmi Island. The set collects songs from the Estonian dream pop sextet's 10-year tenure between 1998 and 2008, during which time Pia Fraus released four full-lengths and a bunch of singles on labels such as Clairecords and Estonia's Seksound. Each song selected for the comp was either re-recorded or remastered for its inclusion here, so even if you were hip enough to know about the band years ago, there still might be something new for you to hear here. Shelflife is co-releasing Silmi Island Jan. 22 with Seksound in a limited edition of 500 LPs with CD included. The CD contains two bonus tracks, including a cover of the title track of My Bloody Valentine's 1987 Strawberry Wine EP (incidentally, the legendary shoegaze act's first release to include Bilinda Butcher). Buy Silmi Island from Shelflife right here, and stream "Feeling Is New" via the embed below. Grab that second chance.



>> Sure, you probably already have the MP3s, but emo label juggernaut Tiny Engines has decided to go ahead and legitimize Dikembe's apparently-controversial-but-probably-not-really debut Chicago Bowls EP by remixing, remastering and releasing the thing on 7" vinyl. The short set -- or at the least the titles to its quite excellent songs -- ridiculously celebrated both the dynastic iteration of the Chicago Bulls and pot smoking and was originally only available digitally when it was released to the wilds of the Internerds in April 2011. Tiny Engines' vinyl reissue has somewhat predictably been given the release date 4/20/2013. We'll let that sink in for a second. The new pressing will also have certain audio clips from the TV show "Freaks And Geeks" removed for licensing reasons, but that detracts not at all from how great the songs are. In other Dikembe news, the Gainesville, Fla.-based emo heroes' 2012 set Broad Shoulders is about to get a second pressing, and the foursome are already writing songs for a follow-up album that could be released before the end of the year. Broad Shoulders featured tons of great tunes, and "Not Today, Angel" was one of Clicky Clicky's favorite songs of 2012, as you can see from this handy list. The band played an early all-ages show in Boston in the first week of January that we had to miss, but we're hopeful the band returns before too long and plays a little later at night. For now, why not stream Chicago Bowls via the Bandcamp embed below. Assuming you don't want to wait until 4:20...

Remarks: Varsity Drag, Grownup Noise, Winterpills

[Our exponentially increased work and parenting responsibilities have made it so we can no longer adhere to the rigid format we actually really, really like that we've developed for album and show reviews over the years. And so we are creating a new quasi-category for items we are simply titling Remarks. -- Ed.]

Friday night's wholly satisfying Varsity Drag show at the Middle East Up held some surprises. Not the least of which was the supporting act Grownup Noise, a bunch of locals we'd never heard of who were launching or celebrating the pending launch of a national tour. The band blends the voice of Richard Buckner, the cello work from Built To Spill and indie hooks filtered through a cracking pop sense, which for some reason made us think of Paul Simon. The fronter looked to us like former Junkmedia scribe Jonathan Donaldson, but now that we think about it we don't think we've ever seen Mr. Donaldson. Anyway, we were very impressed with Grownup Noise -- right up until they bafflingly (although ably) covered House Of Pain's "Jump Around." This ruffled our feathers a fair amount, and caused us to turn to compatriot Rock P. and remark "well, this certainly took a turn." Thankfully, Grownup Noise did two more numbers, as we'd hate to have our final thoughts on their excellent performance totally colored by the shlocky cover.

Varsity Drag stepped up and delivered a hot show as well, its first as top-liner on any of the stages at Cambridge's venerable Middle East. We've seen the trio numerous times, but fronter Ben Deily (you know, he was in that band...) and cohort continue to have aces up their six sleeves. This night it was an electrifying, slightly stripped down cover of The Cure's triumphant guitar anthem "Push," a highlight of the damn-near-perfect 1985 long player The Head On The Door. The already-lean Varsity Drag didn't have enough hands to recreate the full instrumental bombast of the track, but the trio gave "Push" a rough edge that made a keen match for the song's desperate tone. The Drag are prepping a long-awaited second set of new material, and we can't help but get the sense that Friday's performance put a lot of wind in their sails. Varsity Drag were celebrating the release of a live set Rock N' Roll Is Such A Hassle -- Live In Europe, which is out now on Boss Tunage in the UK and which domestic fans can purchase digitally right here. A lot of bands have taken on The Cure's "Push" over the years; our favorite might be this rendition by the late, great Garden Variety.

Garden Variety -- "Push" -- Step On A Crack Volume 2 comp (Go-Kart Records)
[right click and save as]
buy Garden Variety records from MusicStack.com right here
buy Garden Variety music from EMusic right here

Northampton, Mass.'s Winterpills held the second slot, the first we witnessed upon making the scene. The band's self-titled debut from 2005 holds several songs that we enjoy, but we've never been fully into the band's lighter, folksier fare. Friday's performance didn't change that, but we were pleased to hear the quintet -- which struggled with a recalcitrant keyboard and ended up re-working its set -- play the up-tempo strummer "Laughing." Our hopes of hearing "Threshing Machine" were not met, but regardless Winterpills are charming on stage and we still enjoy their peppier stuff. -- Jay Breitling

Today's Hotness: Varsity Drag, State Champion, Screaming Maldini

>> Christmas has come early for fans of Cambridge, Mass.'s superlative pop-punk trio Varsity Drag, which has posted for free a recent radio session recorded on the heels of an October jaunt across the pond. The band, fronted by Ben Deily, is offering via Bandcamp free downloads of 13 tunes committed to tape (well, probably not tape) Oct. 28 at Tufts University's WMFO. As the band had just come off the road (and had recently kicked some nasty colds), the performances are particularly tight and confident. With the energy and gusto on display here, the live performances of tracks from The Drag's new album Night Owls give many of the recorded versions a serious run for their money. This is particularly the case with "Richard's Gone" and "Night Owls." We're offering the latter track as an MP3 below, head over to the Bandcamp site via the link supra and grab the rest of the set, you will be glad you did. C'mon, c'mon, let's stay up all night.

Varsity Drag -- "Night Owls" -- Live Owls: Varsity Drag Live on WMFO
[right click and save as]
[buy Varsity Drag music from the band right here]

>> We've received an unusual amount (meaning "some") very good unsolicited pitches of late. How about we tell you about one? There is a newish combo out of Louisville, KY (birthplace of Slint, among many others) called State Champion that will put out next month a full-length called Stale Champagne, the title of which is as best as we can tell a play on the band's name. The eight-song set -- State Champion's fourth if you count a bunch of demos collections and small-run releases that have preceded it -- will be released on vinyl only by the Sophomore Lounge label, which we've also never heard of. But all of that information is secondary to the following: Stale Champagne is a gritty collection of zealously delivered and countrified indie rock tunes that will remind listeners of Palace Brothers and Okkervil River (incidentally, Stale Champagne was produced by Palace sideman Paul Oldham). And Deer Tick. It's really good stuff, although we have not yet fully digested it. Fronter Ryan Davis kindly is allowing us to share up a track, so we're posting the rollicking set-closer "The Years" below. Stale Champagne is out Jan. 26.

State Champion -- "The Years" -- Stale Champagne
[right click and save as]
[buy earlier State Champion recordings via Sophomore Lounge right here]

>> Word from futurepop savants Screaming Maldini, who we've curiously not mentioned in ten months, is that the Sheffield, England-based sextet has signed with Oxford-based Alcopop! records. Alcopop! will release in February an EP of Screaming Maldini tracks including some of the demos we were treated to early this year, as well as some new tracks. According to band member Nick, Screaming Maldini hopes to record a full length by the end of 2010, and the sextet has amassed scads of tracks that the band is eager to get out there. Incidentally, the band is giving away a secret Christmas present at its Facebook page right now, so you should head over there and see what you can score. We first wrote about Screaming Maldini here in February.

Free Range Music: Varsity Drag

You know what's great? Former Lemonhead Ben Deily's latest band Varsity Drag. The UK Lemonheads page pointed us over to the band's minty fresh, three-days-old MySpace page where there is the usual quartet of tracks streaming -- and available for download. The quintet, which features Deily on vocals and guitar, just released a nine-track punk-pop workout titled For Crying Out Loud. We loves The Dand, fer sher, but the majority of our favorite pre-Atlantic Lemonheads cuts were sung by Deily, you know, like "Ever" and "Anyway."

Well, all the Varsity Drag tracks have that same vibe, and if you're a fan of Deily's Lemonheads stuff, you'll like this. We never listened to Deily and his brother's post-Lemonheads project PODS, we should try to dig some of that stuff up. Here's an interesting tidbit from Deily's web site: Apparently he hasn't seen any royalties from Taang for about ten years, even though the 'Heads Taang catalog still moves units. We just bought a copy of Hate Your Friends last month. Anyway, here are some links to the MP3s posted at Varsity Drag's MySpace drive-thru. We recommend "Skinny Ties" and "Summertime":

"Skinny Ties"
"Billy Ruane"
"Summertime"
"Miles of Ocean"

Today's Hotness: Johnny Foreigner, Varsity Drag, Frightened Rabbit

>> Superlative Birmingham, England indie rock trio Johnny Foreigner is now streaming its explosive forthcoming single at the band's MySpace dojo here. As we've noted previously, "Our Bipolar Friends" b/w "The Houseparty Scene Is Killing You" will be released by Best Before Records March 10. You can already pre-order the single from HMV.com right here, which we did the other day despite the abysmal exchange rate and air mail charges. Careful reading of the recent flurry of MySpace bulletins come from the band and label yields other tidbits of information. The forthcoming full-length is as-yet untitled, although the most recent message from the label suggests the set might be self-titled -- or maybe the author just likes to put single quotes around the band name for some reason. We could certainly come up with several title suggestions (One More Failed Suicide Attempt, or Tape The Letterbox Shut, and so on). More importantly, the band reports just finishing the recording and mixing this week, which would certainly seem an important step in getting the thing released and into our stereo. The very good news is the band is coming back to America; the bad news for us is that the "several" dates are at South By Southwest, which is decidedly not driving distance from Boston. Maybe they can squeeze a Boston or New York date in on their way back from SXSW? Check out all the band's tour dates with Los Campesinos! and Young Knives here. Lastly, we love this ad slick at left that the band is using right now that is a variation of sorts on the art for the single. The disgruntled ghost in the foreground is our favorite.

>> We question whether we'll have the energy after a late night last night, but Ben Deily's Varsity Drag performs at Midway Cafe in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston tonight. Deily, readers may recall, co-fronted the early, punker iteration of The Lemonheads with Evan Dando, and in our opinion contributed some of the strongest material to the classic sets Hate Your Friends, Lick and Creator. Varsity Drag performs a lot of this early Lemonheads material [YouTube clip from a recent European date here], and we are determined to see the act live at some point. Varsity Drag released For Crying Out Loud in 2006. Based on the absurdly high prices for used copies we've found online ($17-$50), it would seem the record is out of print, which explains why we can never find it at Newbury Comics. Damn it. Fortunately you can stream a lot of the tunes at Varsity Drag's MySpace wigwam here.

>> Not sure if we've reported this before: Glaswegian powerfolk trio Frightened Rabbit's sophomore set The Midnight Organ Fight will be released on Fat Cat April 1. The title comes from a line in the dramatic number "Fast Blood," which fans may recall was first released digitally via EMusic as part of a stellar, powerful live collection of recordings made at last year's SXSW. Angry Ape has a full run-down here on the run-up to the release, which includes the release March 3 of a single for the fantastic number "Heads Roll Off." The surprisingly danceable number will be backed with a tune we've yet to hear, "Set You Free." The Ape also has a track listing, and we're pleased to see "The Twist" and "My Backwards Walk" making the cut. The cataclysmic shouter "The Modern Leper" leads off the record, and the good people of IODA PromoNet are hosting an MP3 of the track that we link to below.

Frightened Rabbit
"The Modern Leper" (mp3)
from "The Midnight Organ Fight"
(Fat Cat Records)

More On This Album

>> Shape-shifting pop genius Kurt Heasley makes another rare appearance with his band Lilys tonight in Joshua Tree, California. We'll be scouring YouTube for clips tomorrow.

Today's Hotness: Big Deal, Varsity Drag, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

>> We ignore about as many pitches in a day as breaths we inhale, but there are certain folks whose recommendations are lead-pipe cinches, and we got one of those cinchy pitches a few weeks ago about the fast-rising, London-based indie rock duo Big Deal. The pair, whose MySpace URL is charmingingly MySpace.com/WeAreABigDeal, flew onto the radar of the British rock press after only its second show, and Big Deal's debut single "Homework" b/w a cover of Big Star's "13" doesn't even street until 18 Nov. and is not yet available for pre-order. The single, incidentally, will be issued by London's Records Records Records, who you may recall recently issued the completely terrific Superman Revenge Squad EP Dead Crow Blues. Anyway, Big Deal is songwriters and guitarists Kacey Underwood and Alice Costelloe, and the pair's music sounds a fair amount like another hotly tipped London act, that being Yuck, which means Big Deal sounds like Yo La Tengo, in the best way possible.

"Homework" b/w "13" will be released in a limited vinyl edition with "hand finished" artwork (we don't know what that means, but yeah, awesome?), and both tracks are already streaming at the aforementioned MySpace along with three others. NME recently posted the smouldering strummer "Locked Up" as its track of the day, and we're taking the liberty of re-posting the track below because it is brilliant. Big Deal are apparently recording new material with Gordon Raphael, who aging hipsters may recollect was the producer of the early Strokes material; according to Wikipedia Mr. Raphael now works out of Urchin Studios in London.

Big Deal's "Homework," "13" and "Locked Up"

>> An update on the goings-on of hometown indie punk superheroes Varsity Drag is overdue. Sadly, drummer extraordinaire Josh Pickering has parted with the band. Word is -- well, actually we read it here -- that Mr. Pickering has been succeeded on the stool by a cat named Jonas Meyer, who is currently rehearsing with founding member Ben Deily and trusty bassist Lisa Marie Deily. And from the WTF file: Varsity Drag has been tapped to provide music for a forthcoming production of "Hamlet" being staged by an area theater company in 2011. No word what that music will sound like or whether it will be available for general consumption by non-theater goers. Varsity Drag's most recent release was the digital single "White Cat In A Snowstorm," a song originally written and released by UK punkers Ipanema. The song is slated to appear on a comp being concatenated by the Drag's UK label Boss Tunage, but no release date on the comp has been disclosed. Grab the track here or stream it below.




>> Dream pop phenoms The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart will release a sophomore full-length recording on Slumberland Records in March 2011. The album as yet has no title, but a first single, "Heart In Your Heartbreak," will be issued in November with an exclusive b-side. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's self-titled debut was released last year, as was the band's Higher Than The Stars EP. The New York-based quartet is on tour through the end of November and you can review all tour dates at the band's Myspace hacienda right here.