That Was The Show That Was: Courtney Barnett with Chastity Belt, Darren Hanlon | The Sinclair | 18 May

[PHOTO: Dillon Riley] As with the very best of rockers pegged with the descriptor "slacker," charming Australian singer/songwriter Courtney Barnett excels at quantifying the mundane. It's in Ms. Barnett's unaffected, down-under drawl, her unhurried guitar heroism, hell, it's even in her album title: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. It's unsurprising, then, that a songwriter so adept at capturing everyday nothingness in song would be so frank about jetlag on the first night of what's undoubtedly one of the biggest tours of her career.

About halfway through her set Monday night at The Sinclair in Cambridge, Mass., Barnett took to the mic in a daze and mumbled this gem in response to some fan requests: "Don't confuse me, I don't know where I am or what day it is." Fortunately her mild disorientation did not affect her performance in the least. There were few errant notes beyond the infrequent, artful clam dropped in the way only a crack live band that's logged miles and miles on the road playing the same songs night after night can pull off. And that's what struck us most about the evening: The Courtney Barnett Three -- as they were introduced -- are truly professional and road-hardened, pros despite the "slacker" designation. Barnett possesses a singular talent to be sure, but what makes the Three such a compelling live act, and what really seems to push Sometimes ahead of her previous efforts, is the band's apparent chemistry, particularly among the rhythm section.

Along with fiery takes on Sometimes standouts like the lowered-expectations lament "Pedestrian At Best" and "Elevator Operator," Barnett and co. Monday offered up geographically appropriate covers in The Breeders' "Cannonball" and Lemonheads' "Being Around." The former played up Barnett's likeness to Kim Deal, in that each woman's best songs possess a casual brilliance, whose hooks tumble from their heads like little Athenas, perfect miracles and brilliant little pop moments. "Being Around" by Lemonheads was a supreme choice given that modern-day fronter Evan Dando was a known quantity around and frequent habitué of Australia decades ago; the song also complemented well Barnett's own plainspoken lyrical style.

Garagey Seattle upstarts Chastity Belt and Australia's own Darren Hanlon -- most famous around Clicky Clicky HQ for this amazing 2010 pop confection -- opened the gig and each played to a nearly full room, which we think says plenty of good things about the Boston show-going community. Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is available right here now via Mom + Pop Music. Stream some selected cuts from the record, a live session, and some Chastity Belt tunes via the various embeds below. -- Dillon Riley

Courtney Barnett: Facebook | Internerds | Soundcloud | tumblahhhhh

Chastity Belt: Bandcamp | Facebook | Internerds

Darren Hanlon: Facebook | Internerds

Today's Hotness: Lemonheads, She, Sir

>> We didn't expect to be learning stuff last Saturday night when we took in the big Varsity Drag show at Midway Cafe, so when fronter (and Lemonheads co-founder) Ben Deily laid out a surprising little history lesson for us, we were caught a bit off guard. We followed up this week with Mr. Deily who graciously reiterated his tale, which concerns one of our favorite Lemonheads songs, "Mallo Cup." When Evan Dando originally brought the song to the band, it bore the title "If Only You Were Dead," the arrangement lacked the metal vamp in the middle, and the chorus had entirely different words. In place of the familiar section that begins "I never will forget," the words instead were "If only you were dead, I'd walk on home, if only you were dead, I'd know I was alone." While Mr. Deily is a big fan of the popular, well-known version of the song, he and Varsity Drag tore through the original version at Midway Cafe Saturday, blowing both our 38-year-old mind as well as what remains lurking within of the mind of the 16-year-old kid who cut the lawn hundreds of times listening to Lemonheads' Lick on cassette. Earlier this fall -- in the wake of news that Deily and Dando were reuniting to create a new Lemonheads record along with Juliana Hatfield and Ryan Adams -- London-based Fire Records announced it will reissue in 2013 that record as well as Lemonheads' debut full-length Hate Your Friends and Creator, which along with Lick are the three records made during Deily's original tenure with Lemonheads. What's more -- and this is where we tie things together, people -- Fire Records issued "Mallo Cup" b/w "Mallo Cup (Live on VPRO 1989)" on "super-limited" edition 7" vinyl Nov. 26 (buy link). That live version is the one found on the tail end of Creator, as fans will likely recognize. It turns out "Mallo Cup" isn't the first Lemonheads single Fire has released; the label, through its Roughneck Records subsidiary, released a single for "Different Drum" in 1990. And that single, incidentally, contains our very favorite Lemonheads b-side "Paint," which was released domestically as part of the Favorite Spanish Dishes EP. While you twiddle your thumbs waiting for those album reissues, why not stream "Mallo Cup" via the embed below?



>> Just as our hunger for new She, Sir jams was rumbling again in the wake of the delicious digital single "You Could Be Tiger" [coverage here], the Austin-based dream pop heroes have announced they will finally release the long-anticipated Go Guitars full length early in 2013 on Japan's Happy Prince Records; the band continues to look for a suitable domestic label situation for the record. But clearly the season of giving is upon us, as the group is also sharing the first single from the planned album, "Condensedindents." The new tune confirms that the act continues its delicate revisions to the tape-saturated noise-pop which first captured our hearts with the brilliant, brilliant 2006 mini-album Who Can’t Say Yes. "Condensedindents" stands apart immediately, as it is marked by She, Sir's signature timeless sonics and composition, but also appropriates signifiers hence unheard. Specifically, there's a smooth, '70s-funk-inspired bass line that mingles with the delay pedals. That single instrument imbues the song with a playful, relaxed bounce that transports She, Sir's dream-pop to the yacht club. Add to this the brief yet effective and creamy guitar strums in the breakdown, and you've got all the makings of another classic from collaborators Russell Karloff and M. Grusha. The duo now works with a steady slate of members including lead guitarist Jeremy Cantrell and drummer David Nathan, both of whom seem to fit seamlessly into the band's aesthetic. She, Sir fans have had to be patient while the band simmered in the studio and practice space in recent years, but the release of Go Guitars is looking and sounding like it will be fine reward for all the good boys and girls that kept the faith. For now, enjoy "Condensedindents" via the embed below. -- Edward Charlton

Original Lemonheads Dando And Deily Reunite For Ryan Adams-Produced LP Featuring Juliana Hatfield, Blogger Dreams Realized

[PHOTO: Dando and Deily in 2010 by Joshua Pickering, used with permission]

Perhaps it's not a bombshell on the order of the Mittens video, but Ryan Adams' tweet last night announcing he is producing a new Lemonheads record featuring both Evan Dando AND Ben Deily, as well as Juliana Hatfield on bass, certainly shook the earth for music fans. We caught up with Mr. Deily this morning, who confirmed the news and told us he will fly to Los Angeles tomorrow to begin tracking songs to tape. Perhaps a recorded reunion of the O.G. lineup of Lemonheads was inevitable, following the long-awaited live reunion of Mr. Dando and Deily at the 2010 SXSW festival that we wrote about here. But Deily tells Clicky Clicky the recording plans with Adams -- who will also drum on the planned album -- only solidified after he received a call from Dando three weeks ago. "Of course, my piss-poor listening skills being what they are, I misunderstood initially and thought the date [to record] was November 20th... and was panicking anyway, [regarding] song development," Deily said. "Then, of course, when I realized (about a week ago) that I had ONE WEEK to buy a ticket, get time off and write as many half-decent songs as I could, then, well, I just relaxed. Because of course THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE."

Dando, Deily and Ms. Hatfield have already demoed an unknown number of songs, and folks luckier than us have heard them. Given the very compressed timetable for writing material before tape starts rolling tomorrow, it's certainly likely that the storied act will revert "back to the punker sounds," as Adams tweeted. As everyone over the age of 35 knows, Hatfield played on Lemonheads' commercial breakthrough It's A Shame About Ray, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. That record followed the band's excellent, but wrongly overlooked, major label debut Lovey by two years, which in turn arrived a year after Deily left Lemonheads in 1989 to commit to academics at Harvard. As Clicky Clicky readers know, Deily has been musically active in the interim with projects including Pods and his current vehicle Varsity Drag. Things have been relatively quiet in the Varsity Drag camp, however, since the release of the excellent long-player Night Owls in 2009 [review]. The most recent new music from Deily came in the form of a score to a 2011 production of Hamlet in Boston, some of which can be heard at Soundcloud here. A version of The Lemonheads featuring Dando and Hatfield has a tour booked next month supporting Psychedelic Furs, and full dates are posted below. We will certainly keep you abreast of the progress being made on the new album as we are able. For now, treat your ears to some classic tunes.





10.12 -- St. Louis, MO -- The Pageant
10.14 -- Minneapolis, MN -- First Avenue
10.17 -- Royal Oak, MI -- Royal Oak Music Theatre
10.19 -- Glenside, PA -- Keswick Theatre
10.20 -- Port Chester, NY -- Capitol Theater
10.21 -- New York, NY -- Best Buy Theater
10.22 -- Washington, -- @ Howard Theater
10.24 -- Asheville, NC -- Orange Peel
10.25 -- Atlanta, GA -- Variety Playhouse
10.27 -- St. Petersburg, FL -- State Theatre
10.28 -- Miami, FL -- Grand Central
10.29 -- Orlando, FL -- House of Blues

Real Talk About It's A Shame About Ray

Lemonheads are one of our original top-five favorite bands, this you may know. But one thing we've never bothered articulating, because, you know, it's not that interesting, is that it took us months to come around on what is perhaps the band's most widely known record, It's A Shame About Ray, which was released in June 1992. Sure, we love the record NOW, but it took some time. It just wasn't the record we were expecting Lemonheads to make. Remember, 1992 is pre-Internet, and pre-"Live With Regis And Kathie Lee" information about the band wasn't all that easy to come by [LOLBOMBZ]. Everything we knew about Lemonheads was based on Lovey and Lick at that point (we hadn't yet purchased the rest of the back catalog). And so, in our minds, the template for the follow-up to Lemonheads' major label debut Lovey was that which, in our estimation, were the album's best tracks: "Ballarat," "Year Of The Cat" and "Stove." Heavier, electric and at times even slightly angular stuff. We perceived the country-tinged "Brass Buttons" and the down-beat "Ride With Me" to be sort of anomalous, not indications of what was to come. We were wrong.

But after we put it down for a while -- and perhaps even more so because we started spending a fair amount of time in New England in the fall, which is the perfect time of year for this record -- we turned on to Ray in a big way. Sure, the distorted and weird sounds of "Year Of The Cat" were not there, but Lovey's familiar, confused haze hung over the recordings, tinted with perhaps a more pronounced melancholy we were becoming more accustomed to in our undergrad years. So Ray eventually did become a favorite. Particularly all the songs with vocals from Juliana Hatfield. And, very specifically, "Rudderless," which features a call-and-response section where Hatfield monotones the line "tired of getting high," which for some reason even now resonates strongly with us. After you've been given the time and space to do everything you want to do and it's still not enough, what do you do? That's what the line conveys to us, anyway.

After enough interest to warrant a couple complete performances of Ray in 2005 at one of the All Tomorrow's Parties events in the UK, it probably seemed a like a good idea to take the record back out. And so Evan Dando and his latest iteration of Lemonheads are doing it this fall; the band plays Boston's Paradise Rock Club Wednesday night with support from The Shining Twins and New York Rivals. If you can believe what you read at Brooklyn Vegan, last night's show at Bowery Ballroom was, ummm, "sub-optimal." The band was slated to perform a second show there this evening, and has roughly two more months of Ray shows, so hopefully the kinks get worked out. As of Sunday night, there were still tickets for the Boston show available. Buy some right here, why don't you? Don't own Ray? Seriously?

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

That Was The Show That Was: Yuck | Paradise Rock Club | 28 April

[We are pleased to welcome back to these digital pages longtime friend and former editor Ric Dube. Mr. Dube these days hosts the thoroughly wonderful More Lost Time rare indie rock podcast. Subscribe right here -- we heartily endorse his product and/or service. -- Ed.]

Oddly, even though Bryan Adams used to sing "everywhere I go the kids wanna rock," all he ever served up was that Canadian, Phil Collins-type ballad gunk. Maybe his observation was one of despair. "I'd like to help," he was trying to say, "but I only know these songs about Robin Hood."

And this is where we're at with rock n' roll these days. The kids want to rock but so many of the bands are still heavily involved with the bleeps and the la-la-la. Sure, there are plenty out there that would like to bring it, but they just don’t have the songs.

Which is why it was so damned exciting to see the audience at the Paradise last night love Yuck.

The beauty of Yuck is that the London-based quartet's songs are deceptively simple and extremely influenced by much of the best classic alternative rock of the '90s (Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Sugar, Pixies, Lemonheads) and thus, fantastically well written and about as common these days as a Drop Nineteens reunion.

For a quartet of near children -- two members of the band were without wrist bands, suggesting they are not of drinking age -- Yuck boasts a road-weathered confidence. The 45-minute set consisted of tunes from its debut record released in February, performed on a pair of Fender Jaguars with a self-assurance that follows from constant touring over the past 12 months throughout England and Europe. On one hand, tight performance sound can make an act seem unenergetic. But to Yuck's credit, this professionalism made the songs extremely accessible for anyone there to see the evening's headliner, Australia's Tame Impala, and not already familiar with the act.

Also, there's something to be said for pacing a set; at this early phase in its career Yuck is finding a performance style. For now that means keeping things moderately restrained and focusing on the songs for most of a set ("The Wall," "Get Away," "Suck") so that its finale ("Rubber") is that much more effective when it's time to really open up stage presence.

The few simple tones of "Rubber" throbbed within a haze of feedback, a young artist’s punk rock symphony about hoping away his virginity. The room groaned and surged, as if the floor might suddenly part to reveal a layer of fossilized music that might explain this as sound left behind decades ago, when Dinosaur Jr. and Galaxie 500 had procreated and left behind a fertilized guitar pick that was covered in volcanic Rolling Rock (your father’s PBR). Fans already familiar with every note became indistinguishable from the undetermined number of immediate converts. Both stood thoroughly involved -- closed eyes, heads slowly nodding in unison. -- Ric Dube

Yuck: Internerds | YouTube | Facebook | Flickr | SoundCloud

Previous Yuck Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Oupa
YouTube Rodeo: Yuck's "Get Away"
Be Prepared: Yuck | Self-titled | 15 February
Footage: Yuck's "Rubber" [NSFW]
Footage: Yuck's "The Base Of A Dream Is Empty"
YouTube Rodeo: Yuck's "Suicide Policeman" Live
Footage: Yuck's "Weakend"
Footage: Yuck's "Automatic"
Today's Hotness: Yuck
Today's Hotness: Yuck

Today's Hotness: Propeller, Sun Airway, Yuck, Everyone Everywhere

>> If you've been reading along with any regularity, you are surely aware that one of our favorite acts is Varsity Drag, the indie punk concern fronted by Lemonheads co-founder Ben Deily. You may even know that the currently Cambridge, Mass.-based quartet got its start on the West Coast with a different line-up. We gave no thought at all to the chaps who abetted the early incarnation of Varsity Drag until quite recently, when former 'Drag guitarist and singer Greg Randall of the fizzing pop-punk act Propeller contacted us about his new band's recently released collection The Fear Of Rock And Roll. Unsurprisingly, the music of Propeller -- a duo comprised of Mr. Randall and former 'Drag bassist Will Anderson -- sounds a whole lot like the music found on Varsity Drag's debut EP For Crying Out Loud. San Francisco-based Propeller is perhaps not as nervy or manic, instead Mssrs. Randall and Anderson murmur, ooh and ahh through a dozen somewhat more bubble-gummy (yet also more laid back) tracks that suggest, to our ears, things like Big Star and Teenage Fanclub (the cut "Not You," which features Mr. Deily on guitar, sounds particularly Chilton-ish, and in fact The Fear Of Rock And Roll is dedicated to the late, great songwriter). Propeller's facility with melody should not be underestimated, and we've found ourselves listening to The Fear Of Rock And Roll quite a bit. The whole thing, which was released May 18, is for sale at Propellor's Bandcamp yert right here. To further compel you to consume, we're posting below the freebie cut "Broken Ones." It's hot stuff.

Propeller's "Broken Ones"

>> We were very pleased by yesterday's news that Philadelphia-based electropop concern Sun Airway has been signed. The act's full-length debut Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier will be released by Dead Oceans Oct. 26. We've been writing about Sun Airway for almost two years at this point, and in fact we followed closely the careers of band principals Jon Barthmus and Patrick Marsceill as far back as the debut of Sun Airways' predecessor act The A-Sides in 2005. Sun Airways also graced us with one of the more recent Show Us Yours features of ours, here in February 2009. One of the earliest Sun Airway tracks we heard was the sparkling dreamer "Waiting On You." Have a listen. And check out the album art for Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier right here.

Waiting on You by Sun Airway

>> Thanks to Jane of Scenesters And Mirror Kissers for directing our attention to the fact that rising London-based phenoms Yuck will support certain The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart tour dates in the U.S. this fall. Importantly, one of the three dates -- which we believe will be Yuck's U.S. debut -- is at Boston's Paradise Rock Club. Be a smaht kid and get your tickets now. Yuck, of course, recently issued a four-song, cassette EP on Charleston, South Carolina-based Mirror Universe featuring the stirring ballad "Weakend," which we wrote about here in June. The EP sold out almost immediately, but we're hopeful Yuck will have more copies for the October live dates, or at least the Boston one. Here are all three Yuck dates with TPOBPAH.

10.20 -- Paradise Rock Club -- Boston, MA
10.21 -- Music Hall of Williamsburg -- Brooklyn, NY
10.22 -- Pi Lam -- Philadelphia, PA

>> There's finally some new music to hear from Philly emo goliaths Everyone Everywhere. According to this item at Pun Canoes, the quartet is on the brink of releasing a split with Into It. Over It. wherein the two bands do the ol' Archers Of Loaf/Treepeople routine: both Everyone Everywhere and Into It. Over It. provide one of their own songs as well as a cover of one of the other band's songs. It's a classic indie rock gambit. Anyway, a new Everyone Everywhere song "Fakin' It" is currently streaming at the band's MySpace casa right here. The production on the track is a little more dense than some of the other Everyone Everywhere stuff, and the chorus on one of the guitar leads is a nice little touch; all in all it's a hot number. Order the (very attractive) split single from Topshelf Records right here.

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

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
[right click and save as]
[buy Varsity Drag records from the band right here]

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
[right click and save as]
[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

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

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)
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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

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 | 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

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

Today's Hotness: Swirlies, Pat Leonard, Small Screen Light Show

>> This is our 1,000th post. Yeah. It would have been nice to have had some big retrospective with shiny pictures and stuff that goes ping to mark the occasion, but then again, that's not our style.

>> So we were minding our own business Saturday at a social event when we happened upon two former members of Boston chimp-gaze superstars Swirlies goofing around in a basement practice space. After convincing said players that in fact the band had had fans, and that we were one of them, we turned to the charming young fellow at our elbow and asked if he knew any of Swirlies' records, to which he replied in the negative. We thought about this later and realized that there is something about being a certain age at a certain time that insulates you from a lot of good music that was created previously. So while almost any music fan can list off certain of the tracks from AC/DC's Back In Black, for example, few could tell you that Swirlies' Blonder Tongue Audio Baton featured a number of amazing tracks, including "Pancake," "Bell" and "His Life Of Academic Freedom." And that's just that one album. So, in the interest of public service to the lower-cased youth of today, we are posting "Pancake" (the original version) and "Bell" below. A funny thing about Swirlies is we were going to draw a parallel between the band and Philadelphia's Lilys concerning how both bands have had scads of members over the years, and when we went to Swirlies' Internet Home Page and scrutinized its bio we learned that the two bands actually have a one former member in common (that would be Mike Walker). While we were at Swirlies Web HQ we were surprised to see that the current iteration of the band will be playing three East Coast dates at the end of February, including a Feb. 28 gig at The Middle East. In other news, apparently a tribute comp is in the offing, which features -- among other things -- a version of the track "Pony" by indie pop luminaries Surefire Broadcast. More info about the comp, which was slated for release this month free via Archive.org, is here.

Swirlies -- "Bell" -- Blonder Tongue Audio Baton
Swirlies -- "Pancake" -- Blonder Tongue Audio Baton
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[buy Swirlies records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> We admit we can't name a Moving Targets song off the top of our heads, but we've heard the Boston post-punk band's praises sung by many since moving to Cambridge in 1999 including the chaps from Mission Of Burma. As reported elsewhere, Moving Targets bassist (and short-time Lemonheads drummer) Pat Leonard passed away last month, and there is a show in his honor this Sunday at All Asia in Cambridge. Bands confirmed for the evening include Varsity Drag, The Wynotts (ex-Jerry's Kids), American Pulverizer (featuring Marky Mussel and Kenny Chambers of Moving Targets) and many others. The night kicks off early -- 6PM early -- and there is a block of time left open midway through the bill for a special guest appearance. We can only speculate who that might be, although certain bands whose names begin with Mission or Bullet would make for a very exciting surprise. WMBR DJ Joanie Lindstrom -- who is famous to us for once having interviewed Uniform Choice -- will be holding things together between sets. You can inspect the full lineup for the show right here.

>> Earlier this month ExitFare hipped us to Seaham, England-based duo The Small Screen Light Show and its brilliant track "I'm Too In Love." It's catchy as hell, and there is a moment in the chorus that is just like a moment -- a certain defeated vocal phrasing -- in sorely missed Small Factory's cataclysmically awesome "Expiration Date." Anyway, head over to E-Fare here and download it, or stream it at the two-year-old band's MySpace cabin right here. Of course, being small-minded, we are curious whether the duo of Mattie Vant and Becca Young (which is augmented live by drummer Craig Stamp) are romantically linked; they seem too young to be divorced a la Jack and Meg White. But we digress. According to a MySpace bulletin The Small Screen Light Show spent some of the past week in Doncaster recording new tracks with Justin Lockey, who in addition to being a guitarist for bands including the erstwhile Mycodenameis:Milo and British Expeditionary Force has also produced recordings including My Psychoanalyst's stirring "We Disagree" b/w "Panaphobia" single and tracks by Late Of The Pier, Hot Club De Paris and Bloc Party. Anyway, back to one of the first points we made, if you aren't familiar with Small Factory, they were superb, and Old Fart At Play just reposted its overview of the band, so have at it here.

Today's Hotness: The Futureheads, Fields, Asobi Seksu

>> You know what totally smokes? The forthcoming Futureheads single "I Wouldn't Be Like This If You Were Here." The high-octane slammer hearkens back to the Sunderland-situated quartet's amazing 2004 full-length debut. The single will be issued Dec. 8, but you can already hear a crappy-sounding stream of the track at the band's MySpace dojo here. The Futureheads embark on a three-week tour of the U.K. and Ireland with clicky clicky faves Johnny Foreigner at the end of the month. We weren't all that certain of the pairing, but now that we've streamed "I Wouldn't Be Like This If You Were Here" a few times and hear The Futureheads are back with their A game it is starting to make sense. Full tour dates are listed at the aforementioned MySpace page. The Futureheads released its third set This Is Not The World on its own Nul Recordings label in May; we reviewed the band's July 2006 Boston gig here. We just remembered something Johnny Foreigner and The Futureheads have in common: both acts have been remixed by Dolby Anol. Here's the remix of "Radio Heart."

The Futureheads -- "Radio Heart (Dolby Anol Remix)"
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[buy Futureheads records from Newbury Comics right here]

>> London-based indie rock foursome Fields Tuesday cited label negotiations as the precipitating factor behind the cancellation of a planned strand of November tour dates. The cancellation isn't quite as interesting as the fact that Fields, which was apparently the subject of a bidding war in the U.K. in 2006 after playing only a small number of shows, is -- according to a MySpace blog from fronter Nick Peill -- "in talks with a new record label." The band's full-length debut Everything Last Winter was issued by Warners in the UK; in our opinion it did not live up to the promise of the mysterious, stellar preceding EP 7 From The Village. As we reported here in October, Fields had intended to issue its sophomore set Hollow Mountains in March 2009 (after previously hoping it could be out by the end of this year). However, the aforementioned label negotiations could push back the release of the long-anticipated set. Strangely, a second MySpace blog posted Tuesday made it sound as if a new label deal was already in place, and that it was the new label's decision to scotch the dates. "We have been trying to get the label to organise some shows for us for months now and the decision to pull this tour was not that of the band." Drama!

>> News circulated Tuesday that Asobi Seksu's forthcoming third full-length us titled Hush. We had reported here in September that the New York-based dream pop duo would issue the new set in early 2009, and Asobi Seksu now says the release will be in March, which we expect is timed perfectly with the annual South By Southwest confab. As we had also reported previously, Hush will be preceded by the single "Me & Mary" b/w "Breathe Into Glass" Nov. 18. For you vinyl-ophiles, the band's supremely great sophomore set Citrus will finally be issued on vinyl Nov. 25 by Friendly Fire. More details and the Hush track listing can be found in this Pitchfork item.

>> Pun Canoes here points to this recent post on The Lemonheads' blog, in which band leader Evan Dando explains the delay of the planned covers album Varshons, which was to have streeted in September. The set will apparently now be released in March, Mr. Dando says.

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

Today's Hotness: Lemonheads, Bob Mould, Superman Revenge Squad

>> We're finding it hard to get excited about the forthcoming Lemonheads record, which is called Varshons and will be released by Vagrant on Sept. 13. That's because, as Pun Canoes reports here, the set features no new Lemonheads tracks (penned by fronter Evan Dando or otherwise). Instead Varshons collects Dando's versions of 11 songs popularized by artists including longtime Dando influence Gram Parsons, Wire, Christina Aguilera and Leonard Cohen, among others. Making it somewhat less of a Lemonheads affair are guest vocal performances from celebrities Liv Tyler (who is admittedly quite musically pedigreed) and Kate Moss. While we loved Juliana Hatfield and Belinda Carlisle's contributions to the Lemonheads catalog, those women are, you know, actually musicians. Check out the full track listing for Varshons right here. The Lemonheads' previous record was a self-titled set recorded with former Descendants Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez; it was released in September 2006. The buzz on the Lemonheads forum is that Mr. Dando continues to write songs for a new album. We reviewed a December 2006 Lemonheads show right here.

>> We were very tickled to see revered solo artist and former Husker Du and Sugar fronter Bob Mould give props to Ringo Deathstarr at his blog yesterday. They were very understated props for the Austin-based shoegaze outfit, but they were props nonetheless. The primary purpose of Mr. Mould's post was to offer details about his next record. The set will be issued on Anti- in February 2009 and it is in Mould's parlance a "guitar record." A tour will follow the release. Mould's implicit praise for The Deathstarr (and, incidentally, the San Antonio/Austin representing act Honey Thief) inspires fantasies in us of 1) his new record featuring a heavy shoegaze sound and 2) his taking Ringo Deathstarr on tour with him. How awesome would that be? About as awesome as the track below, we reckon. We reviewed Bob Mould's "Circle Of Friends" DVD here in October 2007; Mould's most recent record District Line was issued on Anti- in January of this year.

Ringo Deathstarr -- "Sweet Girl" -- Ringo Deathstarr EP
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[buy Ringo Deathstarr from Spoilt Victorian Child Records right here]

>> Superman Revenge Squad recently recorded 11 tracks that are being considered for release as an album tentatively titled This Is My Own Personal Way Of Dealing With It All. The songs were recorded by a fellow named Simon, who traveled recently to the Squad's home base in Croydon, England to do the session. No word on which tracks were recorded and when we might be hearing them. But we don't imagine it will be too long. Superman Revenge Squad is the solo project of former Tempertwig and Nosferatu D2 fronter Ben Parker. Parker plays what is now a rare full-band gig in two weeks to celebrate his birthday; the band will include Mr. Parker's brother and longtime former bandmate on drums, as well as a cellist, according to this blog post. Superman Revenge Squad will also play a gig in Berlin this fall.

>> British regulatory body OfCom has banned Johnny Foreigner's video for "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella" from being broadcast on MTV2 and other outlets because it is feared the jittery clip for the forthcoming single could incite seizures in epileptics. This all according to a MySpace bulletin from Alexei Berrow, fronter of the Birmingham, England-based indie rock behemoth. DrownedInSound runs down all the major details right here.

That Was The Show That Was: Bottomless Pit, Kadane Brothers

The Kadane Brothers, perhaps better known as principal members of sublime flagship slow-core act Bedhead and its successor The New Year, have written so many great songs but released records so infrequently that last night's performance was something of a constant surprise. Several songs into a quiet set during which Matt and Bubba Kadane played guitars and sang sans rhythm section the brothers reached deep back into its catalog to unearth the frankly sublime track "Crushing," released on Bedhead's 1994 stunning full-length debut WhatFunLifeWas. We had hoped against hope that the duo would perform the title track to 1996's The Dark Ages EP, but this treat definitely sufficed. Mssrs. Kadane and Kadane did open their set accompanied by journeyman guitarist Chris Brokaw on the track "The End's Not Near" [for which a video was recently released; watch it here]. The penultimate song of the set was "18," our favorite New Year track -- except for perhaps "Gasoline," which was also performed. The New Year will issue its third full-length, and first since 2004's The End Is Near, September 9. The set features drumming by Mr. Brokaw and bass courtesy of Saturnine's Mike Donofrio; a fellow named Peter Schmidt, whose name is not familiar to us, also plays guitar on the album. It appears the new set is self-titled; you can review the track listing at Touch And Go's web site right here.

Bottomless Pit's set, which sprung directly out of a well-choreographed musical segue that closed The Kadanes' set, was powerful. We hadn't seen the band fronters Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen perform since a Silkworm show in Philadelphia in 1995 or so. Mr. Cohen's guitar work floored us, and fortunately we were standing directly in front of him for the entire set as he let loose with tense, taut, slashing leads and flourishes with his Telecaster. More than anything else, the artfulness of the veteran musicians' performance impressed us -- the lion's share of the live bands we see each year are up-and-coming, and may never develop the poise and chops possessed by the chaps in Bottomless Pit. If they do, they are usually playing rooms that are so large that we can't enjoy the spectacle of their excellent playing. And while we certainly believe Bottomless Pit deserves to be playing arenas and theaters -- we were actually surprised when we realized last night's performance was in the 200-capacity Middle East Upstairs and not in the larger downstairs room -- we felt very grateful to be awash in the blare at a range of a half-dozen feet. The band played much, if not all of the excellent full-length Hammer Of The Gods, then delivered some of the goods from the recently issued Congress EP, and then thrilled the crowd with a new song during what was apparently a very rare encore.

Mr. Brokaw, whose guitar work has been a huge influence on our own playing (despite our relative ineptitude), opened the show last night with a set of his own tunes, including a mile-wide instrumental and a number of tracks from his recently released set Incredible Love. I And Ear Records, which you may recall issued Mazarin's excellent final record We're Already There, issued June 30 fat vinyl version of Incredible Love which you can purchase at his web site here. He also played guitar on the forthcoming Lemonheads record that is due this fall. Located at his web site, Brokaw's touring schedule reads like a Who's Who in indie rock: he'll tour with The New Year in the US in early October and in Europe in November; in August he'll be playing guitar alongside Matador [thanks Jon!] artist Jennifer O'Connor; and like everyone else in North America besides us he will be at All Tomorrow's Parties NY, playing with Thurston Moore.

Bottomless Pit and The Kadane Brothers continue their tour through the 19th of July, and we've posted the remaining dates below; the band's play Montreal tonight. We shot our usual battery of lackluster photos last night and you can check them out here. We stood next to Mr. 'Nac as he recorded the show, and we expect once he gets through his substantial backlog he will post recordings of the excellent show. In the meantime, here's an MP3 from Bottomless Pit's Congress EP, which has been released digitally by Comedy Minus One.

Bottomless Pit -- "Fish Eyes" -- Congress EP
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[buy Bottomless Pit music from Comedy Minus One right here]

Bottomless Pit: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

The New Year: Internets | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

07.13 -- Divan Orange -- Montreal, Quebec
07.14 -- Sneaky Dee’s -- Toronto, Ontario
07.17 -- Schuba’s -- Chicago, Illinois
07.18 -- High Noon Saloon -- Madison, Wisconsin
07.19 -- 7th Street Entry -- Minneapolis, Minnesota