Not long ago, some folks from Great Scott approached us with an idea: they wanted to video some performances at the Allston rock club. So, we here at the Phoenix are pleased to debut the first of what we hope will be many LIVE AT GREAT SCOTT sessions! All video here has been shot and edited by Dustin Devlin, Matt Thompson, Fabian Perez, and Tracy Drane (who also serves as interviewer).

FOREST FIRES is Christopher Pappas of local favorites the Everyday Visuals gone solo. His new album, Hark! And Other Lost Transmissions, is a lo-fi, twangy, melancholy departure from his other band's usual Chiltonified pop, though it still retains some of their sweetness. Tonight, Pappas will wrap up a month-long residency at Arts for the Armory in Somerville, which I hear tell is a pretty good place to hear some live music

Deadmau5

On Sale Friday, April 30

Excision | June 4 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $14.50 | On sale Friday at 10 am

The Kominas + Asleep In A Box | June 5 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $10 | On sale Friday at 10 am

She & Him (Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward) | July 1 at the House of Blues, Boston | $25-$35 | On sale Friday at 10 am

This doesn’t happen very often, so brace yourself for the biggest MP3 of the Week trifecta ever: PHANTOM GLUE’s “Phantom Glue” off Phantom Glue. As that unlikely trinity might suggest, this is the sound of a sludge-metal band in the throes of full stonerific self-realization. And it’s a brute-iful thing.

Was it really only a year and a half ago that MTV cancelled TRL? It seems like a lifetime since that fateful final episode, a whimper that had critics all over sounding the death-knell for the music video. Looks like reports of the video-as-art-form's demise were greatly exaggerated, since 2010 is shaping up to be the year that music videos matter again.

Props to Jake Paine from Hip-Hop DX for scoring (and transcribing) this remarkable interview with Solar's baby mama, who worked extensively with 7 Grand. It's a heart-breaking read, but holy shit is there a lot in here (excerpt below with link at the end)...

DX: Right. These guys weren't just studio rats, so to speak.

Remember when Pavement dropped Wowee Zowee in 1995?

On the heels of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, the band was on the fast track to indie lore, having sold a remarkable 300,000 copies in the now-foreign music landscape of the 1990s. A short year later, Wowee Zowee was released, glaringly devoid of the rhythmic pop sensibilities that defined Crooked Rain

Well, this is awkward: NY Mag, this week; and the Boston Phoenix, July 2009

Back in July of 2009, Boston Phoenix staffer DAVID BERNSTEIN wrote an article about how Sarah Palin was about to rake in the dough -- a piece that examined the underbelly of the Conservative punditocracy in America, and explained how Palin, by becoming the leading figure in it, was poised to make a hell of a lot more money as a full-time free agent than she would as a half-assed Alaskan governor.

Now that we can hear about actual dance music being made in Boston without having our monocles drop into our drinks, we can put the wildness of it all behind us and focus on culling through the virtual crates of local talent for the best cuts. Lo and behold: “How We Lustre.” It doesn’t get much smoover than this. Local DJ/producer Brenden Wesley’s CREATURES OF HABIT come on just strong enough with their loungy noir number.

The first salvo from the M.I.A.camp has finally emerged: after a blimp over Coachella proclaimed the imminent arrival of her as-yet-untitled album (due out on June 29th), we now have a released track which may or may not show up on said album. If you were expecting a dance-tastic mish-mash of world music styles and hiccup-y rap hooks, then you are.

FRIDAY 04.23 | STEVE AOKI @ Royale | If you're in the market for a rigorous Friday-night electro-house smackdown, look no farther than the recently freshened megaroom of Royale, where Dim Mak Records founder Steve Aoki makes a serious midnight showing. Will he drop "I'm in the House"? You bet he will.

As expected, GURU obits, tributes, and remembrances are turning up at a much faster pace than were, say, reviews of his last few albums. But it's not just the knee-jerk nonsense that's annoying here. It's the fact that shitheads who either never did care or haven't cared about GURU in years are writing irresponsible pieces (for the record - I am not in that category).

Imogen Heap

On sale Thursday, April 22

Evelyn Evelyn | June 19 at the House of Blues, Boston | $25-$35 | On sale at 10 am

On sale Friday, April 23

Cassidy | May 20 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $20 | On sale at 10 am

Imogen Heap | May 26 at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston | $28-$33.