There are some bands that you can go years listening to their studio albums, but you will never understand the very essence of their existence until you see the live show. It sounds a bit dramatic, but is entirely true of Liars, who've continued to garner either high praise or loathe from the entire scale of music critics - Rolling Stone magazine to the adolescent consumer on a message board. Now stationed in Los......

The cold weather is no excuse for you not to get out! Human Dogsledding No kidding. The 8th annual National Human Dog Sled Competition will start today in Lowell. You can learn more about other Lowell Winterfest events, which sound like fun. However, for Bostonist, it is all about the human dogsledding--and teams usually wear costumes. Challenger rounds will be tonight at 6:45 and 10:00 pm, and championship rounds will be tomorrow at 3:30 and......

Michael Ian Black With Michael Showalter Thursday, November 29, 7:30pm Somerville Theatre 55 Davis Square, Somerville (T: Davis Square) Get tickets Listen to the Interview Here: Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 20 years, then you've seen the work of comedian/writer/actor/director Michael Ian Black. Let's rattle off just a few of his accomplishments: co-creator of "The State," "Viva Variety," and "Stella." You've seen him co-star in NBC's "Ed," as well as......

The internets ungulate more than any other of our friends. There seems to be a new kid on the block every other day with others just disappearing. It’s nice to know that some friends stick around for a while. Exploit Boston officially turned five years old today. That means it was post-boom, pre-web 2.0, and, oh, does any of that nonsense even matter? In the last five years the website has served as an events......

Fall seems to have set in, at least for now. the temperatures are dropping and people all over the metro have been forced to put their flip-flops away for some more sensible footwear. At least until it gets warm again in another week. Or so we hope. Music abounds again this week and we're listening. Tuesday, 9/12 Branford Marsalis Quartet Braggtown CD Release Concert Berklee alum Branford Marsalis created Cambridge-based (and Rounder distributed) Marsalis......

This short work week is long on music. The small show battles the bigger venue this week as the students invade the city. When they come back it seems the shows start up with vigor. Lots of 18+ hit the mark – and they've still got summer money in their pockets. What's this mean? Quite possibly there will be a few more sell outs than usual as the concert funds still run high. Fair......

What's going on this week? Everyone is moving. Hipsters are swapping apartments in Allston. Scenesters are invading Cambridgeport. Undergrads and grad students are making their way into the new rental for September. The lucky ones have renewed their lease (or are keeping up with payments on the mortgage). The music you'll be hearing is blaring from the cab of the U-Haul and out of the windows of that f*ing third floor walk-up you offered......

It was about 7:30pm yesterday when the sky started getting dark. It may have been clouds that would bring in some overnight rain. Or maybe it was just a sign that summer is starting to wind down. The season of outdoor shows is starting to wind down and things will begin to move back indoors. Some of the best music in town this week will get you inside, even if there is still a......

The season finale has just aired for your favorite TV show. NBC hasn't run Must See TV on Thursdays for a decade. The sun is shining and temperatures will be perfect for showing up jacketless to the next performance. Something to do every night this week – and rock it out for free with the pop tunes from WBOS' EarthFest line up on Saturday, starting at noon. All this and we're tivo-ing the Sox/Yanks games......

Don't forget Saturday is the Bostonist Anniversary Party at the Kinsale. In the interim please feel free to rev yourselves up with some of the great music rolling down the pike. Monday 3/20: Editors Neo-post-punk brits Editors (a la Joy Division & Bloc Party) with appropriately asterisked Stellastarr*. Roxy. Editors: Myspace | All Sparks.ram | purchase Tuesday 3/21: The English Beat, Westbound Train, The Sterns, and DJ Ford E. Buxworth More than just a......

Animal Collective, Avalon, 2.21.06 Avoiding misnomers and labels and subverting expectations, Animal Collective performed a mix of sounds and songs that were incredibly familiar to Boston fans in attendance. Last year at the Middle East downstairs, the foursome worked through material that would become one of the finest albums of the year, Feels, as well as a choice or two from Sung Tongs. That show was veiled in a blanket of shadows and sweat, with......

Bostonist will check out the much-hyped (UK: festival appearances/ US: The OC appearance), small-town band The Subways from Britain trying to make the world their garage in the young group’s first stateside tour. Forgoing current angular, dance rock motifs (Franz Ferdinand) and pre-empting the American arrival of their debut album Young for Eternity with a live serving of one-foot-in-the-gutter three-piece pop in Allston, The Subways will face the gauntlet set by a city ravenously devouring......

Bostonist had heard the hype—and the debut LP from Montreal’s Wolf Parade—prior to picking up tickets in time for last Thursday’s show at TT the Bear’s Place in Central Square. One of the latest in a series of bands gaining widespread popularity to pass through Boston/Cambridge in the last year, Wolf Parade is touring on the release of their first full-length, Apologies to the Queen Mary on SubPop. Drawing constant, but due comparisons to The......

Bostonist wants to be in two places at once, and not in that wussy, standing over state lines ala Mandy Moore weepie A Walk To Remember, either. While Bostonist will be crying into a beer (metaphorically) tonight at the Museum of Fine Arts’ Magnolia Electric Co. show, there will be an amazingly solid line-up of local music worth checking out at the Middle East Upstairs. This lineup is killer and every band is good.......

Bostonist hit up the sold out Arcade Fire show at the Roxy last night. The Roxy is a corny night club that doubles as a Chippendale's and employes dozens of middle aged women in windpants and yellow tshirts as security guards. The hype about the Arcade Fire live show had risen to a cresendo and Bostonist didn't want to be let down. As billed, the Arcade Fire sounded very tight and the show was......