Mountain Goat chief songwriter John Darnielle may not have much control over his instruments, but he certainly has power over the audience. Throughout the band's Saturday night show at the Middle East, Darnielle had issues with tuning and at one point lost an earplug in his pocket. The audience so did not care. Darnielle could have gone onstage and tripped over a cord. The audience still would have loved it. When he emerged onto......

This weekend both NEMO and the Beantown Jazz festival will be taking place in town. NEMO is a showcase for New England artists, a networking opportunity for the little-known and the big fish. The performances will invade, occupy, and entertain at just about every venue in Boston. It's a great opportunity to see your favorite local band – or discover a favorite you never knew you had. It's a whole lot to take in,......

Bostonist has been tangentially aware and thoroughly admiring of Jessica Hopper's writing since college and discovered that, among other things, Hopper was publishing the funny-as-hell Hit It Or Quit It music zine and writing a column in Punk Planet, alongside reading tour-mate Al Burian. Hopper's on the up and up and last year, her fantastic essay "Emo: Where The Girls Aren't" was featured in Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2004. Her byline is featured in......

Friday: Think of the musical options for tonight in terms of The Cure: if you want to see dreamy local rock bands do their best-pyschedelic Brit-pop thing, check out Stereo Soul Future, The December Sound, the dance-y Cyanide Valentine, and Aloud at the Middle East Upstairs. If you want to dance to ten-minute long Cure remixes, head on over the The Pill at Great Scott and kick it to Suede songs. Finally, if you want......