Press paws on this pet project: Boston bands replace musical instruments with cats

Yesterday Boston writer Michelle Buchman passed along a Sports Balls Replaced By Cats tumblr that found many mates on the ol' pitch playing around with kitty instead of that big round thing. Unlike Aston Villa, it was a huge success.

But it seemed Michelle and I had the first thought for a sequel: replacing musical instruments with cats, and allowing Boston to be the first in feline line. Whiskey and boredom is rarely this positive and productive.

Bent Shapes, Quilt, the Field Effect, Speedy Ortiz, Mutual Benefit, Emily Reo, and of course, Michelle -- this meow's for you.

So inspired by my new favorite tumblr, Sports Balls Replaced With Cats (which I will probably forget exists tomorrow) I took some of my favorite Massachusetts area bands and replaced their musical instruments with cats (and one dog, because I like dogs too. Sue me.) Enjoy, everyone. I’m glad my Wednesday evening drinking whisky and photoshopping was well spent.

Vanyaland is dead / Vanyaland is not dead

Oh lordy, I think I found myself a brand new lover.

When I started Vanyland several years ago, it was a reaction to the over-edit and re-write hack jobs I was suffering from at the Herald. I created this blog as a means for me to break out of dinosaur print restrictions and write about what I wanted, what I thought Boston needed to know about and whatever other bullshit romancing me at the moment. It was great therapy.

With the new gig as Music Editor of the Boston Phoenix, I don't feel there is a need to distinguish this blog from my day job. In reality, aside from videos like the ones below, any "news" or show promo plugs I post here should be going to the alt-weekly. They, after all, pay the bills. But more importantly, they have my target demo, and allow me the freedom to spit how I spit.

Vanyaland will not die; just slow down considerably. I'll still hype the pill news and Endless Wave (the lone member of the streamlined Vanya MMC) and other random nonsense, but it's time to shift focus to the Phoenix. It's quite a gig, and demands my full attention.

Thanks to all who read this over the years. As Bertie says so timelessly, here's looking at you, kid.

BK Vegan: Pete Doherty in NYC tonight?

Awesome find by those Brooklyn Vegan peeps, who just posted a flyer advertising a Pete Doherty gig tonight in NYC. Yowza. I wanna goooooooooooo...

Sink hole in Guatemala

This isn't your typical Vanyaland post, but OH MY FUCKING GOD that building just disappeared into the Earth. More proof that End Times are here... though it kinda makes me reminisce about some of my former lovers...

'The Human Centipede' arcade game!!!!

An increasingly rare Hotline repost: Celebrating the greatest phenomenon of 2010 that does not involve dead washed-up rock stars, a bread-less fast-food chicken sandwich or the ability to play a 30-year-old video game on the Google home page, someone actually made a shooting game for the instantly-legendary Tom Six cult horror film "The Human Centipede." Yes, it's kinda based off the old "Centipede" arcade game, and clearly we're still months away from a game where you have to stitch people together ass-to-mouth. Can you be 100% medically accurate in three lives or less? Before we find out, lets shoot 'em up...

Ladies and germs, fire away at that pesky 'Pede. (Hat tip to Zack)

Battle of Blur logos

So there's a new racing video game hitting the market called Blur. I'm sure we've come a long way from "Rad Racer," and I'm sure the game is great. The name, oh certainly very clever, as yes, those cars do go very fast. But hey, you know, that logo, it looks veeeeeery familllllllliar.

Oh right, because it's the fucking logo for Blur the Britpop band! Look at this shit:

A NY Yankee logo on the Pru in Boston?

Is this real or fake? Someone get the scoop...

The Bronx are playing. I am not going (again)

Tonight will mark maybe the 11th or 12th time I miss seeing the Bronx live after planning on going for weeks prior. WTF is wrong with me? The Bronx 2003 debut album is one of my all-time faves, showing I haven't completely abandoned my high school-era love of hardcore despite a pretty feverish distaste for anyone who still listens to it. While the band's later releases didn't grip me like the first, the Bronx remain in constant Vanya rotation... And here they are, playing the Paradise tonight and instead I'm going to the opening of Jerry Remy's Sports Bar & Grill then the first day of Petco Unleashed before retiring in front of the TV for West Coast baseball.

The Bronx should just kick my ass already. There is no revolution ...if it falls on my shoulders.

"Kells West" ruse goes all On the Download

The whole "Great Scott was sold" April Fools' gag was reposted on the always-awesome Boston Phoenix blog 'On The Downoad' Clearly the highlight of my week, and shit, it's already been a pretty good week. le pill manana xo

Great Scott not becoming The Kells West (!!!)

Maybe my best April Fool's Day prank ever? After countless Tweets, Facebook status updates and even a Lemmingtrail thread, yes, indeed, I will confirm the message about "Great Scott becoming The Kells West" in this morning's Great Scott mailer is/was, in fact, a joke. It said so in the first promo blurb (for the Big Bear show tonight).

What poetry:

Hello Great Scott faithful,

it was a good run. Back when Carl Lavin took over booking at Great Scott and transformed the college hangout into an indie rock playground, one douche on the Noise Board said it would only last a few months. Turns out it lasted five years. Word came down this morning that the former owner of the Kells, after selling his controversial Brighton Avenue bar and nightclub last month, has bought Great Scott and is essentially moving his old club over to 1222 Commonwealth Avenue. As a token of gratitude, Carl was given until July 1 to round out his current booking schedule, and on July 1 Great Scott will be renamed The Kells West, with a new bar staff and nightly programming. With that mandate, the last ever pill dance party will go down on June 25. However, expect a HUGE blowout on June 30, one that would make the Dropkicks last show at Avalon look like romper room. Let's go out with a bang.

We thank everyone who made Great Scott what it became - lifelong friendships were made and community ties in Allston Village were fostered and strengthened. Hell, just last week, SoulFire donated food and services to a Newton School through the efforts of Great Scott. We thank them for that, and suggest everyone go to their all-you-can-eat wing night each Monday. Come July 1, that might be the only cool place in Allston to hang out. On to the rock, somber rock, this week at the lame-duck venue we call (called?) Great Scott...--Michael V

MGM's weird-ass 'Flash Delirium' vid

A Hotline extension of this "House of Yes"-on-Acid video: At 4:23 a.m., this video popped into the hungry hippo Hotline inbox, and the timing of it all seems too appropriate.

It's the new video for MGMT's only-controversial-because-no-one-knows-what's-going-on single "Flash Delirium," and well, the visuals are as strange as the sounds. In just a few short minutes we have ventriloquist dummies, an old lady playing that rad flute solo in the middle of the song and some dude pulling an eel (we guess?) out of Ben Goldwasser's singing neck. It might even get obscene from that point on but we have no idea.

Let's just spend the rainy day watching this over and over -- there's much to digest. Maybe a bit too much. All this for a gold coin.

SXSW: Windish & Pop Frenzy

My body aches. Yesterday may have been the longest day of my life, but capping it with a post-New Collisions run of Le Castle Vania at Barcelona; walking past an outdoor stage and recognizing Jason McMaster of Dangerous Toys; then Toxic Avenger at Beauty Bar was kinda redonkulous (Also saw: Surfer Blood, Everyone Everyone, Best Coast, Neon Indian, Kid Sister, Acid Mother Temple, Dam Funk, Here We Go Magic and others I can't remember).

Never saw LCV before, and his gig with Reid Speed and Computer Club was the perfect subterranean electro throwdown to counter the sunsplashed indie showcases. More stuff:

Die Antwoord is my butterfly

We need therapy at the LTD. When not screaming like a teenage girls to the chorus to Bad Boy Bill's "Falling Anthem," my roommate and I can't stop singing this "I am your butterfly / I need your protection" vocal hook. Fucking kill me. What is this?!?! I think it's time to cut me bangs like hers...

Nirvana on Ice: the Grungecapades

More signs of the apocalypse -- if only this dude made out with a shotgun instead of Kurt, the world might be a safer place and not on the brink of destruction. Tweets my girl JRAP: "If you have just one minute, start at 3:06. But pause to savor 4:16." FML and everyone else's. Where's Tonya Harding's thugs when you really need her?

Little Boots/Dragonette canceled

RT @vMichaelv Oh WTF?!?! @mideastclub Weds 4/28 Little Boots, Dragonette – 18+ $15 - CANCELLED - refunds available at point of purchase

What a shit day this has turned out to be!

Red Dawn 2010 movie poster

Driscoll tipped me off to this last night. Still have mixed feelings about this whole Red Dawn remake nonsense, but ehhhh, this is kinda ok. The "Here to Help" thing is very V, however...

WTF at the Olympics ceremony? Maire Mai?!

Some time last night, after the U.S. had accepted crushing defeat in hockey and the Twitterverse eased up on a collective hatred for all things Nickelback, there was a very bizarre and painful Rammstein-meets-TATU-esque live performance being televised live from the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

With the afternoon hockey game and the heartbreak that followed, it was a long day. So at the time watching this in bed I thought I might have been hallucinating, unknowingly stumbling on Fuse TV or something where this stuff is more common or maybe even accidentally taking shrooms on my walk back from Great Scott.

But apparently it did actually happen. The chick is Marie Mai, the song is called “Emmene-moi” and it was as awkward and out of place as the group of Elder Canadians hanging out at the CommonGround yesterday.

No one in the crowd was feeling this. At all. Poor girl. She’s a looker though. Someone get her an electro-pop producer stat.

Gotta Love It II: the Kitty Caller for the iPhone

You want EVEN MORE hard-hitting journalism? Well in today's Gotta Love It section of the Boston Herald, I confess a love for the Kitty Caller iPhone app. Again, that journalism degree from Hofstra University is really paying off:

BUY: KITTY CALLER
The iPhone is cool and all, but does it feature cute kitty cats on its keypad? Does it meow when you press its buttons? And does it fire off colorful rainbows when dialing a friend? Didn’t think so. Turn your iPhone into the purr-fect treat for deranged cat people with Kobayashi Industries’ Kitty Caller app (99 cents at kittycaller.com). Say it together: “I’m in ur fone, dialin’ ur friendz.” -- Michael Marotta

Crazy lecture on the future of gaming

From Hotline, where yes, my mind was blown on this lonely Monday: Life is a game, and that’s been well documented even before Milton Bradley came up with the board game in 1860. But as technology evolves to consume our daily life, where is it headed and how does it track out achievement and progress through the world?

Check out this half-hour lecture by Carnegie Mellon University Professor Jesse Schell at the recent DICE 2010 summit in Las Vegas, where he dissects gaming development and what the future holds for the booming industry.

There’s a pretty sinister tone that emerges along the way, and if you’re wondering where our culture of gaming is headed and how it’s going to merge with every single aspect of society and daily life – from brushing your teeth for company points to showing off branding tattoos that change shape and earn you achievement – well then your head may asplode after watching it. The best 28-minute time waster you’ll invest in all week isn’t so much a time-waster, it’s a warning wrapped in a challenge.

This is kind of scary. And awesome. And terrifying.

PS3 Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5

LeBron James hitting up Rumor

Now for something completely ridiculous, to ease the weight of the last post -- My roommate DJs at Rumor on Fridays, and this Wednesday, LeBron Fucking James is rolling up to the club for some party. What?!! I'm totally going to join LeBron's entourage. After reading all the things Bill Simmons writes about LeBron's nightlife tornado, I want to feel that gust of wind. I heard he rolls mad deep...