The House of Blues has bought the Lansdowne Street clubs, including Avalon and Axis. How is this going to affect the renovations of Avalon and Axis, which has had a negative impact on performers and fans since the venues shut down? The Globe reports: "The only thing that has changed is in place of a sign that says Lansdowne Music Hall, it will say House of Blues," Lyons said yesterday. He will continue to own......

In a sense, it's comforting. The Celtics went to battle against one of the other good Eastern teams without Kevin Garnett, and almost beat 'em. On the day of the C's' long-awaited return to national afternoon TV, the script ran eerily similar to the first game in Orlando; the Magic jumped out to a big lead, the Celtics clawed their way back, but ran out of gas at the end. Orlando's the only team to......

This weekend's Hollywood blockbuster openings are even more depressing than usual, with an ancient Stallone (looking like "an overcooked Ball Park frank," according to E), a cybercrime flick, and a take on a decade-old SNL skit "leading" the pack. Rambo, Untraceable, and Meet the Spartans (which currently has a negative rating at Rotten Tomatoes, something we haven't seen very often, if ever!) will open this weekend, most likely to some box office clamor despite the......

Bluesman Weepin' Willie Robinson, the man who was rescued from a Jamaica Plain nursing home yesterday, has since died. An earlier report mentioned he went into cardiac arrest, but he was also burned by the fire, which started when he smoked in bed. Weepin' Willie Robinson's life unfolded like a blues song. In an obituary, the Globe noted that he performed with Bonnie Raitt and Steven Tyler, but he was found homeless in 2005. Local......

Poor Chicago. True, the Bulls could have made things interesting at the TD Banknorth Garden on Friday night if they'd actually shown up ready to play. But we imagine that they knew, as they sat in the locker room before warmups, that the Celtics weren't going to let anyone speculate about Boston's ability to bounce back from a loss. The guys in green were going to come out hard against anyone they faced - and......

Bostonist just left the 2007 Boston Music Awards, and while we'll have ruminations on the awards ceremony for your Sunday reading pleasure, you can find below the crop of winners from the 20th anniversary ceremony, presented here in chronological order: Outstanding Funk/Jam Band of the Year: Westbound Train Outstanding Blues/Soul Act of the Year: Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves Outstanding DJ/Dance Act of the Year: DJ BC Outstanding Rock Band of the Year:......

Bostonist knew that with Wednesday night's Boston Pops EdgeFest finale would come a chance to see local talent (and Bostonist favorites) Mieka Pauley and Chad Perrone, but it wasn't until shortly before we braved the heat en route to Symphony Hall that we discovered that we were in store for another Boston music treat - three-fifths of the Ryan Montbleau Band (guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Ryan Montbleau, bassist Matt Gianarros and Laurence Scudder on viola), who closed out......

The Gus Van Sant series runs through June 21 at the Brattle Theatre. To Die For screens tomorrow, Wednesday, June 13. Showtimes for all the movies in the series are available on the Brattle's website. And don't worry - they left out the ill-advised Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and the Psycho remake. To Die For seems out of character for Van Sant because it doesn't have the grit of his other work. The......

April Fool's Day is on the Horizon, but we ain't foolin this week. A solid line up of shows – starting with the Tourfilter DJ Night at River Gods – is ahead. It's mid-week heavy this time around so kick it like a rock star and be thankful you can sleep in on Saturday. Monday, 3/26 TourFilter Mixtape Tourfilter founder Chris Marstall will be at River Gods in Cambridge equipped with an evening full......

We could go on and on telling you about what's going on in the area for music this week. Sure, there are a few note-worthy shows noted below, but let pre-planning and sold out shows be damned just grab a scalped ticket to attend. Tourfilter is testing out a sweet new service that allows cell users to SMS (or txt whatever your preferred lingo) "tonight" to MSGME (that's 67463) and almost before you can......

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. Austinist wasn't as the NY Times dissed them and a local Tex-Mex institution sold out. Making them feel better was music, sweet music and the local theater getting name checked on "Heroes" Chicagoist tried to wrap their heads around a religious movie being banned from a Christmas themed park. To wash that......

Friday means something special for lovers of comic strips and internets. No, it's not the winner selection from the Finger Quotin' Margo (that happened last Sunday). Every Friday Brian McFadden posts the most recent strip of Big Fat Whale, his cartoon (also) published in the Phoenix. This week, as he's reported on his big fat blog, he's sorry for the apparent suckage of the weekly cartoon – but hopes you'll get over it and still......

It's a good week to take the whole week off. Well, is there such a thing as a bad week to take off? Grilled meats will be invading your pores for the first time in such a heavy dose since Memorial Day, which was only about a month ago. In addition to this weeks picks for some of the great shows creeping up on us in Boston we'd like to point you over to......

Not too long until these parties rock with the roof off. That is to say we're only a few weeks away from the official start of summer. The unofficial beginning came last week with Memorial Day. Put on your white pants and go see some of the last few shows inside before you rock each park, lake, and outdoor venue you can find in the greater Boston area. Wednesday 6/7 Cat Power Indie chanteuse......

Harvard Square is hosting the Arts First/Mayfair Festival, while Somerville steps up with a massive collection of Open Studios. Who will win in a battle that pits aesthetes against…more aesthetes? Of course Bostonist will be in both places to observe the battle for best arts fair. Here’s a preview. On Sunday, May 7 Harvard Square’s Mayfair boasts 4 music stages: the Main Stage by Out of Town News, the Holyoke Center features jazz & world......

It takes someone who’s lived in Massachusetts for more than a year or two to understand why a song titled “I'm From Lynn, What Can I Say?” is funny. That’s exactly why Bostonist has high hopes for an onslaught of clever tunes and townie jokes at Songstreet’s “14th Annual Festival of Funny Songwriters” this Saturday at the Somerville Theater. We’re counting on the featured veteran and local favorite Don White (who also gives workshops at......

Bostonist is always glad to welcome a new sibling to the family. We’re settling into our role as a middle child. We don’t horde the toys and we’ve stopped throwing the tantrums we once needed for attention. Jim Parsons, heading up the new site in Houston, has asked us to curb the mission control jokes and puns—but we just can’t help ourselves. "Houston, we have a problem." Up here in the Northeast, Bostonist's problem is......

Sample these tracks and let us know what's in your iPod playlist this week.Lady Sovereign | UK Hip-Hop Vertically Challenged [Download] UK hip hop phenom Lady Sovereign rocked the Middle East last night- check out her track "Ch-Ching" for a sample of what the future of hip hop has to offer... The Lascivious Biddies | Rock Get Lucky [Download] Bostonist Stefan represents this week with the Lascivious Biddies an all female cocktail pop quartet......